Your Animal Fix: Heroes & Villains, Rare Sightings and a Reality Show from the Animal World

Let's start with the rare.

Pygmy Hippos

Are there any left out there?

Rare pygmy hippos are surviving hidden in Liberia's forests against all the odds, despite two civil wars that have ravaged their habitat, British scientists said on Monday.

The creatures, which are almost never seen in the wild, were spotted in Liberia' Sapo National Park using special camera traps.

The West African country is one of the last refuges of the endangered pygmy hippopotamus but conservationists had feared recent forest destruction and poaching might have wiped them out.

In fact, a team led by Ben Collen of the Zoological Society of London recorded images of pygmy hippos just three days after setting up their camera traps among the trees.

"We were delighted to discover that a population still persists there, but remain highly concerned for the species, which continues to face significant threats from poaching and habitat degradation," Collen said in a statement.

The animals -- whose closest living relatives, besides the common hippopotamus, are whales -- hide themselves away in the rapidly shrinking Upper Guinean forest ecosystem.

The forest has been hit by unsustainable logging and mining operations, which were especially devastating during the civil wars.

ygmy hippos are also targeted by bushmeat hunters.

Only 10 percent of the original Upper Guinean forest is left, of which Liberia accounts for about 40 percent.

Dolphin Saves Whales

The rarity here is what the Dolphin did.

Witnesses described how a dolphin saved two distressed whales from what seemed like certain death, stranded on a New Zealand beach.

The dolphin apparently calmed the whales, then led them out to sea and away from danger.

The actions of the bottlenose dolphin, known locally as Moko, amazed would-be rescuers.

"She (Moko) did in a few minutes what we had actually been totally ineffective in doing over an hour-and-a-half," said Conservation Department worker Malcolm Smith.

The two pygmy sperm whales, a mother and her calf, were found stranded on Mahia Beach, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of the capital of Wellington, on Monday morning, Smith said.

Rescuers struggled to get the pair back into the water, only to see them strand themselves four times on a sandbar just off-shore.

Rescuers feared the whales would have to be euthanized to prevent them suffering.

"I was about the give up and usually when that happens the whales stay on the beach and we have to take the distress away from the situation," said Smith, who was among the rescuers.

Along came Moko, who approached the whales and led them 200 meters (yards) along the beach and through a channel out to the open sea.

"She came directly to where we were and established contact and immediately those two whales seemed to relax," Smith added.

Smith said that evidence abounds of dolphins protecting people lost at sea but few if any records exist of them helping other species.

"This is the first recorded instance of something like this happening," he said.

Smith speculated that Moko responded after hearing the whales' distress calls.

After the rescue, Moko returned to the beach where it spends much of its time swimming playfully with humans.

Now let's talk babies.

Baby Tigers:

Three tiger cubs were born at the San Francisco Zoo nine days ago.

Saturday, the cubs got their first health check-up and are reportedly in fine shape.

Zoo officials initially announced that their five-year-old Sumatran tiger named "Leanne" had given birth to one cub. Late last week, Leanne got up from her nesting box revealing that she actually gave birth to triplets.

Zoo officials say the three cubs are all males and weight in at about four pounds each right now.

Leanne and the father, ten-year-old George, are on loan from Colorado and Texas.

Zoo officials say Leanne came from a zoo in San Antonio and George came from an aquarium in Denver.

Banding Eagle Chicks

I had no idea that Eagle Chicks were so ugly! 

Biologists with the Arizona Game and Fish Department spent the day tagging and checking on nesting eagles on Lake Pleasant.

The biologists rappelled down the side of a cliff to a nesting site that some eaglets call home.

The birds had an identification band put on and were measured and photographed as part of an effort to help increase the number of those spectacular birds in the Lake Pleasant area.

Biologists say they expect to have about 48-breeding pairs of Bald Eagles this year.

Seal Cub

We get abandoned dogs on our door steps.  But on the California coast, they get something different.

A San Diego, California man found a different bundle of joy on his doorstep Sunday.

It's a baby sea lion. 

Somehow, the marine mammal climbed off the beach, across a road, through a fence, and ended up on Chris Guimond's porch.

He thought it looked like a dog, but it was barely moving.

Guimond called animal control, who in turn called Sea World.

They swooped in and took the sea lion to their vets to be checked out.

Guimond hopes the pup will be able to return to the sea.

Now some controversy.

Kangaroo Kull

Why is the government shooting kangaroos in Australia?

The problem is that this one type of Roo is over-grazing on a rare Australian grass.

To rebalance the ecosystem, the government will allow a kangaroos hunt.

Here is their position.

My favorite part of this is now I know what the former lead singer for Midnight Oil is doing. 

Peter Garrett is now in the liberal government as the Environmental Minister..advocating Kangaroo genocide!

But some Roo lovers are aghast.

And they plan to protect the animals any way they can.. even rushing out to shield them with their own bodies.

Here are the protestors.

And finally.. the dog reality show.

America's Greatest Dog:

A reality show that's like Big Brother with dogs and their owners coming this summer.

Now's the chance for you or someone you know to showcase your dog.
It's for a dog-gone reality show that could make your dog stars.
The working title of the CBS show is "America's Greatest Dog!"
Rick Chambers shows us, there was an audition in Culver City.

Here is a link to the CBS page on the upcoming show.