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All beings on Earth share the same resources. We all breath the same air, drink the water and seek food and shelter. As these resources dwindle through mankind's over-consumption, encounters between animal species and man are increasing in frequency and severity. As we compete for the decreasing resources, animals often end up the losers. We must do what we can to foster species co-habitation and integration, not species extinction. We can all share this wonderful planet together.

Animals-Talk focuses on the news, stories and discoveries about cross-species interaction and communication. These stories, excerpts and press releases illustrate how our relationships with Earth's fellow creatures are steadily evolving.

Critter Quote: "Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it... If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men." - Saint Francis of Assisi

Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin found not guilty
source: by Sky.com /World News
Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin has been cleared over claims that he got too close to penguins, a seal and humpback whales while filming in Antarctica.
Interacting with Antarctic wildlife is punishable by a £480,000 fine and two years in jail in Australia. Australia's Prime Minister said a month-long investigation had recommended no punishment. John Howard said: "A decision has been taken that no action of any kind is necessary." Mr Howard - who invited Irwin to lunch with George Bush last October - was angered when asked if this was a case of favourable treatment for a celebrity. "That is an absurd thing to say. You have no right to say that," he said...

Hairy, handsome and very badly behaved ­ calling all dogs
source: by Paula Doran / ABC News
Melody Madden: a brave woman who collects dog hair to ascertain the extent of metal contamination in those who live in mining towns Oh the lengths a loyal friend will go. A bad haircut and a questionnaire on there eating habits... That's what's required if you're taking part in the project research of Melody Madden. Oh, and you have to be a dog to do it. (Thankfully..don't touch the hair!). In Broken Hill for just a few weeks, Melody is an Environmental Engineering student, currently doing a Masters degree in Montana, USAand she's on a mission to sample as much dog hair, and a bit of soil on the side, to assess the extent of metal contamination in the inhabitants of mining towns both in Australia and the US...

Tarzan's Escaped Tiger Killed
source: by John Roach / National Geographic News
A tiger that apparently scaled a 12-foot (3.7-meter) wall to escape the Florida home of an actor who once played Tarzan was shot and killed Tuesday after he made a threatening move at a wildlife officer. "The animal made an aggressive move toward the officer, he felt threatened, and, unfortunately, the animal was [killed]," said Willie Puz, a spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Two wildlife officers approached the escaped 600-pound (270-kilogram) Bengal-Siberian mixed tiger named Bobo. They had planned to shoot him with a tranquilizer and capture the animal alive, but the tiger's aggressive display prompted the lethal shot. Bobo, a six-year-old...

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee Stands Ready to Rescue 6 Ailing Circus Elephants
source: by Business Wire
Lota, a circus elephant that has been the focus of three lawsuits, the inspiration for an international petition for her release and responsible for raising awareness of the plight of captive elephants, will finally be released to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Earlier this year a lawsuit was brought by the United States Department of Agriculture against the Illinois-based Hawthorn Corporation, the company that owns LOTA. In the suit, the Hawthorn Corporation, a company which trains and rents elephants for circuses, was charged with numerous counts of cruelty and neglect of its 16 circus elephants. As a result, John Cuneo, owner of the Hawthorn Corporation, agreed to relinquish his 16 elephants by August 15th to facilities approved by the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The USDA has asked The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee to accept six of the Hawthorn 16. The Sanctuary has immediate barn space for two, Lota and Misty; both suffer from tuberculosis and require special facilities separate from other elephants for the duration of their six month treatments.

Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
source: By Alex Kirby / BBC News Online environment correspondent
The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. N'kisi's remarkable abilities, which are said to include telepathy, feature in the latest BBC Wildlife Magazine. N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world...

Robot dogs get social conscience installed
source: By Stephen Singer / Associated Press Writer
They sniff, wag their tails, fetch and run in packs. Inside their plastic and metallic skins, robotic dogs programmed by engineering students at Yale University even have a social conscience. The mechanical canines, equipped with just about everything but a wet nose, are wired to sniff out toxic materials at former landfills and radioactive sites, providing environmental information about parks, school yards and other public spaces. The robots have spurred toxic search projects in the United States, Europe and Australia. They are the brainchild of Natalie Jeremijenko, a lecturer in engineering at Yale and self-described technoartist. "Technology is a social actor," she said. "These dogs are programmed into instruments for social activism. It's technological politics in another form."...

Sea lion found wandering on Calif. road
source: By Associated Press
Authorities tried to determine Monday how a sea lion turned up in the San Joaquin Valley -- some 65 miles from the ocean. The 300-pound animal was reported "crawling in the middle of the road" in Merced County northeast of Los Banos at about 7:00 a.m., said California Highway Patrol officer Scott Jobinger. A county road was closed for a time Monday while authorities waited for marine biologists and animal control, Jobinger said...

Drunken man enters zoo's bear compound
source: By Associated Press
Bulgaria -- A drunken man visiting the Sofia zoo entered the compound of a Himalayan bear and refused to leave, the zoo director said Monday. The man survived the incident Sunday without injuries because the door to the cage that held the 330-pound female beast was stuck, zoo director Ivan Ivanov said. The 51-year-old man jumped over the fence surrounding the outside part of the bear's compound. He sat down on a piece of lumber, taunting zoo officials and police who had rushed to the scene. "He was drinking from a bottle of liquor and shouting to the police: `Hey come on, have you got the guts to come over here?'"...

Conjoined tortoises separated in Arizona
source: By Associated Press
A pair of conjoined tortoises were separated Sunday at a Tempe animal hospital in what is believed to be the first surgery of its kind in Arizona. "I think it was a great success," said Sharon Ehasz, 24, who owns the African leopard tortoises with her husband, Bobby Ehasz. "I think they're going to be a little confused -- the world as they knew it is going to be somewhat tilted." Peanut Butter and Jelly -- so named because "you can't have one without the other," Ehasz said -- were joined at the side of the belly near the tail end, slightly offset in a heart-shaped configuration...

Whale Culture
source: Science Central/ ABC news
Scientists who study whales are starting to notice signs that these giant creatures may be exhibiting signs of what we humans would call culture. As this ScienCentral News video reports, it's the latest research into a question that has puzzled scientists for years. Humans may not be the only mammals who have different cultures. Some scientists are starting to consider the notion that whales might also. "Whales are pretty hard to study, but evidence is coming up from quite a number of species that in a whole range of ways, they're learning things from each other and they're passing it on to other whales, and that's culture," says Hal Whitehead, biology professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He explored the topic in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences and based his conclusions on several studies including his own.
Whitehead says whale culture isn't exactly like ours...

13-year-old celebrates birthday making 'PawsWatch' shelters
By: MARK SCHIELDROP / Animal Concerns.org
Hidden somewhere off the beaten path in Narragansett, a few homeless kitties now sleep on a warm bed of hay, surrounded by four wooden walls and with a tiled roof above their heads, protecting them from fierce nor'easters and freezing temperatures. Although the perfect resting place for a stray cat would be in a loving home, Elizabeth Lee, a seventh grader at the Narragansett Pier Middle School, has built two shelters for homeless cats and teamed up with PawsWatch, a Newport-based volunteer organization, to tuck them where feral felines roam.
"I saw an ad in the newspaper, that PawsWatch needed volunteers to make shelters, and I thought it would be a good idea," said Lee. As she approached her 13th birthday, instead of going somewhere with a group of friends or throwing a party, Lee decided to use the day to round up a workforce of her pals to hammer out a couple of shelters...

Prehistoric animals living in modern times
source: Pravda.ru
Two-third of the Earth's surface is covered with water. The huge water space is still hiding numerous mysteries from people - we know about ocean a lot less than we do about space. Sea animals strike imagination with their size and power. A 15-meter squid was found on Canadian shores in April of the current year. A trailer took the giant animal to a research center. Scientists measured its tentacles and concluded that it was an absolutely new, previously unknown squid specimen. Scientists spend millions of dollars to catch or at least to photograph giant deepwater animals. However, expensive expeditions have not brought any results yet. No scientist has seen a giant squid in the ocean. However, fishermen see huge living monsters sometimes. As a rule, their stories are perceived as tales, no one believes drunk fishermen's stories in bars. A Canadian newspaper published...

Police dog hailed a hero after suffering stab wounds
source: News12.com
Many people are hailing canine cop, Boomer, a hero Tuesday. The 9-year-old police dog survived an alleged attack over the weekend in Rocky Point. It apparently happened after the police pooch tracked down a man accused of beating up his girlfriend. Police say the suspect stabbed Boomer six times with a 10-inch blade, but the knife did not hit any internal organs. Officer John Mallia says Boomer's injuries are all muscular, and he is expected to make a full recovery...

Raccoon population explosion
source: Steve Vantreese / Associated Press
PADUCAH, Ky. - The prosperity enjoyed by Kentucky's raccoons may have been too much for their own good while infringing on the well-being of other wildlife. For several years, populations of the familiar ring-tailed mammals have inflated well beyond what previously was seen as normal, said Jim Lane, a Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources biologist who coordinates management of both furbearing mammals and turkeys. And the good times enjoyed by critters have created a little more burden on Kentucky's wild turkeys and other ground-nesting birds, he said. "The raccoons do take some toll on turkeys by being ...

Civet cats (Chinese Raccoons) drowned in disinfectant and burned
source: smh.com.au
Thousands of civet cats - suspected of spreading the SARS virus to humans - are being drowned in pools of disinfectant and cremated in a mass slaughter to stop the spread of the disease. "We have a disinfecting pool. We put the civet cats in cages, which hold a maximum of four to five animals each. Then we put them into the pool and drown them," an official with the Guangzhou City Animal Quarantine and Monitoring Institute, said. "We then take them out to be cremated," the official said. Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province, where the latest SARS victim, confirmed as having the (this inhumane method is typical of the Chinese government's bureaucratic mentality - the same basic approach they applied in Tibet! - LM)...

Construction begins on chimps retirement home
source: The Associated Press
Construction has begun on Chimp Haven, planned as the country's only preserve dedicated to chimps who have been retired as entertainers or as subjects of laboratory research. Up to 300 chimps will find themselves on 200 acres of grass and woods for foraging, climbing and monkeying around in southwest Caddo Parish in the Eddie D. Jones Nature Park. "A lot of young adult chimpanzees have been born in captivity, and a huge number have never walked on grass, climbed a tree or poked a stick in the mud," said Linda Brent, a behavioral primatologist and Chimp Haven's president. "They haven't had the stimulation they need to grow socially, and that will be part of what they'll need to learn at Chimp Haven." About 1,600 chimps now live...

IFAW Relocates orphaned elephant
source: by Chris Cutter / U.S. Newswire
An unusual mission swung into gear today as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW, http://www.ifaw.org) airlifted an orphaned, two- month old African elephant, named Olly, to safety. "Olly was found abandoned in a dry river bed near Selebi Pikwe, in northern Botswana. No one knows what happened to its mother or what happened to its herd," said Jason Bell, Southern African Director of IFAW. "However, in much of Africa elephants continue to be under threat from poachers -- mostly because ivory continues to be a prized commodity." After he was found in late October, Olly was taken by the Wildcare Africa Trust and moved to a rehabilitation center, near Pretoria, South Africa, where he was stabilized in preparation for the flight. Today Olly was relocated to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust based in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya -- the most successful elephant refuge in the world...

West Nile virus in hawk puzzles researchers
source: Associated Press
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Scientists are intrigued by signs of West Nile virus in the feather follicles of a ferruginous hawk that shows no sign of the virus in its blood.
The injured hawk was found on the prairie outside town and taken to the Laramie Raptor Refuge.
Refuge Director Catherine Symchych said it remains uncertain whether the signs of the virus in the feather follicles was due to the presence of transmissible virus.
Terry Creekmore, with the State Veterinary Lab in Laramie, said a bird infected with the virus usually remains infected three to six days. The bird either builds up an immunity or dies...

Luna lingers for another year in Nootka Sound
source: By Lisa Stiffler / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
Luna, the orphaned orca, will be ringing in another new year in British Columbia's Nootka Sound. The 4-year-old orca appeared on the scene in summer 2001 and has lingered on the west coast of Vancouver Island, entertaining and sometimes irritating folks with his penchant for people and their boats. His relatives, meanwhile, have been migrating around the San Juans, Puget Sound and out to the coast. Luna reportedly likes having his tongue scratched and nudging boats. He even towed one vessel that ran out of fuel...

Keiko dies of pneumonia
source: AFP
Keiko, the killer whale star of the "Free Willy" movies who spent most of his life in captivity, has died in a Norwegian fjord after failing to readapt to the wild despite a five-year, $20-million readaptation program, his handlers said on Saturday. "Two days ago he began to be a bit lethargic and wouldn't accept food. We suspect he came down with a bit of pneumonia," one of the handlers who tried to help Keiko return to the wild, Dane Richards, told AFP. Keiko died on Friday afternoon at the age of 27, Richards said, in the Taknes fjord in western Norway where he settled after his release from Iceland last year. Another of Keiko's handlers, Torbjoerg Valdis Kristiansdottir, said the death was...

Roy Horn moved to UCLA Medical Center
source: By Associated Press
Illusionist Roy Horn has been transferred to UCLA Medical Center as he recovers from injuries he suffered when he was mauled by one of his tigers, hospital officials said. Horn, 59, of the famed "Siegfried & Roy" animal and magic act, had been in intensive care at University Medical Center in Las Vegas until his transfer on Tuesday. "Roy is now making the transition from survival to recovery," longtime partner Siegfried Fischbacher said...

Calling the animal
source: by Andra Bryan Stefanoni / CJOnline.com / Topeka Capital-Journal
Whether you're a hunter or a nature photographer, if you can learn to speak the language of whatever animal you're trying to attract, you'll be successful. Emotion, said Jim Strelec of Knight and Hale Game Calls, is the key to speaking that animal's language. "When you're trying to attract an animal, you have to engage your heart first, then engage your brain, then your mouth," he said. "If you do that, then you'll achieve the feeling of emotion you need to achieve to be successful."
Strelec said the more feeling and emotion a caller puts into it, the more urgency they're implying. Urgency, it seems, is what animals respond to. He provided an anecdote:...

U.S. offers $100,000 to relocate orca
source: By Peggy Andersen / The Associated Press
Search archiveThe U.S. government has pledged at least $100,000 to help return killer whale Luna to American waters from Canada's Nootka Sound, where he has been bothering boats for more than two years. The money from the National Marine Fisheries Service should allow the move - stalled in Canada by a lack of funds - to go forward, said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., at a news conference yesterday in downtown Seattle. She was joined by the fisheries service's regional director, Bob Lohn, and state Fish and Wildlife Director Jeff Koenings. The funds would come from a larger sum requested by Cantwell for the agency's research and conservation of the so-called southern resident orca population, now down to 83 animals - 84 including Luna...

African apes being eaten into extinction
source: by Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg / Sunday Herald.com
Humans' closest living relatives are in serious trouble. The great apes of Africa are being killed off in shocking numbers because of forest loss, hunting, human population increases, the eruption of a particularly nasty virus ­ and because we eat them. Gorilla and chimpanzee numbers in their last African strongholds have crashed so catastrophically over the past 20 years that they will be pushed to the brink of extinction between 2010 and 2020. Dr Peter Walsh, a Princeton University ecologist who led a study team of American, British, Spanish and Gabonese scientists that criss-crossed 2000 square miles of equatorial forest, said : "The stark truth is that if we do not act decisively, our children may live in a world without wild apes."...

Monkey business causes chaos in Stamford
source: NBC San Diego
Chimp Escaped From Owners apparently has not mastered is sensing the best time for play time. The diaper-wearing chimp bolted from a sport utility vehicle driven by his owners Sunday night, commandeered an intersection in the heart of this busy Fairfield County city and held police at bay for a few hours. Despite the efforts of officers, who arrived in more than a dozen cruisers, the chimp continued playing in the middle of the street, rolling on his back and occasionally charging officers. "He just wanted to play, but it wasn't the time or place,"...

Baboons can think abstractly
source: About.com / American Psychological Association
Two baboons successfully used analogous thinking to match symbol arrays that were the "same but different" More non-human animals may be capable of abstract thought than previously known, with profound implications for the evolution of human intelligence and the stuff that separates homo sapiens from other animals. A trans-Atlantic team of psychologists has found evidence of abstract thought in baboons, significant because baboons are "old world monkeys," part of a different primate "super family" that -- some 30 million years ago -- split from the family that gave rise to apes and then humans. Chimpanzees, in the ape family, already have demonstrated abstract thought...

Bethany Hamilton - 13-Year-old surfing star survives attack by shark
source: by GOFrom Associated Press
A 13-year-old surfing star had her left arm bitten off by a shark while surfing in clear water Friday morning on Kauai's North Shore, and her best friend's father was credited with saving her life by using a surf leash as a tourniquet. Bethany Hamilton, who has competed in national surfing contests and was expected to go professional, was surfing a quarter-mile off Makua Beach near Haena, in an area known as Tunnels, when the attack occurred about 7:30 a.m., said Cyndi Ozaki, spokeswoman for Kauai County. Her arm had not been recovered, Ozaki said...

An elephant never forgets-or does it?
source: National Geographic
Scientists have long believed that animals do not have so-called episodic memory-the kind that allows humans to remember past events. But recent experiments with scrub jays, chimpanzees, and gorillas have led to rethinking of the nature of memory in animals. Animal memory researchers first face the challenge of communicating between species. "You can't exactly ask the animals where they were, and what they were doing, when Bambi's mother was shot," says Nicola Clayton, a professor of comparative cognition at University of Cambridge in England and a leading researcher in the field of animal memory. Over the past six years Clayton...

Sick simian seeks human help
source: Indo-Asian News Service / Hindustan Times
Driven bananas by an aching wound, a wild monkey in Orissa ventured out of the jungle to seek human help and then calmly stuck around as the injury was treated. The monkey, which had apparently been sick for several days, appeared on a road near a forest in the state's Balesore district, in the hope of catching the attention of some human passing by. And it succeeded.
Sukura Dalai, a construction labourer who was cycling down the road, found the primate blocking his path and stopped to investigate. In a clear triumph for inter-species communication the monkey soon found a way to make its problem known - turning around...

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