SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Monday, September 3, 2012

Brotherly love

Gorilla brothers’ emotional embrace captured after three years apart !! Handshakes, hugs and laughter were on display when two long-lost gorilla brothers were reunited after spending nearly three years apart. The pair of primates surprised staff at Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire, with an affectionate display of brotherly love – having been apart since 2010. Kesho and his younger brother Alf were separated after the elder sibling was sent to London Zoo as part of a breeding programme. The heart-warming moment as the misty-eyed pair embraced after being reunited, also appearing to share a joke, was captured on camera.
Despite Kesho appearing almost unrecognisable, with his weight ballooning by 200lbs, head gorilla keeper Mark Tye said Alf had no problem recognising his sibling.

‘We weren’t entirely sure that the brothers would even know each other, but the moment they met you could just see the recognition in their eyes,’ he said. ‘They were touching each other through the cage that temporarily separated them and there were no acts of aggression. ‘We put them together 24 hours later and it was like they had never been apart. ‘They were very animated and there was a lot of rough and tumble on the floor, but not in an aggressive way. ‘It is quite unusual to see that sort of childlike behaviour in a silverback.’ Kesho was recently moved to the new £3m enclosure after his attempts to father a baby gorilla were unsuccessful due to him being infertile.

‘They have formed a really tight bond and Kesho is actually incredibly tolerant,’ added Mr Tye. ‘Had they been two strangers there would have been a lot of face-to-face confrontation and some fighting and screaming. ‘But Kesho and Alf were happy to turn their backs on one another which is a sign of trust.
‘It is great for Alf to have an older brother to look up to and learn from and Kesho seems to enjoy being the centre of attention.
‘It was very satisfying to see.’ The pair now look set to spend the rest of their days in the bachelor pad enclosure, set up due to the large amount of males in the current European breeding programme.