Monday 30 May 2016

ARTICLE: Colorado’s Wild Animal Sanctuary Offers Home To Animals With Nowhere Else To Go

Turning the corner off the little dirt road, the sight a 1,500 pound grizzly bear taking a snooze in the tall grasses on the Eastern Plains is enough to get your heart racing.


Another glance out the passenger side window of my car, a tiger strolled alongside, eyeing us. 

Instantly I identified with those little deer you see running away from the jaws of these magnificent cats on TV documentaries.

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NEWSLINK: After two tigers escape in Friesland, how many big cats are living in the Netherlands?

The news that two tigers had escaped from an animal shelter in Friesland at the weekend has given rise to questions about how many big cats are actually in the country. 

Residents living close to the centre outside the village of Nijeberkoop were warned to stay indoors for several hours on Saturday as police tracked the animals, named as Radjah and Dehli, using a helicopter.

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Friday 27 May 2016

NEWSLINK: Elusive Snow Leopard Collared in Kyrgyzstan

Scientists have collared an elusive snow leopard in the remote, rugged mountains of Kyrgyzstan.


The female cat was collared in the Sarychat-Ertash Strict Nature Reserve of Eastern Kyrgyzstan by biologists with the wild cat conservation organization Panthera, the State Agency on Environment Protection and Forestry and the National Academy of Sciences. The mama cat showed signs of having lactated in the past, suggesting she had given birth to at least one cub.

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VIDEO: Lionesses surround tent to drink from windows

Campers were left stunned when they awoke to find lionesses meekly licking rainwater from the wall of their transparent tent.

Luckily the three seemingly ‘licking ladies’ were more interested in quenching their thirsts than entering the flimsy tent and attacking the unarmed tourists.

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Thursday 26 May 2016

VIDEO: Drunk man jumps into lion enclosure

Onlookers scream as the 35-year-old man wades across a protective moat in order to reach the deadly beasts on the other side.


A lioness is waiting on the other side of the water.


But rather than realise his terrible life-threatening mistake, the bloke approaches the huge animal – with his hand outstretched.

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NEWSLINK: PETA vs Justin Bieber

“Love Yourself” singer Justin Bieber has a thing for big cats but not everyone is happy about it. The Canadian pop star is once again under fire from PETA after an Instagram post showed him cuddling with a lion cub before his homecoming concert in Toronto on May 18.

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Tuesday 24 May 2016

NEWSLINK: Big cats face fresh danger with poachers back on the prowl

Intel reports that tribal gypsy groups from India are entering the Nepali territory in Bardiya and Kailali have put park authorities and security officials on high alert.

The Indian tribal gypsy groups, known as Banjaras, are infamous for poaching endangered animals, including tiger.

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Monday 23 May 2016

NEWSLINK: Number of tigers estimated at 40 in Odisha

The number of tigers in Odisha has been estimated at 40, said a report on Wednesday.

According to the tiger estimation report of Odisha government, the state has 40 tigers against the report of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which said there were 28 big cats in Odisha.

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NEWSLINK: End of exploitative tiger encounters a positive step

The news that Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo is ending its tiger encounters signals an exciting shift with positive implications that extend far beyond the gates of one zoo.

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Tuesday 17 May 2016

RADIO LINK: Leopard ranges smaller than believed



The conventional assumption was that leopards were thriving the wild in ranges across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. It turns out their populations are threatened by spreading farmlands, declining prey, trophy hunting, and illegal trade in their skins and teeth.

Listen...

NEWSLINK: Leopard Deaths Or Forest Department's Apathy: Which Is A Bigger Mystery?

In a shocking development, the carcass of a dead male leopard was discovered nearly four weeks after its death near a forest guard checkpost at Badshapur in Gurgaon.

Local residents who found the body were intrigued by the stench of the leopard's body yet, the officials who man the checkpost did not spot the scent!


An official went on to claim that it was "confusing" as it "could have been any dead animal."

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PHOTO: Pride of lions form world’s cutest roadblock

You know how it is when you’re in a hurry and there's a cat blocking the road – it’s just a matter of 
getting out and shooing it to the side.


But this was a trickier proposition for travellers in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, who were confronted by a family of rather bigger felines.

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Monday 16 May 2016

VIDEO: What happens when you turn your back on big cats

In an effort to discourage ownership of wild animals, a brave volunteer at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida safely demonstrated the danger of turning one’s back on a big cat.

His daring experiment included a lion, a tiger and leopard, all of whom snuck up behind him quietly in attack mode, as dictated by instinct.

NEWSLINK: Russia built a critical wildlife corridor to help save endangered big cats

Endangered Amur tigers and leopards around the border between Siberia and China are losing critical habitat to humans. 

Their migratory trails cut through the Narvinskii Pass, but in the last 15 years, a four lane highway there engulfed what used to be a little-trafficked gravel road. 

Now Russia has taken a step to protect these gorgeous at-risk animals.

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Sunday 15 May 2016

VIDEO: Lions feed on rhino

With their leathery skin and tough horns, rhinos are rarely the prey of choice for big cats, but a hungry group of lions in South Africa's Kruger National Park decided to take its chances recently, and managed to take down a juvenile male.

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UK SIGHTING: Is a big cat prowling the East Devon countryside?

Jane Overthrow posted a status on the Ottery Matters Facebook page, saying she had seen a ‘black panther-type’ creature strolling across a field at the end of Lower Broad Oak Road, near Higher Metcombe, on Saturday morning.


She said the dark chocolate brown creature was heading towards a cattle field.


“I honestly cannot tell you what it was, except it seemed too long and big to be a normal dog,” said Jane.


“We stopped to have a better look, but it was about 200 yards away.”


Dozens of residents responded to the post to share their big cat encounters.

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Tuesday 3 May 2016

NEWSLINK: Conroe tiger sent to animal sanctuary shortly after theft attempt

This is a town passionate about its Tigers, the ones who compete under Moorhead Stadium's lights on Friday nights every fall.


But even Conroe High School's football team hasn't generated as much interest as the tale of the tiger cub recently found wandering the city's streets following last week's floods.

Nahla was moved Wednesday to a sanctuary near Fort Worth but not before a custody hearing and an apparent attempt to steal the Bengal tiger from the city's animal shelter.

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NEWSLINK: Female mountain lion a first for Southeast Nebraska, but no evidence of kittens

There's no evidence a female mountain lion prowling along the Missouri River in Southeast Nebraska is pregnant with kittens, a state wildlife biologist says.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission officials have known about the big cat for more than a year, but they didn't know it was a female until genetic testing of a small amount of blood found in a paw print in January determined the cat's gender.

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NEWSLINK: 18 animals have died at the Baton Rouge Zoo in four months

Federal officials are putting together a report on the deaths of animals at the Baton Rouge Zoo.


Since the start of 2016, eighteen animals have died. Most recently, a juvenile Malayan tiger died. The tiger, named Hadiah, died in mid-April.


"This death was much unexpected," zoo veterinarian, Dr. Gordon Pirie, said in a WBRZ and WBRZ.com report on the death. "(earlier in the day on the date the tiger died), we were performing routine rounds with a LSU veterinary intern and she appeared to be exhibiting normal behavior and in great health."

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Monday 2 May 2016

NEWSLINK: Zoo feeds headless zebra to tigers in front of families

Zookeepers fed a decapitated zebra to tigers in front of startled families at a Norwegian wildlife park.

Visitors at Kristiansand Zoo were given an up-close and personal look at the circle of life in action when the headless carcass was delivered to the big cats' enclosure.

The zoo said the zebra was surplus to the herd and had been euthanised before being decapitated – but the gruesome sight was a little too much for some of the families.

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Sunday 1 May 2016

NEWSLINK: Deadliest month ever for Florida panthers, with nine killed

This April will go down as the bloodiest month yet for the Florida panther.


So far, nine of the endangered cats have died, all but one killed along Southwest Florida highways and roads. Seven were males, almost all of them at the young age when they start looking to establish their own territory. Altogether, 20 panthers have died this year, a number on track to outpace last year’s record-breaking 41 fatalities.

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NEWSLINK: Rescued circus lions flown from Peru to South African refuge

More than 30 lions rescued from abuse in Peruvian and Colombian circuses have been flown to South Africa, in what campaigners have called the largest-ever airlift of big cats.


The 33 lions, with names such as Zeus and Shakira, were freed after the use of wild animals in circuses was outlawed in Peru in 2011 and Colombia in 2013.

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