Animal News Stories Of 2011 (PHOTOS)

2011 was a big year for animals.

Throughout the year, scientists made several important discoveries. A new dinosaur species, an ancient eel and shell-less marine snail all added to our growing knowledge of the animal kingdom.

Animals on the move also made the news this year. Yvonne, the German dairy cow, was eventually caught after she spent three months eluding authorities. Morgan, a young killer whale, was transported from the Netherlands to the Canary Islands using elaborate equipment.

October's exotic animal slaughter in Ohio was also one of the year's biggest animal news events, albeit a tragic one.

Check out the slideshow of 2011's top 10 animal stories, and vote on the ones you think were most memorable. Share your most memorable news story in the comments below.

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Comments

[isonychia]

10:51 AM on 12/29/2011

that she-cow has a horn....

[natal plum]

01:48 PM on 12/28/2011

My neighbor's two marauding cats have killed about 100 birds this year.

[Doug48105]

12:50 PM on 12/28/2011

Why are these bird deaths the story. They pale in numbers compared to the #1 killer of song birds on the face of the Earth--feral cats.

[xxphatt]

01:28 PM on 12/28/2011

seriously?

[ppswg]

12:39 PM on 12/28/2011

THE BIRDS ARE LIKE THE ABSENCE OF FROGS, I FEER A WARNING FROM NATURE.....

[Mike Hyl]

11:33 AM on 12/28/2011

So maybe 10k of zillions of birds died? this is news? oh my gosh what ever are we gonna do,,,

[xxphatt]

01:30 PM on 12/28/2011

Lol, maybe if it were your neighbors you'd be concerned? What is news to you, Perry chances his stance on abortion? Odd happening like this in wildlife are VERY news worthy and last I remember they still hadn't pinpointed the problem, or "RELIEVED" it. They may have been drinking for your local water source, then would it have mattered?

[marianeditor]

10:07 AM on 12/28/2011

The best bird death story I ever heard came from Butte, Montana, where 342 birds died in 1995 after stopping to drink at the Berkeley Pit (photo: http://failuremag.com/images/uploads/articles/berkeley_pit.jpg ), a toxic lake filled with billions of gallons of acidic, metal-contaminated water. But the birds did not die in vain; in their droppings they left behind an unusual yeast, one that is being tested for use as a toxic waste cleanup agent. Some think this yeast might one day be used to clean up the lake in which they died.
http://failuremag.com/index.php/feature/article/the_berkeley_pit/

[Robert Gudzikowski]

10:03 AM on 12/28/2011

"What happened to raining fish on dry land." or do we just get used to the abnormal somehow?

[Odysseus99]

09:53 AM on 12/28/2011

If I had to flap around in all that soot, hydrocarbons and acid rain I'd probably drop dead too. Luckily we have about a trillion birds on the planet, 2,000 here, 2,000 there isn't going to matter much right?

[ghkusa]

07:32 AM on 12/28/2011

How about the not-so-mysterious but ever increasing bird deaths caused by windmills which produce astonishingly expensive electricity?

Seems that it's just not PC to think about let alone mention those chronic, round-the-clock bird killers.

.

[xxphatt]

01:32 PM on 12/28/2011

Yeah we should be scooping up the oil in the gulf instead, damn hippies and their windmills.

[ghkusa]

12:32 PM on 12/29/2011

But, xxpha..., given the incredible inefficiency of windmills, it's appropriate to consider their threat to birds as well as to our tax dollars.
.

[horhay]

03:35 PM on 12/28/2011

Electricity generated by windmills is considerably cheaper than the nuclear reactor meltdowns and radioactive waste that will decimate & mutate birds & other animals for eons. Windmills don't pollute & destroy the environment like open pit mines, mountaintop removal for coal, oil/natural gas drilling in wilderness that was quality habitat for animals/birds until it was compromised by these expensive forms of energy.

Windmills do cause bird deaths, mostly to raptors diving for prey, but so do airplanes. It's a common occurrence but made memorable when Captain Sullenberger had to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River when a flock of geese flew into the engines of the airplane he was flying. It's more common for planes to kill flocks of birds, windmills would most likely kill solitary birds.

[ghkusa]

12:29 PM on 12/29/2011

"...that will decimate & mutate birds & other animals for eons." Or will not.

"...windmills would most likely kill solitary birds."

But, Horha..., haven't we been told relentlessly by the large hearted set that "if only one life is saved!!!"? And, isn't it specieist to deny equal rights to raptors?

For shame!
.

[jon777or333]

04:43 PM on 12/27/2011

Go, Yvonne, go!! Angel Merkel is not Germany's super cow, Yvonne is.

[lisakaz2]

04:25 PM on 12/27/2011

Aww, nothing about the eagle cam nests???

[Moose Luck 99]

03:56 PM on 12/27/2011

USDA found to be poisoning bird populations, causing mass die-offs involving millions of birds

(NaturalNews) Not all the mysterious bird die-offs that have been witnessed around the globe recently are due to unexplained causes. A recent mass die-off event witnessed in Yankton, South Dakota was traced back to the USDA which admitted to carrying out a mass poisoning of the birds.

After hundreds of starlings were found dead in the Yankton Riverside Park, concerned citizens began to investigate. Before long, a USDA official called the local police and admitted they had poisoned the birds. "They say that they had poisoned the birds about ten miles south of Yankton and they were surprised they came to Yankton like they did and died in our park," says Yankton Animal Control Officer Lisa Brasel, as reported by KTIV (http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.as...).

The USDA then confirmed the story and explained it was all "part of a large killing" in Nebraska. Some of the birds that ate the poison apparently flew all the way to Yankton before succumbing to the poison.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/031076_USDA_bird_deaths.html#ixzz1hlqXm5C4

[estrilda]

11:05 AM on 12/28/2011

In the year 2009, over one million European Starlings were killed in 42 states.

[topcat1960]

11:58 AM on 12/28/2011

.....That doesn't explain the violent trauma that the birds suffered from!

[horhay]

03:33 PM on 12/27/2011

The bird die-offs in Arkansas, at the beginning of 2011, also happened in Louisiana, Texas, even across the Atlantic in Sweden & Italy. But it wasn't only massive bird die-offs, there were multiple instances of fish die-offs, too, at the same time.

"About 100,000 dead drum fish floated in the water and lined the banks of a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near Ozark, about 125 miles northwest of Little Rock, said Keith Stephens of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. "The fish kill only affected one species of fish," he said. "If it was from a pollutant, it would have affected all of the fish, not just drum fish."

Ozark is about 125 miles west of the town of Beebe, where game wardens are trying to find out why up to 5,000 blackbirds fell from the sky just before midnight New Year's Eve.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-02/us/arkansas.fish.kill_1_massive-fish-dead-birds-bird-deaths?_s=PM:US

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/01/thousands-of-dead-birds-falling-from-the-sky-.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344345/Animal-death-mystery-Jackdaws-Sweden-fish-Brazil-New-Zealand-crabs-England.html

[Moose Luck 99]

05:15 PM on 12/27/2011

Hi Horhay check this out!

http://aircrap.org/russia-chemtrail-satellite-december-2011/333595/

http://aircrap.org/chemtrails-pacific-west-central-america-12-27-2011/333589/

[topcat1960]

11:56 AM on 12/28/2011

...The birds died from trauma suffered by something colliding with their bodies..as if they ran into something that they could not see.....or the most popular theory at the time was a man-made crowd control device using sound as a means to quell or put down rioters. In any case the government knows exactly what happened but as usual is tight lipped and mum about the whole incident! The first theory of some type of invisible sheild doesn't account for or explain the same thing happening to fish underwater. I believe these are on-going experiments being conducted by the U.S. Government that are soon to be used on humans...

[Danilo-11]

02:06 PM on 12/27/2011

What happened to all the "positive" stories of animals saving people? Are they banned from HuffPo?

[mzrecycle]

12:51 PM on 12/27/2011

The picture of the stacks of dog crates is so disturbing... Those stray animals don't look like they'd be much of a meal. I think poultry would be a better cheap source of meat protein. Chickens can just wander about the yard or garden, eating insects. Hens can lay eggs to eat, or to produce more chickens. Their manure can be used to fertilize the garden.
Dogs on the other hand need to be fed. They don't reproduce as fast as chickens. No eggs to eat. And manure can't be put on the garden.
The people in Vietnam should change their diet!

[Hugatreetoday]

03:40 PM on 12/29/2011

It's pretty freakin repulsive for dog lovers that's for darn sure. The saddest part of all is that the people just keep reproducing with carefree abandon, thus adding to the starving population. My gawd, show some restraint and don't keep breeding, HUMANS.

[mzrecycle]

03:45 PM on 12/29/2011

Don't think there's a lot of extra cash to pay for birth control in Vietnam for the most of the population