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Dog Saves Baby Koala in Australia

A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)
A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)
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Dog Saves Baby Koala in Australia

A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)
A mother Koala and her joey. (Illustration - Shutterstock)

Kerry McKinnon lives in Australia with her dog, Asha, and their life was never boring. One morning her husband called her to see how their Golden Retriever was sitting outside with a baby koala perched atop her back.

Asha is being hailed a hero for her role in saving a baby koala.

The Animal Forum website quoted the owner Kerry as saying: "It was quite early in the morning, and my husband yelled out to me to come have a look at something. I didn't know what he was talking about at first but then I saw this tiny koala snuggled on top of Asha. She kept looking back at the koala but she wasn't trying to get him off her or anything."

"She was happy to let him snuggle into her."

She added: "I think the baby koala fell out of his mum's pouch and didn't know what to do. He would have died out there if left alone all night."

"The poor thing could have been taken by a fox or something," she added.

The tiny koala was checked out by a vet, and a local carer is watching over the baby until it becomes old enough to be released back into the wild.

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South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary Plan Blocked at Int’l Meeting

A juvenile pygmy blue whale swims, following a rescue operation by members of the Department of Conservation New Zealand in Kawau Island, New Zealand, September 16, 2024. Department Of Conservation New Zealand/Handout via REUTERS
A juvenile pygmy blue whale swims, following a rescue operation by members of the Department of Conservation New Zealand in Kawau Island, New Zealand, September 16, 2024. Department Of Conservation New Zealand/Handout via REUTERS
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South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary Plan Blocked at Int’l Meeting

A juvenile pygmy blue whale swims, following a rescue operation by members of the Department of Conservation New Zealand in Kawau Island, New Zealand, September 16, 2024. Department Of Conservation New Zealand/Handout via REUTERS
A juvenile pygmy blue whale swims, following a rescue operation by members of the Department of Conservation New Zealand in Kawau Island, New Zealand, September 16, 2024. Department Of Conservation New Zealand/Handout via REUTERS

A proposal to establish a sanctuary for whales and other cetacean species in the southern Atlantic Ocean was rejected at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) on Thursday, disappointing animal conservationists, Reuters reported.
At the IWC's annual session in Lima, Peru, 40 countries backed a plan to create a safe haven that would ban commercial whale hunting from West Africa to the coasts of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, extending a protected area already in place in the Southern Ocean.
However, 14 countries opposed the plan, meaning it narrowly failed to get the 75% of votes required.
Among the opponents were Norway, one of the three countries that still engage in commercial whaling, along with Iceland and Japan. Iceland abstained, while Japan left the IWC in 2019.
Petter Meier, head of the Norwegian delegation, told the meeting that the proposal "represents all that is wrong" about the IWC, adding that a sanctuary was "completely unnecessary".
Norway, Japan and Iceland made 825 whale catches worldwide last year, according to data submitted to the IWC.
Whaling fleets "foreign to the region" have engaged in "severe exploitation" of most species of large whales in the South Atlantic, and a sanctuary would help maintain current populations, the proposal said.
The South Atlantic is home to 53 species of whales and other cetaceans, such as dolphins, with many facing extinction risks, said the proposal. It also included a plan to protect cetaceans from accidental "bycatch" by fishing fleets.
"It's a bitter disappointment that the proposal ... has yet again been narrowly defeated by nations with a vested interest in killing whales for profit," said Grettel Delgadillo, Latin America deputy director at Humane Society International, an animal conservation group.
An effort by Antigua and Barbuda to declare whaling a source of "food security" did not gain support, and the IWC instead backed a proposal to maintain a global moratorium on commercial whaling in place since 1986.
"Considering the persistent attempts by pro-whaling nations to dismantle the 40-year-old ban, the message behind this proposal is much needed," said Delgadillo.