A graphic designer in Los Angeles has become a budding farmer, raising chickens in the shadow of the city's skyline. In some locales, though, animals in the shadow of skyscrapers is contentious issue.

Two pandas born in the United States as part of an effort to breed more of the cuddly animals have returned to China. Mei Lan and Tai Shan were greeted in Chengdu province Friday by a crowd of hundreds and television cameras.

Zookeepers at a safari park in Scotland on Thursday introduced the public to a 330-pound, five-week-old white rhinoceros whose birth they would have missed without a tip from a Web cam viewer. A woman watching the rhinos online alerted zookeepers back in December that the mother rhino's water had broken.

Baltic, the dog who drifted for 75 miles on an ice floe before being rescued, is starting life with a new owner. After the dog rejected several people who tried to claim him, he's settling in with Adam Buczynski, the man who pulled him to safety.

Zookeepers in China are preparing for the return of a 3-year-old panda born in the United States by advertising for a Chinese-language tutor. Mei Lan, who has lived at a zoo in Atlanta since her birth in 2006, will also be treated to a special diet and blind dates.

Twelve Asian nations and Russia have crafted a historic conservation plan to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. The declaration will head to a meeting of heads of state in September for final approval.

The new koala at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C., is ready to face visitors and their cameras. Oliver the joey was born in April 2009, but even zoo workers weren't able to get a look at the little critter until October.

The first known breeding area of the large-billed reed warbler -- one of the world's rarest birds -- has been discovered in Afghanistan. The first specimen of the warbler was discovered in India in 1867, with more than a century elapsing before a single bird was found again in Thailand in 2006.

A dairy farm in Wisconsin is producing more than just milk -- it's providing electricity to nearly 250 nearby homes. Steve Bach is processing the manure made by his cows and producing usable energy for his neighbors.

Eleven-year-old Austin Forman of British Columbia had a guardian angel on his side when a cougar charged him. Austin's golden retriever, named Angel, got between the cougar and the boy, allowing the boy to run inside for help.