Young Gorillas seen dismantling poacher traps

"Very confident four-year-olds outsmart hunters and protect their clan."

Just days after a poacher's snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas worked together Tuesday to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home, according to conservationists on the scene.

"This is absolutely the first time that we've seen juveniles doing that ... I don't know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares," said Veronica Vecellio, gorilla program coordinator at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center, located in the reserve where the event took place.

Dog helps escort Olympic torch through London

Artificial Jellyfish made from Rat cells

Reverse-engineered life form could be used to test drugs

Bioengineers have made an artificial jellyfish using silicone and muscle cells from a rat’s heart. The synthetic creature, dubbed a medusoid, looks like a flower with eight petals. When placed in an electric field, it pulses and swims exactly like its living counterpart.

“Morphologically, we’ve built a jellyfish. Functionally, we’ve built a jellyfish. Genetically, this thing is a rat,” says Kit Parker, a biophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the work. The project is described today in Nature Biotechnology.

Parker’s lab works on creating artificial models of human heart tissues for regenerating organs and testing drugs, and the team built the medusoid as a way of understanding the “fundamental laws of muscular pumps”. It is an engineer’s approach to basic science: prove that you have identified the right principles by building something with them.

Dolphins made citizens of Japanese Island

Where dolphins are revered in Japan

On a small island 100 miles from Tokyo islanders, mostly fishermen, have declared resident dolphins to be citizens, fully protected while in the island's waters.

The fishermen of Toshima Island show us how some Japanese revere and protect wild dolphins. BlueVoice is supporting our long time Japanese ally, Elsa Nature Conservancy, to help the Toshima Islanders educate Japan about the wonders of wild dolphins.

The Toshima Dolphin Project will expand knowledge of this unique island and the relationship between the people of the island and its 16 resident dolphins. It will provide a vision that will inspire their fellow countrymen and bring to them an understanding of the importance of allowing dolphins to remain free and safe from hunters' blades. As we all know, Japan is a nation where up to 20,000 dolphins are killed yearly.

Now we are supporting a dolphin watching initiative at Toshima Island in the hope that contact with wild dolphins and press coverage of this unique development will cause the Japanese people to rally to the protection of dolphins elsewhere in Japan.

Here is a description of the Toshima Dolphin Project written by Sakae Hemmi of Elsa Nature Conservancy, long a collaborator with BlueVoice.

"In 1995 a dolphin came to Toshima waters and remained. In 1998 the dolphin, named Koko, gave birth. The baby was called Piko. The mother and baby were so revered that they were registered as citizens of the island. Around 2010 several dolphins from Mikura island moved to Toshima and several have given birth. As of February 2012, a pod of 16 dolphins swims in the waters of Toshima."

Unfortunately the pivotal man in the Toshima Dolphin Project, Mr. Moriyama, died in February. But others have picked up the banner. Right now funds are urgently needed to finish the project website, send a video team to the island to film the dolphins and fishermen, to make a DVD for release in Japan and to hold a symposium in Tokyo on dolphins in Japanese waters.

Sakae writes further: "I think it important to have many people learn and experience that wild dolphins are animals that we can make friends with and live together. Toshima is a very important place to raise the Japanese people's consciousness to protect wild dolphins."

Aurora Borealis- Dance of the Spirits

Ok, so this isn't animal related at all, but you have to admit this is still pretty freakin AWESOME

this is way more awesome than those flying toasters....

Footage of Common cranes flying over Venice from BBC's Earthflight series.

Crows just wanna have fun