About 150 stray cats cared for by an elderly woman died in a blaze at her home in Beijing, a report says.
French police are investigating the theft of a diamond-studded dog collar from a grave at the world's oldest pet cemetery, whose most famous tenant is Hollywood canine star Rin Tin Tin.
Six pigs have found a new friend in a French bulldog named Baby after the litter of three males and three females was found abandoned.
The world's tiniest chameleon, small enough to fit on a matchstick, has been discovered on an offshore Madagascan island.
A man has died after an American pitbull terrier attacked him in Sherwood, KwaZulu-Natal police say.
Human error led to the death of a Johannesburg Zoo employee who was attacked by a lion at the Rietkuil conservation farm near Parys, officials say.
A Denver morning television anchor who was bitten in the face by a 39kg dog during a live broadcast says she needed 70 stitches in her lips and nose.
A Johannesburg Zoo employee with nearly 40 years of experience in dealing with lions, has died after being attacked at the zoo's lion farm in the Free State.
Check out this slideshow of really strange animal mating habits.
Two rhino, a mother and a calf, have been killed by poachers in a Limpopo reserve, police have said.
A Krugersdorp woman has been given a suspended jail sentence and is not allowed to own another dog ever again for failing to get help for her severely injured dog.
A rhino has died during a media demonstration of an anti-poaching treatment at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve, the Rhino Rescue Project says.
Conservationists in Zimbabwe say around-the-clock efforts to save a baby elephant, separated from his mother on a busy highway, have failed.
Sheep are among the most genetically diverse domesticated animals, and further breeding could yield more meat and wool, a study has found.
Meet Your Match boosts puppy love (and kitty love) by matching people and pets' personalities.
Thai police have busted a wildlife slaughterhouse in Bangkok when officers caught four men in the act of chopping up a tiger in a residential home.
A brave cross-breed German Shepherd has chased off one snake and then grabbed a cobra off the neck of another dog.
A Sumatran rhino which is 10-months pregnant is receiving special medical care after suffering two miscarriages.
A Free State family has been left bereft after their beloved dog died mysteriously during a visit to the local doggy parlour.
Burglars have broken into a Cape Town animal rescue office four times in a week, stealing even the surveillance camera and money in collection tins.
Pythons - many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big - appear to be wiping out large numbers of mammals in the Everglades.
An elephant in Amsterdam's zoo has made history after being fitted with a jumbo-sized contact lens following an eye injury.
Wolves seem to like Germany as deer and young wild boar provide enough for them to eat, but not everyone is happy that they have returned.
A leopard badly mauled two people including a pregnant woman Friday after straying into the largest city in India's northeast Assam state -- the third such attack there in as many weeks.
Thailand's national symbol, the elephant, may face a new threat of extinction: Being poached not just for their tusks, but for their meat.
A "cowboy frog" and a "crayola katydid" are among 46 new species that have been discovered in the dense forests of the tiny South American nation of Suriname.
At least 85 dolphins have beached themselves in a shallow inlet of a US nature reserve at Cape Cod, officials say, adding that the cause of the mass stranding remains a mystery.
A fast-moving fire has destroyed a barn in New Jersey, killing 22 show horses owned by a top equestrian family that were worth tens of thousands of dollars each.
One of the world's most endangered turtles has been released into a Cambodian river with a satellite transmitter attached to its shell.
More than 1 000 sheep, goats, cattle and horses that were allegedly stolen in Lesotho have been recovered in the Drakensberg mountains, KwaZulu-Natal police say.
Two young lion cubs that were presumably smuggled across the Botswana border have been found in the possession of three men during a police trap between Kuruman and Hotazel.
A Pretoria doctor has died after a tranquilised buffalo woke up and stormed at him in front of his son and a vet on his Free State game farm.
Two giant pandas flown into France from China at the weekend appeared to be happily settling into their new home and found time to snatch a moment of intimacy.
Two Chinese pandas have landed in Paris for a new life in a French zoo in a loan sealed after years of top-level negotiations between China and France.
The WWF has urged authorities to take on rhino-poaching syndicate bigwigs, not just the "little guys", after 11 more carcasses were discovered in the Kruger Park.
An Oklahoma woman says she and her pet kangaroo are moving because city workers told her they would take the animal or fine her for violating a local ordinance.
A rhino conservationist has defended Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s decision to allow a R1m hunt for a white rhino bull at the Makhasa Community Reserve.
Six pandas bred in captivity have ambled into a nature preserve as China is reintroducing more to the wild.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare has called for a complete ban of the trade in ivory after the seizure in Malaysia of illegal ivory shipped from Cape Town.
Rats scurrying through New York's subway system better clean their sharp teeth: they're in a beauty contest!
Scientists are warning that the devastating drought in Texas could threaten the world's only remaining flock of whooping cranes.
Thai wildlife officials say body parts from a dead wild elephant found without its tusks, tail and penis were probably destined for restaurants in tourist areas.
A stray cat that somehow survived two trips to a Utah animal shelter's gas chamber now has a new home, as officials investigate why the gassing failed.
Proceeds from the tender to hunt a white rhino will benefit impoverished residents of KwaMduku in Mkuze, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife says.
Medics have tried to save the life of a calf hit by a minibus taxi on a road inland of Durban, but the animal died shortly after arriving at a veterinary clinic.
Norwegian researchers and residents are puzzled after several tons of dead herring carpeted a beach in northern Norway.
A Kwazulu-Natal businessman has paid over R960 000 for the right to hunt a white rhino in the Hluhluwe Game Reserve, a report says.
San Francisco Zoo officials are stepping up security after a male squirrel monkey was stolen from an exhibit.
Keepers at a Dutch zoo have found an unorthodox solution to calm down skittish giraffes spooked by the sound of thousands of end-of-year fireworks going off: playing them pop music.
Two South African leopards have been flown to Malawi, where they will repopulate the severely depleted Majete Wildlife Reserve.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has accused conservationists of undermining its efforts, after the conservation body came under fire for putting out a tender to hunt a white rhino bull.
The Blue Velvet actress has created 10 short films about how various species seduce each other.
Animal rights organisation Peta has put a fork in Lady Gaga's meat dress, but supporters rallied around the singer, saying her outfit was sizzling.
About 50 dogs abandoned after the BP oil spill are on their way to new homes courtesy of an animal welfare group and Pamela Anderson.
South Africa's wildlife will venture out from their camouflaged bushveld to support of Bafana Bafana, says SA National Parks.
Four Chinese men face deportation from Zimbabwe after they were arrested for killing more than 40 tortoises for meat, a report says.
An animal protection group says four Chinese nationals have been arrested on cruelty charges after they cut up and ate rare tortoises.
The SPCA is investigating an alleged scheme in which live rabbits would be sold with loaves of bread for consumption in townships, according to a report.
A rare animal known as the Asian unicorn is under threat from loss of forest habitat, and wildlife officials are trying to protect it in Vietnam's forests.
A songbird weighing just two tablespoons of sugar migrates from the Arctic to Africa and back, a distance of up to 29 000km, scientists have reported.
The elusive, endangered snow leopard is apparently thriving in a park in Bhutan, as seen in camera trap images released by the government of Bhutan and World Wildlife Fund.
Mexico's famous, usually hairless, "Xolo" dog is making a big splash as a "new breed" at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
The Western Cape agriculture department has been commended for dismissing an employee allegedly involved in organising a dog fight near Plettenberg Bay last year.
At least 264 dead bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore over the past three days on Peru's northern coast, officials said as they seek to discover what killed the marine animals.
Abundant rain over most of Australia in the has delivered record harvests - and record numbers of rabbits.
A federal judge has thrown out an animal rights group's lawsuit accusing SeaWorld of enslaving captive killer whales, ruling that orcas had no standing to seek the same constitutional rights as people.
A leopard has dragged away and devoured a 14-year-old girl in western Nepal in what is thought to be the fifth deadly attack by the same animal in just two months, police say.
A Cape Town community has been shocked and upset by the poisoning of at least 10 cats at a Hanover Park apartment building.
A California man has been charged with felony animal cruelty after authorities say he killed a Chihuahua by teeing off on the 2.7kg dog with a golf club.
McDonald's has apologised and pulled an ad that said eating a Chicken McBite was less risky than petting a stray pit bull.
Champis the rabbit doesn't only hop - he also knows how to herd his masters' flock of sheep, possibly having picked up the skill after watching trained dogs do the job.
Scientists have captured a "supergiant" crustacean in waters 7km deep off New Zealand, measuring 10 times the normal size of related species.
Police and soldiers have been deployed to the Kruger National Park to help with security, as the park's 248 prepare to strike.
Heavy snows in parts of Alaska are taking a deadly toll on moose as deep snowdrifts force the animals into hazardous detours on ploughed roads and railway tracks.
A Chicago zoo is mounting a campaign to stop a company from airing a Super Bowl Sunday commercial featuring mischievous suit-and-tie wearing chimpanzees.
A New Zealand man who set bird-watchers a-twitter by faking a new species of red hawk has been ordered to pay costs to the animal welfare group which uncovered his hoax.
Dogs and cats abandoned in the Fukushima exclusion zone after last year's nuclear crisis have had to survive radiation, a lack of food and they are now struggling with the cold.
It is estimated that there are only 200 lynx left in Poland.
An encounter between a snake and a baby in an Israeli city has ended unexpectedly when the boy killed the reptile - by biting off its head.
Oscar-nominated War Horse is the biggest horse movie ever according to South African trainer Bobby Lovgren.
The Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild in under 30 years unless immediate steps are taken to protect its rapidly diminishing habitat, the WWF has said.
About a dozen spotted eagle owls have died of rat poisoning in the past six weeks in the Port Elizabeth area, according to a raptor expert.
A 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier is being hailed as a hero after he grabbed and killed a puff adder which had just bitten his owner on the toe.
A wild crocodile has swallowed a 10-year-old girl while she played in a river with her father in eastern Indonesia, the second death in the same place in two months, a local official says.
An endangered monkey known as the Miller's Grizzled Langur has been discovered on the island of Borneo.
An Australian surfer was recovering has miraculously survived an attack by a shark that sliced his leg open then circled him as he screamed for help.
Knut the polar bear, whose death last March broke the hearts of fans around the world who had watched him being hand-reared by zoo keepers, will be immortalised in bronze.
A South African living in London is protesting the hunting of endangered rhino with a video that has gone viral on YouTube.
A 14-year-old boy has died after a swarm of bees attacked a group of 180 students and teachers during a hike in Queenstown, Eastern Cape officials say.
A KwaZulu-Natal man is in a critical condition after being bitten by a puff adder in Thornville, Pietermaritzburg, paramedics say.
A 2-year-old girl has had plastic surgery on her back and leg after she was attacked by a Rottweiler on Clifton beach in Cape Town.
A rare Cuban crocodile has met a bemused Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican, as Rome's Bio Park zoo celebrated its centenary with the eco-friendly pontiff.
The world's newest snake has menacing-looking yellow and black scales, dull green eyes and two spiky horns.
Malaysia has seized elephant tusks worth about R6m from South Africa, officials say.
An Indian labourer who had his scalp ripped off by a rampaging leopard has spoken of his horrific ordeal, saying he was trying to save the cat when it turned on him.
A leopard that wandered into an Indian city has gone on a rampage, killing one man, swiping off part of another man's scalp and injuring three other people.
Harp seal pups off the coast of eastern Canada are dying at alarming rates due to a loss of winter ice cover, according to US scientists.
It's counting day at the London Zoo, and no one is exempt - not even tarantulas.
The number of elephants in two wildlife sanctuaries in Tanzania has fallen by nearly 42% in just three years.
Australian scientists say they have discovered the world's first hybrid sharks - a potential sign that the predators are adapting to cope with climate change.
A partially-blind chow-cross-husky dog has been rescued from Table Mountain after he went missing, and was discovered trapped on a ledge, between cliffs.
A beloved 17-year-old squirrel monkey that had been stolen from the San Francisco Zoo has been found safe and returned to the zoo.
A red-tailed hawk that became a New York City sensation when a webcam followed her nesting and rearing a chick on a high-rise ledge has died after surgery to amputate her badly injured foot.
A camera at a Chinese nature reserve has captured a panda eating meat, a rarity for panda's who mostly eat bamboo.
Police are investigating a "tiger" attack that claimed the lives of two dogs near Cullinan, police say.
Leonardo DiCaprio has braved scary skies to get to a summit devoted to saving the worlds' tigers, donating $1m to the cause and earning high praise from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Montecasino has earned kudos from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) for not using real fur in its latest musical production, Evita.
A Russian circus has been forced to cancel an act in which a woman swallows a live fish and regurgitates it after officials deemed it cruel.
A group of Nigerian supporters were up in arms at not being allowed to take their green-painted pet chickens into Ellis Park stadium.