Adult male white rhinos can weigh up to 2,500kg (394 stone) and females up to 2,000kg (315 stone).
West Midland Safari Park said guests who drive their own vehicles through the enclosure do so at their own risk and are required to accept these terms and conditions at the time of booking.
International Conference on Veterinary Medicine and Animal Care
Nearly 17 million years ago, a relative of modern giraffes that roamed northern China sported a thick, stumpy neck and a thick skull — perfect for sparring with rival males in headbutting battles.
The newly-discovered giraffe relative, a now-extinct species named Discokeryx xiezhi, also had a bony, disk-like shield on the top of its skull, covered in a protective layer of keratin — the same type of tissue found in the horns of headbutters such as bulls and rams. The hard disk resembled a sort of squat helmet that sat atop the animal's head, scientists reported in a new analysis of several D. xiezhi fossils, published June 2 in the journal Science(opens in new tab).
D. xiezhi likely bashed their "helmets" together during fights over mates, just as modern male giraffes fight over females by violently thwacking their necks together, using a combat style known as "necking," the researchers concluded.
"[The researchers] have provided unequivocal evidence that the Discokeryx fossil is beautifully adapted to intense head clashes," said Robert Simmons, a honorary research associate at the University of Cape Town's FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, who was not involved in the study. This trait must be sexually selected "since head-to-head clashes are intimately involved in male-male combat," Simmons told Live Science in an email.
International Conference on Veterinary Medicine and Animal Care
Cats are commonly shown lapping milk from saucers. But can they safely drink milk?
The popular image of cats drinking milk may have emerged during the 19th century, when cats and dogs became popular subjects for artists. As the Industrial Revolution progressed and more people migrated to cities, the number of cat and dog owners grew, and artists were increasingly called on to paint charming works of pets. As such, French artist Alfred-Arthur Brunel de Neuville often drew cats drinking from bowls of milk, and his work proved very popular during his lifetime, according to Rehs Galleries(opens in new tab) in New York City.
However, giving milk to adult cats might actually do more harm than good to them, according to Britain's leading veterinary charity, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals(opens in new tab). Cats often lose their tolerance for lactose, the sugar found in milk, when they get older, just as most humans do.
International Conference on Veterinary Medicine and Animal Care
`Human activity has wiped out an average of 69% of the world's wildlife in just under 50 years, according to areportpublished by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Outlined in the organisation's biannual Living Planet Report, researchers showcased indexes of animal population decline across all continents. Their data revealed that the regions experiencing the highest rates of decline include Latin America, the Caribbean region - including the Amazon - and Africa.
As per the WWF and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Earth's wildlife population declined on average by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2018. Two years ago, this figure stood at 68% and four years ago, it was at 60%, The Guardian reported. Several scientists now believe that our planet is living through the sixth mass extinction - the largest loss of life on Earth since the time of dinosaurs.
Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF-UK, said: "This report tells us that the worst declines are in the Latin America region, home to the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon. Deforestation rates there are accelerating, stripping this unique ecosystem not just of trees but of the wildlife that depends on them and of the Amazon's ability to act as one of our greatest allies in the fight against climate change."
International Conference on Veterinary Medicine and Animal Care
The Supreme Court Wednesday directed the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) to submit data on dog bites in the last seven years across the country and the steps taken to check such incidents.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and J K Maheshwari directed the AWBI to file an affidavit mentioning the details and also indicate whether it would like the court to lay the guidelines.
It also clarified that its 2015order does not prohibit the authorities or individuals including registered societies from approaching high courts or jurisdictional courts.
"We do not think it is the intent of this court in the said order that all writ petitions or proceedings before HCs, civil courts and authorities should come to a standstill and no effective orders can be passed by HCs in cases pertaining to stray dogs," the bench said.
The top court had earlier said a balance has to be maintained between the safety of people and animal rights, and suggested those who feed stray dogs could be made responsible for vaccinating them and bearing the cost of treatment if somebody is attacked by the animal.
The top court has been hearing a batch of petitions on issues relating to orders passed by various civic bodies on the culling of stray dogs which have become a menace, especially in Kerala and Mumbai.
Some NGOs and individual petitioners have moved the top court against the decisions of some high courts, including the Bombay High Court and Kerala High Court, to allow municipal authorities to deal with the menace of stray dogs as per the rules.
Give legal rights to animals, trees and rivers, say experts
Granting legal rights and protections to non-human entities such as animals, trees and rivers is essential if countries are to tackle climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, experts have said.
The authors of a report titled Law in the Emerging Bio Age say legal frameworks have a key part to play in governing human interactions with the environment and biotechnology.
Ecuador and Bolivia have already enshrined rights for the natural world, while there is a campaign to make ecocide a prosecutable offence at the international criminal court. The report for the Law Society, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, explores how the relationship between humans and mother earth might be recalibrated in the future.
Dr Wendy Schultz, a futurist and report co-author, said: “There is a growing understanding that something very different has to be done if our children are going to have a planet to live on that is in any way pleasant, much less survivable, so this is an expanding trend. Is it happening as fast as any of us would want? Possibly not, which is why it’s important to get the word out.”
Her co-author, Dr Trish O’Flynn, an interdisciplinary researcher who was previously the national lead for civil contingencies at the Local Government Association, said legal frameworks should be “fit for a more than human future” and developments such as genetic modification or engineering. This means covering everything from labradors to lab-grown brain tissue, rivers to robots.
“We sometimes see ourselves as outside nature, that nature is something that we can manipulate,” said O’Flynn. “But actually we are of nature, we are in nature, we are just another species. We happen to be at the top of the evolutionary tree in some ways, if you look at it in that linear kind of way, but actually the global ecosystem is much more powerful than we are. And I think that’s beginning to come through in the way that we think about it.
“An example of a right might be evolutionary development, where a species and individual … is allowed to reach its full cognitive, emotional, social potential.”
Such a right could apply to sows in intensive pig farming, calves taken away from their mothers and even pets, said O’Flynn, adding: “I say that as a dog lover. We do constrain their behaviour to suit us.”
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Developments in biotechnology also pose questions about the ethics of bringing back species from extinction or eradicating existing ones. Scientists are exploring reintroducing woolly mammoths and there has been discussion of wiping out mosquitoes, which carry malaria and other diseases.
