White bengal tigers roar in to Pouakai Zoo

A trio of white tigers have arrived in Taranaki and are ready to roar for the public.

The rare white bengals come from Zion Wildlife Gardens in Northland and will live at New Plymouth's Pouakai Zoo for the next year.

Azra, Anila and Kahli, all young females, are three of only 120 white tigers in the world.

They were bred at the wildlife park for their pale fur and light blue eyes, using parents who also had the recessive white gene.

Zookeeper Bart Hartley, who went to Whangarei to pick up the tigers in a truck on Wednesday, said the girls were settling in well at their new home.

Mr Hartley said the trio spent Thursday in their den and were let out into the enclosure for the first time yesterday, to the displeasure of their fellow inhabitants.

"The lions got a bit fired up; they're a bit snarly about the tigers being on their turf," Mr Hartley said, as Aslan the male lion paced up and down his enclosure.

"But the tigers didn't take any notice, they've grown up around lions."

Vervet the monkey was also a bit put out, and barked his thoughts loudly from his pen for most of the morning.

The other monkeys, however, lost interest after only half an hour and went back to looking for food.

Meanwhile, the tigers inspected their den, their tree, their house and their specially-built pool, which proved an instant hit.

The tigers first urinated, then defecated into the pond before happily rolling around in it and drinking the water.

This particularly pleased Mr Hartley, as he spent Thursday cleaning the pond in anticipation of the tigers' release.

The cats will be kept in by a 4-metre fence with electricity running around the top.

They will eat about 4kg of either beef or horse meat each day to power their 150kg frames.

They had to be fed separately, inside, so they didn't fight over the meat.

Mr Hartley said the tigers' arrival hopefully marked the beginning of an ongoing relationship for the zoo with Zion, who were trying to move forward after a series of problems, including the death of a keeper.

The three tigers can be viewed at Pouakai from today.

There will be no interaction with the cats by either the keepers or the public in order to keep everyone safe.

The world's only immortal animal

The world's only immortal animal

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.

Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).

The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula, on the other hand, can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to discover how it is able to reverse its aging process.

Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. They're now found in oceans around the globe rather than just in their native Caribbean waters. "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion," says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute.

Photo of Huge (55ft) snake shocks World

A photograph purporting to show a 55ft snake found in a forest in China has become an internet sensation.

It was originally posted in a thread on the website of the People’s Daily, the official Communist Party newspaper in China.

The thread claimed the snake was one of two enormous boas found by workers clearing forest for a new road outside Guping city, Jiangxi province.

They apparently woke up the sleeping snakes during attempts to bulldoze a huge mound of earth.

“On the third dig, the operator found there was blood amongst the soil, and with a further dig, a dying snake appeared,” said the post.

“At the same time, another gold coloured giant boa appeared with its mouth wide open. The driver was paralysed with fear, while the other workers ran for their lives.

“By the time the workers came back, the wounded boa had died, while the other snake had disappeared. The bulldozer operator was so sick that he couldn’t even stand up.”

The post claimed that the digger driver was so traumatised that he suffered a heart attack on his way to hospital and later died.

The dead snake was 55ft (16.7m) long, weighed 300kg and was estimated to be 140 years old, according to the post.

RARE WHITE KANGAROO

Friendship between Reptiles ...

Here comes another example of unusual friendship between animals.

This 9-year-old alligators name is Georgia. The name of a 15-year-old turtle is Myrtle. They live in South Carolina and have been good friends for four years now.

Impossible Friendship: Guepards And Little Impala

About month ago there was a similar documentary on Animal Planet about a friendship between helpless young antelope and old hungry lion. The old lion was following a newly born antelope for more than a week to protect it while it finds its herd. Lion wasn’t eating nothing for a days but newer tried to eat that helpless creature.

This amazing story will show you how even animals have a compassion and even they are not just instinctive killers as we believed they are.

Here you can see a similar case from Masai Mara, Kenya where a few of guepards found young impala that was obviously lost its herd. As you can see, they didn’t eat it they rather tried to help it to find its relatives.

Willy the Bear in North Carolina Zoo

Snakes

Albino Crocodile

White Diamond is thought to be the only albino crocodile in Europe. And you can go see him if yo fancy a trip to the German village of Hodenhagen, at the Serengeti Safari park, until April 27.White Diamond was born in Louisiana, USA and grew up at an alligator farm in Florida, but has arrived in Germany as part of a traveling reptile show, called "Land der Reptilien".White Diamond is 14 years old right now, and he's lucky he lives in captivity, with that white-a-skin you doubt he could have sneaked up on his prey without being noticed.So remember, if you want to see White Diamond live, visit Serengeti Safari park.