National Post

Panda watch, commence! Toronto Zoo’s furry new rock stars make their debut
Da Mao and Er Shun were treated like rock stars on Thursday as dignitaries flocked to the Toronto Zoo for a sneak peak of the new giant pandas.

The unveiling began with a flautist leading children from Davisville Public School and Yip’s Children’s Choir, who sang the Canadian and Chinese national anthems. (Darren Calabrese / National Post)

‘He thought I was nuts’: Guidance counselor snaps photos of wild squirrels interacting with miniature props
Wednesday was Nancy Rose’s day off. For most of the afternoon, the high school guidance counselor from Bedford, N.S., was crouched on her porch, her camera fixed on a miniature bathtub that was carefully staged on a railing. Ms. Rose was waiting for a squirrel to approach the tub and reach for the peanuts inside. National Post reporter Jake Edmiston interrupted Wednesday’s photo shoot to speak to the photographer, whose whimsical depictions of the woodland creatures are garnering international attention.

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Bird-eye view of the camel caravan — Indian farmers transport watermelons on camels on their way to market in Allahabad, India, Friday, May 3, 2013. The summer fruits gain popularity with the rise of temperature. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

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Cuddly kid — A male Sichuan takin kid born in January 2013 in Los Angeles Zoo rubs against his mother Wednesday April 17, 2013. The goat antelopes are normally found in the mountains of China. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Zoo)

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Doomed ducklings — A duckling tries to climb out of a basket in a duck farm in Zhangzhou, south China’s Fujian province. The duck farm has had to kill more than 400 thousand new born little ducks every week after H7N9 bird flu affected the domestic poultry market. Chinese state media on April 15 urged people to keep eating chicken and help revive the poultry industry, which lost 1.6 billion USD (10 billion yuan) in the week after the H7N9 bird flu virus began infecting humans. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

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Two-headed pig—This picture taken on April 10, 2013 shows a newly born two-headed pig in a village in Jiujiang, east China’s Jiangxi province. A local veterinarian said it is suffering a rare deformity and would find it difficult to survive. (AFP/Getty Images)

Camel gifted to French president is mistaken for food, made into tagine and eaten for dinner
As if President Francois Hollande of France did not have enough trouble with a stagnant economy and a scandal over his former budget minister’s secret overseas bank accounts, now his camel has been eaten.

Grateful Malian authorities gave the baby camel to Hollande during a triumphant visit to Mali in early February, after French troops intervened to drive back Islamist rebels who had seized the north of the country.

The French president left his baby camel in the care of a family in Timbuktu. The family, evidently misunderstanding the purpose of the custody arrangement, proceeded to slaughter the camel and feast on it. According to local reports, it was fashioned into a tasty tagine. (AFP PHOTO / TIZIANA FABITIZIANA)

PETA puts up $5,000 reward after Ringling Bros. circus elephant wounded in drive-by shooting
Authorities say a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus elephant was hit by a bullet in a drive-by shooting in Tupelo, Miss.

Circus spokeswoman Melinda Hartline says the elephant was not seriously hurt Tuesday. She says no other animals were harmed.

The elephant, Carol, is part of a circus in town for a series of performances. The Asian elephant was in an outside area of the Tupelo BancorpSouth Arena. (Screengrab / The Associated Press)

Train forced to make emergency stop after elderly man ties puppy to tracks: police
Officials say a 78-year-old man tied a puppy to train tracks in the California desert, and an engineer had to use emergency brakes to keep from crushing it.

Riverside County animal control said in a statement Tuesday that Banjo, a 10-month-old poodle-terrier mix, is fine and up for adoption.

The train was near Mecca on April 2 when the engineer saw a man walking away from the tracks and stopped. (Riverside County Animal Services / The Associated Press)

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Herding the swans — Swans are accompanied to the river Alster in Hamburg, northern Germany  on April 9, 2013. The swans are brought to their summer residence after having spent the winter season at a smaller lake. (SVEN HOPPE/AFP/Getty Images)

The mysterious case of Calgary’s frolicking arrow-shot bunnies
The calls come every year, around the time that the snow melts and Calgary’s plentiful jackrabbit population begins to lose its white winter coat.

Residents around the suburban edges of the city peek outside to see a rabbit nibbling on new grass — a common enough sight. But then, something doesn’t seem quite right: The rabbit is hopping along, healthy as anything, but what’s weird is the arrow — complete with neon tail feathers — piercing the creature clean through.

A spokesperson for the Calgary Humane Society said the organization gets about 10 calls like this per year. Police, fish and wildlife or humane officers are dispatched, but more often than not, the bunny is gone before they get to the scene. So far this spring, two targeted rabbits have been caught alive. One survived surgery. The other died. 

“I think what it comes down to is that people are just tired of the bunnies. That’s probably what we’re finding, that in certain areas they certainly are a nuisance.

“But to take care of it in this type of a manner is definitely not right,” said Steve Adair, a detective with the Calgary Police Service.(Jonathon Kettler for Postmedia News)

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A portrait of a leopard: Amur leopard Xembalo looks through the bars of its enclosure at the zoo in Leipzig, Germany, Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/dpa,Hendrik Schmidt)