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Day Of The Animals: Tales Of Man Vs Beast (And Man Suffers)

Enormous bullfrog eats mouse
An unfortunate mouse peers out from the gaping jaws of an African bullfrog in this extraordinary photograph.
Published: 7:03AM GMT 03 Nov 2010

The enormous amphibians, unlike the docile frogs found in English garden ponds, are known for their aggressive nature and will attack virtually any animal that comes within reach.

African bullfrogs lie in wait for their prey before suddenly lunging when they sense movement nearby, and are capable of jumping up to three and a half metres.

The leviathans, which can weigh up to 2kg (4.4lbs), are native to central and southern Africa but are kept as pets around the world.

Owners commonly refer to the beasts as "pixie frogs" – a reference to their Latin name, Pyxicephalus adspersus, rather than their distinctly un-pixie like size and appearance.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... mouse.html
 
Rupert the rampaging ram finally caught after terrorising town and evading capture for 100 days
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 7:40 AM on 3rd November 2010

An escaped ram which terrorised a town after going on the rampage for nearly 100 days has finally been captured.
Rupert the rambling ram escaped from a farm near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in July after spotting a gap between a hedge and fence.
The Soay ram spent the next three months eating grass and flowers from neighbourhood gardens.

Although the RSPCA received scores of sightings from concerned residents, inspectors and police officers were unable to catch him - until now.
Rupert was finally cornered in the garden of a cul-de-sac on October 26 by a five-man team of RSPCA and council officers.

RSPCA inspector Will Rippon admitted the animal was 'quite difficult' to locate and was only apprehended 'after a lot of chasing and running'.
'We are delighted to have finally been able to catch the ram after a number of attempts,' Mr Rippon said.

'I know RSPCA officers have made at least two previous attempts to capture him and I believe the police and council also tried to corner him.
'I'm not surprised he remained on the run for three months because he's very quick and extremely resourceful and canny.
'He seems to know exactly how to escape from every situation and we're all very relieved to have caught up with him at last.
'It is great that he is now being cared for in a safe place, where hopefully he can't get into any more mischief.
'He did prove quite difficult to catch, but we kept persevering and thankfully it paid off.'

It is not known where Rupert lived and slept during his months on the run but, apart from a minor leg injury, he appeared in good health.
The wandering mischief maker is now being cared for at an animal shelter in Huntingdon and is expected to be returned to pasture soon.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z14DAChqlO
 
rynner2 said:
Enormous bullfrog eats mouse
An unfortunate mouse peers out from the gaping jaws of an African bullfrog in this extraordinary photograph.
Published: 7:03AM GMT 03 Nov 2010

The enormous amphibians, unlike the docile frogs found in English garden ponds, are known for their aggressive nature and will attack virtually any animal that comes within reach.

African bullfrogs lie in wait for their prey before suddenly lunging when they sense movement nearby, and are capable of jumping up to three and a half metres.

The leviathans, which can weigh up to 2kg (4.4lbs), are native to central and southern Africa but are kept as pets around the world.

Owners commonly refer to the beasts as "pixie frogs" – a reference to their Latin name, Pyxicephalus adspersus, rather than their distinctly un-pixie like size and appearance.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildli ... mouse.html
Click to expand...

Look at the picture on that link.
Jabba the Hutt!
 
First I've heard of these living here, but they've been here for at least a century, it seems:

Record stick insect colony found in Cornwall

The largest recorded colony of stick insects in the UK has been found in a back garden in Cornwall, according to the conservation charity Buglife.

One hundred and forty of the insects were counted at the property near St Austell during a stick insect survey in September.

The charity's Conservation Officer, Andrew Whitehouse, said the find was "quite spectacular".
Colonies of just two or three stick insects are more usual, he said.

Mr Whitehouse said: "It's quite incredible.
"There's probably three or four times the number counted actually in the garden.
"It far exceeds anything we've had before."

Mandy Rance-Matthews, in whose back garden the stick insects were found, said she and her husband first spotted them about six years ago:

She said: "They've increased over the years... it's become an obsession with our friends to count them when they come round.
"We're proud, chuffed, delighted. We feel we're guardians of the stick insects."

Mrs Rance-Matthews said she did not "have a clue" why the stick insects were so fond of her garden, but said her house was in a sheltered valley and she and her husband were careful not to cut the leylandii hedge where they congregated.

Stick insects are not native to the UK and are only found in the South West of England because of the region's milder climate.

There had been fears last year's cold winter could have dramatically reduced the stick insect population as the eggs, which are laid in autumn and hatch in spring, cannot survive frost.

Malcolm Lee, who is based in Cornwall and helped with the stick-insect survey, said: "Despite the last two bitter winters, we still received an impressive number of records which indicates that stick insects are still going strong in Cornwall."

Stick insects originally come from New Zealand and were carried into the UK on imported plants.

The first recorded stick insect found in the UK was in 1909 in Paignton, Devon.

Species found in the South West include the prickly stick insect, the smooth stick insect and the unarmed stick insect, Mr Lee said

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-11713945
 
"I have a cunning plan."

"Is it as cunning as when sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun?".

I'll shut the door on my way out!
 
Are stick insects still kept as pets in the UK? Are these "wild" varieties descendants of the escapees from that craze?
 
Friendly porpoises save Dick Van Dyke from a watery grave.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/nov/11/dick-van-dyke-porpoises-rescue


Porpoises rescue Dick Van Dyke

Mary Poppins star feared death after apparently falling asleep on his surfboard but friendly sea creatures pushed him to shore

guardian.co.uk, Xan Brooks. Thursday 11 November 2010

On screen, Dick Van Dyke has been rescued from untimely death by flying cars and magical nannies. Off screen, the veteran star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins had to rely on the help of a pod of porpoises after apparently dozing off aboard his surfboard. "I'm not kidding," he said afterwards.

Van Dyke's ordeal began during an ill-fated trip to his local beach. "I woke up out of sight of land," the 84-year-old actor told reporters. "I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought 'I'm dead!'"

Van Dyke was wrong. "They turned out to be porpoises," he said. "And they pushed me all the way to shore." The porpoises were unavailable for comment.

...
Click to expand...
Supercalifragilistickexpealidocious! :yeay:
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
Friendly porpoises save Dick Van Dyke from a watery grave.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/nov/11/dick-van-dyke-porpoises-rescue


Porpoises rescue Dick Van Dyke

Mary Poppins star feared death after apparently falling asleep on his surfboard but friendly sea creatures pushed him to shore

guardian.co.uk, Xan Brooks. Thursday 11 November 2010

On screen, Dick Van Dyke has been rescued from untimely death by flying cars and magical nannies. Off screen, the veteran star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins had to rely on the help of a pod of porpoises after apparently dozing off aboard his surfboard. "I'm not kidding," he said afterwards.

Van Dyke's ordeal began during an ill-fated trip to his local beach. "I woke up out of sight of land," the 84-year-old actor told reporters. "I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought 'I'm dead!'"

Van Dyke was wrong. "They turned out to be porpoises," he said. "And they pushed me all the way to shore." The porpoises were unavailable for comment.

...
Click to expand...
Supercalifragilistickexpealidocious! :yeay:
Click to expand...

Why didn't Chitty Chitty Bang Bang swoop down & save him?
 
A not so good story from Nottinghamshire, where a bull has attacked a couple of ramblers, killing the husband and seriously injuring the wife.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/13/man-killed-bull-attack


Man killed as bull attacks couple on public footpath

The walker's wife was also critically injured in the same attack in Nottinghamshire

Press Association. guardian.co.uk, Saturday 13 November 2010

A man has been killed and his wife critically injured in an attack by a bull in Nottinghamshire. The couple, wearing walking gear, were near the Leicestershire border. It is unclear why the animal attacked the pair, who were walking on a public footpath near the village of Stanford on Soar.

Police said the couple, who had been in a livestock field when the bull attacked, are not thought to be local to the area and appear to have been visiting. Their two sons have since travelled to the East Midlands.

The animal has been contained by the farmer and is to be put down. In recent years there have been a number of deaths of walkers with dogs after attacks by herds of cows.
Click to expand...
Tragic and slightly worrying, all told. :(
 
That story is very misleading. The title says they were attacked on the path and then it goes on to say they were attacked in the field. Which one is correct?
 
Ah It sounded like they were trespassing in some fields. Poor people :( Our neighbors small herd got loose in the middle of the night a few years ago and we all about shat ourselves when they came trampling down the road. My first thought was large alien blobs until they got close to our campfire.
 
British cattle and livestock are usually pretty docile. I'd be curious to know whether they've introduced a more aggressive strain, in the search for some extra-meaty, milky, or disease resistant, breed. Of course, just possibly, it could also be the sort of chemicals they pump into them, these days. Antibiotics, growth factors, anabolics, etc.

I'm sure that's not the case, though. :(
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
British cattle and livestock are usually pretty docile.
Click to expand...
Hardly. Every year there are stories of people (including farm workers) who get trampled by cattle.

The comic cartoons of my childhood frequently showed fields with "Beware of the Bull" signs, usually followed by some undignified chase ending in a prickly hedge or a duckpond. (But never ending fatally, in comic land.. ;) )
 
rynner2 said:
Pietro_Mercurios said:
British cattle and livestock are usually pretty docile.
Click to expand...
Hardly. Every year there are stories of people (including farm workers) who get trampled by cattle.

The comic cartoons of my childhood frequently showed fields with "Beware of the Bull" signs, usually followed by some undignified chase ending in a prickly hedge or a duckpond. (But never ending fatally, in comic land.. ;) )
Click to expand...
Perhaps. However, I'm willing to bet that most of those injuries and fatalities occurred in confined spaces, farmyards, byers, cattle pens, sheds etc. rather than out in the open fields.

Perhaps, there are more just more people walking out in the countryside these days? David Blunkett and his guide dog were trampled, last year. Incidents do seem to be on the rise.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8216869.stm

In fact, according to David Blunkett, there has been a new and more aggressive strain of cattle, introduced, from Europe.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/28/attacks-by-cattle-ramblers-blunkett

...

After the incident, Blunkett said he had found out there was a new cross-breed of cow. "A particular strain from Europe that is more aggressive," he said, arguing that in such cases temporary electric fencing should be used. "Most of the rights of way in the Peak District cross over fields, so I think fencing should be considered, and walkers have to be extremely careful - especially if they have dogs."

...
Click to expand...

The plot thickens.
 
Indian sloth bears evacuated on fears of Maoist threat
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11746586
By Habib Beary Bangalore


Sloth bear There were fears that the sloth bears' forest home would be attacked
Continue reading the main story
Related stories

* India reviews anti-Maoist policy
* Profile: India's Maoist rebels

Fearing Maoists attacks, Indian forest officials have moved 22 sloth bears from West Bengal to the south.

It took four days for the 12 male and ten female bears to be brought from Purulia to the Bennerghatta national park, near Bangalore, some 2000km away.

Forest officials decided to rescue the animals because they felt they were under threat, the zoo's director said.

The bears were moved after warnings from a conservation group who feared they were at risk from Maoist rebels.
Evacuation

"The threat was real," SOS Wildlife's founder, Kartick Sathyanarayan, told the BBC.

"The Maoists had put up a poster saying: 'Leave the forest if you want to remain safe'," he said.

Maoists, he said, were believed to be behind a 2009 attack on Jhargram Zoo, in West Bengal, during which many animals were burnt alive.

A vet from the group said the bears had initially been placed under quarantine as a precautionary measure.

"They were evacuated with the help of three large trucks. A team of about 12 trained staff with a veterinary doctor travelled with the bears to ensure their safety and to keep a check on their health," Dr Arun A Sha said.

Mr Kartick said the evacuation was carried out with the help of the communist-ruled West Bengal government.

"It is heartening that the animals have been saved. Authorities realised the gravity of the threat," he said.

The Bannerghatta National Park, home to tigers, lions, and elephants, now has a total of 117 sloth bears, with the arrival of the rescued bears from West Bengal.

The park is also considered an important corridor for elephants migrating between the eastern and western mountain ranges of southern India.
Click to expand...
 
A very sad tale:

Afghan war hero is put down by mistake
By Julius Cavendish in Kabul
Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Target, a tawny-coloured mongrel bitch, defied an Afghan suicide bomber, gunshot wounds and an attempted hit-and-run, but fate finally caught up with her in middle America, where an animal control agent put her to sleep in a heartbreaking case of mistaken identity.

US soldiers serving in Afghanistan rescued the dog after she alerted them to an attack in February, by barking at a suicide bomber about to blow them up with 25 pounds of explosives. From that day on Target was treated like royalty by US soldiers in Dand Patan, near the Pakistan border. Five soldiers were slightly injured in the attack and it was suggested at the time that the bombing could have killed as many as 50 troops without Target's intervention.

Sergeant Terry Young – one of the soldiers whose lives she saved – took the two-year-old German Shepherd cross home with him after he finished his tour of duty earlier this year. She was feted as a war hero and even appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

"She got her name because the Afghans we lived with were constantly trying to 'off' her. She's been shot in the leg. The Afghans actually ran over her," Sergeant Christopher Duke, who helped care for Target in Afghanistan and has adopted her packmate Rufus, told CNN in July. "There's no killing this dog, for sure. She's pretty much been through it all," he said.

But yesterday it transpired that an employee of County Animal Care and Control in Pinal County, Arizona had been placed on administrative leave for euthanising the wrong dog.

Target had escaped from the Youngs' backyard and was found wandering the neighbourhood. Staff from the animal shelter picked her up and kept her in over the weekend, oblivious to Facebook messages and radio announcements proclaiming her disappearance.

Then on Monday morning an employee mistook Target for another dog and put her to sleep. She had not been scheduled for euthanasia. "I am heartsick over this. I had to personally deliver the news to the dog's owner and he and his family are understandably distraught," said Animal Care and Control Director Ruth Stalter. "When it comes to euthanising an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow. Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures." Young said: "I'm an absolute wreck today and it's everything in my power to hold it together for my family. My four-year-old son just can't understand what is going on with Target and keeps asking me to get the poison out of her and bring her home. They don't want her to be with God yet." :(

Stalter went on: "An investigation is under way and we will cooperate fully.
"We will also thoroughly review procedures to ensure that something like this does not happen again.
"This is unacceptable and no family should be deprived of their companion because procedures were not followed."

Target was pregnant when she helped thwart the suicide bomber by attacking him along with two other dogs, one of whom died in the bomber's blast.

The Youngs intend to have Target cremated, according to the Arizona Republic. Rufus, her packmate in Afghanistan, is still alive.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 36078.html
 
Are they barking mad? Japan's newest police dog is a Chihuahua called 'Momo'
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:50 AM on 20th November 2010

Meet Japan's newest police dog - all 6.6 lb of her.
In what is a world first, a long-haired Chihuahua named 'Momo' has passed exams to become a police dog in the western Japanese prefecture of Nara.
The brown-and-white dog was one of 32 successful candidates out of 70 dogs, passing a search and rescue test by finding a person in five minutes after merely sniffing their cap.

'Any breed of dog can be entered to become a police dog in the search and rescue division,' said a Nara police spokesman.
But he admitted that news a Chihuahua had been entered may still come as a surprise to many.
'It's quite unusual,' he said.
Television footage showed the seven-year-old Momo bounding across grass or sitting proudly, long hair blowing in the breeze.

Momo will be used for rescue operations in case of disasters such as earthquakes, in the hope that she may be able to squeeze her tiny frame into places too narrow for more usual rescue dogs, which tend to be German Shepherds.
The public response to the news of Momo's selection took police by surprise, the spokesman said, adding: 'The phone's been ringing all afternoon.'
'It's quite rare for us to have a chihuahua work as a police dog,' the spokeswoman said.
Chihuahuas, named after a Mexican state, are the smallest breed of dog.
'We would like it to work hard by taking advantage of its small size,' a Nara police department official told the Sankei Shimbun daily.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z15ok7oVpZ
 
They could claim that it's a Bonsai German Shepherd...
 
The momo sounds like it could be very handy for earthquake work. That's not to be sniffed at.
 
Plenty of photos here, but the mental images have a Keystone Cops appeal! :D

Knock, knock. Moo's there! The runaway cow who ended up staring down a shocked housewife
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:16 PM on 25th November 2010

A Nottinghamshire housewife has been left stunned after a runaway cow being chased by the police crashed into her back garden.
Caroline Lowbridge couldn't believe her eyes when the enormous animal came crashing through her garden fence - with a team of police officers and an angry farmer in hot pursuit. 8)

The pedigree cow made a break for freedom as farmer John Croft tried to load it into a trailer - and leaped over a 9,000 volt fence before galloping off down the A52, in Nottingham.
Officers tailed the animal for almost two miles before finally entering into a police stand-off with the cow in Caroline's garden.

Caroline, from West Bridgeford, Notts, said: 'I was in my kitchen when I spotted this thing crashing through my garden fence.
'It came right up to the kitchen window and was breathing on the glass. I was scared as I thought it was going to smash its way into the house - you could tell it was really angry,' she added.
'The police tried to block it off by parking a police van across my neighbour's garden. But the cow smashed into the van and ploughed its way through the fence into another garden.
'It was really annoyed.'

Police had nearly managed to grab hold of the cow when it charged at the police line, scattering officers.
It took more than an hour for then to eventually coax the cow onto a trailer and return it to the farm, two hours after it originally escaped.

Farmer John said: 'We were getting about 50 pedigree cows off the field and into the cowshed for winter. 'This one just made a bid for freedom. It cleared the fence and legged it down the road.
'I was in a state of panic. I wasn't able to follow it as it just sped off like lightning down the public footpath. 'I jumped into the car but we lost it pretty quickly - but luckily the police called to say they had spotted it and were on its tail.
'I raced straight there with the trailer, and eventually, it gave up and decided to come home.
'It's doing good now," he said. 'We took it back to the stables and it calmed down over some water and food.
'We've never had this happen before and will be taking extra precautions now to make sure it doesn't happen again.'

A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police said: 'Officers tried to corner the cow but it charged at them, causing one to take evasive action to avoid injury.
'The cow smashed through fences at the rear of three properties, before eventually being cornered.' PC Wendy Brown, one of the officers who caught the cow, said: 'This was definitely one of the strangest incidents I've had to deal with.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z16OAJm52L
 
Another bull attack

Hampshire farmer is killed by charging bull

A farmer has been killed by a charging bull in Hampshire, the National Farmers Union (NFU) has said.

The 58-year-old, named locally as Ian Rook, was said to have been "tossed in the air" when his animal charged at him at Manor Farm in Clanfield on Friday.

He was taken to the hospital but died. The Health and Safety Executive has been informed of the incident.

William White, from the NFU, said Mr Rook was a "super chap" and played a major part in farming in the area.

The regional director for the South East added: "It is very rare for a bull to attack a farmer and I must admit I do not know what happened, but an investigation is taking place which will hopefully give some answers.
"He was a super chap. He was always interested in you as a person.
"He has been involved in the industry for many years and was county chairman for the NFU, a real stalwart."

Landlord of the nearby Rising Sun Pub, Geoff Wilson, said Mr Rook was a well known and respected member of the community.

He added: "I came up yesterday and saw police had blocked the road.
"From what people were saying he was tossed in the air when the bull charged at him.
"A lot of people knew him around here and are shocked about the whole thing."

Police have notified the coroner and a post-mortem examination will take place on Monday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-11854468
 
'Agoraphobic' hare becomes family pet after a narrow escape from farmer's plough
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:39 PM on 30th November 2010

A family have adopted a wild 'agoraphobic' hare who is too scared to join her friends outside and instead stays inside watching TV with them and sleeping in their beds.
John Naylor and wife Suzy found cute 'Frances' when she was abandoned by her mother and narrowly avoided being killed by a farmer's plough in a field.
The lovable creature, scarred by her ordeal, now joins the family watching TV sprawled on the sofa, is fed on puppy milk, uses a cat litter tray as a toilet and bounds upstairs to join the family in their beds.

The animal is best friends with the family's terrier, Mouse - but also has mischievous 'bad hare days' when she munches on carpets and cushions. She has even gnawed through several telephone wires, cutting the family off.

Wildlife artist Mr Naylor, 50, said: 'We got her when she was just a few days old so she became very tame very quickly. I have tried to get her to go into a run in the garden outside but she gets hugely spooked, so she sits inside with us, watching the television.
'We are keeping her in the house because she is agoraphobic. It wouldn't be fair if we put her outside, she doesn't like and wouldn't be able to cope with the outside world.'

Mr Naylor - whose children Eve, six, and four-year-old George have fallen in love with the unlikely three-month-old pet - said Frances was only four inches long when she was rescued.
Now she loves them so much she simply refuses to leave the four walls of the family's cottage in the tiny village of Langtoft near Driffield, East Yorkshire.

Mr Naylor said: 'A farmer saw her in a field which was being ploughed. She had been abandoned.
'The farmer thought he might have clipped her with the plough and rang me straight away. We brought her home and started to feed her on puppy milk.
'Then we started hand-feeding her. She now weighs about three pounds and loves tucking in to a variety of treats, from rabbit food, carrots, parsley and celery to dandelion leaves.
"Maybe one day in the future she will get over her fear and go outside like a normal hare. She has the run of the house and is very intelligent. She's an inspirational, amazing creature.'

Mrs Naylor, a 33-year-old housewife, added: 'She absolutely loves to join us in bed and leaps on to either ours or the children's beds, then nuzzles into the duvet like a cat. In fact she is like a cat in many ways, it's amazing a wild animal can be like this.
'She can be naughty and she has chewed through so many telephone wires we have to constantly get spare ones in. But you can't get angry with her because she is so cute and is now a much-loved and very important member of the family.'
Mr Naylor has even made the creature the star of his latest annual exhibition of artwork in Driffield.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z16qzREMJF
 
A cute story, and I'm glad the hare is well looked after, but, of course, she wasn't abandoned. Hares leave their young hidden and go back to them only once or twice a day :)
 
Fluttermoth said:
A cute story, and I'm glad the hare is well looked after, but, of course, she wasn't abandoned. Hares leave their young hidden and go back to them only once or twice a day :)
Click to expand...
Perhaps the farmer and the wildlife artist knew that, but also knew that after a field has been ploughed the mother hare would be unlikely to return..?

How many young do hares normally have? (Wiki doesn't say!)
 
rynner2 said:
Fluttermoth said:
A cute story, and I'm glad the hare is well looked after, but, of course, she wasn't abandoned. Hares leave their young hidden and go back to them only once or twice a day :)
Click to expand...
Perhaps the farmer and the wildlife artist knew that, but also knew that after a field has been ploughed the mother hare would be unlikely to return..?
Click to expand...

Well, yes; as the farmer was concerned he might have 'clipped her with the plough', I assume he had to move her and there would be a worry that the mother might not have been able to find her or may have abandoned her afterwards.
I just thought it worth mentioning in case any one else happened to come across a leveret in the future. I noticed some people have mentioned this in the comments, but it's always worth pointing out. Not all baby animals stay with their mothers; fawns are another example and are often picked up as being 'abandoned' when they're not.

How many young do hares normally have? (Wiki doesn't say!)
Click to expand...

Between two and four :)
As an aside, I once saw a Begian hare on 'Animal Hospital' that both the owners and the vet thought was an actual hare; it's not, it's a breed of rabbit selectively bred to look like a hare :)
 
Ivor itch: How a bull with urge to scratch himself on telegraph pole plunged villages into darkness
By Luke Salkeld
Last updated at 10:41 AM on 3rd December 2010

He certainly looks like a powerful beast, even when he’s not at full charge.
This 2,000lb bull cast a shadow over 500 homes by scratching his rump on a small electricity pylon.
Three remote villages were left without power, suffering regular blackouts as the animal kept disconnecting them from the National Grid.
Residents of Saunton, Croyde and Georgeham, on the north Devon coast, were sporadically plunged into darkness for hours.

The source of the problem baffled power company chiefs until engineers spotted five-year-old Ivor in action after a four-day search involving a helicopter, electronic pathfinder equipment and a team of engineers on foot.
An investigation revealed a steel pole supporting the pylon near Saunton Golf Club had been left ‘shiny’ from where the animal had been rubbing against it. The contact made a pole wobble causing internal wires to hit together, breaking the circuit.
Western Power Distribution spokesman Irene Evans said: ‘It was quite a hefty animal and had caused some damage. We think he’d been busy for a while.’

Georgeham and Mortehoe parish councillor Pat Barker said the villages were not on the mains gas supply and residents relied on their electricity supply more than most.
‘One Sunday we had a power cut that lasted for eight or nine hours,’ she said. ‘We’re out on a limb and, without power, things can get pretty bad. One night I had to cook dinner on an open fire.’

Betty Wickins, 79, who lives in Croyde, said: ‘We have a lot of power cuts round here, but they got especially bad a few weeks ago – there were three in one morning.
'It’s very difficult to keep warm at this time of the year as it is.’

Once they’d discovered the problem, engineers had to shut down the power manually to make emergency repairs and put up fencing around the pylon.

The bull’s owner, Roland Dibble, 82, of Warren Farm in Saunton, said: ‘I was pretty stunned when I saw half a dozen vans on my land investigating the power cuts.
‘I assumed it had been the bad weather causing blackouts.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z173LSJQU2

I once lived in Croyde, but that was in pre-Ivor days!
 
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