ANIMALS

Good Samaritan Mistakenly Rescues a Litter of Wild Animals, not Puppies

Image source: JESSIE TUSSING

Jessie Tussing, the foster and rescue coordinator for Heartland Humane Society, responded to a call about a group of abandoned puppies under a barn, prompting her to undertake an unusual after-hours rescue mission to a remote location.

Upon arriving at the remote location with her two teenage daughters, Jessie Tussing searched through the dark, old barn with a flashlight, examining every crevice in search of the abandoned litter of puppies. With the homeowner’s permission, Tussing removed one of the barn’s floorboards and finally located the animals she had been searching for. However, upon bringing the creatures into the daylight, Tussing quickly realized that these were not ordinary puppies.

“I was running through my brain trying to remember what breed of the puppy had that coloring,” Tussing told The Dodo. “It took me a minute to really realize what I was looking at.”

Tussing and her daughters became suspicious and curious about the unusual appearance of the puppies. After conducting some research, they finally figured out what the animals really were.

“She just started running down the list of species that she knew lived in the area, and after foxes and raccoons were ruled out, she looked up coyote pups and went, ‘Oh my God, Mom!’” Tussing said.

Instead of a group of puppies, Tussing and her daughters discovered that they had rescued a litter of baby coyotes.

After seeking advice from a seasoned wildlife rehabilitator and verifying the coyote policy at the local wildlife center, Tussing concluded that it would be best to leave the little family in the place where they were discovered. Tussing noticed that their stomachs were full, indicating that their mother had recently fed them. The mother coyote was most likely close by, waiting to be reunited with her young ones.

Image source: SHUTTERSTOCK

“I told my girls, ‘We have to put them back,’” Tussing said. “‘These are not pets.’”

Fortunately, the homeowner was sympathetic to the coyotes’ situation and agreed to stay away from the barn while the family searched for a new den.

Despite the unexpected turn of events, Tussing is relieved to have resolved the situation and optimistic that the coyote pups will flourish in their natural habitat with their mother.

ANIMALS

Amazing Video of Unseen Ocean Creatures in the Ningaloo Canyons

The Schmidt Ocean Institute recently explored the Ningaloo Canyons on the western coast of Australia using a robotic underwater vehicle called the ROV Sebastian. Check out the amazing video of what they discovered in the deep parts of the Indian Ocean.

More info: Youtube

ANIMALS

These Pics Are Art and the Artists Are Insects

Flying insects move so quickly that they are hard to follow, but new technology and some smart ideas have helped Spanish photographer Xavi Bou do just that. After spending 10 years focusing on birds in flight for his Ornithographies project, he turned his attention to insects.

For Entomographies, he uses high-speed video footage taken by Adrian Smith, an insect expert at North Carolina State University, to study and record how insects move. Bou then picks multiple frames and combines them into single images that show the fast movements of one or more insects through space and time.

With Smith’s help, Bou has captured the aerial tricks of wasps, the jumps of leafhoppers, and the fluttering of butterflies in amazing detail. He hopes that by doing this, he can make people more aware of the decline in important insect populations around the world.

1. Zebra longwing

This butterfly, which is common in many areas of the Americas, really fits its name. It can fly very high with just a few flaps of its large wings.