Bird Wallpapers

Bird-Wallpapers.com brings you some of the best freely available bird backgrounds available on the net. Everything from Eagles, Parrots, Owls, Ducks and many other beautiful birds are available for download

Tiger Wallpapers

Tiger-Wallpapers.com offers a unique collection of Tiger pictures and desktop backgrounds. The site covers most of the tiger species including the white tiger and even has a separate section for other big cat pictures. A great resource and one perfect for your bookmarks.

Fish Wallpapers

If you love your fish then fish-wallpapers.com carries over 200+ fully categorised, high quality fish desktop wallpapers. From jellyfish and starfish to sharks and dolphins you’ll find most types of fish and marine life on this site. Overall a smashing site for fish lovers and one that seems to be updated on a regular basis, so definitely one of our favourites.

Lion Wallpapers

If you’re after a Lion pictures and wallpapers then lionwallpapers.com is packed to the brim with high quality lion desktop wallpapers. From adult lions, to baby cubs this site has them all and organises them into easy to browse categories. An amazing resource for big cat lovers so check them out today.

Animal Wallpaper

If you love animals then you’ll love animalwallpaper.info a great site which has over 200+ animal wallpapers many of which you simply won’t find anywhere else. Run by mick who’s an avid animal photographer you’ll find a whole range of animals from mountain goats to Toucans and big jungle lions. A great site and one that really does carry some really cool animal wallpapers
 

Shark Wallpapers

Remember the movie Jaws ? Well if you, like me became interested in sharks after that movie you’ll absolutely love sharkwallpapers.net. This site has one of the largest collections of shark desktop wallpapers and desktop backgrounds we’ve ever see. From the great white shark to the tiger and bull shark you’ll find some amazing shark wallpapers here. Definitely one to add to your favourites.

Horse Wallpapers

Horse Wallpapers is one of those sites that’s perfect for anyone that loves horses. From desktop backgrounds of Arabian horses to horses of all types and sizes you’ll be absolutely amazed at the massive selection available on this site. Definitely a site for the horse enthusiast and certainly there are very few sites of this calibre that offer horse wallpapers exclusively.

Like Being Human Thank an Animal

Chances are, if you're reading this, you share your space with an animal. A new scientific theory is making the rounds that suggests you owe them some thanks — not only for the unconditional love and companionship, but for actually making you human. According to Penn State University paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman, animals played a big part in helping early humankind evolve into what we are now — scientifically-minded, curious, organized.

And, oh yeah, carnivorous.
Around 2.6 million years ago, humans suddenly switched from a mostly vegetarian diet to a carnivorous one, a quick change (in evolutionary terms) Shipman calls it a "shortcut [in] the evolutionary process." From hunting animals for food, it was a relatively short leap to growing our own, as it were, and animal domestication and husbandry were born. And, since hunting animals for food was still a part of the diet as well, our ancestors started domesticating the first dogs.
Managing a herd of cattle or goats is somewhat more complicated than picking up your stone-tipped spear and jogging out to bring down a wild animal; it requires a different skill set. You have to be able to organize data about grazing, and keep at least rudimentary records of where to graze your herd and when. It's not too far out of bounds to speculate that animal husbandry was the among the first information sciences.
And from those humble beginnings, implies Shipman, came humankind as we know it. Johannes Gutenberg, Copernicus, the Industrial Revolution, the atomic bomb, the Beatles' White Album, and (Heaven help us) American Idol — animals helped them all come into being.
Is Shipman's theory plausible? As Shipman notes, the concept of early man spending his time and resources tending to the needs of animals is, "a poor strategy for survival ... a very weird behavior." Put into Shipman's context, it becomes explainable. Some of the implications might be disturbing, especially the implication that animal domestication had little or nothing to do with compassion and a lot more to do with utility.
We like to think of ourselves as compassionate animals, not to mention compassionate to animals. If you buy into Shipman's theory, there's still room for compassion to play a role in our evolutionary history with animals. After all, taking Shipman's logic, animals were a key factor in teaching us to organize and communicate information. It's just as easy to suggest that they also taught us, as a species, to be gracious, compassionate, and caring.

Cat size monkey species discovered

A scientific expedition to the Colombian Amazon has revealed a new species of monkey.

The species of titi monkey (Callicebus caquetensis) is a cat-size creature that is critically endangered because of rapid habitat loss and its small population. The discovery was announced Thursday by the environmental nonprofit group Conservation International.
Research from 30 years ago hinted that a previously unknown primate species might be living in Colombia's Caquetá region, near the Ecuadorian and Peruvian border, but violence and insurgent fighting kept the area off limits for decades. It was only in 2008 that scientists Thomas Defler, Marta Bueno and student Javier García of the National University of Colombia proved the rumors true.
García, a native of Caquetá, was finally able to travel to the upper Caquetá River three years ago, and, using GPS, searching on foot, and listening for calls, he found 13 groups of the new species. Titi monkeys (or zogui zogui as they are called in Spanish) have one of the most complex calls in the animal kingdom and use it every morning to mark their territory.
"This discovery is extremely exciting because we had heard about this animal, but for a long time we could not confirm if it was different from other titis. We now know that this is a unique species, and it shows the rich diversity of life that is still to be discovered in the Amazon,” said Defler.
C. caquetensis has grayish-brown hair, but does not have a white bar on its forehead as many other species of Callicebus do. Its long tail is stippled with grey, and it has a bushy red beard around its cheeks. Unlike most primates, Caquetá titi monkeys (and probably all titi monkeys) form life-long, monogamous relationships, and pairs are often seen sitting on a branch with their tails entwined.
They usually have one baby per year. As a new baby arrives, the parents force the oldest baby to leave to allow them to focus on the newborn (this is based on information collected from closely related species). The families of this species stick together in groups of about four individuals and can be seen in the trees close to some of the main rivers of Caquetá.
This newly discovered species is struggling to survive. It is estimated that less than 250 Caquetá titi monkeys exist — a healthy population should be in the thousands. The main reason for this small number is the degradation of the forests in the area, which have been felled for agricultural land. It is very dangerous, and sometimes impossible, for these animals to cross grassy savannah or barbed wire fences to reach other patches of forest.
Both the very small population size and the fragmented habitat should qualify the species for a Critically Endangered species classification, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature criteria, which means that it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future.
"This discovery is particularly important because it reminds us that we should celebrate the diversity of Earth, but also we must take action now to preserve it," said José Vicente Rodríguez, head of science at Conservation International in Colombia and president of the Colombia Association of Zoology.
"When world leaders meet later this year in Japan for the Convention on Biological Diversity, they must commit to the creation of many more protected areas if we want to ensure the survival of threatened creatures like this in the Amazon and around the world."