Doggy diagnosis can sniff out seizures: study

Yahoo – AFP, March 28, 2019

Dogs are awesome (AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz)

Paris (AFP) - Dogs can use their remarkable sense of smell to recognise the specific scent of seizures, researchers said Thursday, raising hope that canine carers could one day protect sufferers before a fit takes hold.

Previous tests have shown dogs are able to detect the odours of certain diseases, including some cancers, diabetes and malaria.

There is also anecdotal evidence they can sense that their owner may be about to have a seizure, though this was poorly understood until now.

Researchers in France used five dogs -- Casey, Dodger, Lana, Zoey and Roo -- in a study to sniff out a scent specifically linked to a human seizure.

Dogs' noses have evolved to be highly sensitive, and can detect specific organic 

compounds at a concentration of less than 0.001 part per billion (AFP Photo/OLI SCARFF)

They presented the dogs with a variety of smells taken from epileptic patients, including body odours emitted during calm activity, while exercising, and during an attack.

Casey, Dodger and Zoey all identified the seizure scent 100 percent of the time, while Lana and Roo sniffed out the right sample two goes out of three.

"The results went beyond our expectations by showing that there is indeed a general odour of an epileptic seizure," Amelie Catala, a researcher at the University of Rennes and lead study author, told AFP.

"We hope it will open new lines of research that could help anticipate seizures and thus get patients to seek security."

Dogs are awesome (AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz)

Dogs' noses have evolved to be highly sensitive, and can detect specific organic compounds at a concentration of less than 0.001 part per billion.

The most sophisticated current "electronic noses", meant to pick up potentially harmful odours that humans can't smell, have a detection threshold of around 300 parts per billion.

Catala said that while dogs had been shown previously to be able to sniff out chronic diseases, this experiment showed they could potentially diagnose acute health episodes that last just a few minutes.

"The study of odours by the use of dogs constitutes a fast, low-cost, non-invasive, and effective screening method of diseases that can be difficult to identify normally," she said.

The paper was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Dutch introduce fitness tests for flat faced dogs before they can breed

DutchNews, March 18, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Netherlands is to introduce fitness tests for flat faced dogs such as pugs and boxers to make sure they are fit enough to breed, broadcaster NOS said on Monday. 

Agriculture minister Carola Schouten has sent new rules covering the breeding of flat faced dogs to parliament in an effort to reduce the health problems many dogs suffer from. 

The tests, which will be administered by vets, will involve dogs walking up to 1km at a fast pace and then being checked for their heart rate and recovery speed. Those which fail will be considered unsuitable for breeding. 

New criteria are also being introduced covering the form of the dogs’ skulls, noses and eyes. 

The measures are contained in a report by Utrecht University vets who say many flat faced dogs suffer poor health, including breathing difficulties, over-heating and runny eyes because of their extreme appearance. 

In 2014, the government launched a special programme with breeders to try to improve the health and socialisation of some breeds. However, while this has led to some successes, a number of breeders refuse to join and ‘a number of challenges’ remain, the minister said in her briefing.

Horse takes daily stroll through Frankfurt — without owner

Deutsche Welle, 9 March 2019

Veterinarians have dismissed criticism that the Arabian mare poses a danger to herself and others during her morning walks. Despite dozens of calls from worried pedestrians, police say they've never had to intervene.

Jenny the Arabian mare snacking on garden shrubs during a morning stroll in
Fechenheim

Every morning in Frankfurt's Fechenheim district, an Arabian mare named Jenny takes a leisurely stroll through the streets by herself. But she has to wear a card that reads: "I'm called Jenny, not a runaway, just taking a walk. Thanks."

For more than a decade, police have had to tell worried pedestrians calling in that Jenny is known throughout the neighborhood and that she does not present a danger, local media reported this week.

"The police know. When someone calls in, the police ask me: 'Werner, do you know where Jenny is?' Yes, I say. 'Ok, then everything is in order,'" Jenny's owner, Werner Weischedel, told "Maintower," a news show.

"We've never had to do anything before," police spokeswoman Isabell Neumann told German news agency dpa.

Read more: Thousands petition to move 'bullied' ape Bili out of Germany

Werner Weischedel said there has never been a problem during Jenny's
promenades through Frankfurt

But that hasn't stopped some from criticizing Jenny's unsupervised strolls through the city. Several social media users have accused the owner of negligence, saying the chaotic streets could lead her to hurt herself or someone else.

However, the horse veterinarians union told dpa that there isn't any issue, especially since Jenny is well-acquainted with her surroundings after 14 years of making her way through the area alone. Veterinarian Maren Hellige said the mare "seems very relaxed and satisfied."

Read more: Petrified horse remains found near Pompeii

The tag reads: 'I'm called Jenny, not a runaway, just taking a walk'

Chimps' cultural diversity threatened by humans, study says

Yahoo – AFP, March 7, 2019

Researchers who studied 144 chimpanzee communities in Equatorial Africa found
31 behaviors that varied from one group to another (AFP Photo/ISSOUF SANOGO)

Washington (AFP) - Like humans, chimpanzees are culturally diverse but those differences are being eroded by human incursion, international researchers say in a groundbreaking study published Thursday.

The striking results, published in the American journal "Science," show that the behavioral diversity of chimpanzees was reduced by an average 88 percent in areas with the highest human impact, compared to remote pristine forests.

In the tropical rainforests and savanna woodlands that are the chimpanzees' natural habitat, the researchers observed 31 behaviors that were not universal or innate among chimpanzees and varied from one group to another, in a total of 144 chimpanzee communities studied in 17 Equatorial African countries where the animals live.

Reflecting the diversity, not all communities of chimpanzees use the same tools to hunt or dig. Neither do they extract termites and ants in the same way. Ditto for honey and nuts. Their use of stones, ponds and caves also varies.

Researchers assume this diversity is passed between individuals within the group.

They based their findings on existing studies supplemented with their own field observations of 46 communities over the past nine years.

Such data had never before been compiled on chimpanzee behavior, the researchers said. Until now, scientists have focused on the loss of genetic diversity, or human-caused population decline.

Their findings mean that the more humans disturbed the environment with roads, infrastructure, deforestation, agriculture, plantations and so on, the less chimpanzee behavior was diverse.

For instance, researchers have observed areas where nut cracking had ceased.

"These are very noisy behaviors, and hunters could locate you easily," Hjalmar Kuehl, an ecologist at the German iDiv research center and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, told AFP as a hypothesis of why the behavior may have been lost.

Another example of noisy and potentially vulnerable behavior: "accumulative stone throwing" by chimpanzees in Guinea-Bissau, a form of communication where chest-pumping apes throw rocks at trees.

Fishing for algae with sticks, seen in Guinea, is also threatened by encroaching humans.

"Our findings suggest that strategies for the conservation of biodiversity should be extended to include the protection of animal behavioral diversity as well," said Kuehl.

He proposes to create "Chimpanzee cultural heritage sites," a concept that can be extended to other species with high degrees of cultural variability, including orangutans or whales.

War horses: Syria's Arabian beauties plod way to recovery

Yahoo – AFP, Maher al-Mounes, March 3, 2019

Arabian mare Karen is one of dozens of Arabian horses from all over Syria
recovering from the impact of conflict (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

Damascus (AFP) - A shadow of her former self after years of war, 11-year-old Arabian mare Karen stands quietly as a Syrian vet gently pushes a syringe into her pale grey neck.

"Karen used to be the beauty queen of all horses," says the vet, Ahmad Sharida.

But inside her stable near Damascus today, her hips jut out viciously from her overgrown speckled coat.

Weak and withdrawn, Karen is unable to even whinny.

After almost eight years of war, she is one of dozens of Arabian horses from all over Syria recovering from the physical and psychological trauma of the fighting.

Prized for their beauty, endurance and speed, Arabian purebreds are one of the oldest horse breeds in the world.

In Syria, Bedouins have bred them in the north of the country for centuries, seeking to maintain the purity of the local bloodlines.

Before the conflict, Sharida had proudly watched Karen grow from a long-legged foal into a graceful equine beauty.

"I know her very well. I was the one who brought her out of her mother's belly," says the vet, a stethoscope hanging around his neck.

Horse trainer Jihad Ghazal (R) says horses are very sensitive and that "the 

sounds they hear greatly affect them" (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

But he lost sight of Karen after she was stolen from her stable in Eastern Ghouta in 2012, the same year rebels overran the region northeast of Damascus.

The area suffered five years of regime bombardment, as well as food and medicine shortages under a crippling siege, before Russia-backed government forces took it back last year.

Sharida had long fled his home region but returned to search for missing Arabian horses and immediately recognised Karen when he found her in October.

"I was so shocked," says the 51-year-old vet.

"She was all skin and bones, and could barely stand up."

'Kidnapped and killed'

Like all other horses he found, she was frail and sick after years of being surrounded by fighting, not enough food, and no medical attention.

Of the 8,500 horses that Syria registered with the World Arabian Horse Organization 

in 2011, it has lost 3,000 in the war (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

Syria's war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

And it has taken a toll on the country's equine population too.

"Horses have greatly suffered, just like us all," says Mohammed Ghaith al-Shaib, head of the state's Arabian Horse Office.

"They've also been displaced, kidnapped and killed."

Of the 8,500 horses that Syria registered with the World Arabian Horse Organization (WAHO) in 2011, it has lost 3,000 in the war, he says.

But the conflict in Syria has turned around in recent years, and after a series of victories against rebels and jihadists, President Bashar al-Assad's regime is now in control of almost two-thirds of the country.

Having returned to one region after another, the Damascus authorities are now trying to protect the country's Arabian purebreds.

Karen (L) is now cared for at a state-run stables west of Damascus (AFP Photo/

LOUAI BESHARA)

Since 2014, WAHO has recognised 2,400 new Syrian foals as Arabian, after samples from their manes were sent off for DNA testing in Germany, Shaib says.

Horses rescued from retaken areas are being looked after at a state-run stables west of the capital, Damascus.

A daughter?

At the stables in Dimas, staff are paying special attention to Karen's recovery.

She hails from the Hadbaa strain of Arabian purebreds, so called after their long eyelashes and mane.

But after years of war, she is the only known female survivor of a rare Syrian branch of that family.

"The Hadbaa Enzahi Fawaeira were already at risk of dying out before the war," says Shaib.

But "today, it's only Karen".

After nearly eight years of war, Karen is the only known female survivor of a rare 

Syrian branch of the Hadbaa strain of Arabian purebreds (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

Arabian mares are often seen as more precious than their male counterparts, as they carry the bloodline from one generation to the next.

Once Karen has regained her health, her carers hope to artificially inseminate her so that she can give birth to a daughter.

To maintain her bloodline, a Syrian purebred should father that female foal -- but he does not need to come from the same strain.

Karen is just one of many Arabian horses all over Syria recovering from conflict.

'Greatly affected'

In the adjacent hippodrome, trainer Jihad Ghazal watches a student trot around the red-earth arena on a horse with a shiny brown coat.

Nejm -- "star" in Arabic -- spent the war in Damascus, a city which has remained relatively sheltered from the conflict.

But the mare was one of the luckier ones, says Ghazal, who is full of anecdotes about the suffering of her kind.

Arabian mares are often seen as more precious than their male counterparts, as they 

carry the bloodline from one generation to the next (AFP Photo/LOUAI BESHARA)

"Horses are very sensitive, and the sounds they hear greatly affect them," says the 40 year-old, wearing jeans and trainers.

During the war, an alleged Israeli strike hit Dimas, traumatising pregnant mares, for example.

"For a year afterwards, foals were born paralysed or dead because their mother had been so terrified," he says.

In 2016, a horse was so shocked by a blast that, within hours, he had killed himself.

"He banged his head against metal until he died."

Female wolf settles in the Netherlands and may have a mate

DutchNews, February 19, 2019

A gray wolf. Photo: Depositphotos.com

A female wolf which has been roaming the northern part of the Veluwe national park in Gelderland can now be considered to be the first wolf to be officially settled there and off-spring may be on the way, wolf monitoring organisation Wolven in Nederland claims. 

A wolf is considered settled when it stays in a certain area for longer than six months. DNA in the wolf droppings, show that this is the case for Veluwe wolf GW998F, the organisation said, while droppings from a male wolf and tracks in the snow from both animals suggest that the female has found a mate. 

‘It is the start of the breeding season and if young wolves are born in May this could be the start of a pack,’ a Wolven in Nederland spokesperson told NOS. 

The return of the wolf, which became extinct in the Netherlands some 150 years ago, means a plan agreed on by a number of provinces that have been visited by wolves will be put into action. Under the scheme farmers who lose livestock to wolves will be automatically compensated for the next three years. The animals are protected and can only be shot under very exceptional circumstances. 

Wolven in Nederland said the fact that the wolves settle means they will be less dangerous to livestock. 

‘A roaming wolf will pick off a sheep for a quick snack but a settled wolf stays out of sight. It will go for boar and deer and won’t show himself near houses. It is very unlikely to cross paths with humans,’ spokesman Maurice Lahaye told the broadcaster. 

The settled wolf comes from a pack in Germany where wolves have been proliferating in recent years. In Schleswig- Holstein the authorities recently allowed a ‘problem wolf’ which had been killing sheep to be shot.

Rescue of 200 dogs destined for slaughterhouse begins in South Korea

Yahoo – News, 13 February 2019

The animal protection group Humane Society International saved about 200 dogs
at a dog farm in Hongseong, 150 kilometres south of Seoul

A rescue operation to save hundreds of dogs in South Korea from the slaughterhouse began Wednesday, as pressure mounts on the country to end its custom of killing canines for meat.

About one million dogs are eaten a year in South Korea, often as a summertime delicacy, with the greasy red meat -- invariably boiled for tenderness -- believed to increase energy.

But the tradition has earned criticism abroad and has declined as the nation increasingly embraces the idea of dogs as pets instead of livestock, with eating them now something of a taboo among young South Koreans.

The two-week rescue operation by animal protection group Humane Society International (HSI) will save about 200 canines at a dog farm in Hongseong county, 150 kilometres south of Seoul.

The dogs will be sent to Canada and the United States for rehoming

The dogs will then be sent to Canada and the United States for rehoming.

"These dogs are no different from any other dogs. Once they receive some tender loving care that they deserve and that they need," Kelly O'Meara, an HSI official, told AFP.

The farm was the 14th complex shut down by the group since 2015.

The organisation said it has rescued around 1,600 dogs during that time, with farmers given support to move into other lines of work. One transformed his dog meat business into a blueberry farm.

Lee Sang-gu, the owner of the Hongseong farm, said he decided to change his business because it was "not profitable anymore", noting even his family members were against eating dog.

According to a survey in 2017, 70 percent of South Koreans do not eat dog, 

but far fewer -- about 40 percent -- believe the practice should be banned

According to a survey in 2017, 70 percent of South Koreans do not eat dog, but far fewer -- about 40 percent -- believe the practice should be banned.

It also found 65 percent support raising and slaughtering dogs under more humane conditions.

The country's largest canine slaughterhouse complex in Seongnam city, south of Seoul, was dismantled in November. Activists who visited found electrocution equipment and a pile of dead dogs abandoned on the floor.

There are currently no laws on how to treat or slaughter canines for meat in South Korea. While farmers have urged Seoul to include dogs under livestock welfare regulations, animal rights groups oppose doing so, seeking complete abolition instead.

Malaysia makes record 30-tonne pangolin seizure

Yahoo – AFP, February 12, 2019

Graphic on pangolins, the world's most heavily trafficked mammals. (AFP Photo/AFP)

Malaysian authorities have made a record seizure of about 30 tonnes of pangolins and their scales worth some $2 million in raids on major processing facilities, police and environmentalists said Tuesday.

The haul included about 1,800 boxes full of frozen pangolins stuffed inside three refrigerated containers, 572 more frozen pangolins in six freezers, 61 live pangolins in cages, and 361 kilogrammes (795 pounds) of pangolin scales, according to police.

The Southeast Asian nation is battling to clamp down on rampant poaching and smuggling of pangolins, the world's most heavily trafficked mammal.

The critically endangered creatures, also known as scaly anteaters, have long been targeted as their body parts are highly valued in traditional medicine in countries including China and Vietnam while their meat is considered a delicacy.

Following a tip-off, wildlife officials in Sabah state raided a factory and a warehouse on Thursday, according to a statement from local police chief Omar Mammah.

Graphic on pangolins, the world's most heavily trafficked mammals. (AFP Photo)

Police arrested a 35-year-old man suspected to have been in charge of the factory as part of an illegal syndicate.

The operation is believed to have been running for the past seven years, and police believe the pangolins were bought from poachers to be distributed locally.

Traffic, a Malaysia-based group that monitors wildlife smuggling around the region, said it was the "biggest such bust Malaysia has seen to date".

"No threatened species can withstand industrial levels of extraction such as this," Kanitha Krishnasamy, the group's Southeast Asia director, told AFP.

The seizures also shone a light on Sabah's major role in animal trafficking -- the state on Borneo island has been implicated in smuggling cases involving over 40 tonnes of pangolins since August 2017, according to Traffic.

Malaysia regularly foils attempts to smuggle pangolins and their parts out of the country but usually on a far smaller scale.

India's 'granny' elephant dies aged 88

Yahoo – AFP, 7 February 2019

Awarded the title of "Gaja Muthassi" (elephant granny), Dakshayani took part in
temple rituals and processions for decades

An Asian elephant believed to be the oldest ever in captivity has died aged 88 in the southern Indian state of Kerala, officials said Thursday.

Awarded the title of "Gaja Muthassi" (elephant granny), Dakshayani took part in temple rituals and processions for decades, but breathed her last on Tuesday after becoming reluctant to eat, her veterinary surgeon said.

"At 3 pm, a sudden shiver passed through her large frame beginning from the head region. After a few minutes she bent her forelimbs and lay down. And that was it," T. Rajeev told AFP.

The Travancore Devaswom Board, which owned Dakshayani, gave her age as 88.

The oldest elephant in captivity recognised by Guinness World Records was aged 86 -- Lin Wang, another Asian elephant which died in 2003 in a Taiwan zoo. Captive elephants have a life expectancy of 40-plus years.

Pineapples and carrots had been introduced to Dakshayani's diet in recent years to improve her metabolism after she began to have difficulty moving around, probably due to reduced eyesight.

"For the past three years she did not take part in any temple programme or public function," Rajeev said.

India has 2,454 elephants in captivity, a survey released last month said

"And a couple of months back, we had even moved her to a better tethering place at an elephant farm in Thiruvananthapuram."

Wildlife conservationists such as P.S. Easa have criticised the practice of keeping elephants in captivity, regardless of their conditions.

He said Thursday all such animals should be released to their natural habitat, adding that bestowing titles on elephants did nothing for their well-being.

"All they want, or for that matter, any animal would want, is to be in their natural habitat and have enough space to move around and sufficient food to eat," he said.

Wildlife experts say some 15,000 Asian elephants -- or nearly one in three -- live in captivity globally, often in dire conditions.

India has 2,454 elephants in captivity, a survey released last month said.

Former Travancore Board president Prayar Goplakrishnan, under whose tenure Dakshayani was awarded the "Gaja Muthassi" honour, defended the decision to keep her in captivity.

"Due to various practical constraints, we could not let her loose, but instead ensured that she had more than enough space to move around," he told AFP.

Wolf at the door? Farmers to get compensation for three years

DutchNews, January 25, 2019

A gray wolf. Photo: Depositphotos.com

Damage done by wolves will be automatically compensated for the next three years, and the animals will only be shot as a last resort, under a new plan to manage the increasing presence of wolves in the Netherlands. 

The plan, drawn up by provincial councils, will be put into action once it is certain that wolves have chosen to settle permanently in the country. The animals have been spotted in Drenthe, Groningen and Friesland and one female wolf may settle permanently in the Veluwe area in Gelderland this year. 

Sheep farmers lost some 134 sheep due to what are thought to be attacks by roaming wolves in 2018. 

‘When we know for certain that wolves are here to stay we will confer with sheep farmers, local councils and area managers,’ NOS quotes provincial deputy Peter Drenth as saying. ‘We will have to learn how to deal with the wolf. It has been gone a long time and we’re in uncharted waters and have to learn as we go.’ 

Shooting wolves, an option farmers would like to keep, is a last resort, Drenth said. ‘The wolf is a protected species and can only be shot if it is a danger to people or if other measures do not work.’ 

Safety 

Agricultural organisation LTO called the plan ‘disappointing’ and said it did not sufficiently ‘guarantee the safety of people and animals’. 

‘Many of our questions remain unanswered,’ LTO Nature and landscape development expert Ben Haarman said in a reaction. 

‘How will all locals and farmers be informed if a wolf is in the area? Wolves can travel up to 70 kilometres in day. People need to know what to do in case of an incident. Why are preventive measures left to the individual provinces? (..) What will happen once the three years are up? Much is still unclear.’ Haarman said. 

Controversial 

The re-emergence of wolves, which come mostly from Eastern Europe, remains controversial. Recently the director of the Hoge Veluwe national park Seger Emmanuel baron van Voorst tot Voorst said wolves have no place in the Netherlands and should  be removed from the protected species list so they can be controlled. 

Wolven in Nederland spokesman Roeland Vermeulen told DutchNews.nl at the time that management is key. The return of the wolf in the Netherlands is subject to policies agreed upon by the provincial authorities and in line with European guidelines, he said.

Animated film to spotlight bear that served in WWII

Yahoo – AFP, Anna Maria Jakubek, January 13, 2019

Wojtek getting attention from female soldiers. His remarkable life has now
been turned into a movie (AFP Photo/Handout)

Warsaw (AFP) - During World War II, Wojciech Narebski and his fellow Polish servicemen had to lift crate after heavy metal crate of artillery. Fortunately for them, one of the soldiers had superhuman strength: Corporal Wojtek, a Syrian brown bear.

"When he saw that we were struggling, he'd want to help... He'd come over, grab a crate and carry it to the truck," Narebski, now 93, told AFP of his days with Wojtek in the 22nd Artillery Supply Company.

This can be heavy work, even for a bear. When Wojtek got tired, he would simply stack one crate on top of the other, "which also helped us, because we didn't have to lift the crate off the ground," recounted the veteran who spent two and a half years with the friendly giant he considered a brother.

"Of course he got a reward. Honey, marmalade. That was his favourite."

Wojtek the Bear also liked to drink beer and smoke (or rather eat) cigarettes, take showers, snuggle with his handler at night, and wrestle with his comrades.

When an opponent lost, Wojtek would lick their face in apology.

'Corporal' Wojtek the bear helps carry a tree trunk in Castrocaro, Italy on March 22, 

1945. His comrades rewarded Wojtek for his efforts with honey, marmalade, beer, 

and snuggles (AFP Photo/Handout)

Old photos show the bulky beast -- who grew to be over 1.8 metres (six feet) tall and weighed about 220 kilogrammes (490 pounds) -- giving bear hugs, opening his toothy jaw wide for food, and enjoying a day at the beach with smiling soldiers.

The unbelievable true story of the orphaned cub, which was found by Polish troops in Persia and then travelled through Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Italy and Scotland as a morale-booster, is now being turned into an animated movie.

The British-Polish filmmakers hope to release the family-friendly "A Bear Named Wojtek" in 2020 on the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.

But the film's British producer, Iain Harvey, was skeptical when Scottish animator Iain Gardner first approached him.

"To be honest I thought, 'This man has had too many whiskys'," Harvey said, before he realised that: "For once the magic is real."

In this undated handout provided by the Polish Institute and the Sikorski museum, 

Wojtek is surrounded by soldiers in then Persia as a cub. He later got his own 

army paybook and rations (AFP Photo/Handout)

Real-life fairytale

"When you actually find a story that is almost like a fairytale but is real, and documented and true, it just opens up so many more emotions I think," he told AFP.

"You know, that humanity can have magic and that things can happen that you wouldn't normally think are rational," he went on.

Not that all the lore is true.

Wojtek probably did not visit the Sphinx in Egypt, as recounted by some storytellers. Nor did the Nazis necessarily know they had a special animal enemy and bombard his positions.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, however.

Docile Wojtek was an enlisted soldier, with his own paybook, rations, and rank -- a status he needed to sail from Egypt to Italy with his comrades in arms.

Wojtek was orphaned as a cub and brought up by soldiers, coming to believe 

he was human (AFP Photo/Handout)

"The port authority is being difficult about the bear and monkey," reads a 1944 entry in the company's journal.

"Only after consulting the British High Command in Cairo does the port authority allow them to board the ship."

Yes, there was a monkey too.

In fact there were hundreds of non-humans milling about during the war, according to wartime Polish refugee Krystyna Ivell, who herself had a chameleon in Palestine.

"You have no mother, you have no sisters, you have no father, you're all alone, you might die, so of course you find something to love," said the 83-year-old, who put together a London exhibition and compiled a book: "Wojtek Album", with photos and anecdotes about the bear.

"Stray dogs. Foxes. Horses. You name it. Everybody wanted a pet... I remember a bloke who had a ferret, and used to have it under his khaki shirt and the head would appear," she told AFP.

'Polish soul'

What was special about Wojtek, according to Narebski, was that he seemed to believe he was human.

Wojtek getting attention from female soldiers. His remarkable life 

has now been turned into a movie (AFP Photo/Handout)

"Because he was brought up from a cub among people, he acquired human traits... In a bear's body there was a Polish soul," said Narebski, who was known as "Little Wojtek" and the bear as "Big Wojtek".

He recalled an occasion in Italy, along the Adriatic Sea, when the hairy Corporal Wojtek managed to break away from the men and make a beeline for the water, giving beachgoers a fright.

"Well he didn't pay them any attention... it was hot and he swam around a bit, shook himself off, and then came right back."

This docility is what Gardner, the animator, finds interesting about the imagery of a bear in a human conflict.

"The most common kind of cultural shared image that we have of a bear is that it's a savage animal. You know, it's a beast," Gardner said.

"And yet you put it in the context of the Second World War and you have to ask, 'Who are the animals?'"

After the war, Wojtek ended up at Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, where he died at the age of 21 in 1963.

At the time, the BBC announced "with regret the death of a famous Polish soldier."

VIDEO: An animated film due for release in 2020 will tell the remarkable true story of an orphaned bear, found by Polish troops in Iran during WWII before travelling with them across the Middle East to Italy and then Scotland. #Wojtek 📹 @DSimonart pic.twitter.com/EJah1F5yEc

— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 13, 2019