The BBC has just unveiled its "Wildlife Finder," a Web site it bills as "the world's biggest online zoo." To create the "zoo," which so far includes 370 different species of animals (with more to come), the BBC has compiled video footage from hundreds of wildlife documentaries, including the blockbuster hit Planet Earth.

mirror.co.uk / CC

Unlike a "real" zoo, with its bored animals gazing out blankly from concrete cells and cramped cages, BBC's Wildlife Finder captures animals in their own habitats—from the rain forests of Chile to the volcanoes of Papua New Guinea. No more peering through cage bars trying in vain to catch a glimpse of a sleeping lemur or waiting for the hippos to come up for air. BBC's Wildlife Finder includes footage shot with underwater and infrared cameras to capture nocturnal and deep-sea animals doing the things that they do naturally—things they never get to do in a zoo.

So far, the most popular animals are proving to be the meerkats (who doesn't love meerkats?), Darwin's frog (a Chilean frog whose males give birth through their mouths—all of which is caught on tape, of course), and the New Guinea jumping spider, who is shown jumping onto a cameraman.

Gather the kids around the PC and check out the online zoo today. They'll learn a heck of a lot more than they would at the local wildlife penitentiary.

Posted by Alisa Mullins

Stefan Bröckling with a rescued swan

Those rootin' Teutons at PETA Deutschland (that's Germany, for those who don't sprechen the language) are always up to something interesting. Here's one recent example of their work for animals.

Working with the Düsseldorf duck hotline (best duck hotline name ever, don't you think?), PETA Germany campaigner Stefan Bröckling has rescued four swans at the port of Neuss. The birds were sitting at the water's edge, totally exhausted, their feathers covered in what appeared to be cooking oil.

PETA Germany became involved after a Frau Münchs noticed an oily surface on the water and then saw eight swans with very wet-looking feathers—not at all typical for water birds—trying vigorously to groom themselves. And this wasn't the first time: Last year, at least six swans were affected in a similar incident there.

Ms. Münchs contacted local officials who gave her the ol' runaround before someone at the harbormaster's office finally admitted that a broken filter at an oil production company had leaked oil into the water. The office claimed, however, that the oil had since been removed and that they considered the situation to be under control, adding that the oil is supposed to degrade by itself in the bird's feathers.

Nice try, but we'd have to call Stier Scheiße (you will have to look that up) on that old line …

Or, as PETA Germany's Stefan put it: "That's simply wrong; the oil decomposes the protecting layer of fat within water birds' feathers and soaks in deeper and deeper as time passes. The feathers soak up water like a sponge; the swans lose body temperature and die in the end."

Stefan rescued four swans, but one had already died and the three other oiled birds are still missing. PETA Germany is now looking into filing a complaint for cruelty to animals against the oil producers as well as pushing officials to take the dumping of cooking oils more seriously.

It's a good thing that Ms. Münchs was vigilant and blew the whistle. If you want to know more about how to help wildlife, check this out.

Posted by Jeff Mackey

nab / CC

Bob Barker was famous for reminding The Price Is Right viewers about the importance of having companion animals spayed or neutered and keeping fur off the show, among other kind things. This week, he's speaking up for deer—in particular, two does and their fawns who live in Great Falls, Virginia.

The deer have been using an ancestral woods path (which now goes through a small development) to reach what remains of the woods, where they sleep at night. Until, that is, one neighbor got all up in arms over some flowers that the deer allegedly had a nibble on (flowers, really?) and got a "nuisance kill" permit from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) to abate the "nuisance."

The neighbor has hired a bow hunter in full regalia, who has set up a tree stand and even deployed a decoy, a lure, to attract the deer to where he can shoot them. There are easy and simple things you can do to live in harmony with wildlife, of course, but it takes a heart.

Props to the other neighbors who are fighting back hard to have the permit revoked and were able to contact Bob Barker—not by some spectacular third degree of separation miracle, by the way: One of the neighbors operated on Mr. Barker when he fell ill in Washington. Mr. Barker shot off a letter to the DGIF, which you can read here

Like many neighborhoods, this community is experiencing wildlife up close because, sadly, these wonderful, capable, now almost homeless animals are being forced to search for food, shelter, and some plain old stimulation—in part because trees are being chopped down faster than you can yell timber just to make room for more strip malls, grocery stores, and, yes, even more Wal-Marts. Jump on over to HelpingAnimals.com for handy tips on how to humanely handle wildlife.

Posted by Jennifer Cierlitsky

geocities / CC

Have you heard about that classy lady over in Brownsville, Texas, who was selling six Bengal tiger cubs in a Wal-Mart parking lot? Makes you wanna spit, doesn't it? Even if you have no idea what can become of one of these regal creatures in the hands of nefarious wildlife pimps, a simple guess should lead you to an unhappy conclusion.

"They buy them as babies," said the officer on the scene. "They don't realize it's going to get to be hundreds of pounds, eat an awful lot of food and become dangerous." I can picture Joe Schmo at home with his 6-month-old tiger now ... wow! Who knew a hyper-carnivorous alpha predator with 1,000 lbs. bite strength could eat so much? And wow, she's already way too big for a doghouse!

Sadly, it's actually become quite a trend to have a tiger, as 15,000 are kept as "pets" in the States. Since most of the shortsighted people looking to acquire an exotic animal on the black market don't happen to live in a 400-square-mile forest, when adopted into civilian homes, tigers face futures filled with malnutrition, loneliness, and captivity-induced mental illness. Now, while pondering to make the wonderfully progressive decision to write a letter or support a tiger sanctuary, if you want, you can still go ahead and spit.

Posted by Missy Lane

Did you know that this is Be Kind to Animals Week?� Well, it is. So each day this week I’m going to do one entry dedicated to simple, easy things we can all do in our everyday lives to help animals.

Today I want to talk a bit about wildlife. Spring is a particularly important time of year for wildlife because that’s when baby birds are learning to fly and other animals are just learning their way around, so it’s super important to know what to do if you come across any of these little guys that appear to need help. It happens more often than you’d think. In fact, not a day goes by that we don’t get numerous calls from people all over the country who have stepped in to help wildlife in their area.

I’ll admit that this topic was kind of new to me. In fact, all I really knew was the whole thing about “if you touch a baby bird her mother won’t take her back into the nest because she will smell like a human,” which I learned is totally false anyway. So I guess I knew absolutely nothing useful about the topic beforehand! Luckily we’ve got a great online guide that will help you determine if the animals actually need help, and if so, what you should do and what supplies you need to help them.

The thing that most surprised me is that more often than not (unless the animal is in imminent danger), the right thing to do if you do come across any baby animals who may need some help is to take a wait and see approach to “rescuing” them. Often, Mom and Dad are nearby and the best thing to do is usually to leave the animals alone and let their parents take care of them.

Anyway, check out the guide, it’s great info, and of course, if you have any questions, you can always give us a shout.