Five Most Popular Animal Stories of 2013

News about animals - whether it's a new species, a rare birth, a genetic revelation or even a crazy video - is a regular part of the content we produce on Nature World News. The five animal stories below were the most widely read on the website this year.

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A camera trap in the forest of the Russian Far East captured rare and surprising images of a golden eagle attacking a young sika deer. Golden eagles are not known to attack deer, but the image of the bird latched on to the deer's back and bringing it down to the snowy ground is as clear as it is puzzling. The eagle's attack was successful, researchers later found the deer's carcass a few yards away from the camera trap.

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Australian Wild Pig Drinks 18 Beers, Gets in Fight with Cow

At a remote campsite in rural western Australia, a group of campers reported a wild boar ransacking the campsite and getting into a case of beer, then getting drunk and starting a fight with a cow. The story made international headlines, but the boorish boar met an untimely end weeks later when it was killed on the highway by a passing vehicle.

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Dogs are much likely to steal food in the dark when humans cannot notice them, indicating they understand a human's perspective, according to a study conducted by Juliane Kaminski of the University of Portsmouth. Kaminski claims that when humans forbid dogs from eating a certain food, the canine is four times more likely to steal the forbidden food in the night. This behavior in dogs suggests they can change their actions based on what humans think and feel.

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Eel Shoved Up Man's Anus Eats Its Way Through His Intestines

A 39-year-old man checked into a hospital in southern China after allowing a 20-inch live eel to slither into his anus in an attempt to recreate something he has reported witnessed in a porno film. It took an all-night surgery to get the eel out from inside the man. The eel was alive when it was removed, but later died. Doctors said it was "probably a mercy."

Scientists Sterilize One of the World's Most Endangered Animals

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After two emergency Cesarean sections, scientists decided to sterilize one of the few remaining Iberian lynx's in the world. With no more than 200 remaining, the Iberian lynx is one of the world's most endangered species. For this reason, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research decided to surgically remove the animal's embryos in hopes of implanting them into a surrogate mother.