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At last, some good news from Ohio after the devastating recent killing of 49 animals released into the countryside…six exotic animals have survived and are now readjusting to life at Columbus zoo. The grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys are said to be ‘calm’ and not aggressive.
The events have led many people to question whether members of the public should be allowed to keep such animals after it’s thought the owner, suffering from severe debts, released them all before committing suicide.
If you want to help the rescued animals, a special web page has been set up to donate towards their upkeep.

Photo : Grahm S. Jones / Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

This incredible photo of a young Qinling golden snub-nosed monkey is one of the winners in this year’s Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
The species is endangered with an estimated less than 4,000 left. The huddled up pose is the best way for the monkey to keep warm in the extreme cold when not near its mother.
An exhibition with all the winning photos opens at the Natural History Museum from tomorrow before going on tour.

Photo : Cyril Ruoso

Photographer David Slater encountered a bit of monkey business in a national park in Indonesia…these photos aren’t his, but some crested black macaques’ masterpieces. Despite not having had much human contact before, the monkeys were very interested in all their equipment. One day after David left his tripod set up…he returned to find a curious monkey playing with it. David thinks the noise of the shutter kept the monkeys interested and in the end they took hundreds of pictures!
Photo : David J Slater/Caters News Agency

Sad news…Mjukuu’s baby mountain gorilla has died. The little infant had been introduced to the male silverback Kesho and the rest of the group successfully. But during the second time, a scuffle broke out and the young gorilla was injured and could not be saved. Gorillas, like most primates, have complex social structures and as Kesho was not related to the young gorilla, it was particularly difficult.

Brilliant news, Twycross Zoo are celebrating the birth of a baby Western Lowland Gorilla, notoriously hard to breed in captivity. The little one is about two weeks old and so keepers haven’t been able to determine its sex yet. This is especially good news as the species is critically endangered in the wild, with only 100,000 left.

These Caribbean monkeys have been studied as they steal alcoholic drinks from people on the beach…and show just how similar they are to humans!
They found the monkeys divided into groups; social drinkers, regular drinkers, binge drinkers and teetotalers which seems to suggest that alcoholism isn’t just a human trait. Research suggests alcoholism may be genetic but as it is currently only narrowed down to around 300 genes, it may still be a long time before we discover specific genes.

This little baby orangutan is just over a month old but was rejected by his mother. The zoo keepers in Houston are now taking it in turns to look after the 5lb bundle of fun.
Orangutans are the largest arboreal (tree living) creature and are only found in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. Their name even originates from their habitat, using the Malay words for man, ‘orang’, and forest, ‘(h)utan’, literally ‘man of the forest’.

Monkeys can recognise photos of their friends! Scientists found that the previously untrained animals quickly looked away from photos of monkeys they knew…but studied for much longer over animals they didn’t recognise. Younger monkeys however weren’t able to tell the difference and many tried to greet or touch the animal’s photo.
It’s incredible because no one thought the animals would even be interested in the photos as they don’t come across anything similar in their natural life. You can watch the video of the puzzled monkeys here.
Besides humans, macaques are the only primates to live freely in Europe and are from the Old World Monkey group.

All this talk of the horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan was making me wonder how the snow monkeys were getting on. It was about this time last year we were over there watching them scamper around Jigokudani park!
Luckily as they are up at 850m they seem mostly unaffected. You can catch up with their antics via their webcam.

Three-month old Tiny has been filmed taking his first tentative steps around his home at London Zoo. Mum, Mjukuu, gently encouraged him to leave her side and explore the area while the rest of the troop watched his progress.
Considering Tiny could grow to over 6ft and weigh 200kg, keepers are considering thinking of a more suitable permanent name!