Animals

The owner of a donkey on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos was arrested on Monday on charges of animal cruelty, in the area of Plomari, local media reports said.

The unnamed suspect is accused of hobbling the donkey by tying its legs together, a practice known as "pastouroma" that is strictly prohibited under animal welfare law, as it can lead to serious injuries and even death.

An Interior Ministry official on Monday sought to assuage fears that the recent introduction of stricter guidelines for the licensing and operation of stray cat and dog shelters will lead to the closure of dozens of nongovernmental facilities across the country.

The Postojna Cave welcomed new olm offspring last year after witnessing the blind cave salamander (Proteus anguinus) reproduce "in the wild" for the first time in 2016. Now it has launched a special project to take care of what are a total of 57 baby dragons.

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency has detected an outbreak of the disease Influenza (flu) in birds in a facility for breeding quails for eggs in the land of the town of Etropole in the Sofia region.

The affected farm consists of two sites, owned by one owner, with a closed cycle of quail hatching and rearing. Sampling was carried out after high bird mortality was found at the site.

An endangered caracal and its offspring have been spotted with a camera trap placed in the forest in the Aegean province of Muğla.

The camera trap set by Yasin İlemin from Muğla Sıtkı Kocaman University captured images of a caracal and two puppies, whose species are under threat of extinction.

A man who quit his job and devoted himself to injured pack animals since 2018 has established Türkiye's first volunteer animal operating room.

After quitting his job in the advertising sector in 2018, Okan Oflaz began to take care of disabled and injured pack animals.

The local community of Vartholomio, Ilia in southern Greece is reeling in horror and disgust at the abominable images posted online of dead dogs and cats that ingested poison placed by an unknown perpetrator.

Nearly two thirds of the sharks and rays that live among the world's corals are threatened with extinction, according to new research published on Jan. 17, with a warning this could further imperil precious reefs.

A special diet program has been made for 72 bears that did not hibernate in Türkiye's only bear shelter in the northwestern province of Bursa.

Some 72 bears at the Karacabey Ovakorusu Bear Shelter could not hibernate due to the unusual seasonal conditions. Apart from the food they find in the natural environment, the bears are fed specially by their caretakers to prepare for winter.

Camera traps used in the wildlife monitoring and research studies of Bartın University have captured images of bears that could not hibernate due to the weather conditions above the seasonal norms in the northern province's Ulus district.