Raccoon Attacks Infant in Idaho Home and Other Animal News

Giant Interactive Sculpture Donated to the Center for Great Apes

After its debut at Miami Art Week 2024, a sculpture called “EARTHBALLS” by Evan Bobo was donated to the Center for Great Apes. Bobo constructed EARTHBALLS over three months, weaving together royal palm tree leaves to create the piece. Bobo’s work promotes environmental awareness and community outreach through the project.

During its debut in Miami, Bobo marketed the piece as interactive, displaying a sign saying “ROLL ME” on the sculpture. Visitors could touch, roll, and move EARTHBALLS throughout the exhibit. Now, great apes have the opportunity to interact with the sculpture themselves. The sculpture serves as a form of enrichment for the primates, allowing chimps and orangutans to play with EARTHBALLS within their enclosures. See the sculpture and find out about its role at the Center for Great Apes here.

A Norwegian Conservation Project Makes Headway in Increasing Arctic Fox Populations

Arctic foxes are near extinction in Scandinavia, ushering in another conservation project to preserve the animal’s population numbers. For decades, hunters have targeted Arctic foxes across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and some parts of eastern Russia. By 2000, between 40 and 60 Arctic foxes remained in the Norwegian wild. Meanwhile, no Arctic fox sightings were reported in Finland during the same year.

A Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) project seeks to revitalize arctic fox populations through various breeding and feeding techniques. This year alone, the institute bred 34 Arctic fox pups, which will be released into the wild in January when they grow old enough to fend for themselves. Additionally, NINA released 465 bred foxes into the vast landscape of Norway to boost wild populations within the last two decades. Experts consider Arctic foxes a keystone species in the region, making their populations crucial in maintaining ecological stability.

Raccoon Breaks into Idaho Home and Attacks Infant Child

A raccoon attacked an infant last week after breaking into an Idaho home in Cassia County. The state wildlife department claimed that the mother found a raccoon had broken into her house and was attacking her baby. The mother acted quickly, grabbing the raccoon to mitigate the attack. The father returned home accompanied by the county’s sheriff’s deputy, who killed the raccoon. The infant was taken to a hospital in Salt Lake City, where he received treatment for “undisclosed injuries.”

Authorities are unsure of how the raccoon entered the residence and continue investigating. The raccoon did not test positive for rabies, providing relief for the child’s parents. Since raccoons prefer to avoid human interaction, attacks by the animal are uncommon. Nevertheless, they can and still happen. Find out more about aggressive behavior in raccoons and how to rid them from your property here.