Critter News

JULY 18, 2010

All companion animals including dogs, cats, hamsters, mice, rats, chinchillas, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, and lizards would be considered as pets. If it passes, San Francisco residents would have to go to a shelter or rescue group to adopt an animal. Pet sales would be banned altogether, except for the sale of pet fish.

San Francisco 100

San Francisco Guinea Pigs Pets Chinchillas 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2016

Infected rats, for example, no longer shun cat urine but find it an aphrodiasic. First, there is a large and rabid — well, enthusiastic — cat lobby, including many people who support colonies of feral cats with food and otherwise, such as the large nonprofit group, Alley Cat Allies.

Feral Cats 253

Feral Cats Cats Tnr Feral 253

Critter News

OCTOBER 17, 2009

The group was formed to protest the activities of Huntingdon Life Sciences in Franklin Township, N.J. Huntingdon used mostly mice and rats , but also some dogs, monkeys, fish and guinea pigs , in its research in New Jersey. The law, since revised, aimed to protect animal research laboratories from illegal, sometimes violent protests.

Guinea Pigs 100

Guinea Pigs United Kingdom New Jersey Protest 100

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2016

The English language, or at least the adherents thereof with more time on their hands than sense, has bestowed us a great number of names to collective nouns for groups of birds.

New Zealand 103

New Zealand Parrots Rats Bats 103

10,000 Birds

MARCH 2, 2017

As you begin to emerge from the trees impossibly bold Rouget’s Rails can be seen stalking around, and groups of Chestnut-naped Francolins are common too. As you drive along you see plenty of mole rats too, if you like mammals. The primary reason birders go to Sanetti are the upper mountain endemics. Rouget’s Rail.

Ethiopia 100

Ethiopia Mammals South America Rats 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 8, 2013

The male Swee Waxbill sports a black face and groups of these beautiful birds are common in the wooded areas of the lower Sani Pass. Here one can also find pairs of very cute Sloggett’s Ice Rats , another member of Sani’s distinct fauna. The endemic Bush Blackcap is now placed in the babbler family, photo by Adam Riley .

Lesotho 165

Lesotho Africa Birds Rats 165

Critter News

AUGUST 10, 2009

It's so much cheaper to buy, use and dispose of a bunch of voiceless chimpanzees and thousands of rats than to invest in alternative R&D. The author also accuses Understanding Animal Research of being a UK front group for the pharmaceutical industry.

Animal Research 100

Animal Research Industry Research Medical Research 100

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2013

First of all: most of us don’t have much, because we spend all our money on gauze, antibiotics, and frozen rats. asked Marge Gibson, when I asked a group of bird rehabbers about their bling experiences. As for nice clothing … right! People who work with wildlife wearing nice clothes? Oh my, where do I start?”

Bald Eagle 216

Bald Eagle Wildlife Rehabilitation Vet Birds 216

Animal Person

MAY 23, 2009

If you believe your dog has a right to a life free of torture and slaughter for no reason, then you really ought to think about extending that right to mice, rats, chickens and fish. First, note that now PeTA is an "animal advocacy group." It's not about making a gigantic group even bigger. But that's not the telling item.

Animal Advocacy 100

Animal Advocacy PETA Animal Advocacy 100

Critter News

JUNE 4, 2009

The EU's executive Commission last year proposed a range of measures to improve the welfare of the 12 million vertebrate animals used in experiments each year, mostly mice and rats. Drug industry group EFPIA said the parliament had managed to balance the protection of animals, the reality of biomedical research, and the needs of patients.

Medical Research 100

Medical Research Medical Research Apes 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2011

Peterson’s big idea, succinctly stated on page 68, is as follows: “I believe that morality appears as a predictable response to group living, and we can therefore expect to see clear signs of full moral behavior appearing much, much earlier than the recent start of human evolution.&#

Morals 108

Morals Animal Humane Research 108

Animal Person

JUNE 8, 2009

It's one that's brought on, no doubt, by the acts of vandalism and intimidation of radical animal-rights groups, but I think it also serves to insulate the research community from any responsibility it might otherwise have to increase transparency and public engagement with the work. But the question is how can we properly address that?

Animal Welfare 100

Animal Welfare Monkeys Animal Welfare Act Vivisection 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 1, 2013

Try Bermuda Petrel, Pterodroma cahow , one of the group of seabirds called gadfly petrels. In addition to longtails and rats, Wingate battles developers (of course), a rare Snowy Owl that kills 5% of the cahow population (Wingate shoots the owl, to the dismay of many), and the U.S. It isn’t in your book of seabirds? (It

Birds 165

Birds Rats Breeding 2012 165

4 The Love Of Animals

JUNE 1, 2009

We send Animal Therapy teams to hospitals, nursing homes, Hospices and even private homes for Animal assisted Therapy (where we have animals go to individuals or groups) or Animal Assisted Activities (Where we have an animal involved with the actual therapy of an individual that is observed and documented by a Health/Human service professional.)

Hawaii 100

Hawaii Pets Horses Groups 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 1, 2014

They cut down the trees the parrots used for nesting and brought black rats, who ate their eggs, and honeybees who swarmed into their nests, and by 1937 there were only about 2,000 Puerto Rican Parrots left. The targeted age group is 6 to 11 years. Spanish settlers arrived in 1493 and called the birds Coterras. Other Europeans came.

Puerto Rico 228

Puerto Rico Parrots New York City 2013 228

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2021

Yes, field guides to other groups of organisms, as there’s hardly any room left in your baggage or the energy to carry it. No, Madagascar is the most famous for an endemic group of mammals: lemurs, sifakas, indri, aye-aye – in total, 112 endemic species and subspecies of lemurs alone!

Madagascar 235

Madagascar Mammals Lemurs Seychelles 235

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

We interrupt this blog post for an important message: This is the kind of Blackbird I am talking about, the Eurasian thrush that is Turdus merula, and not the American group of iconic Icterids you might have had in mind. But something happened, and it happened many times: Something has been killing our Blackbirds.

Blackbirds 154

Blackbirds Germany Shelters Rodents 154

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Strictly speaking, Mammals of South Asia is not a field guide, because some larger groups (rodents, bats) cannot be identified down to a species level following the concise descriptions and a single illustration. Still, there should be no problem with larger species that allow for longer observation time (e.g. monkeys, deer, gazelles, etc.).

Asia 174

Asia Mammals Sri Lanka Bhutan 174

10,000 Birds

JULY 11, 2012

This is quite a big deal for an island group that had no mammals save bats for millions of years. Take a project to remove rats from the Californian island of Anacapa (in the Channel Islands). The island was home to an important population of Xantus’ Murrelet , but the population was suffering as a result of introduced rats.

Animal Rights 259

Animal Rights Rights New Zealand Animal 259

10,000 Birds

JULY 24, 2012

Nonnative species have huge impacts on wildlife species everywhere… mice kill seabird chicks in their burrows, rats eat endangered bird eggs, overpopulated deer clear the understory of forests, pigs root out native plants and terrestrial animals, cats kill anything they can get their paws on. For example, when the U.S.

Animal Rights Movement 204

Animal Rights Movement Animal Rights Rights Wildlife 204

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 22, 2012

I’ve written at length in the past about the circumstances of that extinction event, how the rich endemic fauna was utterly vulnerable to introduced mammals and how waves of invaders wiped out different groups of species. Hit the rats hard and quick in a single hit. But while obvious this was also a much harder proposition.

New Zealand 173

New Zealand Rats Mammals Possums 173

10,000 Birds

MAY 3, 2011

The combined effects of hunting, habitat loss and predation by introduced animals like rats and mongoose have extirpated the species from some islands and reduced numbers significantly on others. Here is a short clip featuring a small group of birds from a roadside pan in central Jamaica… www.youtube.com/watch?

Antigua and Barbuda 216

Antigua and Barbuda Puerto Rico Dominican Republic Jamaica 216

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

I’ve numbered these chapter descriptions because just rereading them feels overwhelming and I need some structure (the chapters in the book are interspersed with the case study chapters described above). Still–it’s a lot of material to take in.

Cyprus 246

Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 246

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2019

Near us, a bus stops and a group of about 30 Irish birders heavily armed with binoculars and scopes climb out… a sign for us to look for a more secluded spot. And indeed, a slender grey bird with black tail and head, red eyes and legs, comes to within a few meters of us to check us out.

Terrapins 176

Terrapins Eagles Europe Rats 176

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2011

This is also a hard question to address because most data on animal size distribution does not compare across classes of animals, and/or focuses on groups that would not be helpful. Or, we might expect to see them all be diurnal or nocturnal (as groups) but differentiate in body size.

Mammals 173

Mammals Rodents Birds Reptiles 173

10,000 Birds

APRIL 22, 2013

Near us, a bus stops and a group of about 30 Irish birders heavily armed with binoculars and scopes climb out… a sign for us to look for a more secluded spot. Sardinian Warbler by Szabolcs Kokay. As we enter the car, a Sardinian Warbler sings behind us, laughing out loudly.

Spain 212

Spain Terrapins Eagles Europe 212

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2014

Of course the ideal home for the Guam Rail would be an island or group of islands that are capable of supporting a flightless rail and which don’t have brown tree snakes. Guam Rail Gallirallus owstoni. Photo copyright The Smithsonian’s National Zoo, taken from the Guam Rail page. .

Puerto Rico 183

Puerto Rico Guam Virgin Islands Feral 183

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2012

Patience will get you good looks, and there is something very special about seeing a representative of a group so strongly associated with the almost mythic New Guinea. There were also massive native White-tailed Rats and the Northern Brown Bandicoot.

Possums 170

Possums Guinea Marsupials Rats 170

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2011

The kakariki are an odd group of parakeets, particularly in terms of their distribution. Considerable efforts are also being made to save the Orange-fronted Parakeets after their population crashed from 700 to less than 200 between 1999 and 2000 (due to bad rat plagues caused by beech masting).

New Zealand 145

New Zealand Fiji Parrots Tonga 145

10,000 Birds

JUNE 26, 2018

The causes were the usual reasons for island extinction—deforestation by both humans and invasive plants that crowded out native plants, hunting, and invasive rats, mongoose, monkeys, and, of course, feral cats. Yet, think a bit about what our world would be like if the Passenger Pigeon still existed.

Mauritius 101

Mauritius Stud Zoos Eggs 101

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

I was in contact with a group of birders for whom I arranged and guided an annual tour to Africa. This image (by Marius Coetzee) shows Adam Riley & David Hoddinott with a group in Nsuta Forest, a forest reserve that is in the process of being clear-felled and settled by subsistence farmers.

Ghana 189

Ghana Hunters Gambia Guinea 189

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

Rats arrived on ships and cats, foxes and rabbits were all introduced and they were all detrimental to the bird population. Foxes have also been known to take their eggs and there are now numerous local groups who endeavour to help the populations of Hooded Plovers along their local coastlines.

Species 174

Species Australia Birds Parrots 174

10,000 Birds

MAY 30, 2012

The parking lot was crowded, for sure, with holiday makers looking for some crocodile-free freshwater to swim in, but aboe the crowds a small group Barred Cuckoo-shrike were feeding on fruit in a leafless tree. Saw-shelled Turtle ( Myuchelys latisternum ) My pessimism about the place was short-lived, however.

Kangaroos 159

Kangaroos Guinea Pigs Turkey Guinea 159

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 8, 2022

On the other hand, in the West, mice, and rats are also kept as pets, maybe with the same logic. The courtship of the Greater Scaup sounds a bit frightening to me: “During courtship, males gather in groups of up to 17 and surround a single female while calling” ( source ).

Birds 200

Birds Eggs Bangladesh China 200