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WebClawer: Build-a-Bear helps baby monkey; pink dolphin found; World’s Ugliest Cat?

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We claw the Web so you don’t have to. Be it mustangs or monkeys, there’s plenty of animal news to report!

-- Madeleine Pickens, the wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, announced her intention to create a sanctuary for wild horses in danger of being slaughtered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management late last year. Now she reports that plans have been slowed due to the transfer of power in Washington, D.C.; a new Bureau of Land Management director hasn’t yet been appointed. ‘I can’t get anything done because there’s nobody there to work with,’ Pickens said. About 33,000 wild horses currently roam Nevada and other Western states. The BLM has set a target ‘appropriate management level’ of 27,000 horses. Associated Press

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-- Sea lions who’ve discovered that they can make an easy meal of threatened or endangered fish in the Columbia River will be relocated -- or killed -- beginning this week in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The sea lions are protected by federal law, but concern over their consumption of chinook and steelhead at Bonneville Dam prompted the federal agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries to give wildlife managers authority to remove them. ‘As wildlife managers, we have a responsibility to do what we can to protect vulnerable fish runs,’ said Guy Norman, Southwest regional manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Outposts

-- A baby DeBrazza’s monkey whose mother was too weak to care for her has been given a ‘surrogate mother’ in the form of a toy monkey with a mechanical heartbeat from a U.K. Build-a-Bear store. ‘We were delighted to do something to help and hope that the cuddly monkey will comfort her whilst she is not able to feel the warmth of her mum,’ said Jonathan Cage, the manager of the toy store responsible for the faux-monkey creation. Staff at the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent say they hope to reunite the baby with her mother soon. BBC

-- A pink bottlenose dolphin has been discovered living in Louisiana’s Calcasieu Lake. Charter-boat captain Erik Rue photographed the dolphin, which has reddish eyes and is considered an albino despite its hot-pink coloration. ‘I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter. It was absolutely stunningly pink. I had never seen anything like it. It’s the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth. The dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful,’ said Rue. Telegraph

-- Has the world’s ugliest cat been located? Quite possibly. ‘Ugly Bat Boy,’ who resides at an Exeter, N.H., veterinary office, is wrinkly and hairless -- save for a a furry chest. Veterinary staff say people find him ‘mesmerizing.’ BBC

--Lindsay Barnett

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