Recently in Animals Category

These days, even sharks have online social networks.

The nonprofit Iemanya Oceanica announced last week that a team including several South Bay residents had successfully tagged three whale sharks, bringing the group's family of trackable sharks to 10.

The new additions -- a type of shark with mouths so big "you could drive a Volkswagen into" them, Iemanya board member Patty Civalleri has said, and that is particularly vulnerable to boat collisions and overfishing -- were found during Iemanya's inaugural tagging expedition, in Bahia de Los Angeles, Mexico.

"We opened up 20 seats on this expedition to the public," said Civalleri, a Manhattan Beach resident, "and because of the assistance from the media, we were able to fill those seats quickly with volunteers who came to us with various levels of water skills and a general knowledge of nature and the ocean. We couldn't have asked for a better group."

That group worked with researchers to attach tags to the sharks' dorsal fins. Through those tags -- and satellite transmission -- Iemanya will learn air and water temperatures, diving patterns, daily and seasonal movement and calving and feeding habits.

And it's sharing it all with you.

"People can now go online and adopt a shark as an educational gift," said Laleh Mohajerani, Iemanya's executive director. "Then every day they can track the movement of their shark," she added.

Get yours. And read Staff Writer Andrea Woodhouse's original Daily Breeze story about the Iemanya tagging expedition.

You don't have to leave your desk to watch the whales and dolphins play in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California.

David Anderson has mounted seven cameras and built an underwater viewing pod on his 50-foot high-tech, high-speed catamaran and will take anyone along for a virtual ride.

Anderson, a documentary filmmaker whose "Wild Dolphins and Whales of Southern California" was a winner at the Wildscreen Film Festival, wanted his latest venture to be more than a webcam.

"It's like a reality show. We have mikes on the captain and crew. You will hear things even the passengers don't hear. My crew was not real keen on this and there is a little friction but they understand why we are doing it," he said.

When the boat is out, the cameras are on, the mikes are connected and the action is live.

If you sign up on his Web site in the morning, he will Tweet you when the boat is approaching a group of whales or a pod of dolphins. That lets you log on for the best of each trip. Recaps will also be available on the Web site each night, he said.

It took more than a year to get Coast Guard approval for the viewing pod on Anderson's boat, the Manute'a. The viewing pod, made of 36 square feet of bulletproof glass, holds just a couple of people at a time and they can find themselves very intimate with the dolphins.

Today is the first day of the Chinese new year, the Year of the Ox, an event marked by parades and fireworks the world over.

But centuries ago, that fanfare wasn't just celebration -- it was a safety precaution.

According to a History Channel account, "legend spoke of the wild beast Nien (which also is the word for 'year') that appeared at the end of each year, attacking and killing villagers. Loud noises and bright lights were used to scare the beast away."

But we're up against a different beast this year, and those noises and lights might not be enough.

Even though the year has a bullish sign, it lacks the element of fire, which Chinese mythology says is essential to financial well-being.

The concerns aren't only about the economy. Some fortunetellers predict earthquakes, rising U.S.-Russian tensions and a rough start for President Barack Obama, even though he was born under in a Year of the Ox, in 1961.

The problem is that the ox zodiac sign conflicts with a traditional Chinese divinity called the "God of Year." He is also the 44th president, a number the Chinese deem extremely unlucky, because "four" is pronounced the same as "death" in Chinese.

"The new U.S. president is not having good luck this year. His honeymoon will only be short-lived," said fortuneteller Alion Yeo, predicting Obama may even face impeachment in his first year in office. "The Year of the Ox looks slightly better and less dire than last year, but it will still be bumpy."

But don't count Obama out yet.

Malaysian numerologist Weng Shi Ming suggested Obama's birth year would offset his bad luck. Weng said the symmetry of 1961 is "the perfect mix of ying and yang," rendering Obama "immune to the effects of 44."

After all, the ox, one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, symbolizes calm, hard work, resolve and tenacity.

So it might be a bad year for Obama, but what about you? Get your Chinese horoscope based on your zodiac sign (determined by your birth year). And get even more insight into your fortune by finding out what your element is. All you need to enter is your birth date and time.

If your element is soil, prepare for some good news in April, because while the Chinese year of 4706 lacks fire, it contains strong earth.

And if that's not enough luck for you, wait a day to clean your house and wash your hair. Chinese superstition holds that performing either task at the start of the year will sweep away your good fortune.

Confused by the fire, the yin and the yang of the Chinese calendar? Learn a bit about how the elements and numbers work.

Canine owners all over the South Bay showed up in San Pedro Thursday for the audition of "Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan," but why resort to a pet shrink when you can be your own?

Reader's Digest has five tips the Dog Whisperer himself urges every canine owner to heed.

If you need to go away for a while or just want an extra helping hand, PetWatch Club can help you find someone in your area who might want to pet-sit for your canine companion or feline friend. Find others who might have advice for your problems, or alert members in the neighborhood if your pet goes missing. Enter your ZIP code and find fellow pet owners. The South Bay is well-represented in the PetWatch club database.

If you're planning a trip but don't want to keep your furry pals at home, Petswelcome.com lists more than 25,000 pet-friendly hotels, campgrounds and beaches that'll cater to your needs.

Good pet owners should always be prepared. The Department of Homeland Security advises pet owners to have emergency plans for the care of their animals.

We've saved the best for last. By far, and without irony or hyperbole, the single best source for pet news and resources is the South Bay Pets Blog. Read the items and see the videos, then bookmark it or even make it your home page.

Full disclosure: The South Bay Pets Blog is run by the Daily Breeze. That's what makes it so great.

The injured American black bear cub who gained international fame after his rescue last month from the embers of a Shasta County wildfire will soon have a Web cam to complement his new rehabilitation blog.

Li'l Smokey, who was the focus of a recent "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric" segment, will be seen on a 24-hour Web cam starting this week, said Cheryl Millham, executive director of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care, where the cub is recovering from his burns.

The care center has been keeping track of Li'l Smokey, as well as all the other injured critters, through a black-and-white closed-circuit camera system unavailable to the public.

The new Web cam images will be in color and will be available to anyone who wishes to go to the nonprofit group's Web site.

Millham hopes to have the Web cam up and running sometime this week.

The paws of the adorable, but sometimes feisty, bear cub were badly burned during the Moon Fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. It is hoped his severe burns will heal well enough that he can be released back into the Shasta-Trinity National Forest during next year's hibernation season.

If you've been rooting for the whales in the ongoing Supreme Court case involving Navy sonars and our mammoth ocean neighbors, you'll want to hear the latest news in the whaling industry.

This week's International Whaling Convention is devoted to hashing out issues in whale hunting, conservation and research. This year, it's being held in Chile, but the news hits much closer to home.

San Pedro is the home of the American Cetacean Society's Los Angeles chapter. The ACS is an organization devoted to protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises.

The group has sent Kate Sardi, its national research chair, to the convention, and she's been maintaining a blog covering the event.

Follow Sardi's blog all week. Information on ACS' local marine mammal lectures and whale-watching trips is available at the Los Angeles chapter Web site. They've got a few whale-watching excursions coming up in July and August, so sign up now before all the spaces are filled up!

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Roosters, and their owners, can live in Los Angeles for another day without fear of being hassled by The Man.

Los Angeles councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents San Pedro and the Harbor areas, had planned on introducing a city ordinance to limit households to one rooster each. Real estate and land use blog Curbed LA wrote that Hahn had also wanted residents to embed their rooster with microchips. Warning: The Curbed items contain cheeky uses of the word "cock," but are otherwise safe for work.

The law was supposed to give homeowners recourse from incessant cock-a-doodle-dooing, prevented bird flu, and probably bust up any cockfighting rings within the city.

Rooster boosters can breathe a sigh of relief. The motion has been withdrawn, because the city's budget crunch doesn't allow animal control to effectively enforce the measure.

Homeowners seeking peace and quiet from the feathered fiends will once again feel Los Angeles has laid an egg, but urban bird owners have something to crow about.

Did you know that a well-intended scattering of seeds or breadcrumbs may not be the best things for our flying friends? With the 12th International Migratory Bird Day falling on the second Saturday in May, the City of Hermosa Beach, which sees more than its share of migrating birds, points out on its Web site a list of interesting facts that may ruffle a few feathers among ornithologists, but should ensure a safer spring migratory passage for birds including terns, hawks, cranes, warblers and sparrows:

1) Southern California provides an abundant, natural, year-round food supply for birds to survive without supplementation. If humans don't feed the birds, they will not starve; they will forage for food in other places, thus dispersing their environmental impact over a wider area.

2) When supplementary food is readily available year-round the natural cycles of migration (which are largely determined by seasonal food supplies) may also be disrupted. If birds become dependent on an artificial food source, young birds may not be taught how to forage for natural foods and so risk starvation.

3) Feeding birds can lead to the spread of infectious diseases that can be fatal to certain species of birds. Veterinarians say that without easy access to bird feeders and bird baths, infected animals will die and not infect other healthy birds in the process. Bird feeders also present potential risks to birds, such as window collisions and predators.

4) Feeding birds can attract unwanted guests, like rats.

So what's a bird-lover to do? The answer: Plant native plants that provide food, cover, nesting sites or a combination of resources. Native plants provide food at different times of the year to birds in the form of seeds, fruit or as invertebrate host sites. To access a comprehensive, regionally referenced database of plants that are particularly valuable to specific birds and other beneficial organisms, visit the Audubon Society's

Global positioning technology has come a long way. Prices have come way down and the technology has become more versatile than a high-tech replacement for the Thomas Guide.

Zoombak is marketing itself as a GPS device to help track lost pets. The $200 unit weighs less than 3 ounces and can be attached to a dog's or cat's collar, and the canine or feline can be tracked on the web, via Zoombak's customer service line or through text messaging on a cell phone.

Zoombak also has a unit available for GPS's most customary use, vehicle navigation and tracking. The $250 unit can be fixed inside a vehicle and portable, and can be used to track a vehicle's location and notify subscribers when it enters or leaves a user-defined "safety zone." The GPS device is promoted as a great way for parents to monitor teenagers' driving habits.

The low price and interface has attracted the attention of Martha Stewart and techno-geek sites such as Engadget and Slashdot. Early adopters have taken advantage of the compact size and cost to track other valuables besides pets and cars: An art collector places Zoombaks on expensive pieces, and a pharmaceutical uses the devices to track inventory.

Zoombak is not without its flaws. The $200-$250 price tag is for the physical unit; customers must still pay a monthly service fee to maintain coverage. Real-time cell phone tracking is not yet available. Also, the GPS technology is not yet advanced enough to receive a strong signal while indoors. This is less of a concern for vehicles, but the gadget might not work if a dog or cat happens to be inside a building.

Still, Zoombak would be a useful gadget to have for your lovable four-legged friend. Plus, the cellular-based coverage for the service shows signals to be robust throughout all but the mountainous areas of Southern California. And for other helpful products, information or pet-related chatter, visit the Daily Breeze's South Bay Pets blog and South Bay Pet Talk, which appears online and in the Breeze print edition every Tuesday.

If one fertile female rabbit is left at the county's Alondra Park within a year's time there could be a colony of 3,500 rabbits.
This is just one of the fun facts you can find here. The Web site is run by Linda Baley from Redondo Beach, who created the rabbit adoption and information site.
The rabbits that she offers for adoption are neutered and healthy. This makes them better pets if you just have to get a bunny for Easter.
Baley's site also stresses that like all pets getting a rabbit is a commitment and shouldn't be taken lightly. Because abandoning rabbits in public parks isn't fair to them or good for the environment.