These Animals Are Helping to Slow Climate Change—But They’re Dying

Animals play a key role keeping forests healthy

The decline in animal populations in tropical forests may play a role in accelerating climate change, according to new research.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, shows how the loss of animals reduces the ability of forests to store carbon that would otherwise accelerate global warming. Large animals like large primates, tapirs and toucans play a key role distributing the seeds of the large trees that store the most carbon and in turn ensuring a healthy forest. The researchers note that tropical forests store 40% of the world’s carbon, but that carbon is released into the air when forests are degraded or destroyed. The decline in those animal populations thus has a tangible effect on how well their habitat can prevent carbon from reaching the atmosphere.

Deforestation has been a hot topic in discussions about how to reduce climate change, but the focus on animals has been less prominent. The new research adds relevance to campaigns to protect endangered animals in tropical forest areas where populations are on the decline due to everything from hunting to logging.
The study also adds to a growing area of research focused on how to address climate change by restoring nature.

Queensland farm a haven for injured animals

Storybook Farm provides a secure home for animals with disabilities, injuries and special needs.

Storybook Farm provides a home and care for injured animals.

Storybook Farm provides a home and care for injured animals.

A little farm with a big heart is helping three-legged dogs, blind horses and anxious donkeys live long and happy lives.

Storybook Farm, in south-east Queensland, houses animals of all shapes and sizes with special needs on a small plot of land in the Scenic Rim.

Lisa Jane Cameron along with her family have been helping animals for more than 30 years.


The one-of-a-kind farm began after their family dog, Mr Waddles, became paralysed and they could not find a support service for disabled animals.

“Since then we’ve welcomed brain-damaged whippets, Matthew a blind staffy and Krumb our wheelchair-bound dachshund,” she said.

“If the animals have the will, we will find a way and that’s what it’s about.”

A passion for problem solving
It is not just the animals that Ms Cameron has to assist.

Owners of the animals turn to her for emotional support too.

“Our main aim is to keep families together where possible, and if not we visit the families with their pet,” she said.

“For many of the people we help their pet is the only living thing they have seen all day and if you remove that it’s detrimental to the person as well.

“We’ve seen families who thought it was the end and they were traumatised families and now they are back together again.

“We do it because we love it and we want to help.”

One of the goats is being nursed back to health after breaking his leg. Photo: ABC

The small sanctuary focuses on giving a new lease on life to special needs animals and also severe cruelty cases.

“We’re developing wheels that can be used on the beach [for disabled dogs],” Ms Cameron said.

“With the blind dogs, we’ve learnt to place furniture in the right places and we teach them about different sounds.

“For the dogs that can’t walk we have drag bags and we’re inventing better ones that are cooler for Queensland – we’re problem solvers and we do it every day.”

Krumb the dog is one of the well-known characters on the farm. Photo: ABC

Helping animals with a strong will to live

Ms Cameron has been called many things including Molly from A Country Practice and Doctor Doolittle.

She sees her work as a way to give back to the community – and to animals too.

“Animals do so much for us, they protect us, they’re therapy dogs, they help us see and help with cancer patients,” she said.

LJ Cameron holds one of the whippet dogs who has an injured skull. Photo: ABC

“People’s blood pressure lowers when they pat a cat and nursing homes are better with an animal in it.

“We’re not here to save all animals but if they have a strong will to live we will give them a way.”

Ms Cameron’s children, Alex and Jonah, help on a daily basis with feeding, walking and working closely with each of the animals.

“I couldn’t do it without my children,” she said.

“It has taught them to respond. It makes them better people as they are more compassionate, tolerant and they have understanding.”

Making a difference

When people ask Ms Cameron why she does what she does, she tells them that she wants to make a difference.

“You get up and you make a difference, as I think that’s what we’re here for,” she said.

“I think we owe the animals more than they owe us.

Alex Cameron nurses one of the blind goats on the farm. Photo: ABC

“We find many people find the dogs confronting, especially the dogs in wheelchairs – as they see the wheelchair, not the dog in the wheelchair.

“I let people spend time with them and within minutes people are in tears.”

The blind dogs on the arm have collars detailing their vision-impairment. Photo: ABC

The future for Storybook Farm

In the future, Ms Cameron hopes to bring literacy and her animals together with storytelling sessions for children to be held at the farm.

She also hopes to register Storybook as a charity in 2016 and find more people to come onboard and help.

“Inside each bit of fur, feather or scale there’s a someone and it’s not a Disney-fied sort of attitude,” she said.

One of the three-legged dogs running around the farm. Photo: ABC

“My aim is to build the sanctuary and make it secure and strong enough that it’s a legacy that goes way past me.

“We hope to get a stable property to set-up a permanent base and we want to go to more schools and hospitals next year.”

Steamy Calendar With Vet Students And Animals Is All We Want For Christmas

With this calendar, you'll never have a bad month.
Omega Tau Sigma veterinary fraternity at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine recently released its 2016 Men of Vet School calendar to the public. The steamy calendar, which is an annual project, features students alongside adorable animals.

Omega Tau Sigma/Cornell University

And as if that wasn't splendid enough, 15 percent of the calendar's profits will go toward the Patient Assistance Fund to help owners in need afford veterinary care for their pets.

Omega Tau Sigma/Cornell University

Samantha Lovering, this year's calendar chair, told The Huffington Post that the calendar features 33 veterinary school students, and took a few months to shoot. She also mentioned that hours of brainstorming went into creating each scene. The toughest one was the November shoot, which incorporated chickens.

Omega Tau Sigma/Cornell University

"We had never done a shoot with chickens before and thought it would be fun and interesting," Lovering said. "But they were a challenge to hold onto!"
Of course the calendar wasn't just hard work -- it ended up being a blast to work on for many involved.

Omega Tau Sigma/Cornell University

"As veterinary students, we always love working with animals!" Lovering told HuffPost. "Many of the animals are owned by members of Omega Tau Sigma, and everyone is always excited to have their animals photographed."

Omega Tau Sigma/Cornell University

Well, now we know what to get the animal lover in our lives for Christmas!

Australian Zoo Animals Enjoy Christmas Treats!

Animals at Sydney's Taronga Zoo enjoyed an early delivery from Santa this year and were treated to edible Christmas presents Friday.

Animals at Sydney's Taronga Zoo enjoyed an early delivery from Santa this year and were treated to edible Christmas presents Friday.

The Taronga Zoo said the chimpanzees, including babies Fumo and Sudi, woke to find gift-wrapped food treats prepared by keepers and volunteers, inside their enclosure.
Local media reported that Fumo, a 15-month-old baby chimpanzee, spent the day playing with Christmas paper and boxes.

According to the zoo, Esmeralda the Aldabra Giant Tortoise, who is the zoo's oldest resident, also enjoyed a festive treat in the form of watermelons carved in the shape of Christmas trees.
Zoo officials said the treats, while edible, were also educational in nature, designed to challenge and encourage the animals' natural skills.

The Reindeer

The first thing you need to know about reindeer is that, like a spy or a pro wrestler, they go by different names depending on where they are. If you're reading this in the Russian taiga or in the fjords of Lapland, you're familiar with reindeer, rangifer tarandus, the antlered species of deer that roam around munching on lichens and growing a crown of antlers that can range in size from cute to terrifying. If you're reading this in Greenland or the Canadian tundra, however, you only know of Caribou, rangifer tarandus, those hooved cuties that roam around avoiding wolves and hanging out in sometimes massive herds.

 Just kidding! Everyone knows about reindeer. Due to their place in the pagan-Christian Santa Claus mythology of the western world, they are a pop culturally protected species, disproportionately beloved and sought after, especially in the winter months. There's the song, of course, then there's the Rankin/Bass Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, then there's the 1989 film Prancer which I remember sending me into a spiral of existential despair sometime in the second grade. There's also a reindeer sidekick in the extraordinarily popular Disney film Frozen, which you know kicked up its numbers on Google Trends.

But what's really the difference between a reindeer and a caribou? This should be obvious by now: a reindeer is a charismatic and charming celebrity animal, a caribou is that gross moose type thing you skip at the zoo.

That's not the only thing reindeer have going for themselves. Reindeer get to live in objectively the best part of the world (the Arctic circle), and unlike some of their neighbors up there, they're not even close to endangered. Part of this is just because most of their predators (wolves, bears) only pick off the smallest and weakest of the herd, and part of this is that like so many deer species, reindeer have a handy way of breeding way past the point of practicality. I mean, if you were this cute and glamorous, you would too.

But back to the predators — why will nobody step to the reindeer? Is it their antlers? I mean, if you think about it, antlers are pretty fucking crazy. Just close your eyes, and forget that reindeer have antlers and moose have antlers and there are antlers on the wall of that artisanal whiskey bar in your neighborhood. Now open your eyes and look at a reindeer.

Antlers are so weird! What are antlers, you ask? Well, they're just a bone like any other bone ... if any other bone grew into a massive biological chandelier covered in a soft layer of skin which then molted off. And if that bone then died and hung around on top of your head for a while before falling off. And if that happened every year. Antlers are used for combat and sexual selection (a.k.a. fightin' and fuckin'), two of the greatest hobbies of the animal kingdom.

So maybe that's freaking out all the would-be reindeer eaters. But you know who's not freaked out? Mosquitoes.

Yes, believe it or not, one of the greatest threats to the modern reindeer are mosquitos. Not bears. Not wolves. Not idiot humans looking for decorations for their billiard rooms. Mosquito bites, especially in the summer, can cause so much stress to reindeer that they stop feeding — both adults and calves. Here is a picture of some reindeer huddling on snow to avoid their bites. Look at it and try to imagine anything more pathetic.

Look, I can sympathize. I'm the kind of person who gets ten times as many bug bites as everyone else during an average summer picnic; when I cry out in disgust and shame at my befouled limbs, at least one person always says, "aw, it's just ‘cause you're so sweet." I'm sure all those reindeer have heard the same line. Well, guess what: just because you're sweet and wonderful doesn't mean that's an invitation for bloodsuckers and users to feed off all your positive energy. Maybe it's not the toughest thing to be brought low by a tiny biting insect, but the stress is real.

But the fact that this is one of the only real Achilles heels of the reindeer just goes to show how resilient they are. And did I even mention how many flavors they come in? My personal favorite is the Svalbard reindeer, one of the northernmost subspecies, which looks like a sporty little dog or jackalope. Look at it go!