Animals

Rejected Christmas trees used as animal feed in Stuttgart zoo

Trees that no one wanted to take home for Christmas have come in handy at one south German zoo.

offbeat

Berlin zoo elephants snack on Christmas trees

There was a special delivery to the Tierpark zoo in the former East of the capital this week – left-over Christmas trees for the elephant herd to chow down on.

offbeat

Hamburg welcomes new addition to elephant herd

The elephant herd at Hamburg's Hagenbeck Tierpark (Zoo) is now ten strong after mother Yashoda gave birth to a baby girl on Monday following a 23-month pregnancy.

Hunting

Elephant hunter becomes agriculture boss

A German conservation official who caused uproar after he boasted about shooting an elephant in Botswana has been made president of a state agricultural institute rather than being sacked.

Berlin

Scientist seeks deposits for elephant sperm bank

Elephants in captivity are becoming too inbred, so a German researcher has amassed a sperm bank of wild elephant semen for zoos to draw on. There’s just one small problem – sperm is not a commodity bull elephants give up lightly.

medicine

Munich baby elephant first to get heart surgery

A baby elephant in Munich will be the first in the world to undergo heart surgery, after vets at the zoo realised she had a congenital defect which will kill her within weeks if nothing is done.