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

You wait ages for a coyote story, then two turn up within two days...
This one, however, is not so happy:

Coyotes kill Canada woman singer

Two coyotes have attacked and killed a 19-year-old folk singer in a national park in eastern Canada, officials say.

Taylor Mitchell, 19, a promising musician from Toronto, died in hospital after the animals pounced as she hiked alone in Cape Breton park, Nova Scotia.

Walkers alerted park rangers after hearing her screams. The rangers shot one coyote, but were still searching for the second.

Attacks by coyotes on humans are rare; they usually prey on deer and hares.

Bleeding heavily from multiple bite wounds, the singer-songwriter was airlifted to a Halifax hospital, but died of her injuries on Wednesday morning, authorities said.

"Coyotes are normally afraid of humans. This is a very irregular occurrence," Brigdit Leger, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told Reuters news agency.

She said the two coyotes were "extremely aggressive" when authorities arrived at the scene.

The small wolf-like animals are found from Central America to the United States and Canada.

Ms Mitchell - touted as a rising star in the folk music scene - was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award earlier this year in the youth category.

"Words can't begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman," Lisa Weitz, Ms Mitchell's manager, said in an e-mail to AP news agency.

"She just turned 19 two months ago, and was so excited about the future."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8331106.stm
 
Bear kills militants in Kashmir
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8339549.stm
By Altaf Hussain
BBC News, Srinagar



The bear population has grown in Kashmir in recent times
A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say.

Two other militants escaped, one of them badly wounded, after the attack in Kulgam district, south of Srinagar.

The militants were armed with AK-46s but were taken by surprise - police found the remains of pudding they had made to eat when the bear attacked.

It is thought to be the first such incident since Muslim separatists took up arms against Indian rule in 1989.

Bodies found

The militants had made their hideout in a cave which was actually the bear's den, said police officer Farooq Ahmed.

The dead have been identified as Mohammad Amin alias Qaiser, and Bashir Ahmed alias Saifullah.

News of the attack emerged when their injured comrade went to a nearby village for treatment.

"Word spread in the village that Qaiser had been killed by the bear," another police officer said.

A joint party of the police and army personnel went into the forest and collected the bodies of the two militants.

Police say they also recovered two AK-46 rifles and some ammunition from the hideout.

Animal attacks

Wildlife experts say the conflict in Kashmir has actually resulted in an increase in the population of bears and leopards.

Following the outbreak of the insurgency people had to hand in their weapons to police - which put a halt to poaching.

As a result, there has been a greater incidence of man-animal conflict, say experts.

There have been many reports of bears and leopards killing or mauling humans in different parts of the Kashmir valley in recent years.

Three years ago, residents of Mandora village near the southern town of Tral, beat a black bear to death which had strayed into the village.
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Milk snake's sudden arrival shakes up van crew
Home Staff

A telecommunications engineer made “a pretty sharp exit” from his van when a 4ft snake emerged from under the bonnet. James Denton and his colleague Morne Aspeling were driving back to their office when the snake slithered up the windscreen.

“It took me a moment to realise it was real,” Mr Denton said, but added that when its tongue flicked out the two men jumped out and called for help.

The Jersey Animal Shelter, which is caring for the snake, said it was a non-venomous corn or milk snake, probably an escaped pet that went under the bonnet for warmth.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 903910.ece

The only comment so far:

max martin wrote:
Looks like a windscreen viper. :D
 
Cool I came across a couple of these guys near the lake this spring. They are a false rattle snake and come across and even sometimes sound a bit scary. They really are a harmless and very pretty snake. :D
 
Chimp victim seeks to sue state
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8345030.stm

Police shot and killed the animal after the attack
The family of a US woman attacked by a chimpanzee has sought permission to sue Connecticut state for $150m (£90m) for failing to prevent the attack.

Lawyers for the family of Charla Nash, who is still in hospital, say the state failed to address a "serious public safety issue".

Ms Nash, 55, lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the attack in February.

The state's claims commissioner office will now have to decide whether the lawsuit can go ahead.

In March, Ms Nash's family filed a $50m lawsuit against the chimp's owner, Sandra Herold, accusing her of negligence and recklessness.

The 12-minute attack happened after Ms Herold invited Ms Nash, a friend, to her house to help her entice the 14-stone chimpanzee, known as Travis, back into the house.

Police shot and killed the animal when they arrived on the scene.

The Associated Press news agency said it had seen court records that showed a biologist from Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection had warned state officials before the attack that the animal could seriously hurt someone if it felt threatened.

The state's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, said he was sympathetic to Ms Nash and her family for what he called a "horrific tragedy" but that the planned lawsuit seemed "unprecedented in size".

Reports quoting police shortly after the attack suggested the animal had been ill with Lyme disease and had been on medication.

The animal had been trained to ride in the family's vehicles, had appeared in commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy and had also appeared in a television pilot.
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Chimp attack woman relates ordeal
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8356088.stm
Travis pictured in 2003
Ms Nash said she had warned her friend about the chimp

A woman who was mauled by a chimpanzee has revealed her severely damaged face on the US TV show Oprah, nine months after the savage attack.

Charla Nash lost her nose, lips, hands, and an eyelid in the February attack in Connecticut, and doctors have since removed her eyes because of infection.

She eats through a straw and cannot breathe through her nose.

She said she could not remember the attack. "I want to get healthy. I don't want to wake up with nightmares."

The 12-minute attack took place after Sandra Herold invited Ms Nash, a friend, to her house in Stamford to help her entice the 200lb (90kg) chimpanzee, known as Travis, back into the house.


I'm the same person I've always been - I just look different
Charla Nash

Police shot and killed the animal when they arrived on the scene.

In the TV interview, talk show host Oprah Winfrey removed a veil covering Ms Nash's head to reveal a badly swollen, inflamed face with most features unrecognisable.

Ms Nash says she wears a veil so as not to scare people and to avoid insults.

"I'm the same person I've always been. I just look different."

Ms Nash said she does not touch her face often.

"I know that I have my forehead. It feels like just patches of tape or gauze or covering, covering my face."

Ms Nash said she does not think about being angry about the attack.

"There's no time for that anyways because I need to heal, you know, not look backwards."

Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, she said she had warned Ms Herold that the animal was dangerous, and added that he could break out of his cage.

"I always told her you have to get rid of him, he's going to hurt somebody someday. He's too dangerous," Ms Nash said.

Lawyers for Ms Nash filed a $50m (£30m) lawsuit against Ms Herold, accusing her of negligence and recklessness.

The lawsuit also claims that Ms Herold gave the animal medication that exacerbated its violent behaviour.
 
Knew the Timetables? Thats more than the railway staff do, Archie farewell.


Pet labrador which 'knew train timetable' dies
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scot ... 375871.stm

Archie at Insch station [Pic: Newsline Scotland]
Archie's adventure in 2005 made headlines around the world

A dog which made headlines around the world after he lost his owner and caught the right train home has died.

Archie the labrador became separated from owner Mike Taitt in 2005, so the impatient dog boarded the train at Inverurie in Aberdeenshire.

Archie got off the train when it stopped at Insch and was spotted by a signalman, who contacted his owner.

Mr Taitt said of Archie's death at the age of 13: "It's very sad. He was a great friend and a great character."

The story of Archie's solo train journey was retold around the world.

Neither fellow passengers nor railway staff realised that the black labrador was unaccompanied.

'Didn't have ticket'

The Insch station signalman Derek Hope logged Archie's arrival as Incident no. 822344: "Unaccompanied doggie gets off train. There was the train conductor standing with Archie on the platform saying he had got on at Inverurie and didn't have a ticket."

Mr Taitt said at the time "He is a very intelligent dog. I am sure he can read a timetable. When he could not find me he took the right train home. He's been on that train before.

"I am convinced he knew it was the right one. But who knows."

The Scottish SPCA said it could be quite easy to underestimate the intelligence of animals.
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Cows stampede through quiet housing estate
This is the moment police were called to stop a herd of escaped cows rampaging through a quiet housing estate.
Published: 8:00AM GMT 28 Nov 2009

The 15 heifers caused hundreds of pounds of damage during a 45 minute stampede trampling flowers, knocking over bins and denting cars.

One terrified resident was almost crushed by the herd as he tried to get out of his car.

Paul Toon, 50, said: ''It was very scary. I heard a rumbling sound like thunder then suddenly a wall of black and white came charging past the house.

''They seemed almost organised. They went from one garden to the next ripping up flowers and even looking in the front windows. :shock:

''It was like something off the Cravendale milk advert.''

One resident said: ''The cows dented my new Audi which will cost hundreds to repair. They came out of nowhere. Luckily no one was hurt.''

The cows escaped just after 9am on Wednesday morning from a field near Nuneaton, Warks.

They managed to cross the busy A5 road at rush hour and walk a further half-a-mile to the upmarket St Nicholas Park Estate.

Residents and police managed to herd the cows onto a grass patch before they were taken back to the farmer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... state.html

The police had to moo-ve them along! :D
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...9425/Flatulent-pig-sparks-gas-leak-scare.html

Flatulent pig sparks gas leak scare

A suspected gas leak at an Australian farm, which led to 15 firemen in two fire engines to rush to the scene, turned out to be the work of a flatulent pig.

“We could not only smell it, but we heard it and it was quite funny."

He added: "She got very excited when two trucks and 15 firies turned up and she squealed and farted and squealed and farted.

"I haven't heard too many pigs fart but I would describe it as very full-on."
 
Falcon scheme dropped as seagull numbers rise
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scot ... 392636.stm

The number of nesting birds increased during the experiment
A scheme using falcons to tackle urban seagull problems is to be dropped after the number of nesting birds increased.

The pilot project was undertaken in Dumfries this year and it was hoped it could be extended across Scotland.

However, the number of nesting pairs of birds in the town in 2009 was 370 - an increase of 18.5% compared with the previous year.

A report to councillors said that due to the cost and outcome of the trial it was not recommended to continue.

Highland Council had been monitoring the project to see if it would be worthwhile adopting in its area.

It was also hoped it might help to tackle similar concerns in places like Kirkcaldy and Aberdeen .

The results of the south of Scotland pilot project have been mixed.

The falcon scheme was run in conjunction with a free nest and egg removal service provided by Dumfries and Galloway Council.

It resulted in 671 nests and more than 1,500 eggs being removed between mid-May and July.

Snatching food

It is being recommended that the nest and egg removal scheme should be continued.

The council's environment services committee will be told that the flying of falcons without other measures "did not significantly reduce the numbers of nesting gulls".

An overall increase in numbers was reported, with the greatest rise outside Dumfries town centre.

A decrease was found in the number of public complaints about gulls swooping to snatch food - which reduced from 25 to just five.

The council has also been considering the introduction of byelaws to stop the feeding of the birds.

However, it has been concluded that measure would appear to be out of proportion to the problems experienced in the town.
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France mourns an ageing lothario as tortoise dies, aged 146Kiki, 250kg tortoise whose energetic lovemaking made him a favourite with the French public, succumbs to an infection

Lizzy Davies in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 December 2009 17.25 GMT


Kiki had a 'kind of charisma'.

France was in mourning today for one of its oldest and best-loved lotharios, a giant tortoise named Kiki, who died at the age of 146.

Staff at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris announced that its veteran resident had succumbed last week to an infection.

They paid tribute to the zoo's "doyen", whose distinctive personality and "demonstrative lovemaking" had made him a favourite with the French public.

"We are rather upset to have lost Kiki. He had been here for such a long time …that we had kind of thought of him as eternal," said Michel Saint Jalme, the deputy director of the Ménagerie. "He had a kind of charisma … a certain personality."

Kiki, who arrived in the French capital as an exotic newcomer from the Seychelles in 1923, when his species was on the brink of extinction, was never slow to use that charisma to full effect.

According to Marie-Claude Bomsel, a vet at the zoo, he was so vigorous in his pursuit of female tortoises that his grunts could be heard from the other end of the zoo and the Jardin des Plantes.

"To be honest, from time to time I even saw him go after a wheelbarrow. You see what we were dealing with," Bomsel told French radio. "That was one of his characteristics. We all loved him."

Frédéric Lewino, a science writer at Le Point magazine, wrote that, though advanced in age, Kiki remained "fresh" to the end.

Kiki weighed 250kg and had to be moved about using a forklift.

"However crushed they were by his 250kg, the females suffered his assaults without any complaint," he remarked.

The oldest and largest of five giant tortoises at the Ménagerie, Kiki's remains are to be preserved and exhibited at France's Natural History Museum.

His fellow creatures are among the world's longest living.

Harriet the Gapapagos tortoise was reported to be 175 years old when she died in 2006 in Australia, while Tu'i Malila, a tortoise who died in 1965 in Tonga, lived to 188.
Click to expand...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/de ... toise-kiki
 
Well actually a bird a snake and a fish...

It reminded me of the song about the old lady who swallowed a fly.

This guy took a photo of a heron as it was eating a snake, but then when he looked at the photo, he realised the snake was also eating a fish

telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6750469/Heron-eats-snake-eating-fish.html
Link is dead. The original article and photo are now at:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/6750469/Heron-eats-snake-eating-fish.html?fb

Here's the photo ...

Heron_1538434c.jpg

​
 
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Rugby players mauled by insects

Players at a Cornish rugby club have complained they are being plagued by insect bites.

St Columba and Torpoint Rugby Club said its players were being bitten by flies hidden in the pitch.

One needed hospital treatment for a bite and others have been given antibiotics.

It is believed a water-logged pitch may be offering the flies a good breeding area. The club said it was monitoring the condition of the ground.

Prop forward Mike Grieve said he was bitten three times on the legs and ankles.

He was given antibiotics on two occasions, but a third encounter with the hungry insects resulted in him having to go to hospital.

He said: "It was just like a normal bite, and then the leg swelled up. After about a week the bruising was still there."

The club's director of rugby, Chris Goodman, said players were fine when they were moving, it was only if anybody was standing around that the insects began "nibbling away".

He said: "They tend to bite during coaching time, when players are standing around for two or three hours.

"People on a Saturday playing, or spectators are not bitten because they are moving around."

The club rents the pitch from Cornwall Council, which does treat and weed it periodically.

However, the bugs have meant the club has restricted who can use it.

Club chairman Dave Oakley said: "At the beginning of the season we did have the pitch treated, but we probably need to be done a little more frequently.

"But at the moment we're reticent to bring in youngsters while we have this problem because the bites can be very irritating."

Cornwall Council said it was close to an agreement with the club for a long-term lease.

When it is finalised, the council said it would allow the club to improve the drainage and take action to deal with the bugs more thoroughly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8402800.stm

Seems a bit odd they haven't identified the insect. They usually wheel on a tame expert to say something in cases like this.
 
Delinquent dolphin Moko causes terror in the surf
A bottlenose dolphin who tips over waterskiers, headbutts surfers to steal their boards, and makes amorous advances on young women is creating havoc in a New Zealand harbour.
By Paul Chapman in Wellington
Published: 6:50AM GMT 09 Dec 2009

The 250-kilogram Moko was celebrated for his youthful playfulness when he first appeared off the North Island.

But since moving along the east coast to the seaside resort of Gisborne he has transformed from gregarious youngster to teenage tearaway, terrorising some swimmers so much they refuse to go back into the water.

Six people have needed rescuing by lifesavers in recent days as the dolphin has become more aggressive.

Among them were two 12-year-old girls who were both injured when they were "mugged" by Moko for their boards.

And a 16-year-old surfer was stranded 500 yards offshore after the delinquent dolphin stole his board. :shock:

Gisborne man Dean Makara said he was knocked out of his kayak.

"He thinks he's just playing but he doesn't know what playing is," Mr Makara said.

In an earlier incident, an exhausted woman swimmer feared she would drown after Moko refused to let her return to shore because he had not finished playing with her.

Now the city council has become so alarmed it has warned it will fine anyone who tries to swim with the creature, while conservation officials plan to bombard summer holidaymakers with leaflets listing do's and don'ts.

John Adams, of the Department of Conservation, said: "What might appear to be a small nudge to a dolphin can be a major blow to a person.

"He is a wild animal, so there is a real risk of danger there."

Grant Fussell, president of the local surf club, warned that Moko could try to mate with a human female partner. :shock: :shock:

"He relates more to humans than to other dolphins. There is a danger he could literally become a lady killer."

There have also been calls to appoint a "guardian" to safeguard Moko's interests.

Advocates for the creature have sprung to his defence, saying they are horrified at headlines dubbing him "Moko the Menace".

Dave Head, an environmentalist who has studied Moko, angrily dismissed reports that the dolphin was a sexual predator.

Professor Mark Orams, a marine science expert, said the problem was that Moko had transformed into an exuberant and insolent hormone-pumped teenager.

"And a male teenager at that.

"Here you've got a very lonely bottlenose dolphin who loves human contact, but he's getting too big and strong for it.

"In a sense he's seeking something from humans that he should be getting from other dolphins."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -surf.html
 
They're all out to get us! Insects, dolphins, and now...

Sly saboteur who terrorised car owners by cutting brake cables is finally revealed... to be a fox
By Beth Hale
Last updated at 7:18 AM on 09th December 2009

Naturally enough, sinister motives were suspected when a series of drivers found their brake cables had been cut in the night.
But for months police were baffled as no fingerprints could be found and CCTV failed to reveal any repeat night-time visitor.
Now the mystery has finally been solved - with the culprit revealed as a fox with a taste for brake fluid.

The attacks in West Wickham, Kent, began in February. One motorist lost the use of their brakes as they pulled off their drive, and another's failed while they were driving into busy Bromley.

Over the next seven months, the phantom vandal struck eight more times - indiscriminately hitting three Mercedes, a BMW, three Fords, a Nissan and an Austin.

The crime spree escalated from August onwards.
As detectives became increasingly exasperated, they turned to an expert in biological science at the University of Bristol.
Last night Professor Stephen Harris said: 'It was clear within seconds.

'If a cable is cut with a knife it is very distinctive, foxes leave pressure marks where their teeth go in to the plastic, there is no neat cut.'
He said the animal could have taken a liking to the taste of glycol, the sweet-tasting colourless chemical used as brake fluid.

One of the fox's victims was retired Bill Stenlake, 66. 'We would rather think that foxes are responsible for this than some nutter running around,' he said.
But he added: 'The foxes are always around, they are a flaming nuisance.'

There have been other occasional cases of foxes chewing through brake cables, and of rats damaging cables to get at the fluid.
In the Black Forest in Germany, visitors have been known to return to their cars to find their brake cables chewed by pine martens.

Glycol is a viscous alcohol used as brake fluid because it does not compress - which means it transmits hydraulic pressure very efficiently.

It is toxic and can cause death - it affects the central nervous system, the heart and finally the kidneys. It is not clear why a fox may be able to tolerate it.

etc...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0ZBkvP3R4
 
Cocky robin! The bird who favours the shaved heard of a tree surgeon as a perch
By Cher Thornhill
Last updated at 11:49 PM on 11th December 2009

You're more likely to find them perched on the handle of your spade.
But this robin is clearly more familiar with humankind than most.
As well as favouring the shaven head of tree surgeon John Hancock, he also turns up daily on the steering wheel or dashboard of his van to be hand-fed crumbs of bread or oatmeal biscuits.

Mr Hancock, 40, said his feathered friend started dropping in for lunch a fortnight ago, although he has been a familiar sight for longer.
As soon as Mr Hancock and colleagues Tom Murray and Matthew Paddan drive their truck into the yard in Worcester, the robin flies down.

'He has become tamer and tamer and it's a lovely feeling having a wild bird perched on your hand eating titbits from your fingertips,' said Mr Hancock, a father-of-two.
'We used to throw the odd crumb towards him, but none of us expected him to join us in the truck every day. He will take anything out of your hands and seems to enjoy human company.'

Now the robin descends from nearby trees every day and lands on John’s wing mirror ready for the snacks they bring especially for him.

etc... [with pretty pics!]

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0ZT8r3lKL

I got a Xmas card with a nice photo of a robin on it, from my neighbour. Pity she gets my name wrong every year!
 
Octopus snatches coconut and runs
By Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News

An octopus and its coconut-carrying antics have surprised scientists.

Underwater footage reveals that the creatures scoop up halved coconut shells before scampering away with them so they can later use them as shelters.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, the team says it is the first example of tool use in octopuses.

One of the researchers, Dr Julian Finn from Australia's Museum Victoria, told BBC News: "I almost drowned laughing when I saw this the first time."

He added: "I could tell it was going to do something, but I didn't expect this - I didn't expect it would pick up the shell and run away with it." :shock:

The veined octopuses (Amphioctopus marginatus) were filmed between 1999 and 2008 off the coasts of Northern Sulawesi and Bali in Indonesia. The bizarre behaviour was spotted on four occasions.

The eight-armed beasts used halved coconuts that had been discarded by humans and had eventually settled in the ocean.

Dr Mark Norman, head of science at Museum Victoria, Melbourne, and one of the authors of the paper, said: "It is amazing watching them excavate one of these shells. They probe their arms down to loosen the mud, then they rotate them out."

After turning the shells so the open side faces upwards, the octopuses blow jets of mud out of the bowl before extending their arms around the shell - or if they have two halves, stacking them first, one inside the other - before stiffening their legs and tip-toeing away.

Dr Norman said: "I think it is amazing that those arms of pure muscle get turned into rigid rods so that they can run along a bit like a high-speed spider.

"It comes down to amazing dexterity and co-ordination of eight arms and several hundred suckers."

The octopuses were filmed moving up to 20m with the shells.

And their awkward gait, which the scientists describe as "stilt-walking", is surprisingly speedy, possibly because the creatures are left vulnerable to attack from predators while they scuttle away with their prized coconuts.

The octopuses eventually use the shells as a protective shelter. If they just have one half, they simply turn it over and hide underneath. But if they are lucky enough to have retrieved two halves, they assemble them back into the original closed coconut form and sneak inside.

The shells provide important protection for the octopuses in a patch of seabed where there are few places to hide.

Dr Norman explained: "This is an incredibly dangerous habitat for these animals - soft sediment and mud couldn't be worse.

"If they are buried loose in mud without a shell, any predator coming along can just scoop them up. And they are pure rump steak, a terrific meat supply for any predator."

The researchers think that the creatures would initially have used large bivalve shells as their haven, but later swapped to coconuts after our insatiable appetite for them meant their discarded shells became a regular feature on the sea bed.

Tool use was once thought to be an exclusively human skill, but this behaviour has now been observed in a growing list of primates, mammals and birds.

The researchers say their study suggests that these coconut-grabbing octopuses should now be added to these ranks.

Professor Tom Tregenza, an evolutionary ecologist from the University of Exeter, UK, and another author of the paper, said: "A tool is something an animal carries around and then uses on a particular occasion for a particular purpose.

"While the octopus carries the coconut around there is no use to it - no more use than an umbrella is to you when you have it folded up and you are carrying it about. The umbrella only becomes useful when you lift it above your head and open it up.

"And just in the same way, the coconut becomes useful to this octopus when it stops and turns it the other way up and climbs inside it."

He added that octopuses already have a reputation for being an intelligent invertebrate.

He explained: "They've been shown to be able to solve simple puzzles, there is the mimic octopus, which has a range of different species that it can mimic, and now there is this tool use.

"They do things which, normally, you'd only expect vertebrates to do."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8408233.stm
 
Cow jumps six feet on to roof
A cow has been caught jumping six feet on to a roof, after the owners thought they had been burgled.
Published: 6:20AM GMT 17 Dec 2009

Neighbour William de Cothi, 17, photographed the animal after he spotted it on the roof about six feet off the ground.

The Sixth Form student said: "I was looking out of my window when I saw the cow.

At first I thought that it was an illusion and that it was in the background and not really on the roof.

"But after a closer look I could see it was actually on the roof."

The teenager added: "I have heard cows can jump quite high, so I think that is how it got up there.

"I got my family to come and look later and they laughed. It was absolutely amazing."

The house owner in Blagdon, Somerset, called police after getting home to find her roof seriously damaged and smashed tiles as she feared a burglar had tried to break in. :shock:

Local PC Ray Bradley said: "This was initially recorded on my figures as a burglary so I am glad I can take it off.

"If it wasn't for the door-to-door enquires and this photo we wouldn't have found out it was a cow responsible." 8)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... -roof.html
 
Cavity cat saved by dead pigeons
Maxie
Maxie's owners had almost given up hope after he went missing in October

A cat which nearly died after being trapped in a cavity wall will be reunited with its owners later.

Six-year-old Maxie was rescued from Barnstaple Liberal Club by one of its members, Justin Barrow.

The cat, which was dehydrated and extremely emaciated, has been looked after at the special care unit of North Devon Animal Ambulance (NDAA).

"He probably only survived by eating dead pigeons which were also trapped in the cavity," NDAA's Diana Lewis said.


Maxie's still very thin, but he's got a clean bill of health
Diana Lewis, North Devon Animal Ambulance

"People at the club had heard the cat miaowing for more than two weeks, but just assumed it was outside.

"Justin became concerned when the noise became quieter and more distressed, so he and a cleaner at the club investigated, found the poor creature and contacted me."

Maxie's owners were traced last week, when Mr Barrow spotted a "missing" poster in the town and recognised the cat.

Tim and Helen Fowler said the cat had gone missing in October and the family had almost given up hope of finding him.

'Reindeer puppies'

"They contacted me and came to check it was really him," Mrs Lewis said. "Maxie's still very thin, but he's got a clean bill of health.

"I'm so pleased because he'll be back with his family for Christmas, so it's a very happy ending."

Mrs Lewis said the charity's special care unit was "choc-a-block as usual" in the run-up to Christmas with healthy, but unwanted pets, including dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and cockerels.

"We get all the usual excuses about family's going away or visitors coming who're allergic, then they don't bother to come back," Mrs Lewis said.

The newest additions are five Collie-cross puppies, which were born in the unit a few days ago.

Mrs Lewis said: "Volunteers have named them Donner, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer and Rudolph after Santa's reindeer."

The puppies will be rehomed in about eight weeks, when they have been weaned.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl ... 426284.stm
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Caught On Tape: Goat Rams Into Strip Club

Palm Springs, CA -- A break-in at a strip club in California has an unusual twist. The culprit was a real animal -- and it was all caught on surveillance tape.

The owner of LYNX Gentlemen's Club says he got to the club early Saturday morning to find blood and broken glass.

After looking over the security video, he saw a 150 pound goat busting through the 1/4 inch glass.

A man from the gas station across the street likely heard the glass break and rushed over to usher the goat out of the building.

The attack caused about $2,000 in damage.
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Jewel-covered beetle bugs US customs
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wor ... 26995.html
JAMES MEIKLE

IT WAS an unlikely fashion accessory, but the arrival of a jewel-encrusted beetle at a US border post bugged customs officers. A woman crossing from Mexico at Brownsville, Texas, declared the live insect decorated with blue and gold as she drove up to enter the state but she did not have the right paperwork.

Officers promptly confiscated the item worn as a brooch on the traveller’s sweater and sent it for further inspection. The beetle was attached to the woman’s clothing by a gold chain and safety pin.

The story of how the six-legged fashion victim was intercepted came in a press release and video from US Customs and Border Protection, part of the security machine responsible for protecting the US from terrorists and a body more used to trumpeting the seizure of cocaine, marijuana, hidden cash or fugitives.

“Officers seized the decorative clothing accessory and sent the live beetle to the Plant Inspection Station at Los Indios International Bridge for further identification. Because the traveller declared the insect no monetary civil penalty was issued,” the official account declared. Animal rights campaigners were less forgiving, reported the south Texan newspaper the Monitor.

Jaime Zalac, for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,said: “Beetles may not be as cute and cuddly as puppies and kittens, but they have the same capacity to feel pain and suffer. It’s ironic.

“We spend hours each week helping kind people find humane ways to relocate lost insects such as ants, bees and roaches that wander into their homes. People feel so good about not hurting them, while this woman paid someone to mutilate them.”

Beetle species have proved popular subjects for jewellery for centuries and attaching it to live beetles is apparently not uncommon in Mexico. Jackie Kennedy is said to have been given one with emeralds.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wor ... 26995.html
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Beer and massage for Powys farmer's rare Wagyu cattle
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wale ... 491210.stm

Wagyu cattle (generic)
Wagyu beef can cost up to £120 a kilo

One Welsh farmer is feeding his cows beer to help them relax, and he even throws in the occasional massage.

Ifor Humphreys is one of only a handful of UK breeders who keeps Japanese Wagyu cattle, and in a deal with a local brewery he gives them four pints a day.

Wagyu, also known as Kobe beef, is an expensive cut renowned for its taste.

The farmer, from Abermule, near Newtown, Powys, said beer helped relax the animals before slaughter, while massage improved muscle tone.

The beef is sold at some of London's most exclusive restaurants and by some of the city's top retailers, where a fillet can go for up to £120 a kilo.

They don't get drunk - they have a lie down and go to sleep
Farmer Ifor Humphreys

Mr Humphreys has 45 of the cattle and feeds them a tipple from Monty's Brewery, based in nearby Montgomery.

The beer he uses is a waste product, too high in yeast for people, but ideal for his animals.

"The brewery produces about four-and-a-half gallons of waste beer and I simply pour it in the trough and the cattle drink it," said Mr Humphreys, who farms 200 acres at Upper Bryntalch.

"They don't get drunk - they have a lie down and go to sleep. I'm sure you know it's very relaxing.

"It helps reduces stress, which in turn produces tastier beef. In Japan where they are kept on small farms, they are fed alcohol to stimulate their appetite in hot weather and a massage helps maintains muscle tone, especially for those in small stalls."

Mr Humphreys said he occasionally massaged his animals, but it was not a daily routine.

He explained that Wagyu beef was renowned for its "marbling", a sign of quality and something that gave the meat taste.

"I feed the cattle next in line for slaughter four pints of beer a day."

Russ Honeyman, of Monty Brewery, said Mr Humphreys received up to 80 litres of beer a week.

He also feeds them on grass and cereal produced at a neighbouring farm.

He now plans a tasting day at Coleg Powys in Newtown next month.

The cows are no stranger to Wales. Voelas Hall in the Lleyn Peninsula is regarded as one of the main breeding centres in Europe.
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All femal species?

Is There A Male Rotifer Somewhere Out There?

Biologist John Logsdon isn't totally convinced that bdelloid rotifers never have sex. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," he says.

In other words, just because nobody's ever seen a male rotifer, that's not proof they don't exist. Maybe they show up so rarely researchers just haven't been patient enough. Or maybe they don't like being watched.

Surely he means evidence of abstinence :lol:

(Read the whole piece on the breaking news section)
 
Keeping the cats in the loop
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... -loop.html

OUR colleague Jim Giles subscribes to Google Voice, the Google service which, among other things, transcribes incoming telephone messages and sends them to you as an email. Jim forwards on to Feedback a transcript of a call from the owners of the apartment he rents in London. The message was to enquire about some work being carried out there. It is, he suggests, evidence that computerised dictation has not reached maximum verisimilitude quite yet.

"Good Morning to you on Michael for French forces area so will you go out. Workman in your flight 046 44 life. Pace, Elco we must install a new phone working. I'm coming to tell the cats. I could please celebrate the contract. It's not working. M A D late. Thank you. If you can leave me. Another [phone number]. Thank you."

As you can imagine, Jim was particularly pleased that the cats were being kept in the loop.
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cat's head stuck in a tin

A cat that wandered into a Fife rescue centre with a can stuck on its head has left staff wondering how it reached them without being knocked down.

The female cat walked into the Scottish SPCA's Wildlife Rescue Centre in Middlebank on Sunday with her head wedged in an empty pet food tin.
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She took herself to a rescue centre? It happens I know but clever kitty!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edi ... 517727.stm
 
Wonderful piccie here:

What a hoot: The owls with a heavenly place to roost
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:25 PM on 22nd February 2010

As the perfect place to perch, it must have been the answer to their prayers.
Three inquisitive young barn owls used this lofty window for an early evening surveillance mission in a Norfolk churchyard.
Standing in the stone quatrefoil of Christ Church, Fulmodeston, they were keeping a beady eye open for a tasty snack of mouse, vole or shrew.

Wildlife photographer Richard Brooks waited patiently night after night to capture the owls, which had been seen making night-time flights in the churchyard, in perfect formation.

His efforts were rewarded when he saw the trio looking out from the opening at the very top of the church.
'They are naturally inquisitive birds,' he said. 'Part of it is food related, but they are also interested by any sounds - so they probably were looking for me.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0gLdJEMJC
 
Beer-drinking, smoking chimp sent to rehab
The former performer reportedly pesters zoo passers-by for booze

A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up, a popular daily reported on Friday.

An ex-performer, Zhora became aggressive at his circus and was transferred to a zoo in the southern Russian city of Rostov, where he fathered several baby chimps, learned to draw with markers and picked up his two vices.

"The beer and cigarettes were ruining him. He would pester passers-by for booze," the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said.

It added he has now been transferred to the city of Kazan, about 500 miles east of Moscow, for rehabilitation treatment.
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LINK
 
Mutchilba man catches 30kg barramundi 'in drain, with bare hands'
March 02, 2010

"THE fishing has improved in the inland community of Mutchilba - this resident grabbed a 30kg barra from a drain with his bare hands.
The Cairns Post reports baker Tony Bambino was driving home on Saturday when he spotted a 30kg barramundi swimming in the Sunwater irrigation channel.
"It was about 4pm in the arvo and I saw something shiny in the water," he said.
"Once I realised what it was, I grabbed it by the mouth with my hands.
"It took about 10-15 minutes to catch it and the hardest part was pulling it out of the channel and into the back of my ute."
Mr Bambino said the "massive" barra must have swum into the area before the fish trap was built at Walkamin."
http://www.news.com.au/national/mut...-with-bare-hands/story-e6frfkvr-1225836017978
 
Murder most fowl: Three hens and cockerel named Dude peck fox to death after it breaks into coop
By Luke Salkeld
Last updated at 10:24 AM on 03rd March 2010

Being chickens, they probably didn't put too much thought into it.
But somehow a flock of four birds managed to kill a fox that had slunk into their pen hoping to gobble them up.
Their owner Michelle Cordell, 43, had the shock of her life when she went to collect the eggs on the weekend and instead found a heavily pecked pile of fur lying dead in the corner. :shock:

She said: 'I was shocked. When I opened up the door, the chickens came running out, happy as anything.
'I went inside and the fox was laying there. I've never heard of anything like this before. It's like revenge of the chickens.'
The family, of Basildon, Essex, have in the past lost a hen and a cockerel to foxes, so are well aware of the danger the animals pose.
And so, it seems, are their chickens.

This time, the marauder was a relatively young fox - and no match for the new cockerel Dude and his hens Izzy, Pongo and Pecky.
Miss Cordell has no doubt it is Dude who was the ringleader in the murder.
She said she had shut the sliding door of the coop when she put the chickens to bed on Friday night, but the fox must have nosed his way under. When she went out on Saturday morning, the door was still shut.

The little table in the corner of the coop, which the chickens perch on, had been kicked over and was lying next to the fox's head.
It appeared to have fallen on him and knocked him out, leaving him an easy target for the beaks of the chickens.
Miss Cordell said she thinks they finished off the young fox with pecking as 'it had little blood marks on its legs. It had not been dead long'.
The table falling down could have been part of an elaborate plot hatched by the brood - but was more likely the lucky result of frantic squawking,flapping and running about.

Miss Cordell, who lives with partner Gary Howell, 45, and daughters Maddi, eight, and Ruby 13, began keeping chickens last summer because Maddi begged her to.
They lost their first two before Christmas, and were left with just Dude and Izzy, both a speckled variety.
Pongo and Pecky, both Rhode Island Reds, joined them a month ago.

'The fox was not a cub but it was only a young one and Dude and Izzy are big birds,' she said.
'It looks like the fox bit off more than he could chew this time.
'I reared Dude from a tiny little chick and he has become very protective of the others.
'He thinks he is human and chases our dogs around the garden, pecking them.
'Now he is a murderer.' 8)

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0h6xa5bM6
 
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