A bull jumps over the wooden wall during a bullfight at the Plaza Canaveralejo in Cali, Colombia
Picture: REUTERS
CNN
Nick Hunt
LONDON, England (CNN) -- You don't want to monkey around on a blind date, especially if your friends are also taking an interest in the same dark, handsome stranger.
So when three female gorillas at London Zoo heard that they would soon be visited by a brooding French hunk -- well, they went a bit bananas.
The latest development in Anglo-French relations sees Yeboah, a 20-stone 12-year-old, leave his current home at La Boissiere Du Dore Zoo, Pays de la Loire, northwest France and head for the British capital by the end of the year.
There he will be greeted by gorilla trio Zaire, Effie and Mjukuu, who were given posters of their prospective boyfriend for the first time Thursday.
One female gorilla shrieked in delight, while another wedged the poster in a tree to stare at it.
A third, clearly overcome by emotion, held the photo close to her chest -- then ate it.
Their reception was somewhat unsurprising. The zoo has been without a male gorilla since the demise of Bobby, a silverback, in December.
Tracey Lee, team leader at London Zoo, put in a good word for the hirsute lothario on the London Zoo Web site, saying Yeboah is "a very charming, fun loving and intelligent gorilla."
But whom will Yeboah choose to charm first?
Zaire, at 34, is the oldest female gorilla and has been at London Zoo since 1984. The zoo says she's "happiest when she's taking down and rebuilding her nest in various spots around the island. She loves to play with fabric and often drags it around with her all day. "
Then there's Effie, 16, who "enjoys seeing toddlers and often makes her way over to the glass when they come to see her," according to the zoo Web site.
Finally there's 10-year-old Mjukuu, or "Jookie." Dan Simmonds, a keeper at the zoo's Gorilla Kingdom, says she "has this 'butter wouldn't melt look' to her, and she gets away with murder."
"The other two females get along with her very well; she seems to have them all wrapped around her little finger."
Is Whiplash is riding hard to get to the toilet. Ask John.
By LINDA LOMBARDI (AP) – August 17, 2009
Patrick Boehringer of Canton, Mich., couldn't be a more satisfied customer. He calls Apricot, his Certified Pre-Owned Cat, "the best animal I ever had."
Apricot came with a free "multipoint inspection" including spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations, behavioral evaluation and grooming. And you can't beat the price: As the Certified Pre-Owned Cats campaign poster says, with no money down, no financing and no payments, these cats are "better than new!"
The Michigan Humane Society's clever ad campaign is an effort to draw attention to a problem that shelters all over the country are dealing with: the large number of adult cats looking for homes.
Mike Robbins, director of marketing and communications for the Michigan Humane Society, says that in the shelter world, "summer has always been known as cat season." With cats normally breeding in the warm weather, shelters are deluged with kittens and have trouble finding homes for their adult cats.
Economic conditions seem to be aggravating the problem this year. At the Animal Protection Society of Durham, N.C., director of community outreach Simon Woodrup says that the number of pets they took in June, for example, is up to 825 this year, from fewer than 700 last year.
At the Santa Fe, N.M., Humane Society, they're calling it "Summer of 100 Cats," and adoption supervisor Mark Young says "we probably should have called it 500."
Kittens still get adopted quickly, says Dori Villalon, vice president of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but it's harder to find homes for adult cats than for kittens or dogs.
"Cats outnumber dogs three-to-one at our shelter," she says. "The pet overpopulation problem in this country has really become a cat overpopulation problem."
Simon says that the economy seems to be a factor in many cases, judging by owner-surrender questionnaires. "The one thing that we have seen a lot of is people saying I can't afford it," he says.
Part of the problem is that people who are forced to move, either because of foreclosure or simply needing to downsize, can have a hard time finding pet-friendly apartments, Young says. These owner surrenders are likely to be the adult animals, which are harder to place.
As a result, shelters all over the country have been inspired to offer special no-fee or reduced fee adults cat adoption specials. In the past, shelters worried about whether no-fee adoptions would reduce the value that people placed on their pets, and Robbins said that the Michigan Humane Society considered this carefully before offering their program.
In fact, in their trial program, and in a study conducted by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, there was no difference between people who'd adopted for free and those who had paid a fee.
"We've found there's been no increase in return rates, which are already low as it is," he says.
Robbins attributes this success to the fact that they use the same thorough adoption process to make sure that the animal is going to a home that's a good fit, as in the case of the Boehringer family. It was the adoption counselor's assistance and detailed questions that brought them together with a cat that will play fetch with his 17-month-old son.
"They actually roll around on the ground together," Boehringer said. "When the cat wants to play it jumps on my son and they go off running."
The Michigan Humane Society is so pleased with the success of the no-fee program that they're extending it for the foreseeable future. And all over the country, shelter owners are hoping people will check out their own pre-owned cats, "certified" or not.
Given the proximity, one just has to wonder...
By Golnar Motevalli
May 5, 2009
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's only known pig has been locked in a room, away from visitors to Kabul zoo where it normally grazes beside deer and goats, because people are worried it could infect them with the virus popularly known as swine flu.
The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.
"For now the pig is under quarantine, we built it a room because of swine influenza," Aziz Gul Saqib, director of Kabul Zoo, told Reuters. "We've done this because people are worried about getting the flu."
Worldwide, more than 1,000 people have been infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization, which also says 26 people have so far died from the strain. All but one of the deaths were in Mexico, the epicenter of the outbreak.
There are no pig farms in Afghanistan and no direct civilian flights between Kabul and Mexico.
"We understand that, but most people don't have enough knowledge. When they see the pig in the cage they get worried and think that they could get ill," Saqib said.
The pig was a gift to the zoo from China, which itself quarantined some 70 Mexicans, 26 Canadians and four Americans in the past week, but later released them.
Some visitors were not concerned about the fate of the pig and said locking it away was probably for the best.
"Influenza is quite contagious and if it passes between people and animals then there's no need for the pig to be here," zoo visitor Farzana said.
Shabby and rundown, Kabul Zoo is a far cry from zoos in the developed world, but has nevertheless come a long way since it suffered on the front line of Afghanistan's 1992-4 civil war.
Mujahideen fighters then ate the deer and rabbits and shot dead the zoo's sole elephant. Shells shattered the aquarium.
One fighter climbed into the lion enclosure but was immediately killed by Marjan, the zoo's most famous inhabitant. The man's brother returned the next day and lobbed a hand grenade at the lion leaving him toothless and blind.
The zoo now holds two lions who replaced Marjan who died of old age in 2002 as well as endangered local leopards. In all, it houses 42 species of birds and mammals and 36 types of fish and attracts up to 10,000 visitors on weekends.
The Spiny Flower Mantis has an array of colours on its body and wing case, from light brown, to green, to red, to blue, and mixes of each. The main colours are only really displayed as adult, in males and females, on the wing case. Both sexes possess fully grown wing cases, with the same patterning. However, the male is slightly shorter than the females, and much more slender. Sex determination is the usual, 8 segments for the male, and 6 or 7 for the female. Antennae are very similar, so this may be an inaccurate way of sex determination. However, the male does possess slightly longer antennae, but this length difference will only be visible from L5 upwards. You will also notice that the female will have small, rubbery spines exposed around the edge of her wing case, however, the male will not. The Pseudocreobotra is a fairly small species, growing from 4-5 cm in length.
Kevin Richardson swims with Meg the lion in the Crocodile River just south of the Magaliesburg mountains, near Johannesburg, South Africa
CFA-Iams Cat Championship at Madison Square Garden in New York is an extraordinary event for all who love cats. Forty-one distinct CFA breeds from lean and lanky, curly coated Cornish Rex to heavy, extravagantly groomed Persians will all delight the eye. A supermarket of cat supplies, toys, treats, the best cat food on the market, and give-a-ways will satisfy your cat’s needs. Sharp competition and hundreds of ailurophiles (cat lovers!) joining this annual spectacular event will fulfill your desire for excitement. Professional speakers, veterinarians, top notch judges all with valuable information will satisfy your knowledge and curiosity and answer questions about cat care. Kittens are for sale and rescued cats are there for adoption. Either will meet your need for companionship. For special pricing print a discount coupon.
The big new exciting event is the Feline Agility Competition - located in the main show hall near the entrance. Cats scurrying through tunnels, jumping, running mazes – every bit as exciting as in the dog fancy! Don’t miss It. It will fill your need for laughter and fun.
Although the city has not called for an outright cull, critics are bristling
BERLIN - AP-Berliners are bored with boars.
The husky beasts are foraging through carefully tended gardens and rooting up city parks in search of food. Angry sows have even on occasion attacked people who strayed too close to their litters of piglets.
Although the city has not called for an outright cull, critics are bristling. They want the animals curtailed, even if it means a gunshot here and there.
"There are too many boars around here because Berlin's hunters don't shoot enough of the animals," said Uwe Neumann, a resident of the Eichkamp Siedlung, a small cluster of homes near Berlin's massive Grunewald park. It's not uncommon to stroll the grounds of the Im Dol, a small park in the midst of a residential area in the South of Berlin, or the Schlachtensee, and see boars rummaging in the bushes and shrubbery.
Always lived in Berlin
Boars have always lived in Berlin, Germany's biggest city, in part because of its many parks, green fields and thick wooded areas.
But these natural areas, including the soil, have gotten drier in recent years. So the boars have increasingly turned to private lawns and gardens, which Berliners keep nice and wet through watering and landscaping. The boars especially enjoy eating earthworms beneath the ground, said Elmar Kilz, who oversees the Grunewald Forestry Office.
"Wild boars are so-called Kulturfolger or animals that survive in areas developed by man," Kilz said. "They don't shy away from humans and actually profit from their presence."
One person fractured his leg after a boar turned on him. In that case, the boar entered the living room and the man tried to shoo it out with a broom, Kilz said.
"No wonder the animal attacked the man," he added.
The city estimates there are now about 10,000 wild boars in Berlin. That's more than the 7,000 an informal census counted in 2005.
Either way, the numbers hardly add up to a stampede, said Derk Ehlert, who oversees the city government's hunting license office.
"This is normal," he said. "You cannot speak of a plague here."
The city issues licenses to hunt the animals, but only around the 223,900-acre Berlin hunting grounds. A boar can weigh as much as 200 pounds.
Last year 955 boars were bagged, and this season the count is up to 1,757.
Hunting boars can prove tricky
Hunting boars, though, can prove tricky. Boars like to live in the same areas where thousands of Berliners go to walk, run and play in the park on sunny days.
"Hunters just can't shoot whatever looks like a wild pig," Ehlert said.
Despite their reputation, not all boars are bad. Even Neumann, the man who wants more of them shot, conceded they are not always aggressive. One woman in Grunewald fed a pig and held a piglet in her arms, while the sow did nothing, he said.
Earlier this week a herd of the wild animals even helped police capture a suspected car thief in Schwerin.
The 18-year-old abandoned a stolen SUV and ran into the woods to evade police. He stumbled upon a sounder of boars that were keen to protect their young. Forced to choose between angry boars and pursuing police, he shouted for help.
The police nabbed him.
By Amrit Dhillon in Cochin, Kerala
Adorned with gold, and carrying a Hindu deity on his broad back, Babu the elephant plays a central role in religious ceremonies across the Indian state of Kerala.
Now aged 45, he is approaching retirement after a hard working life - and, like many of the 650 working elephants in the state, there have always been fears for his future.
Elephants cost £340 a month to maintain, a great expense when the average monthly wage is only £50, and many owners cannot afford to look after their beasts when they finally stop working.
But help is at hand. India's first retirement home for elderly elephants opens next month inside a tranquil forest at Kottur, outside the state capital Trivandrum, where the colossal beasts can spend their twilight years in dignity.
Paid for by the state government, the home will buy old elephants for a nominal sum from owners who cannot or will not look after them properly.
"We want them to enjoy their last years after being such good workers without worrying where their next meal will come from," said V.S. Verghese, Kerala's chief wildlife warden who is in charge of the scheme.
"They'll get special treats like big slabs of rice, a course sugar called jaggery, and honey. And vets will be on hand."
The home will consist of 1,000 acres of woodland where each of the elephants can roam freely, as well as having its own personal pen. There, they will be fed, watered, bathed and massaged with large pumice stones and coconut husks by dedicated mahouts (elephant grooms) to keep their blood circulation healthy.
The mahouts will also mix special Ayurvedic tonics from local herbs, which can be consumed as pills or rubbed into their skin as a balm. Elephants, including Babu, suffer greatly from allergies.
Mr Verghese describes the home as "like a wildlife sanctuary", with plenty of trees, reeds and bamboo where the elephants can forage. The surrounding countryside is mostly rubber plantations and eucalyptus forests.
"A temple elephant I saw a few months ago died a painful death," said Ganesh Kumar, chairman of the Cochin elephant owners' association.
"He was horribly bloated and covered in a rash. He died without any care. If this home works out, we can prevent such miserable deaths."
The first 30 beasts will move into the sanctuary in May, but officials say there is plenty of room for expansion when more arrive. The home will also be open - for a small fee from owners - to elephants who are still working but are in need of a month's holiday to rejuvenate themselves.
"I've seen old elephants who are very sick and need medical care but their owners don't call the vet because it's so expensive," said Babu's mahout Vinod Kumar.
"Elephants can drink up to 60 bottles of glucose! The home will be a good option for them."
Described by Mr Vinod as a patient, hard-working and good-natured animal, Babu now amuses a crowd of awestruck schoolchildren by relieving himself prodigiously.
It has been a long day, standing in a truck to travel 50 miles to the temple in Cochin. Elephants are an integral part of Keralan culture.
The southwestern state, best known for its verdant scenery and tranquil backwaters, has 650 captive elephants - the highest number of any Indian state. No religious procession is complete without one (or several) to provide some glamour and solemnity.
In recent years, their popularity has surged and the picturesque port of Cochin is dotted with posters announcing the arrival of particularly famous elephants as though they were rock stars.
The most charismatic beasts even have fan clubs and are judged in beauty contests.
"Now even churches and mosques have taken to parading elephants around. People are mad about elephants," said Jose Louise, senior programme officer with the Wildlife Trust of India, which first proposed setting up the home.
A handful work in logging but as cranes have taken over, the vast majority of elephants are used in temples. Their work is gruelling.
During ceremonies, they often stand in the scorching heat for hours on end and walk long distances from one temple to another. They are also great symbols of social prestige. They require 880lb (63st) of fodder a month, as well as medical aid and three mahouts each.
Vivek Menon, the trust's executive director, quotes a famous Kerala saying that alludes to this ruinous expense: 'if you have an enemy, give him an elephant'. Wildlife advisers say the animals should work only eight hours a day and avoid the searing midday sun. Some respect these guidelines, others do not.
"Some owners are callous. They let their elephants die painful deaths, unwilling to spend money on them once they are too old or weak or ill to work. I know cases of elephants being fed urea by their owners," said Mr Menon.
When the old age home opens, at least it will provide a safety valve for those who are fed up and grumpy with being overworked.
"We want to save them from the cruelties not just of old age but the cruelties of their owners who show old elephants no gratitude for a lifetime's labour," said Mr Verghese.
A man faces five years in jail after being accused of assaulting a teenager with a hedgehog.
William Singalargh, 27, is said to have thrown the hedgehog from 15ft away during a row with the unnamed 15-year-old.
"When it hit the victim in the leg, it caused a large red welt and several puncture marks," said a police source in Whakatane, on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island.
"The man was arrested shortly afterwards and he's been charged with assault with a weapon, namely a hedgehog."
A court hearing is set for April 17, and the defendant is understood to be planning to contest the charge.
The hedgehog was dead by the time police arrived at the scene, although it is not known whether it was still alive at the time of the assault in February.
Beaver Is Spotted in New York City for the First Time in Two Centuries
NEW YORK Feb 23, 2007 (AP)— Beavers grace New York City's official seal. But the industrious rodents have not been seen in the flesh here for as many as 200 years until this week.
Biologists videotaped a beaver swimming up the Bronx River on Wednesday. Its twig-and-mud lodge had been spotted earlier on the river bank, but the tape confirmed the presence of the animal itself.
"It had to happen because beaver populations are expanding, and their habitats are shrinking," said Dietland Muller-Schwarze, a beaver expert at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. "We're probably going to see more of them in the future."
Beavers gnawed out a prominent place in the city's early days as a European settlement, attracting fur traders to a nascent Manhattan. The animal appears in the city seal to symbolize a Dutch trading company that factored in the city's colonial beginnings, according to the city's Web site.
But amid heavy trapping, beavers disappeared from the city in the early 1800s, according to the city Parks & Recreation Department.
The beaver that has made its way to the Bronx appears to be a male, several feet (a meter) long and two or three years old, said Patrick Thomas, the mammals curator at the nearby Bronx Zoo.
Biologists have nicknamed the animal "Jose," as a tribute to U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano's work to revive the river. The Bronx Democrat lined up federal money for a cleanup.
"But I don't know to what extent I imagined things living in it again," he said.
The Golden-mantled Tree-kangaroo, Dendrolagus pulcherrimus is a species of tree-kangaroo native and endemic to montane forests of New Guinea. It has chestnut brown short coat with a pale belly, and yellowish neck, cheeks and feet. A double golden stripe runs down its back. The tail is long and has pale rings.
Its appearance is similar to the closely related Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo. It differs from the latter by having a pinkish or lighter color face, golden shoulders, white ears and smaller size. Some authorities consider the Golden-mantled Tree-kangaroo as a subspecies of Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo.
The Golden-mantled Tree-kangaroo was discovered in 1990 by Pavel German in Mount Sapau, Torricelli Mountains region of Papua New Guinea. Previously known only from a small area in Torricelli Mountains, another population was discovered at remote areas of Foja Mountains of Indonesia along with several new and "long lost" species in December 2005. The Golden-mantled Tree-kangaroo is the latest large mammal species for Indonesia's biodiversity.
The Golden-mantled Tree-kangaroo is considered as one of the most endangered of all tree-kangaroos. It is extinct in most of its original range.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese state television will censor advertisements featuring pigs in order not to offend Muslims in the Year of the Pig, a media company said on Friday.
"Originally they didn't want pig images in ads on TV, because they worry about conflicting issues with Muslims in China," said Lisa Wei, managing director of media investment firm GroupM China Trading.
An official at the censorship department of China's Central Television denied knowledge of the advertising ban.
The new regulations would kick in as the Year of the Pig begins on February 18, CCTV had told Wei's firm last week, prompting clients to request longer time to prepare for the new rules.
Marketing of Procter & Gamble's Nanfu-brand batteries had been affected by the new censorship rules, as had commercials for products made by Nestle, the world's largest food group, industry sources said.
There are an estimated 20 million Muslims in China, mainly living in the central and western provinces.
"I feel that when CCTV decided to do this, it is for the purpose of ethnic harmony and unity. This is a good thing," Bai Runsheng, the chairman of the Shanghai Islamic Association, told Reuters.
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- After a long day hunting, there's nothing like wrapping your paw around a cold bottle of beer. So Terrie Berenden, a pet shop owner in the southern Dutch town of Zelhem, created a beer for her Weimaraners made from beef extract and malt.
"Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it," she said.
Berenden consigned a local brewery to make and bottle the nonalcoholic beer, branded as Kwispelbier. It was introduced to the market last week and advertised it as "a beer for your best friend."
"Kwispel" is the Dutch word for wagging a tail.
The beer is fit for human consumption, Berenden said. But at euro1.65 ($2.14) a bottle, it's about four times more expensive than a Heineken.
Nelson Mandela has spoken of his youthful exploits as a pig thief.
The former South African president made the revelations during a visit from the director and stars of the film Tsotsi, which won a Best Foreign Film Oscar.
Tsotsi is about a young gangster, and Mr Mandela said he identified with the main character.
Mr Mandela told how as a teenager in South Africa's rural Transkei region, he and friends would use the dregs of traditional beer to lure pigs.
"We'd go to the direction of the wind, so that the wind would blow from us to the village where the pigs are.
"And then we leave a little bit of the remains of the beer, and then the pigs come out... then we go further and put the stuff further away."
The future president and his friends would then stab the pig to death.
"The owners will not hear its shouts, and then we roast it and eat it."
Misdemeanours
"Some of the leaders of this country and elsewhere in the world started with misdemeanours of all kinds, but as they grew up, they became responsible people who have served our country very well," Mr Mandela said during his meeting with director Gavin Hood, and actors Presley Chweneyagae and Terry Pheto.
"And don't dismiss any youngsters who are not behaving according to your wishes. It is better to talk to them, to say 'no', you have made a mistake here. The correct procedure, you should have done so and so," he said.
Mr Mandela also thanked the makers of Tsotsi for putting South Africa "on the map", but Gavin Hood responded that it was Mr Mandela himself who had done this.
"You put us on the map so that we could follow, because without what you did, we would not have been able to make this film together as South Africans in a free country," the director said.
By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent
Published: 23 November 2006
Forty-eight orang-utans were flown to Indonesia yesterday. They are the survivors of one of the biggest cases of great ape smuggling ever detected. Captured in the jungles of Borneo, they were found in an amusement park in Thailand where they were forced to have daily kick-boxing matches against each other.
Their sad case is just a rare visible example of the thriving black market in exotic wildlife in south-east Asia, most of which goes unseen. Officials say it generates about £5bn a year, putting the illegal wildlife trade behind only gun-running and drug smuggling in the region for profit.
Indonesia rolled out the red carpet for the orang-utans' return yesterday. The First Lady, Kristiani Yudhoyono, was there for their arrival, carrying an orang-utan doll in her hands, and flanked by officials in T-shirts that said: "Welcome home".
The orang-utan, which only lives on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, is seriously endangered. Conservationists estimate there may be as few as 60,000 left in the wild, the majority in Indonesia, and their numbers are in constant threat because their natural habitat is encroached on by man, including forest fires that are set by farmers who are clearing land for palm oil plantations.
In recent years, they have come under serious threat from the craze for pet orang-utans in Indonesian cities. Because baby orang-utans are more desirable, hunters kill the mothers and take the young. Many conservationists now fear the orang-utan could be wiped out in the wild within 10 years.
The orang-utans that were flown back from Bangkok to Indonesia yesterday are to be released back into the wild and will live in a forest reserve in Borneo.
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - One balmy summer night, Larna Hartnack awoke to the cries of her dog Charlie and, to her horror, found the Dalmatian in a battle for her life — pinned by a gang of raccoons that tore into her flesh and nearly gnawed off her tail.
Charlie survived. But recurring raccoon attacks on dogs and other creatures have unnerved people along the Venice Canals, a funky, well-to-do beach neighborhood packed with ardent dog lovers, many of whom are now afraid to walk their pets at night or leave them alone in the back yard.
Communities around the country are plagued by destructive or aggressive raccoons, and many of them routinely trap, remove and even kill the animals. But this being California, the city's animal-control agency is instead urging people to try to get along with the raccoons — a notion that strikes some as political correctness gone wild.
"What we're trying to inculcate in the L.A. community is a reverence for life. If we have more reverence for life, it translates into all our programs — for women and infants, the elderly and everybody in our community," said Ed Boks, the head of Los Angeles Animal Services.
"As we develop these programs that demonstrate our compassion for creatures completely at our mercy, it makes for a more compassionate society all the way around."
Wildlife experts are commending the city for resisting demands to remove the raccoons. No-kill policies are rare among animal-control agencies in the U.S., and most apply only to dogs and cats. In Los Angeles, rabies in raccoons is not as big a threat as it is in other parts of the country, and there may be more sympathy for wildlife.
"Los Angeles is typically one of the more progressive agencies," said John Hadidian, director of the Humane Society's urban wildlife program. "I consider this a welcome sign that others might follow soon."
The strategy has angered some residents.
"Oh my God. I don't think I've ever been more insulted as a woman to be compared to a voiceless raccoon," said Hartnack, owner of Charlie the Dalmatian. She said the agency "seems more concerned with making a political statement than protecting people."
"Once you've been attacked by these animals and have them hanging out on your deck, your respect for their lives is lower than your respect for your animal's life and your own security," she said.
The animal-control agency sees people as part of the problem: They are tempting raccoons by leaving dog food and trash bags unguarded.
"If you live in a high-crime area and don't put bars on your windows and you've had break-ins before, you're asking for it," said Gregory Randall, a wildlife specialist with the agency. "Our goal here is coexistence and making the alterations you need to make."
In most cases, the city traps animals only if they are injured or attack people, he said.
Wildlife experts are reluctant to move the raccoons to the wilderness because they could have trouble surviving and might introduce diseases. Also, Randall said raccoons do not attack unless cornered.
He advised residents to try to keep raccoons out of their homes by getting rid of trellises and bougainvillea, closing cat doors and locking up kibble. Strobe lights, motion-activated sprinklers and talk radio can scare off the animals.
Venice Canals, a community of 400 homes, is the kind of place where nearby shopkeepers greet customers and their dogs by name and often have a bowl of water or dog biscuits on hand. One resident turned part of his property into a dog park.
Dogs have not been the only victims of the raccoons. They have chomped on ducks, a parrot and the legs of a turtle that they dug out of hibernation. Nadine Parkos, former president of the Venice Canals homeowners association, said the koi fish in her pond were massacred.
Some residents tried to trap the raccoons but instead snared two cats and an opossum.
As for Charlie the Dalmatian, fur has grown over her scars, but she still whimpers and cowers when she sees raccoons approaching the family deck.
Hartnack and her husband have bought a BB gun and got the dog a stuffed raccoon.
"She loves attacking it," Hartnack said.
Leon Marshall in Johannesburg, South Africa
for National Geographic News
October 4, 2006
Conflicts between baboons and humans in the suburbs of prosperous Cape Town have gotten so bad that monitoring teams have been deployed to keep the animals away.
The large monkeys invade people's homes in the coastal Table Mountain region, sometimes confronting people who try to scare the baboons off.
Some residents have retaliated by shooting and poisoning baboons and by running them over on local roads.
The situation has also caused rifts within communities. In a suburb ironically named Welcome Glen, rival societies have formed, with some trying to protect the baboons and others wanting them removed or killed.
"We sometimes get into standoffs [with neighbors]," said Rose Ashley, a member of the Welcome Glen Environment Group, which is pro-baboon.
"We want the baboons to stay, and we see it as our task to protect them from people who want to harm them."
Breaking and Entering
Joan Laing is co-chair of the rival Welcome Glen Baboon-Free Neighbourhood Action Group. She says the animals are a menace.
"They break windows to get into houses," Laing said. "They even know how to open doors. And once inside, they make a mess. They empty the fridge, ruin furniture, and defecate all over."
And they're not afraid of people, she says.
"I have had them in my house several times, even while I was there. They simply brushed past me. I had to get out of the way," Laing said. "Even my husband got threatened by a baboon."
She insists that monitoring teams trying to keep the baboons at bay are not effective.
"These animals are quick. They can cross walls and roofs at speed. For two or three people to try to keep them away is impossible," she said.
"They move in a troop of about 30, and they are so wide apart that it is impossible to stop them slipping into built-up areas."
Laing says the baboons have been corrupted by years of close contact with humans.
"They must be kept out of our neighborhood. How is for the authorities to decide. All I can say, the monitoring system isn't working."
Primate Patrol
The monitoring force consists of nine recruits from an indigent community in the area.
Called the Baboon Monitoring Project, the team is funded by the City of Cape Town, Table Mountain National Park, the central government's poverty relief program, and Baboon Matters, an organization set up four years ago by Jenni Trethowan, a local resident, to relieve the plight of the baboons.
Trethowan believes the project is working, but she says it needs more funding and more staff to make it more effective.
The team's task is to keep baboons away from the developed areas and roads. Trethowan says the monitors join up with the animals early in the morning and stay with them until nightfall, when the baboons retreat to their sleeping places.
When the monitors see baboons moving toward houses or the streets, the people drive the animals away by making noises and waving arms and sticks.
"It is generally not too difficult to get them to retreat," Trethowan said.
Trethowan has been involved with baboons for about 18 years and often joins the teams on patrol.
"The team members adopt postures that demonstrate their dominance, and the baboons respect this. They generally back off," she said.
But the monkeys are also cunning, she says.
"Some get adept at slipping around the few people herding them. Sometimes they rise early and get to built-up areas before the team members arrive," she said.
"This happens particularly on dustbin days, when people put their litter out early in the street for collection. It has even happened that they sneak down to villages at dusk after the team members had left."
The baboons' "innovations," Trethowan says, put a strain on the available manpower.
"We need more people to help with the patrols, but for that we need more money."
Wally Petersen is a member of the Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group, named after a picturesque seaside village. The group is dedicated to working with the authorities to find a solution.
"To us, extermination is not an option," Peterson said. "We believe more efficient management is [an option], and for that, we need resources."
Relocation is not an option either, conservation experts say. The local baboons have become too habituated to living among people, and there is nowhere else people will accept them.
"So we are concentrating our efforts on improved management," Petersen said.
There Goes the Neighborhood
The source of the problem is human encroachment into the baboons' historic habitat.
There are about 370 baboons in the area, and they are essentially trapped by coastal cliffs to the south and nearly complete development on the plains to the north.
Some 250 baboons live in the region's Table Mountain National Park, but it is hardly a secure home.
At about 148,260 acres (60,000 hectares), the park is a narrow, jagged strip of mountainous terrain, which is surrounded and in places fragmented by urban development.
The park is free to visit and gets about 4.2-million visitors a year. Growing attendance is worsening the problem of contact between people and baboons in the park.
Painted Primate
The baboons outside the park, numbering about 150, are the primary concern of Trethowan of Baboon Matters. The animals are divided roughly into four troops, roaming near seaside villages of recent vintage.
Trethowan says she's not sure what the ultimate solution is.
In spite of efforts to keep baboons and humans apart, the monkeys keep getting killed—most of them shot—at an average of about 15 to 18 animals a year.
There was an instance some years ago when a baboon was caught and painted white, in the belief that this would scare them all off.
"But all it led to was the heartbreaking sight of the rest surrounding it and grooming it until all the paint was off," she said.
Trethowan believes there will be a positive outcome and that the answer somehow lies in education. Baboons, she says, are primarily defenders, not attackers.
True, a baboon bit a tourist when she tried to grab back an ice cream that the baboon had grabbed from the woman. But generally the monkeys will not attack unless cornered or threatened, Trethowan says.
"What we need is a sustained awareness campaign," she said. "Baboon-challenged villages can do simple things, like not leaving [out] easily available food, like for dogs and birds, or keeping fruit trees. It has to become a collective effort.
"The monitoring teams were never intended to be the lasting solution. But unfortunately people have come to see them as such and are less inclined to do these sensible things," Trethowan said.
"On the other hand the authorities have been taking a more proactive attitude by helping with funding, monitoring, management, and awareness campaigns," she added.
As part of the attempt to improve public attitudes and to raise money for baboon management, Trethowan has set up another organization, called Baboon Stories.
Mostly under Trethowan's personal guidance, Baboon Stories takes people out on walks to see the baboons at close range in their natural surroundings. The idea is for people to get a better appreciation of the animals.
But to Laing, of the baboon-free-neighborhood group, this contributes to the problem.
"All it does is make baboons even more used to people and less scared of them. And this is what these people will not understand."
Standing just 17 inches tall, she is never going to be a champion show-jumper.
In fact, the tiny mare is so small she would struggle to leap over a bucket.
But such things are of little concern for feisty Thumbelina who has just been officially recognised as the world's smallest horse.
The five-year-old received the title from the Guinness Book of Records after her astonished owners realised she was never going to grow any bigger.
She was born on a farm in America to a couple who specialise in breeding miniature horses.
These popular show horses usually weigh about 250lb and reach a height of 34 inches when they are fully grown.
But when Thumbelina was born, it was immediately clear she would never grow to this size.
At birth she weighed 8lb - the weight of many new-born babies - and eventually she grew to a mere 60lb.
Thumbelina's extraordinary size has been put down to dwarfism, which makes her a miniature of a miniature.
But despite this massive difference in size, it is feisty Thumbelina who rules the roost over the stallions and racehorses on her 150-acre farm.
'When she was born, she was so small we thought she wasn't going to make it,' said Michael Goessling, whose parents Kay and Paul bred the miniature horses.
'She weighed eight pounds when she came out and she looked very ill. We feared the worst.
'Because her legs are proportionally smaller than her body and her head, she has to wear orthopaedic fittings to straighten them a lot of the time.
'But we love her and wouldn't want her any other way.'
At a mere 17 inches tall (four hands), the mare measures up to the shins of the 'normal' horses in the paddock.
The Goessling family have bred miniature horses for the past 15 years on Goessling's Goose Creek Farm in St Louis, and these usually stand at 34 inches at the withers - the ridge between the two shoulder blades.
But the owners of the mini horse began to realise they may have bred a record-breaker when she stopped growing after a year.
'My parents have bred hundreds of miniature horses, but we have never had one as small as Thumbelina,' Mr Goessling said.
'She was just a complete fluke and we call her a mini mini.
'When she was young she found the dog kennels and decided she wanted to bed-in with the dogs, rather than with bigger horses.
'She spends all her time playing with the spaniels, but we have to try and stop her grazing on grass, because she is not allowed to eat too much.'
Thumbelina survives on a cup of grain and handful of hay, served twice-a-day.
Normal horses lives for about 35 years, but she is only likely to live up to the age of 17 because of her size.
She has the ability to become pregnant and give birth to foals, but her owners have decided not to allow this to happen.
Mr Goessling, 39, said: 'There could be complications during the pregnancy, so we think it is better to avoid the risks.
'And although we love Thumbelina, we do not think it is right that the gene which creates dwarfism in horses is carried on through future generations.'
The tiny mare has become sometime of a celebrity in her home town in America, but Mr Goessling insists they will never sell her, no matter what price is offered.
'She is too precious to us to sell,' he added. 'I think my parents would sell me before they part with Thumbelina.
'She has that special Wow factor, which you only get when you physically see how small she really is.'
By Nick Allen
Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- At nightfall in London, Phil Overton places a bowl of cat food in the middle of a Wimbledon tennis court, moves to the stands with a .22-caliber rifle, and waits.
To lure his prey, the 43-year-old pest controller makes a sucking noise on the back of his hand ``that sounds like a frightened rabbit.'' Then he pulls the trigger and watches another furry creature drop dead on the hallowed tennis grounds.
Overton is fighting a losing battle against a tenacious invader: foxes. He is one of a handful of specialists called in as a last resort, and kills about 100 foxes a year from the city's growing population of 10,000. London is the world's fox capital, according to the conservation group Wildlife Trust.
During the past decade, foxes have set up home in Downing Street, City Hall, the Millennium Dome and St. Paul's Cathedral. They have sneaked into Parliament and savaged flamingoes at Buckingham Palace.
``Foxes are complete and utter hooligans and do an awful lot of damage,'' said Bruce Lindsay-Smith, who runs a pest-control company and kills as many as 10 foxes a night in the Chelsea neighborhood.
Attracted by discarded takeout food and garbage, foxes dig up gardens and keep residents awake with their mating call, known as ``the vixen's scream.'' Some even go inside houses and spread fleas and ticks, said Lindsay-Smith, 46.
No Dog Chases
Under the 2004 Hunting Act, an effort by Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to reduce fox hunts in the countryside, it is illegal for homeowners to deliberately use dogs to chase foxes from their gardens. Poisoning also is outlawed.
Shooting foxes is permitted if done by someone with a firearms license. But it may be pointless because newcomers replace any animals that are killed, according to the Rural Development Service.
``Foxes are now established residents of many urban areas and are likely to remain so,'' according to the Web site of the RDS, a government agency for environment and wildlife protection.
Michael Sidwell, 57, a business consultant, and his wife Susan, 45, a housewife, hardly go into their garden in the suburb of South Norwood anymore. One morning they looked out and saw five foxes. They've spent almost 1,000 pounds ($1,900) on deterrents including chicken wire, spikes and sonar gadgets -- to no avail.
``Our life is being made a misery,'' Susan Sidwell said. ``The first time I heard the mating call, I thought it was a baby being murdered. We can't sleep, and the smell they make is horrible.''
Vulpes Vulpes
The red fox, known to scientists as Vulpes vulpes, began moving into London in the 1930s, colonizing the city's expanding suburbs. With no predators and abundant food, the population exploded.
Many Londoners like having foxes around -- so much that they feed the creatures. A survey for the British Broadcasting Corp. in February showed that 82 percent of people living in U.K. cities saw foxes as an ``important part of British wildlife.''
John Bryant, an animal welfare consultant and wildlife enthusiast, is called in by homeowners, schools and hospitals to relocate foxes gently. His methods include automatic devices to spray foxes with water and walking a dog on a leash to scare them off. London has 16 foxes per square mile, he estimated.
Bryant, 64, was summoned to Downing Street five years ago after foxes took up residence in offices being renovated at the back of No. 11, the building where Chancellor Gordon Brown works.
Foxes also lived in the Millennium Dome and City Hall while they were under construction, feasting on workmen's sandwiches. One of the animals at City Hall was nicknamed ``Red Ken'' after the mayor, Ken Livingstone, a self-described socialist.
Demise of Flamingoes
At Buckingham Palace, foxes attacked Queen Elizabeth II's flock of flamingoes, palace spokeswoman Meryl Keeling said.
``Twelve flamingoes were given to the queen as a gift in 1969,'' she said. ``They stayed, and possibly bred, in the grounds until about the mid-1990s when, unfortunately, they were eaten by the foxes.''
The fox's real enemy is the automobile. Many are killed on the road when still young, giving urban foxes an average life span of about 18 months, according to the RDS. If they escape that fate, they can live more than eight years.
``The foxes you see now have grown up in the city and are more streetwise,'' said Steve Whitbread, a conservation manager for the Wildlife Trust in London. ``They don't get run over as often as before.''
Foxes stand to benefit from Mayor Livingstone's eight-pound tax levied daily for driving through central London, which may reduce traffic.
``They do bring benefits,'' Whitbread said of the foxes. ``They eat an enormous number of rats and, if it wasn't for them polishing off all the half-eaten Big Macs, there would be a lot more rats in the city.
``That's something people don't think about when they get woken up by the vixen's scream.''
An Australian kangaroo receives a fierce blow to the head by a man dressed in a clown suit in a shameful contest that will further fuel fears over China's barbaric attitude to animals.
The bizarre marsupial-versus-human bout happened during the so-called Animal Olympics in Shanghai.
Animal rights campaigners say the Chinese have an appalling poor record for animal rights protection and have no laws to protect them.
In the fight, the Australian kangaroo appears to reel backwards after receiving a right hook from its garishly attired opponent.
But the 'roo, which was wearing boxing gloves on its front paws, fought back, grappling with the clown who was forced back towards the ropes by its onslaught.
The kangaroo is just one of 300 'athletes' taking part in the annual event, now in its fourth year, at the Shanghai Wild Animal Park.
The event held in a large arena also involves an elephant carrying the Olympic torch and various animals including zebras and mountain goats put through a series of events such as hurdles and races.
Also pictured at the event yesterday were bears standing with boxing gloves on their paws during another distasteful performance.
In July the Daily Mail reported the babrbaric sport of horse fighting where cheering crowds took bets on which stallion would win a bloody battle.
By HENG SINITH, Associated Press Writer Fri Sep 22, 10:45 PM ET
VIHEAR SUOR VILLAGE, Cambodia - Residents of a village near Cambodia's capital staged a "Formula 1" race Friday to mark the end of the annual honoring of deceased relatives. The contest wasn't between cars, but water buffaloes.
Each year, millions of Cambodians visit Buddhist temples across the country to honor deceased loved ones during a 15-day period commonly known as the Festival of the Dead.
But in Vihear Suor village, about 22 miles northeast of the capital, Phnom Penh, citizens each year wrap up the festival with a water buffalo race to entertain visitors and honor a pledge made hundreds of years ago.
Pok Thiva, an organizer, said there was a time when many village cattle — which provide rural Cambodians with muscle to plow their fields and transport agricultural products — died from an unknown disease.
He said the villagers prayed to a spirit to help save their animals from the disease and promised to show their gratitude by holding a buffalo race each year on the last day of P'chum Ben — the festival's name in Cambodian.
"I've seen the real Formula 1, but this buffalo race is the Formula 1 we have in our village every year," Pok Thiva said.
"Car or motorcycle racing was never written into the village's history," he added jokingly.
The race drew some 1,000 spectators who saw 28 riders and their animals charge down the racing field, the racers bouncing up and down on the backs of their buffaloes, whose horns were draped with colorful cloths.
Reports are coming in of giant rats that are immune to poison and have lost their fear of man. Is a new breed evolving on Britain's rubbish-strewn streets? Patrick Barkham investigates
Tuesday September 19, 2006
The Guardian
Twenty-two inches from quivering whisker to fat tail, they can chomp through concrete and leap more than two feet in the air. Sauntering down your street in broad daylight, insolently raising two claws to the binman, they rifle through your rubbish and scoff poison as if it was milk chocolate. There is something of the night and also something of the urban myth about the nearly indestructible super rat coming to a pile of carelessly discarded foodstuffs near you. But Britain's pest controllers are adamant: they are receiving more panicky reports of rodent infestation than ever, and it does seem that our rats are evolving into something not seen before.
Over the past five years, the number of infestations of Rattus norvegicus, better known as the brown rat, has steadily increased, according to figures collected by the National Pest Technician's Association. Infestation dipped last year by 8% but is widely forecast to rise this year, and the association suspects that the true infestation figure only fell last year because fewer people report incidences now that many local authorities charge for pest control services. Meanwhile, people report bigger, and bolder, rats. Pest control professionals recently reported catching one beast in south London that measured 22 inches long.
So has the creature we know as the sewer rat, the barn rat, the love rat and the lab rat evolved into a new breed of super rat?
"It's not so much [a] super rat in terms of being 2ft long and two stone(28lbs) in weight," says Oliver Madge, chief executive officer of the British Pest Control Association. "Food is the key. They have a better reproduction rate and a better chance of survival. [The new rat is] not super - but it's certainly a strong species coming through because they've got the food and the climate is milder." But the super rat isn't just a healthier, better-fed rat: "Traditional poisons aren't working," says Madge. "They are eating and feeding from the poison. They can consume what we call a lethal dose and it doesn't kill them."
Experts say the main reason for the rise in the numbers of rats is obvious: from the milky bread thrown out for the birds to that carelessly tied sack of Sunday leftovers, we as a society are producing more food waste and chucking it out more carelessly.
The rat are not the only scavenger whose numbers are increasing. It is not quite an ecosystem that has evolved around the rubbish bin but it is not far off, and various species certainly give each other a helping paw when it comes to raiding our trash. Old-fashioned black binbags are easily ripped open by urban foxes or cats, for example, encouraging mice and rats to feast on what is inside. Virtually rodent-proof wheelie bins are a different matter - but this is where the squirrels have a role to play. "It is very difficult for rats to get inside a wheelie bin but squirrels have learned how to flip the lids open if there is a lip on the bin. They are very dextrous," says Madge.
The super rat has evolved thanks to all this dining from the table of man. As people pile high the KFC leftovers and Indian takeaways, and toss away half-eaten megaburgers when their stomachs can't take any more abuse, our ratty friends acquire a symbiotic addiction to rubbishy food. According to Martina Flynn of Sorex, whose scientists have developed three of the four main pest-control chemicals, rodents have become so used to munching protein-heavy fast foods in certain urban centres that they refuse to eat the carbohydrates and cereal traditionally used as bait or poison.
"The rats and mice are forever keeping ahead of us and making it hard for us," says Flynn. She believes that few rodents develop full physiological resistance to poisons, although it does take a bigger dose to kill them off these days, but behavioural resistance is another problem. "Rats are very neophobic - which means they are wary of new objects. You can put a bait down and they won't touch it for 10 days," she says.
Many people blame the rise of the fortnightly rubbish collection for the rise of the super rat. One third of local councils have abolished weekly (or daily) collections of rubbish and pick up nonrecycleable rubbish only once every two weeks. For residents unable to keep their wheelie bins safely stowed in the backyard, this means that there are plenty of ways their rubbish can be scattered far and wide during the long wait for collection.
In one area, a council official reportedly advised residents to freeze their roast-dinner carcasses until collection day. It caused outrage but sounds sensible enough. As it happens, councils are not legally required to collect rubbish every week, and the government has no plans to force the issue. And expert opinion agrees a weekly collection is not necessary, provided the proper precautions are taken.
"It is not essential from a health-risk point of view in this country for rubbish to be collected once a week," says Howard Price of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. "Fortnightly collections may be adequate but only if the containers provided are big enough and properly lidded so that the waste is safely contained and does not spill out. It must also be collected promptly and efficiently with no spillage on to the street during collection."
If you are under siege from the super rat, there is one place you could go. This time last year, the Hebridean isle of Canna had a human population of 11 and a rat population of nearly 10,000. The rats had gnawed through supposedly rodent-proof composters and seriously damaged bird populations. The National Trust for Scotland called in a team of ratcatchers from New Zealand. When food was scarce last winter, 14 catchers laid 4,200 bait stations filled with a low-toxicity bait rarely used in Europe. Wheelie bins were also introduced and residents agreed not to keep chickens (whose scattered food the rats enjoyed nibbling). "The last confirmed rat presence was in February," says Richard Luxmoore of the trust. "I'm not saying we've completely got rid of the rats but if there are any left we've got remarkably few ".
Feral pigs in the South Pacific nation wade offshore to catch fish, crabs, and mussels.
TALAFO'OU, TONGA – Travelers who think they have seen it all should head to the island kingdom of Tonga for one of the Pacific's strangest tourist attractions: "fishing pigs."
Hogs on the archipelago's main island, Tongatapu, have conquered their fear of the ocean and now forage at low tide for crabs, mussels, seaweed, and fish marooned in rock pools.
While piglets snuffle around a few yards from the beach, fully grown porkers wade into the turquoise sea up to their waists.
The porcine pioneers are descendants of animals introduced here by European explorers such as Captain James Cook, who dubbed Tonga the Friendly Islands when he landed in the 1770s. In the region, feral pigs are still known as "Captain Cookers" and pork is a favorite dish.
The fishing razorbacks are a must-see attraction for the growing number of tourists being lured to Tonga by recently introduced cheaper and more regular flights from Australia and New Zealand.
In the coastal village of Talafo'ou, what looks like a miniature hippo is half-submerged in the sea, 100 yards from the beach. In fact it is a huge black sow, that bears closer resemblance to a wild boar than any farm breed, rooting around the reef.
Although the pigs don't swim, they do plunge their heads beneath the water for a few minutes at a time. "It's almost unbelievable," said Alan Batey, a British businessman on holiday with his family from their home in Melbourne, Australia. "To see pigs paddling around so far out to sea is bizarre."
The pigs venture out onto the reef along Tongatapu's coastline. "They go out at low tide every day," says tour guide Joe Naeata. "Perhaps one of the braver pigs went into the sea one day and the rest just followed."
Locals prize the pigs for their unusual tasting meat. "It's saltier than normal," says Mr Naeata. "It's more expensive than normal pork but people are prepared to pay the extra money."
In elephant polo debut, the team is watched closely — and taught a few important lessons
By ANTHONY FAIOLA
Washington Post
CHIANG SAEN, THAILAND — During America's debut in the extra-wide world of elephant polo this month, frustrated U.S. captain Kimberly Zenz nearly screamed herself hoarse.
The prime pachyderms toting the rival Italians were dominating the opening match, while Thong Kao — Zenz's languid charger — seemed more interested in turning the grassy polo field into an afternoon snack. But as the ball skidded dangerously close to the Italian goal posts, something suddenly seemed to stir from deep inside Thong Kao. She hurled her three-ton bulk toward that ball like Barbaro on steroids.
From the sidelines, international playboys almost choked on their gin and tonics. British aristocrats looked up from their Rolexes, cocking eyebrows with bemusement.
For a moment at the King's Cup Elephant Polo Championship — one of the circuit's Big Three — it seemed the upstart Yanks from the Washington area might finally charge onto the scoreboard.
Then something really did stir from Thong Kao — a hail of dung that left the pursuing Italians dodging for cover.
And just as Zenz yanked back her mallet, Thong Kao accidentally stepped on the polo ball, squashing it into the ground and suspending play.
It marked the first of many lessons for a team of rookie Americans who came to the emerald hills of the Golden Triangle last week for a crash course in one of the world's most surreal sports.
Lesson No. 1: You are only as good as your elephant.
For a game thought up in a bar by two wealthy Brits vacationing in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in the 1980s, the competitive nature of the elephant polo circuit can be quite sobering.
In a colonial atmosphere recalling the savage gentility of the British Raj, the sport has evolved over the years into a gathering where the idle rich face down extreme sportsmen and novice adventurers vie against the downright crazy. Three times a year — in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal — the prize is bragging rights and a fine bronze trophy.
This year, the Capitol Pachyderms — three women and two men ages 25 to 30 — made their entrance into this exclusive old boys' club like the perky Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde strolling into stodgy Harvard.
Though a brainy bunch speaking 11 languages among them, none of the Americans had ever played elephant polo. They do, however, share an intense sense of competition, not to mention high-speed Internet access — which explains how they discovered the sport (and one another) and traveled across the world to hit an orb a bit bigger than a baseball while sitting on top of an elephant.
Over the course of the seven-day tournament, rigorous debates ensued over rules. Strategies were jealously guarded. It is ostensibly all about having a bit of fun, of course. And so it is, as long as you win.
"After all, this is also about national pride," quipped David Wildridge, an Oxford-based airline pilot playing on one of two teams from Britain. "This year, we finally have the Americans coming, and from Washington, no less. They shall be like lambs to the slaughter."
Wildridge wasn't so confident a few weeks back, however.
After word spread of the new American team, the strapping Englishman dispatched his elegant Washington-based girlfriend, insurance maven Caren Braun, to snoop around a benefit for the American team at Zenz's polo club in Maryland. Braun's mission: Size up the competition.
Lesson No. 2: Beware of elephant polo spies.
Some of the Washington region's best horse polo players entered the benefit game at the Capitol Polo Club, and word spread across the elephant circuit that the D.C. team was a force to be reckoned with. The problem: None of the seasoned veterans from the benefit was actually on the team. Instead, the most skilled among them was Zenz. And her finest hour as a horse polo player came during an exhibition match at the Montgomery County, Md., Agricultural Fair, where she had to compete with a prize pig named Kevin Bacon for the crowd's attention.
"I swear, we started from zero," Zenz said. "We practiced on top of a swing set with mallets we made from Home Depot."
You might have read about the Scottsdale woman who spent $6,000 designing a bedroom for her dog.
She's not the only one lavishing her pooch.
Consider this: Paying $26,000 for a pet spa. The 6- by 5 1/2 foot self-contained grooming cabin automatically shampoos, de-fleas and blow-dries your dog, cat or other small animal.
Geoff Mott of petgadgets .com, the online retailer of cutting-edge pet products, says he has sold four of the spas in the past nine months, including one to the king of Spain. He started the Fountain Hills-based company two years ago after unsuccessfully searching for unusual toys for his two dogs.
Our company's sales have grown over 200 percent each year," he notes. "The pet industry is exploding and people are demanding more high-tech innovations to make things easier and spoil their furry friends. The strongest growth is the baby boomers whose kids have moved on, and the boomers focus more on their pets."
His items range from a $5.29 electric toothbrush, $40 for a digital pet tag, to a $1,100 doggie treadmill.
Besides the designer carrying bags, fancy beds and most recently the pet strollers, an increasing number of pet owners are designing their home with the pet's needs in mind. It's called pet-friendly decorating.
An expensive case in point is the pet spa. Mott says many of his customers who bought the pet spa have custom-built their home with a separate grooming room to accommodate the unit.
Shelley and Richard Kuhle, for example, have tile in their Paradise Valley home rather than carpet because of their six children (two shedding dogs and four kids ages 6-14.)
"It's easier to keep sweep clean," Shelley says.
And there's lots to sweep in Tory and Scott Curtis' Paradise Valley home. They let their two energetic Labs romp freely throughout the house. "The dogs are part of our family, " says Tory, who vacuums the entire house by setting her Roomba vacuum loose every day.
Many hotels know that pampering a pet is a lucrative business. The Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa welcomes guest pets with a paw printed doorknob sign, special bowls, place mats and a personalized dog bone treat.
"And yes, our reservations do ask what the dog's name is when the reservation is made," says Sean Maddock, the resort's general manager.
The resort has a pet room service menu, which showcases gourmet treats such as executive chef Michael Cairns' pet-friendly grilled tenderloin of beef with eggs and seared salmon.
And from doggie doughnuts to puppy pies, many pet parents are hosting animal parties. Pet moms such as Shelley threw an elaborate party for her Labrador retriever. She invited other pet owners in the Valley who bought their Labs from the same breeder in Louisville, Ky. About 40 guests and their dogs turned out for the "family" reunion.
A SIX-FOOT BIRD that can kill a person with one blow is on the loose.
Ralph — a South American rhea — has not been seen since escaping from a farm on Monday.
The ostrich-like bird can run 20mph, is incredibly strong and can kill with a single swipe of his six-inch claws or needle-shaped beak.
RSPCA spokesman Roy Jezard warned: “These birds will also go for your eyes with their beak. If anyone sees this one, don’t approach but contact us or the police.”
Flightless Ralph and two other rheas leapt over the 4ft-high fence of their pen in Benenden, Kent, when they were spooked by pigs taken into their enclosure.
Owners Mike and Sue Savage keep ten of the birds and sell their eggs.
One returned by itself and RSPCA officers caught another in a suburban cul-de-sac.
Ralph was last seen on Hemsted Forest Golf Club, near Sissinghurst.
LUDINGTON, Mich., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A Michigan man trying to roast a bear in an oven burned down his garage.
Joe Gorzynski lost not only the bear, the oven and the garage -- which he built shortly after he bought his house six years ago -- but his fishing equipment, his tools and some animal heads mounted on the wall, the Ludington (Mich.) Daily News reported.
Firefighters from three departments unsuccessfully battled the flames. The blaze was hot enough to melt some of Gorzynski's vinyl shutters and his neighbor's siding.
Steve Vandervest, chief of the Hamlin Fire Department, said the bear roast was probably what caused the fire. He told the newspaper he has seen fires caused by turkey fryers but this is his first caused by a roasting bear.
"This was a new one," he said.
I am certain that a better caption exists but I am unable to think of one. TiP readers, we need you, rise up and make your voices heard! Offer your suggestions. A prize will be offered to the winner, if there is a winner.
There are few restrictions and I shall be the sole judge. My decision shall be binding and final, whatever it may be. I too am interested in where this may lead.
OLYMPIA, Washington - A fierce group of raccoons has killed 10 cats, attacked a small dog and bitten at least one pet owner who had to get rabies shots, residents of Olympia say.
Some have taken to carrying pepper spray to ward off the masked marauders and the woman who was bitten now carries an iron pipe when she goes outside at night.
"It's a new breed," said Tamara Keeton, who with Kari Hall started a raccoon watch after an emotional neighborhood meeting drew 40 people. "They're urban raccoons, and they're not afraid."
Tony Benjamins, whose family lost two cats, said he got a big dog — a German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix — to keep the raccoons away.
One goal of the patrol is to get residents to stop feeding raccoons and to keep pets and pet food indoors.
Lisann Rolle said she began carrying an iron pipe when she goes outside at night after being bitten by raccoons when she tried to pull three of them off her cat Lucy. She obtained rabies shots afterward as a precaution.
"I was watching her like a hawk, but she snuck out," Rolle said. "Then I heard this hideous sound — a coyote-type high pitch ... It was vicious. They were focused on ripping her apart."
The attacks have been especially shocking because raccoons came within five feet (1 1/2 meters) of cats without any problem in previous years, Benjamins said.
"We used to love the raccoons. They'd have their babies this time of year, and they were so cute. Even though we lived in the city, it was neat to have wildlife around," he said, "but this year, things changed. They went nuts."
In one case five raccoons tried to carry off a small dog, which managed to survive.
The attacks, all within a three-block area near the Garfield Nature Trail in Olympia, are highly unusual, said Sean O. Carrell, a problem wildlife coordinator with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, adding that trappers may be summoned from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to remove problem animals.
"I've never heard a report of 10 cats being killed. It's something were going to have to monitor," Carrell said.
Meanwhile, residents have hired Tom Brown, a nuisance wildlife control operator from Rochester, Washington, to set traps, but in six weeks he has caught only one raccoon. He and Carrell said raccoons teach their young — and each other — to avoid traps.
Brown said he had seen packs of raccoons this big but none so into killing.
"They are in command up there," he said.
NEW YORK - AP- In the heat of summer, all sorts of tourists head north to cooler climes. This year, a manatee has joined the crowd, cruising past the nightclubs of Manhattan and continuing north.
The massive animal has been spotted in the Hudson River at least three times in the last week -- first off the Chelsea and Harlem sections of Manhattan, then in Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County.
"It was gigantic," said Randy Shull, who said he spotted the unusual visitor Sunday afternoon while boating at Kingsland Point Park in Sleepy Hollow. "When we saw it surface, its back was just mammoth."
John Vargo, the publisher of Boating on the Hudson magazine, said his alert about the sightings was met with disbelief by some boaters.
"Some were laughing about it, because it couldn't possibly be true," he said.
It is unusual for one of the creatures -- often associated with the warm waters of Florida -- to travel so far north, although they have been reported along the shores of Long Island and even Rhode Island.
"I'm 70 years old, and I've been on the river my entire life," Vargo said. "I've seen dolphins and everything else, but never a manatee."
Tooth in Paw.
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SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian scuba diver has survived an attack by a great white shark after fighting it off with his speargun and then his hands.
Bernie Williams, 46, was diving for crayfish off a beach in the Western Australian city of Perth Sunday when the shark attacked him from below, biting his arm.
"I just got hit by a very big shark. It came on my left hand side, from below. I never even saw it coming," Williams told Australian television Monday.
"I stabbed it on the nose with a speargun, but it was just like hitting a lump of steel," said Williams, who suffered deep puncture wounds to his left arm.
The 3-meter (9 feet) shark returned and attacked Williams again, dragging him through the water.
"It chomped on my arm and took me for a ride for about 2 metres (6 feet)," Williams said.
After about eight minutes fighting for his life, Williams managed to swim to the surface with two diving friends and climb into a boat.
One of the divers had an electronic shark repellant device attached to his air tanks, but Williams said his survival was just a matter of luck.
"At the end of the day it was pure luck," he said.
Earlier this month a 21-year-old woman died after she was attacked by three sharks while swimming off an island on Australia's northeast coast.
Sarah Whiley lost both forearms and suffered wounds to the legs and torso. She later died in hospital.
The latest shark attacks have sparked warnings around Australia that sharks are swimming closer to shore, chasing fish in cleaner, warmer waters.
Australia's first recorded shark attack was in 1791. By September 2005, there had been a total of 654 attacks in Australian waters, 192 of them fatal, according to the Australian Shark Attack File at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.
What was the cost for that shipment?
Animals Part Of Breeding Program
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -NBC10- A special delivery arrived via FedEx at the Memphis Zoo on Wednesday -- two polar bears.
Payton, 2, and Haley, 3, left their digs at the Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago and headed for warmer climates.
The bears will spend about a week getting used to their new surroundings and will eventually be part of a special breeding program at the Memphis Zoo.
Zookeepers in Brookfield hope the extra room in Memphis will inspire Payton's parents to produce more polar bears.
By Caroline Wyatt
BBC correspondent in Paris
Paris is well known as a canine form of paradise, with the city's 200,000 dogs welcome in department stores and even allowed to eat at the table in the best restaurants.
Now though one entrepreneur has ingeniously combined Parisians' two real passions - for their pets and gourmet food - to produce the perfect Parisian patisserie: a bakery devoted to dogs.
It sells bacon biscuits in the shape of a cat, or garlic and cheese flavour, and even bone-shaped cookies made of real foie gras.
All are on offer here, sugar and salt-free for the sensitive pet.
'Pastries and pets'
The boutique's owner is an award-winning pastry chef. But - whisper it quietly, so that spoilt Parisian pooches don't hear - she's an American.
Harriet Sternstein moved to Paris from the United States with her dog Sophie-Marie, a golden labrador with a love of biscuits and glamorous pink nail varnish.
Sophie-Marie provided the inspiration for the new business for her owner, who decided the best way to make a living was to combine her biggest enthusiasms - pastries and pets.
And so far, the patisserie, Mon Bon Chien has been a real hit with Parisians - both the two- and four-legged varieties.
Gourmet flavours
"Everything is made in the back of the boutique," said Ms Sternstein.
"Every day, I make 200 to 300 biscuits and special orders are taken on a daily basis.
"The Parisians come - and the first time they think it's very funny and they look at it, and buy the ones that they think are the cutest. Then the dogs come back and choose which flavours they like the best.
"It's not so much a matter of the form that they're in, but the taste. We have peanut butter bears, we have vegetable stars, we have foie gras, which is actual foie gras that you and I would eat," she explains.
"Those are the butterflies and then their little shapes; we also have the bacon cats.
"I change flavours, based on what's going on for the holidays. We did a whole Halloween one, Christmas and next, I think it will be Valentine's Day."
The biscuits can also be eaten by humans, although Ms Sternstein advises using your back teeth to chew them rather than your canines!
Mon Bon Chien
12, rue Mademoiselle
75015, paris
metros: commerce
01 48 28 40 12
fax: 01 48 28 40 12
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former police officer and another man were charged Thursday with dumping an alligator into an urban lake where it has thwarted would-be captors and gained a following.
Authorities say Todd Natow, 42, and Anthony Brewer, 36, released the 7-foot reptile earlier this summer into Harbor Regional Park's Machado Lake, where it has become known by the public as "Reggie."
Natow, who worked for the Los Angeles Police Department for 17 years before leaving in 2001, and Brewer were charged with unlawful possession of restricted animals, releasing an alligator into the lake, causing a public nuisance and marijuana possession, the city attorney's office said.
The men, both of Los Angeles, were arrested in August after officers raided Natow's home and found marijuana, as well as several alligators, piranha fish, a rattlesnake and three tortoises.
Police also found evidence of an alligator habitat and photographs of alligators. They believe Reggie was dumped in the 53-acre lake when he got too big to keep as a pet.
"These guys should not have thought they could get away with this," Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. "We have spent hundreds of thousands on overtime and other costs related to catching Reggie, and the lake has been closed off to the public for months."
The reptile has caused a stir in Los Angeles, with officials seeking out professional alligator wranglers, and residents, unaccustomed to seeing gators in their lakes, showing up in droves in hopes of spotting it.
Reggie has eluded capture for months and is now thought to be in hibernation.
The men were out on bail pending their Feb. 15 arraignment, authorities said. It was unclear whether they had defense attorneys.
A message left at a number listed for Natow was not returned; Brewer's number was unlisted.
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
type size: [A] [A] [A]
Dec. 28, 2005— Horses prefer fenugreek, banana and cherry-flavored feed to all other flavors, according to one of the most detailed studies yet on horse flavor preferences.
Three of the most popular flavors added to commercial horse feed — molasses, garlic and mint — did not fare nearly as well. In fact, most horses in the study rejected garlic-flavored food, unless it was their only choice.
According to the study, which is published in this month's Applied Animal Behavior Science, horses ranked flavors as follows: fenugreek, banana, cherry, rosemary, cumin, carrot, peppermint and oregano.
Many horse enthusiasts in Western countries feed their horses apples, but the eight competition-breed horses in the study liked the flavor of bananas better.
"Horses tend to be fed food that is cheap and local, so what they are offered will vary around the world," said Deborah Goodwin, lead author of the study. "We offer horses apples in the U.K., but in Japan they are expensive and people gift wrap them and give them to each other as presents."
Goodwin, a lecturer in applied animal behavior at the University of Southampton, added, "Colleagues in Tokyo have told me that apples are too expensive to offer to horses. My friend from Bangalore wasn't surprised that horses liked bananas. She tells me in India she would offer a banana to a horse as naturally as she would offer a banana to an elephant."
Goodwin told Discovery News that she and her colleagues began by offering six mares and two geldings of varying ages 15 flavors that currently or historically have been included in equine diets. The researchers added these flavors to standard cereal by-product meals.
The horses mostly rejected echinacea, coriander and nutmeg-flavored meals. In fact, one horse refused to eat anything flavored with echinacea or coriander.
In a second test, the researchers offered the remaining 12 flavors in pairs and calculated how quickly and how much the horses ate.
Previous studies indicate that horses love the smell of coriander, but they apparently do not like the taste of this spice very much.
Goodwin explained, "The senses of taste and smell are closely linked but not identical. For example, you may love the smell of coffee but not like the taste, or love the taste of Parmesan but hate the smell."
Christine Nicol, professor of animal welfare at the University of Bristol, told Discovery News that she particularly was not surprised by fenugreek and cumin making the list, since she said they have been determined to be "historically successful palatants."
Nicol and her colleagues conducted yet another recent study concerning horse feed. They examined the behavior of 17 foals that received either starch and sugar enhanced feed or food that had more fat and fiber.
The latter shares some similarities with the Atkins diet for humans, in that both aim to reduce glucose and insulin response.
The researchers found that horses fed the diet emphasizing fat and fiber appeared less distressed, seemed calmer and were more inquisitive.
Nicol said, "Horses interestingly seem to have a greater ability to increase their ability to digest and absorb fat than they can starch and sugar. They have been shown to be able to be fed up to 20 percent of their diet as fat/oil if appropriately introduced and of a suitable type."
Both Nicol and Goodwin suggested that feral and free-range horses eat a wider variety of foods than stabled horses.
Goodwin hopes owners will find out for themselves what their horses like.
She advised, "But only offer small amounts of novel flavors. Responsible owners will be aware that it can cause problems if they make sudden large changes to the bulk of a horse's diet."
Buffalo, New York -AP- A Hindu couple whose sacred cows were banished from the western New York village of Angelica in 2003 have renewed their fight to bring them home.
Stephen and Linda Voith are appealing a state Supreme Court decision that sided with Angelica officials, who cited rules governing farm animals within village limits.
The Voiths, members of the Krishna Consciousness branch of Hinduism, insist that their six cows are not farm animals but part of the family and integral to the practice of their religion that
protects and celebrates cows.
During the earlier court proceedings, neighbors called by the village as witnesses testified about the smell, manure and flies -- complaints the Voiths chalked up to religious intolerance.
![the kids[1].jpg](http://www.thorninpaw.com/mt/archives/the kids[1].jpg)
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The Associated Press
Published December 12, 2005, 11:24 AM CST
MAUSTON, Wis. -- A Mauston driver who thought he hit a coyote or fox still can't believe the victim was actually a 50-pound kangaroo.
Ralph Hamm was driving near Mauston, about 75 miles northwest of Madison. He says he saw something jump in the road right before he hit it. The roadkill turned out to be a kangaroo.
Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources has given Hamm permission to keep the 'roo, so Hamm says he'll get it stuffed so people will believe his story. No one has claimed ownership of the kangaroo.
In January of this year, a live kangaroo was found in Dodgeville and taken to the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison. The marsupial was never claimed and remains on permanent exhibit at the zoo.
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-051212kangarookilled,1,5168534.story?coll=chi-news-hed
BBC News
Police have collared the latest in technology by kitting out their firearms dogs with cameras.
New recruits to the Northumbria Police force are German shepherds Sammy, five, and three-year-old Zara.
They have been trained to help during armed sieges and wear miniature television cameras with transmitters fitted to their heads or harnesses.
It means they can search buildings and relay the information back to officers.
The Fido camera system also has infra-red lights, which means pictures can be provided in darkness.
Pictures are seen on a receiver unit carried by the dog handler who can watch the progress of the four-legged recruits searching for armed suspects.
Zara and Sammy have also been trained to leave a mobile phone at the front door of under-siege premises so officers can negotiate with suspects.
Advanced searching
They were picked out an early age for the role and have undergone rigorous training.
PC Jim Soutar, who has responsibility for the force's firearms dogs, said: "I'm constantly looking at general purpose dogs throughout the force and if I think they have got potential I will give them a development programme.
"We're looking for dogs with above average drive who can operate under stressful conditions."
The dogs' skills include the ability to perform advanced searching without being distracted.
They are controlled through hand gestures or, if they are out of sight, through voice alone.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4497212.stm
Nov 28, 2005 — CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia has more feral pigs than people and exotic pests cost the economy more than A$700 million a year, damaging farms and the environment, a government report says.
The 18-month inquiry found feral pigs, wild dogs, cats and rabbits were the most destructive pests in Australia, causing havoc for farmers, although feral deer, camels, foxes and horses also posed significant problems.
"It is time to take control of this pressing problem facing Australian farmers," inquiry chairman Alby Schultz told Australia's parliament on Monday.
He said Australia had up to 23 million feral pigs, more than 300,000 feral camels, with the population doubling every eight years, and an estimated 300,000 feral horses.
There were 12 million feral cats, but the report gave no estimate of the number of feral dogs.
Australia's human population is 20.4 million.
The report said feral pigs caused damage worth A$106.5 million a year compared to A$66 million a year for dogs. A single wild dog could cause between A$50,000 and A$120,000 worth of damage to farm animals in a year, it said.
Schultz's report called for the national government and six state governments to work together to stamp out feral pests, and to allow aerial baits to be dropped for wild pigs and dogs in the worst affected areas.
Inquiry member Dick Adams said more could be done to commercially harvest feral pests for food and fur. The report said wild pig meat exports already earned between A$3 million and A$5 million a year, while wild possum meat is sent to China.
"I had the opportunity to try camel steak while in Western Australia," Adams told parliament, saying there could be a local market for camel meat if chefs could find a way of making it tasty enough.
A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad
attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird's
mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. John tried and tried
to change the bird's attitude by consistently saying only polite words,
playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the
bird's vocabulary.
Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled
back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder.
John, in desperation, threw up his hand, grabbed the bird and put him in
the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and
screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for
over a minute.
Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the
freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John's outstretched arms and
said, "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and
actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions
and fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and
unforgivable behavior."
John was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about
to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior,
the bird continued, "May I ask what the turkey did?"
By DPA
In a daring and apparently well-planned operation, masked gunmen kidnapped a lion from the Gaza Zoo, Palestinian media reported Sunday morning.
Zoo manager Saud al-Shawwa has offered a reward of 1,000 U.S. dollars for the return of the lion and of two Arabic-speaking parrots which were also stolen in the 30-minute heist.
According to the reports, four gunmen armed with Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifles broke into the zoo and overpowered the guard.
They nabbed the two white parrots and then threw a blanket over the head of the lion. Their attempt to capture a second lion failed after the animal reportedly proved too fierce for them.
The robbery occurred two weeks ago but was only made public over the weekend in order to allow the police time to try and find the thieves.
Al-Shawwa said it was unclear why anyone would want to steal a lion which consumed at least three kilograms of meat a day.
"This lion can't be bought or sold on the black market," he said.
Palestinian sources speculated the lion was taken by a criminal gang who wanted the animal as a trophy "show of force".
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/650458.html
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 15, 2005; Page A03
The Bush administration today will take the first step toward removing Yellowstone's grizzly bears, a living icon of the American West, from the nation's endangered species list.
The proposal to delist grizzly bears in the area surrounding Yellowstone National Park, a plan that has alarmed some environmentalists, highlights contrasting views of the 32-year-old Endangered Species Act. Proponents of the government's move say the grizzly's recovery marks a rare victory for the controversial law; others say the decision may undermine protections for a still-vulnerable group of animals.
If the administration drops the bears' current "threatened" status after a public comment period -- a move that would not take place until the end of 2006 at the earliest -- officials in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would be free to allow limited hunting of grizzlies and would not have to maintain the same level of protection on the grizzlies' habitat. ("Threatened" is the less restrictive of the two categories of listings under the act.) The government would continue to monitor how state and federal authorities manage the land where the bears live, to ensure their survival.
Craig Manson, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks at the Interior Department, said the agency considers Yellowstone's grizzly population, which has rebounded from a low of about 200 in 1982 to more than 600 today, "recovered." Federal biologists have informed him that "adequate habitat and adequate habitat protections are in place" for the bears, he said.
"We know more about this population of grizzly bears than any population of grizzly bears anywhere," Manson said, adding that the department will monitor the animals' health for five years after the bears come off the list. "We're going to have an excellent picture of the health of this population well into the future."
But Louisa Wilcox, who directs the Natural Resources Defense Council's wild bears project, said delisting would place the grizzlies' critical habitat in jeopardy. The bears range over nearly 9 million acres in and around the national park, she said, but the administration's proposal only covers a 6 million-acre habitat.
"We would love to see the grizzly bear delisted, but it's not ready," Wilcox said, adding that one-third of the bears' current habitat could be opened to drilling, logging and human development under the agency's plan. "If you want to protect bears for future generations, you have to protect the habitat they need. This plan doesn't do it."
If the administration takes Yellowstone's grizzlies off the list -- the public will have 90 days to comment on the proposal -- the grizzly will become the 18th endangered species to be declared recovered under the Endangered Species Act. Nine endangered species have gone extinct, and the government has delisted 13 species that were listed erroneously.
Yellowstone boasts the largest grizzly population in the lower 48 states, though there are a few smaller groups living in areas such as the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem near Canada, Montana's Cabinet Yaak wilderness and Idaho's Selkirk Mountains. Grizzlies are thriving in Alaska, where more than 30,000 of them live.
No one questions that Yellowstone's grizzlies have rebounded over the past three decades since they were listed -- the population has been growing at a rate of 4 to 7 percent annually for several years -- in part because state and federal officials abolished trash dumps that used to lure bears and bring them into dangerous contact with humans.
But the recent revival also has sparked conflict with nearby residents as the bears venture out of the national park. Dominic Domenici, the Fish and Wildlife Service resident agent in charge of enforcement for Montana and Wyoming, said there "are more conflicts now between elk hunters and bears," in part because the whitebark pine seeds grizzlies need are in shorter supply now from a beetle infestation induced by warming climate.
Some environmentalists say the decline of the whitebark pine is yet another reason why the grizzlies should remain listed as threatened, as the seeds are closely linked to female bears' fecundity.
But National Wildlife Federation senior wildlife biologist Sterling Miller, who spent 21 years studying grizzlies in Alaska and now lives in Montana, said the time has come to take Yellowstone's bears off the list.
"You can't immunize them against everything bad that can possibly happen," Miller said. "That's a prescription for a permanent listing."
And John Emmerich, assistant wildlife division chief at Wyoming's Game and Fish Department, said environmentalists are not showing enough faith in state officials who have spent years and millions of dollars helping promote the bears' recovery. While the state plans to allow hunting "as a management tool," he added, officials would make sure it does not hurt the grizzly population, and hunting would not begin for at least a year.
"People will see in time the states will do a good job with delisting the grizzly bears," Emmerich said. "We're one of the primary reasons we've got a recovered population."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/14/AR2005111401328.html
SEOUL (Reuters) -Police in the capital have been battling an invasion of wild boars that have come down from the mountains into densely populated areas in and around Seoul foraging for food before the onset of winter.
Friday, one turned up at an apartment complex in Kuri, east of Seoul, media reported. Police failed to catch it after a 90-minute chase.
Friday, one turned up at an apartment complex in Kuri, east of Seoul, media reported. Police failed to catch it after a 90-minute chase.
Earlier this week, about 200 tourists were evacuated from Changkyong Palace in central Seoul after a wild boar was spotted on the grounds and hunters and police gave chase.
Last week, a wild boar was spotted near a Seoul luxury hotel. Police, hunters and dogs chased the animal to the banks of the Han River, where the beast drowned trying to swim to safety.
The Seoul city government said this week it planned to form a task force with police and the Korean Hunting Management Association to combat the invasion, which has brought sightings in apartment-block gardens, schools and underground parking lots.
"Wild boars entering the city are dangerous because there are so many people who could get hurt and there are so many obstacles to catching the animals," said Moon Tae-kuk, a hunting association official.
Wild boars can be aggressive when cornered. Those seen in Seoul have weighed up to 130 kg (287 pounds).
This October 16th, help the cats at the Patricia H. Ladew Foundation from the comfort of your own home! Please support our Profits for the Day even with www.PetWearUSA.com.
By going to their website, you will get to custom design your pet's best look from over 300 designs and 20 colors. Not only will you get FREE shipping AND some great collars (and some toys), but you will be helping us with rising medical care costs, needed renovations, spay/neuter efforts, rescue, foster and adoption of some great kitties and much more.
On this Sunday, October 16th (please write it down!), ALL profits from ALL orders on that day come to the Patricia H. Ladew Foundation. It doesn't matter if it is from our members, supporters or someone we've never met (hey, we're not picky!). So please be sure to send this to everyone you know that has pets or that knows someone that has pets -- don't forget, Christmas is coming -- give two gifts for the price of one!
Will you be busy on the 16th? NO PROBLEM! Go now and shop. Save your selections to your wishlist and then on the 16th, you can complete your order in moments. Remember ALL ORDERS DURING THE 24 HOUR PERIOD help us help the animals!
Thanks for helping!
Susan Whittred
The Patricia H. Ladew Foundation
BY ANDREW HERRMANN Staff Reporter
Veterinarian Tom Meehan once helped yank a tooth from an elephant. (They're flat and square, about 4 inches by 4 inches, he said.) He's worked a root canal on a polar bear, removing one of its 42 teeth. He's also done the dental thing on primates.
Tuesday, Meehan ventured into orthodontia, affixing tiny "braces" to the front bottom biters of a Brookfield Zoo groundhog named Stormy.
"It's always something different," said Meehan, the zoo's chief veterinarian.
Under bright operating room lights in Brookfield's animal hospital, Stormy was first sedated with isoflurane gas delivered thorough a small mask wrapped around his snout.
Because a groundhog's teeth grow throughout its life -- about a half inch per month -- Meehan then trimmed the top and bottom teeth with a tiny buzz saw. Finally, he used needle nose pliers to wrap suture wire around the creature's lower incisors.
Typically, the upper and lower teeth of a groundhog wear on each other to keep the set trimmed naturally. But Stormy's lower teeth abnormally grew in a "V" so the top two fit between the bottom pair, each set growing longer and longer.
If Stormy were in the wild, the 4-year-old male groundhog would have, if not starved, certainly found difficulties eating the small plants and grasses that make up its diet, said Meehan.
This was the fourth set of braces the animal has received since August. The zoo hopes that once the bottom pair grow straight, Stormy will no longer need the "tinsel teeth" treatment. (And, no, said zoo spokeswoman Sondra Katzen, Stormy won't need a retainer.)
The idea to fit Stormy with braces came from John Scheels, a Milwaukee-area dentist who, along with treating human patients, also does veterinary work. Scheels put a similar set of braces on a capybara, a South American rodent, for the Milwaukee Zoo.
Scheels has worked on a rhinoceros -- he used a channel lock-type pliers -- and repaired Asian elephant tusks. But smaller animals like Stormy are actually more difficult to work on, he said. Recently, with the aid of a magnifying glass, he repaired the 3-millimeter-long teeth of a pygmy marmoset monkey.
Scheels has a ready answer for his human patients who ask which clients are more difficult to deal with -- the critters or the homo sapiens?
The problem with animals is they can't tell him what ails them. In fact, they "hide things because they never want to appear vulnerable," he said.
Then again, he joked, "the animals never call and complain."
Groundhogs don't throw, nor do they usually eat, wood. They live on small vegetation like leaves, flowers, soft stems and grasses.
So why is a woodchuck called a woodchuck? The name is derived from the Cree Indian word for the animal -- wuchak.
As for the answer to the tongue twister, in 1988, the Wall Street Journal cited New York State wildlife expert Richard Thomas, who found that a woodchuck throws around 35 cubic feet of dirt while digging a burrow. The same amount of wood would weigh about 700 pounds, Thomas said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-braces12.html
A Chinese man who raised bears to tap them for their bile, prized as a traditional medicine in Asia, has been killed and eaten by his animals, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.
Six black bears attacked keeper Han Shigen as he was cleaning their pen in the northeastern province of Jilin on Monday, Xinhua said.
"The ill-fated man died on the spot and was eaten up by the ferocious bears," it said, citing a report in the Beijing News.
In practices decried by animal rights groups, bile is extracted through surgically implanted catheters in the bear's gall bladders, or by a "free-dripping" technique by which bile drips out through holes opened in the animals' abdomens.
More than 200 farms in China keep about 7,000 bears to tap their bile, which traditional Chinese medicine holds can cure fever, liver illness and sore eyes.
Bear farming was far more widespread before the cruelty involved came to light and Beijing introduced regulations to control the industry in 1993.
Animal welfare groups have called on China to completely ban bear farming, arguing that traditional herbal medicines can serve the same purposes as bear bile.
Xinhua said police sent to the scene of Monday's killing injected one of the bears with tranquillisers "but failed to tame the mad animal".
Police then threw meat into the bears' pen to distract them so they could recover Han's remains, it said without elaborating.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051011/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_china_bears&printer=1;_ylt=At0EZDZnETrrwk1eiyTfIvaek3QF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Monday, October 10, 2005 Page R3
Paris -- French anti-fur activists said they struck Anna Wintour, editor of the U.S. edition of Vogue, in the face with a tofu cream pie on Saturday to protest against her support for the use of animal fur by the fashion industry.
Wintour, dressed in a fur-trimmed black jacket, was hit in the face as she left the Chloe fashion ready-to-wear show at the Tuileries Gardens in central Paris. It was the second such attack this year on Wintour, an unapologetic fur supporter decried by animal rights groups as a "pelt pusher."
PETA said Vogue's "dozens of pages of pro-fur editorials and advertising each year," were the reason for the attack. Reuters
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051010/NOTE10-5/TPEntertainment/TopStories
SOON to turn 175 years of age, Harriet the Galapagos tortoise - possibly the world's oldest living creature - is finally getting the recognition she surely deserves.
Harriet, which was first taken from her home on the Galapagos Islands, off South America, by English naturalist Charles Darwin, is now the subject of a book about her amazing life.
Harriet was hatched in 1830. Five years later, she and two other tortoises were collected by Darwin and taken to England aboard his ship, HMS Beagle.
The three, then named Tom, Dick and Harry, were cared for by Darwin, but five years of freezing English winters and a lack of sunshine reduced them to a state of virtual hibernation and they were brought to Australia in 1842.
Dick died in the late 1880s and it is not known where its remains were buried, while Tom died in 1949.
In 1960, a visiting director of Hawaii's Honolulu Zoo examined Harry and found he was a she, a move that prompted the name Harriet. She now lives at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.
Three other tortoises are believed to have lived to a greater age than Harriet but have died.
Of the 15 sub-species of giant tortoise, some weighing more than 200kg, only 11 remain and it is expected a fifth will become extinct.
Their numbers have been depleted due to harvesting by seamen and the release of feral animals which have destroyed their food and eaten their eggs.
Harriet will celebrate her 175th birthday with a party at the zoo on November 15.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16864720-13762,00.html
AP-Honda Motor Co. has designed a car that's friendly for dogs — part of the Japanese automaker's ongoing effort to create vehicles that are easy to use and comfortable to ride in.
The W.O.W. Concept, which stands for "wonderful openhearted wagon," shown to reporters recently, is an exhibition model with no plans for commercial sale that will be exhibited at the Tokyo auto show later this month.
A special crate for dogs in the glove apartment allows owners to interact with their pets while driving. A bigger crate pops up from the floor in the back seat area and can be folded back into the floor when it's not needed. For even bigger dogs, just buckle them up with a special seat belt to the floor.
The big danger for pets riding along in cars is that they get thrown out during a crash. About a fifth of Japanese households have a dog, and demand is growing for cars that cater to man's best friend, according to Honda.
The W.O.W comes with removable, washable, rollout flooring and has wide sliding doors to keep dogs happy.
"We created this vehicle from the point of view of a dog, but it turned out to be a gentler vehicle for the elderly, children and other family members," said Honda designer Katsuhito Nakamura.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051005/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_honda_pooch_car&printer=1;_ylt=ApKcqlXqrQOWc1ZtYIVVibFv24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Elias C. Arnold
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 30, 2005 05:00 PM
SCOTTSDALE It's still 85 days until Christmas, but two reindeer already are causing a stir in a neighborhood near downtown Scottsdale.
The Christmas lawn ornaments - the kind you would expect to see with other decorations in December - first appeared Sunday on a rooftop near Thomas and Scottsdale roads.
Neighbors probably wouldn't have minded the early display, but there was a problem - the reindeer appeared to be making love.
"It's a little humorous in a way," said Al Sayler, who lives across the street and whose son called police about the display. "I can understand them having a little fun like that. But it's really not appropriate for the little kids that come by here (to meet the school bus) every morning."
Scottsdale police went to the house and talked to its residents, but there are no city codes to make them take it down, Sayler said.
"The city of Scottsdale was really nice about it," said Marc Veneziano, an Arizona State University student who rents a room in the house. The reindeer were a joke and posting them on the rooftop helped mark the house for a Christmas-theme party Friday night, he said.
People honking as they drove by showed "a lot of positive feedback," Veneziano said of the neighborhood's response.
He and his roommates separated the figurines when the neighbors asked them to, but they weren't afraid to put them back up when it was time for the party.
Even so, Veneziano said, they planned to take down the display, along with the lights strung across the front of the house, as they clean up after the party.
Kevin Toscano, who lives down the street from the reindeer display, said a brief joke is fine, but it would be inappropriate for it to stay up for very long.
Toscano said he is concerned about having the connotations of the display out where neighborhood children can see, even though his 7-year-old daughter didn't understand what it meant.
"(She) just had the blankest look on (her) face," Toscano said.
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0930sr-reindeer30-ON.html
Residents of a German city have been warned not to let their children play alone outdoors after a wolf escaped from a local zoo.
The wolf escaped after jumping over an electric fence the zoo in Gelsenkirchen during a fight between members of its pack.
"It's a very ferocious animal that won't be easy to catch," police said.
Police say the wolf should only pose a danger to people unless cornered or harassed.
They advised parents to ensure that children did not play alone outdoors and to keep dogs leashed while out walking.
Meanwhile police denied that they were searching the woods for a missing girl wearing a red hood.
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=121003®ion=3
A housing developer plans to encourage potential buyers by offering a free pig with every purchase.
Property magnate Jeremy Paxton has made the unusual offer to anyone investing in a home on the exclusive Lower Mill estate, near Cirencester, Gloucs.
The rare Gloucester Old Spot pigs will be "fully house-trained".
Alternatively buyers can have their pig kept on a farm and eventually turned into what the developer describes as the "finest pork loins".
A spokeswoman for Mr Paxton said: "It will make a change from having a Labrador.
Two buyers
"Pigs take about as long as a puppy to house-train and will then be ready to move in with their new family.
"You don't have to keep it in your house, of course. You can name it, visit it on the farm and then of course enjoy bacon or sausages when they get a bit older.
"People who have come to the estate have found the idea pretty funny."
The offer, which runs throughout September, has already attracted two buyers who have decided to keep their new friends on the farm, when their houses are built next year.
The bizarre scheme was, however, condemned by the RSPCA, who branded the promotion "irresponsible".
A spokeswoman for the charity said: "The RSPCA believe taking on an animal should be a carefully-considered decision, based on ability and knowledge to care for that animal in the proper way."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4216392.stm
Published: 2005/09/05 14:21:21 GMT
By Michael Canan
TCPalm.com
Posted August 31 2005, 12:35 PM EDT
Massive teeth and steel-trap jaws are enough to make most people stay far away from alligators. But the thrill of escaping those dangers is enough to send some hunters in search of the infamous reptiles.
Alligator harvest season begins Thursday in Florida, and local hunters will stalk the waters in Lake Okeechobee, at several approved sites in Indian River County and in other areas around the state.
"For one month out of the year you can kill them and be legal," said Fort Pierce resident Joe Carter, 30, who has gone gator hunting for seven years. "It's just adrenaline when you're messing with an animal knowing it could bite you."
Biting is a real possibility, said Capt. Lewis Clanton, who guides clients on gator hunting trips for his business, Bow Gator of Fort Pierce. State law requires hunters to catch the gator before killing it. That means a thrashing 200-pound gator must be corralled before dealing the final blow.
"They splash. They bite. They chew. They bite the front of the boat," Clanton said. "I don't let my clients take any chances. If anybody does, it's usually me. And yes, I've had a few close calls, a few nips."
But that's all part of the sport's allure.
"It's super dark, and you're in a marsh and the different smells," said Don Patnaude, a 38-year-old hunter from Palm City. "There's just the excitement of hunting something in the total pitch-black that can basically eat you."
Patnaude, who hunts various game across the United States and Africa, has gone gator hunting with Clanton about 25 times.
He takes clients and customers of his shooting sports business, Jones and Co., and said that he's bagged a gator at least 10 feet long each time. Patnaude has six trips with clients planned this season
In his nine years in business, Clanton said he has killed more than 1,000 gators with clients. He usually averages 35 to 50 each season.
Clanton uses two hunting methods, although there are other techniques as well. He specializes in crossbow hunts, on which he uses a boat with an outboard motor to creep close to the quarry. Gator hunting is allowed only from one-half hour before sunset to one-half hour after sunrise, so the hunters try to use the dim light as much as possible. Clanton then allows his client to fire the crossbow at the gator.
Clanton's alternately uses a harpoon and an airboat. He said he can hit a gator with a harpoon while going 40 mph. He fires the initial shot and then allows the client to take the second shot once the gator has been hit.
The hunters then catch the gator and hit it with an explosive device called a bang stick, which can kill the gator but often simply immobilizes it. Once the gator is defenseless, the hunters finish it off with a knife.
The prolonged battle makes the sport that much more interesting, Patnaude said.
"(In) most hunting experiences, the adrenaline only lasts a few minutes," he said. "This is a long, drawn-out process. Sometimes it takes 15 to 45 minutes to harvest them. It's a huge adrenaline rush the whole time. It's not like deer-hunting, where you see a deer and 30 seconds later you're shooting and then you're done and the adrenaline is gone. This is an alligator, biting the boat and splashing and running."
-- mike.canan@scripps.com
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-831alligatorharvest,0,4596120.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Bulletin Issued In Southwest Part Of State
UPDATED: 2:19 pm EDT August 30, 2005
SPRINGDALE, Ohio -AP- The bulletin issued by police in the southwest Ohio town of Springdale describes the subject as two feet tall, weighing eight pounds, clad only in blue pants and prone to sleeping in trees.
Dillion, a circus monkey, fled into a nearby woods early Monday after being frightened by a train whistle from tracks near where the circus was performing in Springdale, in northern Hamilton County.
Trainer Philip Hendricks, who is part of the Hendricks Brothers Circus, says Dillion, who has a white face, brown body and is wearing a leash, is usually confident in new surroundings but the train whistle sent him scurrying.
The circus is leaving town Thursday morning and Hendricks is worried that his monkey won't be found before then.
Hendricks suggests that anyone who spots Dillion try to lure him with food. He's fond of apples, oranges, nuts, berries -- and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
SAN FRANCISCO -AP- Commuters are used to traffic backups during the rush-hour commute on the Golden Gate Bridge. But even this had to throw some of them for a loop: An ostrich got loose from a minivan Monday and started roaming around near the toll plaza on the bridge.
Ron Love, the owner of Love Farms, was transporting two of the odd-looking birds in the back of his van. Love was stopped in traffic when he suddenly accelerated, jolting one of the ostriches, who smashed through the back window of the van and got loose on the bridge.
The ostrich began running around on the bridge, stopping traffic for about eight minutes before police were able to move it out of traffic.
"It was quite an adventure," Love said. "Strange things always seem to happen with ostriches. I guess this proves it."
The ostrich had road rash from the fall but was not seriously hurt and was resting comfortably back home, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Wayne Ziese said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050830/ap_on_fe_st/golden_gate_ostrich;_ylt=AiURNYFvfh.2fei14xIe_mWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3NW1oMDRpBHNlYwM3NTc-
By Ainsley Pavey
August 28, 2005
GUARD geese are snapping at the heels of would-be burglars across back yards as home owners embrace them as family pets.
The birds, famous for saving the Roman Empire from a surprise attack by the Gauls in 365BC, have become part of honk-squads patrolling homes, car yards and council property.
Home invaders are being scared away by deafening shrills and the threat of attack by territorial geese that can weigh up to 15kg and have bills like serrated-edged knives.
Guard-dog trainer Chris Egan said goose ownership was booming as the birds, which fed on grains such as corn and wheat, were a cheap alternative to dogs.
"And they do the mowing," Mr Egan said.
"You better have friendly neighbours because they honk at anything.
"I would only recommend them on larger properties which have access to water and grass."
Brisbane-based produce agents say breeders are busy incubating hundreds of eggs of the slow-breeding birds to meet demand.
A rush on the low-maintenance family pets has led to shortages and recent hikes in the cost of the birds, which are fetching between $20 and $100 at pet shops and produce agencies.
Bridgitte Walls, of Capalaba Produce, said she was struggling to keep up with the demand for watch geese.
"We get no more than a dozen and they are gone within a few weeks," Ms Walls said.
"People like them because they are very good guard dogs, they are vicious and very protective."
Burpengary-based breeder Bob Whitehouse said geese were renowned for their savage nature, which made them excellent for security.
"They are certainly very good watchdogs. They can leave a nasty bite and have serration on the top and bottom of their mandible," he said.
He once owned a killer goose capable of tearing up swans and other large birds.
"I had to eyeball it and never turned my back," Mr Whitehouse said.
"The man who sold it to me was dead scared of it.
"He had to keep it in a brick house because it was killing the swans and birds on his property."
Geese owner David Green, of Durak, said the birds were also preventing theft at car yards.
"Just about anything will set them off," Mr Green said.
He said breeds such as toulouse geese were just like "cuddly labradors", but the bigger emden variety was capable of "clawing and biting" intruders.
"The toulouse will stand and hiss but won't chew your leg off," he said.
Goose trading has become a huge pastime on the Sunshine Coast, where there are pockets of semi-rural housing estates and families eager to find a pet.
Tina Crutchley, from Cedarton in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, said the birds were capable of "taking the top of your finger off".
The watchdogs of the bird kingdom have also gone on duty inside the fortified fenceline of whisky distilleries in Scotland and Ireland.
The big birds are used in the United States to guard defence-force property.
Brisbane residents have reported seeing geese on patrol at a council bus depot.
By Gerald Tenywa - newvision.co.ug
KAMPALA City residents fond of eating game meat face the risk of catching deadly diseases including ebola.
In a press statement, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) warned that the game meat being sold in Kampala was a mixture of baboon, monkey meat and other game such as antelopes and buffaloes.
UWA’s head Moses Mapesa warned that diseases such as ebola were likely to crop up if people continued feasting on the bush meat.
He said a recent survey carried out by UWA officials against illegal hunting in the Kafu basin showed that baboon and monkey meat is mixed with that of antelopes and sold in areas as far as Kampala.
Kafu basin runs along river Kafu and goes through Masindi, Nakasongola, Luweero, Kiboga and Mubende districts.
Mapesa said because poaching, trade and consumption of game meat is illegal, most of the activities are done at night in slums or unlicensed places. He said consequently, registered veterinarians do not inspect the meat.
“UWA therefore warns the public against consumption of any wild animal meat. It is illegal, it is a health hazard and robs the country of foreign exchange through tourism,’’ the statement said.
Baboons are closely related to humans because they share over 90% of the genetic material. This close genetic relation increases the risk of spreading certain diseases.
“Baboons are closely related to humans and the cultural and ethical norms in Uganda do not permit us to feast on our close relatives. It is therefore an abominable act,’’ Mapesa said.
UWA’s statement also warned people involved in the illegal trade that they risk other fatal infections through consuming wild animal products, contact with live animals or carcasses and through indirect exposure to contaminated soil or leaves while hunting.
He said they also risk catching diseases through living organisms such as ticks, rodents and mosquitoes. He said infectious agents such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites pass on the diseases.
Dr. Richard Ssuna, a manager under the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust, blamed the trade in primate meat on Congolese refugees who have settled near the game reserves.
He said the dangerous culture was being adopted by Ugandans.
UWA said the trade in primate meat had been reported in western Uganda and near Murchison Falls Conservation Area.
Mapesa said the deadly outbreaks of viral diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola have been associated with eating primates in the neighbouring countries. He said the trade was endangering tourism that contributes US$200m (about sh400b) a year to the national coffers.
Published on: Saturday, 27th August, 2005
By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 44 minutes ago
LONDON - Caged and barely clothed, eight men and women monkeyed around for the crowds Friday in an exhibit labeled "Humans" at the London Zoo.
"Warning: Humans in their Natural Environment" read the sign at the entrance to the exhibit, where the captives could be seen on a rock ledge in a bear enclosure, clad in bathing suits and pinned-on fig leaves. Some played with hula hoops, some waved.
Visitors stopped to point and laugh, and several children could be heard asking, "Why are there people in there?"
London Zoo spokeswoman Polly Wills says that's exactly the question the zoo wants to answer.
"Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals ... teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate," Wills said.
The exhibit puts the three male and five female "homo sapiens" amid their primate relatives. While their neighbors might enjoy bananas and a good scratch, these eight have divided interests, from a chemist hoping to raise awareness about apes to a self-described actor/model and fitness enthusiast.
For others, the aping around is just another forum for rampant exhibitionism and self-promotion.
Pointing at one heavy muscled and gleaming body on the ledge, one visitor joked that the zoo should consider a breeding program.
"You can tell why some people came here, like the big muscly men who clearly like parading around in thongs," said Damien Largey, 23.
Melissa Wecker, 21, was disappointed that the humans were wearing swimsuits beneath their fig leaves. "They're not doing anything. It looked lots better on the news," she complained.
Tom Mahoney, 26, decided to participate after his friend sent him an e-mail about the contest as a joke. Anything that draws attention to apes, he said, has his support.
"A lot of people think humans are above other animals," he told The Associated Press. "When they see humans as animals, here, it kind of reminds us that we're not that special."
Mark Ainsworth, 21, heard about the Human Zoo on the news.
"I've lived in this country for nine years and have never come to a zoo," said Ainsworth. "This exhibit made us come to the zoo. Humans are animals too!"
Like the rest of their caged neighbors, the humans had a variety of toys to keep them entertained — board games, music, paints, and balls.
They are being treated as animals, complete with keepers, but are allowed to go home each night at closing time.
When visitor Peter Bohn, 42, saw the "animals" juggling, he stopped and had a good laugh.
"It's hilarious," he said. "It turns everything upside down. It makes you think about the humans in relation to the animals."
After three hours, Mahoney is still having fun except for when the wind picks up. But, he added, "I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050826/ap_on_fe_st/britain_human_zoo;_ylt=Ajaxvk2hWUV.7rPqIW4nvf7tiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
Returns Home 6 Months After Suffering Serious Injuries, But Still Thinks Most Chimps Are Safe
Aug. 17, 2005 — A California man who was savagely mauled by chimpanzees in March is back home today after six months in the hospital.
St. James Davis, 62, and his wife, LaDonna, were celebrating the 39th birthday of their former pet chimp, Moe, at the Animal Haven Ranch when two young chimps broke out of their cages and viciously attacked the couple. Davis lost most of his fingers, parts of his foot, a testicle and parts of his face, and both chimps were shot dead during the attack.
"I am thankful that God and this hospital allowed St. James to come to me again," LaDonna Davis, who lost a thumb in the attack, said in a press conference Tuesday when her husband left the hospital. "We are not finished with our life together and our affection for each other."
LaDonna Davis told "Good Morning America" she and her husband still believe most chimps are not dangerous.
"Every animal, every being has good," LaDonna Davis told "Good Morning America" in March. "That's what you have to bring out of them."
Raising Him Like a Son
The Davises adopted Moe from Tanzania shortly after he was born, and by all accounts, loved him like a son. They taught him to wear clothes, to takes showers and to use the toilet, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"Moe was like their child in many ways," Gloria Allred, the Davis' attorney, told "GMA" today. "They didn't have children and they were a family."
But after Moe bit a police officer in 1998 and a woman the following year, the chimpanzee was removed from the Davis' home by animal control officers and after a long custody battle ended up in the Animal Haven Ranch, about 30 miles east of Bakersfield, Calif.
The Davises visited him regularly, and were sharing birthday cake with him on March 3, when two young male chimps named Buddy and Olly broke out of their cages and attacked.
"When we made eye contact, the charge was on," LaDonna Davis told "GMA" in March. "There was no stopping anything."
La Donna Davis said the chimps pushed her forward so she fell into her husband with her arm around his neck. A chimp then bit off her left thumb, and St. James pushed her away to try to save her. The chimps then jumped on him, one at his head and one at his foot. The chimps, who each weighed more than 130 pounds, were shot and killed after the attack.
Moe played no role in the attack.
St. James Davis sustained multiple serious injuries and had at least 12 surgeries and physical therapy at the Loma Linda Medical Center. In June doctors took him out of an induced coma and removed his breathing tube. He returned home on Tuesday.
"He has a good attitude and to bring him home I think will help him emotionally," LaDonna Davis told "GMA" today. "This will bring him the ability ot heal inside and outside a lot faster."
LaDonna Davis said her husband suffered nightmares when he was first in the hospital and his short-term memory took longer to return than his long-term memory.
"It's a challenge and I have to say that once in a while I get a little angry but you have to let that go," she said. "If you don't let go you can't go forward."
Davis would not comment on whether or not there would be any legal actions against the ranch. There will be no attempts to bring Moe back to the Davis house as local laws will not allow it.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1044680
Russ Williams and his kick-boxing dog Ringo Tsar, take part in a training session in Caerwys, Wales. Ringo Tsar, a 15-month-old Russian Terrier, can deliver a knockout punch with his paws and has been trained in the art of kick-boxing by Williams, who runs his own kick-boxing school and is a former world champion in the martial art.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/photography650/32.html
THURSDAY, August 25: Talini, left, a 9-month-old, 160-pound polar bear cub, swims with her mother Barle at the Detroit Zoo's Artic Ring of Life exhibit. Talini's birth was the first polar bear birth at the Detroit Zoo in fifteen years. Her mother Barle was wild born and was rescued by the Detroit Zoo from a circus in Puerto Rico in 2002. She is a first-time mom.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/photogalleries/photography650/34.html
Frozen dog treats have been a howling success for Dreyer's
- Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer
Dog owners like Kathleen Allegro have helped make Frosty Paws Frozen Treats for Dogs among the most profitable products that Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream sells.
The San Francisco "mother" of Vinny, a 2-year-old Tibetan terrier, has a hard time finding enough boxes of the cool canine treat to keep her pet happy during the dog days of summer.
"I've had to go to more Safeways looking for his Frosty Paws than I do grocery shopping," Allegro said. "I'll buy as many boxes as they have."
Dreyer's inherited Frosty Paws in June 2003 when Swiss food conglomerate Nestle bought a 67 percent stake in the Oakland ice cream producer. Along with the Frosty Paws franchise came an endorsement of the products by pet food company Purina, which is also controlled by Nestle.
Frosty Paws technically isn't ice cream. It isn't sweetened, and it's made using a soy base because most dogs are lactose intolerant. Dreyer's has gradually expanded the distribution network for the original version of Frosty Paws and this spring added a second flavor, peanut butter.
The doggie treat's original flavor -- described by one human brave enough to sample it as "cold chalk" and appropriately called "Original" -- has been sold since the 1980s. It originally was marketed by Drumstick before that company was acquired by Nestle.
Frosty Paws has grown in sales to about $10 million a year, boosted by a booming U.S. pet industry of about $35 billion a year and the inexhaustible readiness of Americans to indulge their animal companions.
The product has been a staple at Mudpuppy's Tub & Scrub at Point Isabel Regional Shoreline Park for about 10 years. Daniel Bergerac, co-owner of the Richmond dog wash and cafe, said he sells about 140 Frosty Paws a week.
"My dog would try to eat it too fast and then he'd get brain freeze. He'd stop and squint his eyes," Bergerac said. "Now he takes his time."
Sales for Frosty Paws increased 15 percent from January to July this year compared with the same period last year, according to market research firm ACNielsen. Its major competitor is Dogsters, which is made by CoolBrands International Inc.
One reason Frosty Paws is such a powerful moneymaker is that it's cheaper to produce and market than ice cream. That in part is because of the absence of milk, which has increased in price in recent years. In addition, Dreyer's has spent little money advertising Frosty Paws, which sells for $3.59 for a box of four 3 1/2-ounce cups.
"People are so passionate about this product for their dogs that word of mouth has been the support it gets. It really has been enough," said Dreyer's spokeswoman Diane McIntyre.
Invented in the late 1970s by an animal nutritionist, Frosty Paws is much better for dogs than ice cream is for humans. It contains refined soy protein, whey with the lactose removed, vitamins, minerals and oil to improve coat texture. No sugar or artificial flavors are added.
William Tyznik, professor emeritus in the animal sciences department at Ohio State University, said he got the idea to concoct a frozen treat for dogs while driving past a Dairy Queen on a hot summer day.
Tyznik saw two little old ladies give large ice cream sundaes to their poodles and realized that while the dogs enjoyed the cool dessert, it wasn't good for them. So he went home and started mixing up ingredients in his kitchen.
"We tested it on our dogs. They took after it like a herd of turtles," said Tyznik, 78, who also has invented a frozen treat for cats called Cool Claws.
In the early '80s, Drumstick heard about Tyznik's invention through a colleague of his and agreed to manufacture it. In the early '90s, when Nestle acquired Drumstick, Tyznik got a six-figure check for his invention.
Dogs are attracted to the product's coolness, not its taste, Tyznik said. Because dogs pant instead of sweat, licking something cold helps cool them down.
As for Dreyer's new peanut-butter version, Tyznik said the flavor is virtually irrelevant to the pooches but might impress the humans who do the shopping.
"It's for the human, not the dog," he said. "I found out a long time ago dogs don't buy stuff."
Dreyer's associate brand manager, Cindy Marciano, agreed but insisted that dogs love peanut butter. "The flavor has to be compelling to the human. If we came up with, say, liver flavor, I don't know if the human would want to buy it," she said.
Linda Wong, owner of Catnip+Bones in San Francisco, has been selling Frosty Paws for eight or nine years out of a freezer in her store.
"If I don't have Frosty Paws, we get a lot of grief from our dogs," she said, referring presumably to the owners as well.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/23/BUGM1EBLAD1.DTL&type=printable
From correspondents in Le Haillan
August 22, 2005
PICTURE this: French hunters stealing out at night in pairs, one with a torch to light up the eyes of their prey, the other armed with a .22 calibre rifle equipped with a telescopic sight and a silencer.
Their quarry? Invaders from the United States - bullfrogs, to be precise, that bellow like cows and typically weigh in at a hefty 600 grams.
Their quarry? Invaders from the United States - bullfrogs, to be precise, that bellow like cows and typically weigh in at a hefty 600 grams.
This is France, to be sure, but the end game of this hunt is not sauteed frog legs.
These marksmen are ecologists, out to exterminate the bullfrogs - a.k.a. Rana Catesbeina - which are threatening the local ecosystem.
"A man living in Vayres (30 kilometres, 20 miles east of Bordeaux) stocked his pond with them in 1968 as a joke, and a few years later every stretch of water in the region was full of them," said Luc Gueugneau, who works in the government agency overseeing wild animals and hunting.
The bullfrogs live for as long as nine years, hibernating from October to March, but the rest of the time gorging on local frogs, shellfish, insects, and even fledgling birds, said ecologist Mathieu Detaint.
They have virtually no predators, and each lay up to 25,000 eggs a year, against 10,000 laid by the local frogs.
"We tried draining the ponds, but it costs a lot and is not efficient enough because there are always some bullfrogs that remain," Detaint said.
One thing that did work, though, he said, was trapping the tadpoles and very young frogs in nets.
Said Gueugneau: "For the moment, hunting the adults with rifles has proved to be the most efficient way of attacking them, because it gets rid of those able to reproduce."
The hunting is done at night, as that is when the frogs are most active and easiest to spot.
"We carried out five hunts between September last year and this July, killing about 120 of them," Detaint said.
"At the start, the idea seemed ludicrous, but we became convinced little by little because they allowed us to eradicate all the adults at two sites where the system was tested."
The ecologists say they a full-scale eradication programme should be in place by 2007, and hope to fully eliminate the bullfrogs in five or 10 years.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16342350-13762,00.html#121
New Delhi August 19, 2005 3:32:03 PM IST
An unusually large group of Rhesus macaque monkeys, who seem to share the space with ministers and bureaucrats in New Delhi, are causing havoc at government offices.
The increasingly aggressive animals swing effortlessly between the offices of the defence, finance and external affairs ministries, and have even been spotted in the Prime Minister's office, government officials say.
The monkeys, who barge into government offices, stealing food, threatening bureaucrats, and even ripping apart valuable documents, are virtually unstoppable.
"My uncle was eating food in his car and had opened his window. It became so difficult for him and took him 45 minutes to finish his food. He was sweating so much while eating because the monkeys were climbing his car, sitting near his window and trying to extract food. Often they sit on seats of motorcycles and tear the seats away. It is a real nuisance for those who commute here daily," said Anand Kumar, a government employee.
According to rough estimates, there are at least 1500 monkeys scampering in and around the stately red sandstone buildings just a stone's throw from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the president's official residence.
But officials say there is little they can do to deal with the monkey menace at the North Block and the South Block.
Some years ago, former Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh had taken the lead to ward off the simian terror invading these offices and took on the services of the black faced "langur", an ape the monkeys seem to be mortally afraid of.
Other offices too have picked up the service since then. Langur keepers were hired as government employees and paid a sum of 5000 rupees per month for the apes' services.
"This is a simple and easy way out of the problem and it does not involve any bloodshed also. They run away at the mere sight of him," said Shyam who owns two Langurs.
The langur, monkey trainers say, scares the day light out of the smaller simian cousins like a neighbourhood bully.
A permanent solution, however, is still a long way to come, it seems.
Killing the animals has been ruled out, as monkeys are incarnations of the Hanuman.
As of now, the monkey menace is very much prevalent and government employees still walk to work, warily armed with sticks and stones to protect themselves from monkey attacks.
It is not only the Capitals high seat that has fallen victim to the monkey menace. There have been past instances of monkeys wreaking havoc in different parts of the city, attacking children, stealing food and creating nuisance at public places. The Delhi State government had at time to rid the city of the menace, hired madaris, or professional monkey tamers.
According to a rough estimate, there are more than 10, 000 monkeys in the Capital. (ANI)
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=108311&cat=India
By David L. Harris/ Boston Herald
Saturday, August 20, 2005
The howling you may hear in the city at night is the wail of coyotes.
David Sherris of Jamaica Plain already knows just how ominous the sound can be. His pet terrier, Maggie, was killed by a coyote this spring.
``I really didn't know they were in our back yards. Now I go in my back yard and I'm looking over my shoulder,'' Sherris said.
City Councilor John M. Tobin is calling for a city task force to look into the coyote encroachment in Boston neighborhoods.
He's not alone. Animal control is also on alert.
``I've noticed a dramatic increase in sightings,'' said Sgt. Charles Rudack of Boston Animal Control. ``We're not used to them being in the city. . . . We can't trap them. We're restricted. Nobody wants to see these unfortunate situations happen. We need more guidelines from the state.''
Coyotes have been spotted not only in Jamaica Plain back yards but also on Hub roadways.
Why are there so many coyotes getting a taste for urban living? A referendum passed in 1996 makes the trapping of coyotes and other wild animals illegal under Massachusetts law. The trapping ban will likely make the job of the task force even more difficult.
As a first step, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals suggests city residents stop feeding the coyotes and keep dogs on a leash.
``I live in America, and I don't want to worry that my own child is out in the yard,'' Sherris told the city.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=98837
By LAURENCE FROST, Associated Press Writer
TRIE-SUR-BAISE, France - Yohann and Olivier Roussel's performance climaxed in a cacophony of oinks and grunts, unleashing an explosion of applause. But it was only after lengthy jury deliberations that their hopes were confirmed — the father-and-son team were France's official Pig-Squealing Champions for 2005.
The judges, headed by a former champion, had been impressed by their vocal imitations of pigs in all four of the required categories, reflecting key milestones of porcine existence: from noisy farmyard birth to death under the knife, via suckling and — inevitably — mating.
France's handful of "fetes folles," or crazy festivals, attract a regular cult following and throngs of incredulous holidaymakers. One fete features an acclaimed lying contest; another boasts a distance spitting competition.
But the annual Pig Festival and French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise, a remote farming village in the foothills of the Pyrenees, are acknowledged to be in a class of their own.
Besides the pig-squealing, there were awards in the Sunday competition for pigging out — this year's winner ate 1.2 meters (nearly 4 feet) of blood sausage in under five minutes — and heavy gambling on the final eight-piglet race.
Stepping up to the microphone in hastily improvised pig outfits — the decision to enter the competition had been taken only the night before — the Roussels let rip with a chorus of uncannily realistic squeals, grunts and snuffles before the 500-strong audience, topped with a delicately choreographed courtship scene.
Newcomers to the contest from nearby Pouy-Loubrin, they beat off six other finalists including regular contender Jean-Paul Louge. But the pair modestly downplayed their win as they waited to collect first prize: a whole pig, butchered and cured with traditional local methods.
"We still have work to do to perfect the pig act," said Olivier, 40, his 20-year-old son Yohann nodding agreement. "But after that, who knows? Why not try some other animals?"
Louge, who placed sixth, was equally gracious in defeat, stressing that the contest was just a bit of fun. "I don't train for this," he said. "It comes naturally."
Contestants and spectators travel to the Pig Festival from across the country and beyond; in past years, its antics have also been witnessed by television viewers in countries from Germany to Korea.
"You are Entering Pig Country," road signs advise motorists on the main approaches to the village, home to 1,100 people.
For most of the year, however, that's just a sad anachronism. Once the region's economic backbone, pig farming has industrialized, globalized and moved elsewhere. The old pig market, one of France's largest with up to 7,500 animals sold daily until the decline took root in the late 1970s, now stands silent.
But one Sunday every August, this corner of France's deep south becomes the heart of Pig Country once again. Bunting and pig-themed posters adorn trees and roadsides. Local waitresses all sport pig tails — and not the kind you wear on your head.
"The Pig Festival came about to stop us forgetting about our past," said Jean-Claude Theze, an ex-farmer who now runs one of the cafes in Trie-sur-Baise.
The village offers as good a symbol as any of modern France's agricultural underbelly and the fierce struggle waged by its rural communities to hold onto identities and livelihoods.
Faced with a collapse in pork prices, some farmers have moved into beef and higher-value black pigs, which can't be produced so intensively. Tourism has also become an important earner.
The villagers are not letting the championship's global exposure go to their heads, Theze said.
"We know it's being held up to ridicule," he said. "We take it all as a joke. It's about spreading a bit of happiness, that's all — we just hope people might come back another day."
COMSTOCK PARK, Michigan (AP) -- The ceremonial first pitch at a West Michigan Whitecaps baseball game was full of surprises.
Not only was Friday's pitch thrown by an elephant, but the ball went straight to catcher Chris Robinson's mitt.
Fans and players cheered the 9-foot (2.7-meter)-tall, four-ton African elephant named Laura after she flipped the ball high and wide.
"I've never caught an elephant before," Robinson told The Grand Rapids Press. "She had pretty good life on her fastball. It tailed a little bit."
Whitecaps right-hander Andrew Kown said the team's pitching staff could learn from the animal.
"I couldn't believe how far and how hard she throws it," Kown said before the Whitecaps lost to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 4-1. "If an elephant can (throw a strike), we should be able to do it."
Laura is used to all the attention. The 23-year-old shared the silver screen with Jim Carrey in "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls." She and her owner, W.C. Walters of Ivory Haven Farms in Newaygo, also make frequent appearances across the state.
National Geographic News
August 9, 2005—You're a good man, Microcebus lehilahytsara—quite literally. The German and Madagascan scientists who discovered the new lemur species named it for U.S. lemur expert Steve Goodman ("lehilahytsara" is Malagasy for "good man"). They announced the discovery of this and another new lemur species (not pictured) today.
Surprisingly, the scientists discovered Microcebus lehilahytsara not in some shrouded jungle but in one of the most studied rain forests on the African island of Madagascar. Then again, this good man is not much bigger than a big mouse, making Microcebus lehilahytsara all the more difficult to find.
About the size of a gray squirrel, the other new lemur species is also fairly wee, hence its name, Mirza zaza—"zaza" being Malagasy for "child."
"Also, with this name the new lemur is dedicated to Madagascar's children, to remind them of their responsibility for preserving the island's unique biodiversity for future generations," according to a press statement from Chicago's Field Museum.
The two new primate species are rare finds, bringing the total number of known lemur species to 49—all of which occur naturally only on Madagascar or the nearby Comoros islands
Geneva, Switzerland — It's official. Monsanto Corporation is out to own the world's food supply, the dangers of genetic engineering and reduced biodiversity notwithstanding, as they pig-headedly set about hog-tying farmers with their monopoly plans. We've discovered chilling new evidence of this in recent patents that seek to establish ownership rights over pigs and their offspring.
In the crop department, Monsanto is well on their way to dictating what consumers will eat, what farmers will grow, and how much Monsanto will get paid for seeds. In some cases those seeds are designed not to reproduce sowable offspring. In others, a flock of lawyers stand ready to swoop down on farmers who illegally, or even unknowingly, end up with Monsanto's private property growing in their fields.
One way or another, Monsanto wants to make sure no food is grown that they don't own -- and the record shows they don't care if it's safe for the environment or not. Monsanto has aggressively set out to bulldoze environmental concerns about its genetically engineered (GE) seeds at every regulatory level.
So why stop in the field? Not content to own the pesticide and the herbicide and the crop, they've made a move on the barnyard by filing two patents which would make the corporate giant the sole owner of that famous Monsanto invention: the pig.
The Monsanto Pig (Patent pending)
The patent applications were published in February 2005 at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. A Greenpeace researcher who monitors patent applications, Christoph Then, uncovered the fact that Monsanto is seeking patents not only on methods of breeding, but on actual breeding herds of pigs as well as the offspring that result.
"If these patents are granted, Monsanto can legally prevent breeders and farmers from breeding pigs whose characteristics are described in the patent claims, or force them to pay royalties," says Then. "It's a first step toward the same kind of corporate control of an animal line that Monsanto is aggressively pursuing with various grain and vegetable lines."
There are more than 160 countries and territories mentioned where the patent is sought including Europe, the Russian Federation, Asia (India, China, Philippines) America (USA, Brazil, Mexico), Australia and New Zealand. WIPO itself can only receive applications, not grant patents. The applications are forwarded to regional patent offices.
The patents are based on simple procedures, but are incredibly broad in their claims.
In one application (WO 2005/015989 to be precise) Monsanto is describing very general methods of crossbreeding and selection, using artificial insemination and other breeding methods which are already in use. The main "invention" is nothing more than a particular combination of these elements designed to speed up the breeding cycle for selected traits, in order to make the animals more commercially profitable. (Monsanto chirps gleefully about lower fat content and higher nutritional value. But we've looked and we couldn't find any "Philanthropic altruism" line item in their annual reports, despite the fact that it's an omnipresent factor in their advertising.)
According to Then, "I couldn't belive this. I've been reviewing patents for 10 years and I had to read this three times. Monsanto isn't just seeking a patent for the method, they are seeking a patent on the actual pigs which are bred from this method. It's an astoundingly broad and dangerous claim."
ood breeding always shows
Take patent application WO 2005/017204. This refers to pigs in which a certain gene sequence related to faster growth is detected. This is a variation on a natural occurring sequence -- Monsanto didn't invent it.
It was first identified in mice and humans. Monsanto wants to use the detection of this gene sequence to screen pig populations, in order to find which animals are likely to produce more pork per pound of feed. (And that will be Monsanto Brand genetically engineered feed grown from Monsanto Brand genetically engineered seed raised in fields sprayed with Monsanto Brand Roundup Ready herbicide and doused with Monsanto Brand pesticides, of course).
But again, Monsanto wants to own not just the selection and breeding method, not just the information about the genetic indicators, but, if you pardon the expression, the whole hog.
Claim 16 asks for a patent on: "A pig offspring produced by a method ..."
Claim 17 asks for a patent on: "A pig herd having an increased frequency of a specific ...gene..."
Claim 23 asks for a patent on: "A pig population produced by the method..."
Claim 30 asks for a patent on: "A swine herd produced by a method..."
This means the pigs, their offspring, and the use of the genetic information for breeding will be entirely owned by Monsanto, Inc. and any replication or infringement of their patent by man or beast will mean royalties or jail for the offending swine.
Not pig fodder
When it comes to profits, pigs are big. Monsanto notes that "The economic impact of the industry in rural America is immense. Annual farm sales typically exceed US$ 11 billion, while the retail value of pork sold to consumers reaches US$ 38 billion each year."
At almost every level of food production, Monsanto is seeking a monopoly position.
The company once earned its money almost exclusively through agrochemicals. But in the last ten years they've spent about US$ 10 billion buying up seed producers and companies in other sectors of the agricultural business. Their last big acquisition was Seminis, the biggest producer of vegetable seeds in the world.
Monsanto holds extremely broad patents on seeds, most, but not all of them, related to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). Monsanto has also claimed patent rights on such non-Monsanto inventions as traditionally bred wheat from India and soy plants from China. Many of these patents apply not only to the use of seeds but all uses of the plants and harvest that result.
Orwellian: "The Earth is flat, pigs were invented by Monsanto, and GMOs are safe."
The big picture is chilling to anyone who mistrusts Monsanto's record disinterest for environmental safety.
And if you're not worried, you should be: central control of food supply has been a standard ingredient for social and political control throughout history. By creating a monopoly position, Monsanto can force dangerous experiments like the release of GMOs into the environment on an unwilling public. They can ensure that GMOs will be sold and consumed wherever they say they will.
By claiming global monopoly patent rights throughout the entire food chain, Monsanto seeks to make farmers and food producers, and ultimately consumers, entirely dependent and reliant on one single corporate entity for a basic human need. It's the same dependence that Russian peasants had on the Soviet Government following the Russian revolution. The same dependence that French peasants had on Feudal kings during the middle ages. But control of a significant proportion of the global food supply by a single corporation would be unprecedented in human history.
It's time to ensure that doesn't happen.
It's time for a global ban of patents on seeds and farm animals.
It's time to tell Monsanto we've had enough of this hogwash.
— Brian Thomas Fitzgerald
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/monsanto-pig-patent-111#
Friends of Thorninpaw have more and more kittens to adopt. If you are in the market, these babies have been been neutered, dewormed and tested negative for FELV/FIV. They are healthy and sooo affectionate. We really would like them to go together as they get along so great -- contact the Ladew Cat Sanctuary to find out more.
Tuesday June 28, 2005 7:01 PM
By ADAM GOLDMAN
Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The tiger-was-hungry theory was ruled out. And there was no proof that the animal was deliberately provoked by someone in the audience, or that a terrorist sprayed it with a behavior-altering scent, or that it was unhinged by a woman with a beehive hairdo.
But federal investigators still do not know what led a Bengal tiger to attack illusionist Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy during a performance nearly two years ago.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's final report - dated Sept. 28, and consisting of the Mirage hotel-casino's internal investigation, a Las Vegas police probe and witness statements - was obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The case was finally closed late last year with no official determination of what set off the animal, named Montecore.
The 380-pound white tiger sank its teeth into Horn's neck and dragged him off stage in front of a horrified audience Oct. 3, 2003, at the Mirage. The animal damaged an artery carrying oxygen to the magician's brain and crushed his windpipe.
The mauling that left Horn, 60, partially paralyzed and ended the long-running ``Siegfried & Roy'' production, one of the most successful shows in Las Vegas history.
``Detectives were unable to determine what caused Montecore to deviate'' from the act, Las Vegas police said in its share of report.
In its comprehensive account of the mauling, the 233-page report said the nearly 7-year-old tiger did indeed attack Horn. Nowhere do investigators conclude the tiger was trying to aid the entertainer after it knocked him down - despite the claims of Horn and others that the animal was only helping him.
Investigators explored a variety of other theories that were advanced by the casino and others.
A veterinarian who examined Montecore after the mauling said the animal appeared normal, and the USDA report said the animal had been fed on schedule.
Detectives with the Las Vegas Police Department's homeland security unit were assigned to the case because some of the scenarios that were suggested - among them, that animal-rights activists provoked the attack, or that it was an act of economic terrorism against Las Vegas.
MGM Mirage spokesman Alan Feldman said the resort wanted authorities to look at the possibility that someone deliberately distracted the tiger, since the animal had performed 2,000 times without incident.
He said the casino was flooded with e-mails such as this one the USDA included in its report: ``If there is audio & video of the tiger attack it should be analyzed for far-UV and or high ultra sonics, as well as other triggers that might be the work of a terrorist aiming at a high profile GAY target.''
Las Vegas police also said there was no proof a woman with a ``beehive hairdo'' distracted the tiger or it had been sprayed with a scent that drove the animal wild.
``At the end of it all, we don't have a reason,'' Feldman said.
The manager of Horn and his show business partner, Siegfried Fischbacher, did not immediately return messages for comment.
The USDA report provides new details about the sequence of events before and after the attack. It said that a show employee pulled the tiger's tail, jumped on the animal and grabbed it by the mouth to try to get it to release Horn. At the same time, another employee sprayed Montecore with a carbon dioxide canister. The tiger finally let go.
In its final report, the USDA said the ``Siegfried & Roy'' show failed to protect the audience because it had no barrier separating the exotic animals from the crowd.
``The big cats could have easily jumped off the stage and into the audience,'' said USDA official Robert M. Gibbens, who attended an earlier performance.
The USDA issued a letter of noncompliance to the illusionists' production company, S&R Productions, but the warning did not carry any penalties.
It is not clear why the USDA did not advise the company earlier about erecting a barrier. The agency conducted at least four routine inspections at the Mirage since mid-December 2002. The USDA did not immediately respond to an e-mail for comment.
^---
On the Net:
USDA report: http://hosted.ap.org/specials/sigroy/05136records.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5104663,00.html
Hero Lions!
By ANTHONY MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 21, 8:37 PM ET
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - A 12-year-old girl who was abducted and beaten by men trying to force her into a marriage was found being guarded by three lions who apparently had chased off her captors, a policeman said Tuesday
The girl, missing for a week, had been taken by seven men who wanted to force her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo, speaking by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 350 miles southwest of Addis Ababa.
She was beaten repeatedly before she was found June 9 by police and relatives on the outskirts of Bita Genet, Wondimu said. She had been guarded by the lions for about half a day, he said.
"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said.
"If the lions had not come to her rescue, then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.
Tilahun Kassa, a local government official who corroborated Wondimu's version of the events, said one of the men had wanted to marry the girl against her wishes.
"Everyone thinks this is some kind of miracle, because normally the lions would attack people," Wondimu said.
Stuart Williams, a wildlife expert with the rural development ministry, said the girl may have survived because she was crying from the trauma of her attack.
"A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub, which in turn could explain why they didn't eat her," Williams said.
Ethiopia's lions, famous for their large black manes, are the country's national symbol and adorn statues and the local currency. Despite a recent crackdown, Hunters also kill the animals for their skins, which can fetch $1,000. Williams estimates that only 1,000 Ethiopian lions remain in the wild.
The girl, the youngest of four siblings, was "shocked and terrified" after her abduction and had to be treated for the cuts from her beatings, Wondimu said.
He said police had caught four of the abductors and three were still at large.
Kidnapping young girls has long been part of the marriage custom in Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates that more than 70 percent of marriages in Ethiopia are by abduction, practiced in rural areas where most of the country's 71 million people live.
Bear Spaghetti?
JUNEAU, Alaska - A Juneau homeless shelter has stopped serving donated bear meat after learning the state prohibits nonprofit groups from accepting wild game meats such as bear, fox and walrus.
"We didn't know that it is illegal," said Jetta Whittaker, executive director of the Glory Hole.
For years, the shelter accepted bear meat to supplement its meals for the homeless. The meat went into many recipes, including burgers, casseroles and spaghetti.
But last year, Whittaker learned that serving it was contrary to rules set by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. This year, it has meant turning down five offers of bear meat.
"That was 250 pounds of ground meat I could use for spaghetti sauce," said Bob Thompson, operations manager of the shelter. "We are protein-poor."
The Glory Hole rarely gets offers of deer because venison is more palatable to most people while bear meat has a stronger, wild smell, Whittaker said.
Some of the people served by the Glory Hole said they miss meat of any kind. David Kelley, who is staying at the shelter, said he appreciates the three meals a day but he is tired of eating starchy vegetables.
"I will eat whatever you put in front of me," Kelley said. "But you cannot live by starches alone."
KOMMETJE, South Africa (AP) -- Georgie was hit over the head and is missing part of his ear. Penny's right hand was mangled in a trap. Tammy's bullet-riddled leg was amputated. Golden Arrow was shot dead, leaving her infant to starve to death.
The baboons of South Africa's Cape Peninsula are caught in a war of attrition with their human neighbors, who are sick of having their kitchens ransacked by marauding apes with an uncanny knack for breaking into houses.
"People love them or hate them. Very few people are ambivalent," says Jenni Trethowan of the local Baboon Matters Organization. "The hating community is the most vociferous."
As she speaks, William, a hefty 9-year-old male, leaps over the wall and dances on the roof of a house, oblivious to the frantic barking of dogs. A whistle-blowing, stick-wielding baboon "monitor" finally chases William back into nearby woods to join the rest of the group, who are dozing peacefully or foraging among the trees.
"He is so naughty," sighs Trethowan, who has named all the baboons in the area.
Baboon monitors
Trethowan manages nine monitors who try to keep baboons away from populated areas like Kommetje near South Africa's windswept southern tip to reduce the potential for conflict with humans.
She says the project has helped reduce the number of baboons killed from 21 in 1999 to just eight last year. But a spate of attacks hit the headlines in May. Trethowan reels off a list of baboon victims, who have names ranging from Jane to Spaghetti.
One baboon was shot and killed in a wealthy Cape Town suburb, reportedly by an irate homeowner.
Another named Golden Arrow was found shot to death in a coastal village after Trethowan received threatening anonymous phone calls. The baboon's 5-day-old baby starved despite the efforts of his traumatized brother, Quizzie, to care for him, Trethowan says.
Food and familiarity
The conflict began with the throngs of camera-toting tourists who crowd this scenic part of the country and have long ignored warning signs against slipping the baboons scraps of food, which carries hefty fines. The baboons grew used to the treats and became increasingly aggressive in their search for more.
Dave Gaynor, a primatologist, says baboons can gain as much nutrition from half a loaf of discarded bread as from foraging for four hours in the undergrowth.
"Once baboons know the value of human food, they will definitely go for human food," he said. "It's like having a permanently open candy store."
Nobody knows how many baboons there are in South Africa, but most experts agree their numbers are dwindling as humans encroach on their living space.
There are between 250 and 270 chacma baboons in 20 to 30 troupes around Cape Town. There are no known incidents of the baboons attacking people, but even their defenders concede they can be intimidating.
National park rangers had to destroy one large male at Cape Point last year after it became too aggressive about grabbing food out of cars.
"If they descend on a house and pull off the gutters, it can be scary," says Trethowan, who still has footprints on her stairwell from the last invasion. "They make a huge mess. They are destructive and tear things apart."
Baboon protections
The baboons are officially a protected species -- although that doesn't prevent locals from taking the law into their own hands.
Residents -- many of whom are not warned by real estate agents that they are moving into a baboon hotspot -- are advised to keep their trash in a secure place, close doors and windows, fit burglar bars or electric fencing, uproot fruit trees, and keep a high-pressure hose handy, said Gavin Bell of the South African National Parks authority.
Bell says most people in the region enjoy the baboons, but Diana Head is not one of them.
Head, who lives in the seaside village of Pringle Bay, removed all the gutters and had electrified fencing installed around her house after she found baboons trying to force open her upstairs windows.
She and her large Rhodesian Ridgeback dog are active members of a neighborhood watch scheme designed to chase away baboons who come too close. Locals also carry whistles to sound the alert if the 30-strong troupe comes near the village.
Repeated invasions
Pringle Bay, a popular whale watching spot where many Europeans have bought vacation homes, was in a virtual state of siege late last year after baboons repeatedly raided the local store and even invaded a children's nursery.
Things have calmed down since then, says Head. The dominant male who leads the raids -- and specialized in removing sliding glass doors -- has apparently been replaced by a more placid one, she says.
Villagers have fitted their garbage containers with concrete lids to stop the uninvited guests foraging in the trash. They also think there is a leopard in the region, which may be acting as a deterrent.
"There are still opportunistic break-ins if you leave a window open," says Head. "They are so quick to spot anything, it's incredible."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/06/20/baboon.invasion.ap/index.html
By Eric LaRose
Sheboygan Press Staff
The sky above the Washington Square Shopping Center comes alive with a swarm of ravenous seagulls, searching for shiny victims in the parking lot.
“I went out there, and it was like a thing from ‘The Birds,’” Ald. Marge Segalle said, referring to the Alfred Hitchcock film.
The city’s Public Protection and Safety Committee asked City Attorney Steve McLean on Tuesday night to draft an ordinance forbidding the feeding of seagulls around the shopping center near Washington Avenue and South Business Drive.
Area business owners complained that hundreds of seagulls are nesting in a vacant lot behind Piggly Wiggly and are terrorizing customers and cars alike with hails of feces. The situation is made worse when people feed the birds, they say.
“People have been coming over there with 5-gallon pails, feeding the birds,” said Bob Wiegand of Sheboygan Auto Group, 2701 Washington Ave
Wiegand said the poop problem is quickly becoming a health concern.
“I don’t want to see somebody get sick over this,” Wiegand said.
Jeff Schukow of Great Lakes Area Pest Control and Surveillance attempted to scare the birds away using a radio-controlled plastic peregrine falcon, but Schukow said he backed off once he realized the birds were nesting in the area.
Permanently removing the seagulls could be tricky, Ald. Jeff Radtke said. They are a protected species and permits are needed to physically force them out.
But if the city eliminates the food source, Radtke said, the birds may not be as connected to the area. The committee voted unanimously to pursue the ordinance.
DUNBAR, W.Va. -AP- Larry Gaynor and his brother had to cut their latest fishing trip short after a black bear ate their food and guzzled their beer. Gaynor, 67, and his brother, Billy Bob Gaynor, 53, were camping at Summit Lake near Richwood on Friday when the bear wandered into their campsite at about 9 p.m.
Hearing a noise, they looked outside their tent and saw the bear with its mouth clamped on their cooler. Larry Gaynor said the bear dragged the cooler 30 yards into the woods and flung it against a tree, scattering a case of Coors Light.
"He only drank three cans," Larry he said. "He would've drank all of them if it would've been Budweiser."
Billy Bob Gaynor said the bear ate all of their food so they returned to Dunbar the next day.
"Either relocate them or let me eat them," he said.
Price $49.99
Availability-In Stock
Buy it here
A thorn-n-paw friend writes us from the PHLF Cat Sanctuary:
We just rescued many kittens who were in desperate need of placement due to the overcrowding in city shelters. We have orange, orange & white, tabby, torti, black, tabby & white -- well, you name it, we have it.
The kitties are are in Long Island (Oyster Bay).
I've checked them all out, every one of them is friendly and full of personality -- they've been spayed/neutered, had all shots appropriate for their age, been dewormed, tested negative for feline leukemia/feline aids, and are raring to go into a good new home. The fee is $65.00 and Meow Mix has just offered to give the first 250 people who adopt from a participating Mayor's Alliance shelter (which we are), FREE food for ONE YEAR! Furthermore, you can also get free insurance for one month after adoption which could also come in very handy!
Contact the sanctuary to inquire about adoption
The Scotsman
FRED BRIDGLAND
IN JOHANNESBURG
A SCUBA diver was swallowed almost whole by a great white shark yesterday in a Jaws-style attack just offshore from Cape Town.
Conservationists are now expecting renewed calls for killer sharks to be hunted down following the death of medical student Henri Murray, 22 - the latest in a series of attacks. Great whites have been a protected species in South African waters since 1990, but calls for a cull have been growing following the deaths of several South African swimmers and surfers this year.
Two British surfers survived - although one needed 200 stitches to leg wounds and the other had to have 100 stitches to torn hips and buttocks. In yesterday's attack, Mr Murray's diving partner, 23-year-old Piet van Niekerk, shot the great white with his speargun in a desperate attempt to drive it away, but he did not see his friend again.
Dave Estment, a yachtsman, was sitting on the jetty at Simon's Town, near Cape Town, when he saw the great white breach the surface.
"It was incredibly fast. The two spear fishermen were not far from the beach. Suddenly a huge shark surged from under the water taking the one diver [from his legs upwards] to his arms in its jaws," he said.
"It must have been massive to have done that. Then the shark and the man just vanished." Other witnesses to the attack estimated the shark's length at 20 feet.
Hundreds of onlookers lined the coastal road yesterday as a helicopter, police diver and boat search was carried out in an unsuccessful attempt to find the body of Mr Murray, who was studying at the University of Stellenbosch.
Divers from the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) recovered a weightbelt - so damaged that it looked as though it had been sliced through with a knife - a mask, a speargun, a rubber flipper and a buoy with speared fish that had been attached to a trailing line.
NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said he believed the shark could have been attracted by the fish. Great white shark tour operators, who lower visitors in cages among the great whites, use chopped-up fish to lure sharks to the cages.
Dr Cleeve Robertson, head of Cape Town's emergency services, said Mr Van Niekerk, a university friend of Mr Murray, was extremely traumatised by the attack.
He and members of Mr Murray's family were receiving counselling.
Dr Robertson said the spear, designed for smaller fish, was unlikely to have caused much damage to the great white.
This article:
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=618012005
Costumed Chickens Let Loose In High School Hallways
The Denver Channel June 1, 2005
BOULDER, Colo. -- The principal at a Boulder high school said that he has identified one suspect in a senior prank that involved live chickens and is looking for others involved in the fowl deed.
School officials found 39 chickens dressed in red vests and capes running in the halls of Fairview High School Tuesday morning. With the help of police and students, the birds were herded into the vice principal's office until the Humane Society of Boulder could take them to the shelter.
The head of the Humane Society told the Boulder Daily Camera that the incident shows that students need to be educated about taking care of animals.
"These pranks, while they might seem funny to students, are very stressful to the animals involved," said Lisa Pedersen.
The principal of Fairview said disciplinary action has been taken against one student who was keeping the chickens and others are being sought.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4555646/detail.html#121
By MATT PACENZA, Staff writer Times Union
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
Here's what New York officials fear: In Simi Valley, Calif., a coyote attacked a 3-year-old boy on his front porch last year, biting him on the neck, ear, head, hand, back and face, before police shot and killed the 45-pound animal.
Coyotes are normally timid animals that avoid people, but research has shown that when their turf intersects with cities and suburbs, some hunt pets -- and in extremely rare cases, children.
To ward off the unimaginable in New York, where coyotes are increasingly common, state environmental authorities recently awarded a $428,000 grant to Cornell University researchers to track the terrain and habits of coyotes. The idea is to develop strategies to discourage coyotes from contact with people.
The research will build on earlier studies, including one recently done by the State Museum's mammal curator, Roland Keys. He found that in the Pine Bush, because highways and hunters have thinned their numbers, coyotes aren't yet bothering people -- or their pets.
"Coyotes in Albany appear to be living a natural life," Keys said. "We only found two cats in their diet over a three-year period."
There have been numerous reports of marauding coyotes elsewhere in the Capital Region, however. State Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist Gordon Batcheller spoke to a woman recently who said a coyote followed her as she walked her dog along a bicycle path near Albany.
Most famously, a turkey hunter was attacked and bitten by a pair of coyotes in Clifton Park in 2001. It was determined, however, that the coyotes probably assumed the hunter was in fact a turkey -- he was camouflaged and using a turkey call.
Grieving pet owners also regularly blame their missing pets on coyotes. Keys said other predators are sometimes to blame: Fishers, large members of the weasel family, are known to snag the occasional kitty.
Eastern coyotes are relatively new to the state, having migrated from Canada 70 or 80 years ago. They've become firmly established since the 1970s, according to the DEC.
Coyotes are New York's biggest predator, weighing up to 50 pounds. Black bears are bigger, of course, but aren't considered true predators because so much of their diet is not meat.
Research in California has determined there is a pretty clear progression of behavior when coyotes get near people. The coyotes begin to lose their natural fear of humans after they find food associated with people: garbage, pet food and pets themselves.
Keys calls that progression "the path toward the dark side. New York wants to avoid the Darth Vaders among coyotes -- by keeping them in a natural state."
The attacks can be pretty brazen, said Cornell University wildlife professor Paul Curtis, one of the researchers directing the study, which will start in July.
"Small dogs start disappearing off their leashes while their owners are walking them," said Curtis. "That's usually the last step before they attack people."
While there have been no known instances of coyote attacks on people in New York -- unless you count the turkey hunter -- Curtis said officials have seen everything but. Most such reports have come from Westchester and Rockland counties, where hunting that may scare off coyotes is rare and habitat is plentiful. The Cornell project will begin downstate before moving to a second study area upstate, possibly in the Capital Region.
What the Cornell researchers hope they can ultimately do is to interrupt the interactions between coyote and people, once researchers understand where coyotes live and how they behave.
Potential strategies include shooting coyotes with rubber buckshot or paint balls to startle them, or baiting them with food laden with a mild toxin.
"The idea is that they develop an association with getting sick from eating human foods," said Curtis.
Curtis said he thinks what they'll find is that just a few coyotes are responsible for most attacks on pets. "I would expect that the vast majority don't get in trouble," said Curtis. "Maybe we can end up just relocating a few animals."
Such strategies aren't necessary in and around the Pine Bush, where Keys and his research assistant, Dan Bogan, studied 21 coyotes over a four-year period.
Keys and Bogan put collars on the coyotes to track their movements. They also collected their scat, or feces, to see what they were eating.
They found nearly all of their diet was natural, from animals like rabbits, voles (meadow mice) and deer. They also found the relatively few coyotes in the Pine Bush avoided developed areas.
The reason there are so few coyotes in the Pine Bush is the most interesting part of the study: because people kept killing them.
Eighty percent of the 21 coyotes that Keys and Bogan tracked died during the three-year study. Seven were shot, six were hit by cars and two died of internal bleeding, most likely from eating animals like voles or mice that had ingested rat poison.
It's not clear if the study of the Pine Bush, where nature is divided by malls and highways like Interstate 90, can be applied to the broader Capital Region. "Their home range here is fragmented by roads and development," said Bogan. That is less true in more rural parts of the area.
It's puzzling to the researchers that so many coyotes were shot. Many were likely killed illegally -- six of the seven were shot outside of the Oct. 1 to March 27 coyote hunting season. It's legal to shoot a coyote anytime if it's threatening your property, but based upon their study of the coyotes' diet, the researchers doubt that was the case for all six.
A final goal of the Cornell project is to educate people to stop doing things that attract coyotes -- like leaving pet food or bird seed outside -- so that shooting them isn't necessary. It's also widely recommended that pet owners never let their cats or dogs roam freely outside.
The idea, all the experts say, is to figure out a way to keep coyotes from being something that people fear.
"As long as they are in rural areas, feeding on mice and other mammals, there's no reason for concern," Curtis said. "We should just enjoy them."
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=365828&category=REGIONOTHER&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=6/1/2005
Luckily, the bear didn’t have his black belt.
An Alberta man on a Bible retreat successfully used his Brazilian martial arts training on the weekend to fend off a charging grizzly, (Ursus arctos horribilis).
Lyle Simpson was hiking through the bush with friends west of Calgary on Saturday when the bruin started chasing him, he said.
“It just burst out of the bush, charging right away. There wasn’t much time to think,” said Simpson, 32, who added there was a cub nearby.
The hikers quickly ran in different directions, but as Simpson was trying to escape, he tripped and landed on his back.
“I put my arm up as the bear was coming on down towards me. The bear tried to bite my arm.”
That’s when Simpson’s training instincts took over and he kicked the bear in the face.
“I think I stunned it just enough. I really think it saved me from a mauling.”
The friends quickly re-grouped and made the 15-minute trek back to Whispering Pines Bible camp.
Simpson needed six stitches to close the wound from the bear’s bite and has a painful gash on his hip.
“My shorts look like they’ve been cut with scissors.,” he said.
http://www.fftimes.com/index.php/3/2005-05-30/21415
By Associated Press | May 30, 2005
WINSTED, Conn. -- A Winsted man believes the sweet smell of the vegetable oil he uses to fuel his car attracted the bear that damaged the vehicle white trying to get at the biodiesel.
Larry Joy, a 53-year-old electrician, said the bear shattered a window on his 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit, tipped the plastic fuel tank on its side, and gnawed on car hoses about two weeks ago. He said the evidence included muddy paw prints around the broken window and a pool of cooking oil on the rear floorboards.
''I knew what it was after," Joy told The Sunday Republican of Waterbury. ''I think it's cool that bears do whatever they want."
Joy uses a combination of diesel and vegetable oil left over from restaurant fry vats to power his car. He says it gets 44 miles per gallon.
The car needs to be started using regular diesel, because vegetable oil is too thick for the engine to handle. When a gauge indicates the engine coolant is at 90 degrees, it is warm enough to thin the biodiesel, and Joy can flip a switch to change fuel tanks.
When the coolant hits about 150 degrees, Joy said, there is a sweet smell.
''My neighbor said it smells like cheeseburgers," he said.
The state Department of Environmental Protection told Joy he should discourage the bear from returning by using bad-tasting bait. The agency recommended the placement of a balloon filled with water and ammonia and covered in cooking oil on his car.
Joy said he had no plans to get rid of the Volkswagen. ''I love this car," he said.
Mainichi Shimbun, May 21, 200
KUROBE, Toyama -- Japan now has its first publicly funded monkey suspension bridge, the latest ploy undertaken as part of the 27 million yen the government has funneled into projects aiming to combat simians stealing crops here.
The 137-meter-long bridge across the Unazuki Dam in the Kurobe Gorge is aimed at allowing Japanese macaques access to both banks of the body of water and getting back to their old turf.
Locals hope the bridge will stop the marauding macaques from stealing their crops.
"It's a battle of wits between humans and monkeys," a local resident said. "I hope the bridge will stop them coming down to places where humans are living."
Completion of the dam in 2001 created a new lake that prevented monkeys from getting to their traditional feeding grounds.
The monkeys responded by heading into inhabited areas and stealing crops.
Since then, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has spent about 27 million yen in taxpayers' money on projects aimed at stopping monkeys from eating food being grown in the area.
Hisaaki Akaza, 51, a teacher at the Yuho Prefectural High School, suggested the idea of building the bridge, saying that people needed to accept that they were responsible for causing the damage monkeys had created
By AMI BENTOV
Associated Press Writer
April 20, 2005, 11:10 AM EDT
RAMAT GAN, Israel -- When Passover comes around, even gorillas in Israel keep kosher. In line with many other Israelis busy cleaning their homes to remove bread-related products for the Passover holiday that begins Saturday night, the Safari Park Zoo near Tel Aviv does the same.
Since the zookeepers and handlers cannot touch any leavened products during the weeklong holiday that marks the biblical Jewish exodus from Egypt, the gorillas and other animals are also fed matzo -- the unleavened cracker Jews eat to remember that in their rush to flee slavery, the ancient Israelites' bread did not have time to rise.
Accustomed to eating a slice of bread with cream cheese every morning, beginning Tuesday the gorillas and other animals at the safari were fed matzo instead, said Emelia Turkel, the zoo's curator.
"This turns out to be an interesting time for the gorillas and for the other animals because they get a bit of a change in diet," Turkel said. "We call this environmental enrichment, Jewish style."
The zoo has always fed the animals matzo during the Passover holiday, Turkel said, but try to limit their intake to just one or two crackers a day to prevent them from suffering from the most common side-effect of matzo -- constipation.
"If they eat too much it does cause stomach problems, so we hope that our public this week will not be feeding their own matzo to the animals," Turkel said.
Watching the zookeepers throw matzos to the excited gorillas -- romping in the grassy area after the crackers -- visitors to the safari laughed and joked about the holiday tradition.
"I think it's a good idea for them. They're influenced by the Jews here," said Moshe, a visitor to the safari who gave only his first name.
Daily Mail
He looks like something from a prehistoric age or a fantastic creation from Hollywood.
But Hercules is very much living flesh and blood - as he proves every time he opens his gigantic mouth to roar.
Part lion, part tiger, he is not just a big cat but a huge one, standing 10ft tall on his back legs.
Called a liger, in reference to his crossbreed parentage, he is the largest of all the cat species.
On a typical day he will devour 20lb of meat, usually beef or chicken, and is capable of eating 100lb at a single setting.
At just three years old, Hercules already weighs half a ton. When he is fully grown he is expected to reach 12ft, and almost 90 stone. (1260Lbs.)
He is the accidental result of two amorous big cats living close together at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida, and already dwarfs both his parents.
"Ligers are not something we planned on having," said institute owner Dr Bhagavan Antle.
"We have lions and tigers living together in large enclosures and at first we had no idea how well one of the lion boys was getting along with a tiger girl, then lo and behold we had a liger."
50mph runner
Hercules has the strength of a lion and the speed of a tiger, reaching 50mph.
He will also grow a mane like his father, but just a small one, and sports his mother's tiger stripes on his huge body. And when he opens his fearsome mouth he can both roar like a lion and give a purr-like snort like his mother.
Not only that, but he likes to swim, a feat unheard of among water-fearing lions.
In the wild it is virtually impossible for lions and tigers to mate. Not only are they enemies likely to kill one another, but most lions are in Africa and most tigers in Asia.
But incredible though he is, Hercules is not unique. Ligers have been bred in captivity, deliberately and accidentally, since shortly before World War II.
Today there are believed to be a handful of ligers around the world and a similar number of tigons, the product of a tiger father and lion mother.
Tigons are smaller than ligers and take on more physical characteristics of the tiger.
Famous cross-breeds
There are hundreds of hybrids in the animal world, some common such as the mule - a cross between a female horse and a male donkey - and some more unusual, such as the labradoodle, a mix of labrador and poodle.
Other exotic hybrids include the zeedonk, a cross between a zebra and a donkey; the zorse or zebroid, a zebra/horse cross; and the beefalo, an American bison/ domestic cow cross.
Another rare creature is the wolphin, the offspring of a whale and a dolphin.
Back in the big cat world zoos in Japan, Germany and Italy have bred leopons, a male leopard/lioness cross, while Salzburg Zoo in Austria has bred jaguar/leopard hybrids known as lepjags.
2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Creative Paper Tasmania's roo poo paper has generated unprecedented interest ahead of its official launch next month.
Papermaker Joanna Gair says they have taken more than 50 bulk orders and 150 individual orders for the paper, which is made from kangaroo dung.
She says it has captured the imagination of people locally, interstate and internationally.
"It's just so funny, as well as it being, the eco-message, which we try to get across as well, there's a real giggle factor," she said.
"It's made out of poo, but also it's so Aussie."
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Scott MacInnes set an Alaskan record this week, although not one contenders would seek to break, by becoming the state's first person to survive two bear attacks, state officials said on Wednesday.
MacInnes, a 51-year-old biologist, was mauled during his early morning jog on Monday when he met up with a brown bear and one or two cubs near his home in the Kenai Peninsula town of Soldotna.
He had been mauled 38 years earlier on a well-used hiking trail in the Chugach National Forest, according to a government biologist.
"That's the only time in the history of the state that I have a record that anybody's been attacked twice," said Tom Smith, a bear biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who keeps records of Alaska bear attacks dating to the late 1800s.
The presence of a dog and a food source, a freshly killed moose found nearby, made the bear more aggressive, said Bruce Bartley, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
"There's just hardly any other factors that could make it worse," Bartley said.
MacInnes was one of eight people in Alaska who had been attacked by bears while jogging, according to Smith's records. Including MacInnes' second attack, Smith's records recount 519 bear maulings in Alaska.
MacInnes' first bear attack in 1967 resulted in wounds on his legs and an injured arm, but he was able to walk a few days later.
Monday's attack, which took place about 60 miles southwest of Anchorage, appeared more serious, inflicting wounds on MacInnes' head, neck and abdomen. He is expected to make a full recovery.
Outside of Alaska, a Canadian man claims to have been attacked on two occasions by polar bears, Smith said.
Lindsey Collom
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 19, 2005 12:00 AM
It could have been a zoo on wheels.
A Department of Public Safety officer discovered the cargo packed inside a fifth-wheel recreational vehicle during a traffic stop on Interstate 10.
The officer was patrolling the interstate south of Case Grande about 11 p.m. Sunday when he noticed a pickup truck pulling a large trailer without functioning taillights. He said he decided to search the vehicle after the driver, 38-year-old Damon Heymen, and his wife began acting unusual.
"Here our officer had thought he was getting a dope load, and it was a bunch of alligators," DPS Officer Frank Valenzuela said.
Thirty-two alligators to be exact, half a dozen fully grown, but most under 3 feet. More than 50 boa constrictors, tortoises, chickens, rats, rabbits and dogs also were also part of the menagerie.
The couple told investigators they were just passing through, relocating from San Bernardino, Calif., to Georgia.
Even so, the gators and tortoises were illegal cargo. It is against the law to possess an alligator in Arizona without a permit.
The tortoises also may be endangered. Arizona Game and Fish officials believe they are Mojave Desert tortoises, a "threatened" reptile according to the federal Endangered Species Act.
Like Arizona, California labels alligators a restricted animal. It was unclear Monday whether Heymen had a permit from the California Department of Fish and Game.
A crew of three officers from Arizona Game and Fish spent seven hours binding the alligators' mouths with duct tape before loading them into several trucks and trailers.
"They were a little feisty," said Ken Dinquel, a Game and Fish investigator. "A couple of them were pretty large, and they were snapping. The big bruiser was 400 pounds."
Dinquel said it's "fairly common" for officers to encounter alligators in the Valley.
"We get folks moving into Arizona, bringing their pets with them and just assume it's legal," he said. " . . . But this many is unprecedented."
The alligators are being housed at the Phoenix Herpetological Society in north Scottsdale during the investigation.
Heymen was ticketed for the equipment violation and cited for possessing a restricted animal without permit, then released. Game and Fish spokesman Rory Aikens said there also might be a federal investigation.
"Federal officers may have an interest in this case because they were being transported across state lines," Aikens said. "Whatever the state may issue could be the least of this individual's worries."
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0419gatorbust19.html
By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer
CANBERRA, Australia - A surfer in Australia fought off a seven-foot shark with his board — and kept on surfing, a lifeguard said.
Simon Letch returned to Sydney's Bronte Beach 30 minutes after surviving the attack, despite the beach being closed because of the danger, lifeguard Aaron Graham said.
"He was pretty calm about it, very laid back," said Graham, who was on the beach when the 40-year-old surfer rode his damaged board back in after the attack.
Letch was sitting on his board about 100 feet offshore when the shark attacked. He told a newspaper that he rammed the board, a recent 40th birthday present from his girlfriend, into the shark's mouth. He said it was a bronze whaler.
"I shoved the board at it like a barge pole," Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph quoted him as saying.
He said the shark released the board and he quickly headed for shore.
"It was only about 10 or 15 seconds that I was waiting for a wave but it seemed like an eternity," he told the newspaper. "You think you'd go to jelly when something like this happens but I was surprisingly calm."
Nine Network television news reported that Letch is English.
The shark took two bites of the fiberglass board before stopping the attack, Graham told The Associated Press by telephone.
"There were two big puncture mark bites on the board, but it didn't actually bite a hunk out of it so he was able to ride it in," Graham said
He came back 30 minutes later to surf with a replacement board, Graham said.
Last month, 20-foot great white shark tore a man in half, killing him instantly as he snorkeled off Australia's west coast.
You have the right to remain silent...
Associated Press
Apr. 16, 2005 03:10 PM
MESA, Ariz. - The Mesa Police Department is looking to add some primal instinct to its SWAT team. And to do that, it's looking to a monkey.
"Everybody laughs about it until they really start thinking about it," said Mesa Officer Sean Truelove, who builds and operates tactical robots for the suburban Phoenix SWAT team. "It would change the way we do business."
Truelove is spearheading the department's request to purchase and train a capuchin monkey, considered the second smartest primate to the chimpanzee. The department is seeking about $100,000 in federal grant money to put the idea to use in Mesa SWAT operations.
The monkey, which costs $15,000, is what Truelove envisions as the ultimate SWAT reconnaissance tool.
Since 1979, capuchin monkeys have been trained to be companions for people who are quadriplegics by performing daily tasks, such as serving food, opening and closing doors, turning lights on and off, retrieving objects and brushing hair.
Truelove hopes the same training could prepare a monkey for special-ops intelligence.
Weighing only 3 to 8 pounds with tiny humanlike hands and puzzle-solving skills, Truelove said it could unlock doors, search buildings and find suicide victims on command. Dressed in a Kevlar vest, video camera and two-way radio, the small monkey would be able to get into places no officer or robot could go.
It has been a little over a year since Truelove filed a grant proposal with the U.S. Department of Defense under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and he is still waiting for word.
If the grant goes through, Truelove plans on learning how to train the monkey himself and keeping the sociable monkey at home, just like a K-9 officer would. He projects that $85,000 in grant money would outfit the monkey with gear and pay for veterinarian care, food and habitat for three years.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can now also be called bushi, cheneyi and rumsfeldi, or simply slime-mold beetles.
Two former Cornell University entomologists named three species in the genus Agathidium after the U.S. leaders, Cornell announced on Wednesday.
Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller christened 65 new species of slime-mold beetles, named for the fungi-like molds on which they feed, which they discovered after collecting thousands of specimens for a study of their evolution and classification.
Wheeler, who after 24 years as a professor of entomology and plant biology at Cornell is now the keeper and head of entomology at the Natural History Museum in London, said the U.S. leaders were being honored for having "the courage of their convictions."
The bushi beetle is found in southern Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia; the rumsfeldi is from Oaxaca and Hidalgo in Mexico, and the cheneyi is known from Chiapas, Mexico, Wheeler said.
The Associated Press
Feline lovers holding pictures of cats, clutching stuffed animals and wearing whiskers faced-off against hundreds of hunters at meetings around Wisconsin to voice their opinion on whether to legalize cat hunting.
Residents in 72 counties were asked whether free-roaming cats — including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar — should be listed as an unprotected species. If listed as so, the cats could be hunted.
The proposal was one of several dozen included in a spring vote on hunting and fishing issues held by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. The results, only advisory, get forwarded to the state Natural Resources Board.
Statewide results were expected Tuesday.
La Crosse firefighter Mark Smith, 48, helped spearhead the cat-hunting proposal. He wants Wisconsin to declare free-roaming wild cats an unprotected species, just like skunks or gophers. Anyone with a small-game license could shoot the cats at will.
At least two other upper Midwestern states, South Dakota and Minnesota, allow wild cats to be shot — and have for decades. Minnesota defines a wild, or feral, cat as one with no collar that does not show friendly behavior, said Kevin Kyle with that state's Department of Natural Resources.
Every year in Wisconsin alone, an estimated 2 million wild cats kill 47 million to 139 million songbirds, according to state officials. Despite the astounding numbers, Smith's plan has been met with fierce opposition from cat lovers.
Critics of Smith's idea organized Wisconsin Cat-Action Team and developed a Web site — dontshootthecat.com. Some argue it is better to trap wild cats, spay or neuter them, before releasing them.
John Roach-National Geographic News
When John Rowden asks local villagers on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo what they know about the Bulwer's pheasant, the first thing most people say is that the bird is delicious.
That is not an answer Rowden savors. The ornithologist with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society is also a curator of animals at the Central Park Zoo. Since 1999 Rowden has traveled to Borneo several times a year to learn as much as he can about the elusive pheasant.
Also called wattled pheasants, Bulwer's pheasants (Lophura bulweri) are chicken-size birds. Males have bushy white tails and folds of brilliant blue skin on their faces. Females have folds of brown skin. The pheasants are found in the wild only on Borneo and are thought to number no more than a few thousand.
Very few of the pheasants kept in zoos around the world will breed. Rowden travels to Borneo, in part, to learn how to improve the chemistry among captive pheasants.
He believes a new generation of captive pheasants would help raise awareness of the birds and the conservation crisis they face in their native habitat.
Not only are the birds a delicacy for local villagers in Borneo, but the pheasants are threatened by the island's rapid loss of tropical rain forests.
A study published last year in the journal Science found that lowland forest cover in protected areas of the Indonesian province of Kalimantan decreased by more than 56 percent between 1985 and 2001.
Borneo is the world's third largest island and is shared by the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Rowden said the logging in Malaysian Borneo is less damaging than in Indonesia only because the boundaries of protected areas are respected.
Bearded Pigs
The ornithologist hopes to learn how Bulwer's pheasants breed in the wild before the birds and their habitat disappear. To that end, Rowden spends a lot of time asking villagers about their insights into the bird's natural history.
For example, the bird expert said that after being told how good the pheasants taste, villages often say, "If you want to find the birds, look for [bearded] pigs."
The bearded pig (Sus barbatus) is distinguished by its elongated head, narrow body, and abundant chin whiskers. It can grow as long as 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) and weigh upward of 330 pounds (150 kilograms).
Rowden said local villagers tell him that the pheasants follow the pigs as they forage for things like tubers and bulbs. While foraging, the pigs roust grubs that the pheasants eat. The pheasants may also eat tuber and bulb scraps that the pigs leave behind.
Erik Meijaard is an expert on wild pigs, including the bearded pig, at the Australian National University in Canberra. He said he has "heard similar stories from villagers in various parts of Kalimantan but never actually witnessed pigs and pheasants together."
Rowden said the reasons for the association are scientifically unknown but that he and other researchers plan further studies. He noted that one hope lies with the government in the Malaysian province of Sarawak, on Borneo.
The government there is interested in learning more about the status of the bearded pig population. The reason is simple: The animal is a major staple of the local diet.
"They want to ensure such an important [food source] is protected … ," Rowden said. "So it gives them an interest in studying pigs and—excuse the pun—I'm piggybacking on that to get more support for the Bulwer's [pheasant research]."
Conservation
Meijaard, the Australian pig expert, said that bearded pigs are an underrated species in Borneo conservation efforts. "They are the most important source of animal protein in many inland communities, and when pig populations decline, there is a hunting shift to other, more endangered species like primates," he said.
Rowden's studies in Borneo, meanwhile, have yet to yield the magic something that compels captive Bulwer's pheasants to breed. However, he said his work has opened the door to a larger conservation project that he believes will help save Borneo's remaining rain forest.
"If we don't have a species [left] to show people [that] this is an amazingly cool bird, that's unfortunate," he said. "But we're doing good work on the ground protecting habitat, and that's ultimately what we're fighting for."
SION, Switzerland (AP) -- Cows that lock horns in an annual test of strength in the Swiss Alps must face renewed doping tests, authorities have decided.
"There are controls for racehorses and dogs, and there's no reason to do it differently for cows," Joseph Jaeger, chief veterinarian in the Valais state, said Thursday.
Valais' annual cow-fighting contest - known as "The Combat of the Queens" - pits powerfully built, black-hided animals from the Swiss Val d'Herens breed against each other.
The grand final and earlier heats draw about 50,000 spectators, and a victory can add tens of thousands of dollars to a cow's value.
Now officials will restart the controls, halted in 2002 after six years of nothing but negative tests, Jaeger said.
Cow fighting, which began in Valais in 1922, is based on the natural struggle between cows for dominance of the herd as they leave their winter stables and head to the Alpine pastures in the spring.
During the largely bloodless fights, each cow tries to force the other to submit, using its head and horns. The contests often end without any physical contact between either cow, when one of the animals recognizes the superiority of the other.
BBC News
Elephants learn some of their calls through imitation, scientists report in this week's Nature magazine.
They are the only land mammal, other than primates, that can undeniably copy sounds, the researchers claim.
The discovery was made when an orphan elephant called Mlaika, who lived near a road, was observed to make a series of convincing truck sounds.
Under normal circumstances, vocal imitation is probably used to cement bonds between elephants, they added.
"Elephants may be using their learning abilities to develop vocalisations similar to group members," said lead author Joyce Poole, of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, Kenya.
Social bonds
Vocal imitation has already been observed in birds and marine mammals as well as primates.
Dr Poole believes it evolved to help maintain bonds between individuals in a
socially fluid environment.
In other words, it helps two individuals remain socially close, despite all the comings and goings within their group.
"It may be, for example, that mothers and daughters have similar voices," said Dr Poole.
"And that could be one way how they recognise each other amongst all the different voices."
Although elephant rumbles are known to be sophisticated and varied, the phenomenon of mimicry was never observed before Mlaika's creative use of it.
The 10-year-old lived in a semi-captive group of orphaned elephants in Tsavo, Kenya.
Trucks were sometimes audible from her night stockade, which lay 3km from the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.
Scientists analysed her unusual rumbles and found that they strongly resembled truck sounds in frequency and pattern.
"These findings electrified me because no terrestrial mammals other than primates are known to be able to imitate sounds," said co-author Peter Tyack, from America's Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who normally studies whales.
"Birds, bats, dolphins and whales do so, but learning of a whole new animal group capable of vocal learning is fascinating."
Rare skill
After Mlaika, the researchers also found an irregular imitation in another elephant.
Calimero is a 23-year-old African male who has spent most of his life in a Swiss zoo with Asian elephants, who make a distinctive and unique chirping sound.
Calimero also makes the Asian chirping sounds and not the deeper African calls.
"It will be very interesting to see whether African elephant groups have different dialects," said Dr Poole.
"But at the moment we don't know that."
Dr Tyack added: "Our paper demonstrates vocal learning and imitation, but only begins to open the door to a fascinating new area for research studying why elephants have evolved this rare skill."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4377297.stm
STAFF PHOTO BY ED PAGLIARINI
By PETER N. SPENCER
Staff Writer
BRIDGEWATER -- Township pets can breathe easier with help from some specially designed first aid equipment.
Best Friends Pet Resorts & Salons of North Plainfield on Tuesday donated 16 pet oxygen masks, used to treat dogs and cats suffering from smoke inhalation, to the township's Office of Emergency Management. The masks are the first pet-specific lifesaving devices to be carried by New Jersey emergency responders, and are becoming standard equipment in firetrucks and ambulances nationwide, according to Best Friends spokeswoman Barbara F. Bangser.
Though the current trend in providing emergency responders with the equipment is still too new to chart, Best Friends alone has donated or earmarked more than 600 masks for 41 communities nationwide, including 10 in Central Jersey, since the Cause for PAWS program began in July, Bangser said. The program started with a donation of 15 pet masks to the North Plainfield Fire Department, and followed similar ones in California and Florida.
"One of the reasons Best Friends opted to sponsor this program was because we saw a need in so many communities that wasn't being met," Bangser said. "Of the more than three dozen towns and cities we've offered the masks to, none have had them before."
And the masks have paid dividends already by saving several pets, she added.
"People treat their pets like members of their family ... saving your pet is like saving a member of your own family," said Kelly Kurash, center manager for the North Plainfield Best Friends.
With help from 1-year-old Siberian husky Kayla, Kurash demonstrated use of the oxygen mask for members of the Bridgewater Township Volunteer Emergency Services.
Each set costs about $50 and contains three masks: one size for cats or flat-faced dogs, one for small dogs and one for large dogs. The plastic, cone-shaped apparatus fits over the pet's snout and connects to a firefighter's oxygen bottle via a tube. The masks are the same ones that veterinarians use when administering anesthesia to animals, except these pump 100 percent oxygen to clear lungs of lethal smoke, Kurash said.
While fire departments do not keep statistics on how often animals suffering from smoke inhalation are rescued from fires, dogs or cats are found in at least 1 out of 3 U.S. households, according to American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.
Township Office of Emergency Management's deputy coordinator, Robert Hanlon II, who is also a emergency volunteer, said he encounters pets in more than half of the households he responds to in Bridgewater.
There were a few times Hanlon had to use oxygen masks designed for humans to save a dog or a cat, but they were not nearly as effective as these, he said.
Donations for the oxygen masks were made by members of the community, and The Garden State Cat Club of N.J. Best Friends matched those donations on a dollar-for-dollar basis for fire stations within 15 miles of a Best Friends facility.
Peter N. Spencer can be reached at (908) 707-3176 or pspencer@c-n.com.
AT A GLANCE: For more information about the pet oxygen masks program, contact your local Best Friends facility, call 1-888-FOR-PETS, or visit www.bestfriendspetcare.com.
The Associated Press - ALAPAHA, Ga.
Residents here gathered around television sets Sunday night for the airing of National Geographic's documentary on Hogzilla, the tusked, south Georgia super swine that was killed last summer on a nearby farm.
A picture of the alleged 1,000 pound, 12-foot animal hanging from a backhoe made international news. However, many wondered if the giant hog that hunting guide Chris Griffin claimed to have killed was nothing but a giant hoax.
Despite that chance, the south Georgia town of 680, located 180 miles south of Atlanta, adopted the Hogzilla theme for its fall festival, with a parade featuring a Hogzilla princess, children in pink pig outfits and a float carrying a Hogzilla replica.
Eager to uncover the facts, National Geographic brought in a team of experts last fall to exhume the behemoth's remains. Wearing yellow biohazard suits, they studied the smelly carcass and took DNA samples that showed Hogzilla was part domestic and part wild boar.
Ken Holyoak, owner of the 1,500-acre fish farm and hunting preserve where Hogzilla was shot, claimed the hairy heavyweight weighed 1,000 pounds, measured 12 feet and had 9-inch tusks.
But the National Geographic experts estimated Hogzilla's length at between 7 1/2 and 8 feet and its weight at about 800 pounds.
Hogzilla's tusks, one measuring 17 and 10-sixteenths inches and the other 15 and 13-sixteenths inches, set a new Safari Club International North American free-range record, said Nancy Donnelly, who produced the Explorer documentary.
Darlene Turner of Jernigan's Trustworthy Hardware hosted a Hogzilla party at her home while 11 guests watched the 8 p.m. episode of Explorer on the National Geographic Channel.
"Our insides were just bubbling," she said. "At first, I was afraid it might be an embarrassment. But now I wish everybody could see the documentary. It would take the doubt out of people's minds."
Holyoak issued a "rebuttal" Monday morning after seeing the documentary.
"Let me start off by bragging on the tremendous job that the National Geographic crew did," he said. "I need to stress that they did not have that much to work with, seeing as how the poor beast had been underground for nearly six months."
Holyoak said Hogzilla weighed in at half a ton on his farm scales and that he personally measured the hog's length at 12 feet while the freshly killed beast was dangling by straps from a backhoe.
"As with any organic being after death, tissues will decompose and the body will atrophy, making actual measurements change over time," Holyoak said. "Have you ever seen a raisin after it was a grape?"
But Donnelly said, "We allowed for some shrinkage in the final measurements."
While the forensic exam may not have confirmed Holyoak's claims, it did show that Hogzilla was unusually large.
"He was an impressive beast," Donnelly said. "He was definitely a freak of nature."
Mark Hall, a south Georgia native who now teaches English at California State University in Chico, Calif., donned his Hogzilla T-shirt Sunday evening and invited about a dozen friends to watch the documentary.
"We had a number of pork-related dishes," said Hall, who spent his childhood in Albany, Ga. "I'm not sure what folks expected, but they learned a lot about south Georgia," he said. "Most of my friends know I'm prone to exaggerate when I tell a story, so these folks weren't surprised at all to see that these fellows in south Georgia may have stretched the truth."
For Hall, getting the scientific facts on Hogzilla was somewhat of a letdown.
"Now it's not a legend, not a myth," he said. "I thought it was a much more interesting story when we could just imagine and just retell the story.
"Anybody from the Deep South knows that ... a believable story starts with a kernel of truth," he said. "It starts there, but it doesn't necessarily end there."
The documentary left open the possibility that some of Hogzilla's offspring may be getting fat in the cypress swamps near Alapaha, but it could be years before there's another a legendary hog like the one buried beneath a white cross on Holyoak's farm
If you’re a fan of urban legends then last summer you would likely have heard the audacious tale of a monstrous 12-foot, 1000-pound swine, appropriately named “Hogzilla,” that had been shot in a swamp in Georgia. A grainy photograph of the beast strung from a backhoe next to the victorious hunter, spread like wildfire on the Internet triggering worldwide awe and disbelief. It was prime fodder for a bad sci-fi flick. Or, could this beast possibly be real?
On October 23, 2004, a team from National Geographic Explorer decided to find out.
It took a while to get around the campy notion of investigating a feral hog. But as the first few weeks of preparation for the shoot passed by, I found myself captivated by the mystery of this giant swine, and what it reveals about the larger issue of feral pigs worldwide
oday more than a billion domestic pigs live among us. There are millions more in the wild and the numbers are escalating rapidly. The animals are increasingly at odds with farmers as they root up crops and pastures in their quest for food. Pigs are exceptionally adaptable animals, and in many places their natural predators have declined or been eradicated altogether, opening the floodgates for a massive population boom. In Texas alone there are two million wild hogs—that’s one hog for every ten Texans.
Our team took a detour to Texas, where the fine gentlemen of Kaufman County showed us what it’s like to hunt a feral pig first hand. I will never forget the intensity of chasing the hunters through the briars of East Texas with a load of sound equipment around my shoulders, trying to get the best shots while avoiding the charge of an angry 250 pound pig--with tusks big enough to put more than a hole in your jeans.
Hunting hogs is big business. Hunters from around the world come to the southern US to shoot trophy hogs—and the bigger the better. In many cases the owners of these hunting ranges feed the hogs to lure big money clients. Could Hogzilla have just been an over fed hog that had dodged the bullet?
We then flew to England where wild boar--locally extinct for hundreds of years—had been recently reintroduced as livestock ultimately destined for European markets. But for the past few years escaped boars have begun repopulating the countryside. Tracking these boars at night and filming these magnificent beasts up close as they move easily through the open grass fields is something one doesn’t get to do every day.
And then there was Hogzilla—allegedly a feral pig who roamed the forests and pastures of a 1500-acre fish hatchery, gorging himself on anything he came across.
Because of the mystery and controversy surrounding the story, we made it our mission to go to southern Georgia and literally dig this beast up to discover the truth. I had no idea what an olfactory assault this would be.
When we finally arrived in Georgia, the sun was warm, the days were clear, and Hogzilla lay peacefully in his grave. The first tangible connection to Hogzilla himself came at the tip of hunter Chris Griffin’s shovel as it sliced into the sandy clay to reveal a small, extremely odiferous tuft of hair. The dig crew, including a pig DNA specialist and a feral pig expert, knew immediately what they had gotten into from the first whiff. We worked tirelessly in the unrelenting sunshine, sweating in our yellow PVC suits, surgical gloves, and rubber boots as we uncovered the body of the animal. At one point, Erin Harvey, the cameraman, was literally lying on top of the beast to get a masterful shot of the two scientists revealing their discovery.
We watched as the scientists exhumed the corpse and reconstructed the body, taking measurements and samples for DNA testing—was Hogzilla a hybrid of wild boar and domesticated pig or a genetic mutant? At the end of the day we all walked away from the site as though we were leaving a freshly discovered Egyptian tomb.
We had discovered the truth about Hogzilla. In fact, some of the camera equipment still retains the beast’s special fragrance to this day.
Explorer, Sunday 8PM ET/PT-March 21st
Heated pool malfunctions; stunt-diving pig dies
Associated Press
AUSTIN — An electrical problem may be to blame for the death Thursday of a stunt-diving pig at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo.
The animal known as "Big Red" died after diving off a platform into a heated pool as part of Randall's High Diving Pig Show.
The pigs have performed the stunts many times, but owner Virgil Randall said he has had trouble with the pool's electricity recently.
Rodeo officials were investigating the death.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3091976
BBC News
A man-eating crocodile has been captured by wildlife authorities in Uganda and taken to a crocodile farm.
The rangers assisted by dozens of fishermen tracked the five-metre animal for three nights before catching it using ropes and nets.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) says the crocodile is thought to be 60 years old and weighs about 1,000kg.
The villagers of Lugaga on Lake Victoria say they think it has killed dozens of people and wanted to kill it.
Easy prey
UWA's Moses Mapesa, who was in charge of the capture, told AFP news agency they had to move the crocodile quickly to stop local residents from avenging the deaths, which local media say have occurred over the past two decades.
"Much as the residents of Lugaga wanted to kill the reptile after our rangers had captured it, it is our responsibility to protect it," UWA spokeswoman Lillian Nsubuga told Reuters news agency.
People living on the shores of Lake Victoria depend on the lake for food and water and can be easy prey for crocodiles.
Peter Ogwang, an expert who helped with the capture on Monday, told the state-owned New Vision newspaper the crocodile was known to take its victims to a special spot, where it allowed the bodies to decompose.
He said a crocodile can develop a habit of hunting humans down, once it tastes human flesh.
Ugandan authorities blame the attacks on an increase in the human population, which encroaches on crocodiles' habitat.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4330455.stm
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
By Bob Batz Jr. and Anita Srikameswaran, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
You could say Bubba has gotten into some hot water, but maybe it's not as bad as it sounds, considering he's a lobster.
The crusty crustacean -- billed as 100 years old and weighing a whopping 23 pounds -- was caught in the Atlantic Ocean and wound up Thursday in the tank at Robert Wholey & Co., the Strip District seafood purveyor. This residence looked to be temporary, lasting only until somebody invited him to dinner.
The behemoth caused quite a splash, but not every shopper wanted to eat him. One woman offered to pay $500 -- roughly $150 more than he'd fetch at the going price per pound -- for Bubba's release to an aquarium.
The publicity, including a TV news report, made some animal lovers boiling mad, and so from across the country they called and e-mailed the Norfolk, Va. headquarters of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Karin Robertson, who manages the group's Fish Empathy Project, took up Bubba's claws. On Monday, she faxed a letter to CEO Robert Wholey III asking that Bubba "be released back into his ocean home," where he'd lived since before women could vote.
"It would be a tragedy to end his long life by tormenting him in a pot of boiling water," she wrote, "or by shoving him into a zoo aquarium to be gawked at in a tiny enclosure until he dies."
As of yesterday, Bubba looked to be spared the first fate but not the second.
Robert Wholey -- as he had initially, and sympathetically, told PETA -- decided to donate the lobster to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.
Around 3:30 p.m., four zoo staffers arrived and placed Bubba in a three-foot-deep plastic bucket with just enough salt water to cover him. They drove the Zoomobile, a Saturn station wagon, at a crawl toward Highland Park to minimize sloshing.
Aquarist Jennifer Nero lifted the bucket's wooden lid every few minutes to check on him. Zoo spokeswoman Connie George, who was riding along, said Nero got attached to Bubba. Not literally, she added.
"He just stuck his head out of the water and is looking around," George said. "He'll be happy to get into a tank where he can see what he's doing."
Bubba was transferred to a larger tank at the same salinity and temperature of his Wholey's tank and the rubber bands were removed from his 12-inch- and 15-inch-long claws.
He's not the only one who may be a bit confused about all this.
Bubba is old, but he's probably not a centenarian. Aquarium curator Allan Marshall discussed him with other specialists at a conference he's attending in Virginia, and the consensus was that Bubba is 30 to 40 years old.
Randy Goodlett, a marine biologist who cared for Bubba and all of Wholey's live stock, agreed.
It's not even certain that Bubba is male. George said there is a way to tell, but the lobster hadn't yet been examined.
Bubba's time in Pittsburgh still looks to be brief. The aquarium doesn't have other lobsters and lacks a habitat to sustain Bubba for public display. He will be quarantined for at least a week, and if he stays healthy, he will be flown to a Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum.
"They're opening a new aquarium in Canada and I think that's where he's going," George said.
Last night, PETA's Robertson said she was disappointed that Bubba wasn't going to be returned to the wild. "An aquarium is not an approximation of the freedom he's been able to experience. ... It really is just ridiculous to think that Bubba is better off being displayed as a sideshow freak."
She said she plans to contact the Pittsburgh aquarium today to request a release to the wild, something PETA regularly does with lobsters of all sizes. "I'm hoping they would have some sympathy for his extreme age."
And so continues the controversy, which included an offer from Wholey's customers of a different bent who called themselves "People For Eating Tasty Animals."
For his part, Wholey said of Bubba, "I wish, wherever he does go, that he lives another hundred years."
Tokyo, Japan, Jul. 19 (UPI) -- For Reiko Takebayashi, it's a dream come true.
"I've always wanted to have a cat. But my apartment won't allow pets ... and I've never been able to have animals when I lived at home," the 26-year-old single officer worker sighed.
Here at Nekobukuro, though, Takebayashi and other feline lovers can indulge their craving for furry company to their hearts' content. Located on the top floor of a Tokyo department store that specializes in selling knick-knacks from kitschy panda-patterned shower curtains to practical items such as rubber-gripped tin can openers, Nekobukuro is home to 20 cats.
Located in Ikebukuro, on the west side of Tokyo, the de facto petting zoo is also open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week to those willing to pay about $5.50 (600 yen) per person. For that price, customers are allowed into a room where cats roam free and exist simply to be petted by strangers. Of course, cats being cats, most of them including a haughty-looking brown Bengal kitten named Mocha aren't too eager to go up to strangers just to be cooed fawned upon.
But at 4:30 p.m. each day, Nekobukuro holds what they call a "snack hour" when patrons are given morsels of cat food effectively to coax and bribe the cats into submission. And it works for most of them, as most cats large and small zoom to the person with the food, gobble up the treat, then move on to the next stranger who still has food. After they've made certain they ate all the available tidbits, most cats go back to their favorite perch, far away from any strangers that could disturb their peace.
In short, for those who have a dog or cat at home, the felines are Nekobukuro --"neko" meaning cat in Japanese, and "bukuro" being a pun on the location of Ikebukuro-- are too aloof and too jaded to be enthralling. But for those who are craving for animal companionship, it's a godsend.
It's not a bad business to run, either.
In a megapolis like Tokyo, where real estate is precious, renting a house or apartment that will allow pets is always a challenge. But even for those who live in a place where pets are allowed, long commutes and even longer days in the office make it almost impossible for most single people to look after a dog or cat on their own.
So a few years ago, several companies started up the rental pet business, where clients can pick up a dog to take home for the day to feed and walk around the neighborhood with, and play dog owner for a few hours.
Then, of course, there was Aibo, the robotic dog from electronics manufacturer Sony that became a runaway hit nearly a decade ago.
But there was nothing on the market to cater to those who longed for the companionship of cats until pet company MK Suematsu came along. This family-run group had been in the pet food and product business for nearly three decades, until it decided to venture into the business of getting would-be pet owners to mingle with their furry objects of affection.
In June 2002, Nekotama Cats Livin' was started up in the trendy bay area of Odaiba. A mock apartment was prepared to become a home for a few dozen cats, complete with a living room, balcony, and bathroom where the felines run free and people pay to try to pick them up and stroke them. For just over $3 (400 yen), fans can also take photos with their favorite kitty as well.
But the company also caters to canine lovers, too.
In May 2003, for instance, MK Suematsu launched Dog Forest, where guests pay about $15 to spend the day with dogs that don't belong to them. Located in the summer resort area of Izu-Kogen, about two hours south of Tokyo, Dog Forest is home to about 80 dogs that are available for petting to visitors. They can also take dogs out and about for walks along the trails within the park, and watch dogs play games as well. And if the visitor falls in love with one dog in particular, some puppies are for sale at the park, too.
Not everyone is enamored by the concept of paying to have a few minutes with a cat or dog, and then walking away from the animals once they're bored.
"I actually think it's bad for children," said Keiko Tanigaki, who was shopping in Ikebukuro with her four-year-old daughter, Manami, in tow. "I want my daughter to love animals. But I want her to respect them too, and to understand that they're not toys. ... I think this Nekobukuro thing is an unhealthy concept, and I feel very sorry for the cats inside," she added.
The Patricia H. Ladew Cat Sanctuary Site is almost ready for building. If I was a kitty living in this house, I'd never want to leave. But if you make an appointment you can meet all 75 of them, and they have a tendancy to choose their new owners rather than the other way around.
http://theladewcatsanctuary.org/
Bigger than 'Hogzilla,' and easier to verify, meet... HOG Kong
By JOE JULAVITS, The Times-Union
First there was Hogzilla, the legendary South Georgia wild boar of beastly proportions and questionable origins. Now, from the rural Florida community of Okahumpka comes another monster hog without a catchy name but with a credible story
Actually, depending on the source of the e-mails, there are several not-so-credible stories attached to the estimated 1,140-pound wild hog killed this past August by Larry Earley at his 22-acre farm near Leesburg. Earley's hog, which went relatively unpublicized for months, has recently taken on a wildly embellished life of its own on the Internet.
One version -- all the e-mailed stories include photos -- has Earley shooting the hog in Texas. Another has Earley firing two shots from a handgun at the charging animal, and, later, donating the meat to feed the homeless in Orlando.
"I was laughing when I saw that," said the 39-year-old Earley, who works as a fireman in Orlando. "There are two or three versions from Texas. One of them renames me. Another keeps my name but changes the location to outside of Houston.
"I have no idea where the stories came from."
According to Earley, here's what really happened.
At around 4 p.m. on Aug. 27, Earley went to check on one of his Labrador retrievers that had gone for a swim in the pond on his property. Earley was concerned because a 9-foot alligator frequents the pond.
"I was standing on the dock and saw the butt of the hog," he said. "At first I thought it was a steer that had gotten through the fence. Then I saw it from the side and saw an 8-inch tusk."
A longtime hog hunter, Earley dashed back to the house and holstered his .44 magnum Smith & Wesson handgun. It's the gun he prefers for hog-hunting because it's easily carried when pursuing a hog through thick cover.
When Earley returned, the huge hog had moved and was rooting along the edge of the pond.
Making a half-circle to gain a sidelong shot, Earley crept to within 10 yards of the animal and fired one round.
"He grunted real hard and turned and started coming at me," Earley recalled. "I backed up and tried to keep the crosshairs on him, but he made about three jumps and fell over sideways about 10 feet from me.
"I didn't realize he was that big or I would have gotten a different gun."
Earley, whose previous biggest hog had weighed 230 pounds, had no clue what this one weighed. He figured maybe 400, 500 pounds. A 300-pound wild hog is considered a giant. A 400-pounder's a nightmare.
Having no suitable scale available, Earley got help loading the hog onto a flatbed trailer used for hauling cars. He then drove up Interstate 75 -- his cargo drawing stares from other motorists -- to Suwannee River Ranch near Branford in Suwannee County. The ranch is a hunting preserve owned by John Kruzeski, a boyhood friend of Earley's, and it has a 500-pound game scale.
Kruzeski did a double-take when he saw Earley's hog, which easily outmatched the measly 500-pound scale.
"He said, 'Man, that thing weighs 1,000 pounds,'" Earley said.
Robert Bradow, who owns Smokin' Oak Sausage Co. in Branford and processes meat for Suwannee River Ranch and other area hunting preserves, witnessed Earley's hog before he processed it. He was stunned by its size.
"That thing was unbelievably huge, the biggest hog I've ever seen," Bradow said. "We've processed a bunch of hogs, and probably 450 pounds is the biggest we've ever seen."
Using a meat-processing formula, Bradow estimated the hog to weigh between 1,100 and 1,200 pounds.
"There was over 300 pounds of boneless meat," he said. "We have a rule of thumb, the thirds rule -- one-third for the head and hide, one-third for the internal viscera, one-third for the carcass.
"My math tells me you're looking at 1,140 pounds, almost 1,200 pounds. He was a beast."
The hog's head and hide alone weighed 284 pounds. Measured from the gum line, one tusk was 8 1/4 inches long; the other was broken off. The hog's neck was 42 inches around. Earley is having the head mounted.
So how does a wild hog grow that large? It's likely Earley's hog had some domestic blood in him. Also, Earley believes the hog he shot had fattened up on salt licks at a neighboring ranch.
"My neighbor had complained about his mineral blocks disappearing," Earley said. "He had asked me four years ago if I'd seen a great big gray boar."
"He definitely had some domestic in him, but he was a genuine wild hog," Bradow said. "That hog had almost no fat on him, which tells me he had a lot of wild in him."
Comparisons of Earley's hog to the much-publicized Hogzilla are unavoidable. Hogzilla was killed last June at River Oak Plantation in Alapaha, Ga., by an employee of the hunting preserve. The hog reportedly weighed 1,000 pounds, measured 12 feet long and sported 9-inch tusks.
Other than a widely circulated picture, there is no documentation of Hogzilla. According to the property owners, the animal was buried on the plantation because it wouldn't fit in one piece in a freezer, and the meat was unsuitable for consumption.
Forensic scientists from the National Geographic Channel have unearthed Hogzilla and will report their findings in a show to be aired later this year, according to The Associated Press.
Earley, whose own hog is the subject of debate in e-mail exchanges, is skeptical.
"That seems odd to me, to shoot something like that and bury it real fast," he said.
Earley's freezer is still full of sausage, and he has given much of it away to friends. None to the homeless, although that detail made for a good Internet story.
Although he doesn't seem the type to relish attention, Earley has become something of a celebrity. He has been interviewed by newspapers, radio stations and The Farmer's Almanac.
Earley and his 10-year-old daughter took the photos that have shown up in e-mails, but they have no idea where the accompanying stories originated.
"There were only a couple of people I sent pictures to," Earley said. "I have some people I know who might have written [the stories], but nobody's fessed up yet.
"It's pretty amazing how far around this has gotten. I don't mind. I love talking about hunting."
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/020605/spo_17894280.shtml
A thorninpaw friend writes:
----------------------------------------------
These are pics of Gracie & Dexter who are looking for a home. They're both very affectionate and playful. Both are spayed/neutered, have had all their shots, were dewormed and tested negative for FELV/FIV. Please contact me either by e-mail or phone 516-431-1745 if you are interested.
Thanks,
Susan
----------------------------
We met Gracie and Dexter, they are too cute for words. They live in the PHL Foundations Cat Sanctuary on Long Island, where Dr. Susan Whittred cares for them. Gracie and Dexter spend their time playing and napping in the kitten room.
The Birmingham Alabama News
Outdoors columnist Mike Bolton
Ten minutes before the tsunami that ravaged 11 Asian countries crushed a southern Indian wildlife sanctuary, a lighthouse worker reported seeing an oddity. A herd of antelope meandering along the shoreline suddenly bolted for a nearby mountaintop.
At a national park in another Asian country, elephants broke free from their chains before the tsunami hit and walked into the mountains. In another incident, four Japanese tourists riding elephants were saved from the crushing waves when those elephants ignored their commands and headed for the mountains.
The death toll from the tsunami is nearing an estimated 150,000 people, yet rescue workers are reporting not finding any wildlife deaths. That has prompted media from the Wall Street Journal to the CBS Evening News to speculate that animals have a "sixth sense."
In Sri Lanka more than 30,000 people lost their lives, but at Yala National Park near where the human death toll was the highest, all the park's deer, leopards and elephants survived. How is that possible if animals do not indeed have a sense that humans don't possess?
Anyone who has spent any time around wildlife has surely asked that question. Any deer hunter who has spent much time in the woods has witnessed a wary deer that obviously knows danger is in the area even though the wind could have not revealed the hunter's presence. How did it know the human was there?
Research by many wildlife biologists has never pinpointed a "sixth sense" among animals. Biologists speculate - and I tend to agree - that the five senses of wildlife are much more finely tuned than those of humans.
For most wildlife, danger lurks behind every tree, hill and rock. That surely hones an animal's senses. Animals in the wild face many dangers including hunters, hawks, owls and coyotes. An animal that is not always on its guard doesn't stay around for long.
Animals have better-developed senses than humans in many ways. Wildlife with longer snouts can detect scents better. While a human can smell vegetable stew cooking, a deer smells the corn, potatoes, carrots and okra.
Wildlife typically have ears that are proportionally larger to their bodies than humans, thus better hearing. My guess is that the elephants in Asia with those big ears simply heard the tsunami coming even though waves may have been 50 or more miles away. The roar had to be tremendous.
I suspect also that wildlife have a better sense of mind. When it detects something that isn't right, an animal's instinct is to flee. That is not always the case with humans. Have you ever come home late at night in the dark and had an eerie feeling somebody was in the house? Did you run for your life, or did you go around the house turning on lights?
There were no reports from the tsunami-ravaged areas of animals standing there confused as to what they were seeing as the huge waves bore down on them. I saw video footage of humans making that mistake.
Are animals born with this survival instinct? That is a question for the biologists. My theory is that animals are born with a rough draft of those instincts, but go through a continuous fine-tuning of the senses based on experience. I base that on having witnessed a multitude of young deer and turkey that lack the savvy to stay alive, carelessness not present in their older brethren.
http://www.al.com/outdoors/birminghamnews/mbolton.ssf?/base/sports/110528406512550.xml
By Scott Charton, Associated Press Writer | December 28, 2004
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Next summer, it will be legal to plunge into some Missouri rivers and grab catfish by hand -- a type of fishing that is not for the faint of heart.
Known variously as noodling or hogging, handfishing has long been a misdemeanor punishable by fines, because state officials fear it depletes breeding-age catfish. It can also be dangerous: Noodlers hold their breath for long periods under water and sometimes come up with fistfuls of agitated snakes or snapping turtles instead of fish
That does not discourage enthusiasts, who insist there is great sportsmanship in fishing with your bare hands.
So after years of urging by noodlers, and lopsided legislative support for easing up on handfishers, the Missouri Conservation Commission has approved an experimental handfishing season next summer. Forms of handfishing are already legal in 11 states, including neighboring Oklahoma, Arkansas and Illinois.
"It's a start," John Smith, deputy director of the Conservation Department, said Tuesday. "We are moving forward in good faith to answer the legitimate biological concerns that we have, and balance that with the requests for making this process legal."
Missouri's biological concerns are that handfishers, who go for the biggest fish they can wrestle from riverbanks or hollow logs, will take too many sexually mature fish from their underwater nests.
The commission agreed to a June 1-July 15 season, during which handfishers who have bought a $7 permit can use only their bare hands and feet to catch a daily total of five catfish. Fish under 22 inches long must be thrown back.
Handfishing will be legal only along specified stretches of the Fabius, St. Francis and Mississippi rivers.
(If you would like to read about how "hogging' is done, I can reccomend this story, http://espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/sutton_keith/1336494.html
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/28/missouri_approves_fishing_with_bare_hands/?rss_id=Boston.com+/+News
Missouri Department of Conservation,
http://www.mdc.mo.gov/
John Aglionby, South East Asia correspondent
The Guardian
The boxing ring and spectator stands at Safari World zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok lie eerily neglected, as if they have been unused for more than just five months.
Bouts stopped in August after a lengthy police investigation into allegations that the 115 fighters employed by the zoo were illegal migrants. After months of officials arguing, procrastinating and initially botching the scientific tests, the final result was announced last week.
As well as the 45 fighters the zoo admitted to smuggling into Thailand, at least 12 others did not have proper permits.
Welfare activists claim that this indicates a much wider problem and are demanding legal action.
Determining the truth has been hampered by the fighters' inability to communicate with the investigators. This is because they are orang-utans, now the alleged victims of one of the largest ever alleged primate smuggling scams in South East Asia.
Bhuvanart Saengsue, a vet at Safari World, told The Observer that the zoo has been trying to help the animals, who for years have been dressed daily in silky shorts and boxing gloves to entertain visitors.
Such claims are bluster, according to Edwin Wiek of the Borneo Orang-utan Survival Foundation. He says the evidence against the zoo is conclusive - if the zoo were innocent, its captive-breeding programme would be by far the most successful anywhere in the world - and cannot understand why the owner, Pin Kiewkacha, is still at liberty.
'We are 100 per cent sure 57 are illegal. Fifteen others have died since the investigation began, but no one's been allowed to see the corpses, which is very suspicious,' he said.
'The remaining 43 comprise 29 young and 14 adults. For all these young to have been legally bred, each of the adult females would have had to have had a baby every year and that just doesn't happen.'
The Thai government's approach has fuelled activists' claims of a cover-up to protect the zoo's rich and influential owner. Obstacles were erected at almost every step of the investigation and senior officials refused to meet a government delegation from Indonesia, where experts believe the primates came from.
'We have approached them many times but they don't seem keen to resolve the crisis,' said Widodo Ramono, director of biodiversity conservation at the Forestry Ministry.
Forestry police chief Major-General Sawaek Pinsinchai said last week: 'We'll press charges against Pin once we're sure the evidence is solid.'
But Wiek fears neither Pin nor his staff will face trial. 'What will happen instead is that they will restart the boxing and no one will go to prison.'
Brown Norway Strain of the Laboratory Rat (Rattus norvegicus)
http://callofthegreenmonster.typepad.com/
Red Sox officials were happy to report that the rats that infest Fenway Parkjoined in the celebration of the team’s World Series victory.
“We were pleased to see that the rats conducted themselves quite nicely,” said head groundskeeper Joe Mooney. “They seemed to be genuinely delighted, and frolicked on the field and in the stands. You have to love their enthusiasm.”
A spokesman for the Boston Police said the situation was monitored, but no problems were reported. “We kept close watch on the revelry, but they conducted themselves in an orderly way. There were no injuries, no property damage, and aside from some expected mischievousness, things went fine. One rat was spotted climbing up a rope to get to the top of the Green Monster, but responded immediately when asked to get down.”
Although the new Red Sox ownership has taken some steps to control the rodent population within the park, the feisty critters still maintain a steady population and are a cherished part of the Sox fan base.
“You have to keep in mind that the rats are an important part of the history of this ball club,” said a nostalgic Johnny Pesky. “They’ve been here for generations upon generations, and I honestly believe that they are just as much a part of this World Series celebration as anyone else. They are some of our most devoted fans.”
While Red Sox ownership has announced no formal plans to include the rats in the various celebrations that will follow in the months to come, owner John Henry did grudgingly acknowledge their presence. “The rats will always be here,” he said, shaking his head. “Always.”
http://pharyngula.org
A new species of macaque, Macaca munzala or the Arunachal macaque, has been discovered in northeastern India. This is an incredibly rare event—the last new macaque species was found 101 years ago, and it’s been 49 years since any new primate was discovered in Asia.
“Discovered” may be not quite the right word; the inhabitants of this region of India are entirely familiar with it, and have been shooting it for its habit of raiding crops, and apparently it is a thriving species found in multiple populations. It had so far escaped the notice of scientists, at any rate, since it lives in an out-of-the-way part of the world and resides at high altitudes, above 2000 m.
For more information, see http://www.ncf-india.org/extras/macaquepress.htm
AP
Wild elephants in Thailand stumbled upon a feast when they found a tapioca delivery truck with a flat tire, officials said Monday.
The driver, Somkuan Sirisat, said he had gone for help to repair the tire Sunday night _ and when he returned, he found five or six elephants surrounding his truck and devouring its contents.
"I was too afraid to go toward the truck," Somkuan told television station ITV.
Army rangers were sent to the scene, said one of their officers.
A policeman and the ranger said the elephants found their windfall in the Ta Takiab district of Chachoengsao province, 90 kilometers (56 miles) east of Bangkok.
ITV showed the elephants milling around the truck, one of them holding in its trunk a tarp it had apparently removed from the truck.
The elephants left the scene after eating their fill.
The footage showed signs in the area warning drivers to "beware of wild elephants foraging on the road at night."
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/041213/ap/d86ulhuo0.html
Kitty Also Had A 3.5 GPA
Colby Nolan is probably the first animal to hold an executive MBA from a university.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Jerry Pappert isn't amused, since Colby is a pet cat and a Texas-based online college allegedly gave the feline a degree for $399
Pappert's office used the pet cat to investigate an alleged scheme designed to promote and sell bogus online academic degrees.
The civil lawsuit filed Monday named two brothers -- Craig Barton Poe and Alton Scott Poe -- as well as Trinity Southern University and Innovative Cellular and Wireless Inc.
The defendants are accused of fraudulently claiming that Trinity Southern University of Plano, Texas, is a legitimate institution that can issue various degrees.
According to investigators, beginning in January 2004, the defendants transmitted more than 18,000 illegal e-mail messages to promote the sale of online academic degrees.
A Web site link included in the e-mails claimed that for a fee between $299 and $499, consumers could get a bachelor's, master's, executive master's or Ph.D. degree in several fields including English, business administration and biology.
Undercover agents contacted the defendants online to obtain a $299 bachelor's degree in business administration for the cat, Colby Nolan.
The information on the student application claimed Colby completed three courses at a community college and worked at two different retailers as a manager. Colby's previous work experience included food prep at a fast-food restaurant, babysitting and a paper route, said the application.
The school then allegedly informed Colby via e-mail that the work experience qualified Colby to receive an executive MBA, not the bachelor's degree that was requested. (Currently, the school charges $399 for an MBA, plus shipping and handling, according to its Web site.)
The state said within several weeks, the defendants awarded an executive MBA to Colby, along with an official looking diploma with the signatures of the university president and dean.
For an additional $99 fee, investigators said the agent requested the cat's transcript. The document arrived with Colby's graduation date, student number and a GPA of 3.5.
The defendants also allegedly hijacked IP addresses from more than 60 Pennsylvania businesses and the state Senate to promote and sell the degrees, investigators said.
Pappert said the complaint asks the court to compel the defendants to forfeit their right to conduct business in Pennsylvania, as well as pay civil fines and the state's investigation costs.
http://www.nbc10.com/money/3975070/detail.html
A specially trained Langoor monkey and handler take position near the roof of the South Block before the departure of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld after his meeting in the building with India's defence minister in New Delhi December 9, 2004. The large monkeys are used to keep the peace and quiet by preventing noisy, smaller and more aggressive monkeys from running around the grounds of India's government buildings during VIP visits
LONDON (Reuters) - Scotland can finally declare themselves sporting heavyweights after winning the Elephant Polo World Championship in Nepal.
The Scots snared the 2004 title after a week-long tournament in the Himalayan kingdom's Royal Chitawan National Park, attended by crowds of up to 5,000 people.
It's fantastic for Scotland -- we don't normally win a huge number of tournaments these days," team captain the Duke of Argyll told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Scots beat local favourites National Parks of Nepal, 12-6 on Friday last week, winning back a crown they held in 2001, in a game where a foul is declared if an elephant picks up the ball with its trunk.
Elephant polo is similar to normal polo but the pitch is smaller and the four competitors on each side play two 10-minute "chukkas". Elephants are controlled by "mahouts" or drivers, while the polo players wield long bamboo sticks to hit the ball.
The Duke said the elephants, usually females from the same herd, clearly enjoy the game.
"They do get very excited -- they put their trunks up in the air and start screaming their heads off as they charge down the field," he said.
British aristocrats started the game in India around the turn of the 20th century and it was revived in 1982 in Nepal, with the latest tournament attracting teams from across Asia, including Hong Kong and Thailand.
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primata
Family: Cercopithecidae
Sub-family: Colobinae
Genus species: Presbytis obscura
Spectacled langurs are also known as Dusky leaf-monkeys, and they live in Asia from northeastern India to the Malay Peninsula. They grow to 27 inches tall and 24 pounds. Their bodies and heads are dark gray, and they have very interesting faces. Their name comes from the white circles around their eyes. The circles make the spectacled langur look as if it is wearing spectacles, which is an old-fashioned term for eye glasses. They also have white fur around their mouths that looks like a mustache and big eyebrows. Spectacled langurs have very good eyesight and hearing.
Living high in the trees of the forest, spectacled langurs move using brachiation, swinging from tree to tree. They have opposable thumbs and big toes, making it easier to hold on to and grab tree branches. On the ground, they are quadrupedal, which means they walk on their hands and their feet. Spectacled langurs sometimes come down to the ground to sunbathe, to have a drink of water or to look for food. They eat mostly leaves, and some flowers, fruits, and seeds in the wild, and eat zoo mix, oranges, apples, kale and carrots in zoos. Their stomachs are similar to a cow's to digest all the leaves that they eat. They are diurnal, being active during the day, although they are not as active as other monkeys. They do most of their eating in the morning or late afternoon to give themselves rest time to digest their food.
These langurs are very territorial, and they use loud calls to keep other troops away. They are not aggressive and prefer not to fight. They live in large groups of up to 35 members. It is a mixture of males, females and youngsters, but they are led by one dominate, or lead male. Females are pregnant for 6 1/2 - 7 months, and usually give birth to one infant. Sometimes they do have twins. The fur of a newborn is yellow or orange-red, and will eventually turn gray like its parents. A female normally gives birth every two years or so. Spectacled langurs live to be 20 years old in the wild, and live to be 29 years of age in captivity.
Spectacled langurs are not endangered or threatened, but there is concern that they could be if trading of them is not watched.
The spectacled langurs at the Philadelphia Zoo had been living in the Rare Animal House for sometime, and moved to Primate Reserve with their youngsters.
A thorninpaw friend writes:
Thanks to all of you who played a part in getting Oscar, LuluBelle & Sydney adopted - all three have great homes! Now, Chip, Dexter & Gracie (below, counterclockwise from upper left) are looking for a home for the holidays and need your help. If you or anyone you know would like more information about adopting any of them (or all!), please contact me either by e-mail or phone - 516-431-1745. Thanks for your help and Happy Holidays!
Susan & and all the kitties at the Patricia H. Ladew Foundation.
I found this picture and had to share it. I am at a loss for a good caption and a story. Perhaps the readers could help?
I have a client who has a sanctuary, that's right, sanctuary, for cats. She's a vet running an animal shelter of sorts, but in fact, it is a very cute house on Long Island, with 75 cats living in it.
The cats are found, lost, abandoned, sick, sad, and rehabilitated here in colorful rooms full of toys, bits of carpet, scratching posts, treats, hiding spots, and light. The shelter was left to the cats by Patricia H. Ladew, a self-described Long Island WASP, artist, writer, partier, and extreme cat lover. The foundation bequeathed by Pat, has been entrusted to a group of friends, including Susan Whittred, the Head Vet and COO.
In the shot below, you see them interested in the row of bird houses poised on the front porch for their entertainment.
Many are up for adoption, the rest, too wild, old, or sick for a regular home, are up for sponsorship. Adoptions are by appointment only, but a web-log with the cats' activities and progress will be launched in early 2005 where inquires and donations can be made online.
Here, Susan examines Joey's ears. Some cats needs medical attention daily. On the list of things to donate: surgical equipment and supplies.
Above, two cats pose before using their cat-door to go outside for play.
For more information on adoption, sponsorship, planned giving, donations: contact the Cat House's foundation at 516-431-1745
A Thorninpaw friend, Susan Whittred, the Veterinarian at the PHLF cat sanctuary on Long Island, sent us this message:
Two of these kittens, Oscar (orange) and LuluBelle (torti) still need homes. If you know of anyone or can post this (or forward it) to anyone you know who might be looking, they would appreciate it! They have all their shots, (will be spayed & neutered), are FELV/FIV negative and have been dewormed.
Call 516-431-1745 if interested!
Think they are cute? Email Susan to adopt them!
By Vincent Fribault
ST BERNARD PASS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Switzerland's St Bernard rescue dogs, known for centuries for saving avalanche victims from snowy Alpine graves, are to be sold by their monk owners as helicopters and heat sensors take over their work.
At St. Bernard's hospice, cradle of the breed, Augustinian monks want to devote more time to needy people and less to the 18 dogs -- which will be sold only to new owners who promise to bring them back each year.
They (the dogs) need a lot of time and energy. There are only four of us monks now," said Brother Frederic, perched on a rock with a St Bernard by his side.
"Maybe we need to spend more time with people who ask for it," he added.
At an altitude of 2,438 meters (8,000 ft), the home of the St Bernards is an Alpine pass on the route to Italy where the huge, shaggy dogs are said to have saved the lives of some 2,500 travelers over the past few centuries.
"Even if there was 2 or 3 meters of fresh snow, they were able to make a track in the snow so travelers could find their way, they could also find travelers lost in avalanches," Brother Frederic said.
But the dogs, which eat up to four and a half pounds of meat a day, have not rescued anyone for 50 years.
They will be sold to new owners willing to bring their charges back to the hospice for the summer, when tourists are eager to see the living symbols of Switzerland, and ensure the breed is continued.
"They're not being sold to just anyone. All that is changing with the dogs is the ownership," said Pierre Troillet, president of the Swiss St Bernard Association, adding the dogs were no longer kept on the pass in winter in any case.
The dogs' history is entwined with that of the pass, where the Romans first built a temple to Jupiter as they marched north to conquer Europe, and where Charlemagne, Hannibal and Napoleon all left footprints in the snow.
St Bernard himself built a hospice on the spot in the 11th century, and a community of monks formed to aid travelers and rescue avalanche victims.
The monks say the first dogs were probably a gift from rich local families to their predecessors, who took advantage of their keen noses, strength, sure-footedness and thick coats by the early 18th century.
The dogs could pick out narrow and treacherous paths in blizzards that disorientated even the native monks.
But with the progress of modern mountain rescue technology, the dogs have been pushed out of their traditional role in the mountains of Switzerland.
This story could have been titled "Red herrings have no fur" but then I would have incurred the wrath of the web-mistress. We do not want that, (shudder) though the point must be made. We enter the wilds at our peril and non-fiction is the only way to go. Oops, that is two points. Ok, so read the story already and tell us what the point is.
Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Posted: 9:13 PM EDT (0113 GMT)
DENVER, Colorado (Reuters) -- It's a tale of man against nature. A paralyzed man in Aspen, Colorado, lay helplessly in bed for two hours while a black bear known as "Fat Albert" went through his kitchen breaking dishes and looking for a tasty snack.
"I had 4 pounds (2 kg) of chocolate from a ski trip. He ate it all -- it's war," Tom Isaac said, recounting with a sense of humor how the 500-pound (230-kg) bear made himself at home at his house on September 20.
"I could hear things breaking for two hours," he said of the bear's "visit" to his home.
Isaac's bedroom was only about 10 to 15 feet (3-5 meters) from the kitchen, and he feared the bear would come in and attack him.
This time of year bears are busy fattening up before going into hibernation and residents in mountain towns often recount stories of rummaging bears.
In fact, Isaac, who has been paralyzed since a skiing accident in the early 1980s, says his home has been invaded nearly a half dozen times by the bear Aspenites call "Fat Albert."
"The next afternoon the wildlife agents found him sleeping in my dining room," Isaac said.
Isaac, who holds elective office as the Pitkin County assessor, said he does not want to see the bear shot, but he is worried about how the needs of residents can be balanced against the needs of wildlife.
Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.
Chihuahua recruits cats for rat town
AP
September 29, 2004
MONTERREY, Mexico: Health authorities in the northern state of Chihuahua are recruiting hundreds of cats to fight hundreds of thousands of rats.
Chihuahua state officials say they hope to collect as many as 700 felines and send them to Atascaderos, an isolated farm village in the rugged Tarahumara mountains, a region where officials estimate there are about a half million rats.
The cats are being collected in Chihuahua city, the state capital, where they will be vaccinated and checked for rabies and then shipped by truck to Atascaderos, about 470km to the south, said Roberto Gallegos, a health official who is overseeing the recruitment of the cats.
"So far we don't have any cats, but an animal control agency already promised to donate 50," Gallegos said.
"Our goal is to stop the rats from reproducing and that's how we hope the cats can help."
Ads asking for cat donations started circulating in Chihuahua newspapers Monday and officials hope some 200 will be ready to travel to Atascaderos this weekend.
Gallegos said the cats would be given to rat-infested families in Atascaderos, a town of 3000 people.
People there started noticing the rodent problem a year ago when rats appeared in barns and warehouses where they stored their produce.
Farmers started setting traps and poison, but the effort backfired: cats and other animals that prey on rats started dying instead.
"Now they have no cats left and the rats just keep reproducing," Gallegos said.
Eustaquio Marin, a spokesman with the municipality of Guadalupe y Calvo, where Atascaderos is located, said about 800 households are infested with the rats. He said there was an average of 200 rats per home.
With the rats able to produce 800 offspring per year, authorities fear the rats could soon start spreading to neighboring villages.
"It's like the problem in 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' tale, but unfortunately that flutist doesn't exist and what we have here is an imminent health problem," Gallegos said.
The plan alarmed Emilia de Leon of the Animal Protection Society in Monterrey, the largest urban area in northern Mexico.
"Are they going to bring the cats to die of hunger?" she asked, and said it would be "a very big mistake" to use cats that had not been sterilised.
"Now there is going to be a plague of cats and what are they going to do - start to exterminate cats?" she asked.
AP
(The cat's response to events)
Tailgating in Thailand with the ladyboys.
By Cynthia Barnes
September 21, 2004
Hua Hin, Thailand —"Ping! Ping! Fight! Never give up!
The cheerleader has a light beard and waves pink Mylar pom-pons. He screams at a transsexual who's whacking a black-and-orange polo ball with a 6-foot wooden mallet. A British industrialist blocks the shot. Their mounts—Asian elephants—bellow and bray as they are urged down the field.
"I remember him," says the woman next to me, glancing in the direction of the cheerleader. "He was a ladyboy last year. His falsie fell out on the field and the mahout had to get off and pick it up before it was squashed. Now he's a boy again."
I've been here three days, so this no longer seems surreal. The field (pitch, in polo parlance) is on an army encampment in Hua Hin, the seaside resort favored by the Thai royal family. Sponsorship banners festoon tented pavilions, while disco blares from strategically placed speakers. In Asia you can get your fill of Earth Wind & Fire and ABBA without even having to appear ironic. The cheerleader shimmies to "September."
There are about 300 spectators, a distressing number of them FWPs with much younger Thai girlfriends. A globetrotting friend has initiated me into the world of Asian acronyms. "Fat white plonkers," she explains. "Makes it easier to talk about them in front of others." I try not to be judgmental—and fail.
On the 100-meter field, one of the elephants defecates hugely. The mound is quickly scooped into a large red basket by one of the "poop boys" who wait patiently next to the pitch. Six elephants bearing 12 people prepare for another chukka. Two seven-minute chukkas (and a 15-minute half-time) make up a game. The players are tied to the elephants' backs, but the navigation is done by mahouts—Thai drivers who sit on the beasts' necks and cajole them occasionally with metal prods. It's OK. Elephants have thick hides, and it's all for a good cause.
Like most mad schemes, elephant polo originated over too many drinks. "I was in St. Moritz with Jim Edwards," recounts James Manclark. "And he had elephants in Nepal. One thing led to another." A Scottish industrialist and former Olympian, Manclark has mounted archaeological expeditions in Peru and attempted to circle the globe by hot air balloon. Today he's limping and bruised, having survived a horse polo accident earlier in the week only to run afoul of an elephant in Thailand and find himself lifted into the air, hurled to the ground, and trampled. "Well," he admits. "They are wild animals."
The World Elephant Polo Association was founded in 1982 and has spread from Nepal—where championships are held in spite of Maoist insurgency—to Thailand and Sri Lanka. Proceeds from the tournaments benefit various Asian elephant conservation programs.
Fourteen teams are competing, but the spectators clearly favor the ladyboys. These third-sex lovelies with their hormones and their miniskirts aren't a big deal in Thailand. For the Screwless Tuskers, the tournament is just one more opportunity to mug for the cameras. Jum, who wears (pink) jersey No. 3, is a porcelain doll and runner-up in the 2004 Miss Tiffany contest. Pu worries about her throat and favors lots of body glitter off the pitch. "Oh my God," she giggles. "I have an Adam's apple."
Putting ladyboys on elephants to play polo was the brainchild of one Alf Leif Erickson, a retired American inventor whose enthusiasms now run to hot air ballooning, corkscrew collecting, and visiting erotica museums.
Predictably, alcohol figured in Erickson's elepolo involvement. "I met Jim Edwards over a few drinks in London," he says. "And I said, 'I'll bring a team.' I had four daughters—a mixed blessing, that—and they played [as the Screwy Tuskers] for four of five years. Then they got married. I wanted to do something crazy."
Erickson's first efforts to recruit a replacement team were disastrous. "Patpong [Bangkok's notorious red light district] ladyboys are not the most stable people in the world," he admits. "Lots of recreational drugs and hormones, which don't mix. There were … problems."
But today there aren't, and his Screwless Tuskers are holding their own on the field in spite of only two days' practice, having narrowly lost yesterday to a team composed of former All Blacks: rugby heroes from New Zealand. They'll be defeated 10-6 by Mullis Capital, a group headed by Bangkok financier Robert Mullis and composed of experienced horse polo players. Team Mullis gives the losers three "hip-hip-hoorays" before hastening to the bar.
Elephant polo's rules allow women players to swing the mallet with two hands, while males use one. Are the ladyboys, uh, actually qualified to use both hands? "This is a gentleman's game," huffs Peter Prentice, captain of the Chivas Regal team and a WEPA board member. "If Alf Erickson says they're ladies … they're ladies."
Cynthia Barnes is a freelance writer based in Columbia, Mo. Photographs of: ladyboy cheerleader by Diana Moxon; polo players by Jim Long; James Manclark by Kris LeBoutillier.
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Army still seeks Bengal tiger at Fort Polk
September 8, 2004
The Associated Press
FORT POLK -- A federal agriculture official has taken over tracking duties as the Army continues its nearly two-week search for a loose Bengal tiger.
A U.S. Agriculture Department official led about 60 armed soldiers and sheriff's deputies in the search Tuesday. "We'll continue to search until we find him or make sure he's not on the installation," Maj. Tim Blair said.
The Army has had enough reports of sightings -- confirmed by paw prints and droppings -- to believe the animal remains in woods on the southwest Louisiana base, Blair said. "We still don't have the cat. But our efforts are just as strong as they were last week."
The tiger cub, believed to be 1 year old and about 100 pounds, first was spotted Aug. 27 near a gas station on the base. The Army is unsure where it came from, but officials suspect it is a pet that escaped or was set free.
©The Shreveport Times
September 8, 2004
By Paul Majendie
CANNES, France (Reuters) - A pair of flatulent bulldogs have been picked for the top dog award at Cannes.
The "Palm Dog" prize for best canine performance in a film has become a regular feature at the festival, running alongside, albeit at a respectful distance from, the Palme d'Or award.
udges of the annual spoof award -- five British and French journalists -- finally settled on the bulldogs owned by renowned American wine critic Robert Parker.
The dogs made an explosive appearance in the documentary "Mondovino" that traced the trials and tribulations of vineyards around the world.
They made their presence smelt while documentary film-maker Jonathan Nossiter was interviewing Parker, whose wine quality ratings are considered among the most influential in the business.
"Our winners are two flatulent bulldogs called Edgar and Hoover," said jury chairman Toby Rose, a British journalist who instituted the award four years ago.
"It is very amusing as Parker is the world's leading nose. Does it have an effect on the sensitivity of his nostrils one wonders," Rose said.
In a vintage year, honourable mention was given to the bulldog who dramatically expires on screen in the Tom Hanks black comedy "The Lady Killers."
"There were an enormous amount of dog performances in films at Cannes this year," Rose told Reuters.
But the Mondovino bulldogs won hands down, ably supported by a host of "extras," the family dogs who roamed around the various vineyards Nossiter visited for the film .
"They were so natural and the film was given the prize because of its collective canine commitment," said Rose who presented an overjoyed Nossiter the black leather Palm Dog collar with gold lettering.
"Dogs are more than indispensable to the big screen," said Rose who would dearly love to cross the Atlantic with his annual awards. "Roll on the dog Oscars," he said.
Rose, the proud owner of a nine-year-old fox terrier called Mutt, said: "Animals do have key roles but are never in a position to be recognised."
Pressed to name the greatest ever canine performance on the silver screen, he said: "Lassie and Rin Tin Tin would be up there as major contenders.
"But I would go for the dog in "As Good As It Gets". Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson were up for Oscars. The dog never had a chance."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20040521/od_uk_nm/oukoe_arts_cannes_dog
A rare penguin called Piglet has been rescued after being stolen from a North Yorkshire sea life centre.
Piglet and her partner George are among seven Humboldt penguins at Scarborough Sea Life and Marine Sanctuary.
She was taken on Sunday night, and staff were alerted when the penguin's distress calls were heard in the Barrowcliffe area of the town.
Piglet is on antibiotics to help her recover from the stress of the ordeal. Police are investigating the theft.
Staff at the sanctuary realised Piglet was missing from her enclosure after arriving for work in the morning on Monday 17 May.
After searching the site it became clear she had been stolen.
Iain Hawkins, manager at the centre, said: "We then got a phone call from a lady who said, 'I was wondering whether you've lost a penguin because there's one in my neighbour's back garden'.
"I could have kissed her. We found Piglet sitting in the corner of someone's back garden four or five miles way.
"She had obviously been stolen because she couldn't have got that far by herself."
Mr Hawkins said the thieves probably do not realise they have put the lives of Piglet and her partner George at risk because penguins are highly susceptible to stress if separated from their partner or their familiar environment.
"We are all sickened that we might lose these two birds. The stress lowers their immunity which makes them very susceptible to disease."
Both penguins are on antibiotics and the staff will not know for another few weeks whether they will pull through.
North Yorkshire Police said: "We are taking this seriously. It sounds like a nasty prank but it could put these animals' lives in danger. It is also theft.
"Whoever has done it has scaled a 6ft fence and a 4ft inner fence and dumped the penguin in someone's back garden.
"They probably nicked it and then thought what do we do with this?"
Police urged anyone with information or who saw anything suspicious between Sunday night and Monday morning to contact them.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) - Dogs may no longer be the butt of their owners' jokes, thanks to Frank Morosky.
Morosky, owner of Flat-D Innovations, has developed a product to reduce the odor of flatulence in dogs.
Two years ago, Morosky, who runs the business with his partner, Brian Conant in Hawaii, developed a similar product for people. He said he could only laugh when people first asked if he could make it work for dogs.
"For a year, we said, 'No, that's stupid. Nobody would buy that for a dog,"' Morosky said.
But Morosky changed his mind after a customer asked him to custom make a pair of full underwear using his material. It was during that project that he realized making charcoal-lined panties for dogs might just work.
Morosky has developed two versions that will go on sale later this month. One, similar to a G-string, will sell for about $20. The other, a denim diaper with a detachable charcoal pad inside, will sell for about $50.
Veterinarian David Graeff of Animal Care Hospital, said flatulence is common in dogs, but is not a medical problem.
"I think it would be great if they could find a way to keep them (the diapers) on," said Graeff, adding that many dogs won't wear a bandage without tearing it off.
Graeff said pet owners often jokingly blame their own flatulence on their pets.
"Unfortunately," he said, "the dogs do get blamed for this, no matter what."
24-Foot Pig To Be Featured At Weekend Event.
A giant 24-foot inflatable pig was stolen overnight Wednesday from an Easter Seals camp in Sorrento, Fla., according to police.
The pig was to be featured at this weekend's 24th Annual Hog Roast event, Local 6 News reported.
Event organizers said the event will go on as scheduled with or without the pig. However, anyone who spots the pig is urged to call (407) 937-6021 and leave a message as to where to pick it up -- no questions asked.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
Research: Pig Manure Can Become Crude Oil
By JIM PAUL, Associated Press Writer
URBANA, Ill. - A University of Illinois research team is working on turning pig manure into a form of crude oil that could be refined to heat homes or generate electricity.
Years of research and fine-tuning are ahead before the idea could be commercially viable, but results so far indicate there might be big benefits for farmers and consumers, lead researcher Yanhui Zhang said.
"This is making more sense in terms of alternative energy or renewable energy and strategically for reducing our dependency on foreign oil," said Zhang, an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. "Definitely, there is potential in the long term."
The thermochemical conversion process uses intense heat and pressure to break down the molecular structure of manure into oil. It's much like the natural process that turns organic matter into oil over centuries, but in the laboratory the process can take as little as a half-hour.
A similar process is being used at a plant in Carthage, Mo., where tons of turkey entrails, feathers, fat and grease from a nearby Butterball turkey plant are converted into a light crude oil, said Julie DeYoung, a spokeswoman for Omaha, Neb.-based Conagra Foods, which operates the plant in a joint venture with Changing World Technologies of Long Island, N.Y.
Converting manure is sure to catch the attention of swine producers. Safe containment of livestock waste is costly for farmers, especially at large confinement operations where thousands of tons of manure are produced each year. Also, odors produced by swine farms have made them a nuisance to neighbors.
"If this ultimately becomes one of the silver bullets to help the industry, I'm absolutely in favor of it," said Jim Kaitschuk, executive director of the Illinois Pork Producers Association.
Zhang and his research team have found that converting manure into crude oil is possible in small batches, but much more research is needed to develop a continuously operating reaction chamber that could handle large amounts of manure. That is key to making the process practicable and economically viable.
Zhang predicted that one day a reactor the size of a home furnace could process the manure generated by 2,000 hogs at a cost of about $10 per barrel.
Big oil refineries are unlikely to purchase crude oil made from converted manure, Zhang said, because they aren't set up to refine it. But the oil could be used to fuel smaller electric or heating plants, or to make plastics, ink or asphalt, he said.
"Crude oil is our first raw material," he said. "If we can make it value-added, suddenly the whole economic picture becomes brighter."
___
On the Net:
Zhang's site: http://www.age.uiuc.edu/faculty/yhz/index.htm
January 5, 2004 - Wall Street Journal
Good to Glo
Forget mad cows or high terror alerts. According to environmental groups and their old friend the state of California, what you should really be worried about is the integrity of your fish tank.
The nation's pet stores will today start selling America's first genetically modified pet, known as GloFish. Scientists created these little fluorescent zebra fish (to which they've added a naturally occurring gene from sea coral) to help detect environmental pollutants. But a Texas company realized GloFish would also make for a cheery and colorful addition to U.S. aquariums and are taking them retail everywhere.
Everywhere, that is, but California. Even Nemo wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Golden State is alone in banning all transgenic fish. And so far its Fish and Game Commission has refused to make an exception and give the go to glo. Meanwhile, groups like the Center for Food Safety, the Sierra Club and Greenpeace are demanding the federal government regulate the ornamental fish, claiming that failure to do so will open the "floodgates" to Frankenfish and "pose serious potential environmental risks."
As it happens, the Food and Drug Administration has already declined to regulate GloFish, pointing out that since people don't eat tropical aquarium fish, they pose no threat to the food supply. It also noted that "there is no evidence that these [fish] pose any more threat to the environment than their unmodified counterparts . . ." We'd add it isn't likely the tropical wonders would survive long in the cold California toilets into which they might be flushed.
Americans are becoming old hands at genetically modified products -- whether it be insulin, cotton, or seedless grapes. Our own advice to those lobbies worried that a couple of fluorescent pets will bring aquatic disaster? Just let it glow.
By CHRIS RICHES
A RARE robin landed in Britain from Norway — and was eaten by a birdwatcher’s cat.
The exhausted creature — one of only eight seen in this country in five years — had flown 400 miles in 15 hours.
But a birdwatcher was horrified to see her pet with the bird dead in its mouth in her garden.
The unnamed woman wrote to the British Trust of Ornithology to record the sighting — and confess her cat had killed the striking Norwegian robin.
The woman, of Eccles, Gtr Manchester, also enclosed the bird’s stamped ring, attached by experts in Stavanger, Norway, to study migration habits.
The trust said yesterday: “It flew all this way only to be a cat’s lunch.”
The Scandinavian birds have darker red breasts than British counterparts.
The trust added: “They are beautiful, very striking. It is a gruelling trip for them to get here. This is such a sad story.”
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Rymer says the CatSeat attempts to wean cats off litter. Shaped like a regular toilet seat, it is attached to a box with retractable shelves that are textured to replace the feel of litter.
Eventually, the device can be mounted to the toilet, where a push of the button allows it to be used by people.
The company quotes doctors and veterinarians as saying there are no health risks associated with cats and people sharing the same toilet.
Rymer, 39, said sales so far indicate a high success rate in weaning cats off litter. It usually takes about two or three weeks.
He said only about seven CatSeats have been returned out of every 500 sold.
"It may not totally eliminate litter boxes, but it gives people an option they did not have before," he said.
After all, litter can be expensive, officials said — up to $3,500 over the life of a cat.
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A monkey drinks cola on a round table 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter in Lopburi Province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2003 during the annual monkey festival which has been hosted since 1989 by a local businessman who believes the monkeys were behind his family's good fortune. A total of 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of fruits were offered to the monkeys roaming the area.
(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
DENVER - AP-The Denver Zoo's four orangutans are smelling pretty good these days — they're getting daily aromatherapy treatments.
That means the 20-year-old ape Mias gets chamomile on his right ear, basil and angelica on his nose, and fennel, eucalyptus and frankincense on his forehead.
Keepers says the treatment has helped alleviate symptoms from allergies and an upset stomach.
In Allie's case, the 8-year-old primate became depressed when her mother died two years ago. She stopped acting like the silly adolescent she was before her mother's death, but that changed when she started receiving daily aromatherapy.
"When you see how goofy they are, this is how it should be," keeper Rhonda Pietsch said as Allie played in her cage after an oil treatment.
Practitioners of aromatherapy say their oils extracted from plants promote physical, spiritual and emotional health.
The Denver Zoo is believed to be one of the first to try it out on animals.
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