Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Kangaroo on the Loose in Denmark




Police seek public help for kangaroo afoot in Denmark

Oct 30 12:14 PM US/Eastern

Danish police appealed for public help Tuesday to track down a kangaroo that escaped from its owner's home in Copenhagen.

Two of the fleet-footed native Australian marsupials escaped from their owner's residence in the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Amager on Monday.

One found its own way home on Tuesday but the second remains on the loose, police said.

"Passersby saw it on Tuesday afternoon and its owner, Jan Passer, is on his way to try to persuade it to return home," a police officer told AFP.

"He is very nice, according to his owner, and easy to cajole with just a carrot," he added.


Copyright AFP 2007, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Cute



Spit the dog pilots Terrier jet


Published: 29 Oct 2007


GUESS that’s what you’d call an air of the dog!

But Stanley the wire-haired fox terrier looks more RAF than ruff as he goes for a spin in his replica Spitfire.

The four-month pup wears a flying hat, goggles and jacket to ride in the “plane” made from an old holdall and skateboard.

Owners Phil and Sharon Cook created his outfit for a Halloween party at a dog boutique near their home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

Sharon, in her 40s, said: “People think we’re barking, but Stanley loves it.”

Scientists Kill Really Old Clam





Clam claims oldest animal record

Ian Sample
o Ian Sample, science correspondent
o Guardian Unlimited
o Monday October 29 2007

A clam that lived on the seabed in the frigid waters off Iceland's north coast has been hailed as the longest-lived animal ever discovered.

The mollusc, which is thought to have lurked beneath the waves until at least the age of 405, would have been a juvenile when Galileo picked up his first telescope, Hamlet was first staged and the gunpowder plot failed to blow up King James I.

The Arctica islandica clam was plucked from 80m-deep water by researchers at Bangor University in Wales, who were dredging the north Iceland shelf for the creatures. By studying their shells, the scientists hope to learn how the marine environment has changed in recent centuries.

The clam was alive when it was brought to the surface, but at that point, the researchers had no idea how old it was. Only after cutting through the shell and counting annual growth rings under a microscope did they date the mollusc to between 405 to 410 years old.

"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," said Al Wanamaker, a postdoctoral scientist on the university's Arctica team. "For our work it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."

Marine biologists are unclear why the particular species of clam, Arctica islandica, is so long-lived. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the current claim for the oldest animal goes to another Arctica clam that lived for 220 years, though an unofficial record is held by yet another that lived to 374 years old.

Dr Wanamaker said he believed the clam had survived so long because fisheries and predators were so few in the region. In some parts, clam populations have been wiped out through overfishing, while marine predators, including cod, seals and wolf fish also take a hefty toll.

Chris Richardson, a member of the team, said further studies of the clams might shed light on ageing. "If, in Arctica islandica, evolution has created a model of successful resistance to the damage of ageing, it is possible that an investigation of the tissues of these real life Methuselahs might help us to understand the process of ageing," he said.

The clams are born as larvae which drift through the oceans until they settle on to the seabed and begin to grow shells. Unlike scallops, they cannot propel themselves, but burrow down into the sea bed where they filter and feed on a constant rain of nutrient-rich phytoplankton.

"It's a mind-boggling amount of time to be sat there doing that," said Dr Wanamaker.

The project was part of a broader EU programme called Millennium, which seeks to understand changes in climate over the past 1000 years. The researchers can interpret how the ocean conditions varied by looking for changes in shell growth, which are affected by seawater temperature, salinity and availability of food.

The research team believe they may have older clams in their collection that have yet to be dissected.

"It's quite possible others are out there in the water that are 600 years old," said Dr Wanamaker.

· This article was amended on Monday October 29 2007.

Possible Future Career: Monkey-Catcher




((The picture on the right is a langur))

Assam squads take on monkeys

29 Oct 2007, 0111 hrs IST,Ruhi Bhasin,TNN

SMS NEWS to 58888 for latest updates
NEW DELHI: New monkey-catchers have been hired by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to deal with the monkey menace in the city. The officials from the veterinary department who had been sent to other states like Tamil Nadu and Assam in search of monkey-catchers have been successful in bringing back two teams of monkey-catchers from Assam - each team consists of four members. They will be put on duty on Monday.

Said director veterinary services R B S Tyagi: ‘‘Two new teams have been brought from Assam and they will start work from Monday. Since the monkey-catchers from other states have been seen to be more efficient, we will most likely assign the teams from Assam a particular zone to catch-monkeys in that area. The MCD is also planning to form a monkey-squad that will rush to a spot on receiving complaints of monkey menace.”

Besides this, another local monkey-catcher, Dilip Khan, has also approached the civic agency and his application form has been sent to the MCD commissioner A K Nigam.

Khan (40), who is a resident of Kabir Nagar in north Delhi claims that he is hired by various colony RWAs to catch monkeys and also scare them away by using langurs.

He said: ‘‘BJP councillor Raj Khurana told me about the fact that the civic agency needed monkey-catchers and I applied for the post. I will earn good money as they pay Rs 450 per monkey caught. My application has gone for approval to the authorities concerned. He has been catching monkeys for the last five years.

Besides catching monkeys, Khan also helped Khurana in campaigning for the municipal elections.

Khan added: ‘‘we are illiterate people and while MCD might have taken out advertisements for recruiting monkey-catchers, I didn’t get to know of it earlier. My son will help me out and my nieces and nephews will also provide a helping hand if I am hired by the civic agency. The MCD has also asked him to demonstrate his technique of catching monkeys to ensure that no cruelty is done while catching the simians.

Wanted: Little Horse Thief



BBC NEWS
Police hunt miniature pony thief
Police in Clackmannanshire have launched a hunt for a stolen miniature Shetland pony.

The animal, known as Dulcie and which stands just 28 inches tall, was taken from a field at Shavelhaugh Loan, between Alva and Fishcross.

Central Scotland Police said the pony's size was such that someone could simply have reached into the field and carried her off.

The animal disappeared sometime between 1400 BST and 1800 BST on 23 October.

'Unusual theft'

The six-month-old pony, which is worth between £800 and £1,000, is described as having long white hair and a slightly orange coloured muzzle with a faint white flash in the centre of the forehead above the eyes.

A police spokesman said: "We are following several potential lines of inquiry. The owner left the pony and other horses in the field at 2pm and when he returned to make a final check four hours later, this particular pony had disappeared.

"There were no obvious signs of entry being made to the field such as open gates or fences being tampered with.

"The pony is of such a size that the person who took her may simply have lifted her over the fence.

"This is clearly an unusual theft and we would appeal to anyone who is aware of the pony's whereabouts to contact us."

Anyone with information is asked to contact Central Scotland Police.

Lion on Loose in West Virginia




African lion alleged to be in W.Va.

The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 10/29/2007 10:11:18 AM MDT

LEWISBURG, W.Va.—Using a video camera and raw chicken, state officials hope to learn whether the king of the jungle is prowling the woods of West Virginia.

Bow hunter Jim Shortridge believes he saw a full-grown, male African lion weighing between 250 and 300 pounds at the foot of Cold Knob Mountain earlier this month. The state Division of Natural Resources confirmed that at least one other person has reported seeing the lion.

Using a camera normally employed to catch people dumping trash illegally, the state Department of Environmental Protection has joined with Greenbrier County Animal Control Officer Robert McClung and exotic animal expert Jim Forga to see if they can substantiate the sightings.

Twenty pounds of raw chicken left on the site last week were devoured, but McClung said that doesn't prove the lion's existence.

"Anything could have eaten that," he said.

If officials do spot the lion on videotape, they may set a bear trap for the animal. If caught, it would be turned over to Forga, who runs Tiger Mountain Refuge in Rainelle, a shelter for exotic animals.

New Jersey Cuisine Back on Menu




Squirrels safe to eat again in New Jersey

Tuesday, October 30th 2007, 4:00 AM

TRENTON - You may now resume eating the squirrels.

In January, the Garden State warned hunters and residents near a toxic waste dump in Ringwood in North Jersey to limit their consumption of squirrel after the feds thought they found lead in a dead squirrel. Officials now say it was a false alarm.

The Environmental Protection Agency said a blender used to process the squirrel's tissue samples was defective - and that the lead believed to be in the squirrel actually came from a part of the blender.

That's good news for members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe and others who like squirrel meat.

It's bad news, however, for the squirrels.

News Wire Services

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Lobsters' Revenge




Breakout: Dozens Of Lobsters Escape Supermarket

Lobsters in Germany took fate into their own claws and broke out of an Asian supermarket. They now face a brighter future in an animal home.

Dozens of lobsters destined to be boiled alive made a successful getaway from an Asian supermarket in the German city of Stuttgart in the early hours of Sunday morning.

From Spiegel International:

The clawed crustaceans, some of them up to 15 centimeters long, managed to crawl out of their crates, which had been poorly secured with wire mesh, then scurried across the floor of the supermarket and squeezed through the metal shutters covering the front of the store. The front door had been left open by mistake.

“The breakout was successful,” Katrin Brandeis, spokeswoman for the Stuttgart police, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “Passers by alerted the police at 1:45 a.m. reporting a large number of the animals heading down the street.”

The escape may have saved their lives. “These animals weren’t ever going to be pets,” Brandeis said. “Now they’ve been taken to an animal home. The supermarket hasn’t got in touch with us.”

Lesbian Worms




Gene switch altered sex orientation of worms

Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:56am EDT

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Altering a gene in the brain of female worms changed their sexual orientation, U.S. researchers said on Thursday, making female worms attracted to other females.

The study reinforces the notion that sexual orientation is hard-wired in the brain, said Erik Jorgensen, scientific director of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah.

"They look like girls, but act and think like boys," Utah researcher Jamie White, who worked on the study published in the journal Current Biology, said in a statement.

Researchers in Jorgensen's lab switched on a gene in female worms that makes the body develop male structures, but they only activated the gene in the brain.

As a result, the female worms still had female bodies, but they behaved like males.

"It suggests sexual behavior is encoded in our genes" and not caused by extra nerve cells specific to males or females, Jorgensen said in a telephone interview.

Animals such as nematodes, fruit flies and mice share many of the same genes as humans and are often used as models to understand human genetics.

But Jorgensen said the study is not likely to resolve the burning question about the genesis of sexual orientation in humans. "A human's brain is much more complex than a worm's brain," he said.

Many scientists think a host of factors such as genetics, hormones and environment may play a role in determining sexual orientation in humans, but this has not been proven.

Jorgensen said the study is interesting because it suggests rather than being caused by extra, sex-specific nerve cells, attraction behaviors are part of the same brain circuit.

The finding was part of a study looking at areas in the worms' brains involved in sexual attraction.

LIVE IN DIRT, EAT GERMS

Nematodes, or C. elegans, are tiny worms about one millimeter long that live in the dirt, chomping bacteria. They have no eyes and rely on smell for navigation and propagation.

There are few males, only one in 500, so most of these female nematodes are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female sexual organs. This gives the female worms the ability to fertilize their own eggs and produce offspring in the absence of a male.

"For the most part they are females," Jorgensen said. "It's really hard to tell that they are hermaphrodites, but they do make these few sperm."

When they do mate with males, female worms produce 1,200 progeny, compared with just 200 when they produce their own sperm.

The researchers were trying to understand the underpinnings of sexual attraction in the male nematodes.

They reasoned it could arise from four extra smell-related nerve cells found only in male worm brains, from four core nerves found in both males and females or from a mix of both.

When they systematically neutralized the male-only neurons, mature male worms still responded to the females.

The findings imply nerve cells common to both male and female worms are central to sexual attraction and sexual orientation.

"They have genes for both male behavior and female behavior in them," Jorgensen said. "It suggests the brain determines behavior."

The study expands on prior studies suggesting a genetic component to sexual orientation.

"This is one more observation. We've seen this in flies and in mice," he said. "The difference is we know what cells are involved."

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Stalin's Humanzee




Catnip

The ugly side of a beautiful world

By: Andrew Austin

Issue date: 10/25/07 Section: WildLife

Ape Escape

Primates aren't really taking over the world ...are they? Documents released from Moscow show that in the 1920s, Joseph Stalin (here at the Wildcat we just call him "Joe") commissioned biologist Ilya Ivanov to create a race of half-man, half-ape soldiers called "humanzees." Stalin requested, "I want a new invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat." Unfortunately, the experiment fell through before Ivanov could artificially inseminate any of the human females with ape sperm.

For his failure at the expense of the Motherland, Ivanov was sentenced to five years of exile in Kazakistan.

Now, with cloning, we're less than a decade away from a monkey army becoming a reality. Fear-mongers might overexaggerate the ethical problems and threat to our safety this might cause, but at least the beasts would behave better than Blackwater.

Piggies



Look out for the road hog

Piggies in the middle ... hogs hold up road

Published: 25 Oct 2007

A MOTHER pig feeds her nine hungry offspring – in the middle of a country road.

She halted as the piglets began suckling in the New Forest, Hants. Bernie Bed-ford, 60, who took our pic, said: “She wouldn’t move.”

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Cow Eating Trees






'Cow-eating' trees of Padrame

Tuesday October 23 2007 14:24 IST

EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MANGALORE: Carnivorous trees grabbing humans and cattle and gobbling them up is not just village folklore.

Residents of Padrame near Kokkoda in Uppinangady forest range sighted one such carnivorous tree trying to dine on a cow last Thursday. According to reports, the cow owned by Anand Gowda had been left to graze in the forests.

The cow was suddenly grabbed by the branches and pulled from the ground. The terrified cowherd ran to the village, and got Gowda and a band of villagers to the carnivorous tree.

Before the tree could have its meal, Anand Gowda and the villagers struck mortal blows to the branches that turned limp and the cow was rescued. Uppinangady range forest officer (RFO) Subramanya Rao said the tree was described as �pili mara� (tiger tree) in native lingo.

He had received many complaints about cattle returning home in the evenings without tails. On Friday, the field staff confirmed coming across a similar tree in Padrane, partially felled down.

However no detailed inquiry was made as the authorities were not asked for any report, Rao said.

A Moose Love Story




Daily Herald

The lovesick moose comes courting

By Mike Jackson | Daily Herald Columnist
Published: 10/25/2007 12:14 AM

I was recently reminded to share this tale with you after a friend told me he was going to give me a sizable chunk of moose meat for my freezer.

The late Officer Connor died a number of years ago, but his misadventures afield have lived on.

Connor was a retired Chicago police officer who marched to his own tune back in the 1950s and early '60s. He and my father were always fishing and hunting together.

Connor had saved enough dollars so he could go moose hunting in Maine. He figured that by staying in the good old U.S., he wouldn't have to endure the aggravation of trying to cross over from a Canadian hunt with a big critter strapped to the top of his treasured Nash Ambassador.

My father opted not to make the trip with Connor for fear of winding up in some small-town jail because of Connor's errant behavior.

Armed with an old WWII Enfield, .303 rifle and a pocketful of surplus rounds, Connor parked himself on the edge of a swamp, supposedly known to be a watering spot for the local moose population.

One word comes to mind to describe Connor's woodsy behavior -- unorthodox. One does not use a decoy when one hunts those animals. A skilled guide or moose hunter uses a large funnel-shaped call, either homemade or commercially made, to bring in a bull moose eager to meet the female sounding the call for companionship.

Connor set up a very good wooden likeness of a female buffalo on the ground -- except that it was more than half the size of a lifelike critter.

Hidden by a stand of birch trees, Connor started bellowing sounds that would have normally emptied the woods of any animals. A half-hour passed and he became frustrated, thinking that maybe he should do something different. That's when he heard noises coming from nearby branches, and lo and behold, a bull moose walks out of the woods and over to the buffalo decoy.

Connor raised his trusty, old rifle to his shoulder and started to take aim.

The moose sniffed the decoy, walked around it three times, and sniffed it again. For whatever reason, Connor chose to wait a few seconds. And then the young bull moose did something that is very common during the rut (mating season). It assumed the position in order to ensure the future of its bloodline.

Connor stood there aghast, not believing what he was watching. He clicked the safety back on, sat down and just shook his head while the bull got acquainted with the buffalo decoy.

When he got back home, he related the experience to my father, who asked him: Why he didn't shoot?

"Irv, I didn't have the heart to interrupt the poor beast in his moment of glory," he lamented. "After all that big bugger was love struck, and who am I to deny moments of pleasure, artificial as they were?"

Dolphins with Legs




Dolphins used to look like humans and lived in Atlantis

25.10.2007 Source: Pravda.Ru URL:

http://english.pravda.ru/society/anomal/99516-dolphins-0

It is thought that the ancestors of dolphins lived on land in a time long past. Once the ancestors of dolphins started living in water, they found out that the medium of water was hard to see through – an object 10-15 meters away is the farthest a dolphin’s eyes can see even if waters are crystal-clear, not to mention dark or murky waters. So the ancestors of dolphins decided to possess an ability that would enable them to “see” with their ears by listening to echoes. Sound waves travel through water at a speed of 1.5 km/sec, which is almost five times faster than sound traveling through air.

Dolphins produce clicking sounds (localization pulses) to make the sound waves bounce off objects in the water and return to the dolphin in the form of an echo.

High-frequency sounds do not travel far in water. Low-frequency sounds travel farther because of their longer wavelength and greater energy. Echolocation is used by dolphins for determining distance to a very small target (5-10 cm) within close range (5-10 m). It is thought that dolphins can locate shoals of fish at an intermediate range (up to several hundred meters) by using echolocation.

Recent studies of Australian scientists indicate that Atlanteans, the people who lived on a legendary island first mentioned by Plato, may have been the ancestors of dolphins.

“No matter how weird it may appear, dolphins used to have two legs and a couple of arms in place of fins. They lived side by side with the people of the Stone Age,” said Dr. Leslie Huskerway, a biologist.

Researchers at Melbourne University conducted a research into the human DNA and that of marine mammals. Using comparison as a method of study, researchers found that the dolphin was the nearest relation of the human being. The dolphin may have parted company with Homo sapiens some 250 thousands years ago. Scientists have long known that the creatures had lived on land in the distant past. Their highly developed intellectual powers have always intrigued researchers.

“A dolphin brain is much larger that that of a human being. And dolphins use a very complex language while communicating,” Dr. Huskeway said. Dolphins have an inexplicable attachment to humans. There are dozens documented accounts about dolphins saving humans who suffered shipwreck. At a time when they lived on land, their intellectual development was probably even higher than that of the people from whom modern humans descended. The discovery helps us see the Golden Age myths in a new light. Almost every nation of the world had a myth of the Golden Age. The myth centers on a civilization whose members controlled the world in days of old. A great civilization of Atlantis, an island that is said to have existed in the Atlantic Ocean and to have sunk beneath the sea, is mentioned in the works of Aristotle and other scholars of ancient Greece.

A person of enlightenment used to consider himself the crown of the Creation since he was the only one who possessed reason. In the second part of the 20th century scientists started debating the issues relating to a dolphin’s intellectual powers.

Professor A. Portman at the Basel-based Institute of Zoology (Switzerland) came up with a scale for measuring intellect. A human being (214 points) was found to be the smartest creature of all. A dolphin was a runner-up with 195 points. An elephant (150 points) was rated as No 3. An ape arrived fourth with 63 points.

The following fill the slots at the bottom of the scale: a zebra (42 points); a giraffe (38 points); a fox (28 points). A hippopotamus scored only 18 points, and therefore was classified as the stupidest creature under the sun.

American neurophysiologist John Lilly has conducted experiments involving dolphins for many years. The scientist worked at his laboratory located on St. Thomas, an island of the Virgin Islands of the United States. The results of his research enabled Lilly to reach the following conclusion: the dolphin will the first living creature on Earth to establish conscious contact with the human being. That is the reason why the dolphin has a large brain with the cerebral cortex, a complex language and an ability to communicate displaying quickness of intelligence. A dolphin brain and a human brain seem to be two of a kind when it comes to certain brain characteristics e.g. the ratio of its weight to the body mass, the intricately folded cerebral cortex. Incidentally, humans use the above characteristics to prove intellectual superiority of the human race.

Lilly is confident that scientists will make enormous progress in many fields once verbal contact between humans and dolphins is established. Dolphins will be no longer used as guinea pigs. They will turn into scientists’ colleagues, making contributions to scientific progress.

Translated by Guerman Grachev
Pravda.ru

© 1999-2006. «PRAVDA.Ru». When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, hyperlink to PRAVDA.Ru should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coincide with the point of view of PRAVDA.Ru's editors.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Dog of Mercy Kills Cancer Victim's Dream Horse








Pit bulls kill miniature horse given to cancer-stricken child

12:43 PM CDT on Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Associated Press

AMARILLO, Texas – A miniature horse given to a boy with brain cancer by the Make-A-Wish Foundation was killed by a pair of pit bulls who were found roaming in his yard, authorities said.

The 31-inch tall horse, Anniversary, was donated by the foundation to 3-year-old Christian Vasquez in late August.

Christian, who was diagnosed in January with a malignant form of brain cancer, received a pull cart, a blanket, a halter and a bridle set from the foundation on Saturday, said Jelaine Workman, executive director for the foundation's Amarillo chapter.

Two days later, Anniversary was found dead on his property in Pampa by Christian's father, Raul Vasquez. The father was nearly attacked by the dogs but managed to climb a tree and call 911 on his cell phone.

One of the dogs was captured by authorities and remains in custody at the Pampa animal pound, while the other escaped and remained on the loose, Gray County Sheriff Don Copeland said.

"I was scared to death," said Raul Vasquez, 41. "They killed Anniversary, and I thought they would kill me too."

It was unclear how the dogs entered the property, which is surrounded by a 4½-foot-high fence.

Workman said the foundation won't be able to supply a second horse but was getting calls from residents who wanted to donate money for a new one. Anniversary cost $1,300, and the foundation included free feed, training and veterinary care for a year in its gift.

"This horse was beautiful," Workman said. "It just makes me angry that people allow their dogs to run on the loose."

Cougar v. Horse






Suspected cougar attack leaves horse owner shaken
By JOE BELANGER, SUN MEDIA

PARKHILL -- Cheryl Penny can't hold back the tears as she talks about Rainbow, the mare she called "the boss" of the paddock.

And Penny still can't figure out what spooked the 13-year-old standardbred trotter on the night of Oct. 8 so she'd run headfirst into a fence post -- snapping it at the base -- then over an electric fence and another wire fence.

OPP say the animal that attacked Rainbow could have been a cougar because one was spotted by a resident this week near a creek in Parkhill.

"It wasn't her nature to try and get out," said Penny, whose farm backs onto the same creek ravine.

"Something spooked her and chased her. Whether it's true or not it was a cougar, I don't know. I never saw."

Police warned Parkhill residents on Tuesday to be on the lookout for a cougar.

Penny said Rainbow suffered cuts to her head and a wide, deep vertical gash about 30 centimetres long on a front leg.

Penny suspects the head injuries were caused when the horse ran into the fence, but can't explain the long deep gash.

On the morning of Oct. 9, Rainbow was missing from the paddock she shared with a another horse.

Searchers spotted Rainbow standing along the edge of a tree line more than a kilometre away.

While Rainbow wasn't one to try to leave the fenced paddock, she was feisty.

"She was always ornery, reaching out to bite you or kicking," Penny said. "But she was a kind-hearted soul. It was just her personality."

When Penny and partner Bob Rundle went across the pasture to collect Rainbow, they were shocked.

"Her head was all smashed in, she was bleeding from a nostril and there was this long gash, right to the bone," Penny said.

A veterinarian examined Rainbow's injuries and recommended the horse be put down.

"I agreed because I hate to see an animal in distress," Penny said.

Rundle said he's convinced Rainbow was spooked.

"There's no way she'd jump three fences and that cut from shoulder to knee," he said.

"I didn't see a cougar and I can't prove it, but one was spotted not far from here and it was either that or some other wild animal that spooked her."

The veterinarian couldn't be reached for comment.

Middlesex OPP Const. Doug Graham said he issued the warning as a precaution, especially with Halloween a week away.

He urged parents to accompany their children.

"I'm not in a position to say it's not a cougar," Graham said.

"But I can't think of another predator that hunts by itself and is large enough to take down an adult horse. And when (a cougar) is spotted in such close proximity, then the natural assumption is it's a cougar."

There have been dozens of cougar sightings across the London region, including several last summer within the city limits.

But to date there's been no hard evidence, other than a few paw prints.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Rattlesnake's Revenge




Man Bitten After Putting Snake in Mouth

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

(09-19) 13:35 PDT Portland, Ore. (AP) --

Snake collector Matt Wilkinson of Portland grabbed a 20-inch rattler from the highway near Maupin, and three weeks later, to impress his ex-girlfriend, he stuck the serpent in his mouth.

He was soon near death with a swollen tongue that blocked his throat. Trauma doctors at the Oregon Health and Science University saved his life.

"You can assume alcohol was involved," he said. Actually, not just beer. It was something he called a "mixture of stupid stuff."

Calls from cable network television stations poured in Tuesday, when he still had sore muscles and nerves from the venom.

It happened at a barbecue with friends.

Wilkinson, 23, had downed a six-pack and his ex-girlfriend asked him for a beer. He handed her one, not realizing the snake was also in his hand.

"She said, 'Get that thing out of my face,'" Wilkinson said. "I told her it was a nice snake. 'Nothing can happen. Watch.'"

So he stuck the snake in his mouth.

"It got a hold of my tongue," he said.

He was having breathing problems when his ex-girlfriend drove him to the hospital. "She was the only one sober," Wilkinson said.

En route, they spotted a police car and asked for help.

His next memory, he said, was waking up at the hospital.

Doctors could not get a breathing tube down his throat.

Dr. Richard Mullins cut a hole in Wilkinson's neck to insert the breathing tube. Physicians started giving antivenin, moved him to intensive care and kept him sedated until the swelling went down.

The Poison Control Center sees about 50 people a year with snake bites, usually hikers. Deaths from rattlesnake bites in Oregon are extremely rare.

Wilkinson, who works in construction, has yet to return to work. His three Western diamondback rattlers have been removed from his home.

He says co-workers have been pretty blunt.

"They were like, 'What the heck were you thinking?'" Wilkinson said.

The answer? "It's my own stupidity."

Goat Sacrifice Fixes Airplane Problems




Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

Tue Sep 4, 2007 3:41pm EDT

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been.

Local media last week blamed the company's woes on an electrical fault. The carrier runs international flights to five cities in Asia.

It is common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like goats and buffaloes to appease different Hindu deities.

© Reuters2007All rights reserved

Wanted: Man Who Tried to Rescue Cat From Evil Sister





Police seek man after fight with sister in cat-shaving case

By BDN Staff
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

SWANVILLE, Maine — Police continue to be on the lookout for a local man who fled into the woods after getting into a fight with his younger sister over shaving the family cat.

State Trooper Luke Cunningham said police were searching for Nicholas Palmer, 22, of Stevens Road. Police were called to the family residence at 1 p.m. Monday after Palmer’s 18-year-old sister claimed he choked and struck her. Before police could arrive, Palmer escaped into the woods. Using two tracking dogs, separate teams of officers searched unsuccessfully for Palmer for about four hours.

Cunningham said the sibling altercation began when Palmer attempted to stop his sister from shaving the family cat. The sister thought shaving would rid the cat of fleas and ticks. According to the sister, when Palmer attempted to cut the cord of the clipper she was using she responded by kicking him. The kick caused Palmer to cut himself with the knife he was using to sever the cord and he responded by choking and pushing his sister. He ran off when she called 911, Cunningham said.

"We’re still on the lookout for him," Cunningham said Tuesday. "We definitely want to get his side of the story."

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Super Puppy




Yellow Lab saves jogger from attack

By ANDRIA SIMMONS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/23/07

Gwinnett police are investigating an attempted sexual assault on a female jogger at Tribble Mill Park in Lawrenceville.

A 38-year-old woman said she was jogging during the late afternoon on Oct. 12 when a young man walking in the opposite direction passed her. The man then turned around and shoved her against a tree, where he groped her and tried to put a hand up her shirt, the woman told police.

Then the woman's 120-pound yellow Labrador retriever, Jack, intervened. He chomped down on the attacker's thigh, prompting the man to run away in the direction of the playground, a police report says.

Police say there have been no similar reports in area parks recently. They have no leads on a suspect, said Cpl. Illana Spellman, spokeswoman for the Gwinnett County Police Department.

In the meantime, Spellman advised "if you're going to be jogging at dusk or later, make sure you're with someone, be aware of your surroundings and make sure you have a cellphone with you at all times."

She also warned joggers to avoid isolated areas and change their patterns regarding jogging routes and the time of day they exercise to avoid becoming a target.

A police report describes the suspect as a dark-skinned black male in his late teens wearing a white T-shirt, dark baggy pants and a Dallas Cowboys baseball cap with white stitched lettering.

Mountain Lion Invades Backyard




San Francisco Chronicle

Gilroy woman discovers mountain lion cub in her backyard

Suzanne Espinosa Solis, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, October 22, 2007

(10-21) 21:44 PDT Gilroy -- A Gilroy woman who stepped into her backyard Sunday morning to chide her small dog for barking during the night was surprised to hear a deep growl - and it wasn't coming from her poodle-mix.

Crouching on top of the backyard fence and staring down at her was a mountain lion cub that had apparently been sharing the backyard, and bowls of dog food, with her 2-year-old dog, Lucy.

"I came out and said, 'Lucy, why were you barking so much?' " and then I heard, 'Grrrrrrrrrrrr,' " Maria Lopez recounted in Spanish. "I turned around and looked up and - Ay mamacita! I was so scared. I thought, 'What is it?' It looked like a baby lion. But I thought, 'No, it can't be.' "

Within minutes, Gilroy police, an animal control officer and state Department of Fish and Game wardens were at her home on the 8800 block of Carnation Lane to tranquilize and remove the 30-pound lion, which was released hours later in a state wildlife area in Santa Clara County.

"We were just surprised," said Lopez's son, Ivan, 16. "We didn't expect a lion in our backyard, especially because there's a lot of other houses around."

No one knows when or how the lion got to Lopez's backyard, which is in an urban residential area not far from the hills. Lopez said that for the past week Lucy had been barking during the night, and generous portions of her food had been disappearing.

"She wasn't getting fatter. I thought there must be a rat or something," Lopez said.

At 11 p.m. Saturday, Lucy was barking again and Lopez walked out to check on her but didn't see anything unusual - except that her bowl was empty.

"I thought that maybe my son forgot to feed her, so I gave her some food," Lopez said.

The barking started again at 3 a.m.

"I thought my neighbors were going to be upset about it," she said.

Sunday morning, after seeing the lion, she ran to her neighbor, who took one look at the spotted feline and called police.

Gilroy police Sgt. Wes Stanford said the unusual call came just before 9 a.m. Sunday. Stanford said the cub was lying on the fence when officers arrived.

An animal control officer used a tranquilizer gun to shoot a dart into the cat from a window. The cat jumped down into the backyard and fell asleep.

Stanford said Carnation Lane is on the western side of the city in an urban residential area that is close to the hills.

He said last year on Memorial Day, he shot and killed a 70-pound mountain lion that was in a tree - a killing that was captured on video and prompted much criticism of the department.

"I felt terrible shooting it," Stanford said. But he said tranquilizing the big cat was a dangerous option because the drug might not work right away, the cat could run, and there were many people in a park nearby.

"We were all very happy today with this outcome," he said.

Maria Lopez said her family once caught a parakeet that had visited the backyard and now owns it as a pet.

"But a lion - no," she said. "It was beautiful. It was quite big. It's a good thing nothing bad happened. There are lots of young children in this neighborhood."

From now on, she said, Lucy - and her food - will spend nights indoors.

"She had her doghouse and bedding, but it's getting cold," she said.

E-mail Suzanne Espinosa Solis at sespinosa@sfchronicle.com.

Monkey's Revenge





Reports: Senior Indian official dies after monkey attack in New Delhi

The Associated Press
Published: October 21, 2007

NEW DELHI: A senior government official died Sunday after falling from a balcony during an attack by wild monkeys at his home in the Indian capital, media reported.

New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa was rushed to a hospital after the attack by the gang of Rhesus macaques, but quickly succumbed to head injuries sustained in his fall, the Press Trust of India news agency and The Times of India reported.

Many government buildings, temples and residential neighborhoods in New Delhi are overrun by Rhesus macaques which scare passers-by and occasionally bite or snatch food from unsuspecting visitors.

Last year, the Delhi High Court reprimanded city authorities for failing to stop the animals from terrifying residents and asked them to find a permanent solution to the monkey menace.

Part of the problem is that devout Hindus believe monkeys are manifestations of the monkey god Hanuman and feed them bananas and peanuts — encouraging them to frequent public places.

Over the years, city authorities have employed monkey catchers who use langurs — a larger and fiercer kind of monkey — to scare or catch the macaques, but the problem persists.

NEW DELHI: A senior government official died Sunday after falling from a balcony during an attack by wild monkeys at his home in the Indian capital, media reported.

New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa was rushed to a hospital after the attack by the gang of Rhesus macaques, but quickly succumbed to head injuries sustained in his fall, the Press Trust of India news agency and The Times of India reported.

Many government buildings, temples and residential neighborhoods in New Delhi are overrun by Rhesus macaques which scare passers-by and occasionally bite or snatch food from unsuspecting visitors.

Last year, the Delhi High Court reprimanded city authorities for failing to stop the animals from terrifying residents and asked them to find a permanent solution to the monkey menace.

Part of the problem is that devout Hindus believe monkeys are manifestations of the monkey god Hanuman and feed them bananas and peanuts — encouraging them to frequent public places.

Over the years, city authorities have employed monkey catchers who use langurs — a larger and fiercer kind of monkey — to scare or catch the macaques, but the problem persists.

NEW DELHI: A senior government official died Sunday after falling from a balcony during an attack by wild monkeys at his home in the Indian capital, media reported.

New Delhi Deputy Mayor S.S. Bajwa was rushed to a hospital after the attack by the gang of Rhesus macaques, but quickly succumbed to head injuries sustained in his fall, the Press Trust of India news agency and The Times of India reported.

Many government buildings, temples and residential neighborhoods in New Delhi are overrun by Rhesus macaques which scare passers-by and occasionally bite or snatch food from unsuspecting visitors.

Last year, the Delhi High Court reprimanded city authorities for failing to stop the animals from terrifying residents and asked them to find a permanent solution to the monkey menace.

Part of the problem is that devout Hindus believe monkeys are manifestations of the monkey god Hanuman and feed them bananas and peanuts — encouraging them to frequent public places.

Over the years, city authorities have employed monkey catchers who use langurs — a larger and fiercer kind of monkey — to scare or catch the macaques, but the problem persists.

Turkey's Revenge




Turkeys take to cities, towns

A wild turkey strolled along a sidewalk on Beacon Street in Brookline. The birds can grow to weigh roughly 20 pounds and stand 4 feet tall.
A wild turkey strolled along a sidewalk on Beacon Street in Brookline. The birds can grow to weigh roughly 20 pounds and stand 4 feet tall. (Globe Staff Photo / Mark Wilson)

By Keith O'Brien, Globe Staff | October 23, 2007

BROOKLINE - On a recent afternoon, Kettly Jean-Felix parked her car on Beacon Street in Brookline, fed the parking meter, wheeled around to go to the optician and came face to face with a wild turkey.


The turkey eyed Jean-Felix. Jean-Felix eyed the turkey. It gobbled. She gasped. Then the turkey proceeded to follow the Dorchester woman over the Green Line train tracks, across the street, through traffic, and all the way down the block, pecking at her backside as she went.

"This is so scary," Jean-Felix said, finally taking refuge inside Cambridge Eye Doctors in Brookline's bustling Washington Square. "I cannot explain it."

Notify the neighbors: The turkeys are spreading through suburbia. Wild turkeys, once eliminated in Massachusetts, are flourishing from Plymouth to Concord and - to the surprise of some wildlife officials - making forays into densely populated suburban and urban areas, including parts of Boston, Cambridge and, most recently, Brookline.

Some Brookline residents have welcomed the birds, happy to see wildlife strolling amid the nannies with $300 strollers and Trader Joe's shoppers. But many others worry what the keen-eyed, sometimes ornery birds might do, prompting as many as a dozen calls to the police department every day.

"Some people are getting very upset," said Brookline police animal control officer Pierre Verrier. "One of the biggest things is, they're afraid. They don't want the turkeys to get hurt. And the other thing is, they're afraid of the turkeys around their children. They don't know what they'll do."

As such, Brookline police issued a statement last month, telling residents what they should - or should not - do if they meet a wild turkey in town. The basic advice: stay away from the turkeys. But still, people keep calling police headquarters to report the strangest sight: Turkeys in downtown Brookline.

* * *

July 20, 9:31 a.m., Rawson Road: Caller reports 18 turkeys in her backyard. "Something must be done," caller says. "It's just not right." Requests animal control officer.

* * *

Wild turkeys - the official game bird of Massachusetts - are impressive animals that can grow to be roughly 20 pounds and 4 feet tall. By 1851, they had been eliminated from Massachusetts, a victim of hunting.

"We were turkey-less for many years," said Wayne Petersen, director of the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Important Birds Area Program. "And then we decided it would be quite nice to get them back on the landscape."

Efforts to revitalize the state's turkey population between 1911 and 1967 failed. Then, in 1972 and 1973, the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife released 37 turkeys in the Berkshires. These turkeys survived and bred. And between 1979 and 1996, wildlife officials trapped more than 500 turkeys in the Berkshires and released them elsewhere in the state.

Biologists were pleased; today's turkey population in Massachusetts lingers around 20,000. But Marion Larson, an information and education biologist at MassWildlife, said officials had not counted on the turkey's appetite for suburban - and even urban - living.

"That was something that surprised us," Larson said. "Who knew? The last time there were turkeys in Massachusetts there weren't a whole heck of a lot of suburbs."

This time around, of course, that is not the case, and turkeys have proven especially adaptable to residential living. By his last count, Verrier said, there are at least two dozen wild turkeys living in Brookline, feeding off everything from bird seed to gutter trash and, sometimes, scaring the wits out of the townspeople.

* * *

September 4, 11:01 a.m., Chatham Circle and Chatham Street: Caller - who had gone under some beech trees to take a picture of turkeys - reports four turkeys chasing him. Requests animal control officer.

* * *

The problem, according to some Brookline residents, is that the turkeys can be aggressive at times. Dr. Ruth Smith, an internist from New York City, was staying with a cousin in Brookline a couple of weeks ago when she was stalked by what she describes as a 3-foot-tall turkey.

"He came at me and, at first, I tried to shoo him away," Smith recalled. "I figured I'd just go 'Shoo!' and he'd go. But he was very aggressive."

Smith said she escaped by ducking into the Dunkin' Donuts on Beacon Street. But some of the hounded do not have the luxury of going inside. Brookline postal carrier Rosanne Lane said she has skipped houses on her mail route because turkeys dissuaded her from approaching.

"They make a lot of noise and I just take off," said Lane.

Under state law, an animal control officer can kill a turkey if it creates a public safety threat. In 2005, for example, Canton police killed three. But for now in Brookline, it has not come to that, said Verrier. When dispatched to the scene of a turkey, Verrier offers advice instead.

He tells people not to feed them, not to be intimidated by them, and to keep their distance. Still, some people cannot help themselves. They need to be near the turkeys.

* * *

September 7, 7:39 a.m., Druce Street: Two packs of turkeys (15) in the road . . . Two not getting along.

* * *

Over an eight-hour stretch last week in Brookline, a lone turkey walked Beacon Street, strutting at times, preening at others, and napping every now and again in the landscaping near the sidewalk.

Most people did not even notice. And those who did simply edged a few feet away from him and kept right on walking.

But as afternoon turned to dusk - and the turkey, a male, moved down Beacon Street into the heart of Washington Square - a crowd began to gather.

Some, like Jessica Dolber, snapped pictures. Others, like Kelly Stearn, called police.

But not Kettly Jean-Felix, the woman who had been followed by the turkey earlier that afternoon.

When she finally left the optician's office on the corner just an hour after being stalked by the turkey, she headed straight for her car. And this time the bird did not notice Jean-Felix. He was too busy eating peanut shells in front of the 7-Eleven and gobbling to the delight of the crowd.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.