Conservationists discovered the new arrival snuggled up with its eight-year-old mum Oni and six-year-old dad Koos after it had been born overnight on January 4. 

The calf, born with large droopy ears, hairless wrinkled skin and giant claws, is currently being hand-reared every evening by zookeepers who are providing dedicated care, feeding the baby every few hours through the night for around five weeks, to help it gain strength. 

 It’s nice but it’s also sad that animals are evolving to have babies successfully in captivity. Staff have nicknamed the youngster Dobby due to its resemblance to the much-loved Harry Potter character. 

Aardvarks are native in sub-Saharan Africa where they are threatened by habitat loss as a result of agricultural development, which also bring them into conflict with local farmers. They are also hun.ted for their meat. 

The nocturnal animals use their long noses and keen sense of smell to sniff out ants and termites, which they lap up with a long tongue measuring up to 25cm, covered in sticky saliva. They use their powerful claws to tear open termite mounds, as well as to dig underground burrows in which they sleep. 

This is the very first aardvark to be born at the zoo and so it’s a momentous landmark. Aardvarks are quite secretive creatures, which are mostly only ever active in darkness, and so some aspects of how they go about their lives remain relatively unknown. 

Caring for species like aardvarks in zoos enables us to learn more about them – how they live, their behaviors and their biology. So amazing how a baby loves its mama from the start. This new calf joins a conservation breeding program that only a handful of zoos are part of globally. 

Wonderful & pray it will NOT be the last! Our Globe is in a difficult time, we must do what we can, to SAVE OUR PLANET !!!
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The toddler apparently used cushions to climb to the window ledge before she slipped, and was left hanging from her fingertips. She was reportedly left home alone while her mother went out shopping. 

Sabit Shontakbaev, 37, was on the way to work when they noticed the commotion. He rushed into the building and knocked on the door of the apartment below the girl's. He then made his way to the window.

"At that moment I didn't think about anything, I just wanted to help the child," Shontakbaev said. 

"Afterwards, I went straight to work with my friend. Nobody knew that this would happen. I just saved the child and left, and in the news and social networks they suddenly began to call me a hero. I do not consider my actions heroic. To me, everyone should lend a helping hand in such situations." The local media reported that Shontakbaev was awarded a three-bedroom apartment for his actions. The new apartment will mean his family, which includes his three daughters and a son, can join him in the city.
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RescueEveryDog.org writes. But it’s this very attribute that enabled a lost Siberian Husky to be reunited with his owner. A Siberian Husky had been reported as missing by his owner who lives in the city of Beer Sheva in the Southern District of Isreal, according to Daily Mail. 

 A dog fitting the description was found by a group of teenagers in a field at an archeological site outside of Beersheba. The teens brought the weakened and malnourished dog to the Israeli police. 

The officers brought the dog to a police station outside of the city and administered some aid to it, The Jerusalem Post reports. The officers then reached out to the man who reported that his dog was missing. They told the man to drive over to see if it was, in fact, his dog. 

But the man had a better idea. He said there was a quick and easy way to identify his dog. He told the police to play the dog’s favorite songs. If the Siberian Husky sang along, they’d know it was his dog. So, the officers did just that. They played the dog the theme song to his favorite Israeli TV show “Shemesh,” which was taken off the air in 2004, and the theme song for the Canadian/American children’s programme “Arthur” titled “Believe In Yourself” by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. 

It wasn’t long before the Siberian Husky started belting out in an epic sing-a-long. The Israeli police captured the dog’s performance on video. The dog looked so joyous to be singing his favorite songs. Perhaps it reminded him of home. 

The officers were overjoyed to tell the dog’s owner that they found his dog. He rushed on over to the police station to see his lost pup. The two were absolutely overjoyed to see each other again. It was quite the emotional reunion as the dog happily licked his owner’s face while his owner sobbed. 

“I cried the whole way here,” the man said hugging his dog and talking to the officers. “You poor thing. Thank you, thank you so much.” 

 You can watch the dog’s vocal performance and his heartwarming reunion with his owner in the video below:

 
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However, during the course of one week, he noticed a woman whose face he had never seen in the area before, and something about her compelled him to take a closer look. As Rivers drove past her, the woman, who was wearing a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt with a powerful statement written on it, made eye contact with Rivers and responded with a straightforward “hey” as he drove by. 

Rivers, however, disclosed in an interview with CNN that he was preoccupied with the brief encounter even after it had passed. Something kept nagging at him to turn around and talk to the woman who was sporting a t-shirt with the words “Homeless. The fastest way of becoming a nobody” written on it. The 29-year-old finally decided that he’d go back to the spot he’d seen her during his lunch break. 

“God put it on my heart to get her lunch,” said Rivers. “So I turned around and I asked her, ‘Hey, did you eat today?’ And she said, ‘No.'” Rivers went to a nearby pizza shop and purchased pepperoni and cheese pizzas. He then sat down next to her on the grass and the two of them engaged in one of the most thought-provoking conversations he has ever had. 

He said that the conversation that they had was even better than the pizza that they had shared. After exchanging life stories with the homeless woman, who he said identified herself as Michelle, during his lunch break, he came to the conclusion that he and she had something in common. 

River found out that Michelle has a daughter who is 12 years old, is battling liver disease, and was in foster care. Michelle’s daughter was placed with River’s family.

  Michelle also shared with him the news about her son, who is now 23 years old. While the two were talking, her husband, who was also homeless, was standing across the street from them. 

After lunch together, Michelle and Rivers went their separate ways, and the police officer couldn’t help but reflect on the ways in which his new friend and he are perceived by society in the same way. People who are homeless are frequently stigmatized by society and told they are to blame for their precarious living conditions. 

Rivers came to the conclusion that society as a whole has a somewhat negative view of law enforcement officers because it concentrates on the “bad apples” in the profession rather than looking at law enforcement officers as a whole. 

But, as Rivers pointed out,”homeless people are just people who are down on their luck,” Rivers said. “It can happen to anybody.” As for himself, he revealed that he didn’t set out to be a police officer because he wanted to ruin a person’s day. 

A random bystander took a photo of Rivers and Michelle during their brief encounter, and the woman’s husband, Chris Barnes, later posted the photo to Facebook with the following caption: “Cassie was out on her lunch break and observed Goldsboro’s Finest enjoying lunch with a homeless person. Law enforcement does so much for our community, with a lot of it going unnoticed. We see you Goldsboro P.D. Keep up the good work.” 
Ironically, responses to the post vouched for Rivers’ comments about society’s perception of police officers. “One thing I need to say about this, don’t give the Goldsboro police department credit for what one officer did, his heart led him to this woman, not his uniform.”

During this time, another user by the name of Donna Clark wrote: “Officers get such bad press all the time but many are good, caring men just like this young man. God bless sir.” 
Rivers was eventually brought to the attention of Police Chief Michael West, who praised Rivers for his selfless act and said the following about him: “The circumstances around our job are often an unpleasant call to service, but this picture just shows we’re human like anyone else and any chance we get to serve the community and help people, we take that chance. I’m very fortunate to have Officer Rivers in our department.”
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