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When you think of porcupines, you might imagine a spiky little creature having a good old waddle across the forest floor, bristling with quills and grumpy charm. But did you know that some porcupines are expert climbers who spend most of their lives in the treetops? Meet the Coendou genus — a group of tree-dwelling porcupines that swing through the forests of Central and South America like prickly little acrobats.  Did I mention that they’re cute, too?

The Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine (Coendou spinosus) ranges across Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

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It’s perfectly understandable, in this day and age, when starting a family is put off for a year or two.  After all, parenthood is best coped with when planned. However, when the “decision” to become a first time mom is put off by decades, then friends and family stop asking when it’s ever going to happen.  This must surely have been the case with the an endangered giant tortoise who had become a mother at an estimated 100 years old.

Mommy – yes that is her name – is, to be completely accurate, a Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoise.  She was taken from her island at some point in the past (no one is sure when) but she has called Philadelphia Zoo home for 90 odd years.  Arriving in 1932, she is believed to be around a century old and even though her species stay capable of producing young way into their long, long lives, Mommy has never before produced any viable offspring.  

We've been waiting for this... forever.  Finally we can have fully-formed conversations with our non-human owners!  The guesswork is over!

London, England– April 1, 2025: At last, the long-standing dream of talking to our pets takes a step toward reality! Today, relaxAI, the advanced AI assistant platform, unveiled a groundbreaking experimental feature - PetTalk - designed to translate pet vocalizations into human language in real time. Even more astonishing, it allows humans to respond back in their pets’ native "tongue."  Our days of trying to communicate (but gettingi it badly wrong) are finally at an end.  And it's all down to technology.  You can try it by following this link.  Simply change to "pet mode" when you get there and you can start communicating!

Harnessing deep learning, speech pattern recognition, and a proprietary natural language model trained on thousands of pet audio samples, PetTalk aims to bridge the communication gap between humans and their furry companions.  Now your granny doesn't need to scratch her head when wondering what ails fluffy.  Fluffy can tell her (although it isn't always guaranteed that granny will like what she hears, of course).

According to Mark Boost, CEO of relaxAI, the inspiration came from users who wanted to build deeper emotional connections—not just with AI, but with their pets.

“PetTalk is a fun yet technically ambitious step toward pushing the limits of human-AI communication,” said Boost. “We’ve been collaborating with academic researchers and animal behavior experts to make the impossible… well, just a little less impossible.”

The feature was developed in partnership with Dr. Emily Petrichor, Professor of Animal-Human Communication at the University of Ashwood, whose pioneering research into animal vocalization patterns provided critical insights for the training data.

Dr. Petrichor explains: “There are clear acoustic patterns in animal sounds that suggest intent or emotion. While we’re still far from full interspecies dialogue, machine learning allows us to ‘guess’ what your dog or cat might be trying to express. Whether it’s accurate or not—well, that’s up to the pet.”

Though PetTalk is not (yet) certified for scientific or veterinary use, early testers have reported amusing results—from a Labrador requesting “longer belly rubs” to a cat insisting on “a private litter box with better ambiance.”

Taking care of horses is not the easiest assignment for those that look after the equine stars, but it is a job that should be taken very seriously to ensure that horses have the best quality of life.

Horses that are well-groomed always look like they are the best-cared horses in the yard, and learning how to get into a routine for grooming an equine is essentially important if you want to be hands on with a horse.

Hiring a professional groom can typically be expensive, meaning that being able to groom a horse yourself is an excellent alternative to cut your outgoings. But, what are some of the most important factors to take into account when grooming a horse?

Why Groom a Horse?

Keeping a horse well-groomed is vitally important to making sure that your equine is healthy and happy. Having a shiny and gleaming coast is a sign of health and all owners of horses will want their equines to look as though they are well looked after.

However, there are also important factors that should be considered when it comes to grooming a horse. For example, it improved a horse’s health as brushing can stimulate blood flow to the skin and help spread natural oils.

Removing dirt and other items from the coat also reduces the risk of skin diseases, as wet and dirty hair are prone to bacterial growth. Meanwhile, grooming a horse also ensures that you’re able to monitor your equine, ensuring that you can quickly notice anything that looks strange and assessing whether you need medical assistance.

Owners will also need to maintain hoof care, as constant grooming reduces the risk of conditions such as thrush. Furthermore, there are also positives that come with grooming and riding, as a healthy grooming lifestyle will ensure that horses are comfortable to ride, as tacking up a dirty horse can lead to shaving due to equipment which may cause issues and discomfort for a horse.

So when you are ready to bet on the 2025 Kentucky Derby with TwinSpires imagine all the work and investment that was put into taking care of each racehorse.

When Should You Groom A Horse?

Horses should be groomed before every ride. This ensures that everything is fine with the equine, and maintains that they will be able to move freely without any lingering issue.

Pre-grooming before a ride also ensures that there is limited risk of chafing when working out, as this could be very uncomfortable for a horse when equipment is rubbing up against their skin.

Checks should always be made to horses before sitting on it, and also when you get off the horse. Daily grooming is also completed to make sure that there is nothing amiss with the equine every day.

While this may not be practical for every owner, it is still encouraged to put your mind at ease. Despite horses that wear blankets reducing the amount that they get dirty, owners should still groom these equines just as they would the horses without a blanket. This is vitally important as horses with blankets on could have rain scald if they are wet or muddy.

General Grooming Tips

Grooming your horse can be straightforward if you have a good relationship with the equine.

Firstly, you must ensure that the horse is secure, as if the equine is moving around and wiggling, it will be harder to complete the grooming process. You should then clean the horses’ hooves, this should always be the first step on your daily grooming schedule.

Lift their leg and then remove all the debris from their foot. If they are wearing a horseshoe, you should pick inside to remove any pebbles and big pieces of dirt. Next, you should currycomb your horse. This piece of equipment is used to bring dirt to the surface of the skin, which you can then pick up or brush off to ensure that they are clean.

After completing the combing, you can get straight into adding some shine to your horse. A soft body brush can be used to add the shine, while this will also help remove any finer pieces of dirt that you may have missed in the last step. Long and broad strokes are required, while shorter strokes may be preferred for more delicate areas such as the legs.

When you get to the tail, a wide-toothed comb or brush could be the preferred option. You should untangle the hair using your fingers, before moving onto using the comb or brush.

Work on small sections at a time, and gently hold the root end of the hair. It is important to stand to the side of a horse when combing or brushing the tail, which ensures that you will be nowhere near the dangerous kicking zone. After the grooming process is complete, you can hop aboard your horse and go for a stroll.

The gecko is an extraordinary lizard, a triumph of both adaptation and diversity.  Out of the 5,600 species of lizard on the planet, over 1,500 belong to the gecko infraorder called Gekkota.  So, what is so interesting about a line of lizards which is, apparently, so ubiquitous?  Here are 20 interesting facts about the gecko, as well as some amazing pictures of species that you may not have come across before.

Geckos can vary greatly in length.  The smallest (Jaragua sphaero) is tiny, just under two centimeters in length.  However, some species can grow up to 60 centimeters.  The largest ever discovered, the Kawekaweau from New Zealand, is sadly now extinct.

Above
1. Gold Dust Day Gecko - Phelsuma laticauda laticauda
2. Common Leopard Gecko - Eublepharis macularius