Animals news

• Should riders pick up after their horses, yay or neigh? | Letters

  19-01-2026 18:53 via theguardian.com
  Adrian Chiles’s column about dog poo left readers thinking about other types of animal excrement and etiquetteAdrian Chiles traces the recent history of dog owners picking up their dog’s poo, starting from New York (I’ve been thinking a lot about dog poo, 14 January). Certainly in this country it is now possible to go for a walk in the countryside or in towns without having to watch your step.However, quite often a footpath or bridleway is made impassable due to large dumps of
  
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• Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows

  19-01-2026 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Brown Swiss in Austria has been discovered using tools in multiple ways – something only ever seen in humans and chimpanzeesScientists have been forced to rethink the intelligence of cattle after an Austrian cow named Veronika displayed an impressive – and until now undocumented – knack for tool use.Witgar Wiegele, an organic farmer and baker from a small town in Carinthia near the Italian border, keeps Veronika as a pet and noticed that she occasionally played with sticks and
  
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• ‘We thought they would ignore us’: how humans are changing the way raptors behave

  19-01-2026 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Experts call for tighter regulation as GPS tracking reveals how people’s behaviour affects the lives of some of the world’s largest birdsMany people look up to admire the silhouette of raptors, some of the planet’s largest birds, soaring through seemingly empty skies. But increasingly, research shows us that this fascination runs both ways. From high above, these birds are watching us too.Thanks to the development of tiny GPS tracking devices attached to their bodies, researche
  
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