gracious/wildlife

Arctic foxes create "nest eggs" each year to prepare for leaner times, according to a new study.

Like squirrels gathering nuts for the winter, the small foxes hoard bird eggs in case there's not enough of their favorite prey--the collard lemming--to go around in the spring.

The stored eggs can last for up to a year after being buried, thanks to the Arctic permafrost and natural preservatives inside the eggs.

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Photo by Maria Stenzel. Her comment, "I was shooting from the boat, on an unusually calm, sunny morning. Weaving among the icebergs, we could see chinstraps everywhere, many of them perched on the ice, resting from feeding or, in the case of juveniles, probably just hanging out. They are incredible athletes, able to scale the steepest of slopes, digging into the ice with their crampon-like claws."

The South Sandwich Islands are home to the world's largest colony of chinstrap penguins. Every summer, two million or so pairs arrive on the island of Zavodovski. They immediately start mating and laying eggs. This gives them time to raise their chicks before winter. They fatten the chicks on krill, small prawn-like crustaceans in the sea, before winter comes and the ocean freezes over.

Entry in Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Forest rangers in the northern Italian Alps have confirmed for the first time the existence of an albino mountain goat - and named him "Snowflake."

Rangers took photos of the albino capra ibex climbing with its mother at about 10,000 feet above the Les Laures valley in the northwestern Val d'Aosta region, said Christian Chioso, a regional wildlife official.

"This is the only one ever documented, the only one ever seen," Chioso said. Albinism is rare in any species and has not been previously documented among the capra ibex, a type of wild mountain goat with large curved horns that lives in mountainous areas.

Chioso estimated the albino animal is about a year old.

The last 100 mountain gorillas still alive in the Democratic Republic of Congo after years of fighting, live in the 8,000 sq km Virunga National Park, in eastern DR Congo. Around 1,100 wildlife rangers work in the parks of eastern DR Congo, protecting not only mountain gorillas, but also chimpanzees, forest elephants, rhinos and lowland gorillas.

The rangers, who work for the Congolese wildlife authority (ICCN), risk their lives to protect the gorillas, despite small and irregular wages.

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Elephants are secretive about giving birth in the wild and witnessing such an extraordinary event is rare even for conservationists.

The extraordinary moment an elephant gave birth in the wild has been captured on camera by a couple on honeymoon.

The thrilling amateur footage was recorded by newlyweds Debbie and Jon Smith at Ulusaba private game reserve in the Kruger national park in South Africa.

After their near demise during the settlement of the West, pronghorn have made an impressive comeback and are faring well in many western states. However, the subspecies, Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis) is on the brink of extinction. Fewer than 100 individuals remain in the U.S. today.

A sea lion left heart-broken by the death of its mate is happy again after finding a new girlfriend.

After 15 years splashing around side by side, Carus lost his partner Dipsy last year and had been lonely ever since.

Now staff at the National Seal Sanctuary in Cornwall have introduced him to Boadicea from Dudley Zoo - and the two have really hit it off.

Keeper Rachael Vine said: "Boadicea is settling in very well, there's been lots of playing and kissing."

He has flippers instead of feet -- and certainly no sneakers or hiking boots. But that didn't stop a sea lion from joining schoolchildren on a walk-a-thon.

The marine mammal apparently noticed children doing laps Friday morning around a course they had set up at the Marin Country Day School next to the shores of the San Francisco Bay. The 185-pound Steller sea lion waddled ashore, shocking students and teachers.

"He did a whole lap," said Kelly Watson, director of constituent relations and web communications at the private school.

It was the latest brush with humans for the 1-year-old sea lion, called Astro by staffers at the Marin Headlands-based Marine Mammal Center.

Astro's mother abandoned him at Ano Nuevo Island off the San Mateo coast in June, prompting biologists to bottle-feed the pup. They released the adolescent on April 25 with a radio tag.

But Astro keeps returning to civilization. About a week ago, he swam under the Golden Gate Bridge to the shores of Corte Madera. The Marine Mammal Center again picked him up and released him in the Farallons, 27 miles from San Francisco.

But returned again Friday, just in time for the walk-a-thon.