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

Meet The 'Zombie Chicken' That Apparently Made It Out Of A Freezer Alive

About a year ago, one of Gullahorn's neighbors just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, decided it was time to kill his birds.

"He chose to use a BB gun and shot the chickens in the heads," she says.

He gave two to Gullahorn and her husband, Evan, who wrapped them in plastic bags and stuck them in the freezer to de-feather and otherwise deal with later. But what happened next, she says, caught Evan by surprise.

About a day later, he opened the freezer and found one of the chickens still in repose, while the other was sitting there, looking "fully alive, very cold, and pissed off," Gullahorn wrote in a June 2013 Facebook post.

Evan holding the "blind undead guard chicken." Photo by Kat Gullahorn

Gullahorn, with her daughter and husband, let the chicken into the yard and tried to feed her some corn meal while they considered the bird's future. The family didn't want to keep her as a pet, and they were certainly not going eat her (nor any of the neighbor's other chickens, which Gullahorn says her husband won't go near after what happened with this one).

This problem was solved when a friend and fellow clay artist, Laura Bruzzese, offered sanctuary. "Laura was like, 'you can't kill the zombie chicken!'" Gullahorn says.

"I couldn’t help but admire this chicken’s tenacity. She is courageous. She made her way out of a plastic bag inside a freezer and survived," Bruzzese wrote on her blog. "I figured any animal that fought that hard to live deserved a little help, if only for a day or two." ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/1 ... 75615.html
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Dancing bear shows off Thriller moves for the camera
Wildlife photographer Alexey Tishchenko captured the amusing sequence of bear snaps at Katmai National Park in Alaska
By Mark Molloy
2:45PM BST 15 Aug 2014

This boogying bear enjoyed a moment in front of the camera by showing off its best dance moves.
The twinkle-toed bear was snapped seemingly doing its best Michael Jackson impression from the pop star's iconic Thriller music video.

In fact, the brown bear was just drying off after taking a dip when Russian photographer Alexey Tishchenko captured the amusing sequence of images.
Mr Tishchenko spent hours photographing bears at Katmai National Park in Alaska when his patience was rewarded.
“I had been watching the bears fish for quite a while before this one decided to stand up and make its way across the shoreline,” he explained.

“I managed to get some shots of it drying itself off but I had no idea how funny they were until I checked my camera.
“I was with my daughter at the time and were both laughing about how it looked like Michael Jackson in the Thriller video.”

Despite appearing to copy the King of Pop’s signature moves, it’s unlikely the bear has heard about Jackson’s recently released posthumous album.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... amera.html

Q. Name the 60s pop song with a dancing bear in the title. ;)
 
USA: A cat named Gizmo has only minor injuries after a nine-storey fall at a Manhattan apartment building.

Gizmo fell off a 12th-floor terrace, crashed onto a third-floor landing and became wedged between a skylight and a wall.

Owner Samuel Jacobs says the grey and black cat was “freaked out.” He rushed his pet to a vet, fearing massive internal injuries but Gizmo only had scratches and a broken tooth.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 81787.html
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I read somewhere that cats are about as big an animal can be and have a non-fatal terminal velocity. I don't know whether that's true, but my cat, Axl, has stopped jumping from the first floor bedroom window onto the garage roof then on to the back garden fence the he wants to get out, and now more often just jumps from the first floor window straight to the ground. It doesn't seem to bother him. He's a bit of a dare-devil, though, anyway.
 
Giant leatherback turtle spotted near Mousehole
By CGAlex Posted: August 16, 2014

A giant leatherback turtle has been spotted in waters just off the coast of Mousehole.
Crew members from Penzance-based sightseeing company Marine Discovery caught a glimpse of the beast on Saturday afternoon as it surfaced.

Head guide and co-owner Hannah Jones said: "Out of the corner of my eye I saw something come up that looked like it was reasonably large. We stopped the boat and waited. I saw it come up again and said straight away 'it's a turtle'"

Hannah said it was a real treat to see the animals, which tend to favour warmer water.
"They're incredibly rare to see in Cornish waters," she said, "but there are all these jellyfish about and presumably they're here to feed on them.
"It's the only turtle that can survive in these temperatures. In years gone by we might have seen even more of them, but they're so endangered now."

Experts believe more turtles than usual have made their way to the Cornish coast due to it being a bumper year for jellyfish - the turtles' preferred food.

The leatherback turtle is the largest of all living turtles - comparable in size and weight to a small car - and are the fourth-heaviest reptile after crocodiles.
Adults average between 6-7ft in length.

http://www.cornishman.co.uk/Giant-leath ... story.html
 
Secret giant worm behind mystery of vanishing aquarium fish
Aquarium shop workers investigating the disappearance of dozens of fish found the culprit - a terrifying three-and-a-half-foot sea worm hidden in a tank for ten years.
By Agencies
12:31PM BST 18 Oct 2013

The creepy Bobbit Worm - usually found at in the ocean at depths up to 150ft - was discovered preying on fish in the 200 gallon tank.
Staff at Maidenhead Aquatics in Woking, Surrey, had noticed many of its fish going missing.
But they only found the culprit when they emptied a massive leaky tank - and found the Bobbit Worm.

The sea worm is thought to have arrived as a stowaway around ten years ago in a rock, and buried itself in the floor of the tank.
Store manager John Penny said: "The worm was found when we were breaking down our big display, because it was leaking.

"The worm was three-and-a-half feet long, we really struggled to get the rock out of there, because it was so heavy. It was so creepy.
"It split into three sections. The tail end died within a few days. The other two sections are still alive.
"They are from tropical waters and do have very large pincers that can nip, especially if you touch them."

The worm, which is a couple of inches thick, was discovered on October 7, when the 12-year-old tank was emptied to carry out essential maintenance.
"We have been trying to do some research on them," Mr Penny said. "It has been reported that they can get up to four metres in length. They are from tropical waters.

"They do have very large pincers that can nip, especially if you touch them. They also release a slime that can irritate the skin.
"I have had one in my home aquarium. This is the first time we have had one of three-and-a-half-feet in the shop.
"They are not common, to be honest. They come through now and again. Only in an established tank would you find one getting up to this size."

The Bobbit worm, which is in two pieces, is currently in a tank on the counter at Maidenhead Aquatics Woking, where staff are keeping a close eye on it.

Mr Penny, from Maybury Hill, said the ends of the section that broke off have healed over and they are waiting to see if a new head grows.
"We are just waiting to see what happens," he added.

"A lot of people are like, 'Eww...! Where did that come from?' Marine customers are more likely to say, 'Wow that's amazing'."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1038902 ... -fish.html
 
AUSTRALIA: Two Australian farmers say that they may have found the world’s woolliest sheep, whose estimated 25kg coat, if confirmed, could shatter the world record currently held by neighbouring New Zealand.

Shaun the Sheep was found on Sunday wandering in a country area near the town of Oatlands, 84km from Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, the largely rural island state off Australia’s southeastern coast.

“He couldn’t see very well because of the wool over his face, so I snuck up behind him and grabbed ahold of him,” farmer Peter Hazell told reporters.

The Australian farmers say they anticipate six-year-old Shaun will overtake the world record, held by a New Zealand sheep called Shrek.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 83807.html
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BARKING MAD

SINGAPORE: A suggestion by Singapore’s public housing authority that owners of noisy dogs consider “debarking” their pets to avoid inconveniencing neighbours has raised animal lovers’ hackles.

The authority, the Housing and Development Board (HDB), recommended in a notice posted in a residential block that one option for dogs that will not keep quiet is to ‘debark’ them.

Debarking involves removing a section of a dog’s vocal cord to reduce the volume of its bark and is recommended as a solution of “last resort” to control noisy pets, according to the website of Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.

Animal welfare groups say the practice is cruel and unfair.

“A dog also barks when it is in a stressed or anxious mode, and not hearing the dog does not mean the dog is in a stable state of mind,” the group Action for Singapore Dogs said in a Facebook post.

On Thursday, the HDB apologised for causing anxiety to dog owners and said it had taken down the notice.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 84031.html
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I'm not defending de-barking, but maybe if you'd been kept awake all night by barking dogs it's an understandable practice :twisted:
 
amester said:
I'm not defending de-barking, but maybe if you'd been kept awake all night by barking dogs it's an understandable practice :twisted:
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If I've been kept awake all night by rowing neighbours, can I go round and cut their vocal chords, too?
 
ramonmercado said:
Russia back in control of Foton gecko sex satellite

Fears have receded over the fate of a Russian space satellite carrying gecko lizards as part of a sex experiment, after technicians restored control.

Russia's space agency re-established the link on Saturday and has since held 17 communication sessions, an update on its website says (in Russian).

The Foton-M4 satellite's engine had stopped responding on Thursday.

Five geckos are aboard for a study into the effect of weightlessness on their sex lives and development. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28522297
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Sad news.

Russia confirms death of five geckos on space sex mission

Reptiles were part of zero-gravity research into reproduction

Geckos’ ‘mummified remains’ suggest they froze to death


Russia’s space agency on Monday confirmed that five geckos, launched into space for an experiment on weightlessness and sexual behavior, have died.

The federal space agency released a statement saying the landing apparatus of the Photon-M satellite had returned to earth as planned, falling into Russia’s Orenburg region at 1.18pm Moscow time, and that the entire herpetological crew had perished at some point during their odyssey. With four female lizards and one male on board, Russian scientists had hoped to learn how zero gravity would affect the sexual habits of geckos.

A representative at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (ISTC), which participated in the experiment, explained to Russian news agency Itar-Tass simply said: “It’s still too early to talk about the geckos’ cause of death.” A source in a scientific commission involved later told the Interfax wire service that “According to the preliminary information, it became clear the geckos froze. Most likely, this happened due to a failure of the equipment meant to ensure the temperature of the box with the animals.”

He continued: “The geckos could have died at any stage of the flight, and it’s impossible to judge when based on the animals’ mummified remains.”

The space agency statement said simply that a “preliminary examination” found the geckos dead, and that “the date and conditions of their deaths will be determined by specialists”. ...

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014 ... ex-mission
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ALLIGATOR ACCOLADE

USA: A gigantic alligator caught by a family in Alabama earlier this month has set a Safari Club International world record.

A pair of master measurers from

Safari Club International examined the 450kg alligator, determining a total length of 4.8m. That is 33cm longer than the organisation’s previous world record American alligator, which had been killed in Texas.

The Alabama alligator was caught by the Stokes family after battling with it for more than five hours. It was hooked in a creek about 130km west of Montgomery, Alabama.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 84447.html
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^^ Edit the URL so it works, please... ^^
 
Cooking Hot Dogs?

DOG BLAZE

USA: A US family’s dog turned on a stove, which set fire to a laptop resting on top of the appliance and sent smoke through the roof of the property.

The fire was reported in Lacey Township, New Jersey, while the owners were away. Police said investigators believe the dog accidentally turned on the stove, though they did not specify how that happened.

Smoke was pouring from the roof when firefighters arrived, but the blaze was quickly extinguished. Firefighters rescued the dog, which emerged unscathed.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/quir ... 84610.html
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I think I once had a cat turn on a cooker ring in the small hours, got up in the morning and it was on. The knobs take very little pressure to turn so it's possible one of the cats had been on the top and caught one putting a foot over the side, or jumping off.

iirc I suffered from insomnia back then and had been up that night to make a cup of tea, so it's also possible I was in a haze and caught it on my dressing gown or something.
 
I know this is just a missing pet story but I like the way it was written:

http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11450 ... _Catford_/

A ferocious tortoise is on the loose in Catford.

Six-year-old Rex, also known as Tyrannotortoise, has been missing for 10 days after escaping from his enclosure where he was resting.

Jason Cross, 43, of Braidwood Road said he painted an orange spot on his shell to help find the runaway reptile who has escaped several times since buying him in 2008.

The clinical nurse specialist said: “He’s very very feisty and is always escaping. He’s really grumpy and will nip you and to be honest he’s more like a moany old man than a tortoise.”

Mr Cross, who also describes his 12-year-old son’s beloved pet as a “tough but popular little thing”, says that despite Rex’s rebellious ways the family are heartbroken and want him back as soon as possible.

He added: “We miss him and want him back as soon as possible as he is a big part of our family whether he’s chewing the furniture, running around the house or escaping from his enclosure so it would mean the world to have him back to us, particularly now it will start to get cold.”
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Elephants can't fly, outside of Walt Disney cartoons, anyway - can they?

The elephant that flew
By Vibeke Venema, BBC World Service
[WATCH the video of Gary Roberts flying his Cessna with Max's help]

A baby elephant is filmed standing in a small aircraft, eye-to-eye with the pilot, Gary Roberts - an American nurse and missionary. The orphaned calf is the only survivor of a massacre by poachers. This is how Roberts did his best to keep the animal alive.

In March 2013 Gary Roberts received a worrying telephone call. There were rumours, he heard, that 100 elephants had been killed near the border between Chad and Cameroon. Could he fly over the area to check whether the reports were true, the caller asked.
In his Cessna aircraft he managed to pick up the herd's tracks and followed them to an area of low scrub - the massacre zone.

"It was a terrible sight," says Roberts. "It was really just piles of bones that were left because the meat had been extracted." In the two days since poachers had taken the tusks, locals had stripped the carcasses.

"There were large pools of blood on the ground that you could still see from so many animals," he says. The carcasses were spread over a couple of miles. The only way to ascertain the number killed was to count the skulls - Roberts confirmed that nearly 100 elephants had died.
"You'd see 20 or 30 animals in a group that had gone down together," says Roberts. For such large numbers to be killed the poachers would have used machine guns.

"It's really gut-wrenching when you see something like that," says Roberts. "Whether it's in a war where humans are taken down or whether it's where animals are taken down, it's still a sinking feeling in your stomach - it's terrible."

He passed all the information on to the authorities in the Zakouma National Park and returned home. But two days later he got a call back to say that one baby elephant appeared to have survived.
Roberts and his family often take in orphaned animals, so he flew out again to find it, landing at the strip closest to the animal's rumoured location. He questioned the local people, hired a pick-up truck and set off for another village.

The baby had been rumoured to be 25kg (55lb), which is tiny. In fact what he found was a nine-month-old elephant weighing about 160kg (350lb). It had been tied to a tree. The rope had embedded itself in his neck and the wounds had become infected.

The calf was scared, angry and mourning the loss of its family. It was seriously ill - dehydrated and hungry. It had been given cow's milk by the locals, with good intentions, but cow's milk is actually toxic for baby elephants, causing severe diarrhoea.

"It was getting weak, but also very angry because it had just been tied up to the tree and kids would come by and no doubt throw sticks and rocks at it," says Roberts.
"When I initially approached it, it was trying to bite, it was raising its trunk and trying to charge a little bit, but I just stayed with it and mixed up some formula that we had with us to feed it." After about half an hour the elephant had calmed down enough to be loaded into the pick-up truck.

During the two-hour ride back to the plane, Roberts and his helpers gave the elephant a nickname - Max - because his rescue was challenging them to the maximum. "It was taking everything we could muster to keep him in the back of the pick-up over the bouncy roads," says Roberts.

By the time they reached the airstrip it was dark. There was an added complication - a mob had gathered around the airplane. The local military came to keep the mob from pressing in on them and frightening the elephant.
"It was purely a spectator sport, with no respect for requests to stay back or be quiet," says Roberts. "In the course of events some people threw bricks at the military so they had to arrest a few of the people, in order to keep things under control."

The rescuers - including Roberts' wife Wendy - stayed up all night with the elephant calf trying to keep it calm, and in the morning they lured it in close to the aircraft with a bottle of formula and were finally able to lift it in with the help of several men.
Max took up almost the entire inside of the four-seater plane.
"It was a tight fit definitely," Roberts says.

Max was almost more than the plane could carry, along with the pilot and the other passengers. There was a risk that if he moved around too much, or panicked, it would have become uncontrollable.

"With an animal that size you can feel its weight shifting in the aircraft and I had to have some restraining straps so it wouldn't go all the way to the back of the aircraft - otherwise he would go outside of our controllable range," Roberts recalls.

Max still had diarrhoea and was too weak to be sedated. Instead, they tied ropes around his feet so they could disable his movement if necessary.

"He was quite interested in playing with my controls, he would put his trunk forward and feel my hand and touch the controls and of course feel my face," says Roberts. "It was a bit of a distraction but at the same time a unique experience." Roberts filmed it all on his mobile phone.

When they got Max home he just collapsed, he was so exhausted. He needed 24-hour care and Roberts and his wife took it in turns.
They slept out under the stars with him, and kept people away so he could rest. They knew that elephants can give up and die when they are mourning loved ones, which was an extra source of worry.

A few days later a volunteer from the Jumbo Foundation Elephant Orphanage in Malawi came out to help, and she brought supplies and a great deal of expertise. "Taking care of a baby starved elephant is very similar to taking care of starved human babies," says Roberts. "The protocol and the procedures are very similar."

As Roberts and his wife run a centre for malnourished children, they were familiar with the routine.
But despite their skills, and their best efforts, Max only lived another 10 days. :(
"We had pulled out all the stops, we had done everything possible," says Roberts, with a sigh.

"Along with the traumatic experience he had been through, to see his whole family massacred and everything compounded, unfortunately he did not survive." The main factor in Max's death was probably the cow's milk - the only kindness he had received during his ordeal in the village.

Max's flight ranks as the craziest in Roberts' experience as a missionary pilot - though the time when he delivered a baby in mid-flight comes a close second.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29060814
 
Oh God, poor little Max. :(

On a much lighter note:

Cambridge University Selwyn master keeps 'banned' dog as 'very large cat'

YoYo the dog YoYo the bassett hound is officially recognised as "a very large cat"

The master of a Cambridge University college that banned dogs from accommodation has been allowed to keep his canine companion after persuading officials it was "a very large cat".

YoYo the bassett hound lives at Selwyn College with Roger Mosey. Mr Mosey said cats were allowed but dogs were "technically" banned. However, after a past master set a "dog-owning precedent" decades ago, the college "tongue-in-cheek agreed YoYo could stay as a large cat", he said.

Mr Mosey, former editorial director of the BBC, became master of Selwyn College in October. YoYo the dog and Roger Mosey, master of Selwyn College Roger Mosey said he wanted YoYo to become part of college life After settling in he asked permission from the college council to have a dog, despite the rules.

"Many former masters have kept cats but the greatest master, Professor Owen Chadwick, did keep dogs during the 1950s, 60s and 70s," he said.

Permission was granted by the council, and duly noted in the minutes: "i. College Animal - Noting precedent under the mastership of Professor Chadwick, Council approved the Master's request to adopt a Very Large Cat in the Master's Lodge."

For a while, Mr Mosey said, when he left the lodge with YoYo, he was greeted with calls of "hey, I love your big cat".

YoYo, a rescue dog, has now featured in publicity material for a veterinary course and other college material.

"Students call her 'the college dog' and I very much want her to become part of life at Selwyn," Mr Mosey said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ca ... e-28966001
(also featuring some smashingly lugubrious photos..)
 
The same thing happened in TCD. The Provost had a dog so it was deemed to be a cat.
 
Dog Dressed Up Like Giant Spider Will Scare The Kibble Out Of You

What's more terrifying than a hairy, eight-legged monster creeping toward you? A massive, hairy, eight-legged monster running toward you. That's what.

In this video, presented by Polish prankster SA Wardega, passersby are faced with their worst nightmare as a gargantuan spider terrifies them in the street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoB8t0B4jx4

But those who live to tell the tale of the giant spider will tell you not everything is what it seems: The spider is actually a dog trussed up as a monstrous arachnid.

It's still scary at first glance, though. It might even make a killer Halloween costume for your pet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/0 ... 67032.html
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It's a clever idea, and beautifully done, but I can't help worrying that somebody is going to react before thinking and take a crowbar or something to the dog...
 
'Vast shoal' of mackerel sees Falmouth Bay erupt with marine wildlife as nine Minke whales spotted: VIDEO
Last updated 18:43 Monday 8 September 2014.

A large shoal of mackerel feeding on white bait in Falmouth Bay has seen a bonanza for wildlife watchers, with a record nine Minke whales spotted on one trip.

Amanda from AK Wildlife Cruises said that on Saturday watchers onboard the Free Spirit saw thousands of tiny whitebait erupt out of the sea, followed in hot pursuit by vast shoals of feeding, frenzied Mackerel.

With the sea's surface "erupting in the feeding frenzy" nine Minke whale was sighted feeding along with porpoise and 1,000s of Manx shearwaters within a three mile area of the bay.

Amanda said: "Some were youngsters at about fifteen feet in length and others were full adults at some thirty feet in length. What an incredible sight to behold, and all in a perfect flat calm mill pond like sea conditions.
"These animals were spending quite a long time deep under water feeding spending up to eight to ten minutes feeding before surfacing several times to descend back down to feast on the vast shoals of bait fish below.
"At one location we had four whales up at once."
"We believe this is a record number of Minke whales ever seen together at one time in Falmouth Bay and quite probably for the whole of the South West of England."

"Along with all the enjoyment of so many cetaceans we also located seals, a beautiful Blue Shark finning along, thousands of feeding Manx and Sooty Shearwaters, a Great Skua or Bonxie and quite a few Rhizostoma Pulmo or Barrel Jellyfish."

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/11 ... EO/?ref=mr

They've had planty of mackeral down in Mounts Bay too - but so many that the price has plummeted!
 
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