Author: LATimes

If Germany’s Dresden Zoo is your one-stop baby orangutan shop, we suppose that makes the Berlin Zoo rhino-calf central. Berlin welcomed an Indian rhinoceros calf last month, and on Feb. 7, it celebrated another new addition: a black rhinoceros calf.

The calf, which still hasn’t been named, seems disinclined to leave the side of its mother, Maburi, just yet.

In 1970, about 65,000 black rhinos lived in the wild in Africa. But by the early 1990s, well over 90% of them were gone, primarily due to poaching. In recent years, the effort to renew the species has made some impressive strides; the population nearly doubled in slightly more than a decade!

More photos of the calf after the jump!

RELATED:

Four rare northern white rhinos moved from Czech zoo to Africa

Your morning adorable: Hand-raised rhinoceros calf plays ball in Germany

— Lindsay Barnett

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Photos: Timur Emek / AFP/Getty Images

HARARE, Zimbabwe — The leader of a U.N. program to protect endangered species on Thursday charged that Zimbabwean security forces are spearheading poaching of elephants and rhinos in the troubled country.

At a news conference Thursday in Harare, Willem Wijnstekers, secretary-general of the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, said security forces had killed about 200 rhinos over the past two years, putting that population on the verge of extinction in Zimbabwe. He did not give a figure on elephants.

Wijnstekers did not give details on the allegations against security forces.

"Questions are now being asked on whether the Zimbabwe government is doing enough to protect its wildlife," Wijnstekers said. "This leaves us with no option but to recommend that the country be brought before the CITES board to explain the poaching. If they fail to do that they risk being banned to trade in ivory."

Wijnstekers, who is on fact-finding mission in Zimbabwe, said he had briefed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

"He expressed his concern and has said that those security agents must face the law and be arrested as he does acknowledge the problem that is happening in the wildlife sector," he said.

Zimbabwe’s minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management, Francis Nhema, said he has been briefed by police about security forces being involved in poaching. Nhema says Zimbabwe is asking Wijnstekers’s organization, known as CITES, for help.

"There is a perception worldwide about breakdown of law and order in the country," Nhema said, saying Zimbabwe needed vehicles and helicopters to track down poachers.

Restoring the rule of law was one of the goals of a coalition government formed last year between longtime opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai has made little headway in changing the character of the government.

Mugabe, who has led the country since 1980, is accused of buying the loyalty of his security forces by allowing them to engage in criminal activities, then using them to trample dissent.

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Elephants in southern Africa. Credit: Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times

If it seems like everyone and their dog is using Twitter, that’s not actually too far from the truth: Toy company Mattel Inc. has announced its plan to release a new product called Puppy Tweets, which purports to allow dogs to "tweet" their daily activities for their owners’ entertainment. Of course, dogs can’t actually type, so the product — which will retail for $29.99 — uses a sound and motion sensor to determine what pets might be up to. Our colleague Andrea Chang has the details on this new toy that we feel confident in saying we won’t be purchasing for our own dogs anytime soon:

Attached to a dog’s collar, the plastic tag randomly generates one of 500 canned tweets when it detects barking or movement and automatically posts an update to Fido’s own Twitter page.

A round of woofing could lead to a tweet of "I bark because I miss you. There, I said it. Now hurry home." A frenzied run through the backyard might garner "I finally caught that tail I’ve been chasing, and … OOUUUCHH!"

But before you begin to drool over the prospect of having your own Dug, the animated dog from Disney-Pixar’s "Up" whose translator collar allowed him to talk, Mattel executives caution that the toy is just a toy.

Unlike advanced pet gadgets such as GPS tracking collars that keep tabs on roaming cats, the technology behind Puppy Tweets is simply sending out random messages triggered by movement or sound.

So even though Fido’s device may be tweeting about tracking a squirrel, he could actually be digging a hole or scratching himself. And that might be a letdown for people hoping for the real thing.

"I mean, really what is it telling you?" said Janene Zakrajsek, co-owner of Pussy & Pooch Pethouse and Pawbar, a pet shop with locations in downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach. "It’s like a Magic 8 Ball toy."

THERE’S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: A Puppy Tweets tag and receiver. Credit: Mattel

An Arizona environmental group that fights to protect endangered species plans to distribute 100,000 free condoms across the U.S. beginning on Valentine’s Day.

The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson says the promotion is meant to call attention to the impact of human overpopulation on endangered species.

The group will hand out six different condom packages with original artwork. Slogans on the packages include "Wrap with care, save the polar bear," and "Wear a condom now, save the spotted owl."

The center’s Randy Serraglio says human overpopulation is destroying wildlife habitat at an unprecedented rate.

The endangered species condoms will be distributed in bars, supermarkets, schools, concerts, parties and other public events.

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: Samples of the condoms to be distributed by the Center for Biological Diversity. Credit: McClatchy Tribune News Service

WHISTLER, British Columbia — Beware the lynx!

Skiers and lugers heard the call of the wild in the form of a critter apparently oblivious to the safety concerns of officials at Olympic venues.

An orange-and-black spotted lynx sauntered across the downhill course during the men’s opening training session Wednesday. Two days earlier, one of his — her? — brethren was spotted outside the perimeter of the luge track during afternoon training.

The lynx is a large cat native to North America. And take it from a Canadian — downhiller Manuel Osborne-Paradis — the lynx is no cuddly outdoor friend when you’re speeding down an icy slope at 70 mph.

"Get out of the way," he said. "Oh, wow. You do not want to get close to that."

The downhill session was already on hold because of fog, and no skiers linked with the lynx. Still, officials issued a warning over the race radio in case someone was on the course. The lynx had its own agenda and hopped over the barriers lining the course and back into the forest.

At the Whistler Sliding Center, luge forerunners were on the track preparing the ice for the Olympians at the time of the sighting. A local conservation officer was summoned, and it was decided there was no reason to stop the action on the course.

John Gibson, venue press manager at the Whistler Sliding Center, offered this reassurance: The creature was not a cougar.

"That was all planned. It’s to show people Canadian nature," cracked Mike Kertesz, the International Ski Federation official in charge of the finish area.

Ski racing is no stranger to wildlife. A few years ago at a World Cup downhill in Val Gardena, Italy, a deer loped onto the course and ran next to Italian star Kristian Ghedina for the final part of his run. Ghedina made the deer his personal logo for the rest of his career.

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

More Olympics news at The Times’ Ticket to Vancouver blog.

Top photo: A lynx walks past ski gates near the finish area of the downhill course in Whistler on Feb. 10. Credit: Gero Breloer / Associated Press

Bottom photo: A combination of three photos (just think of it as a flip book minus the pages) of the lynx as it exits the course. Credit: George Frey / European Pressphoto Agency

Giraffe mother Jonna, a resident of Denmark’s Aalborg Zoo, gave birth to a female calf on Feb. 11. (That’s right; this baby isn’t just new, it’s brand spanking new!) Of course, Jonna lost no time in cleaning the calf, who looks little but actually measures somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 feet tall.

Contrary to a popular notion, giraffes have the same number of neck vertebrae as humans do — seven, if you’re keeping score — but each giraffe vertebra can measure 10 inches long or more. An adult giraffe’s neck alone weighs approximately 600 pounds.

More photos of mother and calf (who tries really hard to stand up, with interesting results) after the jump!

You can make it, little giraffe!

Well … maybe you can’t. But you sure did try hard.

You’ll be walking in no time, little buddy; we promise!

RELATED:

West Africa’s last giraffes make surprise comeback

Your morning adorable: Baby giraffe gets great care at Tufts

— Lindsay Barnett

Photo credit: Henning Bagger / AFP/Getty Images

Pets may not be able to eat Valentine’s Day chocolates, but that doesn’t mean they can’t celebrate the holiday in style! We were, quite frankly, shocked by the sheer volume of animal-friendly events this Valentine’s Day weekend (take a look — we bet you’ll be overwhelmed too). We’ve got the details on the weekend’s festivities as well as a number of others in the coming weeks and months. (Are we forgetting something? Let us know by leaving a comment.)

This Weekend:

Friday-Sunday, Feb. 12-14, Orange County-based organization Capistrano Animal Rescue Effort (CARE) holds an adoption event in connection with PetSmart Charities’ Second Chance for Love adoption weekend. Throughout the weekend at San Juan Capistrano’s PetSmart location, 33963 Doheny Park Road, meet CARE’s adoptable animals from noon to 4 p.m. More information on the CARE event and photos of adoptable animals at CapoAnimalRescue.com; to find another PetSmart adoption event, check out PetSmartCharities.org.

Saturday, Feb. 13 (postponed from its original Feb. 6 date due
to weather concerns), join the Capistrano Animal Rescue Effort (CARE)
for its seventh annual CARe exhibition of vintage and
classic cars with proceeds benefiting the group’s work on behalf of
needy animals.  The event takes place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the San
Juan Capistrano Community Center, 25925 Camino del Avion,
and also features a live band, food from Ruby’s Diner, a disc dog
demonstration, prize drawings and more.  Guest admission is $5 for
adults, $2 for children aged 11 to 17 and free for children aged 10 or
younger.  For more information or to learn how to exhibit your own car
at the event, visit CapoAnimalRescue.com.

Saturday, Feb. 13, the L.A. Department of Animal Services holds mobile pet-adoption events in Rancho Palos Verdes at Fred Hesse Jr. Memorial Park, 29301 Hawthorne Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and in West L.A. at Giant Robot 2, 2062 Sawtelle Blvd., from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. See photos of adoptable pets at the department’s website.

Saturday, Feb. 13, spcaLA hosts PAWS to Read at the Hermosa Beach Library, 550 Pier Ave., from 10:30 a.m. to noon.  Through the PAWS to Read program, children practice their reading skills by reading to a decidedly nonjudgmental audience: certified therapy dogs. Beginning and independent young readers up to age 12 are eligible to participate; the program is free, but advance registration is recommended. More information at spcaLA.com.

Saturday, Feb. 13, the Friends of Herman Dog Park presents an "Adopt a Valentine" event at the L.A. Department of Animal Services’ North Central shelter, 3201 Lacy Street, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event includes animal-themed vendors, music, games, face-painting and discounted adoption fees for homeless dogs and cats.

Saturday, Feb. 13, spcaLA invites potential "foster parents" to learn about its fostering program from 10 a.m. to noon at its South Bay Pet Adoption Center, 12910 Yukon Ave., Hawthorne. "Foster parents" are needed to care for puppies and kittens that are too young to be adopted, as well as older dogs and cats with special needs. More information at spcaLA.com. (The L.A. Department of Animal Services offers a similar program for underage puppies and kittens; more information on that program is available at the department’s website.)

Saturday, Feb. 13, festive dogs and their owners are invited to the "Mutti Gras" pet parade and costume contest at the Original Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax in L.A. from 1 to 2 p.m. Prizes will be awarded to the event’s best-dressed dogs, and local rescue group Bark Avenue Foundation will be on hand with adoptable pets from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Owners can register their pets in advance by visiting Three Dog Bakery’s Farmers Market location; more information and directions at FarmersMarketLA.com.

Saturday, Feb. 13, dog owners can celebrate Valentine’s Day a little early with their pets at Culver City’s Zoom Room agility training center, 11836 Teale Street, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Refreshments for both people and pets are provided. Cost is $5 and space is limited; for more information and reservations, visit ZoomRoomOnline.com.

Sunday, Feb. 14, celebrate Valentine’s Day with the rescued farm-animal residents of Acton sanctuary Animal Acres beginning at 11 a.m. The sanctuary will offer tours every hour from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and encourages guests to bring a (vegan) lunch and picnic alongside the animals. Donations benefit Animal Acres’ Emergency Rescue Fund. More information at AnimalAcres.org.

Sunday, Feb. 14, the L.A. Department of Animal Services’ East Valley shelter, 14409 Vanowen Street in Van Nuys, invites potential pet adopters to its "My Furry Valentine" event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event features music, refreshments, face-painting and discounted adoption fees.

Sunday, Feb. 14, the Bark Avenue Foundation hosts a pet adoption
event at the Original Farmers Market at 3rd and Fairfax in L.A. from 11
a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information or to view adoptable animals
online, visit BarkAvenueFoundation.org.

Sunday, Feb. 14, Amoeba Music holds a pet adoption event at its Hollywood store, 6400 Sunset Blvd., from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Adoptable dogs and cats from the Animal Advocates Alliance and area animal shelters will be on hand to meet potential adopters. Come for the Pet Shop Boys records, stay for the needy rescue animals! (Okay, bad joke.) More information at Amoeba.com.

Sunday, Feb. 14, the L.A. Department of Animal Services holds a mobile pet-adoption event at the Kids Fun and Safety Festival held at West L.A.’s Sports Club/LA, 1835 Sepulveda Blvd., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 14, the Los Angeles Zoo hosts "Sex and the City Zoo," a Valentine’s Day-themed event for animal lovers, from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. From 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., docents will offer guided tours of the zoo’s most beloved animal couples. A chocolate, champagne and wine reception begins at 3:30, followed by a presentation by Michael Dee, former general curator of the zoo, on the love lives of animals. Tickets are $35 for the general public and $25 for zoo members.  Reservations are required. For more information or to reserve tickets online, visit LAZoo.org.

Sunday, Feb. 14, spcaLA’s P.D. Pitchford Companion Animal Village & Education Center,  7700 East Spring Street in Long Beach, holds a "Valentine’s Day Yappy Hour" and adoption event from 3 to 4 p.m. Human guests get punch and cookies; shelter pets get Valentine’s day treats; and local organization Haute Dogs will announce the winners of its Valentine’s Day card contest, which invites Long Beach-area students to design cards for the shelter’s dogs and cats. More information on the Valentine’s card contest and Yappy Hour event at HauteDogs.org.

Sunday, Feb. 14, Culver City’s Zoom Room agility training center hosts its "Zoom-entine’s Day Singles Party," a mixer for dog lovers, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Cost is $20; proceeds benefit the Four-Legged Friends Foundation. For more information or to reserve tickets online, visit ZoomRoomOnline.com.

Upcoming:

Monday-Tuesday, Feb. 15-16, it’s that time again — Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show time, that is. The most prestigious dog show in the U.S. airs Monday from 8 to 9 p.m. on the USA Network and from 9 to 11 p.m. on CNBC; and Tuesday from 8 to 11 p.m. on USA. Three newly-recognized breeds make their Westminster debuts this year: The Pyrenean shepherd, the Norwegian buhund and the Irish red-and-white setter. For more information and a judging schedule, visit WestminsterKennelClub.org.

Saturday, Feb. 20, spcaLA hosts a low-cost vaccination and microchip clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at its Specialty Spay/Neuter Center, 5026 W. Jefferson Blvd. The clinic will offer rabies vaccinations for cats and dogs ($5); DHPP vaccinations for dogs ($15); bordetella vaccinations for dogs ($10); FVRCP and leukemia vaccinations for cats ($15 each); and microchipping for cats and dogs ($25). In honor of Spay Day U.S.A., goodie bags will be available during the clinic while supplies last. More information at spcaLA.com.

Saturday, Feb. 20, the Oxnard Police Department presents its "Happy Tails 911 Save a Homeless Pet Faire" from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside the Oxnard Fire Administration Building, 360 W 2nd Street in Oxnard. The event benefits local charity Operation Blankets of Love, which provides blankets and toys to the pets housed in Southern California shelters; guests are encouraged to bring blankets, towels and pet toys to donate. A voucher for a free rabies vaccination will be presented to each donor. Adoptable pets from Ventura County animal shelters and area rescue groups will be on hand, and the event also features a dog costume contest, K-9 police work demonstrations and a bake sale. A $10 donation is suggested for entrants to the costume contest, which begins at noon. Registration for the costume contest begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 11:30 a.m. More information at OxnardPD.org.

Saturday, Feb. 20, the L.A. Department of Animal Services hosts mobile pet-adoption events at Exposition Park, 3980 Menlo Ave., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and at downtown pet store Pussy & Pooch, 564 S. Main St., from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Saturday, Feb. 20, Fullerton wine bar Twisted Vine Wines, 127 W. Commonwealth Ave., hosts a tasting event to benefit Orange County rescue group Barks of Love from 2 to 6 p.m. Wines and appetizers will be served and raffle prizes will also be offered. Cost is $40, with half of all tickets sales donated to Barks of Love. More information at TwistedVineWines.com.

Tuesday, Feb. 23 is the 16th annual Spay Day U.S.A.; events to encourage spaying and neutering of companion animals will be held across the country throughout the month of February to celebrate. To find events near you or to volunteer your services, visit HumaneSociety.org.

Saturday, Feb. 27, local rescue group The Mutt Scouts holds a bake sale to benefit its work on behalf of homeless dogs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. ("or until we run out," event organizers note) at the Home Ec crafting supplies store, 3815 W. Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake.

Sunday, Feb. 28, Haute Dogs hosts its annual Bulldog Beauty Contest from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Long Beach Marketplace, located at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and 2nd Street in Long Beach. Bulldogs aren’t the only pets that can get in on the act, though; the pageant also features contests to choose the most beautiful senior dog (over 10 years of age), pug and French bulldog. For more information or to enter your pet, visit HauteDogs.org.

Sunday, Feb. 28, mezzo-soprano Laurie Rubin performs a program of music by composers including Mozart, Gershwin, Sondheim,  Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo and Israeli composer Noam Sivan, with proceeds from the event benefiting the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind. The center offers trained leader dogs at no cost to vision-impaired Israelis and operates largely through charitable donations. Rubin, who is blind and has her own leader dog, explained that "as someone who knows the incredible benefits of a guide dog, there is no worthier cause to be supporting." The concert begins at 7:30 at the Colburn School of Music’s Zipper Concert Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave. in downtown L.A. Tickets are $50, $20 for students, and can be purchased at BrownPaperTickets.com.

Mark Your Calendar:

Friday-Sunday, March 26-28, the Pasadena Humane Society hosts "The Well-Adjusted Cat and Dog Workshops" at its shelter facility, 361 South Raymond Ave. The workshops’ featured speaker is Dr. Nicolas Dodman, BVMS, author and director of Tufts University’s Animal Behavior Clinic. Dodman will cover issues ranging from phobias in dogs and cats, feline medical problems that may be mistaken for behavioral issues, strategies for dealing with litter box and furniture-scratching issues in cats and dominance issues in dogs. The workshops’ three days will be divided into one daylong cat-behavior workshop and a two-day dog-behavior workshop. Early-bird registration lasts through Feb. 14; cost for early registrants is $99 for the cat workshop and $199 for the two-day dog workshop. More information and registration at ThePetDocs.com.

SpcaLA is taking reservations for its two weeklong "Friends For Life" spring day camps for children aged 9 to 12. Campers will learn about pet care and develop animal training skills by participating in obedience and agility classes with spcaLA’s adoptable dogs. Guest speakers, training demonstrations and animal-related games and crafts are also on the schedule. First session runs from March 29 through April 2 at the organization’s South Bay Pet Adoption Center, 12910 Yukon Ave., Hawthorne; second session runs from April 5 through April 9 at the South Bay Pet Adoption Center. Camp hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Cost is $250 per child; for more information or to register, visit spcaLA.com.

Friday-Sunday, April 16-18, America’s Family Pet Expo returns to the Orange County Fair and Event Center, 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa. The event features informational displays on dog breeds, adoptable animals, pet-themed vendors, a petting zoo, pony rides and demonstrations of activities ranging from dog grooming to K-9 police dog work to dock-diving dogs. Tickets are $12, $10 for seniors over age 60, $6 for children aged 6-12 and free for children 5 and under. More information at PetExpoOC.com.

Sunday, April 18, local rescue group New Leash on Life presents its fifth annual Nuts for Mutts 5K walk-a-thon in conjunction with the Calabasas Rotary Club and the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center. The walk-a-thon is a fundraiser for New Leash on Life’s work on behalf of needy pets in the L.A. area and includes pet-themed exhibits, children’s activities, a canine fashion show, a dog training clinic and more animal-related activities. The walk begins at 8 a.m. at the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center, 27040 Malibu Hills Road, and continues through the hills of Calabasas. Well-behaved and leashed dogs are welcome to participate. For more information or to register, visit NewLeash.org.

Ongoing:

Through Earth Day, April 22, 2010, secondhand-clothing store chain Buffalo Exchange and the Humane Society of the United States jointly host Coats for Cubs. Animal lovers are encouraged to clean out their closets (or parents’ and grandparents’ closets) and donate any real-fur items found there (including fur trim, accessories and shearling) back to the animals. Of course, it’s too late to give the fur back to its original owner, but it can still be used as bedding for orphaned and injured wildlife — and it doesn’t do your conscience any harm either. Fur in any condition is accepted and can be taken to any Buffalo Exchange location. (If you’d like to claim your fur donation as a tax deduction, you’ll need to mail it directly to the Humane Society rather than dropping it off at Buffalo Exchange; mailing information is available at HSUS.org.) More information at BuffaloExchange.com.

— Lindsay Barnett

Don’t miss an event: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo: fluffypups / Your Scene

WARSAW, Poland — Baltic, the Polish dog rescued from the frigid Baltic Sea after a long journey on an ice floe, is again braving those waters — this time safely onboard the ship that saved him.

Wearing a bright orange lifejacket, Baltic embarked Wednesday on a three-day mission alongside his new owner Adam Buczynski, a seaman who pulled him to safety from an ice sheet in the Baltic Sea last month.

Buczynski said the dog seemed stressed by the commotion of preparing for the trip. In footage shown on Polish TV, Baltic sat on his lap, his head nestled between Buczynski’s legs.

Ewa Baradziej-Krzyzankowska, spokeswoman for the Sea Fisheries Institute in Gdynia, co-owner of the ship, said the crew had anti-nausea pills for Baltic in case he gets seasick.

She said the crew is also taking other precautions to keep the dog safe and comfortable during the voyage, whose purpose is to collect samples of fish and sea plants for an aquarium in Gdynia.

As for answering the call of nature while at sea, Baltic quickly learned that he was to only use one spot on an outdoor deck that gets hosed down regularly, Baradziej-Krzyzankowska said.

Buczynski and other crew members spotted the dog Jan. 25 floating 15 miles from land. The rescue was difficult because the frightened, shivering dog kept falling into the icy water.

Baltic was first seen two days earlier on the Vistula River, 60 miles inland, drifting on ice past the city of Grudziadz, where firefighters tried but failed to save him. It remains unclear where or when the dog’s odyssey started.

Baradziej-Krzyzankowska said since his rescue, Baltic has shown a fear of water. Several days ago he resisted getting a bath that he badly needed to remove crusted salt from his thick fur.

So Buczynski took him in his arms and carried him into the shower.

"They showered together," she said. "This lifted the dog’s confidence."

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Top photo: Baltic is seen with new owner Adam Buczynski just before they head out on a three-day mission at sea on Feb. 10. Credit: Krzysztof Mystkowski / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Baltic is examined by veterinarians after his ice-floe ordeal. Credit: Maciej Czoska / Associated Press

California brown pelicans have recently been dying in large numbers for reasons wildlife officials don’t yet fully understand.

Organizations like the International Bird Rescue Research Center are maxed out, with no more room and little money left to help, spokesman Paul Kelway said.

There are usually about 400 pelicans among the more than 2,000 birds the San Pedro center takes in every year, but it has received more than 300 pelicans in the last three weeks. About 100 sick pelicans from Santa Barbara were sent to the IBRRC’s Northern California center, and a quarter of all the pelicans received at the two centers in the last three weeks have died, Kelway said.

"Many of them were severely emaciated and hypothermic, and we couldn’t get to them in time," Kelway said.

The Southern California center released 14 pelicans Wednesday afternoon to make room for more of the ailing birds. At Royal Palms State Beach in San Pedro, rescue workers lined the pet kennels along the rocky shoreline and opened the doors. The pelicans flew right out.

The Coast Guard reported a group of sick birds in the Los Angeles Harbor on Tuesday. Rescue workers found around 30 dead birds and rounded up 30 more that were sick and wet.

Biologists point to several reasons why more birds need help.

"This is an El Nino year. The weather is topsy turvy. Storms are forcing the fish deeper into the ocean, or the fish are in different places than they normally would be. The pelicans are not finding food and they are starving," Kelway explained.

"Something is also contaminating their feathers and stopping them from being weatherproof," he said. "The storms have been the final nail in the coffin."

Some parts of Los Angeles County have received close to 12 inches of rain in the last few weeks. The birds, already weak from lack of food, have gotten soaked, and in the ocean they’ve found themselves bathed in a murky runoff goo that has coated their already faltering feathers with a layer of grease. Another possible cause is an algae bloom, Kelway said.

Feathers have been taken from the sick birds and sent to a lab, he said.

When there is no food in the water, the birds will look on land, Kelway said, and they’re ailing in very public places — on piers, at restaurants, hotels, harbors and beaches.

"People are upset," he said. "They expect us to rescue these birds."

About 1,000 California brown pelicans stayed in Oregon this year instead of migrating south to breeding grounds.

It could be a natural pelican die-off, Kelway said, but biologists don’t know yet.

The research center hopes to release several more pelicans over the next week. Warmer temperatures should help, he said.

It is costing the two centers about $3,000 a day to care for the pelicans, which eat around 1,000 pounds of fish each day.

The rescues will have to do some serious fundraising, pushing their "Adopt a Pelican" and "Pelican Partner" programs, Kelway said.

All of the pelicans are banded, so if they get in trouble again, there will be a record. Some of the birds recuperating at the centers have been at the shelters before, Kelway said, although none of those released Wednesday was a repeat customer.

The brown pelican nearly became extinct in the early 1970s because of the pesticide DDT — the birds ate tainted fish and laid such thin-shelled eggs that they broke during incubation. But when DDT was banned in 1972, the birds bounced back, and today the brown pelican is prevalent along the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, California, Washington and Oregon.

The brown pelican was taken off the federal endangered species list in November, and its global population, including the Caribbean and Latin America, is estimated at 650,000.

— Associated Press

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook and Twitter.

Top photo: A pelican is released in San Pedro after being nursed back to health by the International Bird Rescue Research Center on Feb. 9. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Middle photo: Two soon-to-be-released pelicans in a carrier on Feb. 10. Credit: Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Pelicans in a carrier prior to their release Feb. 9. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Video: SavingSeabirds via YouTube

Kenyan authorities on Wednesday began a plan to restore the predator-prey balance in one of the country’s premier game parks after a recent drought — by moving thousands of zebras and wildebeests closer to the lions.

As the sun rose over the 44,000-acre Soysambu Conservancy, a herd of dozens of terrified zebras stampeded as a helicopter buzzed overhead, sending them into a funnel-like trap and into waiting trucks. After three trips, the helicopter had helped capture 88 zebras. Earlier in the week, 49 were herded.

At the end of a three-week operation, the Kenya Wildlife Service aims to relocate 4,000 zebras from different parts of the country to Amboseli National Park. In March, after the wildebeests have finished giving birth, the service plans to move 3,000 of them to the park.

The more fortunate animals will enjoy the environs of Amboseli, a key sanctuary for animals in southwestern Kenya during the dry season because it usually has pasture and water when surrounding areas are dry.

The less fortunate ones will end up in the stomachs of the park’s hungry lions, who have been forced by drought to hunt the goats and cattle kept by the nearby Maasai herdsmen.

"We have been hearing reports of a few carcasses [of livestock] found each day," said Charles Musyoki, a senior scientist at the Kenya Wildlife Service.

"When we move the zebras and wildebeests, we will now be increasing the number and thereby making them available to the carnivores and this will make the carnivores reduce their dependence on livestock" for food, Musyoki said.

Frances Gakuya of the Kenya Wildlife Service says the relocation will cost $1.3 million, which will go toward financing transport to and from Amboseli as well as the upkeep of the 22-member team working to move the animals.

Amboseli is among the top revenue earners of Kenya’s more than 40 national parks and reserves.

Musyoki said the decline in Amboseli’s zebra and wildebeest populations has been as high as 90% compared with a peak in 2007.

That year there were an estimated 10,000 zebras. He said that when scientists from the wildlife service did a count Feb. 6 there were 982. Similarly in 2007, there were 7,100 wildebeests, compared with 143 on Feb. 6, Musyoki said.

He said that such a devastating drought has never been recorded before in Amboseli and that elders in surrounding areas have told him they do not remember anything like it.

"We’ve never seen such drastic climate in recent times," Musyoki said.

— Associated Press

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Top photo: Wild zebras stand in a makeshift pen on Feb. 10 after being rounded up by Kenya Wildlife Service officers. Credit: Tony Karumba / AFP/Getty Images

Middle photo: Two lions relax in the early-morning sun at Amboseli National Park in 2006. Credit: Karel Prinsloo / Associated Press

Bottom photo: Zebras stand in a lorry to be transported to Amboseli on Feb. 10. Credit: Tony Karumba / AFP/Getty Images

Australia’s Melbourne Zoo welcomed a female Asian elephant calf on Jan. 16, and the baby — who doesn’t have an official name yet, but goes by the somewhat-uncreative-if-you-ask-us nickname "Baby" — recently made her public debut.

For her first few weeks of life, zoo staff elected to keep her out of the public eye in order to maximize her bonding time with mother Dokkoon. That seems to have been a success, zoo spokesperson Judith Henke told Australia’s Herald Sun. "She is progressing really well, so it’s been decided to start the public viewing," Henke said.

Baby is the first elephant calf to be born at the Melbourne Zoo and only the second to be born in an Australian zoo, the first being Luk Chai, a male calf born at the Taronga Zoo last summer. More photos after the jump!

— Lindsay Barnett

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First, second and third photos: Baby plays at the zoo on Feb. 10. Credit: William West / AFP/Getty Images

Fourth photo: Baby with her mother and another adult elephant during her first public outing Feb. 9. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency

PHOENIX — Federal wildlife officials plan to move a handful of endangered Sonoran pronghorns to the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in western Arizona next winter in hopes of establishing a new population of the rare animals.

The proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is part of an effort to bring back a thriving population of the antelope-like creature. Only about 70 to 90 of the animals now live in the wild in the U.S., mostly in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge about 130 miles west of Tucson and the adjacent Barry M. Goldwater Range and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Another 40 or so are in a captive breeding program, and about 400 live in northern Mexico.

The formal proposal by Fish and Wildlife was published in the Federal Register last week. The plan envisions releasing about a dozen captive-bred pronghorns at the Kofa refuge in Yuma County next winter and up to 20 a year thereafter. Another group would later be reintroduced southeast of Gila Bend.

The service is also proposing that the new population be designated as "experimental," releasing the government from some of the most onerous provisions of the Endangered Species Act for those animals.

Sonoran pronghorns are North America’s fastest animals. They used to roam freely across the U.S.-Mexico border in the Sonoran desert in search of food and water.

Pressure from ranching and development, and roads such as Interstate 8 and Mexico’s Highway 2, cut them off from much of their normal migratory range, said Jim Atkinson, a federal wildlife biologist who works on the pronghorn recovery program. That included seasonal watering areas north and east of the refuge.

The pronghorn’s numbers slowly dwindled, and by 2001, only about 140 remained in the U.S. Then a drought decimated the species, cutting its population to just 21 in 2002.

"We were about three weeks away from losing all the animals in the U.S. if it hadn’t rained when it did," Atkinson said Tuesday.

Since then, biologists have nursed the population back using a breeding program, supplemental watering holes and a plan to supplement feed with alfalfa in case of another drought. Atkinson said efforts to feed alfalfa to pronghorns in the earlier drought failed because the animals didn’t recognize it as food, but released captive-raised animals now do, and they will teach others.

The idea of establishing a new area for pronghorns has been around for years, and formal planning began about three years ago. A series of public meetings is planned before the proposal is formally adopted.

Even if the proposed new population takes hold, the animals on the historic range will remain under pressure from a combination of environmental and human factors. The biggest ongoing problem is smugglers and illegal immigrants, and the Border Patrol agents who chase them, Atkinson said.

The animals are easily spooked, and a herd will move large distances if border agents or smugglers approach, something that is especially bad during spring fawning season.

"If the herd has to suddenly move 10 or 15 miles because of some disturbance, there’s a good chance the fawns won’t survive," Atkinson said. "Try as we may with coordination [with the Border Patrol], the specific situation with the border traffic pretty much defines the actions they have to take."

— Associated Press

Photo: A female Sonoran pronghorn wears a tracking collar on the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge. Credit: Pat Shannahan / Associated Press

There were a lot of winners because of Sunday’s Super Bowl in Miami. One of them was the CBS network, which won the largest television audience since M*A*S*H’s finale with its Super Bowl broadcast. Another was former San Diego Charger quarterback Drew Brees, who had the last laugh over his old team; the Chargers let him go, but he went on to lead the Saints to their first NFL title and became the Super Bowl MVP in the process. Another winner was the city of New Orleans, which found a valid excuse to party in the streets for an extra nine days.

But the biggest Super Bowl winner, online at least, was this adorable beagle being riled-up/terrorized/mocked by Saints fans watching the game on TV. Indeed, Jerry "The Who Dat Dog" has garnered approximately a half million viewers on YouTube and close to 100,000 on Break.com.

You say you don’t know who or what we’re talking about? Let’s back up.

In case you missed the fuss, down in New Orleans they have a chant for their football team: "Who Dat Say Dey Gonna Beat Dem Saints? Who Dat? Who Dat?" Apparently that chant is just as popular with the four-legged animals as the ones with just two legs. In the video above we see the most popular interaction between man and beast surrounding the Who Dat craze.

But there are other dogs, all claiming to be the ultimate Who Dat Dog. Take Moose the Great Dane, for example. Join us after the jump for videos of some of our other favorite Who Dat dogs.

This little yapper was spotted two weeks ago at the NFC championship game when the Saints sent Brett Favre’s Vikings back home to Minnesota.

Then there was Belle, who sang her way onto a TV news segment. If you can make it to the two-minute mark, you’ll hear Belle yelp along to "When The Saints Come Marching In." (Forgive us if we don’t want to be in that number.)

And finally we have his handsome Labrador, who takes some time warming up but eventually gets into the Who Dat swing nicely.

After an NFL season that started off with controversy over a player who went to jail because of what he did to dogs, it’s nice to see it wrap up with the dogs stealing some thunder back from the players.

— Tony Pierce

DETROIT — A Michigan man who had hundreds of live and dead Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes in his home has been sentenced to five years of probation in a mental health program and ordered not to own animals.

At his sentencing hearing Tuesday in Wayne County Circuit Court, Kenneth Lang Jr. told Judge Timothy Kenny he loved the dogs like they were his children but knew he had too many of them.

The sentence had been expected as part of Lang’s guilty plea last month to a single count of cruelty to 10 or more animals.

In July, authorities found Lang was hoarding the dogs. They say some dead dogs in freezers in the home may have been killed with an injection.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Lang enters the 19th District Court in Dearborn, Mich., in September 2009. Credit: Charles V. Tines / Associated Press

The resignation last year of Ed Boks as L.A. Department of Animal Services general manager  left the organization without an official leader. Last month, the city took a step toward finding Boks’ replacement. What are the qualifications required of applicants for a job perhaps as precarious as drumming for Spınal Tap? Our colleague Carla Hall has the details; here’s an excerpt:

The successful candidate must be compassionate but business-minded, able to inspire the army of staffers who care for the city’s abandoned animals and lost pets; to survive interrogation by the L.A. City Council; and to appease the legions of devoted volunteers, rescuers and advocates in the city’s humane community.

The new steward of the city’s Department of Animal Services should be steeled for the fact that one of the "services" the agency offers is euthanizing animals. But the new manager must also be ready to devise a plan to transform the shelter system into a "no-kill" program that will pledge to euthanize no healthy animal for lack of space.

Warning: The man who last held the job tried hard but satisfied no constituency. He endured criticism from animal welfare advocates, a public upbraiding from a city councilman and near-mutiny by department staffers before he quit last June. His predecessor, who lasted only 13 months, was fired by the mayor and targeted by animal rights activists who smoke-bombed the lobby of his apartment building.

"Francis of Assisi would have trouble in this town," said Bill Dyer, a veteran animal welfare advocate who invoked the patron saint of animals more than once when speaking of the general manager’s job.

THERE’S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: A 3-month-old female Chinese shar-pei/shepherd mix puppy (ID# A1089957) available for adoption at the L.A. Department of Animal Services’ Harbor animal shelter in San Pedro.

Something is holding down the herring population of Alaska’s Prince William Sound, and marine scientists are tailing some rather large suspects: humpback whales.

Humpbacks, once hunted to near extinction, are thriving in waters fouled 21 years ago by the Exxon Valdez, the supertanker that ran aground and leaked nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil.

The herring population crashed after the spill but should have rebounded by now. One hypothesis is that humpbacks, traditionally summer residents in the sound, are taking a big bite out of vast herring schools that form in the deep water of the sound’s fjords each autumn.

Jan Straley, a marine biology professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, and other researchers have studied whales the last two winters with surprising results. Humpbacks are showing up in significant numbers, even in winter.

When summer resident whales leave, others humpbacks move in. Some summer residents are even skipping their annual transoceanic mating and birthing trips to Hawaii, Mexico or other warm waters in favor of icy Alaska waters.

"It did show that whales were exerting predation pressure on Prince William Sound herring, which is potentially impeding the recovery," Straley said.

Many Prince William Sound fishermen still curse Exxon for the absence of herring.

Record commercial harvests were recorded in the late 1980s. The gash in the 987-foot-long Exxon Valdez on March 23, 1989, oozed oil into the sound about the time adult herring were laying eggs, which adhere to plants and rocks before hatching two weeks later into larva that feed on the spring plankton bloom, and after about 10 weeks grow into juvenile fish.

Herring took a major hit. By 1993, just 25% of the expected adults returned to spawn. State regulators closed commercial fishing in 1993, and other than openings in 1997 and 1998, it has stayed closed.

Herring play a vital role in the food chain. The silvery fish with blue-green upper bodies, considered large when they reach 9 inches, are food for eagles and other sea birds, halibut and cod and — most important to humans — five varieties of Pacific salmon.

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, formed to oversee restoration of the injured ecosystem, and backed by a $900-million civil settlement with the petroleum company, says the reasons for the poor recovery remain largely unknown. Exxon Valdez oil remains trapped along miles of gravel beaches, but there’s no indication that herring spawning areas overlap with that oil, according to the trustee council.

There are other suspects in the herring mystery: disease, ocean changes, contaminants and competition from other fish. One researcher is studying whether juvenile herring spend so much energy fighting a disease, Icthyophonus, that they don’t survive the winter, when there’s no food. Straley and others funded by the trustee council are looking at humpbacks.

For an angler trolling Alaska ocean waters in a tiny skiff, hoping a salmon will bite the dead herring on the end of his line, few things are as terrifying or thrilling as an interruption by a humpback whale.

Seemingly not a threat from hundreds of yards away, humpbacks can dive and surface a stone’s throw away. Fishermen know the leviathans are not going to intentionally ram them, but seeing a 50-foot black hulk undulate out of the gray water, heaving a fountain of spray out a blowhole, can make casting from shore seem like a far better idea.

Humpbacks are baleen whales. Their throats expand to ingest large volumes of water, which the whales force out across baleen, the flat, flexible plates with frayed edges, arranged in parallel rows, that filter out and catch herring, zooplankton or krill, tiny floating crustaceans.

Though still listed as endangered, humpbacks have made a promising comeback, increasing 5% to 7% per year in the North Pacific, with 3,000 to 5,000 using the northern Gulf of Alaska.

Anecdotal evidence from fishermen and other boaters, Straley said, indicated more humpbacks were using Prince William Sound in winter. Four studies funded by the trustee council suggest they’re having an effect on herring.

John Moran, a National Marine Fisheries Service research biologist in Juneau, evaluated whale abundance, photographing whales and identifying individuals by the distinctive patterns on the underside of their flukes.

Straley’s research confirmed whales were feeding mostly on herring. Ron Heintz, another NMFS research biologist, set up a model to estimate the proportion of spawning biomass that could be consumed by whales in winter, when herring bunch in schools that can be miles long and hundreds of feet deep.

The research indicated 199 humpback whales were using Prince William Sound at some point from September through March, with up to 129 there at one time. Researchers learned whales don’t migrate like caribou: they don’t all leave at once. When summer whales left, others that had been feeding on krill moved in, perhaps from deeper water on the continental shelf.

Heintz’s model gave a range of how much herring the whales might be eating — 1.5 to 4 gigajoules per day — the caloric equivalent of 600 to 2,200 Big Macs. That translates to a lot of herring, somewhere between 2,200 and 13,000 metric tons over the winter and a significant portion of the estimated total.

"The whales were able to consume somewhere between 10% and 66% of that pre-spawning biomass," Heintz said. "Another way to look at that is that the last commercial fishery in Prince William Sound was about 3,500 metric tons, so the whales are clearly capable of consuming a biomass that would be in the ballpark of a commercial fishery in Prince William Sound."

The biologists say their work is just a snapshot and that more research is needed. They want to find out if whales are feeding at night and whether humpbacks have reached juvenile herring, which do not mix with adults but spend winters in schools in shallower water near the heads of fjords.

"It’s thought it’s the juvenile mortality that seems to be the point of time when they’re not recovering," Straley said. "I don’t know this, but if it is, then whale predation on that age class could really hurt the recovery of herring."

The presence of humpbacks in Prince William Sound is like a bell curve, with a peak in August, Straley said.

"As the population increases, we’re just going to see more and more whales at the tail end of that bell curve," Straley said. "This is what I think is going to happen."

— Associated Press

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Photo: A humpback whale in Maui. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Germany’s Dresden Zoo: Your one-stop baby orangutan shop. (OK, so you can’t actually buy a baby orangutan — nor would we recommend it, considering that the pet trade is reportedly a major problem facing at least one orangutan subspecies, the Sumatran orangutan. But we suspect a plush baby-orangutan doll would be fairly easy to come by in Dresden.) 

Just a few months back, Dresden Zoo orangutan resident Daisy gave birth to a son, Dodi. (Dodi made his public debut in late December.)

As if criminally adorable baby Dodi weren’t enough, another orangutan resident of the Dresden Zoo, Djudi (above), gave birth Jan. 30 to a baby named Duran. At age 36, Djudi has become the oldest orangutan mother in any European zoo; Duran is her fifth offspring. See another photo of Djudi and Duran after the jump!

— Lindsay Barnett

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Photos: Matthias Hiekel / European Pressphoto Agency

LAS VEGAS — Federal land managers said Monday they’ll delay a roundup of most of the nearly 600 wild horses in a range in eastern Nevada, at least until after the herd’s spring foaling season.

Advocates fighting to stop mustang roundups in the West said they think their threat to file a lawsuit stopped the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from beginning a roundup next week of almost 500 wild horses in the Eagle Herd Management Area.

"We’re pleased that the BLM has postponed another ill-conceived, illegal and inhumane wild horse roundup," said William Spriggs, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer for In Defense of Animals based in San Rafael, Calif.

Spriggs said by telephone that he’s seeking a moratorium on roundups until Congress reviews whether the government should continue removing horses from the range.

But Chris Hanefeld, spokesman for the BLM office in Ely, wouldn’t link Spriggs’ threat to sue in Washington with the bureau decision in Nevada to postpone the Eagle herd area gather. It had been scheduled to begin Sunday.

"We’re responding to the many comments we’ve received," Hanefeld said, citing about 9,000 public comments submitted after the BLM announced that it planned to collect more than 80% of the animals in the Eagle herd area.

"We determined it was prudent to defer it to wait until after foaling season," he said.

Spriggs maintains that the BLM roundups traumatize, injure and kill mustangs and violate a 1971 law enacted by Congress to protect the horses.

Bureau officials say the roundups are necessary to reduce an overpopulation of horses that harms native wildlife and the range, and threatens the herds with starvation.

Ruth Thompson, BLM wild horse and burro specialist in Ely, said officials believe the Eagle herd range from east of Panaca to the Utah state line can sustain about 100 to 210 wild horses.

The bureau last week finished rounding up more than 1,900 of about 2,500 horses from a larger Calico Mountains complex north of Reno. Officials are preparing the captured animals for adoption or transfer to pastures in the Midwest.

Hanefeld said BLM officials are considering what to do about some 50 horses that have moved outside the Eagle and nearby Silver King herd management areas in eastern Nevada and are said to threaten the safety of motorists on U.S. 93 near Pioche.

He said no horse roundups would be conducted without public notice.

— Associated Press

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Photo: Wild horses run through sagebrush at the Dream Catcher Wild Horse and Burro Sanctuary in Ravendale, Calif., in 2008. Photo credit: Los Angeles Times

An Alaska dentist has given a bald eagle a unique beak — using a temporary crown, sticky poster putty and yellow highlighter.

The bird was found in December with severe damage to its beak, apparently from a fishing line that wrapped around it and started cutting into it.

Cindy Palmatier at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center says staff members there decided to turn to dentist Kirk Johnson, who thought of patching up the beak with the same material used to make temporary crowns for people.

The "crown" is being held on with poster putty, and Johnson colored it in using highlighter to give it a yellow tint.

The bird center says the eagle is doing just fine but won’t be able to return to the wild.

— Associated Press

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Video: KTUU.com