The Japanese Macaque

This is a video of the Japanese macaque taken from the BBC’s new "Life" documentary series.

Video:  The Japanese Macaque

Video: Monkeys swimming in Japanese Hot Springs

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Gotta Love Those Monkeys!!

 

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Tiny baby Elke of Taronga Zoo

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Baby gorilla arrives at Pittsburgh zoo – Updated… It’s a Boy

PITTSBURGH —

The Pittsburgh Zoo has a new baby gorilla in its midst.

Zoo officials say 15-year-old Moka gave birth last week after a year-and-a-half courtship with the zoo’s lead gorilla, 20-year-old Mrithi.

Zookeepers don’t yet know the baby’s gender, but say it appears to weigh between three and five pounds.

The new baby was born sometime after workers left the evening of Feb. 8. By the next morning the band of gorillas had grown from six to seven.

The baby is the first gorilla born at the zoo since 2001. Its father was the first born at the Pittsburgh Zoo, while Moka arrived from Miami in 2007.

Zoo officials say the other gorillas are keeping a respectful distance.

Visitors can see the new arrival at the zoo’s Tropical Forest exhibit.

The Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium celebrates the birth of its first baby gorilla since 2001. The baby boy’s father, Mrithi, was the first gorilla born at the zoo.

–> Video:  Pittsburgh Zoo Welcomes Baby Gorilla  <–

56 exotic animals escaped from farm near Zanesville; 49 killed by authorities; owner found dead

Animal farm owner released the animals, then killed himself… All he had to do was call the authorities and they would have come to get these animals and taken them to the Columbus Zoo

ZANESVILLE, Ohio —Authorities say that in all, 56 exotic animals escaped from a farm in Muskingum County last night, and one could still be missing this afternoon.

Of those animals, 49 were killed. Six animals — a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys — were captured alive and taken to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and a monkey and a grey wolf were at large. The animals that were killed included 18 tigers, nine male lions, eight female lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears, one baboon and two wolves, Sheriff Matt Lutz said. The escaped monkey poses a danger because it is infected with herpes, the sheriff said.

The sheriff said it is possible that the missing monkey was eaten by a large cat.

The owner of the farm, Terry Thompson, was found dead last night on his property. Authorities say Thompson opened the cage doors and cut the wires on the cages, then killed himself. He died from a gunshot wound. Lutz said Thompson’s body was "bothered" by the animals.

Lutz had previously said a grizzly bear, a wolf and a mountain lion were missing. Today, authorities confirmed they killed the bear on the property last night. The wolf was later found dead; it had been shot last night. An officer wounded the mountain lion, which staggered into a neighbor’s property and died.

Thompson’s wife has returned to the farm and is talking to authorities. Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, said the wife begged authorities not to take her "babies," but he convinced her to let the animals go and work it out later.

"I held her, I felt her shock. Her animals are gone. Her family is gone. Everything in her life is gone," Hanna said.

The animals that were killed by authorities likely will be buried on Thompson’s property.

Lutz defended the shooting of the escaped animals. He said when deputies arrived at the house, there were large animals trying to escape. The deputies had to shoot them with their sidearms.

"Public safety was my No. 1 concern," Lutz said. "I gave the order that if the animals looked like they were going to get out, they were going down."
Hanna called this morning for the state to enact regulations to crack down on the possession, breeding and selling of exotic animals.
"I went to school at Muskingum (College)," he said. "It’s like Noah’s ark wrecked."

Hanna said he has talked to the governor’s office about enacting stricter exotic animal laws.

"We need to set an example in the state of Ohio," he said. "There was a loss of life here, and we thank God it was not human life. It was animal life, and that’s my life."

Hanna also defended the deputies shooting the animals.

The deputies were assisted by the State Highway Patrol, authorities from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and the Wilds, the state Division of Wildlife, the county Emergency Management Agency and township fire departments.

A plan to bring in a patrol helicopter with a thermal-imaging camera to find animals last night was scuttled last night by stormy weather.

Zanesville, West Muskingum and Maysville school districts, as well as Muskingum County Starlight School, all canceled classes for Wednesday to keep children inside. Lutz also recommends that residents remain inside today and call 911 if any wild animal is seen.Lutz said the incident began about 5:30 p.m., when the sheriff’s office began receiving calls that wild animals were running loose in the area of Kopchak Road, which is in Falls Township and just west of Zanesville.

Lutz said that four deputies with assault rifles in a pickup truck immediately went to 270 Kopchak Rd., where a 46-acre “wild-animal-rescue farm” owned by Thompson borders I-70.

There, Lutz said, they found Thompson dead outside his house and “every single animal-cage door open.”Lutz said the deputies saw a number of animals standing outside their cages, still on the property, while others had escaped a fence that surrounds Thompson’s property. Deputies immediately began shooting animals, he said.

Lutz said the fence on Thompson’s property isn’t designed to keep in wild animals.

Lutz said a man who is a caretaker on the animal preserve told deputies that 48 animals lived in cages outside the house on the property. More animals — mostly monkeys, baboons and apes — lived inside Thompson’s house, the man said.

Those inside the house were still in the cages, Lutz said.

Late last night, there was a report of a wolf and a bear still roaming at least 4 miles from the farm property. One animal was struck by a car and later killed.

The Licking County Sheriff’s Office also received at least four phone calls from residents reporting exotic-animal sightings. SWAT officers with night-vision equipment were searching for animals in Licking County early this morning.

Lutz said Muskingum County deputies had fatally shot and killed at least 25 animals when they first drove to the property. A wolf and bear also reportedly were killed along I-70.

Video:  Muskingum Alumni Jack Hanna Hunt Exotic Animals on the Loose in Zanesville, Ohio 10.19.11

He said that officials from the Columbus Zoo and The Wilds came in shortly after the discovery with tranquilizer guns, hoping to capture some animals alive.

Thompson, 62, was released from federal prison just three weeks ago, after serving a one-year term.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had raided Thompson’s Kopchak Road property in June 2008, seizing more than 100 guns. In April 2010, Thompson pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus to two federal charges: possession of a machine gun and possession of short firearms without serial numbers.

Under terms of his release, Thompson was confined to his home for a year.

Thompson also was convicted in Muskingum County Municipal Court in 2005 of cruelty to animals, having an animal at large and two counts of rendering animal waste without a license. The charges stemmed from allegations that three cows and a bison had died on another property he owned, on Boggs Road in Perry Township, east of Zanesville.

Neighbors there had lodged numerous complaints about him letting his animals wander. Thompson was put on house arrest for six months and paid a $2,870 fine in that case. He also was ordered to move his animals to his Kopchak Road land.

Ohio has no rules regulating the sale and ownership of exotic animals.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland had attempted to enforce such a law, but Gov. John Kasich allowed an executive order to expire.

“There really needs to be some legislation changed on how these things are going on in the state of Ohio,” Lutz said.

Kate Riley, 20, who lives in western Muskingum County, said that Thompson has had lions, tigers and a bear get loose in the past.

Riley’s family owns a feed cattle farm nearby and said that Thompson would come and take their dead cows to feed his lions.

“He’d have claw marks all over him,” she said.

Riley said she understands that Thompson’s wife, Marian, recently left her husband and moved out.

Patti Peters, a spokeswoman for the Columbus Zoo, said staff members were at a dinner last night for the International Rhino Foundation when they heard about the incident. Five staff members from the zoo and the Wilds immediately went to help, she said.

Larry Hostetler, executive director of the Animal Shelter Society of Muskingum County, said the sheriff’s office and state officials had visited the Kopchak Road property in 2008 on a complaint that animals weren’t being taken care of there. The inspection, however, found acceptable treatment, Hostetler said.

Adelbert G. Kempf Jr, a retired veterinarian in Heath, said he inspected Thompson’s horses that day. He said that Thompson told him that he was running a rescue operation for horses.

“ He was far from that,” Hostetler said. “He was more of an animal collector.”

At one point, Thompson took three lion cubs to New York City for a photo shoot with model Heidi Klum. On another occasion, he brought animals to a 2007 community pet fair in Muskingum County. Thompson and his wife brought bear cubs, lions cubs and a baby ape, Hostetler said.

He said the wild animals disrupted the fair because they weren’t friendly.

“We had to change the advertisement in following years to say bring your domestic pets,” Hostetler said. “He was a piece of work.”

By  Josh Jarman ,  Quan Truong ,  Jim Woods and  Brenda Jackson Dispatch staff reporter Kathy Lynn Gray also contributed to this story.  jjarman@dispatch.com, jwoods@dispatch.com, jackson@dispatch.com

h/t to the Columbus Dispatch

On the Pirates Set…

« Back to On The Set

Did you know?

• Johnny Depp works well with pigs.
• Geoffrey Rush has a real way with monkeys.
• You can’t take a poisonous snake to Honolulu.

Beth Langhorst knows all this, because she has served as Senior Certified Animal Safety Representative on the set of all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies — including the latest, “On Stranger Tides.” Since the Pirates film series began in 2003, Langhorst has monitored hundreds of animals on its sets. The 14-year Animal Safety Rep veteran can say, with certainty, that “No Animals Were Harmed”^® on the sets of these Walt Disney films.

“Everything that looks dangerous in the film was done as safely as possible,” Langhorst said.

Weather matters
The filming of “On Stranger Tides” lasted about six months and took the crew to London, Hawaii and Puerto Rico to capture Captain Jack Sparrow’s (Johnny Depp) adventures. The on-set weather involved everything from cold, boggy gloom to tropical jungle swelter. To help ensure the comfort of the horses used on set — about 70 in total — the producers used three different groups of horses, each native to the climate of the filming locale.

Aloha CGI
Hawaii prohibits venomous reptiles on its islands, and those in its zoos are not allowed to leave — plus, Johnny Depp would probably rather not hold a poisonous snake. So, the producers used computer-generated imagery for all the frog and snake scenes in the movie.

Some Pig
One of Langhorst’s favorite animals to work with on the set was the pig, who started out a little wild but soon got used to working for food rewards and belly scratches.

“He was a great little pig,” she said. “By week four, we had turned him into a star.”

Fifth movie?
Sorry, we can’t tell you — but if there is another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Langhorst will be there on the set protecting animals.

Source: American Humane Film and TV

Man arrested at Mexico City airport with 18 tiny endangered monkeys stuffed inside girdle

Published July 19, 2010 | Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A man with a mysterious bulge under his T-shirt was stopped, searched and detained at Mexico City’s international airport after authorities found 18 tiny endangered monkeys in a girdle he was wearing.

The Public Safety Department said in a statement Monday that 38-year-old Roberto Cabrera arrived on a commercial flight Friday from Lima, Peru, when authorities noticed the bulge and conducted a body search.

The department says Cabrera was carrying the 6-inch (15-centimeter) titi monkeys in pouches attached to the girdle. Two of the monkeys were dead.

Cabrera was arrested on charges of trafficking an endangered species.

Cabrera told authorities he was carrying the monkeys in a suitcase but decided to put them in his girdle “so the X-rays wouldn’t hurt them.”

Sadly this kind of smuggling has gone on for ever.  People have smuggled in endangered reptiles and birds for years… often killing half of them in the process.

Posted:  Just One More Pet

Pet Air Launches Commercial Pet Service

Pet Air, an all pet in cabin airline,  launched service from Los Angeles today.  They will ship pets and animal types from A to Z, to and from 150 airports, at this point.

They scheduled New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles as the first cities, and have a “treat” for your pet when it comes to prices, for the introductory cost of  $149 to all destinations.

At Pet Airways, it costs $149+ to fly your pet in the main cabin with a trained and loving Pet Attendant to care for your loved one. No cargo ! Only First Class for your pet! Do you have cat scratch fever and want to travel this summer? Visit the website: www.petairways.com/content/reservations

This is a great alternative to flying your pet in cargo!!!!

http://petairways.com/content/why-fly-pet-airways

33 Years Experience Shipping By Air Service From Over 150 Airports Computerized Airline Planning Fast Friendly Service Competitive Rates Year Round Shipping Red Eye Flights Available To Many Cities Pickup And Delivery Service Available Corporate Relocation Services Toll Free Reservation Line Online Reservations Preferred Customer Discounts Pet Air has been shipping animals for over twenty-eight years. We provide services to breeders, hobbyist, zoos, rescue organizations, individuals relocating or vacationing, and many other groups. We offer several types of services; our most popular are listed below. Posted: Just One More Pet

Government Money Used To Build Monkeyless Exhibit Instead of Saving Rescued Abandoned and Homeless Animals and Stopping the Euthanization of Healthy Animals

Would you believe a story about the Los Angeles Zoo spending millions (about $7 million) in taxpayer money on a Chinese Golden Monkey exhibit — only to have the Chinese decide they don’t want to send the monkeys? Wait, what happened to the firefighters and the teachers? California’s government tells us they have no money for them, yet they are spending money on Chinese Golden Monkeys? (STORY) No wonder 90% of Americans, according to the L.A. Times, are concerned with government spending.

LA Zoo Searches for New Simians After Monkey Snub

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Zoo may have the nation’s only monkey lair approved by a feng shui expert. There’s only one problem: No monkeys.

The city spent $7.4 million building the China-themed primate enclosure — complete with Canary Island palm trees, artificial trees with extra springy limbs, and a viewing structure with Chinese-style tilework — after China promised to lend the zoo a trio of rare golden snub-nosed monkeys.

But now the Chinese government has taken the monkeys off the table, leaving zoo officials searching for suitable stand-in simians to take the place of the golden monkeys, known for their blue-faces and blond-hair.

“Within 60 days, some lucky monkey will have a home there,” City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the zoo, said Thursday.

Zoo spokesman Jason Jacobs said negotiations with Chinese officials broke down several weeks ago, but he did not know why.

The Chinese official that had signed the agreement granting Los Angeles the monkeys has since left his position, he said.

The Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles did not answer a call seeking comment and an e-mail was returned as undeliverable. The Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association, which was to oversee the animal loan, did not answer a call before business hours in Beijing.

Chinese officials had offered a 10-year-lease for the monkeys to former Mayor James Hahn during a visit to China in 2002.

Hahn had originally sought to lease pandas for the zoo, but Chinese officials refused, saying four zoos in the U.S. already have pandas, said David Towne, president of the Giant Panda Conservation Foundation, which helped broker the failed monkey loan.

“They use the pandas as somewhat of a diplomatic and political tool as a reward for supporting Chinese policies,” he said.

The city agreed to pay the Chinese government $100,000 a year for the monkeys that were offered instead of pandas. Officials voted in 2006 to build the enclosure designed to look like a rural Chinese village. The enclosure was finished in 2008.

A feng shui expert hired for $4,500 tweaked the final design with a water fountain and other features meant to promote the monkeys’ health and happiness.

Zoo officials are now consulting with their colleagues at other zoos to obtain native Chinese monkey species that will fit in with the surroundings.

“Of course we’re disappointed we didn’t get the golden monkeys, but the end result is we have a gorgeous new habitat, which is fully capable of housing any other variety of Asian primate,” Jacobs said.

By JACOB ADELMAN – L.A. Times -  Jun 11, 2009 – The Associated Press

Source:  GlennBeck.com

And what makes this story even more unbelievable and crazy is that not only is California virtually bankrupt and both firefighters and school teacher’s jobs are in peril, but how about instead of spending $7 million on Chinese Monkeys visiting L.A. on loan, that we look after thousands upon thousands of animals, healthy American pets, that are being abandoned and taken to California shelters statewide in record numbers because of the foreclosure situation and after ‘we over-bred’ them, both manmade situations, causing these animals to be euthanized in record numbers.

Just last week the ASPCA sent out an alert to stop Governor Schwartzennegger from cutting Shelter Funding: California: Protest Governor’s Plan to Cut Shelter Funding! .  His plan would allow shelters to euthanize healthy pets that are not picked up after 3-days or less rather than allow 60-days to find them homes; which in today’s environment, isn’t enough.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s proposal would suspend the state mandate and cut the minimum holding period to three days or less.

Due to the dramatic increase in home foreclosures, more and more animals are ending up in shelters—and if this proposal passes, shelters will be forced to euthanize scores of healthy, adoptable pets who might have otherwise found happy endings in new homes. These animals have already had their lives turned upside down. They deserve the opportunity to get a second chance and to live out their natural life span(s).

What You Can Do

Please take a few minutes today to call your California state senator and assemblymember to ask them to oppose the governor’s proposal to suspend the animal adoption mandate.

Visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center to find your legislators’ phone numbers and let us know you called.

If we insist on going along with this insanity of bailouts, then why can’t some of this TARP money that is just ‘sitting somewhere’ or is being used to study swine odor or why men don’t like wearing condoms be used to rescue living animals, stop the euthanization of all healthy animals, and cut adoption fees at shelters to help families adopt an animal or an additional pet.  Temporarily housing homeless and abandoned animals and then coordinating the various facets of matching homeless animals with potential families is a ‘shovel ready project’ that would save and create jobs in California and most other states while saving lives.

Perhaps the LA Zoo would like to offer up the the empty Chinese Golden Monkey Exhibit Facility  and funds for that program for the over-flowing LA, OC and Inland Empire shelters until some TARP money could be provided for a new facility, a central coordination program, food and supplies for existing shelters and rescue programs and and/or to update and enlarge existing facilities??   They could even set up an adoption center at the Zoo!?!

Thank you, California, for speaking up for your state’s neediest animals.  First priorities should always be for programs that affect live creatures directly… people and animals instead of many of the crazy things on the approved “bailout” project list.

-Ask Marion/Just One More Pet

Related Posts:

• California: Protest Governor’s Plan to Cut Shelter Funding!
• Stop California SB 250 – Save Our Dogs and Our Rights
• Doomed Dogs Get On The Rescue Wagon to Other Shelters
• Where there is a will…
• Help Pass California AB 233 – Pet Adoption Tax Credit
• Economic Forecast: One Million Pets May Lose Homes in the U.S.
• Just How Bad Is The Economy??
• GETTING TO ZERO
• 285 Dogs Are Out and Never Looking Back
• November Is Adopt-A-Senior-Pet Month
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• Adopting A Senior Pet Has Many Advantage For Families and Seniors
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Posted:  Just One More Pet

Animals just want to have fun, survey finds…

From tickling to playing catch, animals do some things simply for enjoyment

Connie Pugh / Farm Sanctuary

A cow takes time to smell the flowers at the Farm Sanctuary, an organization that rescues abused/neglected farmed animals. A new survey suggests that animals experience happiness for happiness’ sake. 

From tickling to playing catch, animals engage in certain behaviors just for fun, even enjoying sensations that are unknown to humans, concludes an extensive new survey on pleasure in the animal kingdom.  

The findings, published in the latest Applied Animal Behavior Science, hold moral significance, argues author Jonathan Balcombe. He believes scientists, conservationists and other animal rights activists should not overlook animal joy. 

“The capacity for pleasure means that an animal’s life has intrinsic value, that is, value to the individual independent of his or her value to anyone else, including humans,” Balcombe, a senior research scientist for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, explained to Discovery News. 

He determined animals experience happiness for happiness’ sake related to play, food, touch and sex. Observations of herring gulls in Virginia, for example, found these birds play “drop-catch,” tossing clams and other small, hard objects as though they were baseballs, just for pure enjoyment. 

In terms of food, green iguanas go to great lengths to find fresh, leafy lettuce, even when supplied with ample amounts of more nutritious reptile chow. Studies on other animals indicate some foods, independent of their nutrition levels, cause animals to release pleasure-producing opioids in their bodies. Language-trained apes and parrots have even told their owners they loved or hated certain edibles. 

Pleasure itself can be the end-all reward, as “regardless of the evolutionary benefits of a behavior,” he said, “animals often do things because they are rewarding.”  

“I doubt that a monkey thinks, ‘If I eat this fig it will sustain me,’ but rather, ‘Ooh, yummy, a delicious fig!’” added Balcombe, whose book “Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasures” is scheduled for release next year.  

Regarding touch, a human might go to a spa for a mud bath and massage, but nature creates its own “spas” for hippopotamuses (hippopotami… for the record) at freshwater springs in Kenya. There, wallowing hippos gather, moving in and out of “cleaning stations” where multiple fish species congregate to nibble hippo parasites, loose skin, fungal growths and more.  

The hippos “deliberately splay their toes, spread their legs and hold their mouths open,” often becoming “so relaxed during these spa treatments that they would sometimes fall asleep,” Balcombe recounted.  

Sex isn’t just for procreation, the paper further suggests.  

“Oral sex that appears purely for pleasure has been documented in goats, hyenas, various primates, manatees, bats and sheep,” said Balcombe, who added that homosexuality is practiced within at least 300 species. Masturbation, even among certain birds, has also been noted.  

Animals also may experience pleasures that go beyond human senses. Electric fish seem to enjoy giving each other stimulating charges, for example, while dolphins use “low-pitched buzzing clicks” near their genital areas, which “appears to be a way of giving pleasure to another.”  

Martin Stephens, vice president of Animal Research Issues at The Humane Society of the United States, told Discovery News that discussions of animal pleasure are often left out of science, with the emphasis instead going to negative experiences, like pain and stress. The two extremes of the feeling spectrum shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, however.

By Jennifer Viegas – Discovery/MSNBC – Pets

Posted:  Just One More Pet

Cloner’s Ark: Ten Notable Cloned Animals

 

Researchers in Dubai made news this week by announcing the arrival of the world’s first cloned camel, a singular achievement in a region where top racing camels are prized.

Iran followed two days later with the birth of the country’s first cloned goat, though many other cloned goats have been born elsewhere.

Most cloned mammals now lead regular lives, but as recently as 10 years ago they often died young of lung malformations, a problem that appears to have been largely overcome. Healthy cloned dogs and cats are the most recent significant achievements.

Many researchers are getting closer and closer to human cloning by trying to clone monkeys.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, all attempts at cloning monkeys from adult donor cells have failed, with one researcher deeming the resulting embryos “a gallery of horrors.” (Splitting newly formed regular monkey embryos does work, but that can be seen as just inducing natural twins.)

The following is a list of significant animal species cloned from adult cells, in chronological order — plus one that’s even more remarkable.

Frog: The first amphibians cloned from adult cells were made in 1962 by John Gurdon, a British biologist at Cambridge University. His experiments showed that cloning adults was theoretically possible (clones made from embryonic cells had been created a decade earlier).

But his tadpoles didn’t survive to full adulthood, and it wasn’t until years later that he was able to get cloned frogs that lived full lives.

Carp: Way back in 1963, a Chinese researcher named Tong Dizhou apparently created the world’s first cloned fish when he transferred the genetic material from an adult male Asian carp into a carp egg, which developed and was born normally, and even sired children.

But since his work took place behind the “Bamboo Curtain” at the height of the Cold War, Tong’s achievements went unheralded in the West. He died in 1979.

Sheep: The famous Dolly was born on July 5, 1996, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the first known mammal of any species to be cloned from an adult donor. She was the only one of 277 cloned embryos to survive.

She quickly became a media sensation, yet went on to live a short but quiet life, bearing six lambs naturally. Cloned cattle, genetically similar to sheep, followed within the next year.

In February 2003, suffering from a virus-borne form of lung cancer common among sheep, Dolly was put to sleep. Some experts wondered whether she was already “old” at birth, due to her genes coming from an adult animal, but her creators disputed that.

Goat: The world’s first cloned goat was born on June 16, 2000, the result of work by scientists at Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology in Xi’an, China. Unfortunately, the kid, nicknamed “Yuanyuan,” died after a day and a half from lung defects.

On June 22, 2000, another cloned goat was born in the same facility. Named “Yangyang,” she lived at least six years and had kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.

Housecat: CC, or Copy Cat, the world’s first cloned domestic cat, was born Dec. 22, 2001 on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Though she was the clone of a calico, her surrogate mother was a tabby, and CC’s coloring was a mixture of the two.

She currently lives in the household of one the scientists who worked to create her and has had naturally conceived kittens of her own.

White-tailed deer: The same Texas A&M team responsible for CC the cloned cat also created the world’s first cloned deer, which was born on May 23, 2003. Dubbed “Dewey,” he was cloned from a dead buck. Three years later, he became the father of female triplets, who were conceived the old-fashioned way.

Horse: Five days after Dewey, the world’s first cloned horse was born in Italy. A female named “Prometea” — presumably after Prometheus, the god who gave man fire in Greek mythology — news reports from the time indicate she was healthy.

Dog: Snuppy, an Afghan hound born April 24, 2005, was the world’s first cloned dog. He was created by a team led by Korean genetics researcher Hwang Woo-suk, who also claimed to have cloned human stem cells, later found to be untrue; Snuppy was the sole part of Hwang’s work that was untainted.

Snuppy has since fathered 10 puppies through artificial insemination of two cloned female dogs.

Pyrenean ibex: The world’s first extinct mammal to be “resurrected” was a subspecies of the more widespread Spanish ibex, or mountain goat. The last known Pyrenean ibex was found dead in early 2000, but tissue samples that had been taken when it was alive led to a joint Spanish-French cloning program.

After hundreds of failed attempts, a live Pyrenean ibex was born in January 2009, for the first time in more than a decade. The surrogate mother was a domestic goat. But the achievement was short-lived; the kid died 9 minutes after birth due to malformed lungs.

Camel: Injaz, the world’s first cloned camel, was born April 8, 2009 in Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. Her name means “achievement” in Arabic, and she likely won’t be the last cloned camel, as camel racing is very popular in the Gulf states and certain animals are prized.

However, Injaz won’t ever get to know her older “twin” — the donor animal was slaughtered for its meat in 2005.

And last but far from least:

Fatherless mouse: Japanese researchers went beyond cloning in 2004 to create the world’s first fatherless mammal.

The mouse, nicknamed Kaguya, was born in 2004 and was a “parthenote” — she literally had two mommies. Genetic material from two mouse eggs was modified and combined so that one “fertilized” the other.

Kaguya has almost certainly died of old age since, but bore at least one litter of naturally conceived pups.

Source:  Fox News

Posted:  Just One More Pet

Chimp Owners Struggle To Say Goodbye

Primate Sanctuaries Fill Up As Caretakers Rethink Decision To Keep Wild Animals At Home

“Jody” is a chimpanzee who was used for breeding and biomedical research at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest in Cle Elum, Wash.  (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP)  Russ Cochran fondly recalls the fun he had with his chimpanzee when the animal was younger, taking him for rides in the car and to his cabin on the river. Boaters would stop to see Sammy, who would jump in canoes and help himself to food and drinks from the cooler. 

“That would be the price of admission for him,” Cochran says. “He would drink beer if you let him. He liked beer.” 

Now Sammy is a powerful 19-year-old with strength many times that of a human. He recently got into a vicious fight with Cochran’s younger chimp, Buckwheat. That fight and news accounts of a savage chimpanzee attack in Connecticut that nearly killed a woman this year convinced Cochran that he didn’t want to have two male chimps – the new pet, Buckwheat, had to go. 

But finding a new home for Buckwheat and other unwanted chimps isn’t easy. Animal experts say dozens of chimp owners in the U.S. are actively trying to find new homes for their chimps, who are more dangerous than adorable when they reach maturity. 

The nation’s sanctuaries are full with more than 600 chimpanzees, according to April Truitt, who runs the Primate Rescue Center in Kentucky. 

“There needs to be a place for these animals,” said Cochran, who lives in West Plains, Mo. “I don’t think people should have chimps as pets. I say that having had three of them.” 

Some sanctuaries say they have received more calls since a 14-year-old chimp named Travis suddenly attacked Stamford, Conn., resident Charla Nash. She lost her eyesight, hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the attack and is now at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic in critical but stable condition. Travis, who starred in commercials when he was young, was kept as a pet and weighed 200 pounds when he attacked Nash on Feb. 16. He was shot and killed by police. 

There are about 235 known, privately owned chimps in the United States, according to Truitt, who did a census in 2003 and has continued to closely monitor the number. Owners of about 70 chimps would give them up if they could find a good home for them, Truitt said. She says she has gotten more calls from owners looking to give up their chimps since the Connecticut attack. 

Seven sanctuaries issued a statement last month saying they need more funding so they can offer a safe place to private owners who want to give up their chimps. They also called for states to ban the private ownership of chimpanzees and for the entertainment industry to stop portraying them as “cute hairy little people.” 

“We cannot take in these individuals without a significant contribution to their lifetime care, so tragedies like the one in Connecticut will likely keep happening,” the sanctuaries said. “In substandard facilities, they pose a significant public safety danger.” 

One owner who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared her neighbors’ reactions said she has been trying for years to find a facility for her two chimps. 

“Travis was chimp 9/11,” she said. “We have no life. We basically take care of them 24/7.” 

The Connecticut attack was the latest in a series of incidents in recent years involving chimps escaping and biting people. In 2005, two chimps in California nearly killed a man, chewing off his nose, testicles and foot and biting off chunks of his buttocks and legs before they were shot to death.

This spring in Missouri, authorities responded to a call to help capture an angry chimp running loose on a state highway. When officers arrived, the chimp opened the patrol car door and grabbed the leg of a deputy, who fatally shot it, police said. 

Chimps can live 60 years and cost about $15,000 per year to care for, according to sanctuaries. Zoos are normally not able to accept hand-reared chimps because of difficulty integrating them. 

Experts blame a handful of breeders and the entertainment industry for contributing to the problem. 

Travis starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola when he was younger. At his Connecticut home, he watched television, ate at the table, drank wine from a stemmed glass, brushed his teeth and was toilet trained, according to a police report filed when he escaped in 2003.

Legislation has been proposed in Congress to ban the transport of monkeys and apes across state lines for the purpose of selling them as pets. The importation of primates for the pet trade has been outlawed since 1975, but bill sponsor Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has said 30 states allow the keeping of the animals as pets and it is easy to purchase a primate from exotic animal dealers or over the Internet. 

“When you’re holding a 2-month-old baby chimp in your arms and feeding him out of a bottle, it’s a very special thing,” Cochran says. “You think at the time it will be all worth it.” 

Cochran, who spent about $25,000 for cages in his home, said one facility in Florida wanted $200,000 to care for his chimp. Cochran wound up finding a place in Texas that took Buckwheat for $10,000. 

The first six or seven years were wonderful, Cochran says. 

“Then puberty starts,” he says. “When the hormones start to fly, it makes them unpredictable.” 

Sammy bit off the tip of Cochran’s little finger when the animal was 9, Cochran said. 

Cochran says he no longer thinks it was worth it to own the chimps. 

“On a retirement income, it’s an expensive hobby” says Cochran.