Tiger Temple - Thailand

Deep in the heart of the Kanchanaburi province in Western Thailand there lies a Buddhist temple with a difference. For not only is this temple home to monks who spend their time in prayer and meditation, over the last 7 years it has become a sanctuary for tigers.



When villagers found an orphaned tiger cub, they went from place to place seeking help. Upon arrival at the monastery, the cub was welcomed out of compassion and saved from certain death. Since then many more orphaned tigers have found refuge under the abbots loving care.

Wolf dogs find haven in New Hampshire sanctuary

What happens, finally, is you turn a corner – this one being deep in New Hampshire at the bottom of a frost-heaved dirt road over a Western ridge. There is a sign there, crude letters on simple planks. "Loki Clan Wolf Refuge," it says. And you turn that corner and then you see one. You see a wolf. Her name, you learn later, is Wayah. You're here to meet the man who saved her.

In a minute that man, Fred Keating, will watch you watching Wayah, and will begin telling you about her. To begin with, she is not entirely a wolf, despite everything your senses tell you. She's a wolf dog, a mix made by breeding wolves in captivity with dogs. (Wolves won't mate with dogs in the wild.) In most states, Wayah is illegal; in the rest, she's a bad idea for all but a very, very few. "People get them, thinking they'll be pets," Mr. Keating says, "dogs, but cooler. But they're not pets. They're wolves. Doesn't matter if their wolf blood is only 1 percent – that makes them as smart as a 12-year-old human, compared with dogs who are like 3-month-old infants. They're wolves, and that's how they act."

Long-captive manatees returned to wild

ORANGE CITY, Fla. -- Two manatees that had been at an Ohio zoo were released into the wild on Tuesday at Blue Spring State Park in Volusia County.

Gene, who weighs about 1,900 pounds, had been in captivity for 30 years. When he was 2, he was hit by a boat and cut by its propeller in Brevard County.

Gene's son, Dundee, who weighs about 1,300 pounds, was released with his father. Dundee acted a little childish when workers tried to turn him on his stomach. He showed off for the waiting pod in the water and the crowd was delighted.

Researchers hope that Gene and Dundee will thrive in the wild. They have installed global position system-like devices in the manatees to monitor their progress.

"We're monitering him to make sure he is adapting, and if he is not, then we can intervene. We also do routine health assessments," said Monica Ross, a Wildlife Trust research scientist.

It was a bittersweet parting for some in the crowd, including Marvin Darvey, who watched over Gene in the Ohio zoo for more than six years.

"I am glad that he can get out there and meet some girls and maybe make some babies because that's the whole object," said Darvey.