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Out Of Place Animals

Walrus in Wales! It's unclear whether this latest sighting is of the same walrus seen in Ireland circa 5 days ago.
Walrus spotted in Wales, days after one seen off Ireland

A walrus has been spotted at the bottom of a Welsh cliff, just days after one was seen off the coast of Ireland.

The creature was seen near Broad Haven South beach, Pembrokshire, on Friday before it managed to get back into the sea.

It is thought the animal may have been the same one that was seen off the County Kerry coast.

Cleopatra Browne of Welsh Marine Life Rescue was called to the scene where the walrus was "sat there, chilling".

"It was about the size of a cow," said the 42-year-old, of St Davids, Pembrokeshire.

"It was a whopper. I've seen them on telly and the news but it was huge." ...

FULL STORY:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-56470235

EARLIER SIGHTING OFF IRELAND:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56404484
 
Someone in Cromer is on the phone:

“Oi, Parcelforce! Where’s the ****ing walrus l ordered last week? Your site says it’s ‘Out for delivery’! “

maximus otter
 
Massive ‘blob’ on South Carolina beach is really a jellyfish

A “mammoth” jellyfish was found on a South Carolina beach earlier this month, and widely shared photos of it sprawled out like a gooey throw rug have shaken ocean lovers.

jelly1imag_fitted.jpeg


“Big” for stinging jellyfish in South Carolina is about 20 inches, but the one photographed by Fannie “Gee” Giuliano of Myrtle Beach “was several feet wide,” she told McClatchy News.

It washed up March 9, not far from the 125-acre Myrtle Beach Travel Park, a popular coastal campground.

The jellyfish’s exact species hasn’t been declared, but there is speculation it could be an invasive species known as the Australian spotted jellyfish.

“Researchers have found one with a 28 inch bell diameter off of the coast of North Carolina,” the Texas Invasive Species Institute reports.

https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/state/south-carolina/article250027144.html

maximus otter
 
"Rhea birds running wild on Hertfordshire housing estate"

Several rhea birds that have been running around a housing estate (...) at Maple Cross, close to the M25, Hertfordshire Police said.
(...) had tried to identify owners, but concluded the flightless birds were effectively wild.


All rather strange. They must have been somewhere before they started running around in Maple Cross (not exactly rural).
I don't think they would be good as pets, so that leaves farming (unlikely they would be farmed, and if they were then I expect they would be reported as missing), or at a stretch, escapees from some kind of private zoo?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-56535979
 
"Rhea birds running wild on Hertfordshire housing estate"

Several rhea birds that have been running around a housing estate (...) at Maple Cross, close to the M25, Hertfordshire Police said.
(...) had tried to identify owners, but concluded the flightless birds were effectively wild.


All rather strange. They must have been somewhere before they started running around in Maple Cross (not exactly rural).
I don't think they would be good as pets, so that leaves farming (unlikely they would be farmed, and if they were then I expect they would be reported as missing), or at a stretch, escapees from some kind of private zoo?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-56535979
I was going to make a quip about dire rheas, but it would probably sound forced.
 
No, but we might force you to pay for the pun somehow.
 
Many of the reports say it's a group & "up to 20" of them running wild but I've yet to see more than one pictured..

Rheas on the loose have to be named Chris by default.
 
An alligator in Arizona

Back in the 1980’s, I lived near the Huachuca mountains, which are in Cochise county, southern Arizona, on the border with Mexico. This is mainly open cattle grazing land, miles of grass, small oak trees, and the occasional small stream. Beautiful country. I was a witness to this event.

For a few years, locals were reporting dogs disappearing near a small creek which had a deep hole in it which did not dry out in the summer. The children (and drunk cowboys) would use it as a swimming hole. The kids started telling their parents about a monster which lived in the hole. The parents laughed it off – until a cowboy managed to get a blurry photograph of the monster. It was published in the local paper. There really was a monster! The county sheriff phoned the Phoenix zoo to come out and take a look. The zoo rep identified it as an alligator. This identification was also published in the local paper. That is when the fun started.

First, the children were banned from swimming in the hole. The cowboys competed with each other to photograph it again (successful), bait it and catch in traps (unsuccessful), shoot and kill it (unsuccessful), and lasso it and drag it out (ultimately successful). This took some weeks, and the place was unsafe from all the cowboys competing with each other to catch the monster. Everyone was tremendously excited.

The Phoenix zoo agreed to take the alligator and ran a state-wide contest for the children to name it. The winning name was either Cochise or Geronimo, both Apaches from the area who waged war on the whites. I’m afraid I don’t remember which it was.

In the US, one could buy small 12 inch alligators as pets. My husband had one when he was a boy. The zoo rep conjectured that a pet alligator had either been released or had escaped from some local household many years ago, and that the family had probably thought it had died in such dry terrain. The alligator had made its way to the only standing water for miles, and had thrived there. As it got bigger, it graduated from eating fish and birds to dogs and rabbits. It was seven feet long when it finally was caught. This was big enough to really hurt a child, if not kill him. After the alligator was in the alligator habitat at the zoo, I went to see it. It was amazing to think of this animal living for years or decades in such dry country. It certainly seemed to have a satisfied smile.
 
The neighbours just put the house up for sale. Couldn't resist checking it out on Zoopla. That's our bloody cat.

They did it to make the house look more welcoming.

Dusted the bed with catnip.
 
Walrus update ...

Authorities have confirmed the walrus spotted in Ireland is the same one who showed up in Wales less than a week later. He's now been dubbed "Wally", and he's drawn enough attention to warrant authorities' warning people to leave him alone.

He's also shown interest in climbing aboard ships and boats. Wally apparently intends to continue his voyages ...
Arctic walrus that drifted to Ireland is now hitching rides on passing ships

A walrus who accidentally made his way from the Arctic Circle to an Irish beach last month, likely while napping on a drifting iceberg, has continued his antics by clambering onto passing ships and even falling asleep on a slipway intended for lifeboats.

As the marine mammal, endearingly named Wally, has become somewhat of a tourist attraction, conservation groups and local authorities are worried that so much human attention could disturb the walrus. They are now warning tourists to leave the walrus alone ...

A 5-year-old girl walking with her father first spotted Wally on March 14; he was plonked down on the rocks of Valentia island in County Kerry, Ireland ...

But Wally's journey did not end on that beach. He traveled 280 miles (450 kilometers) farther south, from County Kerry to Pembrokeshire, Wales, in just six days. ...

Wally, who was visually identified by a conservation group as the same walrus seen in Ireland, has been stirring up mischief by hitching rides on passing ships. The cow-size mammal's cumbersome attempts to get aboard a dinghy ended up capsizing it, witnesses said. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/walrus-iceberg-journey-worries-conservationists.html
 
Don't worry, you'll be shooting polar bears before the decade's out.

Well, their numbers are increasing nicely; and I remember that the scare story in the media around the time I left school was that we were headed for a new Ice Age, so - who knows?

Mmmm: an excuse to buy a big-game rifle!

maximus otter
 
Lettuce pray it doesn't happen again cos it's frightening.

A Sydney couple received a fright when they discovered a rare venomous snake in a bag of supermarket lettuce – but recovered and later used the fresh produce in a salad wrap.

The juvenile pale-headed snake, Hoplocephalus bitorquatus, was tucked into a two-pack of cos lettuce which Alexander White and his partner, Amelie Neate, purchased from an Aldi supermarket in Sydney on Monday.

“It was moving around and flicking its little tongue out,” White said. “It was actually its tongue which let me know it wasn’t a giant worm. I would have been more comfortable with a worm, to be honest.”

The reptile was about 20cm long and appeared to have been sleeping peacefully in the lettuce in the supermarket’s refrigerated grocery cabinet until White picked it up, carried it around the store, then jostled it in his backpack for the 10-minute bicycle ride home.

“We didn’t have a trolley because neither of us had a dollar coin so we were just carrying it – in retrospect that kind of freaked me out,” White said.


https://www.theguardian.com/austral...nd-venomous-snake-in-their-aldi-fresh-produce
 
Lettuce pray it doesn't happen again cos it's frightening.

A Sydney couple received a fright when they discovered a rare venomous snake in a bag of supermarket lettuce – but recovered and later used the fresh produce in a salad wrap.

The juvenile pale-headed snake, Hoplocephalus bitorquatus, was tucked into a two-pack of cos lettuce which Alexander White and his partner, Amelie Neate, purchased from an Aldi supermarket in Sydney on Monday.

“It was moving around and flicking its little tongue out,” White said. “It was actually its tongue which let me know it wasn’t a giant worm. I would have been more comfortable with a worm, to be honest.”

The reptile was about 20cm long and appeared to have been sleeping peacefully in the lettuce in the supermarket’s refrigerated grocery cabinet until White picked it up, carried it around the store, then jostled it in his backpack for the 10-minute bicycle ride home.

“We didn’t have a trolley because neither of us had a dollar coin so we were just carrying it – in retrospect that kind of freaked me out,” White said.


https://www.theguardian.com/austral...nd-venomous-snake-in-their-aldi-fresh-produce
I would imagine it wasnt 'sleeping peacefully' in the chiller, it was more likely in torpor being as it is cold blooded.
 
A herd of deer have been spotted grazing on an east London housing estate

Deer graze on east London housing estate

_118126392_deerb.jpg


Residents were stunned to see a herd of deer grazing outside their front doors on an estate in east London.

The animals had walked across the busy A12 in Harold Hill, Romford, from their home in Dagnam Park.

They are thought to be one of five herds in the area that have been breeding there for hundreds of years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-56819018
 
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