Ed. Note: Another favorite this Friday about those furry members of our family—no, not your Grandpa Ed, but your pet. This post was selected as an Editor’s Selection on ResearchBlogging.org. It has been slightly modified from it’s original posting. I’ll never forget the day S brought home a live chicken. When we lived in Queens, [...]

That post about stray cat management sure set off a firestorm, both here and at Salon, where it was syndicated. It ended up being a story people either loved or hated, which didn’t entirely surprise me. As I said in the post, “The people in favor of euthanizing cats think that ecosystem health is more [...]

Asia’s turtles and tortoises are in an extinction crisis. Few species embody that more than the critically endangered golden coin turtle (Cuora trifasciata), which is so valued in the illegal pet trade and for its use in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that a single specimen can fetch $25,000 or more on the black market. The [...]

In 2008 biologists studying the eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus) made a gruesome discovery: three sick snakes suffering from disfiguring lesions on their heads. All three died within the next three weeks. A fourth snake, found in 2010, also died from the mysterious growths and ulcers. Necropsies uncovered the source of the lesions: a [...]

Like hundreds of thousands of other people, my first encounter with a slow loris occurred online when I watched the now-famous 57-second video of one of these adorable primates being tickled and throwing up its arms in apparent glee. That video has been viewed more than nine million times since it was posted in June [...]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) this week granted the Ozark hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi) protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) but made the unusual decision not to declare critical habitat for the rare, giant salamanders because, it said, doing so could open it to threats from those who would illegally collect the [...]

Coco the Hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), one of the last males of his species in Paraguay, has had a rough start. Since his birth nine years ago he has been captured from the wild by illegal parrot traders, rescued, placed into Paraguay’s Asunción Zoo, and then stolen from there—a crime that turned him into such [...]

Asian appetites are rapidly driving the world’s tortoises and freshwater turtles toward extinction, and some species might only be savable through costly and labor-intensive conservation efforts, according to both a new report and speakers at a workshop about conserving Asian turtles. “It’s going to take some intense management, both to protect wild populations and manage [...]

Or maybe I should have titled this post as “Colorado Cat Becomes Big Star in New York, Goes Home to Rural Life Anyway.” After all, she made it to NBC’s Today show this morning (video), and several media outlets picked up the Associated Press story about how she went missing at a time when most [...]

If I told you that a tennis ball could kill, would you roll your eyes or laugh in my face? What if I showed you this? Like a cork in a bottle, a fumbled tennis ball in an innocent game of fetch can lodge in a dog’s esophagus with the unfortunate consequence of asphyxiating your [...]

By Jason G. Goldman and Matt Soniak Humans have a complicated relationship with our non-human cousins. Some animals we invite into our homes, and treat as members of our families. Indeed, in November of this year singer Fiona Apple made headlines when she announced that she would cancel the South American segment of her tour [...]

I’m at the annual conference of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums this week in Phoenix. Since I’m too busy livetweeting conference sessions to write a post this week, here are a few photos of famous people with animals. Public Service Announcement: Please remember that wild animals are not suitable pets. No matter what Salvador [...]

If a human points his or her finger at something, a dog might infer that there’s hidden food, while the chimpanzee remains more or less clueless about the meaning behind that sort of non-verbal communication. As dogs have evolved in a social space occupied by human social partners, they’ve gained the unique ability not only [...]

Can dogs pretend? This is the question I asked yesterday, prompted by Sheril’s story: …this afternoon Happy did something unusual. She carried a toy frog over to her water bowl, and gently put it down as pictured. Given its orientation, I’m skeptical that her placement was an accident. The frog continues to sit like this [...]

Editor’s Note: While I’m on vacation, I’ve arranged a series of guest posts from other writers who routinely cover animal behavior and cognition. Today’s post, about my favorite domesticated foxes, comes from The Dog Zombie who blogs at The Dog Zombie. My own first-ever blog post on Scientific American blogs, last summer, was about these [...]

Editor’s Note: While I’m on vacation, I’ve arranged a series of guest posts from other writers who routinely cover animal behavior and cognition. Today’s post, about the benefits of having pets around, comes from Melanie Tennenbaum who blogs at PsySociety. Follow her on twitter: @melanietbaum. If there’s one thing that that pet owners regularly assume, [...]

Editor’s Note: While I’m on vacation, I’ve arranged a series of guest posts from other writers who routinely cover animal behavior and cognition. Today’s post, about the benefits of exposing children to animals, comes from Lauren Reid who blogs at Phylogenetic Tree Hugger. Follow her on twitter: @PygmyLoris. Animals are awesome. Okay, I am biased [...]

You can have a pet domesticated fox of your very own – from the Russian fox farm I’ve previously written about – for the low low price of just $5,950. Figure 1: Isn’t he cute? Click to embiggen. Check it out.

Zen recently wrote mentioned this study on his blog, so I thought it was time to dredge it out of the archives. Also, I’ve just returned from APS (see my daily recaps here here and here), and I am TIRED. Domestic animals and their wild counterparts can be different in big ways; there can be [...]