Pet Scoop: Baby Kangaroo Cuddles With Surrogate, Dog Survives Eating Toxic Gum
Published on February 22, 2017
Feb. 22, 2017: We’ve scoured the Web to find the best and most compelling animal stories, videos and photos. And it’s all right here.
Keepers Save Kangaroo Joey
A baby kangaroo who was rejected by her mom and found on a cold floor is getting lots of help from her keepers-turned-surrogates at the Bramble Park Zoo in South Dakota. Keeper Olivia Reimers said the staff tried to reunite the joey, Olive, with her mom, without any luck. “She was too worked up and the joey was chilly,” Reimers said. Veterinarians helped get Olive fluids and warmed her up, and now she spends her days being bottle fed and riding in a pouch that her keepers wear. As her carrier bounces up and down with her surrogates’ movements, it helps Olive develop her muscles. She met the public in a debut over the weekend, and her keepers say she’ll be introduced to her kangaroo family at the zoo starting next month. — Watch it at South Dakota’s KSFY
Florida Survey Counts Record Number of Manatees
For the third year in a row, an aerial survey has found more than 6,000 manatees in the waters off Florida. The new preliminary total was 6,620 manatees, up from 6,250 in early 2016 and 6,063 in 2015. There were nearly equal numbers on the east and west coasts of the state. The population count is way up from 1991, when only 1,267 manatees were counted. “The relatively high counts we have seen for the past three years underscore the importance of warm water habitat to manatees in Florida,” said Gil McRae, head of the state’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. — Read it at CNN
Elephant Population Devastated in Key Sanctuary
A new study lead by Duke University finds an 80 percent drop in the population of forest elephants in Gabon’s Minkébé National Park due to illegal poaching for their ivory tusks. The research suggests more than 25,000 elephants were killed in the park between 2004 and 2014. Their findings indicate the decline was largely driven by poaching by hunters from neighboring nations in Central Africa, mainly Cameroon to the north. “A 78 to 81 percent loss in a single decade from one of the largest, most remote protected areas in Central Africa is a startling warning that no place is safe from poaching,” said lead author John Poulsen. The findings were published in the journal Current Biology. — Read it at Phys.org
Dog Eats 52 Pieces of Toxic Gum
A German Shorthaired Pointer named Ryker survived eating a package of 52 pieces of gum containing the natural sugar substitute xylitol, which can be fatal for dogs. After eating the gum on Jan. 22, Ryker was having trouble standing and walking, so his owner rushed him to 24 HR Animal Care Hospital in Regina, Canada, where he started having seizures. “Even a single piece of gum in a small dog is potentially a toxic dose,” said Dr. Paige Wark. “Probably for [Ryker], even five pieces could’ve potentially been toxic, so he was ten times the toxic level and he presented seizuring to the clinic already and that had been less than an hour after ingestion.” Thankfully, 3-year-old Ryker was treated in time and has made a full recovery. His owner asked the clinic to share his story on Facebook to help educate more owners on the dangers of xylitol. — Read it at Canada’s CBC News
Scottish Beer Company Offers “Pawternity” Leave
Anyone who’s brought home a new puppy knows it’s hard to get them settled when you have to go to work. So, BrewDog, a craft beer company based in Scotland, is offering its 1,000 employees puppy parental leave: one week of paid time off when they bring home a new dog. “It’s not easy trying to juggle work and settle a new dog into your life, and many members of our crew have four-legged friends at home,” said BrewDog’s co-founder, James Watt. “So we wanted to take the stress out of the situation and let our teams take the time they need to welcome their new puppy or dog into their family.” BrewDog revealed the details of the new employee benefit on their web site earlier this month. The company is opening a new brewery in Ohio. — Read it at the Huffington Post