Tag: animal

Wolf attack at French zoo leaves woman seriously injured

PARIS, June 23, 2024 (AFP) – Police and prosecutors were investigating how a 37-year-old woman came to be attacked and seriously injured by three wolves in a zoo outside Paris Sunday. The woman was bitten “on the neck, the calf and the back” at the Thoiry zoo around 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the French capital, a source close to the case told AFP. Maryvonne Caillibotte, chief prosecutor in Versailles, had said the woman’s […]

Python swallows woman whole in Indonesia

MAKASSAR, Indonesia, June 8, 2024 (AFP) – A woman has been found dead inside the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in central Indonesia, a local official said Saturday. The husband of 45-year-old Farida and residents of Kalempang village in South Sulawesi province discovered her on Friday inside the reticulated python, which measured around five metres (16 feet). The mother-of-four had gone missing Thursday night and failed to return home, forcing a […]

One dead in suspected Indonesia tiger attack, hunt ongoing

PEKANBARU, Indonesia, May 11, 2024 (AFP) – A man has been found dead in western Indonesia after a suspected attack by a Sumatran tiger authorities were still hunting, a local official said Saturday, the latest case of conflict between humans and the critically endangered species. There are only several hundred tigers on the western island of Sumatra left in the wild and they are often targeted by poachers for their body parts, while rampant deforestation […]

Pet dogs and strays suffer in Asia heatwave

By Sailendra Sil with Rose Troup Buchanan in Bangkok Soaring temperatures across Kolkata have brought life in much of the Indian megacity to a standstill, but veterinarian Partha Das cannot recall a time when he was more busy. His clinic has been swamped by distressed members of the public carrying in beloved pets suffering nosebleeds, severe skin rashes and lapses into unconsciousness in a relentless heatwave suffocating much of South and Southeastern Asia over the […]

Cicada-palooza! Billions of bugs to blanket America

By Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, April 27, 2024 (AFP) – They’re loud. They’re sexually aroused. And for one special, cacophonous month up to a trillion of them will engulf suburbs and woodlands across America. Two cicada “broods” are set for a rare double emergence that last occurred in 1803, when Thomas Jefferson was president and the United States purchased Louisiana from France. The prospect of another natural wonder just weeks after a total solar eclipse across […]

Chemical cat sparks alert in Japan

TOKYO, March 12, 2024 (AFP) – Locals in a city in western Japan have been told not to approach or touch a missing cat that fell into a vat of dangerous chemicals and then scampered off into the night. An employee at a metal plating plant in Fukuyama arrived for work on Monday morning to find feline paw prints leading away from the container, the firm said. Grainy security camera footage released by the company […]

Portugal’s Bobi loses oldest dog title

LISBON, Feb 22, 2024 (AFP) – Bobi, previously crowned the world’s oldest dog, has lost his title due to inconclusive evidence of his age, Guinness World Records (GWR) announced Thursday. A Guinness review launched last month concluded it “no longer has the evidence it needs to support Bobi’s claim as the record holder”. Bobi died last October at the age of 31 years and 165 days, exceeding the 12-14 years life expectancy for his breed, […]

Dogs, antennas and honey for Japan’s big bear problem

By Simon Sturdee and Harumi Ozawa KARUIZAWA, Japan, Dec 21, 2023 (AFP) – Thousands of bears are being shot in Japan each year as they become more and more of a problem. Junpei Tanaka and his dog Rela, straining at her leash in the woods, have a kinder, smarter way. People moving from rural areas and Japan’s ageing society — plus climate change affecting bears’ food and hibernation time — are prompting ever more of […]

Elusive Attenborough echidna rediscovered in Indonesia

By Sara HUSSEIN BANGKOK, Nov 10, 2023 (AFP) – An elusive echidna feared extinct after disappearing for six decades has been rediscovered in a remote part of Indonesia, on an expedition that also found a new kind of tree-dwelling shrimp. The Zaglossus attenboroughi, a kind of long-beaked echidna named for famed British naturalist David Attenborough, had last been seen in 1961. Echidnas are nocturnal and shy, making them difficult to find at the best of […]

Circus lion escapes in Italian seaside town

ROME, Nov 11, 2023 (AFP) – A lion prowled the streets of an Italian seaside town for several hours Saturday after escaping from a local circus, before being sedated and captured. Alessandro Grando, mayor of Ladispoli, near Rome, had warned residents to stay at home while police and circus staff sought to catch the animal. Videos later published by Italian media, apparently taken by locals but not confirmed by AFP, showed the adult lion walking […]

Paw patrol: Philippine security guards adopt stray cats

MANILA, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – A cat wearing a black-and-yellow security vest strolls nonchalantly past security guards lined outside a Philippine office building waiting to receive instructions for their shift. Conan, a six-month-old stray, joined the security team of the Worldwide Corporate Center in the capital Manila several months ago. He is one of the lucky moggies unofficially adopted by security guards across the city, where thousands of cats live on the street. While […]

Brazil sends emergency aid to drought-hit Amazon state

    BRASÍLIA, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – Brazil announced Thursday it will send emergency aid to an Amazon state that is enduring severe drought, with low water levels killing many fish, a key source of food for the Indigenous people who live there. The state of Amazonas in northwest Brazil is the country’s largest by surface area, includes much of the Amazon rainforest and is home to some four million people, the vast majority […]