Port Stephens' blue water wonderland isn't just popular with the tens of thousands of tourists who visit each summer.

Taronga Zoo is celebrating the arrival of an endangered pygmy hippo calf, the first born at the zoo in nearly seven years.

Authorities say they had no choice but to shoot the airport service dog that delayed more than a dozen flights on Friday morning.

Thai customs have confiscated 21 rhino horns with an estimated value of nearly $US5 million ($6.6 million) in the biggest such seizure in Thailand for years, officials said on Tuesday.

A moose on the loose caught several skiers and snowboarders by surprise as it galloped headlong down a run at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado.

Tasmanian devils with tumours the size of golf balls have had their cancerous growths disappear, after scientists successfully trialled a new way to kick-start the animals' immune system.

Cheetahs are on the precipice of extinction, yet small homeless mutts - found on the street - may be one of the keys to their survival.

Poachers have broken into a French zoo and shot dead a rare white rhinoceros sawing off its horn in what is believed to be the first time in Europe that a rhino in captivity has been attacked and killed.

Thai veterinarians removed 915 coins from a 25-year-old sea turtle which had been swallowing items thrown into her pool for good luck, eventually limiting her ability to swim.

She is probably the only internet sensation in Harpursville, New York, a hamlet of about 3500 people in the Southern Tier region: April, a very pregnant giraffe, whose livestream video has attracted millions of viewers.

A rescue mission to help one of the world's rarest parrots is nearing its climax, and a group of Canberra bird enthusiasts is helping out.

Wildlife prices are tumbling in South Africa as game breeders are squeezed by restrictions imposed on trophy hunting after Cecil the lion was killed, and the worst drought on record has forced farmers to sell animals.

There's an old saying that elephants never forget. You also can say they almost never sleep.

The release of a new calicivirus strain is imminent but ACT vets are running low on the vaccine used to protect pet bunnies.

Giant spider crabs are gathering in their thousands at Blairgowrie for an annual event so impressive it's drawn David Attenborough and a Japanese film crew to document it. But few Victorians know about it.

Violence in El Salvador has reached crisis levels in recent years.

While it might sound like a cool idea to bring animals like the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction, new research shows this would come at the cost of other already threatened species.

The owner of a dog that was killed by a shark at a popular off-leash beach in Sydney's south said he was traumatised after watching his pet being pulled under the water just metres from the shore.

ACT Parks and Conversation will introduce a new strain of the calicivirus and expect it will wipe out up to 40 per cent of pest rabbits.

Restricting the amount of greenery growing beside the state's waterways will have a detrimental effect on the environment while failing to meet its goal of reducing bushfire threats, top waterway ecosystem scientists have warned.

Drone vision of great white shark lurking near unsuspecting surfers emerges

A former dog breeder from Sydney's north-west has been found guilty of animal cruelty after officers found five dead dogs in freezers on his property and others living in "grotesque" conditions.

Six ocean hot spots that teem with the biggest mix of species are also getting hit hardest by global warming and industrial fishing, a study has found.

When a goanna made a surprise appearance at the Mimosa Winery's restaurant one peaceful afternoon, a French waitress quickly took control of the situation. 

Four newborn kittens have been dumped in a McDonald's bag inside one of its Tasmanian restaurants.

Boston: Woolly mammoths - or, at least, animals with very similar DNA - could be brought back from extinction within two years, say scientists behind a ground-breaking resurrection project.

The amount of oxygen in oceans around the world has declined, a long-predicted result of climate change, scientists have revealed.

Thousands of bats have dropped dead from the heat, falling from the trees as scorching conditions enveloped parts of NSW at the weekend.

Incessant barking, constant shedding, murderously quick on their feet... Maremma dogs aren't easy, but for chicken farming? They're worth it.

China has ordered an investigation after online images showed officials holding a lavish banquet of meat from the endangered pangolin, the most trafficked mammal on earth.