Peckerwood Manor

Enter the wallaby. So cute. So cuddly. Look at those faces! Awww. And the little joey is begging for a nose kiss. Awww. So sweet. So innocent. I want one, you say. A wallaby would be a welcome addition to my animal kingdom. So adorable. So huggable.  15 years ago, there was a significant emigration of wallabies to the UK. They were supposed to go to zoos for the most part, but these clever baby kangas had other plans. They were excellent escape artists and decided they liked the UK for an extended adventure. These intrepid wallabies gave their big brown eyes extra sweetness,  lulling their caregivers into a false sense of accomplishment. After they legged it, the wallabies had babies, and their babies had babies, and they are now part of the habitat and wildlife of the UK. You heard me right. Mini kangaroos are all over the place, spotted in the weirdest places. These little hoppity creatures look harmless, but they aren't. A stern warning has gone out to warn Brits about them...

Something rare happened in Northeastern Tennessee at Bright's Zoo, a family-run zoo with over 700 animals, including nine giraffes. A giraffe calve was born without spots, something that is very rare. The last time anyone saw this phenomenon was in Toyko's Ueno Zoo in 1972. Toshiko, the spotless baby's mother, had given birth to other spotless giraffes, but the mother at Bright's Zoo had three different babies, and they all had signature spots.  Animal geneticists are trying to determine what makes this happen and what it means. It is most likely a mutation, but there are many questions since seeing these rare creatures is exceptionally infrequent in the wild. They have figured out that the bigger the spots a calve has, the likelihood of long-term survival increases. So what does this mean for this baby? It is unknown. Over 17,000 people voted on the first day of voting for a name, and the four choices are in Swahili: Kipekee (unique), Firyali (extraordinary or unusual)...

Get those pup posts ready for tomorrow, and in anticipation, I bring you this wonderful video about pups and our bond with our babies. This should brighten your weekend and kick it off with warm fuzzies. We may think we choose them when really they choose us, and it can be wonderful when they do.

There is something afoot in the sea, and like we always knew, a good mother protects their young. Only in this case, it is the sons only. There is a reason for that. Killer whale males are needed to breed as often as possible, to pass on the mother's genes, and to go on hot dates with female whalettes, sometimes in other pods. Usually, that pod raises the calf, so he ventures out and needs some skills to stay safe. These moms are fierce, and they will fight a bitch if some belligerent whale wants to fight their boy or if rough play turns into actual aggression. Killer Whales are one of the six species of toothed whales, so when they play or fight, those teeth cause rake marks on the skin of their opponent, and these wounds can be deadly if pathogens enter the cuts. Scientists discovered in the case of Mamas' Boys, they have fewer of these rakes, and they get into less violent conflicts with other whales because she helps them navigate the social structure of their pod or kin gr...

Ben is a very lucky man. He's been diving and communicating with seals for over twenty years. Very few of us ever get a chance to be that close to wildlife and interact with them for that length of time. They play, touch him, and look into his eyes with such innocence and purity that speaks directly to why animals are so much better than people. Why so many of us have healing interactions with animals, and why humans don't deserve them. I won't write too much because the video speaks for itself. Turn on CC because his Northwestern English accent sometimes takes effort to understand.