Wolf Parks Jump on the Twilight: New Moon Bandwagon

Wolf at Longleat Captivated by Twilight New Moon

The wolves at Longleat Safari Park in England were impressed with the realism of Twilight: New Moon. At a special showing in the their park west of London, they paid attention to the wolf scenes and howled back, the Telegraph reports. They're just the latest tie-in wolf parks are making with the vampire movie.

Sure, the whole "World Wolf Premiere" thing is a ploy for the DVD release. “Whilst we're used to deafening screams for Robert Pattinson, it's a nice change to hear howls of approval for the rest of the cast, including the screen wolves themselves," one movie promoter said. 

But at least the wolves were entertained. Or enriched, as animal care people say. They circled the giant screen pulled by a semi, making sure it wasn't a predator about to attack. Then they started watching and sometimes howling. "They seem to be really keen on the wolf bits," Ian Turner, the park’s deputy head warden said.



The folks at Indiana's Wolf Park were way ahead of the Brits. In January they hosted a special night for Twilight fans, who learned the differences between real wolves and those hunks in the film.

As every hack journalist knows, you need three events to make a trend, so here you go. Turns out the animators for the movie got their accuracy on by hanging out at Wolf Mountain Sanctuary in California. "They all climbed into a 40ft pen with the wolves and spent the afternoon feeding, touching and walking around with the wolves, observing wolf behaviour first hand," Digital Media World reports. The wolves at this sanctuary outside San Beradino aren't wild of course; the sanctuary, founded in 1980, has 17 wolves rescued from private homes or the movie industry. The center allows some very close contact with wolves. If you want to see the wolves Twilight makers learned from and help out a sanctuary in financial distress--you can visit. It's $20 for an hour tour, $120 for an all-day visit. Now that would be the ultimate Twilight fan experience.


See if there's a wolf preserve near you

Best Dog Stamps. Ever.

In London, the Royal Mail just announced a series of special stamps showboating adorable rescue dogs and cats from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home done in loving photo portraits. We've had some spay neuter stamps in the US. You can still get some HSUS ones from Zazzle. But these Battersea stamps beat everything.

The London shelter is 150 years old, the oldest shelter in England. Like all shelters, it's been hit hard by the recession and just instituted a waiting list for animals to get in.

The postage is hardly political, but they do highlight that you can get a healthy, charismatic, gorgeous animal from the pound. And that's something coming just after the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed and its fallout rocked England's purebred community. Plus, the first day of issue had two fantastic paw prints (one cat, one dog) as a cancellation stamp, PostalHeritage points out. Maybe Battersea will get a boost from the stamps.

 Where to Go to See Dog Events Unrelated to Breeding

Buy the Stamps of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home 

Where to See Animals in Europe

Fareham, UK: Coconut-Eating Squirrel Capital of the World

2010 Coconut Squirrels

A British squirrel watcher has discovered a way to get her backyard visitors to put coconuts on their heads like they are astronauts on an adventure. Jane Roberts in Fareham, Hampshire (near Portsmouth) first gave the gray squirrels coconuts to distract them from the bird seed. She hangs to coconuts from a closesline--much the way people in the midwest dangle ears of hard feed corn for squirrels (and their own entertainment).

The 2008 Coconut Squirrel

"I make a large hole in the coconut so that they can get into the flesh. The first time I saw them feeding I nearly died laughing, they looked just like a pair of spacemen," she told Sky News."Even now I can't stop chuckling every time I see them."

Apparently all the squirrels in this little town like their coconuts. A couple years ago the Daily Mail profiled a squirrel that would lift a coconut over his head to eat it in the yard of Vicky Walker, in Portchester, Fareham. I've never known a squirrel to eat coconut before. Then again, I hate coconut, so I've never tried to inflict it on them. Maybe I'll see if my current patient, Mickey, who loves avocado, would like some.

 We have plenty of white squirrel capitals of the world. I'm adding Fareham to my map of places to see interesting squirrels. Fareham is now the Coconut-Eating Squirrel Capital of the World.

Find More Places to See Unusual Squirrels
Where are the Best Places to See Wildlife in Europe?

Starlings Murmur over Brighton

Starlings over the West Pier, Brighton,
courtesy of Howzey.

In the U.S. starlings are slaughtered by the millions, but in their native England they are enjoyed as one of the most mysterious spectacles.

Nature groups give tours of the starlings, but you can just show up yourself at dusk at the Brighton Pier, where 50,000 some starlings murmur--that is, swarm in a hypnotizingly coordinated dance in an effort to evade the hawks that are trying to eat them.

The starlings have always hung around Brighton, Sussex, but moved to the pier after a big storm knocked over their favorite trees in 1987. Their supporters think that's just as well: the setting is gorgeous; the birds are safe from people; and the city is safe from guano. "You could not really have them in a more ideal spot. It is a great spectacle to have 50,000 birds in a big town wheeling about," Steve Berry from English Nature told Regency Brighton. Starlings are legally protected in the UK; their numbers have fallen 66% since the 1970s, the RSPB reports.

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), clever mimics with shimmering, multi-colored feathers, are treated far differently in the U.S. The 200 million that live here are treated an invasive species and pest here, topping the biological services hit list. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, improbably still in the business of mass culls of animals, especially predators, kills 1,117,000 starlings a year.

A homesick Brit, Eugene Scheiffelin, introduced 100 starlings into Central Park in 1891, hoping to enjoy every bird here that was mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare, David Ian Withers writes. Mozart had a pet starling and some people still do, the fan site Starling Talk says. Just shows you can have fun even with a common bird.

Visit Brighton suggests Brighton Pier, the Brighton Marina or West Marina for a starling show.

Where to See Animals Around Europe

The Cute Seal Video NOAA Doesn't Want You to See

This is just the sort of video that the folks at NOAA, who enforce the Marine Mammal Protection Act, don't want you to see. Here's a woman snuggling with an elephant seal, who is clearly nuzzling back. She's off on the remote South Georgia Island (where Shackleton sought rescue), between Argentina and Antarctica.

These uninhabited island have become like little Galapagos, with animals that are now not so scared of people. (They probably were more wary when it was the base for seal-hunting and whaling operations). Wildlife officials always remind you that seals will bite.

The woman seems to follow the standard procedure for interacting with most wild animals: sit still and wait for the animal to come to you. The seal keeps sniffing her face and even climbs over her. (And, no, he didn't have designs on her; elephant seal mating is much more violent.)

One guide near Canterbury, England, Wildlife Sailing, even offers a tour to a sandbank where you can swim with seals. "No need to swim to them they swim to us!" they say. Who knows what seals would do with human visitors if hunting them stopped completely?

British Dog-Breeding Scandal Report: Meet Your Puppy's Parents

The latest chapter in England's purebred dog scandal is the Bateson report, which makes drastic but common sense recommendations on how dogs should be bought and sold. It recommends breeders stop inbreeding, breeding for extreme traits and breeding dogs with genetic defects. The aggressive BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed showed all of these, prompting a national scandal. The inquiry also has blame and advice that ordinary dog owners worldwide should follow: if you must buy a pedigree puppy, insist on seeing its mother.

The report and reforms, some already underway, are a direct result of the fantastic documentary. But there is plenty of responsibility for dog owners, too, who can't even be bothered to figure out which breed fits their situation and where it comes from. "[I]f everybody refused to buy a puppy until they had seen its mother and satisfied themselves that the conditions under which it was reared were safe, healthy and provided a life worth living for parent and puppy," writes Professor Sir Patrick Bateson, "if everybody took the sensible step of finding the breed that would best suit their family and their living conditions, then poor breeders would be out of business and far fewer dogs would require re-homing."

In addition to genetic defects, these places often pass on bad hygeine and socialization. He mentions one Irish "puppy farm," the Britishism for puppy mill, that produced 5,000 puppies a year. Who would want a dog born out of that misery?

Where to See Dog Events that Aren't Related to Breeding

Ask BBC to Run Its Expose on the Health Problems of Purebred Dogs Here

Here's a picture from the BBC Documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed showing the difference between a dachshund 100 years ago and today.

An intensely researched BBC documentary on the the health problems of purebred dogs aired in England in August and is causing a fury in dog circles here. The BBC spent two years researching Pedigree Dogs Exposed. The BBC interviewed geneticists and documented what many dog people long suspected: that breeders are mating dogs for cuteness and ignoring health, producing puppies that have health problems that show up only later.

One-third of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels may have a neurological disorder, they found. As a result of the program, the British Kennel club is reviewing all their breed standards and already revised standards for the Pekingese, the Daily Telegraph reports. They used to be bred for a flat face, but that caused breathing problems. Australia is looking at their standards, too. The RSPCA and other sponsors withdrew from Crufts.

The Blog Terrierman has had some great coverage, but most Americans haven't been able to see much--especially since YouTube took down clips.
I wonder how long American dogs and dog people will have to wait to see the documentary and benefit from the impact of the investigation.

I wrote to BBC America asking them to show us Pedigree Dogs Exposed.


Where to See Animals in Europe
Where to See Dog Events Unrelated to Breeding