Animals

One of Wanaka's canine superstars, Macca John Robert Gibson (8), sparked a fire service callout yesterday morning after he got stuck in a Lindsay St culvert while chasing a rabbit.

Animals make us "more fully human" and should be celebrated for it, the Rev Helene Mann told the 12th annual pet service at St Paul's Cathedral yesterday afternoon.

Following a spinal injury, Xena the 40kg Newfoundland Labrador-cross loves getting a ride behind her owner's bike, but has sparked negative comments from passers-by.

Dunedin police are appealing for sightings of a dog that attacked two alpacas, one of which was later put down, at a Dunedin property yesterday

About 15 registered canines, plus another dozen spectating with their owners, were judged by veterinary nurse Clare Temperton and Dr Lucy Gladwin, of Pets'n'Vets Queenstown, and Otago SPCA inspector Helen Saunders, of Alexandra.

Disturbing numbers of endangered Hector's and Maui dolphin deaths have been reported in the last year, showing new protection measures are not as effective as had been hoped, University of Otago Associate Professor Liz Slooten says.

It will be a proud moment for Jan Tairua when she lines up at the New Zealand sheep dog trial championships in Gore next month, alongside her younger son, Carl.

An Arrowtown veterinarian has cured an Arthur's Point dog of her chronic joint injury by conducting the first animal stem-cell procedure in the South Island.

Some chimpanzees seem to grieve similarly to humans in the face of a fellow chimp's death, two new studies have found, appearing to comfort the dying, experience trauma after death and have trouble letting go.

A proposal that could require some property owners to collect sheep droppings accumulating on their land has come as a surprise to Cr Michael Guest, the chairman of the Dunedin City Council working party considering the new rules.

An unseasonal influx of stray and abandoned felines has left the Otago SPCA struggling to care for them all.

South Island robins, the "stars of avian entertainment", have been released into Orokonui Ecosanctuary.

Decades of stories and rumours about moose sightings have been brought together in a new book which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the animal's release in Fiordland.

Usually enemies of the animal world, a dog and a trio of kittens have formed an unlikely bond within an Alexandra home.

One of the great white sharks tagged by a team of New Zealand scientists has set a world record for the deepest known dive: 1200m.

Weather conditions, human activity (or a lack of it, in some cases) and a pest's increasing immunity to disease are keeping Central Otago farmers on their guard. The issue? Rabbits ... again.

China's latest must-have luxury for the ultra-rich, to go with mansions and sports cars, is a large, slobbery dog with massive amounts of hair best known for herding sheep in Tibet.

The Department of Conservation (Doc) is confident possums and other pests will not be able to cross a Fiordland river using one of its bridges.