In the Venkatapuram vIllage in Andhra Pradesh (in India), a monkey is performing unique duties. He is being treated as a trusted member of the family of a shepherd and is taking care of the goats.

The monkey named Anji not only leads the goats but also brings them back. The goats have become the monkey’s friends. He plays with them all day and even looks after them when the shepherd and other family members are not around. In fact he has become not only the boss of the goats but also that of the shepherd.

The owner Yesanna, who is in his 40s stated that once Anji had come to his house following which he offered him some food. Since then it became faithful to the family.

It is Anji’s responsibility to count the number of goats when they go for grazing and while bringing them back it is his duty to count them again and so far the number has been the same. He is able to manage controlling the goats.

The Los Angeles Zoo‘s oldest elephant is poised to live out her remaining days at an animal sanctuary in central California after years of lobbying by animal activists for her retirement to a preserve.

Activists have long pressed officials to retire Ruby to a sanctuary, saying elephants simply don‘t have enough space at the zoo.

Ruby will be moved to the Performing Animal Welfare Society Elephant Sanctuary in San Andreas, southeast of Sacramento, the mayor‘s statement said. The sanctuary sits on 75 acres with a lake and mud holes. The mayor‘s office said it would most likely take two to three weeks to complete the move.

“I am delighted that Ruby is going to the PAWS sanctuary, where she will live a near as normal elephant life as possible as long as she is in captivity,” the retiring game show host and animal rights activist told The Associated Press by phone.

A CHANGE in climate could be the cause of the early arrival of orange-bellied parrots to the south-west.

Co-ordinator for the South West Orange-Bellied Parrot Working Group, Dianne Davis, said one of the rare birds was spotted with a flock of blue-winged parrots on a property at Killarney last week.

The birds nest in Tasmania in the summer and then they make their way to south-west Victoria,” Mrs Davis said.

“The first sighting is usually in April but each year we are seeing them coming earlier and earlier.”

She said the change in migration patterns could be attributed to climate change.

Mrs Davis said similar changes were also being seen in the migratory patterns of other species of birds.

The parrot, which ranks alongside the giant panda, the whooping crane and the Siberian tiger as one of the rarest and most endangered wildlife species in the world, has a population of approximately 150.

Birds Australia orange-bellied parrot co-ordinator Chris Tzaros said it was exciting to see the species arrive on the mainland.

“There was a confirmation of a sighting of an OBP on January 24, which is the earliest on record,” Mr Tzaros said.

“It’s a bit of a wake-up call for birdwatchers who should keep their eyes out for the birds.”

The south-west group is holding a workshop on March 25 for people interested in learning about identification, habitat and research into the orange-bellied parrot.

Birds may be able to fly vast distances without getting lost because of sensors in their beaks, according to a study.

German scientists said they found tiny iron oxide crystals in the skin lining of the upper beak of homing pigeons, laid out in a three-dimensional pattern that might help the birds to read the earth’s magnetic field.

“The study suggests that the birds sense the magnetic field independent of their motion and posture and thus can identify their geographical position,” publisher Springer said of the report in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

Scientists have long wondered how birds find their way, often migrating over thousands of miles to find the same tree.

“We expect that the pigeon-type receptor… might turn out to be a universal feature of all birds,” according to author Gerta Fleissner and colleagues at the University of Frankfurt, writing in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

Similar iron-containing cells had been found in the beaks of robins, golden warblers and chickens, she wrote.

A mini tourism boom has been created in Darwin by a bird that may have been blown in from Indonesia by cyclone George.

Local bird watchers say enthusiasts are flying in from all over Australia hoping to catch a glimpse of a single javan pond-heron that has taken up residence in a drain in Darwin’s northern suburbs.

Sheryl Keats from the Northern Territory Field Naturalists says it is the first official sighting of the bird on the Australian mainland.

“Many people have come to see this bird,” she said.

“People have been from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Broome.

“You name it they’ve been here and they’re still coming.

“They are called twitchers. They like to tick off these species and the real keen birders will come.”

One of the twitchers, Mike Carter, says he could not get to Darwin quickly enough.

“I felt a bit frustrated because at the time I was on Christmas Island so I couldn’t get here,” he said.

“Otherwise I would have been here much sooner.”

News of the sighting has spread via twitchers using Internet chat sites.

Bird-watching is the second-most popular outdoor hobby and the fastest growing of all outdoor recreational activities in the U.S., involving about 70 million, according to Don and Lillian Stokes, authors of the Stokes Nature Guide series of books.

Longtime Sandy resident Donna Thorum got hooked in the 1960s when she started throwing crumbs out on the back patio for the “little gray birds.” She was excited one day when she saw a larger, blue bird come in. It was this beautiful Western scrub-jay that started Thorum’s love affair with bird-watching.

“Forty years later, I’m still trying to see every species of bird on earth,” Thorum says.

Nancy Howard, also of Sandy, credits her mother for instilling in her a love of nature. During the 1970s, Howard belonged to an environmental group in which she met nationally recognized ornithologist and bird artist George Miksch Sutton. That association sparked an interest in bird-watching that continues to this day.

Another local, Jack Clark, became interested in bird-watching in 1999 while vacationing in Trinidad and Tobago. As he sat on the verandah of the Asa Wright Nature Center each morning, he was amazed by the brilliant colors of the exotic birds he saw. Later, he visited Costa Rica, Kenya and the Galapagos Islands to scan the skies and trees for beautiful birds.

After retiring a few years ago, Clark viewed bird-watching as a way to “get out of the house and get some exercise.” He has since become active in the Great Salt Lake Audubon Society and leads a monthly survey group to the Mountain Dell Recreation Area.

It’s not necessary to visit Trinidad, Tobago or Kenya to see birds. Over 400 species of birds have been documented in Utah, and many of them can be seen in the Sandy and Draper area.

For her part, Thorum has invested in a variety of feeders and water features. To date, she has identified more than 100 species of birds in her backyard. She also has participated in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Project FeederWatch for 20 years. The project helps scientists track broad-scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.