Thursday, December 27, 2007

Adorable Baby Elephant




Baby Elephant Joins Struggling Herd in Sumatra

Endangered Asian Elephants Welcome Baby to Their Family

Dec. 24, 2007

On Dec. 11, 2007, "World News with Charles Gibson" correspondent Nick Watt introduced us to the World Wildlife Fund's Flying Squad — a group of five trained elephants that are working to help save the endangered Asian elephants in Tesso Nilo National Park in central Sumatra.

We are happy to report that, since then, the Flying Squad welcomed its sixth member — a baby elephant named Saree, born just in time for the holidays.

Sumatra is an ideal habitat for the endangered Asian elephant, but it also has ideal growing conditions for coffee beans. Wild Asian elephants and coffee beans had become unlikely competitors in this rapidly shrinking wilderness. Forests were burned to clear land to grow Robusta coffee beans, which are commonly used in Europe and North America to make instant coffee.

As elephants found their habitat shrinking, they left the forest and trampled crops, like coffee. So, the farmers killed them.

The World Wildlife Fund has been trying to stop this cycle in central Sumatra. In Tesso Nilo National Park, the fund introduced the Flying Squad elephants to patrol the boundary between forests and farms further north, to keep wild elephants away from people.

When the Flying Squad meets a wild elephant that threatens a village and they can't scare it away, then the male elephants in the Flying Squad have to stand, lock tusks and fight. Baby Saree is joining this intrepid group of guardians.

The World Wildlife Fund plans to train more elephants to join the Flying Squad, because ever since the squad's been on patrol, not one wild elephant has been killed on their watch.

Putin's Dog Realizes Putin is Evil, But He Won't Be Escaping




Last Updated: Monday, 24 December 2007, 17:08 GMT

Putin 'wants sat-nav for pet dog'

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a sat-nav dog collar to keep track of his pet labrador, according to the country's deputy prime minister.

"When can I get a system for my dog, Connie, so she can't go too far astray?" Mr Putin is said to have asked Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov.

Mr Ivanov was presenting the president with plans for launching three new navigation satellites.

He said the collars would be in the shops in Russia from July 2008.

The Russian rocket Proton-K is due to launch three new satellites into orbit on Christmas Day to facilitate Russia's Glonass navigation system.

They will bring to 18 the total number of satellites mapping Russian territory.

Ultimately it is planned to have 24 satellites in orbit from 2009.

The Glonass system was developed by the Russian army in the 1980s, in competition with the US GPS network and the European Galileo system.

Global Warming Might Kill Walrus




Loss of sea ice could harm walrus

By DAN JOLING, Associated Press Writer Mon Dec 24, 9:23 AM ET

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Federal marine mammal experts in Alaska studying the effects of global warming on walrus, polar bears and ice seals warn there are limit to the protections they can provide.

They can restrict hunters, ship traffic and offshore petroleum activity, but that may not be enough if the animals' basic habitat — sea ice — disappears every summer.

"Ultimately it's beyond my scope," said Joel Garlich-Miller, a walrus expert for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage. "I can't make ice cubes out there."

Garlich-Miller said 3,000 to 4,000 mostly young walrus died this year in stampedes on land on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea, the body of water touching Alaska and Russia just north of the Bering Strait. Instead of spending the summer spread over sea ice, thousands of walruses were stranded on land in unprecedented numbers for up to three months.

Anatoly Kochnev, who conducts walrus research for Russia's Pacific Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, said the loss of 3,000 to 4,000 animals this year from mostly one demographic could be disastrous.

If current ice trends continue, and walrus have to stay on coastlines every summer, they may put too much pressure on nearby foraging areas instead of feeding in the rich waters offshore, said U.S. Geological Survey biologist Tony Fischbach.

Experts on summer sea ice say it's not likely to suddenly reappear. Arctic sea ice this summer plummeted to its lowest levels since satellite measurements began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.

"Certainly we look like we're on a death spiral right now," said Mark Serreze, senior research scientist. "Losing that summer sea ice over by 2030, within some of our lifetimes, is a reasonable expectation."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide within weeks whether to list polar bears as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act because of the loss of sea ice from global warming. Polar bears hunt and breed on sea ice and are poor candidates for survival if they are based on land, where grizzly bears dominate.

Polar bears' primary prey are ringed seals, the only seals that thrive under sea ice. They dig breathing holes with their thick claws and create lairs on top of the ice where they birth their young.

With warming, those lairs collapse earlier in springtime, leaving hairless pups susceptible to freezing, foxes, polar bears and even ravens and gulls.

And then there's the Pacific walrus, which face at least three problems: Their ocean habitat may be changing, they may be forced to shore for long periods, and their weakest members are in danger when crowded on land.

Walruses dive to the ocean bottom to eat clams, snails, crabs, shrimps and worms. Research suggests that diminished sea ice and warmer water may decrease plankton, which are food for creatures on the bottom.

Unlike seals, walruses can't swim indefinitely. Females and their young traditionally use ice as a diving platform, riding it north like a moving sidewalk over offshore foraging areas, first in the northern Bering Sea, then into the Chukchi Sea.

If animals are on shore for three months every summer, they can't reach offshore foraging areas. Chad Jay, chief walrus researcher for the USGS, said there are concerns about how much energy walruses will expend swimming to foraging areas.

An adult walrus can eat 200 pounds of clams in a day. If the walrus population stays within 30 miles of shore in summers, they could overharvest the available clams and other food.

"I suspect they won't do very well as totally shore-based animals," said Vera Alexander, one of three members of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission.

Sad: Hero Dog Dies Trying to Save Friend




Dog dies after saving Pullman, WA family from fire

09:02 AM PST on Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Associated Press

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) -- A 6-year-old border collie died in a house fire after waking up his owner out of a deep sleep to warn her of the blaze.

Marilyn Harvey and her son, Brent, rushed out the basement door, but Sandler turned back. Marilyn's husband, John Harvey, who was in Seattle at the time of the fire, thinks it was because Sandler wanted to save the family's 17-year-old Australian shepherd, who was still inside the house.

Both dogs died in last Friday's fire, along with a bird named Kellogg. A cat named Raja escaped unharmed.

Investigators believe a candle left burning in the family room of the two-story house started the fire, which destroyed the house.

The only salvageable items were found in the garage under the Christmas tree.

John Harvey said his family will always be grateful to Sandler. "We're a little devastated now, but I think tomorrow will be better," he said. "It makes the holidays a little more valuable."

Mmmm....Steak




Texas can lay claim to top beef cattle -- from Japan

Web Posted: 12/26/2007 11:55 AM CST

John MacCormack
Express-News

HARWOOD — Years after some wily Americans had slipped a small herd of coveted Akaushi cattle out of Japan through a tiny export loophole, Jose Antonio Elias Calles ran into one of their former owners in that country.

"He said at one point he had thought about coming to the United States and 'killing these people who had stolen our children,'" recalled Calles, who now manages the only herd of Akaushi outside Japan.

"They call these animals their children because they have such an important place in their society. They have a powerful mystique for the Japanese," said Calles, 44, the great-grandson of Plutarco Elias Calles, the former Mexican president.

Born in Mexico and educated in the United States, Calles has studied Japanese cattle and beef for almost two decades. And like the Japanese, he and others treasure the Akaushi, if for more down-to-earth reasons.

It's not just snobbery that makes people willing to pay up to $200 for an Akaushi steak at certain East Coast restaurants, or that induces others to pay $45 retail for the same 14-ounce rib-eye.

To true believers, an Akaushi is the tastiest and healthiest steak one can buy.

"These cattle are about two grades above U.S. prime. The U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn't even have a chart that goes as high as these cattle produce," said Jay Gray, who manages the feedlot in Gonzales where the Akaushi are fattened up.

"This beef is totally different. It makes what we're used to eating seem rather mundane. It's the best steak I've ever eaten, and I've eaten some," he said with measured understatement.

And according to scientists at Texas A&M, that's neither hype nor imagination.

Simply put, besides commanding top dollar, a juicy, heavily marbled Akaushi steak ranks far higher than the best American beef in healthy fats and lower in unhealthy saturated fats.

"There's a genetic predisposition in those cattle to put on a softer fat that's high in oleic acid and monounsaturated fats," said Stephen Smith, a biochemist and meat specialist at A&M, one of two centers of study of Japanese cattle in the United States.

"It really is counterintuitive. People think more fat means higher in saturated fat. But the more monounsaturated fat in the beef, the more benefits you get, and the beef with the highest levels is Japanese," he said.

So far, the extent of health benefits from eating lots of Akaushi beef are unclear, but early results show that unlike other beef, large doses are not unhealthy, Smith said.

"We had really fat hamburgers made with Japanese beef and we fed them to people five times a week for five weeks, and everything went in the right direction," he said of health indicators.

"And for the people eating grass-fed Angus, everything went in the wrong direction," he added of the control study group.

No saki tonics

Calles long ago mended fences with Japanese ranchers, who now respect his expertise. In 1998 he was the first foreigner named chief judge in the national Akaushi competition in Kumamoto.

Calles said he has made all his Akaushi research available to the Japanese and they have visited his Texas operation.

"The commitment I made years ago to the Japanese government is that if anything happens to the Akaushi population in Japan, this is their insurance policy," he said of the Texas herd.

The group of 11 Akaushis that arrived in 1994 since has grown to more than 5,000 head, largely through a temporary embryo transplant program that used American cows as surrogates.

The Texas Akaushi, all of which look like first cousins, are the only sizable herd outside Japan. They're the crown jewels of the HeartBrand Beef Co., of which Calles is president and a minority shareholder.

While amusing stories abound about cattle in Japan being soothed by classical music, massages and saki tonics, the caramel-colored Akaushi grazing behind high fences on ranches east of San Antonio are hardly pampered. They do get clean running water and don't feel uptight about roundups or rowdy cowboys.

"The concept is minimum stress management. You don't use ropes, horses, motorcycles or four-wheelers," said Calles, who demonstrated the technique by summoning a small group of cattle.

The fences keep out unwelcome strangers, like sick cattle or the neighbor's amorous bull. Only once has a strange bull mingled with the Akaushi cows, and he was quickly evicted.

"We had to abort one cow, and that was the end of the problem," Calles said.

The Akaushi here are raised without hormones or antibiotics, and are fattened longer than typical American cattle. After at least 310 days on feed, they bulk out to about 1,700 pounds, a third larger than a typical American steer.

The Japanese have provided genealogy records to Calles for every head going back 30 generations, and from birth, each animal is scrutinized and evaluated.

Wiener therapy

The report card for young male Akaushis is harsh, covering 32 esoteric criteria, from the shape and size of its reproductive organs to its temperament and color.

The grading system is even tougher: Only the top 2 percent are kept as breeders, with the rest ending up in the feedlot.

And while the Akaushi are considered a national treasure in Japan, it was Calles and other researchers who together unlocked the special qualities of their meat.

"It took the Japanese 100 years to develop these cattle, and everything was based on palatability traits. We have records dating back to the 1880s on the breed," he said.

"But the Japanese didn't know about the unique fatty acid composition of the Akaushi. Of all the breeds of cattle in the world, only two kinds, both Japanese, have these healthy qualities," he said.

Even without health benefit research, some folks already are believers.

Wanda Broussard, the head of human resources at Eddy Packing in Yoakum, which ships Akaushi beef and also makes some of it into sausages and hotdogs, believes it saved her from a health crisis.

"I was on Lipitor for very high cholesterol. I had been on blood pressure medicine for nine years. I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes. I also had liver disease," said Broussard, 61.

Her boss, owner Ronald Beeman, who also has a majority interest in HeartBrand, made her an interesting offer.

"I said if you'll be the guinea pig, we'll give you the meat," Beeman recalled.

Long story short, after Broussard began eating lots of Akaushi beef, most of her health problems vanished, including high cholesterol and high blood pressure, she said.

"To this day, I'm not on medication. If my cholesterol jumps up, I eat more wieners and hamburgers, and it will come down," she said.

Not everyone is convinced.

Charles Gaskins, a professor of animal science at Washington State University who worked with Calles during his studies on Japanese cattle there, said most health claims remain unproven.

"I'm sold on it as steak. There's no question in my mind, it's superior to the best Angus. It not only has more flavor, it's more tender," he said.

"But I'm not sold on it being a lot healthier. With Japanese cattle you get a lot more fat. So what if some of it is healthier? A lot of work needs to be done," he said.

With HeartBrand now sending only about 40 steers a month to market, the company is a pipsqueak in the massive American beef market where nearly 800,000 head are slaughtered weekly.

So far, it has zealously protected its one unique asset.

"There are plenty of people interested in buying the genetics but if we did that, we'd be out of business in three years," Calles said.

The general plan is to begin marketing meat from both purebred Akaushi and first-generation crossbreeds which inherit many of the Akaushi qualities.

"The goal is to be slaughtering 2,000 head of cross cattle a week in 10 years," Beeman said.

A recent cover photo of an Akaushi steak in Texas Monthly magazine didn't hurt the breed's prospects, he said.

"We've got the new kid on the block, telling a story that's hard to believe. But a year ago, only one in a million people heard of Akaushi beef," Beeman said.

"It's kind of like having your cake and eating it, too. It tastes good and it's also good for you," he said.

A Great Escape

Oh, and what about that peculiar trade loophole that made it all possible 15 years ago?

Calles said the Japanese were responding to pressure for a new trade agreement with the United States in 1992 when they inadvertently allowed the small heard of Akaushi to legally exit.

"The protocol allowed Americans to import the cattle only if they were able to purchase them, relocate them to a quarantine station and file for export all within 24 hours," he recalled.

"The protocol was so tight, it was insane that anyone would try it. It was a miracle these cattle left Japan," he recalled.

The Japanese hadn't anticipated Americans who had done their homework helped by a South Korean company doing business in Japan and by the U.S. State Department.

Still, the cattle sat in Japanese quarantine for two years, costing their American owners more than $2 million for care and security. Two attempts were made to poison them, Calles said.

Finally, in November 1994, the Japanese relented, and the three bulls and eight heifers were flown to New York City in a specially equipped Boeing 747.

There they stayed for another six months in quarantine. When they finally made it to Texas, the cattle proved healthy and reproductive. And the rest, as they say, is rib-eye history.

jmaccormack@express-news.net

Tiger Kills Teen, Gets Shot




Parents of teen killed by tiger: 'It's hard to believe'

* Story Highlights
* NEW: Police investigating whether someone helped tiger escape
* The parents of mauled Carlos Sousa: There will be "no more Christmas"
* Two surviving victims are in stable condition, doctor says
* Sousa was killed just outside the tiger's enclosure, police say

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The parents of a 17-year-old boy killed by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo said the attack has forever ruined Christmas for them, while police are investigating whether someone helped the tiger escape.

The area of the zoo in which the Siberian tiger killed Carlos Sousa of San Jose has been deemed a crime scene, San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said.

The zoo's director, Manuel Mollinedo, said officials have not determined how Tatiana, who weighed more than 300 pounds, escaped from her exhibit area and attacked three patrons Tuesday before police shot and killed her.

Sousa's parents, Carlos and Marilza Sousa, said they were in shock and were having trouble believing what had happened.

"It's hard to believe," said the elder Carlos Sousa, who said he and his wife learned about their son's death Wednesday morning. "I had to go identify the body. It's pretty mangled up." VideoWatch the family's reaction to the attack »

Marilza Sousa put a photograph of her son on the family Christmas tree and said she'd never be able to celebrate the holiday again.

"Our Christmas is with him," she said. "No more Christmas."

Police said Sousa was killed just outside the tiger's enclosure. The two others, who were injured, were about 300 yards away by a cafe.

The two survivors were in stable condition Wednesday and doing well, San Francisco General Hospital said. VideoWatch as the tiger's victims are rushed to the hospital »

The head of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums said this was the first-ever visitor fatality due to an animal escape at a zoo accredited by the association.

Ron Magill of Florida's Miami Metrozoo told CNN that the Siberian tiger is "the most powerful cat on the face of this planet."

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Mollinedo was asked about an incident last year, in which Tatiana chewed flesh off a keeper's arm during a public feeding demonstration. Mollinedo said that Tatiana "was acting like a normal tiger" at the time, and that the zoo modified procedures to increase safety.

California's Division of Occupation Safety and Health determined the zoo was at fault because of hazardous conditions in the Lion House and lack of specialized safety training for employees. The zoo made changes that the state safety division ordered. The Lion House, the zoo's big-cat exhibit, was closed for more than six months after that incident.

Sousa's sister Beatrice appeared told CNN Wednesday night that the family has not received information about the investigation. "There's a lot of pain. You know, no words for it. It's just too much," she said. "Our family is very, very hurt."

The zoo was closed Wednesday while officials investigated the tiger attack. Mollinedo said the zoo will probably reopen Thursday, but the Lion House will remain closed "until we get a better understanding of what actually happened."

Tatiana was held in an exhibit area that included a 20-foot moat and an 18-foot wall, Mollinedo said. The 4-year-old tiger was born at the Denver Zoo and came to San Francisco in 2005.

Experts from other zoos will inspect the setup to help suggest modifications to assure safety, he said.

"We have deemed the site, as of last night, a crime scene," Fong said Wednesday, and police are working to gather evidence and witness statements.

Fong said fire and police responded to emergency calls shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday. When police arrived, they saw the tiger "sitting next to a person on the ground," and the tiger turned back and began attacking the person again, she said.

Officers yelled at the tiger to stop, and did not fire immediately "for fear that they would not be able to contain their fire," she said. "When the yelling was occurring, the animal turned toward the officers," who then shot and killed the animal, Fong said. VideoWatch as animal expert Jack Hanna discusses the attack »

Authorities carried out multiple searches to ensure there were no other victims, she said.

The zoo had closed at 5 p.m., and only around 20 people were still there, Mollinedo said.

The other victims of the tiger attack have not been publicly identified.

Dr. Rochelle Dicker, a surgeon at San Francisco General Hospital, said the two "young men" injured are "in very stable condition." In fact, she said, "they look absolutely fantastic."

Doctors are focusing on ensuring that the patients don't develop infections, she said, adding that they "will be on antibiotics for some time.

"By the time they got here, they were very, very stable -- not close to death," Dicker told reporters. "Really, it was just a matter of washing out their wounds."

Jim Maddy, president of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, issued a statement expressing "sympathy to the family of the guest that lost his life, and our deepest hope that the two injured guests will recover." Read about other escapes and attacks by captive animals

Maddy called the San Francisco Zoo "great," and noted that it is accredited by the association. "Until this incident, there had not been a visitor fatality resulting from an animal escape at an AZA-accredited zoo.

"AZA mandatory accreditation standards require safety and emergency protocols that go beyond federal, state or local requirements. Regular safety training and annual emergency drills are required by these mandatory accreditation standards."

He said association rules "require that the San Francisco Zoo provide a thorough report to its independent accreditation commission, which will review it and determine any actions that need to be taken. We will not speculate on what action might be taken until the facts are fully reviewed."

Along with Siberian tigers, an endangered species, the zoo has rarer and smaller Sumatran tigers.

Finally Higher Education for Elves




Yule school to teach Santa's elves

Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:19am EST

By Agnieszka Flak

ROVANIEMI, Finland (Reuters) - Customer service, story-telling, nature studies and wilderness survival are essential skills for any elf worthy of the name.

Anyone who aspires to a job as a Santa's helper can acquire them at a new Elf Academy in Rovaniemi, 2,600 km (1,600 miles) from the North Pole, which Finland claims as home to the "real" Santa Claus.

Christmas 2007 is in full swing as tourists seek Santa in the Arctic Circle but after the school opens next April, the 2,000 or so "elves" will be able to raise their game.

The competencies an elf needs are vast, says Esa Sakkinen, project coordinator and teacher at the Lapland Vocational College which will be running the academy.

They do more than pack the gifts that families pick up at the Christmas market outside "Santa's house" or help answer the 750,000 letters that arrive at his local post office each year.

"An elf needs to know how to make a fire in the snow ... also the local nature and animals, because you never know what the clients or kids are going to ask," he said.

The Santa business is vital to the region where unemployment is nearly double the Finnish average, winter temperatures average minus 15 to minus 10 degrees Celsius (5-14 Fahrenheit), and the snow can be more than a metre deep.

The first planeload of tourists visiting Santa landed in Lapland about 20 years ago and today about 500,000 tourists -- mainly from France, Britain and Russia -- visit Rovaniemi and Santa's nearby village each year.

The Christmas season contributed about one-third of the region's 2006 tourist income of 540 million euros (390 million pounds). Many people arrive on a day-trip to visit Santa, learn to drive huskies, taste local delicacies and -- with luck -- glimpse the Northern Lights above pine trees fat with snow.

Despite rival Santa Claus theme parks and Christmas markets in the United States, Canada, Japan, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Germany, the region says visitors to Finnish Lapland are increasing year by year.

PROFESSION: ELF

"The impact of tourism on our area is huge," said Timo Rautajoki, head of Lapland's Chamber of Commerce. "It's also a way for us to lure people back who have left the region because of better job opportunities in the south of the country."

The region plans to invest more than 1 billion euros to build new hotels, resorts and ski lifts, he said.

The new academy is the answer to a business need and an attempt to provide skills to help the long-term unemployed find out-of-season work. About 500 elves work in Rovaniemi, a town of 60,000 where in 2006 the unemployment rate was 14 percent, compared with a national average of 7.7 percent.

"The companies working in the business asked us whether we could develop the profession of elves and we said 'why not?'" said Sakkinen.

With about 1,000 young people leaving school or university each year and local jobs scarce, the competition to be a part of the Christmas magic is fierce. Hundreds vie for the often seasonal jobs with the region's 10 main safari companies.

Given the hostile climate, the region's tourist attractions focus on activities: cruises on an icebreaker, reindeer safaris, or simply hunting and canoeing. Each needs an elf or guide.

Elina Hakala, an elf in her mid-20s whose working name is Fir Cone, has been with Arctic Safaris full-time for three years, and said it can be a challenge to maintain children's enthusiasm throughout an action-packed day at sub-zero temperatures.

"You have to create an atmosphere and still make them feel 'OK, this is what we expected,' and then keep the spirit throughout the day," she said.

Exams to earn a professional certificate are part of the programme, which will be open to all ages.

TOUGH QUESTIONS

On arrival at the airport, elves dressed in green jackets and red gloves and hat ferry visitors on buses to their destinations through the winter twilight.

After a day driving a snowmobile they may accompany families to a reindeer farm or tell stories of Santa and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

Language skills are essential: last year, visitors came from 48 countries, according to Sakkinen. Most speak English, but numbers are growing from countries farther afield, such as Japan.

All the agencies have agreed on a version of the Santa story, but elves have to be ready to answer tricky questions from children or adults who spot anomalies in the legend.

One frequent puzzle is why -- since the Santa story describes how little elves jump out of Mrs. Santa's porridge pot -- the elves themselves are, like most Finns, really quite tall.

"We tell the kids it's because, unlike in Britain, we get a lot of snow and have to be able to see above it," said Hakala.

"Sometimes you get kids who insist they don't believe in Santa, and that's even harder."

© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved

Dogs of Peace and Mercy Strike Again




SoCal woman mauled to death by pit bulls

Posted 18h 39m ago

BARSTOW, Calif. (AP) — A packed of pit bulls surrounded a woman and mauled her to death, authorities said Wednesday.

Police found Kelly Caldwell, 45, lying in the street around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, and was taken to a hospital, where she later died, the San Bernardino County sheriff's department said.

After the mauling, the dogs ran to a nearby house. Deputies shot one dog to death when it returned to the scene and acted aggressively as paramedics were trying to save Caldwell's life, authorities said.

A second dog was shot to death Wednesday morning when it too returned. Deputies said it became aggressive as an animal control officer was trying to capture it.

Authorities said at least one dog belonged to a neighbor. No arrests were immediately made.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Bubi is Finland's Man of the Year




Helsinki names football owl "resident of the year"

Fri Dec 21, 9:47 AM ET

HELSINKI (Reuters) - An eagle owl which temporarily halted a Euro 2008 qualifier match between Finland and Belgium in front of 35,000 spectators in the summer, was named as Helsinki's resident of the year by a journalists' association.

In June the large bird of prey, later nicknamed Bubi, swooped over the football pitch before alighting on a goalpost and forcing the referee to hold up the game for six minutes.

"It was a unanimous decision. Bubi promoted Finnish football much more efficiently than our team's scoreless draws here and there," head of the journalists' association, Pasi Tuohimaa, told Reuters on Friday.

After Finland won the match, the owl was adopted as the national team's mascot.

Bubi disappeared from the stadium after a rock concert and did not appear at Finland's subsequent international matches. The team failed to qualify for the championships next year.

However, fans of Bubi were delighted to see the bird fly into the stadium while the award ceremony was being held -- its first appearance in months.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak and Sami Torma, Editing by Matthew Jones)

Fatty Gets Stuck in Pot





Overweight wombat needs rescuing after getting stuck in a flower pot

Last updated at 15:33pm on 27th December 2007

Wombats, those burly beasts from Australia, are renowned for their digging prowess.

But when baby Peaches could not find any decent earth to practice in at her carer's wildlife rehabilitation centre, she set to work on the flower pots.

She started digging into the earth in carer Shirley Lack's verandah pots, uprooting all the plants and breaking a few pots in the process.

The noise woke up Shirley at her home in the wildlife centre in the town of Tomerong, north of Sydney.

Hurrying out in her nightgown, she caught four-month-old Peaches in the act – pushing her nose deep down into one large pot and clawing out the roots of one of Shirley's prize camellias.

Shirley, who has been caring for orphaned wildlife at the centre for the past 20 years, said: "I let the wombats, young and old, out of their enclosure at night so they can graze on the grass for a few hours.

"They can't get out of the centre itself because the fences are sunk deep into the ground.

"Whether Peaches had had a go at escaping I don't know, but she certainly decided she had had enough of grazing with the other wombats and targeted the pot plants.

"She went through them one by one, tearing out the flowers and sticking her nose deep down into the earth.

"I'm quite used to them getting up to all kinds of mischief, like chewing up old shoes, but this is the first time one of them has attacked the flower pots."

Shirley cares for wombats that have been injured by cars, including babies whose mothers have been killed, leaving the young still alive in the pouch.

Like kangaroos, wombats carry their young in pouches but, unlike roos, the pouches face backwards, so they don't get filled with earth when the mother starts digging.

In the wild, they live in burrows which can be up to 60ft long and more than 12ft deep. They tend to stay in the burrows during the day, being kept warm in winter and cool in summer and, being of a sociable disposition, are happy to share their underground home with other wombats.

But there was no chance that Peaches would be inviting anyone to move in to one of her claimed flower pots – there just wasn't enough room.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Sad: Cop's Negligence Leads to Dog's Death




Lt. Curtis Endicott (right) paid a $256.25 fine in municipal court and was on 17 days paid administrative leave during the department's internal affairs and criminal investigations.

Marco died of heat stroke when Lt. Curtis Endicott left him in a closed police car.

Acworth cop charged with animal cruelty

In September, police dog died of heat stroke after being left in the car

By YOLANDA RODRÍGUEZ
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/20/07

An Acworth police officer whose canine partner died of heat stroke in September has been charged with violating the city's cruelty to animals ordinance and removed from the K-9 Unit.

Marco died of heat stroke when Lt. Curtis Endicott left him in a closed police car.

Lt. Curtis Endicott paid a $256.25 fine Thursday in municipal court, said Captain Wayne Dennard, a department spokesman. Endicott was on 17 days paid administrative leave during the department's internal affairs and criminal investigations.

Removal from the K-9 unit means a $10,000 reduction in Endicott's annual salary and the loss of his take-home police car, Dennard said.

Marco died of heat stroke when Endicott left him in a closed police car.

On Sept. 3, Endicott was moving his equipment from the patrol car into another cruiser because his dashboard camera was not working. While he was doing that Endicott, a shift commander, was called inside police headquarters.

He left Marco inside the closed car, which was turned off.

"He just forgot the dog," Dennard said. "Both investigations revealed that while there was no intent, his oversight resulted in the death of canine Marco."

Because the car was turned off, a canine protection system, which cools an overheated vehicle, did not activate.

"It would have functioned had it been on," Dennard said.,

The loss of Marco, a 6-year-old Belgian malinois, has been difficult for the veteran police officer, Dennard said.

Endicott and Marco were partners for five years. The drug-sniffing dog had found thousands of dollars worth of cocaine during their time together. The two also made frequent appearances at community events and in local schools.

"He's an animal lover and animal advocate," Dennard said.

In the past year, Endicott found a hawk that had been hit by a vehicle. He took it took to the veterinarian and nursed it back to health. Endicott later released it at Berry College in Floyd County, Dennard said.

Endicott took the hawk to the same veterinarian the department uses for its police dogs —the same vet who pronounced Marco dead.

Police Chief Michael Wilkie consulted with the Cobb District Attorney's Office on the case, but no felony charges were brought against Endicott.

Violation of the city ordinance is a misdemeanor. Endicott retains his job as a shift commander and his rank. He goes back to work on Monday.

"It's always difficult to charge one of your own," Dennard said. "But we are professionals, and we all signed on to do the job. And we do the job."

ACWORTH CITY CODE

Sec. 14-12. Cruelty to animals.

(c) Whoever confines any animal and fails to supply sufficient quantities of wholesome food and water, or who keeps any animals in any enclosure without wholesome exercise and change of air, or abandons to die any animal shall be deemed to be in violation of this chapter.

3 Pitbulls Move to Gwinnett




Three of Vick's dogs arriving at Suwanee shelter

By SANDRA ECKSTEIN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/21/07

Three of Michael Vick's pit bulls begin the rest of their lives Friday.

The three dogs, two males and a female, were picked up at three different shelters in Virginia and Washington, D.C., on Thursday. They rode for more than 12 hours to get to a Suwanee shelter, and were due to arrive early Friday morning.

"The female and one of the males will have to be fixed before they can go to the foster homes we have lined up for them," said Joan Sammond, executive director of the Georgia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the rescue group that agreed to take in three of the surviving 47 dogs seized from Vick's Virginia home in June. "The other male can go into foster care right away."

The group received the dogs after the U.S. district judge handling the case approved a recommendation from a guardian appointed to evaluate and find placement for the former fighting dogs.

Some of the dogs were deemed unadoptable, and those went to long-term sanctuaries. Others were found to be highly adoptable, and others were marked as questionable, but might be adoptable with training. The Georgia SPCA took in two highly adoptable dogs and one listed as questionable, although Sammond said she's confident that with training that dog also will find a home.

Sammond said since word got out that her organization was receiving several dogs involved in the Falcons quarterback's dogfighting ring, a number of people have contacted the shelter seeking to adopt them. But she said it won't work that way.

"We don't want people who are looking for a Vick dog. We want people who want to adopt a dog," Sammond said. "If they come in and fall in love with a dog and pass the screening process and they're approved and then they adopt the dog, and it happens to be one of Vick's dogs, then we'll tell them it's a Vick dog at that point.

"But not before. We want people to adopt them because they want a pet."

The adoption fee at the rescue is $250, and the animals come spayed or neutered, have all their shots, are wormed, health-tested and are on flea and heartworm preventative and are microchipped.

Vick relinquished custody of the dogs after his Virginia dogfighting operation was raided. He pleaded guilty Aug. 27 to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge and was sentenced Dec. 10 to 23 months in prison.

Vick also was ordered to pay for the evaluation, boarding and care of his former dogs. He deposited $928,073.04 into an escrow account on their behalf. Some of that money went to rescue groups that agreed to take in one or more of the dogs.

Each group taking a highly adoptable dog received $5,000 per dog, and those dogs deemed needing more long-term or permanent care came with $20,000.

The dogs that arrived in Georgia on Friday morning will receive training while in foster care, then be placed for adoption when ready. Sammond said she knew taking in Vick dogs would bring her group some notoriety, and she said while they wanted to help the pit bulls, they also wanted the pit bulls to help them.

And that's already happening, she said.

"A lot of people had never heard of us, but with the publicity we've gotten more recognition and, because of that, we've gotten more dogs adopted," she said. "So we're helping these dogs, and they're already helping other dogs."

For more information on the Georgia SPCA, go to www.georgiaspca.org or call 678-765-2726.

Japan Delays Whale Murders




Last Updated: Friday, 21 December 2007, 09:37 GMT

Japan drops humpback whale hunt

Japan has said the hunt would be too small to affect whale numbers

A controversial Japanese mission to hunt humpback whales in the Antarctic has been temporarily abandoned, a top government official says.

Nobutaka Machimura said the humpback hunt would not go ahead - although the fleet will still hunt about 1,000 other whales in the area.

The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Tokyo, says Japan is now unlikely to chase the humpbacks for at least a year.

The move comes after pressure from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Japan is regularly condemned for its annual whaling missions.

But this year's Antarctic expedition was particularly controversial because, in addition to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, the fleet intended to kill up to 50 humpbacks.

It was the first time Japan had targeted the humpbacks since a moratorium was introduced in the mid-1960s - when the species had been hunted almost to extinction.

Australia criticism

Japan says whaling is necessary for scientific research, but other countries say the same goals could be achieved using non-lethal techniques.

"Japan has decided not to catch humpback whales for one year or two," Mr Machimura told reporters.

He said the decision had been reached after a meeting with the IWC.

Mr Machimura said the IWC had not been "functioning normally", claiming that the commission had been distorted by ideology.

He said Japan would suspend the humpback whale hunt while the IWC held talks on "normalising" its functions.

Australia had been particularly critical of the humpback hunt, and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith welcomed Japan's decision.

But he reiterated Canberra's view that there was no credible reason for Japan to hunt any species of whale, and pledged to keep up diplomatic efforts to prevent further missions.

Beaver Receives Death Sentence for Trying to Trip Bikers




Wildlife Officials: Local Beaver To Be Killed
Beaver Said To Be Gnawing Down Too Many Trees

POSTED: 5:04 pm PST December 20, 2007
UPDATED: 5:43 pm PST December 20, 2007

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A local beaver who is making a mess of trees near the Kern Recreational Bike Path has been given the death sentence for its crimes.

Nine trees have been gnawed to stumps near the Park at Riverwalk.

Now, state wildlife officials have issued a permit to kill the rodent. They have yet to reveal how.

When asked why officials couldn't just relocate the little vandal, they said that is not an option because the animal’s nature is to stop the flow of water, which could ruin an irrigation canal or destroy more trees at another location.

Copyright 2007 by TurnTo23.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Soldier Dog Retires





Cpl. Dustin Lee, slain in Iraq in March, with his dog, Lex, who is going to live with Lee's family.

Eight-year-old Lex is the first dog to be released before the military's mandatory retirement age of 10.

CNN) -- Lex attended the funeral of his best friend in March, playing with the 20-year-old Marine's younger brother away from the crowd. He was beside Cpl. Dustin Lee when Lee was killed in a mortar attack in Falluja.

Wounded himself, Lex didn't want to leave Lee's side after the attack -- fellow Marines had to pull him away from the young man's body so medics could do their work.

Although some shrapnel remains in his body, Lex recovered from his wounds and returned to duty at the Marines' Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia, to await a new assignment.

On Friday, Lex gets that new assignment -- retirement to Lee's family home in Quitman, Mississippi, where the 8-year-old bomb-sniffing German Shepherd will live out the rest of his life.

Jerome Lee, the young Marine's father, lobbied the Marines hard for months to adopt the dog. Marine officials initially told Lee that it would be no problem to get the dog. But persuading the service to give up Lex before the dog's mandatory retirement at age 10 proved to be a challenge.

"Since Dustin's death we've been trying to get his dog, Lex, from the Marine Corps, and needless to say we've had some difficulty there," said Lee, a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer. "This thing went from colonels to generals all the way up to the commandant of the Marine Corps, and it almost went to the secretary of defense."

One of the issues was making sure the dog was not "overly aggressive." His behavior with the Lee youngsters -- Lex played tug-o-war with 13-year-old Camryn at Dustin's funeral -- seemed to assure that wouldn't be a problem. Marine officials also said the request had to go through the Air Force, which is the approving authority for all military dogs.

Finally, on December 13, the Marines agreed to let Lex live with Lee's family. It was the first time the Marines have released a dog before its retirement to a former handler's family.

"Lex has had two tours in Iraq," said Jerome Lee. "He's been through a lot, and we just want to get Lex home to our family, and let him have a happy life."

Well before joining the Marines, Dustin Lee was known by all for his devotion to his country. A member of Quitman High School's cross-country track team, Lee and three teammates participated in the Americans United: Flag Across America Run after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

So it was no surprise when the young man joined the Marines out of high school in 2004, nor was it a surprise when he went to Albany to train military police dogs, inspired by his mother's work with the county's search and rescue team dogs when he was a boy.

Dustin, an animal lover who also rode horses, played hide and seek with his mother's canine companion as a child, Jerome Lee said.

"He would let the dog get a sniff of his clothing and then go hide to see if the dog could find him," the elder Lee said.

At the logistics base in Albany, Lee said, Dustin "worked with all the dogs and became the kennel master."

Dustin and Lex had been stationed in Falluja for nearly five months before the fatal attack. When the Marine's body was returned to Quitman in late March, hundreds lined the streets waving American flags to say a tearful goodbye. And Lex was there.

In Albany on Thursday, current kennel master Mike Reynolds led Lex through his paces for the last time in his military career. Now it's time for the old pro to learn some new civilian tricks. In a ceremony on Friday, Lex will join the family of his best friend.
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Jerome Lee hopes his other two children will feel closer to their missing older brother.

"There's always going to be that missing link with Dusty gone," he said. "But part of Dusty is here with Lex."

Baby Spider-Monkey




Columbian black spider monkey born
20 December 2007 | 17:02

RODDY ASHWORTH

COLCHESTER Zoo's baby-boom is continuing unabated - with the latest addition to its collection being a Colombian black spider monkey.

It was born into the Essex attraction's main group of spider monkeys on Sunday night to mother Cheekaboo and father Heineken.

Despite being born completely bald, the baby seems to be progressing excellently and withstanding the cold winter weather well.

The spider monkeys are part of a European Endangered Species Programme as they are threatened by a rapidly increasing habitat loss in the Amazon Forest.

They require a very high level of paternal care and so female adults only give birth to a few offspring in their lifetime, making their population recovery in the wild very difficult.

The zoo's common squirrel monkeys have also been successful breeders this year with so many new babies some of them are now destined for collections elsewhere.

Tigers Kill Stupid Man




India Tigers Kill Man Reaching Into Cage

December 19, 2007 - 12:27pm
By WASBIR HUSSAIN
Associated Press Writer

GAUHATI, India (AP) - A man who stuck his arm into the tiger enclosure at a zoo in northeast India bled to death Wednesday after two big cats tore off his limb as his family and dozens of visitors watched, a zoo official said.

The man, identified as 50-year-old Jayaprakash Bezbaruah, avoided zoo safety precautions in an apparent attempt to photograph the two adult Bengal tigers up close, said Gauhati zoo warden Narayan Mahanta.

"The man ignored warnings from keepers, crossed the first barrier and stretched his hand into the enclosure that housed a male and a female tiger," he said. "The animals grabbed his limb and tore it apart at the shoulder."

Bezbaruah, who had been visiting the zoo with his wife and two children, was rushed to a local hospital but died of blood loss, said Mahanta.

"I have never encountered such a bizarre incident in my 11 years as a wildlife official. It was shocking," Mahanta said.

(Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Tiger Rescued from Idiot's Home




Tiger Confiscated from Home

Officials say man drove tiger around in SUV

Last Edited: Thursday, 20 Dec 2007, 8:18 AM MST
Created: Wednesday, 19 Dec 2007, 6:11 PM MST

By FOX 31 STAFF

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Wildlife agents confiscated a young, male Bengal tiger from a home in Centennial following an investigation that began last month.

In November, DOW officers said they received photos taken on a cell phone of a tiger being driven around the city in an SUV.

Several weeks later, officers received additional reports of sightings of the tiger in a backyard.

That led to Wednesday’s raid on the home in the 6200 block of East Mineral Place. Authorities from Arapahoe County assisted the Colorado Division of Wildlife in capturing and removing the young animal from the home.

DOW said the tiger will be held at a licensed facility pending the outcome of the court case against the owner, identified as Patrick Michael. He was issued a summons for a charge of unlawfully possessing wildlife.

Possession of Bengal tigers in Colorado requires a special license and there are strict caging requirements for facilities that house big cats.

DOW said Michael possessed no licenses to carry the tiger in an SUV or keep it at a home.

Great Dane Scares Away Car Theif




From The Times
December 19, 2007

Car thief has a swift change of heart after checking his rear-view mirror

BRIXHAM A thief who stole a car after spotting the keys in the ignition swiftly abandoned it when he was confronted by a great dane that had been asleep on the back seat.

The man was unaware that Diesel, an alsatian cross, was inside the Toyota 4x4. As he drove off he saw the dog, 9st (57kg) and 6ft tall on his hind legs, through his rear view mirror. As soon as Diesel sat up, the man stopped the car and fled.

Police found the car outside Brixham Rugby Club, Devon, only 30 yards from where it had been taken. The owner, Nick Griggs, 41, of Brixham, who runs a quad bike centre, said: “I’d love to have seen the look on his face when he saw Diesel. He must have got the shock of his life. There’s no alarm, but who needs one when you’ve got the Hound of the Baskervilles in your back seat?”

The car was stolen after Mr Griggs’s wife, Karen, 41, forgot to remove her keys from the ignition when she went to collect the couple’s two children from school. She said that the 11-month-old dog “would have thought it was time for walkies”. She added: “He’s a big softie – if the guy had hung around he’d have licked his hands and face. He’s very good with strangers.”

The Search for Sasquatch Continues




baltimoresun.com

Hunters of Sasquatch undaunted by failure

Mcclatchy-tribune

December 16, 2007

DEVIL PEAK, EL DORADO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif.

Wally Hersom is an intuitive man, with an instinct for when opportunity might knock.

It's not knocking now.

The soft-spoken, white-maned Hersom is standing in the dark on a remote mountaintop in Northern California listening to the eerily quiet rustling of leaves.

"It's too quiet," he says. "It doesn't feel right."

Below him in the pitch-black hollows of this remote forest area, groups of men and a few women sit crouched, pointing $9,000 thermal imaging cameras at the darkness.

Every so often, one of them emits a blood-curdling shriek.

They are searching for a monster.

Hersom, 72, is the reason why. Over the past year, the part-time resident of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., (Hersom's primary home is in Henderson, Nev.) has pumped tens of thousands of dollars into the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, an Orange County-based group of Sasquatch-hunters.

Hersom pays the salary of Matt Moneymaker, the BFRO's director. He has outfitted the group with 10 thermal imaging cameras, as well as video recorders and night-vision devices. Total cost: more than $100,000.

In the process, Hersom hopes to change the popular conception of Bigfoot believers from wooly-eyed weirdos to heroic hominoid hunters.

Hersom, like the more than 2 dozen people who have joined him on this expedition to the El Dorado National Forest, believes that Bigfoot is a yet-undiscovered species of immensely strong, craftily intelligent and highly elusive great ape.

"I think the timing's right," Hersom says. "In the next 12 months, this thing is going to break wide open."

Hersom is the former owner of HC Power, an Irvine, Calif.-based company that manufactured power conversion equipment for cell phone towers and industrial facilities. The company flourished, Moneymaker says, in large part because Hersom foresaw the importance of gadgets like cell phones and computers and created technologies to serve them.

"He's an engineering genius, and ... he's got this almost spooky sense of when it's the right time to do something," Moneymaker says.

That sense convinced Hersom to sell his company in 2000, before the dot-com bust. He reaped $110 million and decided to indulge a lifelong fascination: Bigfoot.

"My broker - when I told him what I was doing he couldn't stop laughing," Hersom says. "He thought I was crazy. But I think we have a unique opportunity because nobody believes us. Once [it's] proven that Bigfoot is out there, ... I think this is going to be the biggest discovery of the century."

Hersom stumbled on Moneymaker's BFRO Web site, one of many such sites that track and list Bigfoot sightings around the country. He went on an expedition in Wisconsin.

Nothing happened.

Hersom tried again on a second expedition. This time he says he heard howls in the night and had rocks thrown at him - typical Bigfoot behavior, according to Moneymaker.

"I heard three distinct steps near my tent," Hersom recalls. "I thought 'Oh, my God, here it is.'"

The experience sold him. He joined the BFRO and went on four more expeditions. He collected photographs and plaster casts of 15-inch-long Bigfoot tracks, which he displays in his stately San Juan Capistrano hilltop-home. He bought cameras and other equipment in hopes of generating photographic proof for the naysayers - and lucrative film footage for himself.

Moneymaker and Hersom speculate that Bigfoot has a nocturnal animal's acute night vision. The key to "discovering" Bigfoot, if such a creature exists, is to mimic that ability.

"The only way we're going to [prove] it is if we can film in the dark," Moneymaker says. Hersom has enabled the BFRO "to bring some technology to bear that has been out of reach of Bigfoot researchers."

On the mountain, Hersom stands silently while Moneymaker and his group of volunteers put the equipment to use. Through the camera's glowing scope, the darkness transforms into a silvery landscape. But there is no Bigfoot to be seen.

Moneymaker tips his head and emits a piercing scream. Over the radio, the scattered group of BFRO members is instructed to do the same and to knock baseball bats against trees. The screams and knocks are meant to mimic the alleged noises of a "real" Bigfoot. The hope, Moneymaker says, is to trick the creatures into coming within filming range.

Does Hersom ever feel ... er ... a bit ridiculous?

"I'm just going to play it by ear," Hersom says. "I'm going to go as long as it feels right for me."

Hersom says he has only heard Bigfoot, but many within the group report more intimate encounters. They describe a giant apelike creature that walks on two feet and appears to have its own language (called "Samurai" for its sing-song resemblance to un-dubbed ninja warrior movies).

Bigfoot also is, some say, capable of projecting a paralyzing telepathic feeling of fear that stuns humans and animals alike. Moneymaker uses the term "infrasound" and calls the experience being "zapped."

Why then, would anyone pursue an encounter?

Moneymaker describes the discovery of Bigfoot as a "historical prize." But for many members of this (mostly male) group of enthusiasts, the quest is the lure.

"Part of me really like the mystery of it - the not knowing, the seeking," says Robert Leiterman, who works as a park ranger in Humboldt County, Calif.

Leiterman is one of a half-dozen past and current Orange County residents who have joined Hersom and Moneymaker on this expedition to Northern California.

Among the group: two employees from an architectural design company, an advertising executive and the director of security for a hotel.

"I just have to know the truth," says Kathy Lammens, 43.

Lammens is on the expedition with friend and office-mate, Brooke Sharon, 54. Like many members of the BFRO, they are captivated by their obsession and capable of laughing at it.

"I am one of these people who have an open mind," Sharon says. "I love the idea of Bigfoot, of UFOs, of Nessie. Why not? Who's to say it's not true?"

Does it bother BFRO members that nothing will come of this night spent in the cold mountains of California - or the next two nights to follow?

"I'm a little bit discouraged that we didn't hear anything," Hersom says. "They're not everywhere all the time."

Good timing is Hersom's stock in trade. But even he acknowledges that "there's some luck involved."

"Some people say: Bigfoot will find us, we can't find Bigfoot," Hersom says.

Copyright © 2007, The Baltimore Sun

Midnight Marauder




A marauder kills 6 geese and 4 ducks. Farmer says culprit may be a bear

By Jeanne Bonner | Of The Morning Call
December 16, 2007

It started about 2 a.m. Saturday morning when the neighbor's dogs began to bark.

Normally, they only bark when the fire siren sounds, said George DeVault who lives and works on a 20-acre farm in Upper Milford Township. No fire siren had sounded.

At 4 a.m. one of the St. Bernard dogs was still barking, so DeVault got up and went outside to see what the trouble was. He soon found the bodies of six of his geese and four ducks. A waist-high electric fence designed to keep intruders out of the animals' pen was badly mangled.

To DeVault, and an official he called at the Pennsylvania Game Commission, it's likely a bear attacked and killed the animals.

''The markings on the bodies indicate an animal with a big mouth,'' said DeVault, 56, in an interview Saturday afternoon.

DeVault sells blueberries, cut flowers and eggs culled from his geese at the Emmaus Farmers Market. He estimates the intruder cost him about $500. That includes $40 a head he expected to collect from the Farmhouse restaurant in Emmaus, which had reserved four geese to serve over the holidays.

''We have one left and I don't think I have the heart to eat her after what she went through last night,'' said DeVault.

''Oh no!'' exclaimed Michael Adams, the chef of the Farmhouse, when he learned the fate of the geese he had ordered.

Then there was a pause.

''Oh no!'' he said again. ''What a shame.''

Adams had planned to include goose on a special menu at the restaurant for New Year's Eve.

According to field notes on the Game Commission's Web site, bears have been sighted recently in Northampton County. One report said archery hunters saw ''numerous bears'' near Blue Mountain. Two bears were killed along the road in the first week of November.

A game commissioner told DeVault to hold onto the carcasses until Monday, when an official will examine the animals to determine the type of predator. The game commission did not respond to calls seeking comment on Saturday.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Let's Talk Monkey Sex




Study Reveals Why Monkeys Shout During Sex

By Charles Q. Choi, Special to LiveScience

posted: 18 December 2007 08:33 pm ET

Female monkeys may shout during sex to help their male partners climax, research now reveals.

Without these yells, male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) almost never ejaculated, scientists found.

Female monkeys often utter loud, distinctive calls before, during or after sex. Their exact function, if any, has remained heavily debated.

Counting pelvic thrusts

To investigate the purpose behind these calls, scientists at the German Primate Center in Göttingen focused on Barbary macaques for two years in a nature reserve in Gibraltar.

The researchers found that females yelled during 86 percent of all sexual encounters. When females shouted, males ejaculated 59 percent of the time. However, when females did not holler, males ejaculated less than 2 percent of the time.

To see if yelling resulted from how vigorous the sex was, the scientists counted the number of pelvic thrusts males gave and timed when they happened. They found when shouting occurred, thrusting increased. In other words, hollering led to more vigorous sex.

Counting monkey pelvic thrusts is admittedly "quite weird, but it's science," researcher Dana Pfefferle, a behavioral scientist and primatologist at the German Primate Center, told LiveScience. "You get used to it."

Quite promiscuous

Male and female Barbary macaques are promiscuous, often having sex with many partners. This means sperm levels can get quite drained. The females shout when they are most fertile, so males can make the most use of their sperm.

Pfefferle noted her research suggests these calls might also make females more attractive to other males. She added these shouts might play different roles in other species.

Pfefferle and her colleagues detailed their findings online Dec. 18 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Evil Kitty Wants to Murder Mailman




Ms Goddard says Georgi still waits for the postman to come everyday

Last Updated: Monday, 17 December 2007, 10:40 GMT

Postmen complain of cat attacks

Ms Goddard says Georgi still waits for the postman to come everyday
A woman has put a mailbox at the end of her drive after postmen complained of being repeatedly attacked by her cat.

Sarah Goddard, from Derby, said her moggy Georgi had left a postman bleeding after scratching his hands as he put letters through the door.

She explained: "I think she only wants the letters but obviously she must just accidentally catch his fingers."

A spokesman for Royal Mail approved the move to use a post box away from the front door.

He said most attacks were carried out by dogs but it was not uncommon for animals such as cats to attack staff.

'Very responsible'

A statement from the company said: "We record about 5,000 animal attacks a year, the vast majority being dogs but its not uncommon for our postmen and women to be attacked by cats, birds and any other animal protecting its territory.

"Most pet owners are very responsible and in this case Ms Goddard has taken action to allow the postman to make deliveries without the risk of further injury."

Ms Goddard has apologised to delivery staff but said her 18-month-old tortoiseshell tabby cat was not a vicious animal.

She said: "Wherever she is in the house she can hear him [the postman] coming and she runs down."

A Lost World of Giant Rats and Tiny Opposums





Giant rat found in 'lost world'

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science, underscoring the stunning biodiversity of the Southeast Asian nation, scientists said Monday.

Unearthing new species of mammals in the 21st century is considered very rare. The discoveries by a team of American and Indonesian scientists are being studied further to confirm their status.

The animals were found in the Foja mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province in a June expedition, said U.S.-based Conservation International, which organized the trip along with the Indonesian Institute of Science.

"The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip."

The possum was described as "one of the worlds smallest marsupials."

A 2006 expedition to the same stretch of jungle -- dubbed by Conservation International as a "Lost World" because until then humans had rarely visited it -- unearthed scores of exotic new species of palms, butterflies and palms.

Papua has some of the world's largest tracts of rainforest, but like elsewhere in Indonesia they are being ravaged by illegal logging. Scientists said last year that the Foja area was not under immediate threat, largely because it was so remote.

"It's comforting to know that there is a place on Earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature," said expedition leader Bruce Beehler. "We were pleased to see that this little piece of Eden remains as pristine and enchanting as it was when we first visited." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Welcome Baby Giraffe and Baby Asian Wild Ass!





Tall guy needs name

Caroline Marcus
December 16, 2007

THERE'S been a baby boom at Western Plains Zoo.

An as-yet-unnamed giraffe, born at the Dubbo wildlife park on December 6, is now on public view.

The male calf arrived with an unceremonious thud, falling 1.8 metres to the ground. Giraffes give birth standing up.

But he was able to stand up by himself less than an hour later, sticking close to mum, Matungi.

A Persian onager foal, also known rather unflatteringly as the Asian wild ass, was born just hours earlier.

The foal was named Touran, after one of just two protected reserves in Iran where the species still remains. There are fewer than 500 Persian onagers left in the wild.

- The Sun-Herald invites readers to choose a name for the baby giraffe. Names of other animals at the zoo reflect their geographic origin.

Email ideas to shdmedia@sunherald.com.au

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Save the Gharials




Last Updated: Friday, 14 December 2007, 16:00 GMT

Mass deaths of rare croc in India

At least 21 endangered crocodile-like gharials have been found dead over the past three days in a river in northern India, wildlife officials say.

The reptiles died in the Chambal River, and one official said that cirrhosis of the liver was the cause of the deaths.

Tests are now being carried out on the water for the presence of any liver-damaging toxins.

The gharial, with its long, narrow snout adapted for eating small fish, is critically endangered in South Asia.

The reptiles died in the Chambal River, which runs along the border between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

"Autopsies confirm liver cirrhosis as the cause of death," DNS Suman, Uttar Pradesh's top wildlife official, told Reuters news agency.

He said poisoning was not suspected as fish in the river had not died.

The gharial, also known as the Indian crocodile, is one of the longest of all living crocodilians - an adult male can approach 6m (20ft) in length.

The gharial was on the verge of extinction several decades ago.

In 1986, some 500 reptiles were released into the wild under a project funded by the Indian government, but wildlife officials say only a few of them have survived.

Some experts believe the gharials are unable to cope with the change in their water habitat when they leave the zoo.

Other factors such as fishing and pollution of the river by industrial effluents are thought to have contributed to the decline in the number of the reptiles.

Shark Murders Swimming Roo




Kangaroos are not known for their love of the sea

Last Updated: Thursday, 13 December 2007, 13:59 GMT

Shark 'kills swimming kangaroo'

A kangaroo met an unlikely death after it bounded into the surf in southern Australia and was mauled by a shark, according to eyewitnesses.

Daniel Hurst, who says he saw the incident while out walking his dogs, was accused of being drunk or on drugs after he told the story to friends.

But the emergence of a second witness and the discovery of mangled kangaroo remains appear to confirm his story.

Experts say kangaroos will take to the sea only if they are ill or in danger.

Mr Hurst said he was walking along Torquay beach in Victoria when he saw the marsupial behind scrubland next to the dunes.

"It just headed down towards the water and in it went," he told Australia's ABC News.

"There's a bit of a rip in that area so... the kangaroo could have been dragged out, but I could still see its head, and that's when the shark leapt out of the water on its side.

"The kangaroo disappeared after that. I stayed around for a while, just very interested, and hoping the shark jumped again, but it never eventuated."

The unlikely tale appears to have been backed up by local officials, who discovered a kangaroo carcass on the beach.

And a second witness, Mick Boucher, came forward to say he also saw the shark attack.

Mr Boucher said the marsupial, which seemed dazed, stood at the edge of the water for about 10 seconds and then started swimming out to sea.

"It was bobbing up and down,'' Mr Boucher said.

He told the Geelong Advertiser that the unfortunate marsupial was about 200m (656ft) from shore when the shark struck.

He said the predator's back was clearly visible above the choppy waves as it launched its attack.

"It wasn't a huge shark and it was too far out to see clearly, but it was a shark. I couldn't believe it."

Cow Fart Clock




A smoke machine ensures the cow emits its gas at set times

Last Updated: Friday, 14 December 2007, 17:36 GMT

Flatulent cow puts wind up locals

A mechanical cow that breaks wind on the hour has become Edinburgh's latest tourist attraction.

The bovine backside has been attached to the side of the Rowan Tree pub in the city's historic Old Town.

It lifts its tail and shoots out a cloud of white smoke at passers-by throughout the day.

Pub landlord Norrie Rowan, a former Scotland international rugby star, said the cow was becoming as popular with tourists as nearby Greyfriars Bobby.

It was installed on the side of the pub earlier this year, but the mechanics that allow it to break wind at 1100 GMT, noon and 1300 GMT are a new addition.

A dry ice machine ensures the flatulent beast is regular and helps locals keep track of time in a similar way to the city's famous One O'clock Gun.

Mr Rowan said the cow was a bit of fun that had already become a popular landmark in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh.

He added: "The cow is already famous around Edinburgh and I get hundreds of tourists coming by and taking pictures of it."

There's Mother****ing Scorpions on this Mother****ing Plane -- FARK




Scorpions on board plane prompts panic

Thursday, 13 December 2007 17:24

Two scorpions that scurried across the cabin aisle of a Vietnam Airlines plane panicked passengers and delayed the domestic flight by two hours.

All 170 passengers left the Boeing 777 after the poisonous creatures were caught shortly before the jet had been due to take off from the central city of Danang for Hanoi today.

The flight was delayed for two hours as the airline checked the rest of the plane and its luggage.

But passengers shrieked again when the jet reached Hanoi and four more stowaway scorpions were found in an overhead compartment.

In April, a Vietnam Airlines flight to Tokyo was delayed for hours after a white mouse went missing on the plane. It was later found and destroyed.

Crinkly Swan Love



Crinkly was shunned by girls

Freak Swan Crinkly Finds Love at Last

Updated:15:12, Friday December 14, 2007

A male swan who was shunned by females due to his oddly deformed neck may finally have found a girlfriend after seven years of waiting.

Crinkly the ugly swan has become a well-known face at a Gloucester bird sanctuary, having flown in from frozen Russia every year since 2001 to spend Christmas there.

But conservation workers have watched with dismay as Crinkly failed miserably to attract the opposite sex.

"We were worried about Crinkly because he is such a strange-looking bird," said Jools Mackin, spokesperson for Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, which is the swan's Christmas home.

"Every time he returns it is against the odds."

Until now, none of the females at the trust was prepared to mate with him - but conservation workers say they can see the signs of a budding romance.

"We are delighted because we think Crinkly has finally found a girlfriend," said Ms Mackin.

"He appears to be loosely associating with another Slimbridge Bewick's swan called Taciturn.

"It is too early to say whether or not they are mates, but we'll be monitoring them over the next few days to see. At the moment they are associating on Swan Lake.

"They are flying in and out together and we do hope they will become mates."

Experts at Slimbridge were amazed when Crinkly first arrived as a cygnet with parents Lucius and Coletta, with a strangely deformed neck probably caused by a birth defect.

Despite his disability, Crinkly has managed to survive seven migrations from breeding grounds on the Russian Arctic tundra - which means that he has flown over 21,000km.

Swans fly back to Britain at this time of year because conditions in the tundra make feeding impossible.

Tuna's Revenge




Australian tuna tossing competition to use fake fish in bid to go green

The Associated Press
Published: December 14, 2007

SYDNEY, Australia: Australia's competition to see how far someone can throw a tuna will be missing something next year: the fish.

Organizers of the Tunarama Festival held each January in Port Lincoln on the remote Eyre Peninsula are replacing the real thing with polyurethane replicas for the highlight event, the frozen tuna toss.

Each year, contestants in four categories hurl fish weighing up to 10 kilograms (22 pounds) as far as they can, usually using a technique akin to an Olympic hammer thrower's. The winner in each category gets 1,000 Australian dollars (US$870; €590)

The fake fish have been sculpted by a locally born artist to look just like the real thing.

"The dimensions are perfect," Merriwyne Hore, the acting manager of the 2008 festival, told The Associated Press. "We road tested it with one of our champions. He had a few throws, and he was really impressed. It felt good, very balanced."

Hore said the switch was being made for several reasons, including to avoid wasting perfectly good fish.

"What happens when the tuna is tossed, even though it's frozen solid, it does start to break down," Hore told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "The tail comes off, the fins come off, the eyes fall out and then the underbelly breaks, and, you know, it really gets to be extremely messy."

Hore said some people had objected to the change, but it was judged necessary on ecological and monetary grounds.

"Some people don't like it because it's not original, but it's time we got green, got realistic about this," she said.

Farms in Port Lincoln are the main source of Australia's tuna, including the southern blue fin species that is prized in Japan for sashimi. One good-sized tuna — known for their high-speed swimming and deep red flesh — can fetch A$6,000 (US$5,280; €3,600).

Puppy's Revenge



Playful puppy latches on to urinating man's member

By staff writers

December 14, 2007 07:44pm
Article from: NEWS.com.au

A DRUNKEN man urinating through a fence got a nasty surprise when a playful puppy in the adjoining lot latched onto his member.

Kann Veasna took a break from drinking wine at a street stall to relieve himself through a hole in a fence, according to news agency DPA.

However a puppy spotted the Mr Veasna's appendage as it poked through and apparently thinking it was a toy latched on, newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea reported.

Suffering lacerations Mr Veasna fronted up to a hospital in Phnom Penh for treatment and was forced to tell the embarrassing story of injuries.

"It's undoubtedly sore now, but luckily it should still be useful to him in the future,'' a doctor was quoted as saying by DPA.

Man's Revenge



Man bites rabid dog
Reuters | Saturday, 15 December 2007

Upset that a stray rabid dog was fleeing with a duck from his compound, a man in southern India caught the animal, wrestled with it and bit it hard in the throat before it was beaten to death, a newspaper said.

A report in the Hindustan Times on Friday said the dog had become a menace to villagers in Pakakkadavu, in the Kollam district of Kerala state, which, like most of India, has a large stray dog population.

The 65-year-old man wrestled with the dog in a ditch near his home on Wednesday and bit it so hard it bled from its neck while one of his hands was in the grip of the animal's mouth, the report said.

Neighbours separated the two and beat the dog to death.

The man was being treated in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram for rabies, it said.

Glowing Kitties



A photo released in Seoul by the Ministry of Science and Technology shows a combo of cloned cats (left) that have a fluorescence protein gene and glowing (right) under ultraviolet beams. The technology could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases.
Photo: AFP

Korea breeds glow-in-the-dark cats

December 13, 2007 - 12:42AM

SEOUL - South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases, officials said today.

In a side-effect, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.

A team of scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

"It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned," the ministry said in a statement.

"The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model (cloned) animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," it added.

The cats were born in January and February. One was stillborn while two others grew to become adult Turkish Angoras, weighing 3kg and 3.5kg.

"This technology can be applied to clone animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," the leading scientist, Kong, told AFP.

"It will also help develop stemcell treatments," he said, noting that cats have some 250 kinds of genetic diseases that affect humans, too.

The technology can also help clone endangered animals like tigers, leopards and wildcats, Kong said.

South Korea's bio-engineering industry suffered a setback after a much-touted achievement by cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk turned out to have been faked.

The government banned Hwang from research using human eggs after his claims that he created the first human stem cells through cloning were ruled last year to be bogus.

Hwang is standing trial on charges of fraud and embezzlement.

AFP

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Unicorn Deer




Hunter’s camera captures images of a ‘unicorn deer’
Antler deformations possible, expert says

By John F. Bonfatti
Updated: 12/12/07 7:02 AM

Roaming somewhere in the woods around Elma is the unicorn deer.

Captured on a motion-sensitive game camera, the adult deer appears to have a long antler sticking out of its head between it’s eyes.

“It looks like a unicorn deer,” said Dave Ebeling, the hunter-photographer who caught the deer on camera Oct. 16.

“I thought it was some kind of joke, but how can that be?” said the 46-year-old Ebeling, who added the photo was not retouched. “I got it [on camera].”

Ebeling, who has been hunting since he was 16, has never seen anything like it.

He showed the picture to a select few hunter friends. They suggested that the antler might be a piece of another buck’s antler that became lodged in the deer’s head during a fight.

But Ebeling said he didn’t think so, because three weeks after the camera took the first picture, it recorded another image. It appears to be the same deer because the antler is in the same spot as the first photo.

“If it was something like [a piece of another deer’s antler], it would have been off or turned sideways, because they fight,” he said.

Tim Spierto, senior wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said he has never seen a deer quite like the one pictured, but he did have a possible explanation for the antler.

“He must have bumped that antler fairly early on in development,” Spierto said, adding that such an injury may have led to the extra antler. “Bumping it or scraping it could cause it to form another antler right at the injury point,” he said.

Spierto said he has seen similar situations. But in those cases, the extra antler formed more in the center of the deer’s head, between its existing antlers.

“We’ve seen antler deformations before,” he said, adding that they’re usually accompanied by another characteristic.

“When I see things like this, I ask if there’s an injury to the opposite hind leg,” Spierto said. “More often than not, I’ll see an archery wound or a broken bone that’s mended. Why it affects antler development, I have no idea why, but it’s one of those weird breaks of nature.”

Unless it’s a genetic flaw, the deer will not have the extra antler when it regrows its rack next year, Spierto said.

That’s assuming the deer makes it through the muzzleloading hunting season, which ends Tuesday, and then through the winter.

“I just wish somebody would shoot it so we’d know what that was,” Ebeling said.

jbonfatti@buffnews.com