In the interests of reporting all things anthropomorphic on Flayrah, it is my sad duty to report that the Cartoon Brew website has just announced the existence of two new CGI animated anthropomorphic films. (Notice that I did not say ‘theatrical’.)

One is Life’s a Jungle: Africa’s Most Wanted, a cheap, direct-to-video rip-off of DreamWorks Animation’s Madagascar franchise from Canadian distributor Phase 4 Films, just in time to take advantage of all the publicity for Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.

How bad can it be? Cartoon Brew posts its trailer so you can see for yourself. If this gets onto this year’s Ursa Major Award final ballot, I will personally destroy the ALAA.

The other is Buz-e-Chini, Afghanistan’s first CGI animated film, about goats facing up to a fierce wolf. It is in Hazaragi, a language I confess I never heard of before.

A photoarticle in Wired.com says there are an estimated 4,500 to 7,500 wild snow leopards left in the Central Asian mountains. This is more than the number of tigers left in the wild, which is estimated to be only about 3,200.

See also: BBC tracks down tigers in the Himalayas - Chinese wineries farm tigers for bones

Teams of animal welfare specialists, in light of the recient publicity of the conditions in the Kabul zoo, are preparing to fly in and bring emergency relief supplies to the battered and starving animals.

The World Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Animals and Born Free are both pledging thousands to care and feed the animals of the zoo, as well as sending teams to investigate and administer the care.

This update can be found here

Years of fighting and famine have reduced the once high class menagerie, which housed over 100 species, to a pitiful collection of animals, many of which sport battle scars from the various military conflicts which have raged across Afganistan in the last few decades.


From a grendade wounded 45 year old lion, to the wild boar which was one of few the edible animals that was not eaten during famine years (prohibitions on pork), the collection has been mainly neglected and sometimes outrightly abused by the various ruling factions which have run Kabul.
Though interest in the zoo is picking up with the fall of Kabul to the Northern Alliance, long time zoo director Sheragha Omar doubts they will bring the money or interest the zoo needs to survive. He currently relies on the kindness of locals, including the local butcher, who supplies his wounded lion and the other carnivores with meat.

Articles discussing the plight of the zoo can be found at the BBC,or Yahoo