Negative image of an octopus
Sarah Jackson (Clanton, Alabama)
Photographed February 2009, Atlanta, Georgia
Ta much, dear MSiegel!
Negative image of an octopus
Sarah Jackson (Clanton, Alabama)
Photographed February 2009, Atlanta, Georgia
Ta much, dear MSiegel!
Via http://www.crackajack.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/lost2.jpg
They came from the deep. They have 15-foot tentacles. And now they’re oozing around Pier 39.
They’re three rarely seen giant Pacific octopuses, caught by a crab fisherman and now - in all their gelatinous, eight-limbed glory - mesmerizing biologists and the public at Aquarium of the Bay.
“They’re so iconic - it’s sort of like shaking hands with a sea monster,” said marine biologist Mike McGill, describing the experience of holding one of the new arrivals. “They wrap their arms around you so they can feel you and taste you with their suction cups. If they don’t think you’re a predator, they can be very friendly.” …
Ta much, dear MSiegel!
They’re three rarely seen giant Pacific octopuses, caught by a crab fisherman and now - in all their gelatinous, eight-limbed glory - mesmerizing biologists and the public at Aquarium of the Bay.
“They’re so iconic - it’s sort of like shaking hands with a sea monster,” said marine biologist Mike McGill, describing the experience of holding one of the new arrivals. “They wrap their arms around you so they can feel you and taste you with their suction cups. If they don’t think you’re a predator, they can be very friendly.” …
Ta much, dear MSiegel!
Mom said, completely deadpan, "Look - you can see where those fake bills have been tied on," before awwwwwwing all over the place.
Tauranga - In a story that is perhaps one of those kinds of tales that is so incredible it has to be true, a New Zealand woman came into her kitchen to find a baby fur seal.
The Tauranga Harbour woman was surprised to learn the baby seal arrived through her cat door and ended up on the couch, readying for a nap. When the resident, Annette Swoffer, came into the room she was shocked to find the seal was "hanging out with her cats," reported the New Zealand Herald.
It seems the little guy managed to travel from the Welcome Bay waterfront, through the residential area, across a busy street, up a smaller road until it reached Swoffer's lengthy driveway. Then he ventured through the cat door and into the house. Speculation is the seal may have followed one of the cats inside. Reportedly, once inside, the pup ignored Swoffer's dog.
"I was looking at it thinking, it's got flippers, it's not a cat or a dog ... I thought I was hallucinating," she said. ...
The Tauranga Harbour woman was surprised to learn the baby seal arrived through her cat door and ended up on the couch, readying for a nap. When the resident, Annette Swoffer, came into the room she was shocked to find the seal was "hanging out with her cats," reported the New Zealand Herald.
It seems the little guy managed to travel from the Welcome Bay waterfront, through the residential area, across a busy street, up a smaller road until it reached Swoffer's lengthy driveway. Then he ventured through the cat door and into the house. Speculation is the seal may have followed one of the cats inside. Reportedly, once inside, the pup ignored Swoffer's dog.
"I was looking at it thinking, it's got flippers, it's not a cat or a dog ... I thought I was hallucinating," she said. ...
Ta much, dear MSiegel!
Ta much, dear MSiegel!
Fabulous!!!!!!
She has a leisurely roll in a pile of sand before spending a good 40 minutes rubbing against assorted metal bars and gates. She pauses to suck up a few stray strands of hay that she sprays over her back. And then she trundles off for a snooze. It is hardly an action-packed day, but after half a century of hard circus graft, Anne the elephant could be forgiven for taking it easy. And, like minders keen to protect a sensitive star, her new keepers at Longleat Safari Park are not going to force her to perform for the cameras.
"It's about giving her dignity now," says Jon Cracknell, the director of animal operations at Longleat. "She needs a bit of space and time to get used to her new surroundings, her new life. We do things at her pace, not anyone else's, and I don't want her to become a tabloid pawn. She needs her privacy."
It may already be too late for that. For more than a week now the story of Anne, Britain's last circus elephant, has competed with crime and war stories for space in the tabloids – and fared pretty well. The fuss shows no sign of dying down. When the Guardian was granted an audience with Anne yesterday, the PR department's phones were ringing off the hook from newspapers wanting to know how Anne was doing and photographers keen to come along and document her every roll and rub.
Journalists from as far afield as Brazil have requested access, and Cracknell had to put his foot down when representatives of a Hollywood actor – he is too discreet to say which one – expressed a desire to have their man pictured next to Anne. ...
"It's about giving her dignity now," says Jon Cracknell, the director of animal operations at Longleat. "She needs a bit of space and time to get used to her new surroundings, her new life. We do things at her pace, not anyone else's, and I don't want her to become a tabloid pawn. She needs her privacy."
It may already be too late for that. For more than a week now the story of Anne, Britain's last circus elephant, has competed with crime and war stories for space in the tabloids – and fared pretty well. The fuss shows no sign of dying down. When the Guardian was granted an audience with Anne yesterday, the PR department's phones were ringing off the hook from newspapers wanting to know how Anne was doing and photographers keen to come along and document her every roll and rub.
Journalists from as far afield as Brazil have requested access, and Cracknell had to put his foot down when representatives of a Hollywood actor – he is too discreet to say which one – expressed a desire to have their man pictured next to Anne. ...
The animal apparently was washed inside by the high water on Monday night, said Luiz Claudio Farias, a captain of firefighters in the north-central city of Parauapebas.
When the woman went to clean up the following day, she saw the boy playing with something behind the couch, Farias said. It turned out to be an alligator.
"She snatched the boy away and called us," he said.
Farias said it was lucky the reptile apparently wasn't in the mood for a meal: "If he was hungry, he could have seriously hurt or even killed the boy."
Firefighters trapped the alligator and took it to a nearby environmental preserve, where they set it free. ...
When the woman went to clean up the following day, she saw the boy playing with something behind the couch, Farias said. It turned out to be an alligator.
"She snatched the boy away and called us," he said.
Farias said it was lucky the reptile apparently wasn't in the mood for a meal: "If he was hungry, he could have seriously hurt or even killed the boy."
Firefighters trapped the alligator and took it to a nearby environmental preserve, where they set it free. ...
Simon Garner - 11th February, 2011
First it was Heidi the cross-eyed opossum, now meet Frank the jaguar
As big cats go, Frank the cross-eyed jaguar from Delitzscher Zoo in Germany is far from purr-fect.
But keepers are hoping that the 14-year-old beast can beat Europe's other boss-eyed box office hit Heidi the opossum by a whisker.
'Frank was born with crossed eyes and no-one ever knew why. By now he's adapted very well to his condition. He's very happy but he wouldn't survive in the wild like this," said a zoo spokesman.
'He's not much of a hunter and he doesn't like to climb, but when you look at his eyes you can understand why,' they added.
'It's sadly not possible to do anything about the defect as far as we know but Frank seems happy.' ...
First it was Heidi the cross-eyed opossum, now meet Frank the jaguar
As big cats go, Frank the cross-eyed jaguar from Delitzscher Zoo in Germany is far from purr-fect.
But keepers are hoping that the 14-year-old beast can beat Europe's other boss-eyed box office hit Heidi the opossum by a whisker.
'Frank was born with crossed eyes and no-one ever knew why. By now he's adapted very well to his condition. He's very happy but he wouldn't survive in the wild like this," said a zoo spokesman.
'He's not much of a hunter and he doesn't like to climb, but when you look at his eyes you can understand why,' they added.
'It's sadly not possible to do anything about the defect as far as we know but Frank seems happy.' ...
Shanna Sexton, 25, was driven to distraction by the reoccurring high-pitched tone and even called in workmen to try and locate the problem.
But Miss Sexton was amazed to see an African Grey Congo parrot perched on a water butt as she hung out washing in the garden.
The noisy parrot, called Sammi, had escaped from neighbour Louise Ledger's house a week earlier and spent seven days in the garden mimicking a smoke alarm.
Miss Sexton, from Torquay, Devon, said: ''I'd been hearing the noise for ages. I looked around the house checking everything. I even pulled out the washing machine.
''In the end a workman said it sounded like it may be my smoke alarm. We had problems with our smoke alarm before and I thought 'here we go again'.
''It was driving me mad but I just could not find out where it was coming from.''
But the mystery was solved once Miss Sexton spotted Sammi in the garden after seeing "Missing Parrot" posters stuck up around the neighbourhood.
Three-year-old Sammi flew out of front door as owner Mrs Ledger returned home from a shopping trip.
Mrs Ledger, 38, was distraught and spent hours searching for her beloved pet before she plastered the neighbourhood with missing posters appealing for Sammi's return. ...
But Miss Sexton was amazed to see an African Grey Congo parrot perched on a water butt as she hung out washing in the garden.
The noisy parrot, called Sammi, had escaped from neighbour Louise Ledger's house a week earlier and spent seven days in the garden mimicking a smoke alarm.
Miss Sexton, from Torquay, Devon, said: ''I'd been hearing the noise for ages. I looked around the house checking everything. I even pulled out the washing machine.
''In the end a workman said it sounded like it may be my smoke alarm. We had problems with our smoke alarm before and I thought 'here we go again'.
''It was driving me mad but I just could not find out where it was coming from.''
But the mystery was solved once Miss Sexton spotted Sammi in the garden after seeing "Missing Parrot" posters stuck up around the neighbourhood.
Three-year-old Sammi flew out of front door as owner Mrs Ledger returned home from a shopping trip.
Mrs Ledger, 38, was distraught and spent hours searching for her beloved pet before she plastered the neighbourhood with missing posters appealing for Sammi's return. ...
Horse enjoys a refreshing pint in his local pub
A horse called Basil has finally been allowed into his local pub in Staffordshire for a refreshing pint.
9 Feb 2011
The Welsh Cob stallion visits his favoured watering hole every Sunday at the Meynell Ingram Arms in Burton, Staffordshire. ...
A horse called Basil has finally been allowed into his local pub in Staffordshire for a refreshing pint.
9 Feb 2011
The Welsh Cob stallion visits his favoured watering hole every Sunday at the Meynell Ingram Arms in Burton, Staffordshire. ...
Ian Sample: How did the project come about?
Isabella Rossellini: Through Sundance. Robert Redford founded the Sundance Institute to create independent film and, with the advent of the internet, he wanted to experiment with the short film format, anything from one to five minutes. That format doesn't have a distribution – the shortest film you can find on television is about half an hour. So Redford called me because I had had a long association with Sundance through films such as Blue Velvet and Big Night and I've also been at the institute working with young film-makers. They knew I wanted to start directing, so I was given a little budget to do three pilots for the first Green Porno films. Redford liked it, Sundance liked it and they commissioned more. They were very successful and we ended up making 28 episodes, shown on the Sundance Channel.
And the Seduce Me series followed?
A potential sponsor called to say they liked the films but that they couldn't support anything that had the word "porno" in it, so we made a series similar called Seduce Me. Green Porno is about the mating habits of animals and Seduce Me is about the courtship rituals of animals. Although we took out every word that could have been offensive we still didn't find any finance.
Can you describe the films?
They're short, between 90 seconds to three minutes each. They start with a close up of me saying: "If I were a fly…" and then I transform myself into a fly, with complicated and beautiful costumes. And then I show how a fly would mate. Or a praying mantis or a duck. They are meant to be comical films – there are many ways to reproduce – but scientifically accurate. ...
... What do you hope people will learn from them?
I want people to laugh and then to learn. All the animals are familiar, so the idea is you can look out in your garden and see a dragonfly and know more about it than you did before, such as the male has a sexual organ that can clean the female's sexual organ, because the female tends to be extremely promiscuous. So the male grabs the female, cleans her, inserts his sperm and then holds her by the neck until she is ready to have his babies. Little things like this I have always found comical. I have always liked animal behaviour, since I was a child and I have read a lot. I'm a bird-watcher; I'm always in my garden turning up stones to see what's underneath. ...
Isabella Rossellini: Through Sundance. Robert Redford founded the Sundance Institute to create independent film and, with the advent of the internet, he wanted to experiment with the short film format, anything from one to five minutes. That format doesn't have a distribution – the shortest film you can find on television is about half an hour. So Redford called me because I had had a long association with Sundance through films such as Blue Velvet and Big Night and I've also been at the institute working with young film-makers. They knew I wanted to start directing, so I was given a little budget to do three pilots for the first Green Porno films. Redford liked it, Sundance liked it and they commissioned more. They were very successful and we ended up making 28 episodes, shown on the Sundance Channel.
And the Seduce Me series followed?
A potential sponsor called to say they liked the films but that they couldn't support anything that had the word "porno" in it, so we made a series similar called Seduce Me. Green Porno is about the mating habits of animals and Seduce Me is about the courtship rituals of animals. Although we took out every word that could have been offensive we still didn't find any finance.
Can you describe the films?
They're short, between 90 seconds to three minutes each. They start with a close up of me saying: "If I were a fly…" and then I transform myself into a fly, with complicated and beautiful costumes. And then I show how a fly would mate. Or a praying mantis or a duck. They are meant to be comical films – there are many ways to reproduce – but scientifically accurate. ...
... What do you hope people will learn from them?
I want people to laugh and then to learn. All the animals are familiar, so the idea is you can look out in your garden and see a dragonfly and know more about it than you did before, such as the male has a sexual organ that can clean the female's sexual organ, because the female tends to be extremely promiscuous. So the male grabs the female, cleans her, inserts his sperm and then holds her by the neck until she is ready to have his babies. Little things like this I have always found comical. I have always liked animal behaviour, since I was a child and I have read a lot. I'm a bird-watcher; I'm always in my garden turning up stones to see what's underneath. ...
Why?
'Cause dear MSiegel sent it.
... allcreatures:
inbunden: A “blanket octopus”, or a Tremoctopus.
From the wikipedia page: “These species have evolved an unusual defense mechanism: blanket octopuses are immune to the poisonous Portuguese man o’ war, whose tentacles the male and immature females rip off and use for defensive purposes.”
That’s effing rad! ...
Ta much, dear Edosan
inbunden: A “blanket octopus”, or a Tremoctopus.
From the wikipedia page: “These species have evolved an unusual defense mechanism: blanket octopuses are immune to the poisonous Portuguese man o’ war, whose tentacles the male and immature females rip off and use for defensive purposes.”
That’s effing rad! ...
Ta much, dear Edosan
Egyptian golden jackal is actually a grey wolf, scientists discover in DNA test
27th January 2011
Animal could now be renamed the African wolf
A 'golden jackal' living in north Africa is really a grey wolf, scientists have discovered.
The animal's true identity was revealed when researchers compared its DNA with samples in GenBank, a genetic database.
Until now, the Egyptian jackal - Canis aureus lupaster - had been considered a rare sub-species of the golden jackal.
The new evidence shows it is not a jackal at all, but a type of grey wolf. ...
My very dear MSiegel sent this, and I told him, "No wonder my pal Anubis so often wears that lovely, enigmatic smile."
27th January 2011
Animal could now be renamed the African wolf
A 'golden jackal' living in north Africa is really a grey wolf, scientists have discovered.
The animal's true identity was revealed when researchers compared its DNA with samples in GenBank, a genetic database.
Until now, the Egyptian jackal - Canis aureus lupaster - had been considered a rare sub-species of the golden jackal.
The new evidence shows it is not a jackal at all, but a type of grey wolf. ...
My very dear MSiegel sent this, and I told him, "No wonder my pal Anubis so often wears that lovely, enigmatic smile."
European robins may maintain quantum entanglement in their eyes a full 20 microseconds longer than the best laboratory systems, say physicists investigating how birds may use quantum effects to “see” Earth’s magnetic field.
Quantum entanglement is a state where electrons are spatially separated, but able to affect one another. It’s been proposed that birds’ eyes contain entanglement-based compasses.
Conclusive proof doesn’t yet exist, but multiple lines of evidence suggest it. Findings like this one underscore just how sophisticated those compasses may be.
“How can a living system have evolved to protect a quantum state as well — no, better — than we can do in the lab with these exotic molecules?” asked quantum physicist Simon Benjamin of Oxford University and the National University of Singapore, a co-author of the new study. “That really is an amazing thing.”
Many animals — including not only birds, but some mammals, fish, reptiles, even crustaceans and insects — navigate by sensing the direction of Earth’s magnetic field. Physicist Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposed in the late 1970s that bird navigation relied on some geomagnetically sensitive, as-yet-unknown biochemical reaction taking place in their eyes. ...
Quantum entanglement is a state where electrons are spatially separated, but able to affect one another. It’s been proposed that birds’ eyes contain entanglement-based compasses.
Conclusive proof doesn’t yet exist, but multiple lines of evidence suggest it. Findings like this one underscore just how sophisticated those compasses may be.
“How can a living system have evolved to protect a quantum state as well — no, better — than we can do in the lab with these exotic molecules?” asked quantum physicist Simon Benjamin of Oxford University and the National University of Singapore, a co-author of the new study. “That really is an amazing thing.”
Many animals — including not only birds, but some mammals, fish, reptiles, even crustaceans and insects — navigate by sensing the direction of Earth’s magnetic field. Physicist Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposed in the late 1970s that bird navigation relied on some geomagnetically sensitive, as-yet-unknown biochemical reaction taking place in their eyes. ...
Bohemian Waxwing
Barbicambarus simmonsi, a newly-discovered 5-inch giant crayfish from Tennessee
Crane stealing a fish from a vendor at Mumbai harbour
Female Snow Leopard at the Central Park Zoo
Sea Lion pups at Rabida, Galapagos Islands
Splendid Fairy Wrens
The results of freezing rain in Tuxedo Park, NY
New Caledonian crows use tools to investigate unfamiliar and potentially dangerous objects, according to scientists.
New research shows crows cautiously investigating new objects using sticks as an extension of their beaks.
New Caledonian crows are known to fashion tools to access food sources such as wood-boring beetle larvae.
Scientists suggest this study is the first time birds have been recorded using tools for multiple purposes. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
New research shows crows cautiously investigating new objects using sticks as an extension of their beaks.
New Caledonian crows are known to fashion tools to access food sources such as wood-boring beetle larvae.
Scientists suggest this study is the first time birds have been recorded using tools for multiple purposes. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
Romeu Lazar, the executive director of the veterinary health department in the Black Sea port of Constanta said on Wednesday a post-mortem revealed the birds ate grape residue that had fermented and their bodies could not handle the alcohol.
He says they did not have avian flu, which hit the area several years ago.
Constanta residents found dozens of dead birds on the outskirts of the city last week. The reports came as other, larger bird deaths were reported in the United States and elsewhere. ...
He says they did not have avian flu, which hit the area several years ago.
Constanta residents found dozens of dead birds on the outskirts of the city last week. The reports came as other, larger bird deaths were reported in the United States and elsewhere. ...
On screen, Dick Van Dyke has been rescued from untimely death by flying cars and magical nannies. Off screen, the veteran star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins had to rely on the help of a pod of porpoises after apparently dozing off aboard his surfboard. "I'm not kidding," he said afterwards.
Van Dyke's ordeal began during an ill-fated trip to his local beach. "I woke up out of sight of land," the 84-year-old actor told reporters. "I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought 'I'm dead!'"
Van Dyke was wrong. "They turned out to be porpoises," he said. "And they pushed me all the way to shore." The porpoises were unavailable for comment. ...
Van Dyke's ordeal began during an ill-fated trip to his local beach. "I woke up out of sight of land," the 84-year-old actor told reporters. "I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought 'I'm dead!'"
Van Dyke was wrong. "They turned out to be porpoises," he said. "And they pushed me all the way to shore." The porpoises were unavailable for comment. ...
Ta ever so much, dear MSiegel
Armadillo Girdled Lizard (Cordylus cataphractus)
Ta much, dear Ar0cketman, who sent this suggesting it be shown to folks who say "Evolution's just a theory!"
Ta much, dear Edosan - whom, fellow Categorian, you may blame for the spate of lolsquirrels what follows.
Ta much, dear Edosan
... Call them wild hogs, feral swine, razorbacks or Russian boar, they've become a serious nuisance across Michigan.
The hogs are thought to be escapees from game ranches, where hunters pay $300 to $2,000 to shoot them. Prolific parents, they produce as many as 18 offspring a year. As many as 5,000 are in the wild in Michigan.
The state is fighting back, considering declaring them an invasive species as at least six other states have done. The director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment could add wild hogs to the list of invasives as early as September, as the state's wildlife division recommends, making it illegal to possess them. The hogs meet the definition, since they're not native and destructive.
The proposal was presented publicly for the first time Thursday at a joint meeting of the Natural Resources Commission and Agricultural Commission in Escanaba.
DNRE Director Becky Humphries said Thursday that past efforts at legislation to control boars has failed, so she asked her staff to see what more could be done. "We don't want them running around in the wild," she said. ...
The hogs are thought to be escapees from game ranches, where hunters pay $300 to $2,000 to shoot them. Prolific parents, they produce as many as 18 offspring a year. As many as 5,000 are in the wild in Michigan.
The state is fighting back, considering declaring them an invasive species as at least six other states have done. The director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment could add wild hogs to the list of invasives as early as September, as the state's wildlife division recommends, making it illegal to possess them. The hogs meet the definition, since they're not native and destructive.
The proposal was presented publicly for the first time Thursday at a joint meeting of the Natural Resources Commission and Agricultural Commission in Escanaba.
DNRE Director Becky Humphries said Thursday that past efforts at legislation to control boars has failed, so she asked her staff to see what more could be done. "We don't want them running around in the wild," she said. ...
Ta much, dear Edosan
That's a porkly Kookaburra, allright!
Athlete’s foot therapy tapped to treat bat-killing fungus
Hibernating bats treated in several New York mines.
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Monday, March 22nd, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — Over the past four years, a mysterious white-nose fungus has struck hibernating North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat athlete’s foot.
John Eisemann of the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, better known as APHIS, in Fort Collins, Colo., mentioned the new program during his talk, here, at the American Chemical Society’s spring national meeting. He was describing legal tactics by which wildlife officials can thwart invasive vertebrate species with off-the-shelf chemicals.
He noted, for instance, how scientists have used a contraceptive vaccine — one designed to control white-tail deer populations — on rodents. It offered a nonlethal approach to reining in the population explosion of non-native fox squirrels on a University of California campus. In another instance, wildlife managers employed a cholesterol inhibiting drug to reduce sex hormone levels — and the urge to reproduce — among invasive monk parakeets. And on Guam, Eisemann’s team designed special traps baited with neonatal mouse carcasses. Each bait had been implanted with a child’s dose of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. It proved amazingly effective in strategically poisoning a major scourge, invasive brown treesnakes — and only that species.
The bat task force enlisted Eisemann’s help to make sure that whatever they tried would be legal. He’s the go-to guy for identifying what permissions, waivers or requests are required before wildlife managers can apply poisons or anti-fertility drugs. The Food and Drug Administration allows for some off-label use of an existing drug as a veterinary prescription. And that's the tactic he arranged for the task force to use with the athlete’s foot drug. ...
Hibernating bats treated in several New York mines.
By Janet Raloff
Web edition : Monday, March 22nd, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO — Over the past four years, a mysterious white-nose fungus has struck hibernating North American bats. Populations in affected caves and mines can experience death rates of more than 80 percent over a winter. In desperation, an informal interagency task force of scientists from state and federal agencies has just launched an experimental program to fight the plague. Their weapon: a drug ordinarily used to treat athlete’s foot.
John Eisemann of the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, better known as APHIS, in Fort Collins, Colo., mentioned the new program during his talk, here, at the American Chemical Society’s spring national meeting. He was describing legal tactics by which wildlife officials can thwart invasive vertebrate species with off-the-shelf chemicals.
He noted, for instance, how scientists have used a contraceptive vaccine — one designed to control white-tail deer populations — on rodents. It offered a nonlethal approach to reining in the population explosion of non-native fox squirrels on a University of California campus. In another instance, wildlife managers employed a cholesterol inhibiting drug to reduce sex hormone levels — and the urge to reproduce — among invasive monk parakeets. And on Guam, Eisemann’s team designed special traps baited with neonatal mouse carcasses. Each bait had been implanted with a child’s dose of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. It proved amazingly effective in strategically poisoning a major scourge, invasive brown treesnakes — and only that species.
The bat task force enlisted Eisemann’s help to make sure that whatever they tried would be legal. He’s the go-to guy for identifying what permissions, waivers or requests are required before wildlife managers can apply poisons or anti-fertility drugs. The Food and Drug Administration allows for some off-label use of an existing drug as a veterinary prescription. And that's the tactic he arranged for the task force to use with the athlete’s foot drug. ...
Mammoths had more than woolly coats to protect them from the frigid conditions of their sub-zero stomping grounds, scientists have discovered.
The extinct beasts had a form of antifreeze blood that kept their bodies supplied with oxygen in the sub-zero temperatures, according to a study of DNA extracted from 43,000-year-old mammoth remains.
A genetic adaptation in the woolly mammoths' haemoglobin – the molecular cage that carries oxygen in the blood – allowed them to thrive at high latitudes without losing much heat.
Ancestors of the woolly mammoth originated in equatorial Africa about seven million years ago, but populations migrated north more than one million years ago, in a period of Earth's history when climate change caused temperatures to plummet.
Unlike modern elephants, which have evolved large ears and other characteristics to keep cool in excessive heat, ancestral mammoths survived by evolving ways of saving heat, such as small ears and tails.
In the latest study, a team led by Kevin Campbell at the University of Manitoba in Canada found another physiological trick that mammoths used to endure the ice age. Campbell's team isolated haemoglobin DNA from a woolly mammoth recovered from the Siberian permafrost and compared it with genetic code extracted from modern African and Asian elephants.
The mammoth's DNA differed in a small but significant way. Changes in one percent of the proteins studied showed that it took less energy for mammoth haemoglobin to release its oxygen into the body as it coursed through the blood vessels. "It literally allows their blood to run cold," Campbell said. ...
The extinct beasts had a form of antifreeze blood that kept their bodies supplied with oxygen in the sub-zero temperatures, according to a study of DNA extracted from 43,000-year-old mammoth remains.
A genetic adaptation in the woolly mammoths' haemoglobin – the molecular cage that carries oxygen in the blood – allowed them to thrive at high latitudes without losing much heat.
Ancestors of the woolly mammoth originated in equatorial Africa about seven million years ago, but populations migrated north more than one million years ago, in a period of Earth's history when climate change caused temperatures to plummet.
Unlike modern elephants, which have evolved large ears and other characteristics to keep cool in excessive heat, ancestral mammoths survived by evolving ways of saving heat, such as small ears and tails.
In the latest study, a team led by Kevin Campbell at the University of Manitoba in Canada found another physiological trick that mammoths used to endure the ice age. Campbell's team isolated haemoglobin DNA from a woolly mammoth recovered from the Siberian permafrost and compared it with genetic code extracted from modern African and Asian elephants.
The mammoth's DNA differed in a small but significant way. Changes in one percent of the proteins studied showed that it took less energy for mammoth haemoglobin to release its oxygen into the body as it coursed through the blood vessels. "It literally allows their blood to run cold," Campbell said. ...
MSiegel says this is already 404. It still shows up on my machine: I blamed my cache.
Here's the whole article:
Bear confirmed as a 'grolar'
Canwest News Service May 2, 2010
An odd-looking bear shot a few weeks ago by an Inuit hunter in the High Arctic is a rare grizzly-polar bear cross, scientists have confirmed.
Moreover, the animal -- with the creamy white fur of a polar bear, but with the big head, long claws and ring of brown hair around its hind common to the grizzly -- may be the first recorded second-generation "grolar bear" found in the wild, the Northwest Territories Environment and Natural Resources Department said in a news release.
"A wildlife genetics laboratory has since conducted DNA testing on the samples, and the results of the testing point to the animal being a second-generation hybrid bear which resulted from the mating of a polar/grizzly bear female with a male grizzly bear," said the release.
Hunter David Kuptana shot the bear on April 8 while it roamed the sea ice just west of Ulukhaktok, on Victoria Island.
"The animal appeared unusual to the hunter and he provided samples from the bear to Environment and Natural Resources officials for testing to determine the species," said the environment department. Polar bear-grizzly hybrids -- known as either "pizzly" or "grolar" bears -- are very rare.
Although several suspected sightings have been made in that past few years, only one hybrid -- shot by a U.S. hunter in 2006 -- had been confirmed in the wild.
Here's the whole article:
Bear confirmed as a 'grolar'
Canwest News Service May 2, 2010
An odd-looking bear shot a few weeks ago by an Inuit hunter in the High Arctic is a rare grizzly-polar bear cross, scientists have confirmed.
Moreover, the animal -- with the creamy white fur of a polar bear, but with the big head, long claws and ring of brown hair around its hind common to the grizzly -- may be the first recorded second-generation "grolar bear" found in the wild, the Northwest Territories Environment and Natural Resources Department said in a news release.
"A wildlife genetics laboratory has since conducted DNA testing on the samples, and the results of the testing point to the animal being a second-generation hybrid bear which resulted from the mating of a polar/grizzly bear female with a male grizzly bear," said the release.
Hunter David Kuptana shot the bear on April 8 while it roamed the sea ice just west of Ulukhaktok, on Victoria Island.
"The animal appeared unusual to the hunter and he provided samples from the bear to Environment and Natural Resources officials for testing to determine the species," said the environment department. Polar bear-grizzly hybrids -- known as either "pizzly" or "grolar" bears -- are very rare.
Although several suspected sightings have been made in that past few years, only one hybrid -- shot by a U.S. hunter in 2006 -- had been confirmed in the wild.
Lawrence Bates was all set to call for assistance when his jeep at West Midland Safari Park broke down, until Five the elephant decided to give him a helping hand.
The 18-year-old African Elephant got behind and pushed the car out of trouble and out of the enclosure.
She even cleaned the car in the process.
Five reached into a bucket of water with her trunk, sprayed the vehicle with water to remove any dust, then gathered up a sponge with her trunk and cleaned the windows and paintwork with the style of a true professional.
Director of Wildlife, Bob Lawrence, said: "The jeep broke down one morning and the lads jumped out to have a look at it, popped the bonnet and had a look at the oil.
"We still couldn't get it to start so gave it a push start, eventually got it going - at this time though its covered with dirty hand marks so Five gave it a quick wash and a hose down.
"But the jeep broke down again and to our astonishment Five came over and decided to give us a hand.
"She lifted the bonnet up, got the dipstick, and gave it to Lawrence. When we still couldn't get it to start, she went round the back and gave us a push.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life - it was absolutely incredible.
"Five and her Keeper are a real team.
"It is said that an Elephant never forgets, thankfully we don't experience many vehicle breakdowns, but next time Five will know exactly what to do". ...
Goddess-Elephant!
The 18-year-old African Elephant got behind and pushed the car out of trouble and out of the enclosure.
She even cleaned the car in the process.
Five reached into a bucket of water with her trunk, sprayed the vehicle with water to remove any dust, then gathered up a sponge with her trunk and cleaned the windows and paintwork with the style of a true professional.
Director of Wildlife, Bob Lawrence, said: "The jeep broke down one morning and the lads jumped out to have a look at it, popped the bonnet and had a look at the oil.
"We still couldn't get it to start so gave it a push start, eventually got it going - at this time though its covered with dirty hand marks so Five gave it a quick wash and a hose down.
"But the jeep broke down again and to our astonishment Five came over and decided to give us a hand.
"She lifted the bonnet up, got the dipstick, and gave it to Lawrence. When we still couldn't get it to start, she went round the back and gave us a push.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life - it was absolutely incredible.
"Five and her Keeper are a real team.
"It is said that an Elephant never forgets, thankfully we don't experience many vehicle breakdowns, but next time Five will know exactly what to do". ...
Goddess-Elephant!
We saw several Mata Matas - big uns - and man, are they ever weird.
The zoo's had 'em as long as I can remember, and I've always loved 'em.
It saddens me, Gentle Categorian, but none of the sites I found were worth the pixels of which they are composed.
Some of these images link to larger pics, not to the informative websites which I'd prefer.
That bright underside is a real shock, innit.
World's biggest rabbit weighs three-and-a-half stone
This Easter Bunny weighs a whopping three-and-a-half stone and is four foot three inches long - making him the biggest rabbit ever recorded.
04 Apr 2010
Darius, a Continental Giant who is only 13 months old, eats 12 carrots a day to keep up his strength as well as two daily meals of a pair of bowls of rabbit mix, three apples and a cabbage.
And he still has not reached his full size, with owner Annette Edwards, 59, preparing herself for another six months of growth before he hits full size.
Darius gorges himself on hay throughout the day which seems to have helped give him an unusual chilled temperament around other animals and humans.
Ms Edwards, from Worcester, has bred big bunnies before but Darius has been recognised as the largest rabbit ever recorded.
She said: "I only measured him this weekend and that was when I realised he was much bigger than Alice, who is the current record holder. ...
This Easter Bunny weighs a whopping three-and-a-half stone and is four foot three inches long - making him the biggest rabbit ever recorded.
04 Apr 2010
Darius, a Continental Giant who is only 13 months old, eats 12 carrots a day to keep up his strength as well as two daily meals of a pair of bowls of rabbit mix, three apples and a cabbage.
And he still has not reached his full size, with owner Annette Edwards, 59, preparing herself for another six months of growth before he hits full size.
Darius gorges himself on hay throughout the day which seems to have helped give him an unusual chilled temperament around other animals and humans.
Ms Edwards, from Worcester, has bred big bunnies before but Darius has been recognised as the largest rabbit ever recorded.
She said: "I only measured him this weekend and that was when I realised he was much bigger than Alice, who is the current record holder. ...
Poor lions prolly got tummyaches.
According to a report aired by TV station Frecuencia Latina, Domingo Pianezzi, a Peruvian surfer and pet trainer has taught not only a dog, but also a cat, and now an alpaca, to surf.
“Pisco” is the name of this alpaca, the only andean camelid in the world that can surf.
Pianezzi told the reporters that when he was in Australia, where surf is very popular, he witnesses how local surfers practiced this sport accompanied by their pets; thus he tried to do the same here in Peru. ...
“Pisco” is the name of this alpaca, the only andean camelid in the world that can surf.
Pianezzi told the reporters that when he was in Australia, where surf is very popular, he witnesses how local surfers practiced this sport accompanied by their pets; thus he tried to do the same here in Peru. ...
Little bigger than a pea, the smallest known sea horse, Hippocampus satomiae, was discovered at a depth of about 15 metres on reefs in Indonesia, from Derawan island to northern Sulawesi and Borneo. Like other pygmy sea horses, its size and camouflage make it difficult to spot. This species resembles, in texture and colour, the sea fans with which it lives. It has a pouch in which it carries its young, which are only 3mm in length. Animal names ending in -ae honour women, in this case Satomi Onishi, a diving guide who collected the first specimen.
... Beyond awesome. This is Darwinian evolution mixed with, like, Burning Man.
Being scientists of biomimicry, the authors surmise that if it were possible to reverse-engineer the entire shell — it’s not just the outer iron layer that’s cool; there are also two inner layers with gooey nougat that are equally important in defending the snail — they could produce superstrong materials for military defense and “load-bearing”.
Fair enough. But personally I’m satisfied just to have more pure science that proves, yet again, the inexhaustible Weirdness Of The Briny Deep.
Iron snails, people! Iron snails.
Ta much, dear MSiegel
Being scientists of biomimicry, the authors surmise that if it were possible to reverse-engineer the entire shell — it’s not just the outer iron layer that’s cool; there are also two inner layers with gooey nougat that are equally important in defending the snail — they could produce superstrong materials for military defense and “load-bearing”.
Fair enough. But personally I’m satisfied just to have more pure science that proves, yet again, the inexhaustible Weirdness Of The Briny Deep.
Iron snails, people! Iron snails.
Ta much, dear MSiegel
Experts shocked by 'bizarre' swan divorce
Experts at a wildlife sanctuary in Gloucestershire have witnessed a rare ''divorce'' between two Bewick's swans - with both parties bringing their new partners to winter at the site.
24 Jan 2010
It is only the second time in more than 4,000 pairs of Bewick's swans studied over 40 years at Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge that a separation has been recorded.
It is not unheard of for the birds, which usually mate for life, to find a new mate but it tends to be because one of the pair has died.
So when male swan Sarindi turned up in the annual migration from Arctic Russia without his partner of two years Saruni and with a new female - newly-named Sarind - in tow, conservationists feared the worst for Saruni.
But shortly afterwards Saruni arrived at the wetlands site - also with a new mate, Surune.
And after observing them, the experts are confident the old relationship had ended and new ones had begun.
Julia Newth, wildlife health research officer at Slimbridge, said the "bizarre" situation had taken staff by surprise. ...
Experts at a wildlife sanctuary in Gloucestershire have witnessed a rare ''divorce'' between two Bewick's swans - with both parties bringing their new partners to winter at the site.
24 Jan 2010
It is only the second time in more than 4,000 pairs of Bewick's swans studied over 40 years at Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge that a separation has been recorded.
It is not unheard of for the birds, which usually mate for life, to find a new mate but it tends to be because one of the pair has died.
So when male swan Sarindi turned up in the annual migration from Arctic Russia without his partner of two years Saruni and with a new female - newly-named Sarind - in tow, conservationists feared the worst for Saruni.
But shortly afterwards Saruni arrived at the wetlands site - also with a new mate, Surune.
And after observing them, the experts are confident the old relationship had ended and new ones had begun.
Julia Newth, wildlife health research officer at Slimbridge, said the "bizarre" situation had taken staff by surprise. ...
25-Jan-2010
Simon Levey
Queen Mary, University of London
Dolphin and bat DNA on the same wavelength
A new study has shown that echolocation evolved separately, but through the same genetic changes, in both dolphins and bats.
Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have shown that the remarkable ability is shared by these very different animals at a much deeper level than anyone previously realised – all the way down to the molecular level.
Writing in the journal Current Biology, they describe how dolphins and bats have both evolved the same specialised form of inner-ear hair cells that allow them to use sophisticated echolocation: detecting unseen obstacles or tracking down prey by making a high frequency noise and listening for the echo that bounces back.
"The natural world is full of examples of species that have evolved similar characteristics independently, such as the tusks of elephants and walruses," said Stephen Rossiter of Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences. "However, it is generally assumed that most of these so-called 'convergent traits' have arisen by different changes in the animal's DNA. Our study shows that this very complex ability - echolocation - has in fact evolved by identical genetic changes in bats and dolphins." ...
Simon Levey
Queen Mary, University of London
Dolphin and bat DNA on the same wavelength
A new study has shown that echolocation evolved separately, but through the same genetic changes, in both dolphins and bats.
Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have shown that the remarkable ability is shared by these very different animals at a much deeper level than anyone previously realised – all the way down to the molecular level.
Writing in the journal Current Biology, they describe how dolphins and bats have both evolved the same specialised form of inner-ear hair cells that allow them to use sophisticated echolocation: detecting unseen obstacles or tracking down prey by making a high frequency noise and listening for the echo that bounces back.
"The natural world is full of examples of species that have evolved similar characteristics independently, such as the tusks of elephants and walruses," said Stephen Rossiter of Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences. "However, it is generally assumed that most of these so-called 'convergent traits' have arisen by different changes in the animal's DNA. Our study shows that this very complex ability - echolocation - has in fact evolved by identical genetic changes in bats and dolphins." ...
25-Jan-2010
Nancy Ross-Flanigan
University of Michigan
Echolocating bats and whales share molecular mechanism
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---With high-pitched squeaks, clicks and chirps and ultra-sensitive hearing, toothed whales and some bats zero in on prey by emitting pulses of sound and interpreting the echoes that bounce back.
Over the course of evolution, the two groups acquired this remarkable ability independently, for use in very different environments, so you'd expect the means by which each accomplishes the feat to differ. Surprisingly, that's not the case, a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan suggests.
"The seemingly different echolocation abilities that evolved independently in whales and bats have a similar underlying molecular mechanism," said Jianzhi (George) Zhang, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. The finding overturns conventional thinking that the evolutionary phenomenon known as convergence is rare at the molecular level. The research is reported in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Current Biology. A separate paper by another research group, published in the same issue of the journal, reports similar results.
In traits such as appearance and behavior, convergence---the acquisition of similar structures or abilities in different lineages---is a well-known biological curiosity. Birds and bats separately developed wings and the ability to fly, for example; elephants and walruses each ended up with tusks. But because similar structures can be built from different blueprints, it's unusual for these superficial similarities to share molecular underpinnings. ...
Nancy Ross-Flanigan
University of Michigan
Echolocating bats and whales share molecular mechanism
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---With high-pitched squeaks, clicks and chirps and ultra-sensitive hearing, toothed whales and some bats zero in on prey by emitting pulses of sound and interpreting the echoes that bounce back.
Over the course of evolution, the two groups acquired this remarkable ability independently, for use in very different environments, so you'd expect the means by which each accomplishes the feat to differ. Surprisingly, that's not the case, a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan suggests.
"The seemingly different echolocation abilities that evolved independently in whales and bats have a similar underlying molecular mechanism," said Jianzhi (George) Zhang, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. The finding overturns conventional thinking that the evolutionary phenomenon known as convergence is rare at the molecular level. The research is reported in the Jan. 26 issue of the journal Current Biology. A separate paper by another research group, published in the same issue of the journal, reports similar results.
In traits such as appearance and behavior, convergence---the acquisition of similar structures or abilities in different lineages---is a well-known biological curiosity. Birds and bats separately developed wings and the ability to fly, for example; elephants and walruses each ended up with tusks. But because similar structures can be built from different blueprints, it's unusual for these superficial similarities to share molecular underpinnings. ...
Leaf-like sea slug feeds on light
Last Updated: Friday, January 22, 2010
A green sea slug found off North America's east coast not only looks like a leaf, but can also make food out of sunlight, just like a plant.
U.S. researchers have found that the sea slug Elysia chlorotica can photosynthesize, using energy from light to convert carbon dioxide into sugars.
"If you shine light on these slugs, they fix carbon dioxide and make oxygen just like a plant," Sidney Pierce of the University of South Florida told CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks.
Pierce reported his findings Jan. 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, and has submitted his research to the journal Symbiosis. ...
Ta much, dear Zaxy
Last Updated: Friday, January 22, 2010
A green sea slug found off North America's east coast not only looks like a leaf, but can also make food out of sunlight, just like a plant.
U.S. researchers have found that the sea slug Elysia chlorotica can photosynthesize, using energy from light to convert carbon dioxide into sugars.
"If you shine light on these slugs, they fix carbon dioxide and make oxygen just like a plant," Sidney Pierce of the University of South Florida told CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks.
Pierce reported his findings Jan. 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, and has submitted his research to the journal Symbiosis. ...
Ta much, dear Zaxy
Monarch butterflies reveal a novel way in which animals sense the Earth's magnetic field
January 25, 2010
Building on prior investigation into the biological mechanisms through which monarch butterflies are able to migrate up to 2,000 miles from eastern North America to a particular forest in Mexico each year, neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have linked two related photoreceptor proteins found in butterflies to animal navigation using the Earth's magnetic field.
The work by Steven Reppert, MD, professor and chair of neurobiology at UMMS; Robert Gegear, PhD, research assistant professor of neurobiology; Lauren Foley, BS; and Amy Casselman, PhD, is described in the paper, "Animal cryptochromes mediate magnetoreception by an unconventional photochemical mechanism," to be posted on-line in the journal Nature January 24. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
January 25, 2010
Building on prior investigation into the biological mechanisms through which monarch butterflies are able to migrate up to 2,000 miles from eastern North America to a particular forest in Mexico each year, neurobiologists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have linked two related photoreceptor proteins found in butterflies to animal navigation using the Earth's magnetic field.
The work by Steven Reppert, MD, professor and chair of neurobiology at UMMS; Robert Gegear, PhD, research assistant professor of neurobiology; Lauren Foley, BS; and Amy Casselman, PhD, is described in the paper, "Animal cryptochromes mediate magnetoreception by an unconventional photochemical mechanism," to be posted on-line in the journal Nature January 24. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
DIF, more of you damn japanese whale murderers.
¡Viva Cataluña! Las corridas de toros Fin!
I managed to find this one myself.
Fox takes tube station escalator
An urban fox stunned London Underground passengers by calmly taking an escalator to navigate a tube station.
By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:30AM GMT 08 Dec 2009
An urban Fox in London: The fox was spotted in Walthamstow Station Photo: BARCROFT MEDIA
The animal was spotted by Kate Arkless Gray, 29, on Saturday night as she made her way home from a friend's wedding.
She watched in amazement as the fox boarded the escalator at Walthamstow Central just after midnight to leave the station.
Miss Arkless Gray said: "As I got off the train and headed towards the up escalator I saw this daring creature dashing full speed down the down escalator, which was taped off for maintenance workers at the bottom.
"I was wishing I'd been able to film it and then the workers at the bottom of the escalator shooed him back up again."
She then managed to capture the surreal scene as the fox casually made his ascent on the escalator back towards the exit. ...
An urban fox stunned London Underground passengers by calmly taking an escalator to navigate a tube station.
By Murray Wardrop
Published: 7:30AM GMT 08 Dec 2009
An urban Fox in London: The fox was spotted in Walthamstow Station Photo: BARCROFT MEDIA
The animal was spotted by Kate Arkless Gray, 29, on Saturday night as she made her way home from a friend's wedding.
She watched in amazement as the fox boarded the escalator at Walthamstow Central just after midnight to leave the station.
Miss Arkless Gray said: "As I got off the train and headed towards the up escalator I saw this daring creature dashing full speed down the down escalator, which was taped off for maintenance workers at the bottom.
"I was wishing I'd been able to film it and then the workers at the bottom of the escalator shooed him back up again."
She then managed to capture the surreal scene as the fox casually made his ascent on the escalator back towards the exit. ...
Need a pack of foxhounds!
WARNING: I was born terrified by spiders although little jumping spiders don't scare me. Skip this post if you're worse off spider-wise, Gentle Categorian.
If you like or love 'em, you'll think these are even cuter and cooler than any silly spider-phreaked philistine like Your Humble Narrator possibly could.
Itsy-bitsy indeed.
Phancy abdominable phlaps at rest
Phancy phlaps deployed during courtship ritual dance, and so explaining their common name
If you like or love 'em, you'll think these are even cuter and cooler than any silly spider-phreaked philistine like Your Humble Narrator possibly could.
Itsy-bitsy indeed.
Phancy abdominable phlaps at rest
Phancy phlaps deployed during courtship ritual dance, and so explaining their common name
Dog given medal after 'canine CPR'
CHRISTINE KELLETT
October 28, 2009
Jim Touzeau with his dog Teka and RSPCA Queensland's Bundaberg Inspector Patrick Yeates. Photo: RSPCA Queensland
A central Queensland dog which jumped up and down on its owner's chest after the man suffered a massive heart attack may have saved his life.
Teka the three-year-old Australian cattle dog has been given the RSPCA's animal achievement award following the 2007 feat at a glass factory near Bundaberg.
Owner Jim Touzeau's heart stopped and he collapsed unconscious on the factory floor when Teka climbed onto his chest and began to jump repeatedly with all four paws.
The dog also barked in his face, rousing him enough to raise the alarm with his son.
She also ran outside and barked to attract attention.
Medical experts have been unable to say whether the canine CPR had any medical impact but say Mr Touzeau would not be alive today if not for Teka's efforts.
"I don't know if she actually kick-started my heart. But the doctors said that if I hadn't come to and called for help the chances are I would be dead," Mr Touzeau said.
"My heart had definitely stopped."
The 79-year-old glass craftsman also suffered deep cuts when he fell and sliced himself open on plate glass at the his Tinana factory.
He has since been fitted with a defibrillator implant.
"I lost my wife six years ago this Christmas and it's a pretty lonely life on your own,'' he told brisbanetimes.com.au.
"I got Teka three years ago and she's a terrific companion. She just never leaves my side. Because it's just the two of us, I rely on her and she relies on me."
Mr Touzeau said he remembered nothing of the heart attack, but recalled waking up to Teka on his chest.
"She was really thumping my chest with her two front feet,'' he said.
"It was out of the blue [behaviour] for her.
"She must have been thinking 'I better wake this fella up or I won't get any dinner'.''
The RSPCA will present the state-based commendation to Teka today and will also nominate her for a Purple Cross - the charity's highest bravery medal.
RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty said Teka had shown incredible intuition.
"This award isn't given away lightly. If she hadn't been there he probably would not have woken up."
Ta much, dear Edosan
CHRISTINE KELLETT
October 28, 2009
Jim Touzeau with his dog Teka and RSPCA Queensland's Bundaberg Inspector Patrick Yeates. Photo: RSPCA Queensland
A central Queensland dog which jumped up and down on its owner's chest after the man suffered a massive heart attack may have saved his life.
Teka the three-year-old Australian cattle dog has been given the RSPCA's animal achievement award following the 2007 feat at a glass factory near Bundaberg.
Owner Jim Touzeau's heart stopped and he collapsed unconscious on the factory floor when Teka climbed onto his chest and began to jump repeatedly with all four paws.
The dog also barked in his face, rousing him enough to raise the alarm with his son.
She also ran outside and barked to attract attention.
Medical experts have been unable to say whether the canine CPR had any medical impact but say Mr Touzeau would not be alive today if not for Teka's efforts.
"I don't know if she actually kick-started my heart. But the doctors said that if I hadn't come to and called for help the chances are I would be dead," Mr Touzeau said.
"My heart had definitely stopped."
The 79-year-old glass craftsman also suffered deep cuts when he fell and sliced himself open on plate glass at the his Tinana factory.
He has since been fitted with a defibrillator implant.
"I lost my wife six years ago this Christmas and it's a pretty lonely life on your own,'' he told brisbanetimes.com.au.
"I got Teka three years ago and she's a terrific companion. She just never leaves my side. Because it's just the two of us, I rely on her and she relies on me."
Mr Touzeau said he remembered nothing of the heart attack, but recalled waking up to Teka on his chest.
"She was really thumping my chest with her two front feet,'' he said.
"It was out of the blue [behaviour] for her.
"She must have been thinking 'I better wake this fella up or I won't get any dinner'.''
The RSPCA will present the state-based commendation to Teka today and will also nominate her for a Purple Cross - the charity's highest bravery medal.
RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty said Teka had shown incredible intuition.
"This award isn't given away lightly. If she hadn't been there he probably would not have woken up."
Ta much, dear Edosan
All sorts of things hopped thru my head as I read this. I should point out I'm a major bunny fan and have owned two wonderful rabbits.
1. Rabbit overpopulation ain't easy to ahem fix
2. If they're that big a problem in the city center FFS, then the wildlife folks should shut the hell up and focus on the bunnies in the boonies
3. What kind of arsehole turns a pet rabbit free in fucking *Sweden*? It gets *cold* up thar!
4. Were they doing this with rats no one would object
5. You breed *pets* dude, and no one would ask you to sell your *pet* bunnies for biofuel
6. Get a grip, yo
1. Rabbit overpopulation ain't easy to ahem fix
2. If they're that big a problem in the city center FFS, then the wildlife folks should shut the hell up and focus on the bunnies in the boonies
3. What kind of arsehole turns a pet rabbit free in fucking *Sweden*? It gets *cold* up thar!
4. Were they doing this with rats no one would object
5. You breed *pets* dude, and no one would ask you to sell your *pet* bunnies for biofuel
6. Get a grip, yo
Ta much, dear Foxy
A five-week-old boar named Manni, plays with a Jack Russell terrier called Candy in Ehringhausen, Germany.
Candy has taught him to bark and fetch. :)
Bella the foxhound and Maggie the fox have become firm friends at an animal sanctuary in Essex
Remember, girls and boys:
Don't Fuck With A Hippo.
Don't Fuck With A Hippo.
Yup - that there's a bird dog allright.
Dear Edosan often sends me lolworthy/macro-ready images, ferinstance this one. Result below.
moar funny pictures
moar funny pictures
"Baboons are evil."
-- Graham Norton
-- Graham Norton
Badger badger badgers badger badgers badgers badger badgers badgers badger badger
Hic. Flim at elven. [snicker]
Hic. Flim at elven. [snicker]
Grrroink!
Piggie wif angry feet!
... Chris Bird, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge and the lead researcher, said: “Rooks are rivalling habitual tools users such as chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows [famed for their tool dexterity] when tested in captivity.
“When I saw them making hooks I had to rein in in my enthusiasm in case they saw it and reacted to that, but these are fantastic findings. Birds’ brains are so differently constructed from primates’ it’s amazing that they can carry out similar tasks.” The results of the study are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...
Cor blimey! Stone the crows!
“When I saw them making hooks I had to rein in in my enthusiasm in case they saw it and reacted to that, but these are fantastic findings. Birds’ brains are so differently constructed from primates’ it’s amazing that they can carry out similar tasks.” The results of the study are published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...
Cor blimey! Stone the crows!
Sheer genius!
The United (?) Kingdom's royal family won't be using that method to scare off anyone, I'm afraid........
The United (?) Kingdom's royal family won't be using that method to scare off anyone, I'm afraid........
... "The exact cause of mortality of affected bats is not yet fully understood, but the newly identified fungus is considered a likely contributor," Marvin Moriarty, northeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told the natural resource committee yesterday.
The fungus invades the skin, underlying tissue and particularly the wings, which help to balance complex physiological processes such as body temperature. All six bat species that hibernate in the Northeast have been impacted and scientists fear the syndrome will spread to large bat populations in the South and Southwest -- and that some species may never recover even if a solution is found.
"Bats differ from most other small mammals in that they have long lives and reproduce slowly," Moriarty said.
Bats are insect-eaters and help human agriculture. The 1 million killed would have consumed 8,000 pounds of insects in a single summer night, scientists said.
"The level of nightly consumption by one little brown bat would be equivalent to a 150-pound teenage boy eating approximately 300 quarter-pounders. Translated to the number of insects that would not be eaten by one little brown bat in your backyard on a given night, it amounts to the equivalent of 60 medium-sized moths or over 1,000 mosquito-sized insects," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at Boston University.
The fungus invades the skin, underlying tissue and particularly the wings, which help to balance complex physiological processes such as body temperature. All six bat species that hibernate in the Northeast have been impacted and scientists fear the syndrome will spread to large bat populations in the South and Southwest -- and that some species may never recover even if a solution is found.
"Bats differ from most other small mammals in that they have long lives and reproduce slowly," Moriarty said.
Bats are insect-eaters and help human agriculture. The 1 million killed would have consumed 8,000 pounds of insects in a single summer night, scientists said.
"The level of nightly consumption by one little brown bat would be equivalent to a 150-pound teenage boy eating approximately 300 quarter-pounders. Translated to the number of insects that would not be eaten by one little brown bat in your backyard on a given night, it amounts to the equivalent of 60 medium-sized moths or over 1,000 mosquito-sized insects," said Thomas Kunz, director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation at Boston University.
Catch some and send 'em to me: we're running very low on greys.
Really? After you, Ms/Mr Scientist.
It's a wonderful image: hats off to th' photographer!
Sleeping on concrete isn't much fun unless you do it this way.
Ise hongry, futhamucka! Give with da blubber!
Ta much, dear Shell42970!
Well done the Lady!
Best of Friends: Family Raises Wild Boar Piglet with Pet Dog - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
Ahh, wild boar. Dangerous, tasty, and a fab companion for your family dog.
Go figure.
Go figure.
Oh, the poor, dear girl.
I wonder if the Maasai have any myths and stories about a White Buffalo Calf..............
Snails are cool.
Tasty, too.
Tasty, too.
Deer shatters window, interrupts breakfast
Six-point buck leaves through front door after crashing into home.
Marisa Schultz
The Detroit News
February 9, 2009
WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP -- The Luke family was enjoying coffee Sunday morning when they heard a noise so loud they thought a car had driven straight through their West Bloomfield ranch.
Instead, Keith Luke found a 6-point buck in his study.
The deer had leaped through his double-pane picture window. He was bleeding severely and cowering behind the couch.
"When I saw he was injured, I ran to the front door and opened it so he had a way to escape," said Luke, at home with his wife and son. "I think he was as bewildered as everyone else was."
In a township where deer are common, a buck jumping through a picture window is "extremely rare" and perhaps unheard of until Sunday, said West Bloomfield Police Sgt. Erik Tilli.
Police and fire crews arrived at the Lukes' home in the 2300 block of Keylon Drive around 11:30 a.m. Sunday after the deer had exited. "It looked like a crime scene in here," Luke said. ...
Six-point buck leaves through front door after crashing into home.
Marisa Schultz
The Detroit News
February 9, 2009
WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP -- The Luke family was enjoying coffee Sunday morning when they heard a noise so loud they thought a car had driven straight through their West Bloomfield ranch.
Instead, Keith Luke found a 6-point buck in his study.
The deer had leaped through his double-pane picture window. He was bleeding severely and cowering behind the couch.
"When I saw he was injured, I ran to the front door and opened it so he had a way to escape," said Luke, at home with his wife and son. "I think he was as bewildered as everyone else was."
In a township where deer are common, a buck jumping through a picture window is "extremely rare" and perhaps unheard of until Sunday, said West Bloomfield Police Sgt. Erik Tilli.
Police and fire crews arrived at the Lukes' home in the 2300 block of Keylon Drive around 11:30 a.m. Sunday after the deer had exited. "It looked like a crime scene in here," Luke said. ...
Go to a shelter!
...the all-important purple.
Ta much, dear Marielaem. She was kind enough to send this even though she loathes purple.
The holidays do things to people, they really do.
Ta much, dear Marielaem. She was kind enough to send this even though she loathes purple.
The holidays do things to people, they really do.
Detroit Zoo welcomes newborn aardvark
FREE PRESS STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
December 23, 2008
The Detroit Zoo welcomed a baby aardvark this month.
Zoo officials are awaiting DNA test results to determine the sex of its newborn aardvark, Amani (Swahili for “peace”), born at 1:05 a.m. Dec. 8 to mother Rachaael and father Mchimbaji.
The 23-inch infant arrived hairless, weighing 3 pounds, 10 ounces, with ears measuring 4 inches. “This baby can only be described as hideously cute,” said Director of Conservation and Animal Welfare Scott Carter. “Rachaael is a first-time mother and is showing great maternal instincts.” ...
FREE PRESS STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
December 23, 2008
The Detroit Zoo welcomed a baby aardvark this month.
Zoo officials are awaiting DNA test results to determine the sex of its newborn aardvark, Amani (Swahili for “peace”), born at 1:05 a.m. Dec. 8 to mother Rachaael and father Mchimbaji.
The 23-inch infant arrived hairless, weighing 3 pounds, 10 ounces, with ears measuring 4 inches. “This baby can only be described as hideously cute,” said Director of Conservation and Animal Welfare Scott Carter. “Rachaael is a first-time mother and is showing great maternal instincts.” ...
GodDAMN that's one big weird-ass undersea buuuuug.
Yeah, I know; I just couldn't resist.
Can't beat loldonkeys neither.
Thanks much for taking this photo, making it a lolskunk, and sending it to me, dear Anneliese!
Ya can't beat a lolskunk, mate.
CBC News - Technology & Science - WWF warns of global boycotts over Baffin Bay polar bear hunt quota
I am basically pro-hunting, but certainly not pro-exinction. This is nuts!
Squirrels are class.
Edit: 2 months later, my blog's link says, "object moved," but the story's still here.
Edit: 2 months later, my blog's link says, "object moved," but the story's still here.
"...Big black nemesis/Parthenogenesis/No one move a muscle as the dead come home..."
Monkey eludes net-wielding police at Tokyo station
Wed Aug 20, 2008
TOKYO (Reuters) - A rogue monkey holed up at a Tokyo train station for more than two hours on Wednesday before giving dozens of net-wielding police officers the slip among crowds of excited children and passersby.
"It's a monkey - it's not like it did anything bad," a police spokesman said, adding that the animal was still on the loose.
The monkey was spotted hopping around by the automatic ticket gates at a train line in Shibuya Station in central Tokyo at about 9:40 a.m. ...
Cheeky monkey!
I'm sure they laugh at us in their way, and have a jolly good one.
"Ha! Idiotic domesticated primates!"
"Ha ha ha! Yeah! Well, at least one of 'em got something right."
"Huh? Who? What? They're all screwed."
"Not quite: Robert Anton Wilson coined the phrase 'domesticated primates.'"
"Wha? Where'd you hear that?"
"Oh, I read an old copy of Magical Blend. He used to have a regular column. His article about Marilyn Monroe's being killed as much by her having all those libidos being focussed on her as by the OD and/or mafia/cia/fbi assistance was heavy."
"Wow! I'd like to read both of those, at least! Can I borrow 'em?"
"Nope, but we can sit and read some together. I've got a big stack. Some dumb hippie looked in 'em for paintings of fairies with bare tits and then threw out all of 'em."
"Idiotic domesticated primates."
"Yup."
Wed Aug 20, 2008
TOKYO (Reuters) - A rogue monkey holed up at a Tokyo train station for more than two hours on Wednesday before giving dozens of net-wielding police officers the slip among crowds of excited children and passersby.
"It's a monkey - it's not like it did anything bad," a police spokesman said, adding that the animal was still on the loose.
The monkey was spotted hopping around by the automatic ticket gates at a train line in Shibuya Station in central Tokyo at about 9:40 a.m. ...
Cheeky monkey!
I'm sure they laugh at us in their way, and have a jolly good one.
"Ha! Idiotic domesticated primates!"
"Ha ha ha! Yeah! Well, at least one of 'em got something right."
"Huh? Who? What? They're all screwed."
"Not quite: Robert Anton Wilson coined the phrase 'domesticated primates.'"
"Wha? Where'd you hear that?"
"Oh, I read an old copy of Magical Blend. He used to have a regular column. His article about Marilyn Monroe's being killed as much by her having all those libidos being focussed on her as by the OD and/or mafia/cia/fbi assistance was heavy."
"Wow! I'd like to read both of those, at least! Can I borrow 'em?"
"Nope, but we can sit and read some together. I've got a big stack. Some dumb hippie looked in 'em for paintings of fairies with bare tits and then threw out all of 'em."
"Idiotic domesticated primates."
"Yup."
Mirror test shows magpies are no bird-brains
Tue Aug 19, 2008
By Ben Hirschler
A magpie with a yellow mark used in a mirror self-recognition experiment. Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.
REUTERS/Institute of Psychology, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Handout
LONDON (Reuters) - Magpies can recognise themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.
It had been thought only chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants shared the human ability to recognise their own bodies in a mirror.
But German scientists reported on Tuesday that magpies -- a species with a brain structure very different from mammals -- could also identify themselves.
"It shows that the line leading to humans is not as special as many thought," lead researcher Helmut Prior of the Institute of Psychology at Goethe University in Frankfurt told Reuters. ...
Tue Aug 19, 2008
By Ben Hirschler
A magpie with a yellow mark used in a mirror self-recognition experiment. Magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.
REUTERS/Institute of Psychology, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Handout
LONDON (Reuters) - Magpies can recognise themselves in a mirror, highlighting the mental skills of some birds and confounding the notion that self-awareness is the exclusive preserve of humans and a few higher mammals.
It had been thought only chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants shared the human ability to recognise their own bodies in a mirror.
But German scientists reported on Tuesday that magpies -- a species with a brain structure very different from mammals -- could also identify themselves.
"It shows that the line leading to humans is not as special as many thought," lead researcher Helmut Prior of the Institute of Psychology at Goethe University in Frankfurt told Reuters. ...
Mi beg ya, Natty Ratty, ya 'ol' dis a minute. H'it nah bun, so ya na gwan bun yaself. T'ank yu, Mon.
Wild turkey smashes through family's window
Jun 2, 2008
LIVINGSTON, N.J. (AP) -- This isn't a regular wake-up call. A wild turkey, standing roughly 2 feet tall, crashed through the double-paned window of a Livingston family's home Sunday morning.
The sound was so loud that homeowner Lena Rosenblum told The Star-Ledger of Newark she thought it was a tree crashing through the roof. The bird appeared to be uninjured. ...
Jun 2, 2008
LIVINGSTON, N.J. (AP) -- This isn't a regular wake-up call. A wild turkey, standing roughly 2 feet tall, crashed through the double-paned window of a Livingston family's home Sunday morning.
The sound was so loud that homeowner Lena Rosenblum told The Star-Ledger of Newark she thought it was a tree crashing through the roof. The bird appeared to be uninjured. ...
May 26, 2008
Australian fishermen net 500-pound squid
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Australian fishermen have hauled up a 20-foot-long giant squid off the country's southeastern coast.
Skipper Rangi Pene said Monday that the 500-pound squid was already dead when it was caught in a trawler's nets Sunday night in waters more than 1,640 feet deep.
Paul McCoy, a fisheries research biologist, said it took 10 men to lift the squid onto a stretcher and place it in a storage freezer in the city of Portland. A museum will collect it this week. ...
Iä! Iä! etc.
Australian fishermen net 500-pound squid
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Australian fishermen have hauled up a 20-foot-long giant squid off the country's southeastern coast.
Skipper Rangi Pene said Monday that the 500-pound squid was already dead when it was caught in a trawler's nets Sunday night in waters more than 1,640 feet deep.
Paul McCoy, a fisheries research biologist, said it took 10 men to lift the squid onto a stretcher and place it in a storage freezer in the city of Portland. A museum will collect it this week. ...
Iä! Iä! etc.
Goat survives after 50-foot plunge from bridge
May 20, 2008
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) -- Police thought they had a goat surrounded after it was spotted going the wrong way on the Cross Island Parkway. An ambulance and fire engine blocked traffic Monday while sheriff's deputies tried to corral the animal on the Charles E. Fraser Bridge, but she jumped.
Fire Battalion Chief Cliff Steedley told The Island Packet of Hilton Head Island the frightened goat plunged as much as 50 feet into Broad Creek.
Rescuers borrowed a boat to get the 70-pound nanny out of the waist-deep pluff mud as it worked its way through the marsh. One firefighter got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued.
Veterinarian Frank Murphy said the goat was fine...
May 20, 2008
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) -- Police thought they had a goat surrounded after it was spotted going the wrong way on the Cross Island Parkway. An ambulance and fire engine blocked traffic Monday while sheriff's deputies tried to corral the animal on the Charles E. Fraser Bridge, but she jumped.
Fire Battalion Chief Cliff Steedley told The Island Packet of Hilton Head Island the frightened goat plunged as much as 50 feet into Broad Creek.
Rescuers borrowed a boat to get the 70-pound nanny out of the waist-deep pluff mud as it worked its way through the marsh. One firefighter got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued.
Veterinarian Frank Murphy said the goat was fine...
Lucky dog! Adrift pooch is plucked from Pacific isle
By SOLVEJ SCHOU
The Associated Press
Friday, April 18, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- Snickers the Sea Dog is barely more than a pup, but he's already an old salt.
The 8-month-old pooch spent three months adrift in the Pacific with his owners and a parrot until their 48-foot sailboat ran aground in December on tiny Fanning Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers and Gulliver had to be left behind as their owners hitched a ride on a cargo vessel.
Then in March, the SOS was sent out in a boating journal that the orphaned critters were to be destroyed on Fanning, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.
As word spread, a bevy of people worked to rescue the cocker spaniel and the macaw, including a man who desperately wants to adopt them: retired Las Vegas resident Jack Joslin. ...
... The dog landed in Honolulu on Wednesday, cleared Customs and has been in quarantine since, awaiting transport to Los Angeles, Hashimoto said.
Getting the parrot off the island will be more difficult, said Joslin, who wants to adopt the animal.
There is a plan to move Gulliver to Christmas Island, near Fanning Island, and eventually to L.A., one of two U.S. ports that accept exotic birds.
"Snickers is going to live with me, I hope, for a long time," Joslin said. "And we're trying like hell to get the bird back here."
By SOLVEJ SCHOU
The Associated Press
Friday, April 18, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- Snickers the Sea Dog is barely more than a pup, but he's already an old salt.
The 8-month-old pooch spent three months adrift in the Pacific with his owners and a parrot until their 48-foot sailboat ran aground in December on tiny Fanning Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers and Gulliver had to be left behind as their owners hitched a ride on a cargo vessel.
Then in March, the SOS was sent out in a boating journal that the orphaned critters were to be destroyed on Fanning, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.
As word spread, a bevy of people worked to rescue the cocker spaniel and the macaw, including a man who desperately wants to adopt them: retired Las Vegas resident Jack Joslin. ...
... The dog landed in Honolulu on Wednesday, cleared Customs and has been in quarantine since, awaiting transport to Los Angeles, Hashimoto said.
Getting the parrot off the island will be more difficult, said Joslin, who wants to adopt the animal.
There is a plan to move Gulliver to Christmas Island, near Fanning Island, and eventually to L.A., one of two U.S. ports that accept exotic birds.
"Snickers is going to live with me, I hope, for a long time," Joslin said. "And we're trying like hell to get the bird back here."
Bernardino and Jamie Gomez should be neutered and spayed, respectively, and sans l'anesthsique.
Swan, Paddleboat Getting Back Together
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
BERLIN (AP) -- Petra the swan has a new home and so does her beloved swan-shaped paddleboat. In 2006, Petra, a black swan, became so attached to the boat - shaped like an outsized white swan - that she refused to leave its side at a lake near a zoo in the German city of Muenster.
Petra and her paddleboat were taken to the zoo. ...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
BERLIN (AP) -- Petra the swan has a new home and so does her beloved swan-shaped paddleboat. In 2006, Petra, a black swan, became so attached to the boat - shaped like an outsized white swan - that she refused to leave its side at a lake near a zoo in the German city of Muenster.
Petra and her paddleboat were taken to the zoo. ...
I sent this lovely image to dear ar0cketman and he sent back the following comment:
Panda eats, shoots, and leaves.
I love a profoundly bad pun, me.
Zebras Briefly Escape From Circus
Thursday, March 20, 2008
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Three zebras from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus briefly escaped from their downtown venue, but were quickly corralled by their trainer and two handlers.
Mali, Giza and Lima spotted an open door at the 1st Mariner Arena on Thursday and dashed onto Hopkins Place, but were rounded up a half block away. ...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Three zebras from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus briefly escaped from their downtown venue, but were quickly corralled by their trainer and two handlers.
Mali, Giza and Lima spotted an open door at the 1st Mariner Arena on Thursday and dashed onto Hopkins Place, but were rounded up a half block away. ...
Two Grevy's zebras, 2-year-old Dante, left, and 4-year-old Gumu, explore their new yard in the Cheetah Conservation Station at the National Zoo.
Photo Credit: By Mehgan Murphy -- Smithsonian Institution Photo
A Bid to Lure Wolves With a Digital Call of the Wild
By KIRK JOHNSON
The New York Times
Published: March 19, 2008
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- The long, lonely howl of a wolf shatters the early morning stillness. But is it real? Beginning this June, it might be hard to tell, even for the wolves.
One of the most famous sounds in nature is going digital. Under a research project at the University of Montana in Missoula, scientists are betting that the famous call-and-response among wolves can be used to count and keep track of the animals.
Tricked by technology, scientists say, wolves will answer what amounts to a roll call triggered by a remotely placed speaker-recorder system called Howlbox. Howlbox howls, and the wolves howl back. Spectrogram technology then allows analysis that the human ear could never achieve -- how many wolves have responded, and which wolves they are.
"With audio software, we'll be able to identify each wolf on a different frequency, so we can count wolves individually, kind of like a fingerprint," said David Ausband, a research associate at the University of Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, where Howlbox was developed. ...
By KIRK JOHNSON
The New York Times
Published: March 19, 2008
BOZEMAN, Mont. -- The long, lonely howl of a wolf shatters the early morning stillness. But is it real? Beginning this June, it might be hard to tell, even for the wolves.
One of the most famous sounds in nature is going digital. Under a research project at the University of Montana in Missoula, scientists are betting that the famous call-and-response among wolves can be used to count and keep track of the animals.
Tricked by technology, scientists say, wolves will answer what amounts to a roll call triggered by a remotely placed speaker-recorder system called Howlbox. Howlbox howls, and the wolves howl back. Spectrogram technology then allows analysis that the human ear could never achieve -- how many wolves have responded, and which wolves they are.
"With audio software, we'll be able to identify each wolf on a different frequency, so we can count wolves individually, kind of like a fingerprint," said David Ausband, a research associate at the University of Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, where Howlbox was developed. ...
Quick! What's 14 inches (35.56cm) long and blue? No, not you the last time you were turned down, silly boy!
It's a giraffe's tongue!
Here one is squirrelly applied.
It's a giraffe's tongue!
Here one is squirrelly applied.
India to Create 8 New Tiger Sanctuaries
By ASHOK SHARMA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
NEW DELHI -- Conservationists welcomed an Indian government plan to create eight new reserves to protect the country's dwindling tiger population, and called Wednesday for more action to prevent illegal trading in tiger parts.
It will take five years to set up the new reserves, which will cover an area of more than 11,900 square miles at a cost to taxpayers of about $153 million, the government's Tiger Project announced Tuesday. Private groups will also contribute funds.
The aim of the reserves is to protect the existing tiger population and stamp out poaching, said Rajesh Gopal, the Tiger Project secretary. ...
By ASHOK SHARMA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
NEW DELHI -- Conservationists welcomed an Indian government plan to create eight new reserves to protect the country's dwindling tiger population, and called Wednesday for more action to prevent illegal trading in tiger parts.
It will take five years to set up the new reserves, which will cover an area of more than 11,900 square miles at a cost to taxpayers of about $153 million, the government's Tiger Project announced Tuesday. Private groups will also contribute funds.
The aim of the reserves is to protect the existing tiger population and stamp out poaching, said Rajesh Gopal, the Tiger Project secretary. ...
Student's mouth-to-muzzle saves tiger cub
by Iain Rogers
Fri Feb 1, 2008
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German medical student got some unexpected practical experience at the zoo when she gave the kiss of life to a baby tiger choking on a piece of meat, the zoo director said Friday.
The student was passing the enclosure with her toddler son on a visit several weeks ago when she noticed the 4-month-old tiger choking and offered her assistance to the helpless keeper, said Andreas Jacob, director of the zoo in the eastern German city of Halle.
"The tiger tried to eat a piece of meat that was too big and started choking and shaking and then fell over," the student, Janine Bauer, told MDR radio.
"We got the piece out but he wasn't breathing so I tried mouth-to-mouth and heart massage," she added. "After 3-5 minutes he came to, thank God." ...
by Iain Rogers
Fri Feb 1, 2008
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German medical student got some unexpected practical experience at the zoo when she gave the kiss of life to a baby tiger choking on a piece of meat, the zoo director said Friday.
The student was passing the enclosure with her toddler son on a visit several weeks ago when she noticed the 4-month-old tiger choking and offered her assistance to the helpless keeper, said Andreas Jacob, director of the zoo in the eastern German city of Halle.
"The tiger tried to eat a piece of meat that was too big and started choking and shaking and then fell over," the student, Janine Bauer, told MDR radio.
"We got the piece out but he wasn't breathing so I tried mouth-to-mouth and heart massage," she added. "After 3-5 minutes he came to, thank God." ...
The octopus who loves his Mr Potato Head
Friday, January 11, 2008
Louis the octopus clearly thinks two heads are better than one when it comes to toys.
The 1.8m-wide (6ft) creature is so attached to Mr Potato Head that he turns aggressive when aquarium staff try to remove it from his tank. ...
Friday, January 11, 2008
Louis the octopus clearly thinks two heads are better than one when it comes to toys.
The 1.8m-wide (6ft) creature is so attached to Mr Potato Head that he turns aggressive when aquarium staff try to remove it from his tank. ...
Adorable baby bats - honestly - snuggled in wool at animal shelter
22nd November 2007
Wrapped up in their tiny blankets, the bundles of woe pictured below are surviving on the milk of human kindness.
The orphaned baby bats are being raised at a rescue centre after a plague of poisonous ticks swept through their colony. ...
22nd November 2007
Wrapped up in their tiny blankets, the bundles of woe pictured below are surviving on the milk of human kindness.
The orphaned baby bats are being raised at a rescue centre after a plague of poisonous ticks swept through their colony. ...
Cougar Nearly Joins SD Woman in Hot Tub
Saturday, December 8, 2007
DEADWOOD, S.D. (AP) -- A relaxing soak in a hot tub came to an abrupt end when Marlene Todd came eye to eye with a mountain lion in her backyard.
"I was kind of hidden, sitting with my back up against the side of the tub, and I heard a little rustling sound in the needles right beside me," she said.
Todd said she thought it might have been her house cat until she saw "this big, tan, hairy body" just 4 inches away.
"I didn't realize what it was until it took a leap and jumped up on the side of my hot tub," Todd said. ...
Saturday, December 8, 2007
DEADWOOD, S.D. (AP) -- A relaxing soak in a hot tub came to an abrupt end when Marlene Todd came eye to eye with a mountain lion in her backyard.
"I was kind of hidden, sitting with my back up against the side of the tub, and I heard a little rustling sound in the needles right beside me," she said.
Todd said she thought it might have been her house cat until she saw "this big, tan, hairy body" just 4 inches away.
"I didn't realize what it was until it took a leap and jumped up on the side of my hot tub," Todd said. ...
Record-size spitting cobra found in Kenya
Fri Dec 7, 2007
By Nicolo Gnecchi
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A new species of giant spitting cobra, measuring nearly nine feet and possessing enough venom to kill at least 15 people, has been discovered in Kenya, a conservation group said on Friday.
WildlifeDirect said the cobras were the world's largest and had been identified as unique. The species has been named Naja Ashei after James Ashe, who founded Bio-Ken snake farm on Kenya's tropical coast where the gigantic serpents are found.
"A new species of giant spitting cobra is exciting and reinforces the obvious -- that there have to be many other unreported species but hundreds are being lost as their habitats disappear under the continued mismanagement of our planet," said the group's chairman, Kenyan environmentalist Richard Leakey.
Ashe, now deceased, was the first to catch a larger-than-normal spitting cobra in the 1960s and suggest it belonged to a different species. ...
Fri Dec 7, 2007
By Nicolo Gnecchi
NAIROBI (Reuters) - A new species of giant spitting cobra, measuring nearly nine feet and possessing enough venom to kill at least 15 people, has been discovered in Kenya, a conservation group said on Friday.
WildlifeDirect said the cobras were the world's largest and had been identified as unique. The species has been named Naja Ashei after James Ashe, who founded Bio-Ken snake farm on Kenya's tropical coast where the gigantic serpents are found.
"A new species of giant spitting cobra is exciting and reinforces the obvious -- that there have to be many other unreported species but hundreds are being lost as their habitats disappear under the continued mismanagement of our planet," said the group's chairman, Kenyan environmentalist Richard Leakey.
Ashe, now deceased, was the first to catch a larger-than-normal spitting cobra in the 1960s and suggest it belonged to a different species. ...
Once more, dear Marielaem has it right:
"The kind of people who go for this would probably change pets according to the latest fashion trend, so should not be keeping any kind of animal, anyway."
"The kind of people who go for this would probably change pets according to the latest fashion trend, so should not be keeping any kind of animal, anyway."
Napoleon, contact Waverly: our Cute-O-Meter has just exploded and we can't complete our mission without one.
THIS SITE IS AVAILABLE
Councilman Wants Birth Control for Pigeons
Thursday, November 1, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) -- A councilman has a unique solution to reducing the pigeon population at the Staten Island ferry terminals: Put them on birth control.
Councilman James Odd says OvoControl-P, a drug that renders eggs unhatchable, could help to thin out the pesky birds and thus the droppings they leave behind inside the terminals where they like to nest. ...
Pigeons are the work of the devil.
Councilman Wants Birth Control for Pigeons
Thursday, November 1, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) -- A councilman has a unique solution to reducing the pigeon population at the Staten Island ferry terminals: Put them on birth control.
Councilman James Odd says OvoControl-P, a drug that renders eggs unhatchable, could help to thin out the pesky birds and thus the droppings they leave behind inside the terminals where they like to nest. ...
Pigeons are the work of the devil.
Washoe, a Chimp of Many Words, Dies at 42
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: November 1, 2007
She spent her early years playing in the backyard of a small house in Reno, Nev., learning American Sign Language from the scientists who adopted her, and by age 5 she had mastered enough signs to capture the world's attention and set off a debate over nonhuman primates' ability to learn human language that continues to this day.
But on Tuesday night, Washoe, a chimpanzee born in West Africa, died after a short illness, said Mary Lee Jensvold, assistant director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, where Washoe had lived and learned for more than two decades. The chimp died in bed at age 42, surrounded by staff members and other primates who had been close to her, Dr. Jensvold said. ...
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: November 1, 2007
She spent her early years playing in the backyard of a small house in Reno, Nev., learning American Sign Language from the scientists who adopted her, and by age 5 she had mastered enough signs to capture the world's attention and set off a debate over nonhuman primates' ability to learn human language that continues to this day.
But on Tuesday night, Washoe, a chimpanzee born in West Africa, died after a short illness, said Mary Lee Jensvold, assistant director of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, where Washoe had lived and learned for more than two decades. The chimp died in bed at age 42, surrounded by staff members and other primates who had been close to her, Dr. Jensvold said. ...
Bear Bites Alaska Woman on the Buttocks
Friday, October 26, 2007
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A volunteer at the Eagle River Nature Center is recovering after being bitten by a brown bear sow. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials say Sarah Wallmer was bitten on the buttocks on the Crow Pass Trail, about a mile from the nature center.
The attack happened Thursday as Wallmer was traveling to the Rapids camp yurt. She was running with her dog, about 10 minutes ahead of another volunteer. ...
Friday, October 26, 2007
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A volunteer at the Eagle River Nature Center is recovering after being bitten by a brown bear sow. Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials say Sarah Wallmer was bitten on the buttocks on the Crow Pass Trail, about a mile from the nature center.
The attack happened Thursday as Wallmer was traveling to the Rapids camp yurt. She was running with her dog, about 10 minutes ahead of another volunteer. ...
Puts the Onion to shame, this does.
Escaped Flamingo Spotted With Companion
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- After two years on the lam, a pink flamingo that escaped from the Sedgwick County Zoo has been spotted with a wild Caribbean flamingo in a ship channel area of southwest Louisiana.
The latest sighting three weeks ago was in the Calcasieu Ship Channel on private land accessible only by boat. Officials with the zoo in Wichita learned of the wayward flamingo's whereabouts late Friday because the birds were identified by numbers on their leg bands. ...
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- After two years on the lam, a pink flamingo that escaped from the Sedgwick County Zoo has been spotted with a wild Caribbean flamingo in a ship channel area of southwest Louisiana.
The latest sighting three weeks ago was in the Calcasieu Ship Channel on private land accessible only by boat. Officials with the zoo in Wichita learned of the wayward flamingo's whereabouts late Friday because the birds were identified by numbers on their leg bands. ...
Human intelligence also resists definition, so no surprise there. No one's yet created a truly accurate method of assessing human intelligence.
Even if the story be a hoax it's a superb, awww-inspiring series of photographs.
Unusual angler finds success at Brooks River
Mother wolf hauls in salmon despite grizzly competition
By CRAIG MEDRED
Published: September 30, 2007
When a lone, female wolf appeared at the falls at Brooks River in Katmai National Park this summer and began catching red salmon as if she were the most efficient of brown bears, photographer Paul Stinsa from Chicago didn't know what to think.
So, he did what photographers do. He took pictures, and he kept taking pictures.
Wolves have long been known to feed on salmon, but the way this wolf slipped into a fishing area owned by bears and the skill with which she went after the salmon caught some people by surprise. ...
Onlookers at Brooks Falls got a rare treat on July 8. Fishing along with bears, an enterprising wolf caught more than a dozen salmon.
Mother wolf hauls in salmon despite grizzly competition
By CRAIG MEDRED
Published: September 30, 2007
When a lone, female wolf appeared at the falls at Brooks River in Katmai National Park this summer and began catching red salmon as if she were the most efficient of brown bears, photographer Paul Stinsa from Chicago didn't know what to think.
So, he did what photographers do. He took pictures, and he kept taking pictures.
Wolves have long been known to feed on salmon, but the way this wolf slipped into a fishing area owned by bears and the skill with which she went after the salmon caught some people by surprise. ...
Onlookers at Brooks Falls got a rare treat on July 8. Fishing along with bears, an enterprising wolf caught more than a dozen salmon.
'Queenie' the errant Cow corralled in NY
September 19, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) -- An errant cow is headed for greener pastures after being corralled by police following a two-mile chase through the streets of Queens.
Dubbed "Queenie," the brown and white bovine was captured around 11 p.m. Tuesday, about one hour after she was first spotted roaming the streets of Jamaica, Queens, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for Animal Care & Control of New York City.
"We have the cow. We're taking care of her. She will probably go to a farm sanctuary upstate," he said.
No one seemed to know where the cow came from. Gentles said there have been no reports of a missing cow from any of the area slaughterhouses.
"We wait a day or two to see if anyone claims her," he said. If no one does, Gentles said the white-faced Queenie, who's approximately 1 1/2 years old and sports white patches over a brown torso, will be taken to live on a farm in upstate New York. ...
September 19, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) -- An errant cow is headed for greener pastures after being corralled by police following a two-mile chase through the streets of Queens.
Dubbed "Queenie," the brown and white bovine was captured around 11 p.m. Tuesday, about one hour after she was first spotted roaming the streets of Jamaica, Queens, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for Animal Care & Control of New York City.
"We have the cow. We're taking care of her. She will probably go to a farm sanctuary upstate," he said.
No one seemed to know where the cow came from. Gentles said there have been no reports of a missing cow from any of the area slaughterhouses.
"We wait a day or two to see if anyone claims her," he said. If no one does, Gentles said the white-faced Queenie, who's approximately 1 1/2 years old and sports white patches over a brown torso, will be taken to live on a farm in upstate New York. ...
Woman Has Yard Full of Snapping Turtles
Friday, September 7, 2007
JAMESTOWN, N.D. (AP) -- Earlier this summer, Betty Kratzke noticed that something was disturbing the ground near the flowers that line her driveway. Solving the mystery this week proved to be a snap - when baby snapping turtles started crawling around her yard. ...
Betty Kratzke, right, peers Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007, into a box containing a clutch of newly hatched snapping turtles that emerged from the soil in her front yard in southeast Jamestown, N.D. Digging out the remaining turtles is Darrell Perry. Looking on is Cliff Hanson with his dog, Sugar, and Judy Perry. (AP Photo/The Jamestown Sun, John M. Steiner)
Friday, September 7, 2007
JAMESTOWN, N.D. (AP) -- Earlier this summer, Betty Kratzke noticed that something was disturbing the ground near the flowers that line her driveway. Solving the mystery this week proved to be a snap - when baby snapping turtles started crawling around her yard. ...
Betty Kratzke, right, peers Thursday, Sept. 6, 2007, into a box containing a clutch of newly hatched snapping turtles that emerged from the soil in her front yard in southeast Jamestown, N.D. Digging out the remaining turtles is Darrell Perry. Looking on is Cliff Hanson with his dog, Sugar, and Judy Perry. (AP Photo/The Jamestown Sun, John M. Steiner)
Humans aren't completely stupid: dolphins taught us surfing.
Send him somewhere he'll be happy, you idiots!
Bat triggers alarm and closes tunnel
August 10, 2007
BERLIN (AP) -- A bat set off a fire alarm in a German highway tunnel early Friday, forcing an hour-long closure and causing long delays, police said.
Police in Goettingen said the animal apparently landed on a smoke detector or a pipe in the Heidkopf tunnel -- triggering a fire alarm, which automatically led to the tunnel's being closed in both directions at about 4:45 a.m. ...
August 10, 2007
BERLIN (AP) -- A bat set off a fire alarm in a German highway tunnel early Friday, forcing an hour-long closure and causing long delays, police said.
Police in Goettingen said the animal apparently landed on a smoke detector or a pipe in the Heidkopf tunnel -- triggering a fire alarm, which automatically led to the tunnel's being closed in both directions at about 4:45 a.m. ...
Lovemaking hedgehogs disturb the peace in Germany
Tue Jul 24, 2007
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police called to investigate unusual noises in the garden of a Bremen house late on Monday were surprised to find that a pair of amorous hedgehogs were to blame.
After illuminating the garden with spotlights, officers discovered the animals making love beside the pond.
"The pair were loudly engaged in ensuring the continuity of their species," said Bremen police spokesman Ronald Walther.
"All those spectators did not worry them in the least, indeed they even intensified their activities, so the officers turned off the lights," he added.
The hedgehog breeding season runs from April to September and their lovemaking is typically accompanied by very loud puffing and snorting, usually by the female as she tries to ward off the male.
Tue Jul 24, 2007
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police called to investigate unusual noises in the garden of a Bremen house late on Monday were surprised to find that a pair of amorous hedgehogs were to blame.
After illuminating the garden with spotlights, officers discovered the animals making love beside the pond.
"The pair were loudly engaged in ensuring the continuity of their species," said Bremen police spokesman Ronald Walther.
"All those spectators did not worry them in the least, indeed they even intensified their activities, so the officers turned off the lights," he added.
The hedgehog breeding season runs from April to September and their lovemaking is typically accompanied by very loud puffing and snorting, usually by the female as she tries to ward off the male.
Curious creature caught off Keahole Point
The animal, dubbed an "octosquid," is found off the Big Island
By Brittany P. Yap
Thursday, July 5, 2007
It's a squid, it's an octopus, it's ... a mystery from the deep.
What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off Keahole Point on the Big Island remains unidentified today and could possibly be a new species, said local biologists. ...
The animal, dubbed an "octosquid," is found off the Big Island
By Brittany P. Yap
Thursday, July 5, 2007
It's a squid, it's an octopus, it's ... a mystery from the deep.
What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off Keahole Point on the Big Island remains unidentified today and could possibly be a new species, said local biologists. ...
Water hazards, sand traps and 3 moose?
June 29, 2007
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- A Wyoming golf course had more hazards this week than the usual sand traps, ponds and deep rough -- moose.
The three young moose ambled around the first three holes, took a dip in a pond, got a drink, then rested Thursday at the Little America Hotel and Resort, according to Eric Fedell, the resort's grounds and golf manager.
Crews rerouted golfers around the moose, which rarely are seen so far east in Wyoming. Game and Fish Department workers later tranquilized the animals and shipped them to the Snowy Range, about 100 miles west of town.
They probably came from the Pole Mountain area more than 20 miles west of Cheyenne, Game and Fish spokesman Eric Keszler said. ...
June 29, 2007
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- A Wyoming golf course had more hazards this week than the usual sand traps, ponds and deep rough -- moose.
The three young moose ambled around the first three holes, took a dip in a pond, got a drink, then rested Thursday at the Little America Hotel and Resort, according to Eric Fedell, the resort's grounds and golf manager.
Crews rerouted golfers around the moose, which rarely are seen so far east in Wyoming. Game and Fish Department workers later tranquilized the animals and shipped them to the Snowy Range, about 100 miles west of town.
They probably came from the Pole Mountain area more than 20 miles west of Cheyenne, Game and Fish spokesman Eric Keszler said. ...
Extinct ancestor was pygmy version of modern panda
Mon Jun 18, 2007
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 2 million years ago, in lowland tropical forests of what is now China, lived an ancestor of the giant panda that was very similar to the famed vegetarian bear except about half the size, scientists said.
Writing on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists described a complete skull and teeth of a pygmy-sized panda, shedding light on the origins of this unique, bamboo-munching bear. ...
The recently discovered skull of an extinct ancestor to the giant panda called Ailuropoda microta (L) compared with a living giant panda's skull. REUTERS/Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing/Handout
Does Ailuropoda mean 'cat's feet'?
An ailurophile is a lover of cats, and an ailurophobe fears them.
Mon Jun 18, 2007
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 2 million years ago, in lowland tropical forests of what is now China, lived an ancestor of the giant panda that was very similar to the famed vegetarian bear except about half the size, scientists said.
Writing on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists described a complete skull and teeth of a pygmy-sized panda, shedding light on the origins of this unique, bamboo-munching bear. ...
The recently discovered skull of an extinct ancestor to the giant panda called Ailuropoda microta (L) compared with a living giant panda's skull. REUTERS/Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing/Handout
Does Ailuropoda mean 'cat's feet'?
An ailurophile is a lover of cats, and an ailurophobe fears them.
Hawk, Escaped Lamb Roam NYC Streets
Grounded Birds Of Prey, Renegade Sheep Turn NYC's Concrete Jungle Into Wild Kingdom
Jun. 13, 2007
"Lucky Lady," a seven month-old lamb found wandering around in the Bronx, poses for a portrait while eating in her temporary digs, a cage at Animal Care and Control of New York City, a rescue organization for animals in New York, Wednesday, June 13, 2007. Shelter director Liz Keller said the lamb caught a break. She apparently escaped from a live animal market where she would have been sold for food. Now she is bound for the sanctuary of a farm in upstate New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
NEW YORK (AP) -- A hawk down in midtown Manhattan? Another bird of prey grounded across town? A lamb on the lam in the Bronx? True. All in one day. The series of animal adventures began around 10 a.m. Wednesday when a former parks commissioner reported spotting a hawk that had crash landed. At about 11:30 a.m., several blocks away, came a report of another wounded bird, this time an American kestrel.
The birds were rescued by the Department of Parks and Recreation, which determined they were 7-week-old fledglings shaken up while testing their wings. Both were expected to recover and be returned to the wilds of Manhattan, where a growing population of birds of prey nests on high-rises and feasts on squirrels, rats and pigeons, said the current parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe.
"It's the season when birds are learning to fly, which is not easy to do in midtown," Benepe said.
Around 11 a.m. came a report of a sheep running around the Bronx. ...
Grounded Birds Of Prey, Renegade Sheep Turn NYC's Concrete Jungle Into Wild Kingdom
Jun. 13, 2007
"Lucky Lady," a seven month-old lamb found wandering around in the Bronx, poses for a portrait while eating in her temporary digs, a cage at Animal Care and Control of New York City, a rescue organization for animals in New York, Wednesday, June 13, 2007. Shelter director Liz Keller said the lamb caught a break. She apparently escaped from a live animal market where she would have been sold for food. Now she is bound for the sanctuary of a farm in upstate New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
NEW YORK (AP) -- A hawk down in midtown Manhattan? Another bird of prey grounded across town? A lamb on the lam in the Bronx? True. All in one day. The series of animal adventures began around 10 a.m. Wednesday when a former parks commissioner reported spotting a hawk that had crash landed. At about 11:30 a.m., several blocks away, came a report of another wounded bird, this time an American kestrel.
The birds were rescued by the Department of Parks and Recreation, which determined they were 7-week-old fledglings shaken up while testing their wings. Both were expected to recover and be returned to the wilds of Manhattan, where a growing population of birds of prey nests on high-rises and feasts on squirrels, rats and pigeons, said the current parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe.
"It's the season when birds are learning to fly, which is not easy to do in midtown," Benepe said.
Around 11 a.m. came a report of a sheep running around the Bronx. ...
SAN FRANCISCO / Gorillas in the fog for conservation / Charity has 400-plus runners in hairy suits chasing a banana
The Great Gorilla Run, begun in London, makes its U.S. premiere. Chronicle photo by Brant Ward
Great slideshow.
Many thanks to dear Zaxy
The Great Gorilla Run, begun in London, makes its U.S. premiere. Chronicle photo by Brant Ward
Great slideshow.
Many thanks to dear Zaxy
How do you like my new desert boots?
18th May 2007
It's enough to give any camel the hump - hooves too sore to walk on after a close encounter with a fire.
But, luckily for Goliath, a specialist shoe maker stepped in and custom made him four sturdy boots.
The camel would be more at home in the desert but was on a trek through Europe to raise funds for children's charities when his hooves were hurt in a roadside grass blaze.
As Goliath and his owner Joerg Schmid rested in the town of Bonndorf, southern Germany, locals came to his aid by donating money to have the boots made by specialist firm Wessels.
Mr Schmid said: "As well as the burns, he suffers from a genetic defect common to camels that makes the feet rot. But since he's had the boots, he's been great." ...
Shoe maker Peter Wessels with his creations and their happy owners
18th May 2007
It's enough to give any camel the hump - hooves too sore to walk on after a close encounter with a fire.
But, luckily for Goliath, a specialist shoe maker stepped in and custom made him four sturdy boots.
The camel would be more at home in the desert but was on a trek through Europe to raise funds for children's charities when his hooves were hurt in a roadside grass blaze.
As Goliath and his owner Joerg Schmid rested in the town of Bonndorf, southern Germany, locals came to his aid by donating money to have the boots made by specialist firm Wessels.
Mr Schmid said: "As well as the burns, he suffers from a genetic defect common to camels that makes the feet rot. But since he's had the boots, he's been great." ...
Shoe maker Peter Wessels with his creations and their happy owners
Born-again flamingo's two loving daddies
By LUKE SALKELD
21st May 2007
When a newly-hatched flamingo chick was abandoned by its mother and father, the search for surrogate parents did not take long.
Carlos and Fernando, the only gays in the bird sanctuary, were the automatic choice.
The pair have already brought up three chicks after snatching eggs from other (mixed) couples at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.
The proud gay parents with their fluffy new flamingo
This time they were to have one of their own.
For flamingoes, as for humans, bonding with baby is vital. The parent birds need to hear cheeping from within the egg then see the chick hatch.
So staff at the trust placed the abandoned youngster in a broken egg, taped it up and placed it in Carlos and Fernando's nest. Soon afterwards it emerged good as new.
WWT spokeswoman Jane Waghorn said: "Fernando and Carlos are a same sex couple who have been known to steal other Flamingos' eggs by chasing them off their nest because they wanted to rear them themselves.
"They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them so last week, when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents.
Jane Waghorn added "They have really bonded with the chick and are very good at being protective parents - finally to one of their own,"
"Flamingoes raise their young in groups and the couple are acting just like the other proud parents by watching out for others' young as well as their own."
The pair, who have been together for six years, can feed their chick without any female help, by producing milk in their throat[s]. [NB: Rot. Birds do not produce milk - they feed their young their own regurgitated food.] It will be two years before its sex is known.
The chick, who is being brought up in a "creche" with 15 other newborns, has been welcomed into the flock, under the watchful eye of its new parents.
Flamingos, although monogamous during breeding periods, usually find a different partner each year, making the enduring love of Carlos and Fernando all the more remarkable. ...
By LUKE SALKELD
21st May 2007
When a newly-hatched flamingo chick was abandoned by its mother and father, the search for surrogate parents did not take long.
Carlos and Fernando, the only gays in the bird sanctuary, were the automatic choice.
The pair have already brought up three chicks after snatching eggs from other (mixed) couples at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.
The proud gay parents with their fluffy new flamingo
This time they were to have one of their own.
For flamingoes, as for humans, bonding with baby is vital. The parent birds need to hear cheeping from within the egg then see the chick hatch.
So staff at the trust placed the abandoned youngster in a broken egg, taped it up and placed it in Carlos and Fernando's nest. Soon afterwards it emerged good as new.
WWT spokeswoman Jane Waghorn said: "Fernando and Carlos are a same sex couple who have been known to steal other Flamingos' eggs by chasing them off their nest because they wanted to rear them themselves.
"They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them so last week, when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents.
Jane Waghorn added "They have really bonded with the chick and are very good at being protective parents - finally to one of their own,"
"Flamingoes raise their young in groups and the couple are acting just like the other proud parents by watching out for others' young as well as their own."
The pair, who have been together for six years, can feed their chick without any female help, by producing milk in their throat[s]. [NB: Rot. Birds do not produce milk - they feed their young their own regurgitated food.] It will be two years before its sex is known.
The chick, who is being brought up in a "creche" with 15 other newborns, has been welcomed into the flock, under the watchful eye of its new parents.
Flamingos, although monogamous during breeding periods, usually find a different partner each year, making the enduring love of Carlos and Fernando all the more remarkable. ...
Hungry elephant demands food for safe passage from motorists
28th May 2007
An elephant is terrorising motorists by blocking traffic on a highway and refusing to let vehicles pass unless drivers give it food.
The old elephant, who is particularly fond of vegetables and bananas, prowls around for food on a busy road in the eastern state of Orissa, in India.
The hungry elephant forces motorists to roll down their windows and even makes them get out of their cars.
It then puts its trunk inside the vehicle and grabs whatever food it can, says the Hindustan Times newspaper.
"The tusker then inserts its trunk inside the vehicle and sniffs for food," local resident Prabodh Mohanty, who has come across the elephant twice, said.
"If you are carrying vegetables and bananas inside your vehicle, then it will gulp them and allow you to go."
If a commuter does not wind down his window or resists opening the vehicle door, the elephant stands in front of the car until the driver allows him to carry out his routine inspection. ...
28th May 2007
An elephant is terrorising motorists by blocking traffic on a highway and refusing to let vehicles pass unless drivers give it food.
The old elephant, who is particularly fond of vegetables and bananas, prowls around for food on a busy road in the eastern state of Orissa, in India.
The hungry elephant forces motorists to roll down their windows and even makes them get out of their cars.
It then puts its trunk inside the vehicle and grabs whatever food it can, says the Hindustan Times newspaper.
"The tusker then inserts its trunk inside the vehicle and sniffs for food," local resident Prabodh Mohanty, who has come across the elephant twice, said.
"If you are carrying vegetables and bananas inside your vehicle, then it will gulp them and allow you to go."
If a commuter does not wind down his window or resists opening the vehicle door, the elephant stands in front of the car until the driver allows him to carry out his routine inspection. ...
Pony gives birth to twins, overcoming odds of 10,000-to-1
23rd May 2007
Running through the fields with her newly-born foals, mare Royal Beatrice has good reason to celebrate - after managing the astonishingly rare feat of producing twins.
The 22-year-old New Forest Pony has shocked equine experts with the surprise birth of healthy twin foals because the chances of both surviving are so slim.
Royal and Bess
In nearly all cases, one or both foals die in a twin pregnancy because the mother's uterus cannot support two babies. ...
Many thanks to dear Glenn321
23rd May 2007
Running through the fields with her newly-born foals, mare Royal Beatrice has good reason to celebrate - after managing the astonishingly rare feat of producing twins.
The 22-year-old New Forest Pony has shocked equine experts with the surprise birth of healthy twin foals because the chances of both surviving are so slim.
Royal and Bess
In nearly all cases, one or both foals die in a twin pregnancy because the mother's uterus cannot support two babies. ...
Many thanks to dear Glenn321
Four white lions born in French zoo
Published: Wednesday May 23, 2007
Four white lions were born in a zoo in western France at the weekend, providing a welcome boost for the species whose population is teetering at about 30 worldwide, a zoo official said Wednesday. ...
I don't do many pop culture references, kids - so enjoy!
The real thing:
White Lions @ Wikipedia
Published: Wednesday May 23, 2007
Four white lions were born in a zoo in western France at the weekend, providing a welcome boost for the species whose population is teetering at about 30 worldwide, a zoo official said Wednesday. ...
I don't do many pop culture references, kids - so enjoy!
The real thing:
White Lions @ Wikipedia
Clown goes ape in German zoo
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
It is a case of clowning around for a bit of monkey business - a zoo has hired a clown to keep its chimps, gorillas, orang-utans and baboons busy.
Boredom can make the animals ill or aggressive, so the zoo in Krefeld, near Cologne, hired Christina Peters to entertain them.
'They go wild when they see me coming because they know they are going to have fun,' she said.
Many thanks to dear Emmuttmax
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
It is a case of clowning around for a bit of monkey business - a zoo has hired a clown to keep its chimps, gorillas, orang-utans and baboons busy.
Boredom can make the animals ill or aggressive, so the zoo in Krefeld, near Cologne, hired Christina Peters to entertain them.
'They go wild when they see me coming because they know they are going to have fun,' she said.
Many thanks to dear Emmuttmax
This is very sad. Other parts of the world are moving away from such unnatural and degrading animal acts, while China in its apparently great ignorance embraces them. Even the Detroit Zoo knows better, FFS.
Rare Albino Gator on Display in Tenn.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- This white alligator has it made in the shade. A rare albino alligator on loan to the Knoxville Zoo spent one recent afternoon basking under a heat lamp beside a warm pool with one claw lazily dipped in the water. If outside, her skin would burn in the sun.
"Is she real?" is the most common question from visitors, says Phil Colclough, assistant curator of herpetology at the zoo.
"Nobody believes she's real. They stare until she takes a breath or moves her eyes or jumps in the pool." ...
In this photo released by the Knoxville Zoo, a rare white alligator relaxes under a heat lamp while on temporary exhibit on Monday, May 7, 2007, in Knoxville, Tenn. The 12-year-old American alligator is an albino, meaning she has a lack of pigment and pinkish eyes. (AP Photo/Knoxville Zoo)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- This white alligator has it made in the shade. A rare albino alligator on loan to the Knoxville Zoo spent one recent afternoon basking under a heat lamp beside a warm pool with one claw lazily dipped in the water. If outside, her skin would burn in the sun.
"Is she real?" is the most common question from visitors, says Phil Colclough, assistant curator of herpetology at the zoo.
"Nobody believes she's real. They stare until she takes a breath or moves her eyes or jumps in the pool." ...
In this photo released by the Knoxville Zoo, a rare white alligator relaxes under a heat lamp while on temporary exhibit on Monday, May 7, 2007, in Knoxville, Tenn. The 12-year-old American alligator is an albino, meaning she has a lack of pigment and pinkish eyes. (AP Photo/Knoxville Zoo)
Wis. Farmer Finds New Calf Has Two Noses
Friday, May 11, 2007
MERRILL, Wis. (AP) -- Mark Krombholz had to look twice at his new calf, Lucy _ one time for each nose. "I didn't notice anything too different about her until I got her in the barn," Krombholz said, "and all of a sudden I went to feed her a bottle of milk, and I thought maybe she'd been kicked in the nose and there were two noses there."
The second, smaller nose sits on top of the first.
"It's a functioning nose because the middle of her second nose, the flap would go in and out when she drank out of the bottle like that," Krombholz said. "It was kind of funny."
Breeder Scott Grund said Lucy's noses seem to be working fine.
"It looked like she was comfortable laying there in her bedding and breathing and spunky just like you want to see," Grund said. "It's just that she's got two noses."
That kind of rare deformity is usually not the result of genetics, he said. But breeders do track such mutations. ...
Friday, May 11, 2007
MERRILL, Wis. (AP) -- Mark Krombholz had to look twice at his new calf, Lucy _ one time for each nose. "I didn't notice anything too different about her until I got her in the barn," Krombholz said, "and all of a sudden I went to feed her a bottle of milk, and I thought maybe she'd been kicked in the nose and there were two noses there."
The second, smaller nose sits on top of the first.
"It's a functioning nose because the middle of her second nose, the flap would go in and out when she drank out of the bottle like that," Krombholz said. "It was kind of funny."
Breeder Scott Grund said Lucy's noses seem to be working fine.
"It looked like she was comfortable laying there in her bedding and breathing and spunky just like you want to see," Grund said. "It's just that she's got two noses."
That kind of rare deformity is usually not the result of genetics, he said. But breeders do track such mutations. ...
Calf Born With 6 Legs on Nebraska Farm
Friday, May 4, 2007
LITCHFIELD, Neb. (AP) -- A days-old black Angus calf romps about a central Nebraska farm just like any other - only this one romps with six legs. "He's a real freak," said Brian Slocum, who said the calf was born Sunday to one of his cows. "I've never seen anything like this before."
The two extra appendages - one a front leg, the other a back - extend from the calf's pelvic area. The longer of the two extra legs doesn't quite reach the ground, and they don't interfere with the calf's mobility. ...
Friday, May 4, 2007
LITCHFIELD, Neb. (AP) -- A days-old black Angus calf romps about a central Nebraska farm just like any other - only this one romps with six legs. "He's a real freak," said Brian Slocum, who said the calf was born Sunday to one of his cows. "I've never seen anything like this before."
The two extra appendages - one a front leg, the other a back - extend from the calf's pelvic area. The longer of the two extra legs doesn't quite reach the ground, and they don't interfere with the calf's mobility. ...
Library Janitor Finds Missing Snake
Friday, May 4, 2007
CEDAR FALL, Iowa (AP) -- Time flies when you're curled up with a good book. Maybe that's what happened to Skeeze, a pet corn snake who escaped from his cage at the Cedar Falls library more than a month ago and hadn't been seen until this week when he turned up near the adult fiction section.
"Everyone had been looking for him," said Dick VanBesien, a library janitor. "I was just the lucky one to find him."
VanBesien said he doesn't mind snakes, but he was a bit surprised when he stumbled upon the 2-foot-long Skeeze.
"It shocked me at first," VanBesien said. "I thought it was a piece of paper, but when I went to pick it up, it jumped. I jumped, too." ...
...the 1-year-old snake is a little thinner these days, but otherwise healthy.
Friday, May 4, 2007
CEDAR FALL, Iowa (AP) -- Time flies when you're curled up with a good book. Maybe that's what happened to Skeeze, a pet corn snake who escaped from his cage at the Cedar Falls library more than a month ago and hadn't been seen until this week when he turned up near the adult fiction section.
"Everyone had been looking for him," said Dick VanBesien, a library janitor. "I was just the lucky one to find him."
VanBesien said he doesn't mind snakes, but he was a bit surprised when he stumbled upon the 2-foot-long Skeeze.
"It shocked me at first," VanBesien said. "I thought it was a piece of paper, but when I went to pick it up, it jumped. I jumped, too." ...
...the 1-year-old snake is a little thinner these days, but otherwise healthy.
Deer Accidentally Visit Retirement Home
Saturday, April 28, 2007
NEW OXFORD, Pa. (AP) -- A pair of deer took a quick tour of a retirement home after one accidentally triggered an automatic door.
The animals were wandering near the home Wednesday when one stepped on a mat that triggered a clear sliding door, according to staff members and surveillance tapes.
"The joke afterward was that they were trying to get in because it was taco day,"...
Saturday, April 28, 2007
NEW OXFORD, Pa. (AP) -- A pair of deer took a quick tour of a retirement home after one accidentally triggered an automatic door.
The animals were wandering near the home Wednesday when one stepped on a mat that triggered a clear sliding door, according to staff members and surveillance tapes.
"The joke afterward was that they were trying to get in because it was taco day,"...
Ewe've been conned ladies
By VIRGINIA WHEELER
April 26, 2007
THOUSANDS of rich women were conned by a firm into believing LAMBS were valuable miniature POODLES.
Entire flocks were imported to Japan from the UK and Australia then sold by the internet company as the latest "must have" pet.
The bizarre scam was rumbled when Japanese movie star Maiko Kawakami complained on a talk show that her new poodle refused to bark or eat dog food.
She showed photos of the animal and was devastated when told that it was a lamb.
Hundreds of women contacted police to say that they had also been sold lambs instead of pedigree pups by the tricksters based in Sapporo, Japan.
Cops believe that up to 2,000 people across the country had been swindled in the same way. One couple found out the truth only after a dog beautician told them that she could not trim their poodle's claws -- because they were HOOVES.
The company, whose name translated as Poodles As Pets, has now been shut down.
Bosses took advantage of the fact sheep are rare in Japan and most people do not know what they look like. ...
See kids, stereotypes are just wrong.
I don't care whether this be a hoax or not - anything that pokes fun at morons who must have a purebred dog is music to my mind.
Many thanks to dear Marielaem
By VIRGINIA WHEELER
April 26, 2007
THOUSANDS of rich women were conned by a firm into believing LAMBS were valuable miniature POODLES.
Entire flocks were imported to Japan from the UK and Australia then sold by the internet company as the latest "must have" pet.
The bizarre scam was rumbled when Japanese movie star Maiko Kawakami complained on a talk show that her new poodle refused to bark or eat dog food.
She showed photos of the animal and was devastated when told that it was a lamb.
Hundreds of women contacted police to say that they had also been sold lambs instead of pedigree pups by the tricksters based in Sapporo, Japan.
Cops believe that up to 2,000 people across the country had been swindled in the same way. One couple found out the truth only after a dog beautician told them that she could not trim their poodle's claws -- because they were HOOVES.
The company, whose name translated as Poodles As Pets, has now been shut down.
Bosses took advantage of the fact sheep are rare in Japan and most people do not know what they look like. ...
See kids, stereotypes are just wrong.
I don't care whether this be a hoax or not - anything that pokes fun at morons who must have a purebred dog is music to my mind.
Many thanks to dear Marielaem
Long Island Police Nab Wayward Alligator
Sunday, April 22, 2007
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (AP) -- Humans weren't the only species basking in the Northeast's warm weekend weather, as police helped capture a small alligator sunbathing by a small pond in this Long Island town.
It was a startling sight on Saturday in a community just 35 miles from Manhattan. The American alligator is native to the South and it is against New York law to own one, said Ray Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Green with yellowish stripes and roughly 2 feet long, the animal appeared to be about 3 years old, Gross said.
County police helped capture the alligator, which "wasn't too happy to see us," said Officer Vinny O'Shaughnessy. ...
Sunday, April 22, 2007
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (AP) -- Humans weren't the only species basking in the Northeast's warm weekend weather, as police helped capture a small alligator sunbathing by a small pond in this Long Island town.
It was a startling sight on Saturday in a community just 35 miles from Manhattan. The American alligator is native to the South and it is against New York law to own one, said Ray Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Green with yellowish stripes and roughly 2 feet long, the animal appeared to be about 3 years old, Gross said.
County police helped capture the alligator, which "wasn't too happy to see us," said Officer Vinny O'Shaughnessy. ...
Detroit's Urban Coyote Pregnant
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
DETROIT (AP) -- A cagey urban coyote that eluded authorities in a nearly hourlong foot chase through downtown Detroit is expecting.
An animal rehabilitator licensed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources discovered the pregnancy while running medical tests for the Michigan Humane Society, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday.
The female coyote led two animal protection officials and Detroit police on a chase past a federal courthouse and beneath parked cars before heading toward the Detroit River.
The coyote was spared euthanasia April 11 when the Humane Society took custody of the animal. On Monday, the coyote was released into the wilds of northeast Oakland County to give birth. ...
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
DETROIT (AP) -- A cagey urban coyote that eluded authorities in a nearly hourlong foot chase through downtown Detroit is expecting.
An animal rehabilitator licensed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources discovered the pregnancy while running medical tests for the Michigan Humane Society, the Detroit Free Press reported Wednesday.
The female coyote led two animal protection officials and Detroit police on a chase past a federal courthouse and beneath parked cars before heading toward the Detroit River.
The coyote was spared euthanasia April 11 when the Humane Society took custody of the animal. On Monday, the coyote was released into the wilds of northeast Oakland County to give birth. ...
Moose, Reindeer to Take Taste Tests
Apr 10, 2007
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP)-- Moose and reindeer at a Stockholm wildlife park have been invited to an unusual taste panel that will help decide which type of salt should be used to de-ice the country's roads in wintertime.
The less they like it, the better.
The National Road Administration plans to introduce a new, sweeter blend of road salt, but wants to make sure it doesn't attract wildlife to Sweden's highways, project organizer Frida Hedin said Tuesday.
She said the 14 hoofed jury members at Stockholm's Skansen open-air museum will be presented with two salt blocks one with the new sugary flavor and another tasting like the road salt being used today. ...
Apr 10, 2007
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP)-- Moose and reindeer at a Stockholm wildlife park have been invited to an unusual taste panel that will help decide which type of salt should be used to de-ice the country's roads in wintertime.
The less they like it, the better.
The National Road Administration plans to introduce a new, sweeter blend of road salt, but wants to make sure it doesn't attract wildlife to Sweden's highways, project organizer Frida Hedin said Tuesday.
She said the 14 hoofed jury members at Stockholm's Skansen open-air museum will be presented with two salt blocks one with the new sugary flavor and another tasting like the road salt being used today. ...
Experts Open Dolphin 'Chat Line' in Fla.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) -- A marine mammal rehabilitation facility opened a dolphin "chat line" of sorts Saturday, hoping to teach a deaf dolphin's unborn calf to communicate.
Castaway, as the stranded Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is named, has been recovering at the Marine Mammal Conservancy since Jan. 30. A battery of tests has confirmed she is deaf.
Dolphins need to hear echoes of sounds they produce to find food, socialize and defend themselves against predators.
"We asked ourselves, 'How do we get the calf to speak when we have a deaf mother?'" said Robert Lingenfelser, the conservancy's president.
They decided to electronically connect Castaway's habitat with a lagoon at Dolphins Plus, a research and interactive educational facility a few miles down the Keys Overseas Highway. Underwater speakers and microphones were installed at both locations and connected via phone lines. ...
Saturday, April 7, 2007
KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) -- A marine mammal rehabilitation facility opened a dolphin "chat line" of sorts Saturday, hoping to teach a deaf dolphin's unborn calf to communicate.
Castaway, as the stranded Atlantic bottlenose dolphin is named, has been recovering at the Marine Mammal Conservancy since Jan. 30. A battery of tests has confirmed she is deaf.
Dolphins need to hear echoes of sounds they produce to find food, socialize and defend themselves against predators.
"We asked ourselves, 'How do we get the calf to speak when we have a deaf mother?'" said Robert Lingenfelser, the conservancy's president.
They decided to electronically connect Castaway's habitat with a lagoon at Dolphins Plus, a research and interactive educational facility a few miles down the Keys Overseas Highway. Underwater speakers and microphones were installed at both locations and connected via phone lines. ...
1902
1907
1910
1929
1929
Yes, girls and boys, that's an elk.
Rare striped rabbit spotted in Indonesia rainforest
Thu Apr 5, 2007
JAKARTA - One of the world's rarest rabbits is captured on film in the rain forest of Indonesia's Sumatra island in January 2007. The rabbit was captured on camera in Indonesia's rainforests for only the third time ever, a leading conservation group said on Thursday. The Sumatran striped rabbit -- a little over a foot long and chalk coloured with dark brown stripes -- is critically endangered and was last photographed in the Bukit Barisan Park in 2000, the World Conservation Society (WCF) said in a statement. REUTERS/Wildlife Conservation Society/Handout (INDONESIA)
Thu Apr 5, 2007
JAKARTA - One of the world's rarest rabbits is captured on film in the rain forest of Indonesia's Sumatra island in January 2007. The rabbit was captured on camera in Indonesia's rainforests for only the third time ever, a leading conservation group said on Thursday. The Sumatran striped rabbit -- a little over a foot long and chalk coloured with dark brown stripes -- is critically endangered and was last photographed in the Bukit Barisan Park in 2000, the World Conservation Society (WCF) said in a statement. REUTERS/Wildlife Conservation Society/Handout (INDONESIA)
Time in the Animal Mind
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: April 3, 2007
Humans are born time travelers. We may not be able to send our bodies into the past or the future, at least not yet, but we can send our minds. We can relive events that happened long ago or envision ourselves in the future.
New studies suggest that the two directions of temporal travel are intimately entwined in the human brain. A number of psychologists argue that re-experiencing the past evolved in our ancestors as a way to plan for the future and that the rise of mental time travel was crucial to our species' success. But some experts on animal behavior do not think we are unique in this respect. They point to several recent experiments suggesting that animals can visit the past and future as well. ...
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: April 3, 2007
Humans are born time travelers. We may not be able to send our bodies into the past or the future, at least not yet, but we can send our minds. We can relive events that happened long ago or envision ourselves in the future.
New studies suggest that the two directions of temporal travel are intimately entwined in the human brain. A number of psychologists argue that re-experiencing the past evolved in our ancestors as a way to plan for the future and that the rise of mental time travel was crucial to our species' success. But some experts on animal behavior do not think we are unique in this respect. They point to several recent experiments suggesting that animals can visit the past and future as well. ...
Gentian violet is what turned her purple.
I got hip to it in Jamaica - a friend uses it on her horses' wounds.
I got hip to it in Jamaica - a friend uses it on her horses' wounds.
Mouse 'robs' cash machine
Monday 26th March 2007
A mouse munched its way through thousands of pounds of cash after climbing inside a cash machine in Estonia.
The animal was found in the machine after a customer withdrew some money and got partly-eaten banknotes outside the bank in the capital Tallinn. ...
Monday 26th March 2007
A mouse munched its way through thousands of pounds of cash after climbing inside a cash machine in Estonia.
The animal was found in the machine after a customer withdrew some money and got partly-eaten banknotes outside the bank in the capital Tallinn. ...
"Knut Day" in Berlin as polar bear cub goes public
Fri Mar 23, 2007
At least 200 journalists from around the globe gathered at the zoo for "Knut Day," and his outing threatened to overshadow the start of a major EU summit taking place in the capital at the weekend, zoo official Ragnar Kuehne said.
"There is always something special about bringing up a baby polar bear on a bottle and with Knut, the added fear that he might die bolstered solidarity for the bear," said Kuehne.
Cameramen from Japan, the United States, Brazil and Finland jostled on ladders to take the best pictures. German television channels covered Knut's first public steps live and some newspaper journalists had to post live podcasts of the occasion.
Knut has also drawn attention to the plight of polar bears as worries grow that global warming is contributing to the melting of their habitat. ...
Many thanks to dear Leiaxe
Fri Mar 23, 2007
At least 200 journalists from around the globe gathered at the zoo for "Knut Day," and his outing threatened to overshadow the start of a major EU summit taking place in the capital at the weekend, zoo official Ragnar Kuehne said.
"There is always something special about bringing up a baby polar bear on a bottle and with Knut, the added fear that he might die bolstered solidarity for the bear," said Kuehne.
Cameramen from Japan, the United States, Brazil and Finland jostled on ladders to take the best pictures. German television channels covered Knut's first public steps live and some newspaper journalists had to post live podcasts of the occasion.
Knut has also drawn attention to the plight of polar bears as worries grow that global warming is contributing to the melting of their habitat. ...
Many thanks to dear Leiaxe
Triplet Calves Born
Feb 28 2007
KXMC-TV Minot
Feeding time at the Monson Ranch North of Bottineau has really become a family affair these days thanks to the arrival of some very special animals.
Meet Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Identical Triplet bull calves born on February 5th.
(Jeff Monson, Rancher) "I knew there were two in there; four feet and two heads coming. I called my brother to come and help me. I got the first one out and I thought, "'Well, if I have a wreck, at least I've got back up coming.'" ...
... (Monson) "I had to double look at that one on the straw; it was different. I guess we've never been around triplets."
In a matter of moments Jeff had three Red Angus baby bulls on the ground, alive and well.
If you're wondering the odds of that happening and all three living...it's about like winning the lottery.
(Monson) "The odds on triples is one in 105,000. But being identical, being same sex of course is eight times that high, one in 840,000."
... But this isn't the end to the Monson Miracle, after the triples were born, three sets of twins were also delivered....that's 9 calves from four cows.
(Monson) "I believe the magic key is through a bull that I raised on my own. It's the only thing that we've changed." ...
... Jeff says he isn't planning on selling the triplets until some studying is done to find out how and why the animals came to be, and are so healthy. Some studying is also expected on the bull that has increased Jeff's cow/calf production two fold from some very productive heifers. ...
Warning: Many amusing - and sad - errors. Avoid the consumption of liquids and smoke while reading this.
Feb 28 2007
KXMC-TV Minot
Feeding time at the Monson Ranch North of Bottineau has really become a family affair these days thanks to the arrival of some very special animals.
Meet Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Identical Triplet bull calves born on February 5th.
(Jeff Monson, Rancher) "I knew there were two in there; four feet and two heads coming. I called my brother to come and help me. I got the first one out and I thought, "'Well, if I have a wreck, at least I've got back up coming.'" ...
... (Monson) "I had to double look at that one on the straw; it was different. I guess we've never been around triplets."
In a matter of moments Jeff had three Red Angus baby bulls on the ground, alive and well.
If you're wondering the odds of that happening and all three living...it's about like winning the lottery.
(Monson) "The odds on triples is one in 105,000. But being identical, being same sex of course is eight times that high, one in 840,000."
... But this isn't the end to the Monson Miracle, after the triples were born, three sets of twins were also delivered....that's 9 calves from four cows.
(Monson) "I believe the magic key is through a bull that I raised on my own. It's the only thing that we've changed." ...
... Jeff says he isn't planning on selling the triplets until some studying is done to find out how and why the animals came to be, and are so healthy. Some studying is also expected on the bull that has increased Jeff's cow/calf production two fold from some very productive heifers. ...
Warning: Many amusing - and sad - errors. Avoid the consumption of liquids and smoke while reading this.
Five-Legged Lamb Born In Kansas
Extra Leg Sticks Out Of Lamb's Abdomen
February 25, 2007
OSAWATOMIE, Kan. -- A five-legged lamb was born last week in Miami County, Kan.
The lamb, which is owned by the Evans family in Osawatomie, has a fifth leg sticking out of its abdomen; the leg has a bone in it.
"Isn't this the weirdest thing you've ever seen?" Michelle Evans said. "We didn't know if it would walk, but it got right up and it's doing great."
The lamb mostly drags its extra leg around the pen it shares with its mom and twin. ...
Extra Leg Sticks Out Of Lamb's Abdomen
February 25, 2007
OSAWATOMIE, Kan. -- A five-legged lamb was born last week in Miami County, Kan.
The lamb, which is owned by the Evans family in Osawatomie, has a fifth leg sticking out of its abdomen; the leg has a bone in it.
"Isn't this the weirdest thing you've ever seen?" Michelle Evans said. "We didn't know if it would walk, but it got right up and it's doing great."
The lamb mostly drags its extra leg around the pen it shares with its mom and twin. ...
Heavy petting? Try this Dutch dating Web site
Mon Feb 26, 2007
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Looking for the love of your life? Does your pet put potential partners off? -- There is now a Web site where you can find a partner compatible with your dog, cat, snake or spider.
A new Dutch Web site -- www.dier-en-mens.nl -- says it is a meeting place for all animal lovers, whether you are looking for a partner, someone who also likes snakes and spiders or someone who takes care of your chickens when you want to go away for the weekend.
"How can you find a nice partner who is just as crazy about animals as you are?" said Betty Mercey on Sunday who launched the dating site this weekend which is called "Animal and Human."
Members of the site can describe themselves and their pets, and when they think they have found someone who also likes their pets, they can contact each other through the Web site. ...
Mon Feb 26, 2007
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Looking for the love of your life? Does your pet put potential partners off? -- There is now a Web site where you can find a partner compatible with your dog, cat, snake or spider.
A new Dutch Web site -- www.dier-en-mens.nl -- says it is a meeting place for all animal lovers, whether you are looking for a partner, someone who also likes snakes and spiders or someone who takes care of your chickens when you want to go away for the weekend.
"How can you find a nice partner who is just as crazy about animals as you are?" said Betty Mercey on Sunday who launched the dating site this weekend which is called "Animal and Human."
Members of the site can describe themselves and their pets, and when they think they have found someone who also likes their pets, they can contact each other through the Web site. ...
Deep Ocean Flasher
Wednesday February 14, 2007
The elusive giant squid is proving an illuminating subject of study for Japanese scientists.
Footage, which for the first time captures the creature in its natural deep-sea realm, shows Taningia danaes emitting a dazzling display of light.
In an article for The Royal Society, researchers say the bright pulses are used to startle and stun potential prey.
The pictures reveal the squid using light-producing organs on their tentacles.
Called photophores they are used to stunning effect in the dark ocean depths.
But studies of the cephalopods suggest their bioluminescent behaviour could also be quite the turn-on.
As well as using their flashy skills for hunting it is thought they can employ them in the field of courtship.
Flirting with each other by emitting different lengths of pulsing light.
The squid can grow to over two metres in length and live up to a thousand metres beneath the waves. ...
Wednesday February 14, 2007
The elusive giant squid is proving an illuminating subject of study for Japanese scientists.
Footage, which for the first time captures the creature in its natural deep-sea realm, shows Taningia danaes emitting a dazzling display of light.
In an article for The Royal Society, researchers say the bright pulses are used to startle and stun potential prey.
The pictures reveal the squid using light-producing organs on their tentacles.
Called photophores they are used to stunning effect in the dark ocean depths.
But studies of the cephalopods suggest their bioluminescent behaviour could also be quite the turn-on.
As well as using their flashy skills for hunting it is thought they can employ them in the field of courtship.
Flirting with each other by emitting different lengths of pulsing light.
The squid can grow to over two metres in length and live up to a thousand metres beneath the waves. ...
Man frees grandson from anaconda death grip
Fri Feb 9, 2007
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A 66-year-old Brazilian man wrestled with a 15-foot (5-meter) anaconda for nearly half an hour to free his grandson from the snake's crushing death grip, a newspaper reported Friday.
Matheus Pereira de Araujo, 8, would likely be dead inside the belly of the 80 pound (35 kg) anaconda if his grandfather had not heard his screams for help, zoologists said.
Anacondas, the biggest snakes in the world, are nonvenomous and kill prey by asphyxiation.
Araujo was playing with friends near a creek on his grandfather's farm in Cosmorama, 310 miles west of Sao Paulo, Wednesday when the snake attacked him.
"It was very fast. I didn't have time to do anything," the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper quoted Araujo as saying by. "My grandfather is a hero -- I was so afraid of dying." ...
Fri Feb 9, 2007
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A 66-year-old Brazilian man wrestled with a 15-foot (5-meter) anaconda for nearly half an hour to free his grandson from the snake's crushing death grip, a newspaper reported Friday.
Matheus Pereira de Araujo, 8, would likely be dead inside the belly of the 80 pound (35 kg) anaconda if his grandfather had not heard his screams for help, zoologists said.
Anacondas, the biggest snakes in the world, are nonvenomous and kill prey by asphyxiation.
Araujo was playing with friends near a creek on his grandfather's farm in Cosmorama, 310 miles west of Sao Paulo, Wednesday when the snake attacked him.
"It was very fast. I didn't have time to do anything," the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper quoted Araujo as saying by. "My grandfather is a hero -- I was so afraid of dying." ...
Fisherman's friendship with crocodile draws crowds
Wed Feb 7, 2007
By John McPhaul
SARAPIQUI, Costa Rica, Feb 7 (Reuters Life!) - It's a love story with difference - the friendship between a Costa Rican fisherman and a four-and-a-half metre (15 feet) long crocodile.
Every Sunday, Gilberto Shedden dons a tattered pair of leopard-print shorts, dives into a lake and splashes about in the water with his crocodile Pocho, to gasps from a large crowd of locals and tourists.
Shedden, 50, rolls the crocodile onto his back, cavorts about with him, lifts his toothy head out of the water and even kisses him tenderly on the snout. ...
Wed Feb 7, 2007
By John McPhaul
SARAPIQUI, Costa Rica, Feb 7 (Reuters Life!) - It's a love story with difference - the friendship between a Costa Rican fisherman and a four-and-a-half metre (15 feet) long crocodile.
Every Sunday, Gilberto Shedden dons a tattered pair of leopard-print shorts, dives into a lake and splashes about in the water with his crocodile Pocho, to gasps from a large crowd of locals and tourists.
Shedden, 50, rolls the crocodile onto his back, cavorts about with him, lifts his toothy head out of the water and even kisses him tenderly on the snout. ...
Komodo dragon proud mum (and dad) of five
Wed Jan 24, 2007
LONDON (Reuters) - Flora, a Komodo dragon who has never mated or even mixed with a male, is the proud mother and father of five baby dragons, scientists said on Wednesday.
Both Flora and her babies, which measured 40-45 cm (15-18 inches) and weighed up to 125 grams (4.4 ounces) when they were hatched at the Chester Zoo are doing fine.
Two fertilised eggs are still in an incubator.
"Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are delighted to say she is now a mum and dad," said Kevin Buley a curator at the zoo. "When the first of the babies hatched, we didn't know whether to make her a cup of tea or pass her the cigars..." ...
Aw, hell, give her some of each!
Story about Flora with pictures at Th' Daily mail, thanks to dear Eilirj
Wed Jan 24, 2007
LONDON (Reuters) - Flora, a Komodo dragon who has never mated or even mixed with a male, is the proud mother and father of five baby dragons, scientists said on Wednesday.
Both Flora and her babies, which measured 40-45 cm (15-18 inches) and weighed up to 125 grams (4.4 ounces) when they were hatched at the Chester Zoo are doing fine.
Two fertilised eggs are still in an incubator.
"Flora is oblivious to the excitement she has caused but we are delighted to say she is now a mum and dad," said Kevin Buley a curator at the zoo. "When the first of the babies hatched, we didn't know whether to make her a cup of tea or pass her the cigars..." ...
Aw, hell, give her some of each!
Story about Flora with pictures at Th' Daily mail, thanks to dear Eilirj
Pa. residents see wayward wallaby
01/23/2007
FLEETWOOD, Pa.- Where's the wallaby? That's what officials at the Berks County Humane Society are wondering after residents began seeing a foreign creature hopping around town.
Wallabies, which look very similar to kangaroos, are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. It's unclear how one ended up about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
The animal might have been bought on the Internet as a pet, said humane society officer Dylan Heckart.
The agency received its first report of a wallaby sighting on Monday from a man who had seen the animal in his backyard over the weekend, Heckart said. ...
01/23/2007
FLEETWOOD, Pa.- Where's the wallaby? That's what officials at the Berks County Humane Society are wondering after residents began seeing a foreign creature hopping around town.
Wallabies, which look very similar to kangaroos, are native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. It's unclear how one ended up about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
The animal might have been bought on the Internet as a pet, said humane society officer Dylan Heckart.
The agency received its first report of a wallaby sighting on Monday from a man who had seen the animal in his backyard over the weekend, Heckart said. ...
Calf with 2 faces wins over dairyman
Article Last Updated: 01/23/2007 05:31:20 PM MST
RURAL RETREAT, Va. (AP) - Star, a calf born with two faces, is getting star treatment from dairyman Kirk Heldreth. Despite her malformed mouth, Star has been feeding from a bottle and is winning over Heldreth, who didn't expect her to live long after her Dec. 27 birth. He had considered donating the calf to Virginia Tech for scientific purposes, or even selling her for show.
"We'd like to keep the calf for a while and see how she does," he said.
Heldreth said he and his family have grown too attached to her to let her become a display piece. Star had been drawing the curious to Heldreth's southwest Virginia farm. He still sees about 40 to 50 visitors daily.
"She amazes us every day," he told the Bristol Herald-Courier.
Star feeds twice a day, normally drinking about two bottles of milk at each sitting. She often is cradled during feeding.
"We've spoiled her," he said. ...
Article Last Updated: 01/23/2007 05:31:20 PM MST
RURAL RETREAT, Va. (AP) - Star, a calf born with two faces, is getting star treatment from dairyman Kirk Heldreth. Despite her malformed mouth, Star has been feeding from a bottle and is winning over Heldreth, who didn't expect her to live long after her Dec. 27 birth. He had considered donating the calf to Virginia Tech for scientific purposes, or even selling her for show.
"We'd like to keep the calf for a while and see how she does," he said.
Heldreth said he and his family have grown too attached to her to let her become a display piece. Star had been drawing the curious to Heldreth's southwest Virginia farm. He still sees about 40 to 50 visitors daily.
"She amazes us every day," he told the Bristol Herald-Courier.
Star feeds twice a day, normally drinking about two bottles of milk at each sitting. She often is cradled during feeding.
"We've spoiled her," he said. ...
Man arrested for smuggling 500 parrots in a car
Tue Jan 23, 2007
ALMATY, Jan 23 (Reuters Life!) - Kazakh border guards arrested a man trying to smuggle 500 parrots in his car from neighbouring Uzbekistan, media reported on Tuesday.
"Border guards discovered a live cargo of 500 parrots in his car," Kazakhstan Today news agency quoted a KNB security service official as saying.
It was unclear how the parrots fit into the Kazakh man's Audi. Trade in wild parrots is banned around the world...
Tue Jan 23, 2007
ALMATY, Jan 23 (Reuters Life!) - Kazakh border guards arrested a man trying to smuggle 500 parrots in his car from neighbouring Uzbekistan, media reported on Tuesday.
"Border guards discovered a live cargo of 500 parrots in his car," Kazakhstan Today news agency quoted a KNB security service official as saying.
It was unclear how the parrots fit into the Kazakh man's Audi. Trade in wild parrots is banned around the world...
Australian diver says partly swallowed by shark
Tue Jan 23, 2007
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian abalone diver told rescuers he was partly swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark on Tuesday but managed to fight his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks around the chest.
Diver Eric Nerhus, 41, was underwater with his 25-year-old son and other divers off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia's southeast coast, when the 3 metre (10 foot) shark attacked.
"He stated that he was head-first into the shark," a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital.
"When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest -- bite marks all the way around," the spokeswoman said.
Nerhus told fellow divers he didn't see the shark coming as the water was so dirty that visibility was severely limited. ...
Tue Jan 23, 2007
By Michael Perry
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian abalone diver told rescuers he was partly swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark on Tuesday but managed to fight his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks around the chest.
Diver Eric Nerhus, 41, was underwater with his 25-year-old son and other divers off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia's southeast coast, when the 3 metre (10 foot) shark attacked.
"He stated that he was head-first into the shark," a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital.
"When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest -- bite marks all the way around," the spokeswoman said.
Nerhus told fellow divers he didn't see the shark coming as the water was so dirty that visibility was severely limited. ...
TV Helicopter Pilot Saves Stranded Deer
Thursday, January 18, 2007
NORMAN, Okla. -- The pilot of a TV news helicopter used the wind from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up.
A small crowd had gathered to watch the deer struggling, its hooves repeatedly slipping, near the shore of Lake Thunderbird around 4 p.m. Wednesday.
With the helicopter's camera rolling, KWTV pilot Mason Dunn used the wind from the rotor to push the deer, initially sending it into a break in the ice where the animal managed to hold onto the ice with its front legs.
Dunn then lowered the helicopter and the wind sent the deer sliding on its belly across the ice until it reached shore and scampered into a nearby wooded area.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
NORMAN, Okla. -- The pilot of a TV news helicopter used the wind from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up.
A small crowd had gathered to watch the deer struggling, its hooves repeatedly slipping, near the shore of Lake Thunderbird around 4 p.m. Wednesday.
With the helicopter's camera rolling, KWTV pilot Mason Dunn used the wind from the rotor to push the deer, initially sending it into a break in the ice where the animal managed to hold onto the ice with its front legs.
Dunn then lowered the helicopter and the wind sent the deer sliding on its belly across the ice until it reached shore and scampered into a nearby wooded area.
Rescuers free dolphins stranded off New York
Wed Jan 17, 2007
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rescuers guided eight distressed dolphins back into open water on Tuesday, a week after several of the animals became stranded in a shallow cove off Long Island, New York.
About 20 common dolphins wandered into the cove-like Northwest Creek near East Hampton, New York, last week, said Chuck Bowman, president of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, who has been involved in the rescue efforts.
The dolphins were thought to have followed fish through a narrow opening that allowed boats in and out of the cove.
Up to 80 rescuers and 10 marine biologists have worked to lure the dolphins back out towards the Atlantic Ocean.
"After working all day we got about eight dolphins out into the open bay waters, giving them a chance to survive," he said. "But about four are still left in the creek area." Six others have died, he said.
Above-average winter temperatures in the Northeast United States have caused some marine life, including dolphins, to linger closer to the shore than usual, Bowman said. ...
Wed Jan 17, 2007
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rescuers guided eight distressed dolphins back into open water on Tuesday, a week after several of the animals became stranded in a shallow cove off Long Island, New York.
About 20 common dolphins wandered into the cove-like Northwest Creek near East Hampton, New York, last week, said Chuck Bowman, president of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, who has been involved in the rescue efforts.
The dolphins were thought to have followed fish through a narrow opening that allowed boats in and out of the cove.
Up to 80 rescuers and 10 marine biologists have worked to lure the dolphins back out towards the Atlantic Ocean.
"After working all day we got about eight dolphins out into the open bay waters, giving them a chance to survive," he said. "But about four are still left in the creek area." Six others have died, he said.
Above-average winter temperatures in the Northeast United States have caused some marine life, including dolphins, to linger closer to the shore than usual, Bowman said. ...
nsomniac Russian bears drop off at last
Tue Jan 9, 2007
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian bears at Moscow Zoo have finally dropped off into their hibernation slumber despite months of insomnia caused by a record mild start to winter, zoo officials said on Tuesday.
Russia's arctic winters, which scuttled the occupation plans of both Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, came to an end this year in European Russia with no snow and temperatures so warm that bears were left pacing around and unable to sleep.
"The bears have finally fallen asleep and they have not woken up yet," Natalia Istratova, a spokeswoman for Moscow Zoo, said by telephone. ...
Tue Jan 9, 2007
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian bears at Moscow Zoo have finally dropped off into their hibernation slumber despite months of insomnia caused by a record mild start to winter, zoo officials said on Tuesday.
Russia's arctic winters, which scuttled the occupation plans of both Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, came to an end this year in European Russia with no snow and temperatures so warm that bears were left pacing around and unable to sleep.
"The bears have finally fallen asleep and they have not woken up yet," Natalia Istratova, a spokeswoman for Moscow Zoo, said by telephone. ...
Another Hogzilla Caught Near Atlanta
Saturday, January 6, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- A giant wild hog boasted to be bigger than the near-mythical "Hogzilla" caught in southern Georgia a few years ago has been killed in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood.
The hog hung snout down from a tree Friday in William Coursey's front yard, not far from where the avid hunter said he shot the beast. He said he hauled it to a truck weight station, which recorded the hairy hog at 1,100 pounds. ...
Delicious!
Saturday, January 6, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. -- A giant wild hog boasted to be bigger than the near-mythical "Hogzilla" caught in southern Georgia a few years ago has been killed in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood.
The hog hung snout down from a tree Friday in William Coursey's front yard, not far from where the avid hunter said he shot the beast. He said he hauled it to a truck weight station, which recorded the hairy hog at 1,100 pounds. ...
Delicious!
Mild winter triggers spring fever in zoo
Fri Jan 5, 2007
SOFIA (Reuters) - An unusually warm winter has sown confusion among animals at a zoo on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, causing two bears to miss their usual hibernation period and peacocks to lay eggs months early.
"The animals are confused. They are acting more like it is spring than the dead of winter," said Todor Hristov, zoo director in the port city of Varna.
Temperatures have risen to as high as 13 degrees Centigrade (55 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last few days in Varna, far warmer than usual. ...
Fri Jan 5, 2007
SOFIA (Reuters) - An unusually warm winter has sown confusion among animals at a zoo on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, causing two bears to miss their usual hibernation period and peacocks to lay eggs months early.
"The animals are confused. They are acting more like it is spring than the dead of winter," said Todor Hristov, zoo director in the port city of Varna.
Temperatures have risen to as high as 13 degrees Centigrade (55 degrees Fahrenheit) over the last few days in Varna, far warmer than usual. ...
Calf With Two Faces Born at Va. Farm
Thursday, January 4, 2007
RURAL RETREAT, Va. (AP) -- One of the newest arrivals at Kirk Heldreth's dairy farm is drawing crowds. A calf with two faces was born Dec. 27 at Heldreth Dairy Farm, and word has spread in southwest Virginia as residents flock to his farm.
The animal is normal from its tail until its unusually large head. The calf breathes out of two noses and has two tongues, which move independently, according to Heldreth. There appears to be a single socket containing two eyes where the heads split.
"It's the craziest thing I've ever seen," the dairyman said.
During the calf's birth, Heldreth said he first thought there were two calves. ...
A calf with two faces is photographed Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007, at Kirk Heldreth's dairy farm in Rural Retreat, Va. The calf, which was born Dec. 27, 2006, breathes out of two noses and has two tongues, which move independently, according to Heldreth. There appears to be a single socket containing two eyes where the heads split. (AP Photo/Wytheville Enterprise Via Bristol Herald Courier, Jean Farley)
Thursday, January 4, 2007
RURAL RETREAT, Va. (AP) -- One of the newest arrivals at Kirk Heldreth's dairy farm is drawing crowds. A calf with two faces was born Dec. 27 at Heldreth Dairy Farm, and word has spread in southwest Virginia as residents flock to his farm.
The animal is normal from its tail until its unusually large head. The calf breathes out of two noses and has two tongues, which move independently, according to Heldreth. There appears to be a single socket containing two eyes where the heads split.
"It's the craziest thing I've ever seen," the dairyman said.
During the calf's birth, Heldreth said he first thought there were two calves. ...
A calf with two faces is photographed Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007, at Kirk Heldreth's dairy farm in Rural Retreat, Va. The calf, which was born Dec. 27, 2006, breathes out of two noses and has two tongues, which move independently, according to Heldreth. There appears to be a single socket containing two eyes where the heads split. (AP Photo/Wytheville Enterprise Via Bristol Herald Courier, Jean Farley)
Zoos get teeth into Chistmas tree leftovers
Thu Jan 4, 2007
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans have found a novel way of recycling thousands of used and unsold Christmas trees: give them to the local zoo to feed to the animals.
"Elephants around the country will enjoy a delicious lunch today consisting of about five Christmas trees each," Berlin Zoo spokesman Ragnar Kuehne told Reuters on Thursday. ...
Thu Jan 4, 2007
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans have found a novel way of recycling thousands of used and unsold Christmas trees: give them to the local zoo to feed to the animals.
"Elephants around the country will enjoy a delicious lunch today consisting of about five Christmas trees each," Berlin Zoo spokesman Ragnar Kuehne told Reuters on Thursday. ...
Woman crushed by leaping dolphin
Wed Dec 27, 2006
WELLINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters Life!) - A New Zealand woman is in critical condition in hospital after being crushed by a dolphin that leaped on to her boat, media reported on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old woman had been watching from the bow of the small boat cruising among the marine mammals off the North Island's Coromandel Peninsula on Tuesday when the bottlenose dolphin landed on her, the New Zealand Herald said.
She suffered serious head injuries and was flown to hospital in Auckland.
The dolphin also smashed the boat's windshield and bow rails before jumping back into the ocean, witnesses told the Herald. ...
Wed Dec 27, 2006
WELLINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters Life!) - A New Zealand woman is in critical condition in hospital after being crushed by a dolphin that leaped on to her boat, media reported on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old woman had been watching from the bow of the small boat cruising among the marine mammals off the North Island's Coromandel Peninsula on Tuesday when the bottlenose dolphin landed on her, the New Zealand Herald said.
She suffered serious head injuries and was flown to hospital in Auckland.
The dolphin also smashed the boat's windshield and bow rails before jumping back into the ocean, witnesses told the Herald. ...
Devious Butterflies, Full-Throated Frogs and Other Liars
The green frog has been known to deceive eavesdroppers with its croak. Joe McDonald/Corbis
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: December 26, 2006
... Green frogs are only one deceptive species among many. Dishonesty has been documented in creatures ranging from birds to crustaceans to primates, including, of course, Homo sapiens. ...
The green frog has been known to deceive eavesdroppers with its croak. Joe McDonald/Corbis
By CARL ZIMMER
Published: December 26, 2006
... Green frogs are only one deceptive species among many. Dishonesty has been documented in creatures ranging from birds to crustaceans to primates, including, of course, Homo sapiens. ...
18 Llamas to Appear in Rose Parade
Tuesday, December 12
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Llamas have waited 15 years to appear in the Rose Parade. On New Year's Day, 18 of the animals and their owners will stroll down Colorado Boulevard.
Joan Selby, a member of the Llama Association of Southern California, sent the original application to the parade committee 15 years ago.
She is not sure why it took so long for parade officials to let the llamas into the parade but suggested it might have been fear of the unknown.
"It could be that it just was not our time. Back then, llamas weren't very well known," Selby said. ...
A friendly visitor......
Tuesday, December 12
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Llamas have waited 15 years to appear in the Rose Parade. On New Year's Day, 18 of the animals and their owners will stroll down Colorado Boulevard.
Joan Selby, a member of the Llama Association of Southern California, sent the original application to the parade committee 15 years ago.
She is not sure why it took so long for parade officials to let the llamas into the parade but suggested it might have been fear of the unknown.
"It could be that it just was not our time. Back then, llamas weren't very well known," Selby said. ...
A friendly visitor......
SeaWorld to probe killer whale attack
Trainer suffers a broken foot
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
December 1, 2006
SAN DIEGO -- Officials at the SeaWorld theme park yesterday ordered an investigation into the incident in which a 5,000-pound killer whale injured a veteran trainer and dragged him to the bottom of a 36-foot-deep pool at Shamu Stadium on Wednesday.
Held underwater, the trainer, Ken Peters, persuaded Kasatka to free his foot from her mouth by stroking her back.
As several hundred horrified patrons watched, Peters, 39, swam to the top of the pool. He was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he is being treated for a broken left foot. ...
Trainer suffers a broken foot
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times
December 1, 2006
SAN DIEGO -- Officials at the SeaWorld theme park yesterday ordered an investigation into the incident in which a 5,000-pound killer whale injured a veteran trainer and dragged him to the bottom of a 36-foot-deep pool at Shamu Stadium on Wednesday.
Held underwater, the trainer, Ken Peters, persuaded Kasatka to free his foot from her mouth by stroking her back.
As several hundred horrified patrons watched, Peters, 39, swam to the top of the pool. He was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center, where he is being treated for a broken left foot. ...
Police use Taser on python to free man
November 30, 2006
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A police officer used a Taser to subdue a python that had wrapped itself around a man's arm and would not let go. Steve Crilly, 47, was feeding a rat to the eight-foot-long albino Burmese python, which belongs to his daughter, when it when it bit his left hand and wrapped tightly around his left arm Wednesday night, Uniontown patrolman Ray Miller said.
"The snake was on his arm and was eating his hand," Miller told the Herald-Standard of Uniontown for Friday's editions. Crilly "was very calm, considering there was a good bit of blood," he said.
In an effort to free the man without permanently harming the snake, Miller said he shot the animal with his Taser, a gun that sends an electric shock through wired darts. The snake immediately went limp and released its grip. ...
November 30, 2006
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A police officer used a Taser to subdue a python that had wrapped itself around a man's arm and would not let go. Steve Crilly, 47, was feeding a rat to the eight-foot-long albino Burmese python, which belongs to his daughter, when it when it bit his left hand and wrapped tightly around his left arm Wednesday night, Uniontown patrolman Ray Miller said.
"The snake was on his arm and was eating his hand," Miller told the Herald-Standard of Uniontown for Friday's editions. Crilly "was very calm, considering there was a good bit of blood," he said.
In an effort to free the man without permanently harming the snake, Miller said he shot the animal with his Taser, a gun that sends an electric shock through wired darts. The snake immediately went limp and released its grip. ...
Turkeys Try to Catch Train Out of N.J.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
RAMSEY, N.J. (AP) -- Some wild turkeys, it appears, were trying to get out of New Jersey before Thanksgiving Day. A spokesman for the NJ Transit said train officials reported a dozen or so wild turkeys waiting on a station platform in Ramsey, about 20 miles northwest of New York City, on Wednesday afternoon. The line travels to Suffern, N.Y.
"For a moment, it looked like the turkeys were waiting for the next outbound train," said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit. "Clearly, they're trying to catch a train and escape their fate." ...
In a security camera photo released by New Jersey Transit, a flock of wild turkeys stands on the platform at the Ramsey train station in Ramsey, N.J., Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006. NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel says the turkeys flew away after this video image was taken and it is unknown where they came from. (AP Photo/NJ Transit)
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
RAMSEY, N.J. (AP) -- Some wild turkeys, it appears, were trying to get out of New Jersey before Thanksgiving Day. A spokesman for the NJ Transit said train officials reported a dozen or so wild turkeys waiting on a station platform in Ramsey, about 20 miles northwest of New York City, on Wednesday afternoon. The line travels to Suffern, N.Y.
"For a moment, it looked like the turkeys were waiting for the next outbound train," said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit. "Clearly, they're trying to catch a train and escape their fate." ...
In a security camera photo released by New Jersey Transit, a flock of wild turkeys stands on the platform at the Ramsey train station in Ramsey, N.J., Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006. NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel says the turkeys flew away after this video image was taken and it is unknown where they came from. (AP Photo/NJ Transit)
Mmmmmmmm pie. Me love pie.
Many thanks to dear Saline for sending this, and to Dr-Strange for making and posting it.
Clever Bonobo again triggers fire alarm
November 15, 2006
DES MOINES, Iowa --Panbanisha the bonobo is up to her tricks again. For the second time in two months, the 20-year-old animal triggered a fire alarm at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa research center.
The trouble started at about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, when Panbanisha wanted to go outside but the staff was too busy to let her out, trust officials said. Panbanisha then apparently lost her temper and pulled the alarm, officials said.
It's a trick Panbanisha initially learned in October when she saw a welder start the alarm. It took her less than a day to learn how to duplicate the excitement.
When the alarm sounded again the next morning, "I went to check on Pan, and she was sitting there next to it with a smile on her face," said lead scientist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh last month. ...
November 15, 2006
DES MOINES, Iowa --Panbanisha the bonobo is up to her tricks again. For the second time in two months, the 20-year-old animal triggered a fire alarm at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa research center.
The trouble started at about 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, when Panbanisha wanted to go outside but the staff was too busy to let her out, trust officials said. Panbanisha then apparently lost her temper and pulled the alarm, officials said.
It's a trick Panbanisha initially learned in October when she saw a welder start the alarm. It took her less than a day to learn how to duplicate the excitement.
When the alarm sounded again the next morning, "I went to check on Pan, and she was sitting there next to it with a smile on her face," said lead scientist Sue Savage-Rumbaugh last month. ...
'Pumpkin head' deer OK, rescuers say
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Grand Rapids Press
CASCADE TOWNSHIP -- Good news, world: The famous deer known as "pumpkin head" is saved.
That's the conclusion of animal rescuers after two children found a dented, faded, hair-lined plastic pumpkin in their yard, and other neighbors spied a thin deer that looks just like "pumpkin head" running free.
The deer's plight captured worldwide newspaper, Internet and television attention after The Grand Rapids Press first published photographs and the story on Wednesday. Rescue teams then tried for days to find and tranquilize the weakened yearling so they could unhook the pumpkin.
Friday's cold and rain probably helped the deer wriggle free by slickening its hair and stiffening the pumpkin, rescuers with the Kent County Humane Society believe. ...
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Grand Rapids Press
CASCADE TOWNSHIP -- Good news, world: The famous deer known as "pumpkin head" is saved.
That's the conclusion of animal rescuers after two children found a dented, faded, hair-lined plastic pumpkin in their yard, and other neighbors spied a thin deer that looks just like "pumpkin head" running free.
The deer's plight captured worldwide newspaper, Internet and television attention after The Grand Rapids Press first published photographs and the story on Wednesday. Rescue teams then tried for days to find and tranquilize the weakened yearling so they could unhook the pumpkin.
Friday's cold and rain probably helped the deer wriggle free by slickening its hair and stiffening the pumpkin, rescuers with the Kent County Humane Society believe. ...
Drunken elk terrorises Swedish schoolchildren
Fri 10 Nov 2006
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A drunken elk is terrorising children at a school in southern Sweden.
"That could be the problem. We could be dealing with a boozy elk," Jan Caiman, a police officer in Molndal, told the national news agency TT.
The elk was probably eating fermented apples in a garden and had become inebriated, Caiman said. ...
Fri 10 Nov 2006
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A drunken elk is terrorising children at a school in southern Sweden.
"That could be the problem. We could be dealing with a boozy elk," Jan Caiman, a police officer in Molndal, told the national news agency TT.
The elk was probably eating fermented apples in a garden and had become inebriated, Caiman said. ...
I'm keepin' my fingers crossed.
Great Ape Scolded for Pulling Fire Alarm
Monday, October 23, 2006
This undated photo provided by the Great Ape Trust shows Panbanisha, who pulled the fire alarm Friday, Oct. 20, 2006, sending out the fire department to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa in Des Moines. Fire department spokesman Brian O'Keefe said Monday it was the first known case of an animal setting off a fire alarm in Des Moines.(AP Photo/ Great Ape Trust)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- One of the great apes at a research center in Des Moines has learned a valuable lesson - don't pull the fire alarm. A bonobo named Panbanisha did just that last Friday, sending out the fire department to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa.
Fire department spokesman Brian O'Keefe said Monday it was the first known case of an animal setting off a fire alarm in Des Moines.
Trust spokesman Al Setka said a 25-year-old female named Panbanisha was the guilty ape.
Setka said Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a lead scientist at the trust focusing on studying the behavior and intelligence of bonobos, scolded Panbanisha. ...
Monday, October 23, 2006
This undated photo provided by the Great Ape Trust shows Panbanisha, who pulled the fire alarm Friday, Oct. 20, 2006, sending out the fire department to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa in Des Moines. Fire department spokesman Brian O'Keefe said Monday it was the first known case of an animal setting off a fire alarm in Des Moines.(AP Photo/ Great Ape Trust)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- One of the great apes at a research center in Des Moines has learned a valuable lesson - don't pull the fire alarm. A bonobo named Panbanisha did just that last Friday, sending out the fire department to the Great Ape Trust of Iowa.
Fire department spokesman Brian O'Keefe said Monday it was the first known case of an animal setting off a fire alarm in Des Moines.
Trust spokesman Al Setka said a 25-year-old female named Panbanisha was the guilty ape.
Setka said Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a lead scientist at the trust focusing on studying the behavior and intelligence of bonobos, scolded Panbanisha. ...
Nurse 'savaged' by enraged giant pig
Last updated at 22:00pm on 13th October 2006
... Mrs Robinson, of Totton, near Southampton, Hants, today described how she first noticed the pig while riding in the New Forest. The experienced horse rider said it initially appeared to be circling a white car parked on a verge with a woman and her dog inside.
Without warning, the pig then fixed her in its sights and suddenly charged at speed, spooking her horse.
"There was nowhere to go," Mrs Robinson said. "My horse spun around, started to panic and tried to run away. It then bucked, threw me and galloped off.
"It was then that the pig attacked me. "I got to my feet but the beast pushed me into a hedge and was trying to bite my legs.
"It got hold of my coat in its mouth. I had very little strength to fight it off because I was weak from the fall.
"It was terrifying. Ive never been attacked by anything before, let alone a pig. I didn't know how I was going to get out of the situation." ...
... Mrs Robinson, a nurse from Huntingdon Close in Totton, spent two days in Southampton General Hospital following the attack.
The fall left her with fractured ribs, concussion and internal bleeding, which bruised half her body. ...
Pork contains a quarter of the fat it once did, but it can still be dangerous.
Last updated at 22:00pm on 13th October 2006
... Mrs Robinson, of Totton, near Southampton, Hants, today described how she first noticed the pig while riding in the New Forest. The experienced horse rider said it initially appeared to be circling a white car parked on a verge with a woman and her dog inside.
Without warning, the pig then fixed her in its sights and suddenly charged at speed, spooking her horse.
"There was nowhere to go," Mrs Robinson said. "My horse spun around, started to panic and tried to run away. It then bucked, threw me and galloped off.
"It was then that the pig attacked me. "I got to my feet but the beast pushed me into a hedge and was trying to bite my legs.
"It got hold of my coat in its mouth. I had very little strength to fight it off because I was weak from the fall.
"It was terrifying. Ive never been attacked by anything before, let alone a pig. I didn't know how I was going to get out of the situation." ...
... Mrs Robinson, a nurse from Huntingdon Close in Totton, spent two days in Southampton General Hospital following the attack.
The fall left her with fractured ribs, concussion and internal bleeding, which bruised half her body. ...
Pork contains a quarter of the fat it once did, but it can still be dangerous.
Colorful Bird Discovered in Colombia
Published: October 9, 2006
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A colorful new bird has been discovered in a previously unexplored Andean cloud forest, spurring efforts to protect the area, conservation groups said Monday.
The bright yellow and red-crowned Yariguies brush-finch was named for the indigenous tribe that once inhabited the mountainous area where it was discovered.
For conservationists the discovery of the species came at a crucial time -- the government has decided to set aside 500 acres of the pristine cloud forest where the bird lives to create a national park.
"The bird was discovered in what is the last remnants of cloud forest in that region," Camila Gomez, of the Colombia conservation group ProAves, said on Monday. "There are still lots of undiscovered flora and fauna species that live in the area." ...
Published: October 9, 2006
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A colorful new bird has been discovered in a previously unexplored Andean cloud forest, spurring efforts to protect the area, conservation groups said Monday.
The bright yellow and red-crowned Yariguies brush-finch was named for the indigenous tribe that once inhabited the mountainous area where it was discovered.
For conservationists the discovery of the species came at a crucial time -- the government has decided to set aside 500 acres of the pristine cloud forest where the bird lives to create a national park.
"The bird was discovered in what is the last remnants of cloud forest in that region," Camila Gomez, of the Colombia conservation group ProAves, said on Monday. "There are still lots of undiscovered flora and fauna species that live in the area." ...
Escaped hamster interrupts jet flight
September 29, 2006
INNSBRUCK, Austria --It wasn't "Snakes on a Plane," but an Austrian Airlines jet made an unscheduled stop Friday after a passenger sneaked a hamster aboard and the rodent escaped. The flight from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to the southern Austrian city of Graz made a stop in Innsbruck so officials could search for the hamster and make sure it didn't gnaw through any wiring, the airline said.
It said the flight was diverted after a passenger notified the crew that he had brought a hamster aboard and had lost track of it. Passengers were ordered off the plane, and some were taken by bus to Graz. It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard.
By midafternoon, a search of the aircraft still had not turned up any sign of the hamster, authorities said. ...
September 29, 2006
INNSBRUCK, Austria --It wasn't "Snakes on a Plane," but an Austrian Airlines jet made an unscheduled stop Friday after a passenger sneaked a hamster aboard and the rodent escaped. The flight from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to the southern Austrian city of Graz made a stop in Innsbruck so officials could search for the hamster and make sure it didn't gnaw through any wiring, the airline said.
It said the flight was diverted after a passenger notified the crew that he had brought a hamster aboard and had lost track of it. Passengers were ordered off the plane, and some were taken by bus to Graz. It was not immediately clear how many people were aboard.
By midafternoon, a search of the aircraft still had not turned up any sign of the hamster, authorities said. ...
Pa. Farm Discovers a 4-Legged Chicken
Saturday, September 23, 2006; 7:15 AM
SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) -- Henrietta the chicken was living inconspicuously among 36,000 other birds at Brendle Farms for 18 months - until a foreman noticed she had four legs.
"It's as healthy as the rest," the farm's owner, Mark Brendle, told The Daily American.
Brendle's 13-year-old daughter, Ashley, named the chicken Henrietta after the discovery Thursday. The bird has two normal front legs and, behind those, two more feet. They are of a similar size to her front legs but don't function. The chicken drags her extra feet behind her.
In 30 years of farming, Brendle said, he's never before seen a chicken with four legs. ...
Saturday, September 23, 2006; 7:15 AM
SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) -- Henrietta the chicken was living inconspicuously among 36,000 other birds at Brendle Farms for 18 months - until a foreman noticed she had four legs.
"It's as healthy as the rest," the farm's owner, Mark Brendle, told The Daily American.
Brendle's 13-year-old daughter, Ashley, named the chicken Henrietta after the discovery Thursday. The bird has two normal front legs and, behind those, two more feet. They are of a similar size to her front legs but don't function. The chicken drags her extra feet behind her.
In 30 years of farming, Brendle said, he's never before seen a chicken with four legs. ...
Daisy Says: To Hell With Liechtenstein!
Panda Bites Man, Man Bites Him Back
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 20, 2006; 5:17 PM
BEIJING -- A drunken Chinese migrant worker jumped into a panda enclosure at the Beijing Zoo, was bitten by the bear and retaliated by chomping down on the animal's back, state media said Wednesday.
Zhang Xinyan, from the central province of Henan, drank four jugs of beer at a restaurant near the zoo before visiting Gu Gu the panda on Tuesday, the Beijing Morning Post said.
"He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand," and jumped into the enclosure, the newspaper said.
The panda, who was asleep, was startled and bit Zhang, 35, on the right leg, it said. Zhang got angry and kicked the panda, who then bit his other leg. A tussle ensued, the paper said.
"I bit the fellow in the back," Zhang was quoted as saying in the newspaper. "Its skin was quite thick."
Other tourists yelled for a zookeeper, who got the panda under control by spraying it with water, reports said. Zhang was hospitalized. ...
... The Beijing Youth Daily quoted Zhang as saying that he had seen pandas on television and "they seemed to get along well with people."
"No one ever said they would bite people," Zhang said. "I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much." ...
I guess it's 'cause of people like him we have disclaimers/warnings on products and in ads similar to, "Costume Does Not Enable Wearer To Fly;" "Closed Course, Professional Driver, Do Not Attempt;" "Product May Be Hot When Removed From Oven;" "Do Not Operate Chainsaw Near Genitals;" &c &c &c.
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 20, 2006; 5:17 PM
BEIJING -- A drunken Chinese migrant worker jumped into a panda enclosure at the Beijing Zoo, was bitten by the bear and retaliated by chomping down on the animal's back, state media said Wednesday.
Zhang Xinyan, from the central province of Henan, drank four jugs of beer at a restaurant near the zoo before visiting Gu Gu the panda on Tuesday, the Beijing Morning Post said.
"He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand," and jumped into the enclosure, the newspaper said.
The panda, who was asleep, was startled and bit Zhang, 35, on the right leg, it said. Zhang got angry and kicked the panda, who then bit his other leg. A tussle ensued, the paper said.
"I bit the fellow in the back," Zhang was quoted as saying in the newspaper. "Its skin was quite thick."
Other tourists yelled for a zookeeper, who got the panda under control by spraying it with water, reports said. Zhang was hospitalized. ...
... The Beijing Youth Daily quoted Zhang as saying that he had seen pandas on television and "they seemed to get along well with people."
"No one ever said they would bite people," Zhang said. "I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much." ...
I guess it's 'cause of people like him we have disclaimers/warnings on products and in ads similar to, "Costume Does Not Enable Wearer To Fly;" "Closed Course, Professional Driver, Do Not Attempt;" "Product May Be Hot When Removed From Oven;" "Do Not Operate Chainsaw Near Genitals;" &c &c &c.
Woman Finds Scared Goat in Her Back Yard
Woman lets dog out and discovers terrified mountain goat in her back yard
WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory, Sep. 14, 2006
(AP) A woman let her dog out and heard the low growl of a wild mountain goat that decided to take refuge in her back yard on Wednesday.
"I certainly wasn't expecting that when I got up this morning," said Jennifer Moorlag. She said the terrified animal was less than two feet away.
Moorlag took her barking dog to a neighbor who contacted a friend at the Department of Environment. The friend contacted a conservation officer and at around 7:30 a.m. officials arrived at the house.
The goat continued to stand still for close to 1 1/2 hours as seven environment staffers launched a net from the roof of the house. The animal was caught in the net, placed in a crate and relocated.
Mountain goats weigh up to 300 pounds.
Moorlag said she heard coyotes the previous night and suspects they were chasing the goat. ...
Woman lets dog out and discovers terrified mountain goat in her back yard
WHITEHORSE, Yukon Territory, Sep. 14, 2006
(AP) A woman let her dog out and heard the low growl of a wild mountain goat that decided to take refuge in her back yard on Wednesday.
"I certainly wasn't expecting that when I got up this morning," said Jennifer Moorlag. She said the terrified animal was less than two feet away.
Moorlag took her barking dog to a neighbor who contacted a friend at the Department of Environment. The friend contacted a conservation officer and at around 7:30 a.m. officials arrived at the house.
The goat continued to stand still for close to 1 1/2 hours as seven environment staffers launched a net from the roof of the house. The animal was caught in the net, placed in a crate and relocated.
Mountain goats weigh up to 300 pounds.
Moorlag said she heard coyotes the previous night and suspects they were chasing the goat. ...
Can a python bite off more than it can chew? Ewe bet
September 08, 2006 12:00
Immovable feast ... an over-full python became stuck in the middle of a Malaysian road after swallowing a pregnant sheep / Reuters
A LITTLE bloating after a big meal is an occupational hazard for pythons. But this unfortunate creature found itself unable to slink away and sleep it off.
In fact, after swallowing a pregnant sheep, it couldn't move at all.
Firemen in the Malaysian village of Kampung Jabor, about 190km east of Kuala Lumpur, easily caught it after it was spotted on a road.
Conservationists were yesterday still deciding whether to keep the 90kg snake in a zoo or release it back into the wild.
Pythons eat no more than once a week but when they open their incredible hinged jaws, anything is fair game.
This 5.5m python found its eyes were definitely bigger than its belly. ...
Many thanks to dear FinestKind
September 08, 2006 12:00
Immovable feast ... an over-full python became stuck in the middle of a Malaysian road after swallowing a pregnant sheep / Reuters
A LITTLE bloating after a big meal is an occupational hazard for pythons. But this unfortunate creature found itself unable to slink away and sleep it off.
In fact, after swallowing a pregnant sheep, it couldn't move at all.
Firemen in the Malaysian village of Kampung Jabor, about 190km east of Kuala Lumpur, easily caught it after it was spotted on a road.
Conservationists were yesterday still deciding whether to keep the 90kg snake in a zoo or release it back into the wild.
Pythons eat no more than once a week but when they open their incredible hinged jaws, anything is fair game.
This 5.5m python found its eyes were definitely bigger than its belly. ...
Many thanks to dear FinestKind
Woman Crashes When Teaching Dog to Drive
Monday, August 28, 2006
(08-28) 17:19 PDT BEIJING, China (AP) --
A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday.
No injuries were reported although both vehicles were slightly damaged, it said.
The woman, identified only be her surname, Li, said her dog "was fond of crouching on the steering wheel and often watched her drive," according to Xinhua.
"She thought she would let the dog 'have a try' while she operated the accelerator and brake," the report said. "They did not make it far before crashing into an oncoming car." ...
Um, shouldn't she have let her dog practice in an empty car park first?
Monday, August 28, 2006
(08-28) 17:19 PDT BEIJING, China (AP) --
A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday.
No injuries were reported although both vehicles were slightly damaged, it said.
The woman, identified only be her surname, Li, said her dog "was fond of crouching on the steering wheel and often watched her drive," according to Xinhua.
"She thought she would let the dog 'have a try' while she operated the accelerator and brake," the report said. "They did not make it far before crashing into an oncoming car." ...
Um, shouldn't she have let her dog practice in an empty car park first?
Crazed squirrel attacks mum and son
By Marcus Leroux
9:12am Wednesday 2nd August 2006
A VICIOUS squirrel attacked mum Martine Browne after it pounced on her young son's head.
Martine, 25, was walking along the path leading from Gorse Hill to her home in Hornbeam Court, Pinehurst, when a grey squirrel launched itself at her son Reece.
Three-year-old Reece reacted calmly but when Martine tried to shoo the squirrel away, it turned on her and sank its teeth into her hands and arm.
Martine was enjoying a leisurely stroll home as she returned from a shopping trip with Reece and Jasmin, her six-year-old stepdaughter.
The full-time mum suffered four wounds and was treated at the Great Western Hospital.
She said: "I'm still in shock. I cannot believe a squirrel would do that.
"There was blood everywhere: all down my arms and over my clothes.
"I'm scared to use that path now." ...
By Marcus Leroux
9:12am Wednesday 2nd August 2006
A VICIOUS squirrel attacked mum Martine Browne after it pounced on her young son's head.
Martine, 25, was walking along the path leading from Gorse Hill to her home in Hornbeam Court, Pinehurst, when a grey squirrel launched itself at her son Reece.
Three-year-old Reece reacted calmly but when Martine tried to shoo the squirrel away, it turned on her and sank its teeth into her hands and arm.
Martine was enjoying a leisurely stroll home as she returned from a shopping trip with Reece and Jasmin, her six-year-old stepdaughter.
The full-time mum suffered four wounds and was treated at the Great Western Hospital.
She said: "I'm still in shock. I cannot believe a squirrel would do that.
"There was blood everywhere: all down my arms and over my clothes.
"I'm scared to use that path now." ...
No rabies in squirrel suspected in attacks
Christopher Sherman | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 10, 2006, 5:45 PM EDT
WINTER PARK, FL. -- The squirrel believed to have left terrified children, scratched adults and frustrated parents in the wake of its week-long rampage did not have rabies, county health officials announced today.
"That particular squirrel had no rabies whatsoever," said Orange County Health Department epidemiologist Bill Toth, of the squirrel city park employees captured Tuesday. The results came back from a state lab in Jacksonville Thursday afternoon.
At least seven people were attacked by an abnormally aggressive male squirrel in Central Park between Aug. 1 and Aug. 4.
Those who started rabies treatment or who had children who did, said they would continue with the shots -- just in case.
"I'm not going to take any chances that it could have been another squirrel," said Alisa Cox of Longwood, whose 3-year-old son Carson was bitten Aug. 3. "My son's not going to be the first in history to get it from a squirrel."
Christopher Sherman | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 10, 2006, 5:45 PM EDT
WINTER PARK, FL. -- The squirrel believed to have left terrified children, scratched adults and frustrated parents in the wake of its week-long rampage did not have rabies, county health officials announced today.
"That particular squirrel had no rabies whatsoever," said Orange County Health Department epidemiologist Bill Toth, of the squirrel city park employees captured Tuesday. The results came back from a state lab in Jacksonville Thursday afternoon.
At least seven people were attacked by an abnormally aggressive male squirrel in Central Park between Aug. 1 and Aug. 4.
Those who started rabies treatment or who had children who did, said they would continue with the shots -- just in case.
"I'm not going to take any chances that it could have been another squirrel," said Alisa Cox of Longwood, whose 3-year-old son Carson was bitten Aug. 3. "My son's not going to be the first in history to get it from a squirrel."
Massive Manatee Favors Manhattan Suburbs
Aug 7th 2006 - 7:16am
NEW YORK (AP) - In the heat of summer, all sorts of tourists head north to cooler climes. This year, a manatee has joined the crowd, cruising past the nightclubs of Manhattan and continuing north.
The massive animal has been spotted in the Hudson River at least three times in the last week - first off the Chelsea and Harlem sections of Manhattan, then to the north in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.
"It was gigantic," said Randy Shull, who said he spotted the unusual visitor Sunday afternoon while boating at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow. "When we saw it surface, its back was just mammoth."
John Vargo, the publisher of Boating on the Hudson magazine, said his alert about the sightings was met with disbelief by some boaters. ...
Aug 7th 2006 - 7:16am
NEW YORK (AP) - In the heat of summer, all sorts of tourists head north to cooler climes. This year, a manatee has joined the crowd, cruising past the nightclubs of Manhattan and continuing north.
The massive animal has been spotted in the Hudson River at least three times in the last week - first off the Chelsea and Harlem sections of Manhattan, then to the north in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.
"It was gigantic," said Randy Shull, who said he spotted the unusual visitor Sunday afternoon while boating at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow. "When we saw it surface, its back was just mammoth."
John Vargo, the publisher of Boating on the Hudson magazine, said his alert about the sightings was met with disbelief by some boaters. ...
Alligator used to being fed by tourists will not be killed
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 22, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Crusty the alligator is getting a second chance.
An anonymous donor has put up about $1,000 to catch the elusive reptile, which had had become so accustomed to people feeding him that wildlife managers believed he was potentially dangerous.
Officials thought they would have to take him from a canal along Florida's Alligator Alley in the Everglades and euthanize him.
Instead, Crusty will be sent to an animal exhibit in the Seminole Reservation in Hollywood, along with three other alligators officials have named Speedy, Boomer and Freddy. Crusty is the only one of the four that remains on the lam.
Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched a three-day undercover sting operation earlier this month aimed at catching alligator feeders, which drew attention to Crusty. The publicity brought phone calls to wildlife officials and ultimately the pledge of funds to spare the animal.
In 2004, more than 7,000 alligators had to be killed after becoming too accustomed to people and too dangerous to leave in the wild, according to the commission. Authorities issued more than half a dozen citations on the operation's first day....
Three women were killed by alligators in a single week in May, an unprecedented string of attacks. Florida has recorded only 17 other fatal alligator attacks since 1948. ...
The Associated Press
Saturday, July 22, 2006
FORT LAUDERDALE -- Crusty the alligator is getting a second chance.
An anonymous donor has put up about $1,000 to catch the elusive reptile, which had had become so accustomed to people feeding him that wildlife managers believed he was potentially dangerous.
Officials thought they would have to take him from a canal along Florida's Alligator Alley in the Everglades and euthanize him.
Instead, Crusty will be sent to an animal exhibit in the Seminole Reservation in Hollywood, along with three other alligators officials have named Speedy, Boomer and Freddy. Crusty is the only one of the four that remains on the lam.
Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched a three-day undercover sting operation earlier this month aimed at catching alligator feeders, which drew attention to Crusty. The publicity brought phone calls to wildlife officials and ultimately the pledge of funds to spare the animal.
In 2004, more than 7,000 alligators had to be killed after becoming too accustomed to people and too dangerous to leave in the wild, according to the commission. Authorities issued more than half a dozen citations on the operation's first day....
Three women were killed by alligators in a single week in May, an unprecedented string of attacks. Florida has recorded only 17 other fatal alligator attacks since 1948. ...
вомбаты! That's wombats if yr cyrillically challenged. Also more cool critters.
Many thanks to dear Ceanna
Many thanks to dear Ceanna
Feline felon suspected in glove thefts
Willy, a 1-year-old cat is photographed Thursday, July 20, 2006, with a display of several pairs of garden gloves that he took from unknown yards in his neighborhood in Pelham, N.Y. Willy has brought home nine pairs of gloves and five singles over several weeks laying them on his owners' front or back porches. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
By Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press Writer | July 20, 2006
PELHAM, N.Y. --A pink-and-white gardening glove was missing Thursday morning from Jeannine Goche's front porch. But there was absolutely no mystery about who had taken it. Willy, the cat who loves gloves, had struck again.
"It has to be him," said Goche, an attorney. "I've heard about him."
As if the gardeners of Pelham don't have enough to worry about, with the rocky soil and the slugs and the big trees casting too much shade, a feline felon has been sneaking into their back yards and carrying off gardening gloves.
Goche's flower-patterned number may soon take its place on the clothesline that's strung across the front fence at Willy's home, which he shares with Jennifer and Dan Pifer, their 19-month-old son Hudson and a mutt named Peanut Chew.
Above the line is a sign that says, in words and pictures, "Our cat is a glove snatcher. Please take these if yours."
On Thursday morning, nine pairs of gardening gloves and five singles were strung up, nicely framed by the Pifers' flourishing tomato and basil plants. Willy, looking innocent, was playing with a beetle under the Subaru in the driveway and occasionally dashing after Hudson.
"This all started about the time people began working in their gardens, I guess March or April," Jennifer Pifer said. "Willy would just show up with a glove, or we'd see them on the front steps. I guess it's better than if he was bringing home dead birds."
A friend, Claudia Bonci, said she was in the Pifers' kitchen recently and had noticed a single gardening glove on the sidewalk.
"Jennifer was telling me all about how Willy was bringing home all these gloves, and there was a small pile of them outside the door, and then here comes the cat with a glove in his mouth, proud as could be, like he was giving me a gift." ...
Willy, a 1-year-old cat is photographed Thursday, July 20, 2006, with a display of several pairs of garden gloves that he took from unknown yards in his neighborhood in Pelham, N.Y. Willy has brought home nine pairs of gloves and five singles over several weeks laying them on his owners' front or back porches. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
By Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press Writer | July 20, 2006
PELHAM, N.Y. --A pink-and-white gardening glove was missing Thursday morning from Jeannine Goche's front porch. But there was absolutely no mystery about who had taken it. Willy, the cat who loves gloves, had struck again.
"It has to be him," said Goche, an attorney. "I've heard about him."
As if the gardeners of Pelham don't have enough to worry about, with the rocky soil and the slugs and the big trees casting too much shade, a feline felon has been sneaking into their back yards and carrying off gardening gloves.
Goche's flower-patterned number may soon take its place on the clothesline that's strung across the front fence at Willy's home, which he shares with Jennifer and Dan Pifer, their 19-month-old son Hudson and a mutt named Peanut Chew.
Above the line is a sign that says, in words and pictures, "Our cat is a glove snatcher. Please take these if yours."
On Thursday morning, nine pairs of gardening gloves and five singles were strung up, nicely framed by the Pifers' flourishing tomato and basil plants. Willy, looking innocent, was playing with a beetle under the Subaru in the driveway and occasionally dashing after Hudson.
"This all started about the time people began working in their gardens, I guess March or April," Jennifer Pifer said. "Willy would just show up with a glove, or we'd see them on the front steps. I guess it's better than if he was bringing home dead birds."
A friend, Claudia Bonci, said she was in the Pifers' kitchen recently and had noticed a single gardening glove on the sidewalk.
"Jennifer was telling me all about how Willy was bringing home all these gloves, and there was a small pile of them outside the door, and then here comes the cat with a glove in his mouth, proud as could be, like he was giving me a gift." ...
Roof Trotting Toddler Saved by Family Dog
The German Shepherd followed the toddler onto the roof, barking for help
You could see the tiny footprints of the boy followed by four-legged ones, crossing one row home roof after another
July 16, 2006 - A Southwest Philadelphia toddler is safe tonight, thanks in large part to the family dog... who followed him up on the roof!
Neighbors on the 6300-block of Reedland were horrified early this morning when they saw a 23-month-old boy and a barking dog running along porch rooftops.
Patti Pertocelli/NEIGHBOR: "I heard something and when I looked up the baby was running back and forth across the roof with the German Shepherd dog."
The baby was little Phillip Redmond Jr. who'll be 2 next month and his family's female German Shepherd Alfie. While his parents were sleeping, Phillip apparently climbed from their bed and out a broken window onto the roof, followed by Alfie. Their footprints can still be seen on the black roofing material of the row houses.
Tina Mitchell/NEIGHBOR: "She was following the baby across. She was protecting the baby, making sure the baby was allright."
The toddler scampered across the rooftops of at least 8 homes. All the while Alfie stuck by, barking her head off. Finally a neighbor was able to grab him. ...
The German Shepherd followed the toddler onto the roof, barking for help
You could see the tiny footprints of the boy followed by four-legged ones, crossing one row home roof after another
July 16, 2006 - A Southwest Philadelphia toddler is safe tonight, thanks in large part to the family dog... who followed him up on the roof!
Neighbors on the 6300-block of Reedland were horrified early this morning when they saw a 23-month-old boy and a barking dog running along porch rooftops.
Patti Pertocelli/NEIGHBOR: "I heard something and when I looked up the baby was running back and forth across the roof with the German Shepherd dog."
The baby was little Phillip Redmond Jr. who'll be 2 next month and his family's female German Shepherd Alfie. While his parents were sleeping, Phillip apparently climbed from their bed and out a broken window onto the roof, followed by Alfie. Their footprints can still be seen on the black roofing material of the row houses.
Tina Mitchell/NEIGHBOR: "She was following the baby across. She was protecting the baby, making sure the baby was allright."
The toddler scampered across the rooftops of at least 8 homes. All the while Alfie stuck by, barking her head off. Finally a neighbor was able to grab him. ...
'Tiger' on loose in North Yorkshire
Police in North Yorkshire have warned farmers and villagers to be on guard amid reports a tiger is on the loose
08:59 Tuesday 27th June 2006
One woman, in her 30s, said she saw a tiger leap over a fence and cross the road in front of her as she drove to work in the Selby area.
And a second report came from a farmer who spotted the animal on his land near Tadcaster, reports the Northern Echo.
Police dispatched search teams to the area. A spotter plane from RAF Linton-on-Ouse was also called in but no trace of the big cat has been found.
A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "A woman telephoned to say she had seen a tiger cross the road in front of her van.
"She was shaken, she said it was a big animal and that it had stripes." ...
Police in North Yorkshire have warned farmers and villagers to be on guard amid reports a tiger is on the loose
08:59 Tuesday 27th June 2006
One woman, in her 30s, said she saw a tiger leap over a fence and cross the road in front of her as she drove to work in the Selby area.
And a second report came from a farmer who spotted the animal on his land near Tadcaster, reports the Northern Echo.
Police dispatched search teams to the area. A spotter plane from RAF Linton-on-Ouse was also called in but no trace of the big cat has been found.
A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "A woman telephoned to say she had seen a tiger cross the road in front of her van.
"She was shaken, she said it was a big animal and that it had stripes." ...
Long Island police collar 3-foot-long alligator on homeowner's lawn
LINDENHURST, N.Y., Jun. 25, 2006
(AP) Police in a Long Island village nabbed an unusual suspect today - with a long tail, powerful jaws, sharp teeth and a family rap sheet that stretches back millions of years.
The alligator was sitting on a Lindenhurst man's front lawn when he went out to get his paper this morning. At the sight of the homeowner, the gator ran to hide in the hedges.
Suffolk County police officers used a dog-catching noose to collar the animal. ...
LINDENHURST, N.Y., Jun. 25, 2006
(AP) Police in a Long Island village nabbed an unusual suspect today - with a long tail, powerful jaws, sharp teeth and a family rap sheet that stretches back millions of years.
The alligator was sitting on a Lindenhurst man's front lawn when he went out to get his paper this morning. At the sight of the homeowner, the gator ran to hide in the hedges.
Suffolk County police officers used a dog-catching noose to collar the animal. ...
... As this list of activities suggests, having homosexual sex is the biological equivalent of apple pie: Everybody likes it. At last count, over 450 different vertebrate species could be beheaded in Saudi Arabia. You name it, there's a vertebrate out there that does it. Nevertheless, most biologists continue to regard homosexuality as a sexual outlier. According to evolutionary theory, being gay is little more than a maladaptive behavior. ...
Mother duck makes annual traffic-stopping trip
Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:35pm ET15
Some Ohio residents may be surprised to learn that there is a town called Dublin over in Ireland (across th' Atlantic Ocean), which is where this story takes place.
Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:35pm ET15
Some Ohio residents may be surprised to learn that there is a town called Dublin over in Ireland (across th' Atlantic Ocean), which is where this story takes place.
... The birds' behaviour exacerbates Tokyo's miserable experience with crows -- fearsome, intelligent 60cm-long (nearly 2ft) creatures that are drawn to the capital because of the large quantities of discarded food available. Every year there are reports of attacks on domestic pets or very small children as the birds' jungle instincts take over and they sense their nesting grounds are being attacked.
The destruction of the fibre-optic cable highlights the abject failure of a "war on crows" declared five years ago by Tokyo's Metropolitan Governor, Shintaro Ishihara. Fifteen years ago Tokyo had a crow population of around 7,000; today it is estimated at around 33,000. ...
Many thanks to dear Tayla, who must know how much I love crows.
The destruction of the fibre-optic cable highlights the abject failure of a "war on crows" declared five years ago by Tokyo's Metropolitan Governor, Shintaro Ishihara. Fifteen years ago Tokyo had a crow population of around 7,000; today it is estimated at around 33,000. ...
Many thanks to dear Tayla, who must know how much I love crows.
Young mother nursed orphaned pups
A 23-year-old Norwegian woman who's been nursing her infant son suddenly found herself faced with 10 more hungry mouths when her dog died after giving birth to a large litter of puppies. She literally took them all to her breast.
I just did what I felt was right," Kine Skiaker told newspaper Aftenposten.
The drama began when the Skiaker's Canarian Warren Hound (kanarihund). started having her puppies last Friday at Siggerud in Akershus, south of Oslo. The first puppy emerged without incident, but then the deliveries suddenly stopped.
Skiaker and her husband Ivar, sensing something was wrong, soon rushed their dog to a local veterinarian who quickly decided to perform a Caesarean section. In all, 14 puppies were born, but four died and then the mother died as well.
Faced with 10 helpless puppies, Skiaker defied the vet's advice against offering them her own milk. "Some of the puppies began to nurse right away, others needed some prodding," she says. ...Skiaker nursed six of the puppies along with her own son, three-month-old Emil. The other four puppies seemed to respond to a dog's milk replacement product. ...The Skiakers managed to find foster-mothers (of the canine kind) for all the puppies. ...
Many thanks to dear EnglishBloke
Foal leads rescuers to mare trapped in slurry pit
By Paul Stokes
(Filed: 15/06/2006)
A distressed foal has guided rescuers to its mother after the mare became trapped in a slurry pit.
Passers-by noticed the week-old horse in a field when it led them to the point where a chestnut Trotter, named Rosie, had fallen in. ...
... A veterinary surgeon examined the mare and found that she had not suffered any serious injuries.
Bob Cromar, the owner of the Harelaw Sawmill, at Harelaw, Co Durham, said: "It was a touching scene when the mother was reunited with her foal. The foal was standing next to the pit throughout crying for its mother."
Many thanks to dear CharlesHB
By Paul Stokes
(Filed: 15/06/2006)
A distressed foal has guided rescuers to its mother after the mare became trapped in a slurry pit.
Passers-by noticed the week-old horse in a field when it led them to the point where a chestnut Trotter, named Rosie, had fallen in. ...
... A veterinary surgeon examined the mare and found that she had not suffered any serious injuries.
Bob Cromar, the owner of the Harelaw Sawmill, at Harelaw, Co Durham, said: "It was a touching scene when the mother was reunited with her foal. The foal was standing next to the pit throughout crying for its mother."
Many thanks to dear CharlesHB
Below pelican found here, among many other goodies.
Hell, I'd grin too!
Simba is a six-month old caracal
This is a magnificent page.
Granted, a few jellyfish qualify as some of the weirdest critters I've seen, but this one takes the cake.
Looks like a UFO.
Looks like a UFO.
WEEEEEEEEEEEE!
{to quote dear OrderFire, from whom I nicked this fabulous site}
Starts here: http://www.malbertphoto.com/mobulas1.html
... The rudely awakened badger overturned the bed while running around the room and ended up trapped underneath with its rear end exposed.
The drama finally ended after two and a half hours when a vet managed to take advantage of the badger's position to inject it with tranquilisers.
Wonder if badger tastes like squeazel but without the spines.
The drama finally ended after two and a half hours when a vet managed to take advantage of the badger's position to inject it with tranquilisers.
Wonder if badger tastes like squeazel but without the spines.
... Zoo spokeswoman Esther Jansen said all three chicks had hatched successfully: "The gay storks look after the eggs and the chicks just as well as our heterosexual birds."
Rppell's Fox
Great!
Sent to me by dear Saline
Sent to me by dear Saline
FTP: ...Police animal trainer Jose Pineda says rats have more sensitive noses than dogs, which should allow them to better sniff out mines in difficult terrain. Plus, he said, they cost less than dogs, eat less, are easier to transport and can wriggle into smaller spaces while hunting.
About a year ago, inspired by a similar pilot program in Mozambique, the police bought this group of rats and were surprised to find that they learned twice as fast as dogs how to sniff out explosives, such as C4, used to make mines.
It takes the police about six months to train mine-sniffing dogs. Training the rats is expected to take about half that time once the program is established.
"They are much smarter than the dogs and up until now it looks like the female rats are smarter than the males," Cifuentes said.
The second-best scorer in the laboratory maze is Lucrecia, with an 83 percent success rate. Males, such as one named Runcho, have lagged until now but may do better in the upcoming field tests.
Pineda said the next phase of training will present new challenges to the rats as they are sure to encounter distractions in the open. They will also have to be sure to keep the males away from Lola, who, on top of having brains, appears to attract them physically.
"Yes, she's, um, popular," Pineda said.
Never thought I'd be jealous of a rat. She has a job ffs. ;)
Merci bien à chere Nutmeg
About a year ago, inspired by a similar pilot program in Mozambique, the police bought this group of rats and were surprised to find that they learned twice as fast as dogs how to sniff out explosives, such as C4, used to make mines.
It takes the police about six months to train mine-sniffing dogs. Training the rats is expected to take about half that time once the program is established.
"They are much smarter than the dogs and up until now it looks like the female rats are smarter than the males," Cifuentes said.
The second-best scorer in the laboratory maze is Lucrecia, with an 83 percent success rate. Males, such as one named Runcho, have lagged until now but may do better in the upcoming field tests.
Pineda said the next phase of training will present new challenges to the rats as they are sure to encounter distractions in the open. They will also have to be sure to keep the males away from Lola, who, on top of having brains, appears to attract them physically.
"Yes, she's, um, popular," Pineda said.
Never thought I'd be jealous of a rat. She has a job ffs. ;)
Merci bien à chere Nutmeg
Whales are still in danger. Since a global ban on whaling in 1985, Japan has continued to kill whales in the name of "scientific research." Yet legitimate scientists agree: there's no need to kill whales in order to study them when non-lethal methods already exist.
In fact, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has clearly stated it does not need the data obtained from killing whales: passing resolutions critical of Japan's research whaling program forty-one times!
Japanese whalers continue to kill whales in horribly cruel fashion, harpooning them with explosive tips and then dragging them onto whale ships. Japan actually sells the meat from this "research" to restaurants and school cafeterias. And now Japan is increasing the slaughter: doubling the number of whales killed in an international marine mammal sanctuary.
Unless they are stopped now, Japan will launch a return to full-scale industrial whaling; the last of which once drove whales to the brink of extinction. Only the tremendous resources and clout of the United States has a chance to stop Japan from destroying the world's whales.
Please sign the petition asking President Bush to oppose Japan's bid for permanent membership into the United Nations Security Council until they comply with international laws protecting whales.
In fact, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has clearly stated it does not need the data obtained from killing whales: passing resolutions critical of Japan's research whaling program forty-one times!
Japanese whalers continue to kill whales in horribly cruel fashion, harpooning them with explosive tips and then dragging them onto whale ships. Japan actually sells the meat from this "research" to restaurants and school cafeterias. And now Japan is increasing the slaughter: doubling the number of whales killed in an international marine mammal sanctuary.
Unless they are stopped now, Japan will launch a return to full-scale industrial whaling; the last of which once drove whales to the brink of extinction. Only the tremendous resources and clout of the United States has a chance to stop Japan from destroying the world's whales.
Please sign the petition asking President Bush to oppose Japan's bid for permanent membership into the United Nations Security Council until they comply with international laws protecting whales.
Pennsylvania Cat Nurses Rejected Pug Puppy
Apr 21, 6:01 PM (ET)
CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - A pug puppy rejected by his mother has found a new, more welcoming family - a cat and her three kittens.
Kelly Kent, of Connellsville, said her 2-year-old cat, Zoey, has been nursing a black pug puppy since he was rejected by his mother in late March. Zoey doesn't usually like dogs but seems to have made an exception, Kent said.
The puppy, who belongs to Kent's neighbor, is about the same size as Zoey's kittens and regularly lines up for milk with his adopted feline siblings.
It is not unusual for mothers to adopt in nature, even if the baby is of another species, said William Shepherd, a Uniontown veterinarian. Shepherd said a puppy can drink a cat's milk, but warned that Zoey might not be able to produce enough as the young pug gets older and bigger.
The pug puppy, the runt of his litter, doesn't yet have a name.
Apr 21, 6:01 PM (ET)
CONNELLSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - A pug puppy rejected by his mother has found a new, more welcoming family - a cat and her three kittens.
Kelly Kent, of Connellsville, said her 2-year-old cat, Zoey, has been nursing a black pug puppy since he was rejected by his mother in late March. Zoey doesn't usually like dogs but seems to have made an exception, Kent said.
The puppy, who belongs to Kent's neighbor, is about the same size as Zoey's kittens and regularly lines up for milk with his adopted feline siblings.
It is not unusual for mothers to adopt in nature, even if the baby is of another species, said William Shepherd, a Uniontown veterinarian. Shepherd said a puppy can drink a cat's milk, but warned that Zoey might not be able to produce enough as the young pug gets older and bigger.
The pug puppy, the runt of his litter, doesn't yet have a name.
Colombian Police Train Rats to Find Mines
Apr 21, 7:33 AM (ET)
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Watch out Fido, your days on the force may be numbered. Police in Colombia are training Lola and Espejo, two whiskered, red-eyed rats, to sniff out bombs and land mines.
The rodents are part of an experimental six-rat squadron that police are preparing for dangerous missions to defuse the more than 100,000 land mines that litter Colombia's countryside after four decades of war between the government and leftist rebels.
Unlike dogs, rats weighing less than half a pound each and "don't trigger any explosions when they walk on a mine," said Col. Javier Cifuentes, director of the Sibate police academy, where basic training is taking place.
To earn their stripes, the rats have spent the past year undergoing a daily training regimen in which they are placed in a maze with C-4 explosives and other bomb-making materials. When they detect the target, they're rewarded with a cracker.
Trainers estimate it could be six months before the rats are pressed into active duty.
Cifuentes said he believes Colombia is the first country to use rats to conduct police work, though larger rodents are being employed for similar purposes in Sudan, he said.
Apr 21, 7:33 AM (ET)
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Watch out Fido, your days on the force may be numbered. Police in Colombia are training Lola and Espejo, two whiskered, red-eyed rats, to sniff out bombs and land mines.
The rodents are part of an experimental six-rat squadron that police are preparing for dangerous missions to defuse the more than 100,000 land mines that litter Colombia's countryside after four decades of war between the government and leftist rebels.
Unlike dogs, rats weighing less than half a pound each and "don't trigger any explosions when they walk on a mine," said Col. Javier Cifuentes, director of the Sibate police academy, where basic training is taking place.
To earn their stripes, the rats have spent the past year undergoing a daily training regimen in which they are placed in a maze with C-4 explosives and other bomb-making materials. When they detect the target, they're rewarded with a cracker.
Trainers estimate it could be six months before the rats are pressed into active duty.
Cifuentes said he believes Colombia is the first country to use rats to conduct police work, though larger rodents are being employed for similar purposes in Sudan, he said.
Cat saves baby's life
Apr 15, 10:27 PM (ET)
BERLIN (Reuters) - A cat saved the life of a newborn baby abandoned on the doorstep of a Cologne house in the middle of the night by meowing loudly until someone woke up, a police spokesman said Saturday.
"The cat is a hero," Cologne police spokesman Uwe Beier said. "Its loud meowing got the attention of the homeowner and saved the baby from suffering life-threatening hypothermia. The homeowner opened the door to see why the cat was making so much noise and discovered the newborn."
Beier said the boy was taken to hospital at 5 a.m. on Thursday, when overnight temperatures fell toward zero, and had suffered only mild hypothermia. He said there was no indication of what happened to the boy's mother.
What your humble narrator thinks of its mother ain't fit for family reading, 'less it's in Mongolian.
Iruugai avaj nuruugai maijmar, ilgai avaj bogsoo archmar, ungas sormor!
Apr 15, 10:27 PM (ET)
BERLIN (Reuters) - A cat saved the life of a newborn baby abandoned on the doorstep of a Cologne house in the middle of the night by meowing loudly until someone woke up, a police spokesman said Saturday.
"The cat is a hero," Cologne police spokesman Uwe Beier said. "Its loud meowing got the attention of the homeowner and saved the baby from suffering life-threatening hypothermia. The homeowner opened the door to see why the cat was making so much noise and discovered the newborn."
Beier said the boy was taken to hospital at 5 a.m. on Thursday, when overnight temperatures fell toward zero, and had suffered only mild hypothermia. He said there was no indication of what happened to the boy's mother.
What your humble narrator thinks of its mother ain't fit for family reading, 'less it's in Mongolian.
Iruugai avaj nuruugai maijmar, ilgai avaj bogsoo archmar, ungas sormor!
NYC Cat Finally Rescued After 14 Days
Apr 15, 10:24 AM (ET)
By TIM McCAHILL
Molly, the 11-month-old cat, sits in a cage after she was rescued late Friday night after two weeks of being trapped behind the walls of a deli in a 19th century Greenwich Village building, Friday, April 14, 2006 in New York. A volunteer had to climb into the wall and grab her by the legs and get her out, as she was stuck between bricks and a piece of sheet metal.(AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh)
NEW YORK (AP) - After 14 days trapped in the innards of a Greenwich Village building, Molly the cat finally emerged wearing a look on her face that said, "What's all the fuss about?"
As a crowd of reporters and onlookers jostled for a glance, the 11-month-old black cat appeared docile and unscathed despite her ordeal, which came to a happy end on Friday after a volunteer pulled her to safety from a crawl space.
"I think you'll all agree that she is in great shape," said a proud Peter Myers, a delicatessen owner in the building who kept Molly in his store to catch mice.
Molly's distressed meows - audible from the sidewalk outside the building - became international news, and rescuers worked almost around the clock for her safe retrieval.
The activity began after the cat wandered into a narrow space between walls and got lost in the building's complex network of beams and pipes.
Those involved in the rescue effort drilled and hammered out bricks in the cellar of the 157-year-old edifice, trying everything from special cameras to traps to locate her and get her out. Kittens were used as bait to appeal to Molly's maternal side. ...
But in the end, it was good old-fashioned elbow grease that got the job done.
Rescuers drilled a hole in the wall from inside the store, cutting through layers of brick to get to Molly, said Mike Pastore, field director for Animal Care & Control of New York City, a private organization with a city contract to handle lost, injured and unwanted animals. ...
Apr 15, 10:24 AM (ET)
By TIM McCAHILL
Molly, the 11-month-old cat, sits in a cage after she was rescued late Friday night after two weeks of being trapped behind the walls of a deli in a 19th century Greenwich Village building, Friday, April 14, 2006 in New York. A volunteer had to climb into the wall and grab her by the legs and get her out, as she was stuck between bricks and a piece of sheet metal.(AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh)
NEW YORK (AP) - After 14 days trapped in the innards of a Greenwich Village building, Molly the cat finally emerged wearing a look on her face that said, "What's all the fuss about?"
As a crowd of reporters and onlookers jostled for a glance, the 11-month-old black cat appeared docile and unscathed despite her ordeal, which came to a happy end on Friday after a volunteer pulled her to safety from a crawl space.
"I think you'll all agree that she is in great shape," said a proud Peter Myers, a delicatessen owner in the building who kept Molly in his store to catch mice.
Molly's distressed meows - audible from the sidewalk outside the building - became international news, and rescuers worked almost around the clock for her safe retrieval.
The activity began after the cat wandered into a narrow space between walls and got lost in the building's complex network of beams and pipes.
Those involved in the rescue effort drilled and hammered out bricks in the cellar of the 157-year-old edifice, trying everything from special cameras to traps to locate her and get her out. Kittens were used as bait to appeal to Molly's maternal side. ...
But in the end, it was good old-fashioned elbow grease that got the job done.
Rescuers drilled a hole in the wall from inside the store, cutting through layers of brick to get to Molly, said Mike Pastore, field director for Animal Care & Control of New York City, a private organization with a city contract to handle lost, injured and unwanted animals. ...
Trapped NYC Cat Enters Day 13 of Captivity
Apr 13, 6:36 PM (ET)
By RICHARD PYLE
NEW YORK (AP) - With Molly the fugitive feline sending out distress calls from a few feet - or maybe just inches - away, animal rescue and city experts tried anew on Thursday to lure the 11-month-old black cat from the innards of a 19th century building where she has been trapped for nearly two weeks.
The low-key drama, with no end in sight, was playing out in the basement wall and ceiling of a Greenwich Village delicatessen, where Molly had been official house mouser until wandering into a narrow space between walls and becoming lost in what rescue supervisor Mike Pastore described as "a maze of beams and pipes, going every which way."
With city building officials on hand to supervise, more bricks were hammered out in the cellar of the 157-year-old, four-story building on Hudson Street. The edifice is part of a landmarked historic district where alterations are prohibited without official permission.
Pastore said he hoped Molly's situation would be seen as enough of an emergency "so that we can knock out a few more bricks." ...
We're rootin' for ya, Molly! Get yr fuzzy arse outta there!
Apr 13, 6:36 PM (ET)
By RICHARD PYLE
NEW YORK (AP) - With Molly the fugitive feline sending out distress calls from a few feet - or maybe just inches - away, animal rescue and city experts tried anew on Thursday to lure the 11-month-old black cat from the innards of a 19th century building where she has been trapped for nearly two weeks.
The low-key drama, with no end in sight, was playing out in the basement wall and ceiling of a Greenwich Village delicatessen, where Molly had been official house mouser until wandering into a narrow space between walls and becoming lost in what rescue supervisor Mike Pastore described as "a maze of beams and pipes, going every which way."
With city building officials on hand to supervise, more bricks were hammered out in the cellar of the 157-year-old, four-story building on Hudson Street. The edifice is part of a landmarked historic district where alterations are prohibited without official permission.
Pastore said he hoped Molly's situation would be seen as enough of an emergency "so that we can knock out a few more bricks." ...
We're rootin' for ya, Molly! Get yr fuzzy arse outta there!
N.Y. Rescuers Go High-Tech to Save Cat
Apr 12, 10:19 PM (ET)
By KAREN MATTHEWS
NEW YORK (AP) - Rescuers used drills, miniature cameras, cat food and even a 1-pound raw fish in a desperate effort Wednesday to entice an 11-month old cat named Molly from behind the basement wall of a Greenwich Village delicatessen where she has been trapped for 12 days.
The effort was renewed early in the day when workers heard the cat meowing again after several days of silence that had given rise to fears she had died. "That was a motivator to try again," said Mike Pastore, field director of Animal Care & Control of New York City, a private agency that handles animal rescues on a city contract.
Pastore led the rescue team trying to locate the peripatetic pussycat with a tiny video camera attached to a plumber's snake. But the sound of the drill may have spooked Molly to retreat further into the maze under the front wall of the 19th-century brick building, which extends back about 40 feet from the sidewalk.
Pastore said Molly, being a curious sort, apparently slipped into a narrow space between two buildings and fell or crawled through a hole into the space inside the cellar wall. ...
Apr 12, 10:19 PM (ET)
By KAREN MATTHEWS
NEW YORK (AP) - Rescuers used drills, miniature cameras, cat food and even a 1-pound raw fish in a desperate effort Wednesday to entice an 11-month old cat named Molly from behind the basement wall of a Greenwich Village delicatessen where she has been trapped for 12 days.
The effort was renewed early in the day when workers heard the cat meowing again after several days of silence that had given rise to fears she had died. "That was a motivator to try again," said Mike Pastore, field director of Animal Care & Control of New York City, a private agency that handles animal rescues on a city contract.
Pastore led the rescue team trying to locate the peripatetic pussycat with a tiny video camera attached to a plumber's snake. But the sound of the drill may have spooked Molly to retreat further into the maze under the front wall of the 19th-century brick building, which extends back about 40 feet from the sidewalk.
Pastore said Molly, being a curious sort, apparently slipped into a narrow space between two buildings and fell or crawled through a hole into the space inside the cellar wall. ...
"Monster rabbit" targets vegetable patches
Apr 8, 9:18 AM (ET)
LONDON (Reuters) - It sounds like a job for Wallace and Gromit. A "monster" rabbit has apparently been rampaging through vegetable patches in a small village in northern England, ripping up leeks, munching turnips and infuriating local gardeners.
In an uncanny resemblance to the plot of the hit animated film "Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit," angry horticulturists in Felton, near Newcastle, have now mounted an armed guard to protect their prized cabbages and parsnips.
"They call it the monster. It's very big -- it's nearly the size of a dog," said Joan Smith, whose son Jeff owns one of the plots under attack.
"It's eating everything, all the vegetables," she told Reuters. "They are trying to shoot it. They go along hoping to catch it but I think it's too crafty." ...
... Those who say they have witnessed Felton's black and brown monster describe it as a cross between a rabbit and a hare with one ear bigger than the other.
Its antics came to public attention when Jeff Smith, 63, raised it as an issue with the local parish council.
"He came along to pay the annual fee for the allotment (vegetable patch) and he said 'ooh we've got this big cross between a hare and a rabbit,'" the council's clerk Lisa Hamlin told Reuters.
Smith himself has described it as a "brute" which had left huge pawprints.
"This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster," he was quoted by newspapers as saying.
"It is absolutely massive. The first time I saw it I thought to myself 'What the hell is that?'
"We have two lads here with guns who are trying to shoot it, but it is very clever."
And Saint Attila raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high saying, "Oh Lord, Bless us this Holy Hand Grenade, and with it smash our enemies to tiny bits."
Apr 8, 9:18 AM (ET)
LONDON (Reuters) - It sounds like a job for Wallace and Gromit. A "monster" rabbit has apparently been rampaging through vegetable patches in a small village in northern England, ripping up leeks, munching turnips and infuriating local gardeners.
In an uncanny resemblance to the plot of the hit animated film "Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit," angry horticulturists in Felton, near Newcastle, have now mounted an armed guard to protect their prized cabbages and parsnips.
"They call it the monster. It's very big -- it's nearly the size of a dog," said Joan Smith, whose son Jeff owns one of the plots under attack.
"It's eating everything, all the vegetables," she told Reuters. "They are trying to shoot it. They go along hoping to catch it but I think it's too crafty." ...
... Those who say they have witnessed Felton's black and brown monster describe it as a cross between a rabbit and a hare with one ear bigger than the other.
Its antics came to public attention when Jeff Smith, 63, raised it as an issue with the local parish council.
"He came along to pay the annual fee for the allotment (vegetable patch) and he said 'ooh we've got this big cross between a hare and a rabbit,'" the council's clerk Lisa Hamlin told Reuters.
Smith himself has described it as a "brute" which had left huge pawprints.
"This is no ordinary rabbit. We are dealing with a monster," he was quoted by newspapers as saying.
"It is absolutely massive. The first time I saw it I thought to myself 'What the hell is that?'
"We have two lads here with guns who are trying to shoot it, but it is very clever."
And Saint Attila raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high saying, "Oh Lord, Bless us this Holy Hand Grenade, and with it smash our enemies to tiny bits."
Ah, the donkey. Multum in parvo on four hooves.
FTP: Rep. Richard Pombo named #1 Wildlife Villain
Although the action fund is not dedicated to naming a "Wildlife Villain" each year, Defenders of Wildlife CEO Rodger Schlickeisen declared, "Looking back on 2005, there is no question that Richard Pombo of California stood out as the "Wildlife Villain" of the year. He is far and away the most anti-conservation member of Congress we can remember."
Although the action fund is not dedicated to naming a "Wildlife Villain" each year, Defenders of Wildlife CEO Rodger Schlickeisen declared, "Looking back on 2005, there is no question that Richard Pombo of California stood out as the "Wildlife Villain" of the year. He is far and away the most anti-conservation member of Congress we can remember."
Cat Stuck in Wall Waves Paw for Help
Mar 29, 5:54 PM (ET)
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A cat stuck in a wall at a house under construction initiated his rescue when he caught the attention of a prospective buyer by meowing and waving his paw out a small hole.
The cat had gotten stuck behind the wall but found a gap between a gas pipe and the wall board where he could stick out his paw. He was spotted Saturday by someone touring the house.
Collierville Animal Services supervisor Nina Wingfield said she heard a "hoarse meow" after she arrived at the house.
"When he knew we were there, it was a very hoarse, frantic meow," she said.
Wingfield freed the feline by cutting away the wall board with a knife.
"He had his paw out touching - not clawing - the whole time, like he was saying 'Come on! Come on,'" Wingfield said. ...
Mar 29, 5:54 PM (ET)
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A cat stuck in a wall at a house under construction initiated his rescue when he caught the attention of a prospective buyer by meowing and waving his paw out a small hole.
The cat had gotten stuck behind the wall but found a gap between a gas pipe and the wall board where he could stick out his paw. He was spotted Saturday by someone touring the house.
Collierville Animal Services supervisor Nina Wingfield said she heard a "hoarse meow" after she arrived at the house.
"When he knew we were there, it was a very hoarse, frantic meow," she said.
Wingfield freed the feline by cutting away the wall board with a knife.
"He had his paw out touching - not clawing - the whole time, like he was saying 'Come on! Come on,'" Wingfield said. ...
FTP: Crazy Cat Terrorizes Connecticut Town
Mar 29, 7:24 AM (ET)
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer.
"He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."
The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.
Some of those who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at area hospitals.
Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.
In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home.
Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment.
Rambo Felix!
Bet he ain't fixed.
Mar 29, 7:24 AM (ET)
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer.
"He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."
The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.
Some of those who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at area hospitals.
Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.
In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home.
Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment.
Rambo Felix!
Bet he ain't fixed.
FTP: Article Date: 23 Mar 2006 - 10:00am (UK)
The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours.
Until now, only humans have demonstrated the ability to use such a hierarchical structure of communication. The research, published online in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, offers a new approach to studying animal communication, although the authors do not claim that humpback whale songs meet the linguistic rigor necessary for a true language.
"Humpback songs are not like human language, but elements of language are seen in their songs," said Ryuji Suzuki, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) predoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and first author of the paper.
With limited sight and sense of smell in water, marine mammals are more dependent on sound - which travels four times faster in water than air - to communicate. For six months each year, all male humpback whales in a population sing the same song during mating season. Thought to attract females, the song evolves over time. ...
The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours.
Until now, only humans have demonstrated the ability to use such a hierarchical structure of communication. The research, published online in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, offers a new approach to studying animal communication, although the authors do not claim that humpback whale songs meet the linguistic rigor necessary for a true language.
"Humpback songs are not like human language, but elements of language are seen in their songs," said Ryuji Suzuki, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) predoctoral fellow in neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and first author of the paper.
With limited sight and sense of smell in water, marine mammals are more dependent on sound - which travels four times faster in water than air - to communicate. For six months each year, all male humpback whales in a population sing the same song during mating season. Thought to attract females, the song evolves over time. ...
Many thanks to dear ModernTimes
FTP: Wily coyote caught in New York's Central Park
Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:09 PM ET
By Ellen Freilich
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A coyote that came to New York to dine on duck in Central Park was caught on Wednesday after leading police and park rangers on a two-day chase.
The coyote, a year-old, tawny-colored male, which is thought to have made its way to the city from the countryside to the north, was tracked down near 79th Street inside the 843-acre (341-hectare) park, officials said.
"He's a very adventurous coyote to travel to midtown Manhattan," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told reporters.
He said the animal was cornered in the southeast section of the park early on Wednesday before escaping over an 8-foot fence and crossing some water to make its way north.
"This is the wildest of the wild animals we've seen here," Benepe said, noting that the last time a coyote was captured in the park was in 1999.
"It was a very quiet coyote, not howling at the moon and not looking to be noticed," Benepe said, adding that it was apparently drawn to the nature sanctuary where there was less human scent.
Local television stations showed footage of police and park rangers running through the park in pursuit of the animal, which has been hunting ducks and other birds, leaving piles of feathers in its wake.
"Our thought is that it came in from Westchester County and then came south through the Bronx before getting to the park," parks spokeswoman Carli Smith said. "They're not a threat," Smith said. "They typically avoid human interaction."
The animal was first spotted on Sunday and was seen again on Tuesday, when emergency services and park authorities launched a full-scale search. It was spotted on a baseball field near a nature sanctuary on Wednesday.
Actor Dick Hughes, who was walking in the park on Wednesday, said the coyote was a "nice touch of nature."
"The last thing I'm worried about in New York is a coyote. I wonder if the coyote is worried about us," Hughes said. ...
One would think so (see below).
FTP: Wily coyote caught in New York's Central Park
Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:09 PM ET
By Ellen Freilich
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A coyote that came to New York to dine on duck in Central Park was caught on Wednesday after leading police and park rangers on a two-day chase.
The coyote, a year-old, tawny-colored male, which is thought to have made its way to the city from the countryside to the north, was tracked down near 79th Street inside the 843-acre (341-hectare) park, officials said.
"He's a very adventurous coyote to travel to midtown Manhattan," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told reporters.
He said the animal was cornered in the southeast section of the park early on Wednesday before escaping over an 8-foot fence and crossing some water to make its way north.
"This is the wildest of the wild animals we've seen here," Benepe said, noting that the last time a coyote was captured in the park was in 1999.
"It was a very quiet coyote, not howling at the moon and not looking to be noticed," Benepe said, adding that it was apparently drawn to the nature sanctuary where there was less human scent.
Local television stations showed footage of police and park rangers running through the park in pursuit of the animal, which has been hunting ducks and other birds, leaving piles of feathers in its wake.
"Our thought is that it came in from Westchester County and then came south through the Bronx before getting to the park," parks spokeswoman Carli Smith said. "They're not a threat," Smith said. "They typically avoid human interaction."
The animal was first spotted on Sunday and was seen again on Tuesday, when emergency services and park authorities launched a full-scale search. It was spotted on a baseball field near a nature sanctuary on Wednesday.
Actor Dick Hughes, who was walking in the park on Wednesday, said the coyote was a "nice touch of nature."
"The last thing I'm worried about in New York is a coyote. I wonder if the coyote is worried about us," Hughes said. ...
One would think so (see below).
FTP:
Study: Happy Cows Jump for Joy
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
March 30, 2005
Cows mull over problems and, when they solve them, sometimes the apparently brainy bovines display measurable signs of happiness and even jump for joy, according to findings announced at a recent conference on animal feelings and awareness.
The conference, entitled "From Darwin to Dawkins: the science and implications of animal sentience," was organized by the Compassion in World Farming Trust.
In addition to the cow findings, information also was presented on caring chimpanzees, manipulating parrots, emotional sheep, concerned cats, flies that concentrate and a gorilla that swears when angered.
The delegates from nearly 50 nations who attended the conference believe the studies collectively suggest that animals are thinking, feeling, sentient beings that can experience emotions comparable to those felt by humans.
"We have to understand that we are not the only beings on this planet with personalities and minds," said keynote speaker Jane Goodall, who outlined her observations on a range of chimpanzee behaviors, from barbarity to altruism. "Even if science can't prove everything about animal sentience, it's high time we gave them the benefit of the doubt." ...
Thanks once again Ms Goodall. snif
Great article! Merci chere KelliAnnie!!
Study: Happy Cows Jump for Joy
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
March 30, 2005
Cows mull over problems and, when they solve them, sometimes the apparently brainy bovines display measurable signs of happiness and even jump for joy, according to findings announced at a recent conference on animal feelings and awareness.
The conference, entitled "From Darwin to Dawkins: the science and implications of animal sentience," was organized by the Compassion in World Farming Trust.
In addition to the cow findings, information also was presented on caring chimpanzees, manipulating parrots, emotional sheep, concerned cats, flies that concentrate and a gorilla that swears when angered.
The delegates from nearly 50 nations who attended the conference believe the studies collectively suggest that animals are thinking, feeling, sentient beings that can experience emotions comparable to those felt by humans.
"We have to understand that we are not the only beings on this planet with personalities and minds," said keynote speaker Jane Goodall, who outlined her observations on a range of chimpanzee behaviors, from barbarity to altruism. "Even if science can't prove everything about animal sentience, it's high time we gave them the benefit of the doubt." ...
Thanks once again Ms Goodall. snif
Great article! Merci chere KelliAnnie!!
Police Rescue Moose Tangled in Swingset
Mar 10, 7:36 PM (ET)
In this photo provided by the Berlin Police Department, Don Valliere, maintenance man for the Berlin Police, balances himself as he uses bolt cutters to free a moose that got tangled up in swingset in Milan, N.H., Thursday, March 9, 2006. (AP Photo/Berlin Police Department, Lt. Jean LeBlanc)
MILAN, N.H. (AP) - It was a tempting green hedgerow for the hungry young moose. Somehow, a child's swingset got in the way. The moose, who was trying to snack on a backyard hedge Thursday, got tangled in the swingset's chains. The homeowner called police for help.
Lt. Jean LeBlanc decided he needed backup, so he called Don Valliere, maintenance man for the Berlin Police, and asked him to bring a pair of bolt cutters.
It was up to Valliere, 54, to free the moose. Photos snapped by LeBlanc show Valliere balanced on a beam of the swingset, snipping the chains - just a couple of feet from the 400-pound adolescent moose.
"It didn't like the idea too much that I stayed close to it, but it stayed calm," Valliere said Friday. "The only thing I was nervous about was getting bit."
The rescue went smoothly and the moose was freed. It left without looking back.
"It just went real slow, just walked away," Valliere said.
Mar 10, 7:36 PM (ET)
In this photo provided by the Berlin Police Department, Don Valliere, maintenance man for the Berlin Police, balances himself as he uses bolt cutters to free a moose that got tangled up in swingset in Milan, N.H., Thursday, March 9, 2006. (AP Photo/Berlin Police Department, Lt. Jean LeBlanc)MILAN, N.H. (AP) - It was a tempting green hedgerow for the hungry young moose. Somehow, a child's swingset got in the way. The moose, who was trying to snack on a backyard hedge Thursday, got tangled in the swingset's chains. The homeowner called police for help.
Lt. Jean LeBlanc decided he needed backup, so he called Don Valliere, maintenance man for the Berlin Police, and asked him to bring a pair of bolt cutters.
It was up to Valliere, 54, to free the moose. Photos snapped by LeBlanc show Valliere balanced on a beam of the swingset, snipping the chains - just a couple of feet from the 400-pound adolescent moose.
"It didn't like the idea too much that I stayed close to it, but it stayed calm," Valliere said Friday. "The only thing I was nervous about was getting bit."
The rescue went smoothly and the moose was freed. It left without looking back.
"It just went real slow, just walked away," Valliere said.
Cat Comforts Grieving Orangutan at Zoo
Mar 9, 10:22 PM (ET)
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Tondalayo, a 45-year-old Sumatran orangutan, and T.J., a stray tabby cat, became an inseparable duo after a zoo employee introduced them late last year.
Stephanie Willard, Education Director at Zoo World in Panama City Beach, said Tondalayo was depressed since losing her mate two years ago.
Her age prevented her from moving to another zoo or taking another mate. The ducks and turtles swimming in a moat around her island were not enough, Willard told the Panama City News Herald for Thursday's editions.
When the sweet-natured orange cat wandered into Willard's life, the solution became clear.
"It's an unbelievable match," Willard said. "This has worked out a lot better than I expected it to. She's got brighter eyes now. He's brought a lot of light to her."
Zookeepers named the cat T.K. - short for Tondalayo's Kitty.
They play together, cuddle and sleep together each night. They have been together constantly for more than a month.
"He's perked up Tonda more than anything," Willard said.
Mar 9, 10:22 PM (ET)
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Tondalayo, a 45-year-old Sumatran orangutan, and T.J., a stray tabby cat, became an inseparable duo after a zoo employee introduced them late last year.
Stephanie Willard, Education Director at Zoo World in Panama City Beach, said Tondalayo was depressed since losing her mate two years ago.
Her age prevented her from moving to another zoo or taking another mate. The ducks and turtles swimming in a moat around her island were not enough, Willard told the Panama City News Herald for Thursday's editions.
When the sweet-natured orange cat wandered into Willard's life, the solution became clear.
"It's an unbelievable match," Willard said. "This has worked out a lot better than I expected it to. She's got brighter eyes now. He's brought a lot of light to her."
Zookeepers named the cat T.K. - short for Tondalayo's Kitty.
They play together, cuddle and sleep together each night. They have been together constantly for more than a month.
"He's perked up Tonda more than anything," Willard said.
FTP: A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter.
"It felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing that it was free and that we had helped it," James Moskito, one of the rescue divers, said Tuesday. "It stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun."
Sunday's daring rescue was the first successful attempt on the West Coast to free an entangled humpback...
The 45- to 50-foot female humpback, estimated to weigh 50 tons, was on the humpbacks' usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California when it became entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots.
It was spotted by a crab fisherman at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in the open water east of the Farallones, about 18 miles off the coast of San Francisco.
Mick Menigoz of Novato, who organizes whale watching and shark diving expeditions on his boat the New Superfish, got a call for help Sunday morning, alerted the Marine Mammal Center and gathered a team of divers.
By 2:30 p.m., the rescuers had reached the whale and evaluated the situation. Team members realized the only way to save the endangered leviathan was to dive into the water and cut the ropes.
It was a very risky maneuver, Stoudt said, because the mere flip of a humpback's massive tail can kill a man.
"I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it," said Moskito, a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident who works with "Great White Adventures," a cage-diving outfit that contracts with Menigoz. "I really didn't think we were going to be able to save it."
Moskito said about 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet, were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times around the tail, the back and the left front flipper, and there was a line in the whale's mouth.
The crab pot lines were cinched so tight, Moskito said, that the rope was digging into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts.
At least 12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward, forcing it to struggle mightily to keep its blow- hole out of the water.
Moskito and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time, he said, giving off a strange kind of vibration.
"When I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at me, watching me," Moskito said. "It was an epic moment of my life."
When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one.
"It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see you," Moskito said. "I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience."
Well done!
Merci beaucoup à chere Mu-Tiger
"It felt to me like it was thanking us, knowing that it was free and that we had helped it," James Moskito, one of the rescue divers, said Tuesday. "It stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun."
Sunday's daring rescue was the first successful attempt on the West Coast to free an entangled humpback...
The 45- to 50-foot female humpback, estimated to weigh 50 tons, was on the humpbacks' usual migratory route between the Northern California coast and Baja California when it became entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots.
It was spotted by a crab fisherman at 8:30 a.m. Sunday in the open water east of the Farallones, about 18 miles off the coast of San Francisco.
Mick Menigoz of Novato, who organizes whale watching and shark diving expeditions on his boat the New Superfish, got a call for help Sunday morning, alerted the Marine Mammal Center and gathered a team of divers.
By 2:30 p.m., the rescuers had reached the whale and evaluated the situation. Team members realized the only way to save the endangered leviathan was to dive into the water and cut the ropes.
It was a very risky maneuver, Stoudt said, because the mere flip of a humpback's massive tail can kill a man.
"I was the first diver in the water, and my heart sank when I saw all the lines wrapped around it," said Moskito, a 40-year-old Pleasanton resident who works with "Great White Adventures," a cage-diving outfit that contracts with Menigoz. "I really didn't think we were going to be able to save it."
Moskito said about 20 crab-pot ropes, which are 240 feet long with weights every 60 feet, were wrapped around the animal. Rope was wrapped at least four times around the tail, the back and the left front flipper, and there was a line in the whale's mouth.
The crab pot lines were cinched so tight, Moskito said, that the rope was digging into the animal's blubber and leaving visible cuts.
At least 12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward, forcing it to struggle mightily to keep its blow- hole out of the water.
Moskito and three other divers spent about an hour cutting the ropes with a special curved knife. The whale floated passively in the water the whole time, he said, giving off a strange kind of vibration.
"When I was cutting the line going through the mouth, its eye was there winking at me, watching me," Moskito said. "It was an epic moment of my life."
When the whale realized it was free, it began swimming around in circles, according to the rescuers. Moskito said it swam to each diver, nuzzled him and then swam to the next one.
"It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that's happy to see you," Moskito said. "I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience."
Well done!
Merci beaucoup à chere Mu-Tiger
FTP: "Farmer Helps Cow Deliver Triplets
Jan 20, 4:06 PM (ET)
FORT ST. JOHN, British Columbia (AP) - When Brad Giesbrecht found one of his cows about to give birth, he put her in the barn to protect her from subzero temperatures. Two hours later, he returned to find the cow had given birth to one calf.
Then, noticing a second set of feet coming, he helped deliver a second calf.
Giesbrecht went to check the rest of his herd, returned for a look at the new mother and found she had delivered a third calf.
The farmer's wife, Elaine Giesbrecht, said the couple's cows have given birth to twins before, but the odds of a cow giving birth to triplets range from one in 10,000, to one in 105,000.
A cow can nurse only two calves at a time, so the Giesbrechts gave one away to be on the safe side.
"My husband felt she couldn't handle three calves by herself, so we gave one calf to some friends of ours as a milk cow," Elaine Giesbrecht said. "They're actually going to be bottle feeding it."
:)
Jan 20, 4:06 PM (ET)
FORT ST. JOHN, British Columbia (AP) - When Brad Giesbrecht found one of his cows about to give birth, he put her in the barn to protect her from subzero temperatures. Two hours later, he returned to find the cow had given birth to one calf.
Then, noticing a second set of feet coming, he helped deliver a second calf.
Giesbrecht went to check the rest of his herd, returned for a look at the new mother and found she had delivered a third calf.
The farmer's wife, Elaine Giesbrecht, said the couple's cows have given birth to twins before, but the odds of a cow giving birth to triplets range from one in 10,000, to one in 105,000.
A cow can nurse only two calves at a time, so the Giesbrechts gave one away to be on the safe side.
"My husband felt she couldn't handle three calves by herself, so we gave one calf to some friends of ours as a milk cow," Elaine Giesbrecht said. "They're actually going to be bottle feeding it."
:)
Thanks, Redway420!
Gerald Durrell wrote wonderful, enlightening and entertaining books. He also founded the best zoo on the planet. He was a visionary - an environmentalist before there was such a word.
Great site for things Corvid.
Photos of two New Caledonian crows, Betty and the aptly-named Abel making and using tools.
FTP: "Elephant tail reveals diet clues
Chemical analysis of elephant hair can provide clues about the animal's diet and behaviour, say scientists.
Researchers studied wild elephants in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve by tracking the animals with GPS devices and analysing their tail hair."
Fascinating! Thanks to dear nutmeg
Chemical analysis of elephant hair can provide clues about the animal's diet and behaviour, say scientists.
Researchers studied wild elephants in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve by tracking the animals with GPS devices and analysing their tail hair."
Fascinating! Thanks to dear nutmeg
Many thanks to dear Zaxy for sending this lovely site. Definitely got my bunny fix!
It says it's Africa Safari, but they have great cams set up all over the world.
Thanks, Zaxy!
Thanks, Zaxy!
Reindeer on the loose!
Dozens of police in Germany were called in to capture an escaped reindeer.
The reindeer escaped to a golf course near its petting zoo.
The animal, whose natural habitat is the frozen Arctic tundra, was part of a Christmas show in 'Olli's Wild World', a children's zoo in Baden-Baden.
After hours of hot pursuit the officers were finally able to approach the exhausted reindeer and secure it using a dog's lead.
Poor dear deer!
Dozens of police in Germany were called in to capture an escaped reindeer.
The reindeer escaped to a golf course near its petting zoo.
The animal, whose natural habitat is the frozen Arctic tundra, was part of a Christmas show in 'Olli's Wild World', a children's zoo in Baden-Baden.
After hours of hot pursuit the officers were finally able to approach the exhausted reindeer and secure it using a dog's lead.
Poor dear deer!
Fuzzy bunny!
Well done, Zaxy! I'd been missing the late Albert Einstein Salz und Pfeffer Haasenpfeffer, our bunny who passed away three Thanksgivings ago.
Great site - Thanks Redway420!
Double-Mouthed Fish Pulled From Nebraska Lake
Dec 21, 5:21 PM (ET)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - This fish didn't have a chance. A rainbow trout pulled out of Holmes Lake last weekend had double the chance to get hooked: It had two mouths.
A rainbow trout fished out of Holmes Lake in Lincoln, Neb., on Dec. 17, 2005, features a double mouth. Clarence Olberding, 57, of Lincoln, wasn't just telling a fisherman's fib when he called over another angler to look at the two-mouthed trout. It weighed in at about a pound. Olberding, who plans to smoke and eat the fish, said the hook was in the upper mouth, and that the lower one did not appear to be functional.(AP Photo/Submitted photo, Charrye Olberding)
"I reached down and grabbed it to take the hook out, and that's when I noticed that the hook was in the upper mouth and there was another jaw protruding out below," said Olberding.
He said in his 40 years of fishing, he's never seen anything like it.
Don Gabelhouse, head of the fisheries division of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said a two-mouthed fish was new to him, too.
Hmmmmmm Wonder where the nuke plant is in relation to that lake.
Dec 21, 5:21 PM (ET)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - This fish didn't have a chance. A rainbow trout pulled out of Holmes Lake last weekend had double the chance to get hooked: It had two mouths.
A rainbow trout fished out of Holmes Lake in Lincoln, Neb., on Dec. 17, 2005, features a double mouth. Clarence Olberding, 57, of Lincoln, wasn't just telling a fisherman's fib when he called over another angler to look at the two-mouthed trout. It weighed in at about a pound. Olberding, who plans to smoke and eat the fish, said the hook was in the upper mouth, and that the lower one did not appear to be functional.(AP Photo/Submitted photo, Charrye Olberding)
"I reached down and grabbed it to take the hook out, and that's when I noticed that the hook was in the upper mouth and there was another jaw protruding out below," said Olberding.
He said in his 40 years of fishing, he's never seen anything like it.
Don Gabelhouse, head of the fisheries division of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said a two-mouthed fish was new to him, too.
Hmmmmmm Wonder where the nuke plant is in relation to that lake.
Christmas Tree Opossum Surprises Pa. Teen
Dec 22, 10:23 PM (ET)
ENGLEWOOD, Pa. (AP) - Mary Kathleen O'Connor, 16, doing some studying for school about 6 a.m. Tuesday, said she was the first to be startled by an apparent Christmas tree stowaway.
"I'm looking at the tree and the angel just pops off," she said. "And a second later, this head just popped up. The eyes were, like, glowing. I was thinking, 'Oh my God!' And I screamed."
Oh, my, God. That is, like, so freaky! LOL
Dec 22, 10:23 PM (ET)
ENGLEWOOD, Pa. (AP) - Mary Kathleen O'Connor, 16, doing some studying for school about 6 a.m. Tuesday, said she was the first to be startled by an apparent Christmas tree stowaway.
"I'm looking at the tree and the angel just pops off," she said. "And a second later, this head just popped up. The eyes were, like, glowing. I was thinking, 'Oh my God!' And I screamed."
Oh, my, God. That is, like, so freaky! LOL
FTP: "Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jamie Dana and her Working Military Dog Rex were inseparable companions. For three years they have lived together, worked together, and relied upon each other. Jamie and Rex work together to patrol checkpoints and scour buildings for hidden explosives, and have served together in Iraq and Pakistan.
On June 25th, 2005 Jamie and Rex were returning from patrol when a bomb detonated under their vehicle. Jamie was seriously injured, and in a coma. Doctors didn't expect her to live, and she had to be transported to the United States for medical treatment. It was only when she awoke she learned that Rex had sustained only minor wounds.
This is really a story about the bond of love that exists between Jamie and Rex. A bond so strong that her last thoughts before losing consciousness was of Rex. A bond forged through training, through military service, and through companionship.
Jamie has returned to active duty, and wants to adopt Rex into her family. But current law prohibits the adoption of a combat dog until they reach retirement age. For Rex this could be another 5 to 10 years.
Please help re-unite Rex and Jamie - Urge President Bush to encourage legislation to override these laws."
On June 25th, 2005 Jamie and Rex were returning from patrol when a bomb detonated under their vehicle. Jamie was seriously injured, and in a coma. Doctors didn't expect her to live, and she had to be transported to the United States for medical treatment. It was only when she awoke she learned that Rex had sustained only minor wounds.
This is really a story about the bond of love that exists between Jamie and Rex. A bond so strong that her last thoughts before losing consciousness was of Rex. A bond forged through training, through military service, and through companionship.
Jamie has returned to active duty, and wants to adopt Rex into her family. But current law prohibits the adoption of a combat dog until they reach retirement age. For Rex this could be another 5 to 10 years.
Please help re-unite Rex and Jamie - Urge President Bush to encourage legislation to override these laws."
Military Sonar Threatens Whales Around the World
NDRC filed a federal lawsuit in October 2005 to force the navy to take humane precautions when training with mid-frequency sonar, wihich is used by nearly 60% of its ships and submarines throughout the world's oceans.
NDRC filed a federal lawsuit in October 2005 to force the navy to take humane precautions when training with mid-frequency sonar, wihich is used by nearly 60% of its ships and submarines throughout the world's oceans.
Wonderful Dutch site about Ladybugs. Multiple languages.
FTP: "Debate over escaped elephant
An escaped elephant is roaming the streets of St Petersburg - while authorities try to decide whose job it is to catch it.
The animal, which was being transported through Russia by an unnamed Finnish company, escaped from its container by smashing through its walls."
That poor elephant!! It's f*cking cold in St Petersburg - it ain't Florida FFS!
An escaped elephant is roaming the streets of St Petersburg - while authorities try to decide whose job it is to catch it.
The animal, which was being transported through Russia by an unnamed Finnish company, escaped from its container by smashing through its walls."
That poor elephant!! It's f*cking cold in St Petersburg - it ain't Florida FFS!
Dog Gets 'Mouth-To-Snout' Resuscitation
Dec 14, 4:15 PM (ET)
SALEM, Mass. (AP) - A firefighter stretched the bounds of duty by administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save a dog caught in a fire. Pixie, a 12-pound terrier crossbreed, was not breathing Tuesday when firefighters pulled her from a Salem home filled with smoke and flames.
Pixie was "seizing," with her back arched and mouth wide open. Firefighter Richard LeBlanc put his mouth on the dog's mouth in attempt to breathe for the dog and revive her. After another firefighter gave Pixie oxygen, the dog was taken to a local veterinary clinic for emergency treatment.
The dog, owned by Phil and Kathy Kindler, survived.
No one was injured in the fire, which officials believe may have been started by faulty wiring.
Dec 14, 4:15 PM (ET)
SALEM, Mass. (AP) - A firefighter stretched the bounds of duty by administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to save a dog caught in a fire. Pixie, a 12-pound terrier crossbreed, was not breathing Tuesday when firefighters pulled her from a Salem home filled with smoke and flames.
Pixie was "seizing," with her back arched and mouth wide open. Firefighter Richard LeBlanc put his mouth on the dog's mouth in attempt to breathe for the dog and revive her. After another firefighter gave Pixie oxygen, the dog was taken to a local veterinary clinic for emergency treatment.
The dog, owned by Phil and Kathy Kindler, survived.
No one was injured in the fire, which officials believe may have been started by faulty wiring.
She started researching dog sounds in 2001 at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe, where she was a professor of animal behavior. After coming to Spokane, she began studying how to make shelter dogs feel more at ease.
Simonet and her students started by recording dogs at play. They eventually isolated the growling, whining, barking and the sound she now calls laughter.
Most excellent indeed!
Many thanks to moderntimes!
Simonet and her students started by recording dogs at play. They eventually isolated the growling, whining, barking and the sound she now calls laughter.
Most excellent indeed!
Many thanks to moderntimes!
Foot-thumping roo tape could be farmer hit
Email this Story
Dec 6, 11:26 AM (ET)
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian farmers could protect crops and property from mobs of wild kangaroos by scaring them off with the thumping sound of the animals' own large feet on the ground, a new study said.
Kangaroos, conservatively estimated at more than 57 million or nearly three animals to every Australian, damage crops and property and compete with livestock for food and water.
Melbourne University researcher Helena Bender compared the current deterrents used by farmers -- artificial high pitched squeals -- with a recording of a kangaroo thumping its foot. The marsupials do this when they sense danger before taking flight.
Bender's report, published in the Wildlife Research journal, found that the animals' own alarm signal was much more effective at scaring off the eastern gray kangaroos targeted during tests than the artificial sounds, which they grew used to.
Email this Story
Dec 6, 11:26 AM (ET)
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian farmers could protect crops and property from mobs of wild kangaroos by scaring them off with the thumping sound of the animals' own large feet on the ground, a new study said.
Kangaroos, conservatively estimated at more than 57 million or nearly three animals to every Australian, damage crops and property and compete with livestock for food and water.
Melbourne University researcher Helena Bender compared the current deterrents used by farmers -- artificial high pitched squeals -- with a recording of a kangaroo thumping its foot. The marsupials do this when they sense danger before taking flight.
Bender's report, published in the Wildlife Research journal, found that the animals' own alarm signal was much more effective at scaring off the eastern gray kangaroos targeted during tests than the artificial sounds, which they grew used to.
Bear Decides to Hibernate Under Pa. Porch
Dec 5, 11:02 PM (ET)
EFFORT, Pa. (AP) - A black bear camped out under the porch of a home where four children live - and near where 20 kids wait for the school bus - will be removed by state wildlife officers, officials said Monday.
Residents of Chestnuthill Township had suspected for several days that a bear was in their midst after they saw their trash cans tampered with. But it wasn't until two children happened upon the bear on Sunday that its exact whereabouts became clear.
Pedro Sainvil owns the home where the 600- to 700-pound male bear seems to have settled in for hibernation.
On Sunday, Sainvil sent his two children, ages 8 and 9, outside to play in the snow.
"After 15 or 20 minutes, they came back screaming, 'Dad, Dad! There's a bear under the house!'" Sainvil said.
State Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said the matter would be handled by wildlife conservation officer Pete Sussenbach, who has been in contact with Sainvil and hoped to respond as early as Tuesday.
Sussenbach needs two more people to help him tranquilize the bear, safely remove it from underneath the porch and take it to a den in one of the state's game lands.
Poor silly old bear!
Dec 5, 11:02 PM (ET)
EFFORT, Pa. (AP) - A black bear camped out under the porch of a home where four children live - and near where 20 kids wait for the school bus - will be removed by state wildlife officers, officials said Monday.
Residents of Chestnuthill Township had suspected for several days that a bear was in their midst after they saw their trash cans tampered with. But it wasn't until two children happened upon the bear on Sunday that its exact whereabouts became clear.
Pedro Sainvil owns the home where the 600- to 700-pound male bear seems to have settled in for hibernation.
On Sunday, Sainvil sent his two children, ages 8 and 9, outside to play in the snow.
"After 15 or 20 minutes, they came back screaming, 'Dad, Dad! There's a bear under the house!'" Sainvil said.
State Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said the matter would be handled by wildlife conservation officer Pete Sussenbach, who has been in contact with Sainvil and hoped to respond as early as Tuesday.
Sussenbach needs two more people to help him tranquilize the bear, safely remove it from underneath the porch and take it to a den in one of the state's game lands.
Poor silly old bear!
From the page: "In the dense central forests of Borneo, a conservation group has found what appears to be a new species of mammal.
WWF caught two images of the animal, which is bigger than a domestic cat, dark red, and has a long muscular tail.
Local people, the WWF says, had not seen the species before, and researchers say it looks to be new.
The WWF says there is an urgent need to conserve forests in south-east Asia which are under pressure from logging and the palm oil trade.
The creature, believed to be carnivorous, was spotted in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, which lies in Indonesian territory on Borneo.
The team which discovered it, led by biologist Stephan Wulffraat, is publishing full details in a new book on Borneo and its wildlife.
"You don't find new mammals that often, and to do so must be extraordinary," said Callum Rankine, head of the species programme at WWF-UK."
Another wow!
Thanks to dear ColinsFreakinDad
WWF caught two images of the animal, which is bigger than a domestic cat, dark red, and has a long muscular tail.
Local people, the WWF says, had not seen the species before, and researchers say it looks to be new.
The WWF says there is an urgent need to conserve forests in south-east Asia which are under pressure from logging and the palm oil trade.
The creature, believed to be carnivorous, was spotted in the Kayan Mentarang National Park, which lies in Indonesian territory on Borneo.
The team which discovered it, led by biologist Stephan Wulffraat, is publishing full details in a new book on Borneo and its wildlife.
"You don't find new mammals that often, and to do so must be extraordinary," said Callum Rankine, head of the species programme at WWF-UK."
Another wow!
Thanks to dear ColinsFreakinDad
Emily the Stowaway Cat Lands in Wisconsin
Dec 1, 8:47 PM (ET)
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
Continental airlines cargo agent Gaylia McLeod, right, hands over Emily the cat to Nick Herndon, 9, left along with his parents Lesley, center, and Donny McElhiney, at General Mitchel International Airport Thursday Dec. 1, 2005 in Milwaukee. Emily, the curious cat from Wisconsin, who disappeared two months ago and wound up traveling to France in a cargo container, touched down at the Milwaukee airport on Thursday, greeted by her family and a horde of reporters. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck)
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Emily the cat is back - after flying home in the lap of luxury. The curious cat who wound up traveling to France in a cargo container touched down at the Milwaukee airport on Thursday, greeted by her family and a horde of reporters.
A Continental cargo agent handed her over to 9-year-old Nick Herndon, son of the cat's owners, Donny and Lesley McElhiney. Emily meowed and pawed at reporters' microphones as the family answered questions.
"She'll be held onto a lot all the way home. And then when we get home, too, she'll be cuddled a lot," Donny McElhiney said.
Her sumptuous return in business class on a Continental Airlines flight was a sharp departure from her trip to France, where she was found thin and thirsty but still alive.
"She seems a little calmer than she was before, just a little quieter, a little, maybe, wiser," said Lesley McElhiney, 32.
Great story, bad pun!
Dec 1, 8:47 PM (ET)
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
Continental airlines cargo agent Gaylia McLeod, right, hands over Emily the cat to Nick Herndon, 9, left along with his parents Lesley, center, and Donny McElhiney, at General Mitchel International Airport Thursday Dec. 1, 2005 in Milwaukee. Emily, the curious cat from Wisconsin, who disappeared two months ago and wound up traveling to France in a cargo container, touched down at the Milwaukee airport on Thursday, greeted by her family and a horde of reporters. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck)
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Emily the cat is back - after flying home in the lap of luxury. The curious cat who wound up traveling to France in a cargo container touched down at the Milwaukee airport on Thursday, greeted by her family and a horde of reporters.
A Continental cargo agent handed her over to 9-year-old Nick Herndon, son of the cat's owners, Donny and Lesley McElhiney. Emily meowed and pawed at reporters' microphones as the family answered questions.
"She'll be held onto a lot all the way home. And then when we get home, too, she'll be cuddled a lot," Donny McElhiney said.
Her sumptuous return in business class on a Continental Airlines flight was a sharp departure from her trip to France, where she was found thin and thirsty but still alive.
"She seems a little calmer than she was before, just a little quieter, a little, maybe, wiser," said Lesley McElhiney, 32.
Great story, bad pun!
Woo-Hoo! I was just thinking about Emily last night!
Emily, the Stowaway Cat, Is Coming Home
Dec 1, 9:50 AM (ET)
Emily, a stowaway cat, looks through the plane window before heading to Wisconsin, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005 at Roissy airport, north of Paris. Emily disappeared two months ago and wound up traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to France as a stowaway in a cargo container. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
By JEFF SCHAEFFER
PARIS (AP) - Emily the cat is heading home, in style. The wayward tabby from Wisconsin who disappeared two months ago and wound up traveling across the Atlantic to France boarded a Continental Airlines flight Thursday - in business class.
Travel conditions leaving Europe promised to be a bit more comfortable for Emily, who arrived as a stowaway in a cargo container after straying from home in Appleton, Wis.
"I don't think she'll drink champagne but I think she will be happy to rest," said Continental spokesman Philippe Fleury, at Charles de Gaulle airport to see Emily off. The airline offered to fly the cat home from Paris after her tale spread around the world and she cleared a one-month quarantine.
"This was such a marvelous story, that we wanted to add something to it," Fleury told AP Television News. A full-fare ticket for Emily's seat would normally cost about $6,000 and the airline provided a company escort for the cat.
Emily vanished from her home in late September. She apparently wandered into a nearby paper company's distribution center and crawled into a container of paper bales. ...
Emily, the Stowaway Cat, Is Coming Home
Dec 1, 9:50 AM (ET)
Emily, a stowaway cat, looks through the plane window before heading to Wisconsin, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005 at Roissy airport, north of Paris. Emily disappeared two months ago and wound up traveling across the Atlantic Ocean to France as a stowaway in a cargo container. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
By JEFF SCHAEFFER
PARIS (AP) - Emily the cat is heading home, in style. The wayward tabby from Wisconsin who disappeared two months ago and wound up traveling across the Atlantic to France boarded a Continental Airlines flight Thursday - in business class.
Travel conditions leaving Europe promised to be a bit more comfortable for Emily, who arrived as a stowaway in a cargo container after straying from home in Appleton, Wis.
"I don't think she'll drink champagne but I think she will be happy to rest," said Continental spokesman Philippe Fleury, at Charles de Gaulle airport to see Emily off. The airline offered to fly the cat home from Paris after her tale spread around the world and she cleared a one-month quarantine.
"This was such a marvelous story, that we wanted to add something to it," Fleury told AP Television News. A full-fare ticket for Emily's seat would normally cost about $6,000 and the airline provided a company escort for the cat.
Emily vanished from her home in late September. She apparently wandered into a nearby paper company's distribution center and crawled into a container of paper bales. ...
Cows - and bulls - in Jamaica always look happy, healthy, and fat. (Wish I could say the same of the horses!) Some of them have fabulous views along with their grazing.
Stolen from dear Saline. If you haven't checked out her wonderful stumbles, go do so now or my Inner Mongolian will chase you around a-horse, firing arrows at you.
Pig Frog! Grunt grunt!
Frog survives banana boat ride to UK
Posted Fri, 23 Apr 2004
A tiny, rare Caribbean tree frog has miraculously survived a transatlantic journey to Britain in the cold, refrigerated hull of a banana boat, officials have said.
The four-centimetre frog, nicknamed Lara after West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara, was discovered in the freighter Prince of Tides when it arrived in Portsmouth from Jamaica with its cargo of bananas.
"Apparently a random pallet was chosen to check the quality of the consignment and, during the checking process, someone found the little frog clinging to a hand of bananas," said port health officer David Jones.
Posted Fri, 23 Apr 2004
A tiny, rare Caribbean tree frog has miraculously survived a transatlantic journey to Britain in the cold, refrigerated hull of a banana boat, officials have said.
The four-centimetre frog, nicknamed Lara after West Indies cricket captain Brian Lara, was discovered in the freighter Prince of Tides when it arrived in Portsmouth from Jamaica with its cargo of bananas.
"Apparently a random pallet was chosen to check the quality of the consignment and, during the checking process, someone found the little frog clinging to a hand of bananas," said port health officer David Jones.
Another great suit!
Dendrobatidae (poison frog) photo guide
The bear, who has been named Echo by scientists, should by now be way out on the frozen waters hunting for seals.
He has not had a proper meal since the ice broke up in July. He is hungry and losing up to a kilogram in body fat every day.
For the past 30 years or so, people living in Canada's north have been noticing a phenomenon that many scientists now believe is a direct result of our planet warming up.
The waters of Hudson Bay - and many other northern seas - are beginning their annual freeze later each year.
This November, local residents are saying that the waters are up to a month late in freezing up. Similarly, in spring the ice is breaking up earlier.
The net result - polar bears have less time on the solid ice to hunt.
Bears can only catch seals on ice.
This is such shit I'm speechless.
Thanks, nutmeg
He has not had a proper meal since the ice broke up in July. He is hungry and losing up to a kilogram in body fat every day.
For the past 30 years or so, people living in Canada's north have been noticing a phenomenon that many scientists now believe is a direct result of our planet warming up.
The waters of Hudson Bay - and many other northern seas - are beginning their annual freeze later each year.
This November, local residents are saying that the waters are up to a month late in freezing up. Similarly, in spring the ice is breaking up earlier.
The net result - polar bears have less time on the solid ice to hunt.
Bears can only catch seals on ice.
This is such shit I'm speechless.
Thanks, nutmeg
Physicist Peter Vukusic poses with glowing African swallowtail butterflies.
Vukusic and a colleague recently discovered that the butterflies use the same processes as cutting edge, highly efficient LEDs to emit light. High-effiecient LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are becoming widely used in flat-screen TVs, traffic lights, and other electronics.
Thanks, Zaxy! Fantastic!
Great site with luscious images and even sound files of their calls!
I just had to pinch this tapir from Saline.
This has got to be the most amazing suit I've ever seen!
Please tell me who's your tailor before you disappear into the undergrowth!
Rats. Didn't hear me.
Oh, well. I can't afford a bespoke suit anyway.
This has got to be the most amazing suit I've ever seen!
Please tell me who's your tailor before you disappear into the undergrowth!
Rats. Didn't hear me.
Oh, well. I can't afford a bespoke suit anyway.
Chain salps
Link Salps
These are such neat little critters. Link - and chain - salps are colonies of animals linked together, creating a seemingly single creature sometimes 30-40 feet long.
It's like a real neighborhood. :)
Link salps are so cool
Salps linked in colonies are the longest creatures on the planet.
Link Salps
These are such neat little critters. Link - and chain - salps are colonies of animals linked together, creating a seemingly single creature sometimes 30-40 feet long.
It's like a real neighborhood. :)
Link salps are so cool
Salps linked in colonies are the longest creatures on the planet.
Glow-y shroom-y! Shame the stems ain't blue. ;)
This one's too cool.
From the page: "Finnegan the squirrel, who was found injured and malnourished in the Seattle area in September 2005, when he was but a few days old. He was brought to Debby Cantlon, an area resident with a reputation for taking in sick and injured animals and nursing them back to health.
What happened next was a bit unexpected. Ms. Cantlon reported that her black and white Papillon dog, Mademoiselle Giselle, who was pregnant at the time, twice dragged the kennel in which Finnegan was being cared for across the house and deposited it next to her own doggie bed:
"She would go and take the kennel and drag it through the dining room, through the kitchen and the hallway and park it next to her bed. I didn't know if she wanted to the squirrel to eat it or to nurse it."
After Mademoiselle Giselle gave birth to her pups but continued to pay as much (or more) attention to Finnegan than to her own litter, Ms. Cantlon decided to let Finnegan out of his cage and see what happened. And what happened was that Mademoiselle Giselle adopted Finnegan as one of her own:
"I just gave her the squirrel and she was just ecstatic. She was all over him - lick, lick, lick, lick, lick. Instinct is a wonderful thing. It sort of takes over and tells you what to do.""
Wonderful story! Bless!
Young squirrels are marvelous critters. We bottle-fed an orphan. As he grew we put him outside, and he'd stay out longer and longer. Finally one day he didn't come back. Happy and sad simultaneously.
What happened next was a bit unexpected. Ms. Cantlon reported that her black and white Papillon dog, Mademoiselle Giselle, who was pregnant at the time, twice dragged the kennel in which Finnegan was being cared for across the house and deposited it next to her own doggie bed:
"She would go and take the kennel and drag it through the dining room, through the kitchen and the hallway and park it next to her bed. I didn't know if she wanted to the squirrel to eat it or to nurse it."
After Mademoiselle Giselle gave birth to her pups but continued to pay as much (or more) attention to Finnegan than to her own litter, Ms. Cantlon decided to let Finnegan out of his cage and see what happened. And what happened was that Mademoiselle Giselle adopted Finnegan as one of her own:
"I just gave her the squirrel and she was just ecstatic. She was all over him - lick, lick, lick, lick, lick. Instinct is a wonderful thing. It sort of takes over and tells you what to do.""
Wonderful story! Bless!
Young squirrels are marvelous critters. We bottle-fed an orphan. As he grew we put him outside, and he'd stay out longer and longer. Finally one day he didn't come back. Happy and sad simultaneously.
Male mouse sings a song of love
Male mice serenade potential mates with ultrasonic love songs, a study by US scientists has revealed.
The research adds mice to the exclusive club of mammals that can sing, which has until now comprised only human beings, bats and cetaceans.
A Washington University, St Louis, team studied ultrasonic squeaks emitted by mice when they smelt a female and found that they formed complex songs.
They have published details in the scientific journal PLoS Biology.
Maybe if you men'd sing to us more often women'd stop dousing themselves in perfume and the world'd be a better place!
Merci bien a cher nutmeg
Male mice serenade potential mates with ultrasonic love songs, a study by US scientists has revealed.
The research adds mice to the exclusive club of mammals that can sing, which has until now comprised only human beings, bats and cetaceans.
A Washington University, St Louis, team studied ultrasonic squeaks emitted by mice when they smelt a female and found that they formed complex songs.
They have published details in the scientific journal PLoS Biology.
Maybe if you men'd sing to us more often women'd stop dousing themselves in perfume and the world'd be a better place!
Merci bien a cher nutmeg
My God/dess, how could anyone look at this creature and see only ca$h for its coat?!
The Tibetans call them Snow Lions.
Snow Leopard webcam at Da Bronx Zoo in Noo Yawk.
I effing hate dial-up!
I effing hate dial-up!
National Pornographic comes through again - great story!
But...
"For the last two decades scientists in the Congo River Basin have been collecting sticks - tools discarded after termite fishing - around termite mounds. But few have witnessed the chimps in action."
There's no thief like a tool-thief! Bastards!
Thanks, visi!
But...
"For the last two decades scientists in the Congo River Basin have been collecting sticks - tools discarded after termite fishing - around termite mounds. But few have witnessed the chimps in action."
There's no thief like a tool-thief! Bastards!
Thanks, visi!
From the page: "TREE FROG TREKS MISSION STATEMENT
Tree Frog Treks strives to create critical thinkers that will work to save, preserve and maintain our planet's biodiversity by introducing them to live rescued reptiles and amphibians, offering fun, hands-on science programming, and exploring nature."
Sing it with me; you know the tune..."What the world needs now/Is critical thinkers, sweet critical thinkers..."
Thnaks Kosznai!
Tree Frog Treks strives to create critical thinkers that will work to save, preserve and maintain our planet's biodiversity by introducing them to live rescued reptiles and amphibians, offering fun, hands-on science programming, and exploring nature."
Sing it with me; you know the tune..."What the world needs now/Is critical thinkers, sweet critical thinkers..."
Thnaks Kosznai!
Fascinating creature
Meee-YOW!
Goddess Gorilla! Animals will keep learning our languages, but how many two-leggeds have bothered learning animals'?
Cool stuff - and the dog mummy looks a lot like my lurcher!
I'd like you to meet a Jamaican alchemist, Cathartes aura. Dem a call dis bird John Crow an' halways in singular. The bird in this picture is The King of All John Crow.
Mr John Crow was an Irish preacher who came to live pon De Island. He had a big, bald, sunburn-red head and face and wore voluminous, heavy black garments. He was not renowned for his charm. You get the idea.
A friend of ours in Jamaica, Barefoot, told a funny yet disturbing story. He said he had seen pigs eating dead John Crow, but he had *never* seen John Crow eating a dead pig. He gave up pork.
Our friends Tina and Mikey - Tina's head groom - took mom, her friend Fox and me for a mind-blowing trail ride up to the top of Free Hill, one of the highest points on the island. Mom, Fox, and Mikey had just finished briefing Miss Tina on my witch-like weather forecasts/precognitions when Mikey pointed out the second rainbow I'd predicted in less than a week. We were up so high, and at such an angle we could see where the rainbow 'touched' ground.
As we marvelled at it, Mikey next pointed out The King of All the John Crow, wheeling on a thermal. He never flapped, he just steered with the fingertips of his wings.
Mikey had just told me about him as we'd approached the town of Free Hill; explained that he had lots of white, unlike any other John Crow.
I'd told him of my seeing a crow back home with broad white bars on the wings and how strange it had seemed.
He'd said, "'Im mus' be da King of Hall dem Crow Back 'Ome den."
{www.hooves-jamaica.com}
Mr John Crow was an Irish preacher who came to live pon De Island. He had a big, bald, sunburn-red head and face and wore voluminous, heavy black garments. He was not renowned for his charm. You get the idea.
A friend of ours in Jamaica, Barefoot, told a funny yet disturbing story. He said he had seen pigs eating dead John Crow, but he had *never* seen John Crow eating a dead pig. He gave up pork.
Our friends Tina and Mikey - Tina's head groom - took mom, her friend Fox and me for a mind-blowing trail ride up to the top of Free Hill, one of the highest points on the island. Mom, Fox, and Mikey had just finished briefing Miss Tina on my witch-like weather forecasts/precognitions when Mikey pointed out the second rainbow I'd predicted in less than a week. We were up so high, and at such an angle we could see where the rainbow 'touched' ground.
As we marvelled at it, Mikey next pointed out The King of All the John Crow, wheeling on a thermal. He never flapped, he just steered with the fingertips of his wings.
Mikey had just told me about him as we'd approached the town of Free Hill; explained that he had lots of white, unlike any other John Crow.
I'd told him of my seeing a crow back home with broad white bars on the wings and how strange it had seemed.
He'd said, "'Im mus' be da King of Hall dem Crow Back 'Ome den."
{www.hooves-jamaica.com}
Kids, this is an Alchemist.
This bird turns stuff that would poison damn near any other living thing into energy that keeps it alive. Lead into gold? Pah! That's nothin' compared to this bird's work.
This bird turns stuff that would poison damn near any other living thing into energy that keeps it alive. Lead into gold? Pah! That's nothin' compared to this bird's work.
Fantastic ladybug site in multiple languages
Turn up the speakers and freak your pets!
Maybe your dogs will sing along too
More than 575 links about various beasties - cats, birds, dogs, fish, horses &c