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

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Nina

A South African monkey sanctuary is preparing for the world’s first live streamed chimpanzee birth. Nine-year-old chimpanzee Nina is set to give birth to her first baby within the next couple of days and can already be seen 24-hours-a-day on a video feed from her quarters. The online stream from the Jane Goodall Institute South Africa in Cape Town show Nina playing in her pen, sleeping on straw and appearing as impatient as the rest of the world watching.
A night-vision camera will capture the action if Nina goes into labor when it is dark.
 The sanctuary's executive director, David Devo Oosthuizen, said that they thought Nina's pregnancy was an "accident" - after the failure of a contraceptive implant - the institute decided to share it with its thousands of social media followers around the world.

"We want to tell a story" Vets had thought Nina had a massive tumor before realizing that she was pregnant. The sanctuary does not breed chimpanzees because it needs all the space it has for rescued chimpanzees. Nina is from South Sudan, where she was rescued from poachers who had captured her for the wild bush-meat trade. She was kept in a zoo in Sudan before the institute removed her along with other chimpanzees, including Thomas, thought to be the baby's father. Oostuizen said Nina had been "literally plucked from her mom" by hunters.

This might lead to complications because Nina was "deprived of a normal chimpanzee childhood". Another factor is that she has not seen how chimpanzee mothers care for their babies because the sanctuary does not breed chimpanzees. "We are hoping instinct kicks in and she doesn't reject the baby," said Oosthuizen. A first-time chimpanzee mother is usually 15 years old, meaning Nina, at nine, is a gymslip mother. Despite concerns, the sanctuary is excited about a chimpanzee birth because there are only about 200000 chimps left in the wild.
You can learn more about chimps by clicking on this link HERE

Watch Nina's live web stream HERE