4 Heart-Warming Unusual Interspecies Friendships

We often see animals hunt each other in documentaries or nature shows, but a few of documented cases actually show a much softer side to wild animals, especially when a wild animal known to be a top predator develops an uncommon friendship towards an animal that they’d usually consider prey.

Here are of the most uncommon animal friendship that was documented.

Bella the Labrador and Bubbles the African Elephant

Bubbles might be ten times bigger than Bella, but these two have become an inseparable pair. Bubbles was flown to a reserve in the United Sates after being rescued from poachers. Bella was owned by one of the contractors who worked for the reserve. They like spending time together especially near the water, swimming and playing around.

Wilma the Ostrich and Bea the Giraffe

Besides their long necks, these two animals have absolutely nothing alike. Wilma and Bea have become good friends while staying at the Busch Gardens, a park that offers animal encounters with a huge enclosure that’s around 65 acres wide. Although they have all the space to run around alone or with others that are the same species as they are, they willingly spend time with each other.

Sniffer the Wild Fox and Tinni the Dog

Think of the movie the fox and the hound, but replace the hound with a dog that looks like a German Shepherd. Torgeir Berge, a photographer and Tinni’s owner, first met Sniffer when they were out of a walk in the woods. Since then, the two became best friends. Berge took photos of the unusual pair and complied a book called The Fox and the Dog which he hopes can help ban the fox-fur trade.

Bonedigger the Lion and Milo the Dog

Imagine a tiny dachshund taking care of a lion cub. This is how Milo and Bonedigger’s friendship started. The G.W. Exotic Animal Park found in Wynnewood, Oklahoma has been taking care of Bonedigger, a crippled lion that has a metabolic bone illness, since he was a cub. Milo has also been protecting the lion since then. Years later, Bonedigger is now a 500 pound, fully grown lion and Milo still stays by his side along with two other dachshunds, Angel and Bullet.

Shere Khan the Tiger, Leo the Lion and Baloo the Bear

The touching story behind these three animals starts with a rescue and even a surgery. These three were rescued from an abusive drug dealer who kept them as pets. Baloo even had to go through a surgery to take out a harness which grew into his skin, causing deformities. Because of the traumatic experience, Shere Khan, Leo and Baloo became inseparable. They’re now taken care of by the Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary.  

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Breakthrough DNA study could slow big cat extinction

New research comparing genes from living lions with ancient lion remains could help scientists boost dwindling populations.

A team of scientists has for the first time compared the genetic signatures from living and extinct lions to identify five distinct geographical groups within the lion species.

Their findings were reported in the BMC Evolutionary Biology journal last week.

Lion groups

The research team, led by the University of Durham and including Museum zoologists Prof Ian Barnes and Richard Sabin, has identified the five groups of lions as North African/Asian, West African, Central African, South African and East-South African.

Current conservation policies recognise only two distinct geographical groups.

Unique characteristics

The genetic information contained in lion DNA identifies the unique characteristics of each population, which, according to Mr Sabin, is vital in understanding how to protect lions from the increasing threat of extinction, using conservation programmes and repopulation both in the wild and in zoos.

'We need to understand how individual groups develop and adapt to their local environment,' Sabin said. 'You can't just repopulate an area with lions from anywhere, because they could be entirely unsuitable.'

Only one lion species (Panthera leo) exists today, with isolated populations living across Africa and in India. About 124,000 years ago during the Late Pleistocene, lions were one of the most successful land mammals on the planet, with many subgroups of Panthera leo existing across a huge geographical range from southern Africa to Eurasia and Central America.

Modern hunting and habitat destruction has left lions in India, and western and Central Africa critically endangered. In the past twenty years around 30 per cent of the total lion population in Africa has been lost.

The results of this study will help scientists understand the potential loss of genetic diversity that could arise from poor conservation or mismanagement of the remaining lion populations.

Source: Here

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