Baby Akili was born at the Memphis Zoo on Thursday, expanding the zoo’s giraffe family to seven. Although born outside in public view, Akili will be kept inside until the weather warms. She was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 125 lbs at birth.

Her name is Swahili for intelligent.

Read more about baby Akili at The Commercial Appeal.

Read more about giraffes at Animal Fact Guide.

A group of 11 chimpanzees living in Edinburgh, Scotland have created a film using specially created cameras dubbed ChimpCams. The movie came about as part of research being done by primatologist Betsy Herrelko, who is studying for her PhD.

Herrelko introduced the video technology to the chimps over an 18 month period. She created two goals for the chimpanzees: to learn to select videos to watch using a touchscreen and to learn to record their own videos using the ChimpCam.

By observing what videos the chimpanzees watched, Herrelko was able to determine what chimpanzees prefer to see. The chimps were allowed to choose videos of their enclosure or video of the area where zoo staff prepares their food. While an in-depth analysis of their viewing habits has not been done, it appears that the chimps have no preference for either set of videos.

The chimps were much more interested in the ChimpCam and enjoyed watching the video screen as they filmed their lives in the enclosure.

The film, ChimpCam, will be shown on BBC 2 on Wednesday, January 27th.

For more, and for a clip of the film, visit the BBC.

The Minnesota Zoo has welcomed a female gibbon to their zoo. Born about three weeks ago, the gibbon was not being cared for by her mother. She is a white-cheeked gibbon, a critically endangered species.

Our favorite part of this video is the sounds that the baby makes. She sounds like R2D2.

Wildlife Saving is an organization for children which offers the opportunity to sponsor an animal. The organization has several animals at various wildlife centers around the world that can be sponsored.  Each animal has information provided for those who donate. This includes photos and videos of the animal and blog posts from the animals caretakers.

The site requires registration to donate to an animal. To make this safe for children, they comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.  Parental permission is also required for children to register. They also keep donation prices quite low, from 4 dollars to sponsor for 3 months to 13 dollars for a year.

To learn more, visit their site WildlifeSaving.org.

The country of Ecuador is the home to many exciting animals, even ones no one knew existed! Recent exploration by U.S. and Ecuadorian researchers have found more than 30 new species. Among the new species is the scaly-eyed gecko, which, even when full-grown is small enough to sit atop the eraser of a pencil. These geckos crawl along the forest floor, making them difficult to spot.

Researchers worry that deforestation and global warming could wipe out many of Ecuador’s unique creatures.

To read more, and to see a complete list of the newly found species (including a frog with see-through skin!), visit National Geographic.com.

Photo: World Wildlife Fund

Just as polar bears are in critical danger as global warming melts the ice caps, limiting their habitat, Bengal tigers are also threatened by this phenomenon.  Making their homes among the Sundarbans, a mangroves ecosystem in Bangladesh, Bengal tigers number around 4000 in the wild.  As polar caps melt, sea levels will rise.  According to a Climactic Change journal report by the World Wildlife Fund, by 2070, the sea levels near Bangladesh will rise 11 inches, submerging 96% of the Bengal tiger habitat. This provides space for only 20 breeding pairs, which is not enough to sustain the population.

For more info, see: USAToday Science Fair.

In our last poll, we asked Animal Fact Guide visitors, “What do you think is the best way to help endangered animals?”

These were the results:

Educating the public: 36%
Volunteering with wildlife charities: 32%
Boycotting endangered animal products: 15%
Reducing carbon emissions: 9%
Writing to legislators & signing petitions: 8%

You can get involved in our current poll, “Where is the best place to see animals?” by scrolling down to our Poll widget in the sidebar to the right.

Dokkoon, an Asian elephant residing at the Melbourne Zoo in Australia, gave birth on Saturday to female baby elephant. This marked the first time a female Asian elephant has been born in Australia. The baby pachyderm was also the first elephant born at the Melbourne Zoo.

Baby Elephants first steps from Zoos Victoria on Vimeo.

For more info, see:
Zoos Victoria
The Age

Photo by Yael Olek

With a leg span of 14 cm (5.5 in.), a new spider found in the dune of the Sands of Samar in Israel is the largest of its type in the Middle East.  It was discovered in the southern Arava region in Israel and given the scientific name, Cerbalus aravensis.

Although scientists still need to conduct a full study of the creature, they do know that it is a nocturnal spider that lives in an underground den with a “lifting door” made of glued sand particles so the den remains camouflaged.

The Israel Land Administration plans to continue mining the Sands of Samar, which will reduce this spider’s habitat and jeopardize its survival.

For more information, see NatGeo News Watch.

Animal Fact Guide has added FREE printable bookplates to our Fun Stuff and Teacher Tools sections.  Kids can personalize the books in their home library, and teachers can designate their classroom books. Currently, we have a bookplate featuring a badger in colored and blank background versions.  Check back for more additions!

Bookplates print on 8.5″ x 11″ sheets divided into ten 4″ x 2″ labels (generally branded as shipping labels at the stationery store).