A mother's grief: The startling images which show how chimpanzees mourn their dead just like humans

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Grieving process: A chimpanzee mother tenderly lays her dead 16-month-old infant on the ground after carrying the body for more than 24 hours. Scientists filmed this heartbreaking footage in Chimfunshi, ZambiaChimpanzees appear to mourn their dead infants just like humans, scientists have discovered.Chimpanzee mothers establish close physical relationships with their young, carrying them for up to two years and nursing them until they are six.But now scientists have filmed how one chimpanzee mother, whose 16-month-old infant died, apparently begins the grieving process. It’s the latest evidence highlighting just how similar...

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Bird of pray: Meet the most vocal member of St Mary's flock... a tame robin who has made the church his home

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Feathered friend of God: This tame Robin has made a church in Portsmouth his home and is one of the most vocal members of the congregationChirping along with the choir from the church rafters, this tame Robin has become a surprise and very welcome addition to a historic church's flock. The feathered parishioner is one of the nosiest members of the congregation and plays a very vocal part in Sunday services, weddings and funerals. Reverend Charlie Allen, 31, is delighted with her new red-breasted friend whose vocal contributions to sermons and hymns are easily audible. Rev Allen said: 'This robin is just so wonderfully...

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A shaggy dog story with a happy ending: Poodle goes walkabout for two years before being re-united with desperate owner

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Happy ending: Archie the poodle was reunited with his owners, Chris and Julie Moran and their daughter Kelly after being missing for 549 days A lost pet poodle has been reunited with his owners after being found 115 miles away from home over 18 months after he first disappeared. Archie was found by a passer-by in Oxford and dog wardens used his microchip to track his owners down in Essex and reunite them with the prized pooch. The toy poodle vanished in July 2009 leaving his owners Chris and Julia Moran devastated and fearing for his safety and days turned into weeks and then months they began to fear they would never...

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Monkeying around: We tell the story of how Ambam the walking gorilla took his first steps to global fame

By LIZ HULL Standing out: Ambam strolls in his enclosure at Port Lympne this weekTearing around in his nappy, draining his bottle of every last drop, he could be any other bouncy baby boy — but for the fact that he’s a little on the hairy side. And extremely strong. After all, how many infants have ripped the cat flap off the back door?Yet, perhaps these enchanting family snaps provide vital clues to a story which has gripped the world in recent days — Ambam, the walking gorilla. For here he is, 20 years ago, as a baby. And, as his adoptive mother discovered in a recent emotional reunion, the 34st titan still has very happy memories of his days...

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The lioness in a mess: Hunter caked in mud after chasing prey near waterhole

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Mucky pup: One of the free lionesses poses on a mound after rolling around in the mudThese three lionesses got themselves in a mess after becoming stuck in the mud.The trio got caught up in the muck at a partially dried up water hole after chasing their prey there. But the three took it all in their stride and didn't even bother to move to harder ground before tucking in to their treat.After satisfying their appetites the group emerged, their golden coats matted in a thick coat of mud. The extraordinary sight was snapped by photographer Andy Biggs while on a photographic safari in the Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa.The...

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A three-day old female baby Rotschild giraffe

A three-day old female baby Rotschild giraffe stands in front of her mother Kleopatra at the Prague Zoo on January 26, 2011 in the Czech capital. A visitor feeds Berta, a female Rotschild giraffe, at the Prague Zoo on January 26, 2011 in the Czech capital.A three-day old female baby Rotschild giraffe stands in her enclosure at the Prague Zoo on January 26, 2011 in the Czech capital.A three-day old female baby Rotschild giraffe sits at the Prague Zoo on January 26, 2011 in the Czech capital.source: daylife photo: Gettyimages...

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An orangutan roams an enclosure in Ragunan zoo in Jakarta

An orangutan roams an enclosure in Ragunan zoo in Jakarta on January 27, 2011. Orangutans are far more genetically diverse than thought, a finding that could help their survival, say scientists delivering their full DNA analysis of the critically endangered ape. The study, published January 27 in the science journal Nature, also reveals that the orangutan -- 'the man of the forest' -- has hardly evolved over the past 15 million years, in sharp contrast to Homo sapiens and his closest cousin, the chimpanzee. An orangutan holds her baby as she roams an enclosure in Ragunan zoo in Jakarta on January 27, 2011. .An orangutan yawns from an enclosure...

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Culling of the crow: Predators will be destroyed in bid to save songbirds

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Menace? Predators like the carrion crow are to be culled to halt the decline of songbird species Scientists are to cull crows and magpies to find out whether they are wiping out the nation’s songbirds.A dramatic decline in farm and woodland birds over the past 50 years has been linked to rising numbers of avian predators.If the study finds a link, it could lead to a much wider cull extending to protected species such as sparrowhawks and buzzards. Conservation charities are bitterly divided over the decline of some birds species. Prey: The numbers of songbird species such as tree sparrow (left) and corn bunting have more...

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Fox 'may have been prehistoric man's best friend'

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Hunt: Man may use dogs to hunt foxes now, but the University of Cambridge research suggests early man kept foxes as pets thousands of years before their canine relatives Early man may have preferred the fox as a pet rather than dogs, new findings suggest.Researchers analysing remains at a prehistoric burial ground in Jordan have uncovered a grave in which a fox was buried with a human, dated thousands of years before dogs were kept as companions.The University of Cambridge-led team believes that the unprecedented case - in which the remains of the animal and the man were then partially transferred to an adjacent grave -...

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Grief of the penguins: Scores of birds bowed in mourning after the deaths of their chicks

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Mass mourning: Scores of Emperor penguins in an act of communal grief after the deaths of their chicks in Antarctica Prostrate on the icy tundra of the Antarctic, they appear the picture of misery after the deaths of their chicks.The extraordinary image capturing penguins in an act of mass mourning was taken on the Riiser Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica by photographer Daniel J. Cox. He has spent 25 years travelling from pole to pole documenting everything from polar bears to penguins and getting up close and personal is all in a day's work.'Part of my job is to accept that with the spectacular sights of nature also come...

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How humans are 97 % the same as orangutans: New research shows how DNA matches

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE Wild thing: A juvenile orangutan in its native Borneo. DNA testing shows that the ape shares 97 per cent of our DNAOrangutans may be more closely related to humans than scientists previously thought, a new genetic study has shown.The first blueprint of the orangutan genetic code has confirmed that they share 97 per cent of their DNA with people.Although that makes the red-haired apes less closely related to us than chimps - who have 99 per cent of DNA in common - a small portion of orangutan DNA is a closer match to human DNA, the international team of researchers found. The study is the first time scientists have cracked...

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Ambam, the swaggering silverback gorilla who walks around his pen on two legs

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER A kind of man: Ambam has become an internet hit after teaching himself to swagger like a humanStriding purposefully across the ape enclosure, he looks like a portly – and slightly grumpy – commuter in a hurry to catch a train.While most gorillas are happy enough walking around on all fours, Ambam the silverback prefers a more human form of ambulation.To the amusement of his keepers and fascinated onlookers, the agile ape has mastered the tricky art of walking upright on his hind legs for long distances. The feat has placed Ambam, a Western lowland gorilla at Port Lympne wild animal park in Kent, on the brink of international...

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What a difference three years makes: At last, a stable life for brave cruelty victim Disney the horse

By PAUL HARRIS Second chance: Disney the horse trots happily at Hampton Court after being rescued from Spindles FarmGalloping through the grass, this magnificent horse is a picture of health and strength as he trains for his new job teaching youngsters to ride. But it has taken three years of intensive care, love and rehabilitation to help five-year-old Disney reach this point after he was found crammed into a tiny pen, starving, infected with salmonella and barely able to stand. Disney was one of 100 horses, ponies and donkeys rescued in 2008 from what were described as ‘Belsen-like’ conditions at Spindles Farm in Hyde Heath, Buckinghamshire....

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Beach Babe: The happy pigs that love to swim in the Caribbean (and we're not telling porkies)

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER Splash and grab: This family of pigs were thought to have come to be in the Bahamas when some sailors dropped them off, thinking they would be a good food source... but the seamen never returnedThese amazing pigs swim every day in the crystal clear waters of the Bahamas - on their own tiny island where they live in luxury.They show off their piggy-paddle to visitors who flock to their beach to see the extraordinary site of wild pigs making a splash in the beautiful azure sea. Their exploits have been captured on camera by photographer and ocean guide, Jim Abernethy, 52, from Florida, who first stumbled across the feral...

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