Bella, a 14-year-old feline from Huntingdon, UK, has claimed the Guinness Record for the world’s loudest purr by a domestic cat, with a noisy purr measured at 54.59 decibels.

The Spink family has had Bella for almost 15 years, and they’ve always suspected that she might have the world’s loudest purr. Friends and family would always wonder at her loud purring, and Nicole Spink’s late husband would complain that she was louder than the TV. One day, they decided to put Bella’s purring to the test – they downloaded a smartphone app to measure the cat’s purr and were blown away by the result. She was louder than the Guinness World record for the loudest purr by a domestic cat, so they applied for an official record attempt.

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Capitojoppa amazonica is a newly-discovered genus of parasitic wasps that stabs its victims with its giant ovipositor and sucks the blood out of them before laying its eggs inside.

The terrifying insect was discovered by scientists from the University of Utah while surveying the National Reserve of Allpahuayo-Mishana in Peru. They laid large netted devices called malaise traps to capture as many flying insects as possible. Among the creatures caught in their traps was a bright yellow wasp with a giant almond-shaped head and tube-like organs sticking out of it. Scientists concluded that the specimen, an adult female, was a new ‘solitary endoparasitoid’ – meaning it lays a single egg inside the body of its host (caterpillars, beetles, and even spiders). The egg hatches in a matter of days, after which the wasp larvae start to consume the host’s inside.

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For the past five months, the people of Pravia, a town in Spain’s Asturias Region, have been under constant siege from flocks of crows who mindlessly attack their homes and vehicles.

The town of Pravia has no less than six crows proudly displayed on its historic coat of arms, so it’s safe to say that people here have been living in harmony with the birds for centuries. That is not the case anymore, however, as large flocks of blackbirds now attack the homes and vehicles of human residents for some unknown reason. The people of Pravia started reporting groups of birds mindlessly flying into their windows repeatedly until the impact caused them to bleed in May of this year, and things have been getting worse ever since. No one knows exactly why the crows are targeting people’s homes and vehicles, but they are relentless in their attacks, pecking at and flying into windows until they start to bleed.

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Peanut, a chicken from a no-kill farm in Michigan, is the current Guinness Record holder for the ‘world’s oldest chicken’, at 21 years, 156 days, and counting.

Chickens have an average life expectancy of five to eight years, so Peanut is somewhat of a Methuselah of the aviary world. On January 28, 2023, she was officially crowned the world’s oldest chicken by Guinness World Records, at the ripe age of 20 years and 272 days. She has since turned 21 and is chasing the title of oldest chicken in recorded history. But the craziest thing about Peanut is that she almost never existed. 21 years ago, her owner was getting ready to throw a batch of rotten-looking eggs a hen had abandoned into an alligator pond when she heard a faint chirp from one of them.

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The head of a property agency in Iran was recently arrested for helping a couple with no human heirs transfer the property rights to their apartment to their pet dog.

The unnamed Iranian businessman ended up in jail and had his real estate firm shut down earlier this month after a video showing him officiating an unusual property transfer went viral on social media. In the short clip, the man can be seen preparing paperwork which is then signed by a human couple, and then by their pet dog, Chester. Well, technically, the owners just took the pooch’s paw, put some ink on it, and then put it on the contract, but we guess that’s what counts as a canine signature. The agent can be heard describing the property, and once the deal is done, Chester’s owners can be seen hugging and congratulating the dog. Iranian authorities didn’t share their happiness, though…

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Catia Lattouf de Arída has been using her apartment in Mexico City as a hospital and sanctuary for injured and abandoned hummingbirds for the last 11 years.

As pollinating agents, hummingbirds are a very important part of Mexico’s ecosystem, but because of the ever-expanding urban landscape, they face all sorts of serious threats. That’s where 73-year-old Catia Lattouf de Arída comes in. As a self-taught hummingbird caretaker, she dedicates most of her free time and resources to nursing the tiny birds back to health or at least providing the necessary palliative care to ensure an easy, dignified passing. She has been doing it for over a decade and her home in Mexico City has become known as a hummingbird hospital.

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A UK woman has become somewhat of an online sensation thanks to the family of adorable foxes that has been showing up on her doorstep every day for the last 25 years for treats.

Sharon Hughes has been welcoming foxes on her porch in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, for the last quarter of a century, but thanks to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram she can now share the daily feeding ritual with the rest of the world. One of the woman’s clips, where she throws the furry rascals treats like sausage rolls for breakfast, recently got so much attention that UK media contacted her to get the full story. Apparently, it all started 25 years ago, when a couple of foxes showed up in her garden. She threw them something to eat, and they came back for more the next day. Sharon says she is now on the fourth generation of foxes, eight curious and hungry critters who visit her every day except for two months during mating season.

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A team of Dutch researchers has discovered that magpies and crows are using metal spikes designed to keep them away from certain urban areas to reinforce their own nests and keep intruders at bay.

Scientists have known for a while that magpies and crows are some of the most intelligent birds in the world, but even they were baffled by their amazing ability to adapt to hostile urban environments. It’s not unusual for birds to use human trash and debris as tools and building materials for their nests, button see them use the very things we humans use against them was nothing short of baffling for researchers at the Natural History Museum in Rotterdam and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, in the Netherlands.

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Featherless chicken is a relatively new breed of poultry created through selective breeding in order to combat a very common problem – overheating. However, the so-called ‘naked chickens’ have yet to become mainstream.

Commercial broiler chickens are genetically prone to eat more and gain weight very fast which causes their body metabolism to operate at higher temperatures than that of other chicken breeds. Their hearts operate at up to 300 beats per minute, and while the rapid weight gain makes them perfect for the ever-growing meat industry, it also creates a very big problem – overheating. Raising broilers in hot climate regions requires expensive coolers to keep the birds’ temperature in check, but what if there was a more economical way to keep birds cool without using vast amounts of energy? That was the idea that led to the creation of the controversial featherless chicken.

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A 4-and-a-half-year-old Nelore breed cow known as Viatina-19 FIV Mara Imóveis was recently priced at $4.3 million, making it the most expensive cow in the world by a large margin.

One-third of the ownership of the cow was recently sold at an auction in Arandú, Brazil for 6.99 million real ($1.44 million), putting its total value at a staggering $4.3 million. Viatina-19 FIV Mara Imóveis had already been named the world’s most expensive bovine last year when half of its ownership was auctioned off for around $800,000, which was another record-breaking price at the time. The record-breaking transaction is indicative of the Nelore cattle breed’s genetic qualities, as well as the demand for high-quality animals with outstanding genetic characteristics.

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An Indonesian fisherman claims to have shared a friendship with a four-meter-long saltwater crocodile for over 20 years and calls the reptile part of the local community.

59-year-old Ambo, a fisherman from Bontang City, in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan, has become somewhat of a celebrity in his country because of his unusual friendship with a giant saltwater crocodile named Rizka. The giant reptile has been a constant part of Ambo’s life for the past 26 years, ever since he first laid eyes on her in the waters of Pupuk Kaltim. She was only about one meter in size back then, and he didn’t pay much attention to her as she swam past his boat, but when he noticed that she had followed him home, Ambo grabbed some food and tossed it in the water. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship spanning 26 years and who knows how many more going forward.

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Ayam Ketawa, or the Indonesian laughing chicken, is a breed of long-crowing chicken known for the clarity of its crow, which has an unusual similarity to a human laugh.

Originating from Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province, the Ayam Ketawa was originally a status symbol for the region’s Buginese royal family. Its captivating appearance made it a symbol of courage, social status, and heroism, but if you know Indonesian, you will have noticed that the breed’s name, Ayam Ketawa, literally translates to ‘laughing chicken’. That’s because this chicken’s unusual chuckling noises seem to mimic human laughter. It is this distinct characteristic that makes the Ayam Ketawa popular as an exotic pet not just in its native Indonesia, but around the world.

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Photos and clips of a proud-looking pigeon with its chest puffed out like a cartoon character and impressively long legs have been getting a lot of attention online.

The “chad pigeon” went viral after a UK pigeon breeder shared a clip of their impressive-looking bird on TikTok, where it quickly went viral. Million of people around the world have seen the footage and still can’t believe it’s a real animal. Some are convinced that it is the work of an AI-powered digital tool, while others claim that the video was digitally altered for views. However, the bird in the video is just a really impressive specimen of a rare pigeon breed called “English Pouter”. A simple Google search reveals that there is nothing too special about this particular bird, and that the extremely puffed-out chest and long legs are breed-specific traits.

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A family of poppy farmers in Slovakia has been having trouble getting rid of hundreds of swans that have become addicted to poppy seeds and sometimes even overdose on them.

Poppy farmers near the Slovakian town of Komarno first reported the presence of swans in their fields back in February. It is believed that they were originally attracted by the large puddles of water that formed in the area, but after pecking at the flowers all day, many of them became addicted to the opium-containing seeds and refused to leave. Back in May, Slovakian media reported that around 200 swans had made a poppy field near Komarno their home, causing around €10,000 in damages to the flowers and getting so high on the natural narcotic that many of them couldn’t even fly anymore.

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The ‘Chicken Orb” is a sphere made of metallic wire that allows chickens to move around and forage freely while preventing them from jumping onto flower beds and other places they’re not supposed to go into.

The Chicken Orb has been around for at least a couple of years, but it only recently started getting attention after photos and videos of it in action started going viral online. It all started from the misconception that the metallic wire orb was actually a sort of chicken armor designed to provide protection from predators while still allowing the domestic bird the freedom to forage and move around in peace. That got the debate going among chicken owners, many of whom criticized the device as useless, as it only acted as “to-go food packaging” for birds of prey, and did nothing to stop cunning predators like foxes or ferrets.

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