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The diversity of insects on this planet is astonishing and should be a source of continual wonder for us all. It can only be hope that these incredible creatures can be left to survive and continue their species for many millennia to come. Of course they do everything we do - sometimes with much more aplomb! You may think this is Mother Nature at is rawest and you would be right, but ready or not - here we go!

Many people buy a dog as a status symbol and so go for a certain breed to mirror their own lifestyle. Still more have a particular attachment to the specific look and behavior of pure breeds. However, for personality, joie de vivre, unadulterated love and many other positive traits, can anything beat a good old fashioned mutt?

Animals fight for a variety of reasons. It may be for play, for space or, most likely, for sexual dominance. Here, with the help of some wonderful images – we take a look at a few species in the throes of fighting.

A pair of gulls fight in mid-air. Conflict is incredibly commonplace within the animal kingdom. Quite often the fights are short and based on display rather than actual physical contact and so it is difficult to capture on film. The photographer must be incredibly quick in order to get that photograph. This particular spat, for example, would have been over in seconds.

This somewhat strange looking specimen is a Sand dollar. It is a sea urchin which burrows and comes from the order Clypeasteroida – and you can see why it gets its name, as it resembles a coin.  Some joke that it is the only stable dollar in the world at the moment.  Humor aside, it does have one trick up its sleeve that we can only wish would apply to real money.  It can clone itself – creating a perfect copy.

We thought we would have a little fun and create a list of what we think are the best and most unusual collective nouns for animals. Of course, in the tradition of Ark in Space we are including the best images we could find to illustrate them. You can go check them out on the internet we did not make these up! So, here they are - an A-Z of collective nouns, a veritable alphabet of animals.

A byke of ants
We are not sure what it means, however.  Yet it was still more interesting than the word we would normally use - swarm

A cauldron of bats

We don’t just publish serious reportage and videos about animals on this website – there is plenty of room for cute on the Ark in Space too!  So, Edgar's Mission Farm Sanctuary in Australia has furnished the world with this – the cutest moments from 2016 of life on the farm.  If you don’t go ‘aaaw’ about ten times through this video then you are probably quite heartless!  Enjoy!

Sometimes it is simply play, at others it is in deadly earnest.  Yet when animals fight there is something that draws us to watch despite the potential fatal outcome.  Perhaps it appears to something visceral and basic in our instincts - or perhaps we just like to watch a good old fashioned tooth and claw fight.

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. Muhammad Ali 

This is a video of my B Leon’s dog Dam, fighting with the neighborhood Gibbon in Thailand near the Mayanmar (Burma) border.

The gibbons's name is Chani (gibbon, Thai), and the dogs name is Dam (black, Thai).  Mr Leon did not name the dog, but it is a traditional Thai name for a black dog or cat. He found the majority of pets names in Thailand corresponded to their colors. He did name the gibbon though.

Chani was extremely friendly to B Leon during his stay in Thailand; she would sit on his shoulder and groom his hair, and loved to be swung by her arms or legs. Her strength is phenomenal; yet don't be fooled by how gentle and playful she is with Dam.  She was seen to grab birds on the fly with lightening fast reflexes and snap their necks all in a split second. Chani has always been gentle kind and playful and motherly around pets, friends and children.  Feeding animals especially monkeys in Thailand is believed to bring a blessing in Thai Buddhism.

Every year on October 31 the ghouls and ghosts rise - and people make fools of themselves all over the world by wearing ridiculous outfits.  Well, Halloween isn't just for humans, you know!  Here we bring together some wonderful shots of pets of all sizes (OK, dogs - they are the only ones who seem to be able to put up with it!) in their Halloween outfits.  Enjoy this great set of pictures of the dogs of the world dressing up in their Halloween costumes.

The BBC has been making nature documentaries for over half a century so it isn’t any real surprise that they have some of the best shots of life in the oceans that you could see. Their Life in the Blue collection portrays an astonishing selection of submarine species in their most natural surroundings.

It was filmed with the remarkable visual invention and skill of a feature film or advert, with perfect composition and lighting, all while trying to keep the animals unaware of the camera's presence.

I can’t help but think that some of the sharks, at least, were aware of the presence of the cameramen in these clips – and I am not sure I am that envious of their job, either!  However, Life in the Blue was filmed by one of the most renowned oceanic cinematographers in the world and these are its hand-picked gems.

The Snow Leopard is known for its elusive nature and wildlife groups have been concerned for decades about their dwindling numbers.  Yet there is some good news – the species is, it seems, flourishing in one remote part of Afghanistan.

The war torn country is home to a vigorous population of snow leopards.  The World Conservation Society recently laid a number of camera traps in the Wakhan Corridor.  This mountainous area is a long panhandle in the north east of the country and the camera traps captured snow leopards on film in sixteen places.

This is a remarkable turn out of events as it has been estimated that there are only around seven thousand snow leopards in the world, scattered across a dozen countries in Central Asia.  Their habitat is usually over 10,000 feet above sea level but even at these heights snow leopards are often killed by shepherds for harrying their flocks.

That isn’t the last of their worries either.  Many of these fuzzy-tailed felines are caught and sold by the illegal pet trade.  Then there is the Chinese problem.  Their bones and penises are in high demand by the bourgeoning middle classes of China.  It is believed that ingestion of their body parts increase sexual performance in humans.


Panthera uncial is considered one of the most endangered of the big cats.  Their numbers have fallen by twenty percent over the last twenty years.  You do not need to be Einstein to calculate that the species does not have long unless something is done.

The goal of the World Conservation Society is to make sure that these wonderful beasts have are protected and have a future in Afghanistan.  A reservation has been proposed by the society so that the snow leopards of the Wakhan Corridor, which has borders on Tajikistan, Pakistan and – oh dear – China, can be legally and forcefully protected.

Although it has always been known that snow leopards inhabit this remote part of Afghanistan there was concern that the population had been severely depleted.  As the wars of the last thirty years have impoverished the population it was thought that their patience with a predatory big cat, however endangered, would precipitate wider hunting. 

This it seems has not been the case. Fortunately the Wakhan Corridor is one of the few places in Afghanistan which has been troubled by insurgency and civil unrest.

Yet there is a lot of work to be done. At the moment the society is doing its best to train rangers and provide education around conservation.  Other help has been to provide locals with corrals which are predator-proof and to start up a compensation scheme to reimburse farmers whose stock is predated by the leopards.

The society has not put an exact number on the amount of snow leopards in the corridor but maintain that their status still remains highly endangered.  After all, a world population which only numbers in the thousands cannot be considered safe if a new enclave of the species is discovered.

It would be a shame if the dramatic peaks of the wild and desolate Wakhan Corridor, this thin strip of land just over two hundred miles in length, turned out to be the last refuge of one of the planet’s animal marvels.

The Ark in Space would like to point out that the pictures used in this article were not taken in Afghanistan.  We don’t want to pull any wool over your eyes! The Afghanistan pictures are copyright the World Conservation Society and cannot be reproduced here.  However, we do hope that you have enjoyed the ones featured!

Did you know that Elvis Presley was inordinately fond of animals? Apart from one bizarre onstage incident in 1957 he was renowned for his love of our four legged friends. Neatorama has an interesting article by Eddie Deezen which chronicles the menagerie acquired by Elvis both before and after he bought Graceland.

My own personal favorite is the chimpanzee called Scatter. I don’t know how he got that name but judging from his behaviour it was because when the chimp entered a room people would literally scatter (if they had any sense and especially if they were female!). Michael Jackson may well have made Bubbles famous but Scatter, oh boy. They probably had to keep some of his antics very quiet.

For more Elvis and his animals fun, head over to Neatorama!