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A fossil found in South Carolina has revealed a gigantic bird that apparently snatched fish while soaring over the ocean some 25 million to 28 million years ago. Its estimated wingspan of around 21 feet is bigger than the height of a giraffe. …

An 18-month-old Saudi boy who was playing in the back garden of his house in the Gulf kingdom went back in carrying a snake which he wanted to show to his mother. The boy looked delighted by what he thought a toy he had found before his mother hit him on the hand, sending the snake crawling away. “The mother chased the snake with a stick and killed it. She said her son thought it was a toy and he was very happy with it,” Sabq Arabic language daily said in a report from the southern Dhamad town.

A year after learning of Raju’s plight, Wildlife S.O.S. last week led a team of 10 veterinarians and wildlife officials, 20 forestry department officers and six policemen, and seized the abused elephant from the Uttar Pradesh area of India, after receiving a court order. “The team [was] astounded to see tears roll down his face during the rescue,” Pooja Binepal, a spokesman for Wildlife S.O.S., told the MailOnline. “It was so incredibly emotional for all of us. We knew in our hearts he realized he was being freed. “Elephants are not only majestic, but they are highly intelligent animals, who...

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A bear was hit and killed Monday by a vehicle in Kanawha County, according to Kanawha County Sheriff's dispatchers. There was no word exactly where it happened or if the bear was possibly one of the two black bears spotted earlier in the South Charleston area. Those two bears made their first appearance Monday morning along Interstate 64 near the Montrose exit. South Charleston Police, who investigated the case of the bear hit and killed, confirmed it happened but had no immediate information where or when.

A walkabout elk wandered into a family house in southern Sweden, but after making itself at home the animal had to be put down due to grisly injuries sustained during the break-in. The elk was spotted walking around in a residential area of Helsingborg on Monday morning. It then proceeded to jump through a window and smash its way into a house, setting of an alarm in the process. Luckily nobody was home, as the family was away on holiday. Police were quickly on the scene and encountered the elk exploring the living room. A hunter was then dispatched as...

It's rich and fatty and not the least bit offensive in flavor, at least according to taste tests by managers at the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer. Last week, cows started to wean their babies, and for the first time in two decades managers decided to try milking the musk oxen.

Few scientists have ever seen the rare tufted ground squirrel (Rheithrosciurus macrotis), which hides in the hilly forests of Borneo, but it is an odd beast. It’s twice the size of most tree squirrels, and it reputedly has a taste for blood. Now, motion-controlled cameras have revealed another curious fact. The 35-centimeter-long rodent has the bushiest tail of any mammal compared with its body size. "The species is really quite bizarre," says Erik Meijaard, a conservation scientist with People and Nature Consulting International in Jakarta. Meijaard and his wife, Rona Dennis, an independent remote sensing scientist, gathered a collection of...

A rash of animal shootings by police officers nationwide has law-enforcement agencies running for cover amid growing public outrage that could force state legislatures to require greater accountability from men and women in uniform. Police in Utah shot a family’s dog while searching for a lost boy, prompting hundreds of pet owners to protest June 28 in front of the Salt Lake City Police Department headquarters. They carried signs demanding “justice for Geist,” a 110-pound Weimaraner shot by a city cop within the dog’s fenced-in back yard. The “missing” boy was later found sleeping in his home. State police in...

Bibi the lovebird decides she needs some new tail feathers and goes about expertly shredding paper to add them to her rump. Actually, this is typical nesting behavior and she's saving those pieces for a potential nest. Either way, it's fun to watch.

How did this cat travel 200 miles away from home by himself?A cat that had been missing for nine weeks has been found more than 200 miles away from his home. The brilliantly named Obi Wan Catobi was found by builders in a unfinished hotel near Euston train station on Thursday. After the RSPCA caught the wayward moggie they discovered his microchip, which revealed he had travelled all the way from Leeds. When they got in touch with owner Adam Williams, 32, he told them that Obi went missing in April after he moved house within the Leeds area. Speaking...

Little Carter has what everyone wishes they had as a kid: a real-life teddy bear in the form of an extremely affectionate and loving pup. Toby, a rescue dog, is sweet and affectionate to the toddler. The pair are undoubtedly best friends and have been pretty much inseparable since before they ever even met.

A Florida man was arrested after allegedly attacking his girlfriend's pet rabbit following an argument about women's rights. According to a Boyton Beach Police report, James Wertz became enraged when his girlfriend told him that she wanted to end their relationship after he refused to stop arguing and screaming. The 28-year-old suspect then allegedly began "punching and squeezing" the woman's pet rabbit, according to Boynton Beach Police media representative Stephanie Slater. The woman intervened and Wertz apologized, but when she tried to call 911, Wertz physically threw the woman across the room, according to the Palm Beach Post. The rabbit...

A 60-year-old Boca Raton man is facing federal charges of helping to pack, mark and ship Florida spiny lobster illegally to Hong Kong, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Eric Burman pleaded not guilty last week to the charges. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to five years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, as well as a criminal fine of up to $250,000. Through a Pompano Beach business he owns, Burman “was engaged in the wholesale commercial seafood industry, including the export of live Florida spiny lobster to the seafood market in China,” the U.S....

So just what do you get for the cat who has everything? Well, how about one of these – an actual inflatable unicorn horn designed specifically for the feline in your life. The item – yours for a mere £6.40 on Amazon – will not only look very fetching on your kitty but may also help you realise your dream of turning your pet into a mythical, magical creature. Alternatively, it may just make them look like a cat with a large inflatable object strapped to their head. But nonetheless we are assured from the box that ‘cats love it’...

A Stevens Point woman found a special surprise in an unlikely place. Five years ago, Lois Matykowski lost her wedding ring. Matykowski had given up all hope finding it, until her dog, Tucker, led her to a shocking discovery. Tucker is your typical mutt. He likes playing with his frisbee and rolling on the grass on a hot summer day. "You wouldn't think he's ten years old by the way he acts," said Matykowski. Like every pup, he likes getting into trouble. "He's known in the family to be the food burglar," said Matykowski. It's because of that nickname, a...

A young Saudi has established a company selling camel's milk in the United States, despite the animals reportedly being the source of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. According to a report in a Los Angeles newspaper, Walid Abdulwahab, 23, set up the company as part of his class project at the University of Southern California. The lighthearted slogan of his company, Desert Farms, is "Make every day a humpday." Supplied by seven small camel farms, most of them owned by Amish, the Santa Monica-based company recently sold camel milk of $100,000, as it spreads its claims of nutritional...

An Albertville man shot and killed a black bear that wandered into his yard Tuesday evening, according to the Wright County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office got a call about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday from a resident of the 10000 block of 64th Street NE. in the northwest metro community, saying that a bear had come up to the sliding-glass door in the resident’s back yard. A sheriff’s deputy spotted the bear near another residence a few blocks away, on the other side of a park and wooded area. Then a gunshot sounded, and the deputy saw the bear run into...

I was heading home after visiting friends in Emmeryville, a small industrial town near the Oakland/ Berkeley borders. It was a little after 11pm when I made a left turn off the freeway, onto my neighborhood block. The night fog had begun to gather, floating slightly above the cooling earth. I was approaching the first traffic stop at a four way intersection when I saw something spring up near the passenger side of my car. What I first thought was a very large Great Dane turned out to be a mature adult deer. Although I should have known no one...

Amazon description: There is little in this world that a family cannot endure, if endure they must. For we all have it within us to lose everything, absolutely everything, and still find strength in the most simple, beautiful things. Pat and Mandy Retzlaff lived a hard but satisfying farming life in Zimbabwe. Working all hours of the day on their sprawling ranch and raising three boisterous children, they savored the beauty of the veld and the diverse wildlife that grazed the meadows outside their dining room window. After their children, the couple's true pride and joy were their horses. But...

Nome is used to rowdy residents, but some relatively new transplants are making a real nuisance of themselves -- although unlike the colorful characters of the early 20th century gold rush days, these visitors have four legs, not two. Musk oxen are wandering into the city on the Seward Peninsula, and despite loud noises, water hoses and even a blow-up bear coated in ursine urine, they don't want to leave.