Posts tagged "orphan"

As sad as it is that 10-month-old chimpanzee Kartik was abandoned, there is a happy ending.

Zookeeper Srihari Charan at the Nandankanan Zoological Park in India has "adopted" Kartik, treating him as if he were his own child -- including putting him in a hot pink baby walker.

Watch the video and tell us what you think of this relationship in the comments below.

Manatees might not be known for their good looks, but don't tell this little sweetie; being cute is all she's ever known!

The 41-pound, three-and-a-half-foot baby manatee was rescued by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission on July 24 after being orphaned by her mother in the waters of Daytona Beach, Fla. The weeks-old pup was then taken to SeaWorld Orlando's rehabilitation center, where animal care specialists are watching her around the clock.

She's being bottle-fed every three hours by specialists like Jeff Braso, shown in the picture here. The park's staff weighs her every other day to make sure she's growing at a proper rate. She remains in guarded condition, but if all goes as planned, park veterinarians hope to be able to release her back into the wild one day.

In the meantime, if the specialists need a hand with these round-the-clock feedings, a few of us here at Paw Nation would be more than happy to help out!

How many times have you watched wildlife documentary footage of sleeping lions and dreamt of snuggling up with one of them? Of course, all it takes is a scene of the same big cats ripping apart a water buffalo and that desire tends to disappear. But it sure hasn't deterred one woman in South Africa, who disregards any concerns about living amongst the ferocious felines and lets 11 big cats live in her home.

Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen shares her living space with four orphaned cheetahs, five lions and two tigers. And when we say share, we mean share: They climb in bed with her, prowl on her countertops, steal table scraps, and do many of the other things a typical house cat would do. In fact, they even play with her (small) dogs, and curl up with the pooches when it's time to snooze.

Van Nieuwenhuizen didn't just start bringing big cats into her home for fun -- she's working to prevent the extinction of these animals through Fiela's Fund Cheetah Breeding Project after being involved in "Friends of the Zoo" for over a decade. Van Nieuwenhuizen's first tame cheetah Fiela (born in January 2006) acts as a sort of animal ambassador to educate people about the endangered animals.