Five reasons why we love World of Animals magazine

In case you haven't heard, there's a new(ish) publication on the block. World of Animals is a monthly magazine all about animals. It has features, factfiles, photography and zoo profiles. It might just be the best thing we've ever read, and it's definitely filled a gap in the magazine market. At time of writing issue six is in the shops, with chimpanzees plastered across the cover. Here are our top reasons why we love it:

1. There are some truly amazing facts in each issue. Not just your average, run-of-the-mill animal facts that are trotted out on Buzzfeed every few weeks, but really interesting things that have taken some deep research to discover. Our favourite from the current issues is that Ham, the first chimpanzee sent into space, shook the hand of his commander on returning to Earth. On the off chance that anyone caught that moment on camera, can we have a copy of the tape please and thank you?
2. Each issue gives an indepth profile of a specific species. Past subjects have included tigers, chimps, grizzly bears, orang utans, lions and penguins. 
3. It's brilliantly written, with some great journalism. It's clever in that it manages to inform without being patronising - whether you're a keen conservationist or can't tell an ape from an anteater, there'll be something for you, we promise. 
4. Conservation is becomingly an increasingly political issue, yet WoA manages to keep the politics out of it, providing a balanced and factual read about issues faced by various species. Each issue provides a profile of a zoo of the world, but beyond that, there is little comment on which conservation methods it supports.
5. The first issue had a tiger on it. Sadly, we never managed to catch the first issue whilst it was in shops, so our collection is sadly lacking. Yes, we know you can download the issue digitally, but it's just not the same, is it? If anyone knows where we can get a hard copy of the issue (we'd definitely settle for secondhand), we'd be forever in your graititude.

Psst...in case you're wondering, we aren't being paid or bribed in any way to write this. We truly believe that World of Animals is a great magazine. Long may it prosper. Pop out and buy an issue soon.

How are animals moved between zoos?

If you thought moving house as a human was hard work, imagine the difficulties of moving a large, wild or dangerous animal between homes.

This feature on the BBC gives a great insight into the process of reloctaing animals from one zoo to another, often overseas, as part of zoo breeding exchange programmes. The process often takes months, including acclimatizing animals to their travelling containers before hand.

There are many stories (and photos) of the first elephant arriving at Whipsnade Zoo - the elephants were simply walked through the village on leads.

Read the full article here.

And if you're not convinced about how hard it is to move an animal, just take a look at how hard it is to put an infant giraffe to bed for the night:

New Chinese law against eating endangered animals

A new law in China means that eating an endangered animals could now result in ten years in prison.

The law covers 420 rare and endangered species, including giant pandas, Asian black bears and golden monkeys. Also eligible for prosecution are people who buy illegally hunted animals.

More on this story here.

Two male, one female tiger cub at London Zoo

A few weeks back, ZSL London Zoo announced that their breeding Sumatran tiger pair, Jae Jae and Melati, had welcomed three cubs.

They've now announced that the cubs are one female and two males, and all seem to be in good health. Check out the video below of them being health checked and sexed by the zoo's keepers. They weren't happy about it!

London Zoo's new tiger exhibit, Tiger Territory, opened last March. A cub was born last summer, but sadly died on its first trip into the outside world.

Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, with estimates of just 300 left in the wild. Several subspecies of tiger have already been wiped out.

#BanCannedHunting #SaveOurLions

Like many people around the world, we managed to get involved in Global March For Lions at the weekend. Here are a few of the photos we took in Trafalgar Square, London:

Nice to see Sea Shepherd represented too. The event fell the same weekend as Whalefest so no doubt there will have been some people who wanted to go to both events.

Somebody has a Lion King moment.

Rare white rhino has its own armed bodyguards

This is a bit of a bitter-sweet story, we're sorry to say.

A rare white rhino in Kenya has made the news after being given its own team of four armed bodyguards.

The animal is one of just four left in the world, and is at extreme risk of poaching. So he has been given four bodyguards who work as a team to follow it 24 hours a day on the Ol Pejeta Reservation. He is completely used to the presence of the rangers, who sit alongside him as he rests and eats.

Whilst it's a lovely story that people are willing to dedicate the time and resources to protect this animal, it's extremely sad that we have come to a situation where there are only four members of an entire species left in the world, and even more despairing that there are people out there willing to kill these last four, effectively bringing a species to an irreversible end.

Tragically, despite the admirable and decicated efforts of the armed guards, experts predict that this species will die out in the very near future.

Read this story here.

More information about rhinos under armed guard here

An unintended hiatus

Lovely readers,  human and animal*,

We apology for the lack of communication recently. Due to relocation and problems with our internet provider (who shall remain nameless) we have had no internet access. Fear not, we haven't forgotten about you all. We'll be back as soon as we can with news,  views....and maybe even a campaign or two. Watch this space. In the mean time don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

*if we do have any animal readers,  we'd love to know about it.