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Animal Poop & Pooping Behavior (Misc.)

Yithian

Parish Watch
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Penguins stay snug and secure in minefields

Tuesday, September 27, 2005; Posted: 11:46 a.m. EDT (15:46 GMT)

KIDNEY COVE, Falkland Islands (Reuters) -- There's a mating ritual going on in the minefield.

Fortunately the would-be lovers are penguins, too light to detonate the deadly mines laid more than two decades ago during a war on the far-flung Falkland Islands.

Thousands of penguins and other feathered and amphibious friends choose to nest and rest in no-go zones. The British estimate that some 25,000 land mines, mostly sown by Argentine forces in the 1982 war with Britain, remain.

On a recent day, the squawking penguins were busily finding partners, preparing nests and waddling about the mating grounds.

Wildlife numbers in the mined areas appear to be on the rise and conservationists cannot hide their enthusiasm about this unorthodox form of protecting lands previously trampled by people or overgrazed by sheep.

It is the bright spot in a long-term land mine problem -- one that is not likely to go away because de-mining is difficult, if not impossible, in the peaty soils and shifting sands of this South Atlantic archipelago.

Grant Munro, director of Falklands Conservation, says the boost to wildlife is a bit anecdotal since "it has really not been looked into, for obvious reasons."

"But you see an assemblage of plants in the minefields, all fenced and inspected, with no livestock inside. Vegetation has had a chance to recover," he added.

117 minefields left in islands
Most of the 150 minefields were laid around the capital, Stanley, when Argentine forces landed there in April 1982 to claim the islands taken by the British in 1833. The British armed forces defeated the Argentines 10 weeks later in a war that killed 650 Argentines and 250 British.

Some mines were cleared right after the conflict in a joint British-Argentine effort. Today there are 117 minefields left, 87 of them in the Stanley area where two-thirds of the islands' 2,900 people live.

Stanley is also the landing point for nearly 40,000 tourists who come on cruise ships every summer to ogle the wildlife, much like the greatest of all naturalists, Charles Darwin, did in 1833-34.

One of the mined areas is at Kidney Cove, a stunningly idyllic stretch of beach across from Stanley where four species of penguins -- gentoo, king, rockhopper and Magellanic -- show up every year.

At the end of winter, the first 500 of 1,500 gentoo pairs begin their mating ritual at Kidney Cove after feeding in the cold waters. They waddle up from the mined beach to nesting areas among the tussock and diddle dee vegetation.

One of their favorite spots is on the mined side of fences with "Danger Mines" and skull and crossbones signs. Tourists are kept on the safe side of the fence, allowing the nervous, partner-seeking penguins to forget about encroaching humans.

Habitat protected
"The gentoos come up on Kidney Cove and can rest there because it is in a minefield," said Adrian Lowe, who runs penguin safaris on his family farm. "It is their natural habitat. Only the minefield fences are man-made."

Just a few miles outside Stanley sits Yorke Bay, a sweeping crescent beach with calm waters where locals used to swim and barbecue. As an ideal place for an amphibious landing, it was heavily mined in the war.

Next door is Gypsy Cove, where experts believe mines might have washed over from Yorke Bay, forcing authorities to also fence off that area.

Gypsy Cove visitors can still see Magellanic penguins, rock cormorants, black-crowned night herons and dolphins from the walkway at the top of the cliff. The nutritious tussock grass, which sheep reduced to 20 percent of its original cover, is making a comeback at Gypsy Cove.

Incredibly, no civilian has died or been injured by the land mines and just one officer lost a foot in 1984 on the perimeter of a minefield. The fences were extended after that.

The government and the British forces still spend a lot of time educating the population and won't hesitate to hand down hefty penalties -- 1,500 pounds ($2,670) and a year in jail -- for anyone stupid enough to jump the fences. Some tourists were caught posing for pictures on the wrong side of the fence.

But Sgt. Maj. Mick Owen, who heads up the local Explosive Ordinance Disposal, calls the Falklands "the most controlled mined area in the world."

Leaving things be
Argentina, which puts the number of remaining mines closer to 15,000, is offering to help clear more fields to adhere to an international treaty on land mines.

Falkland Islanders, however, are not pressing on the issue, and most believe it is better not to fiddle with the fields.

"There is a risk that only 95 percent would be removed," said Falkland Islands Gov. Howard Pearce. "You would bring a sense of complacency to the community and increase rather than reduce the chance of injury."

Besides, he noted, "The environmentalists like them."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/ ... index.html
 
Another reason to be suspicious of those power-hungry little gits!
 
Steve Bell

I remember Steve Bell had a cartoon strip during the Malvinas (Falklands) War. It involved a nuclear powered punt whose crew had adopted a sarcastic penguin as a mascot.
 
I've got the second book of cartoons in the series.

The penguin joins forces with a demobbed sailor from the Falklands War to wage a terrorist war against Thatcher.
 
How are Penguins too light to set off mines? They look fat enough to.
 
Dung warning over missing buffalo

Police have warned people not to approach six missing water buffalo as "they are able to spray dung across large distances".
The buffalo were last seen in a field in Lower Pennington Lane, Lymington, Hampshire, on Wednesday evening.

Police believe the six animals were stolen because there was no trail of tell-tale dung at the scene.

A police spokesman said members of the public should not approach the buffalo from behind.

Pc Christopher Yates said: "Apparently these animals leave an obvious trail of dung if they walk anywhere, and there is no such trail so it's possible they have been removed using a large vehicle.

"The water buffalo are large, black animals with horns. If they are wandering in the forest, they will look obviously out of place.

"They are usually docile and tend to stay in a group but should not be approached from behind as the person caring for them has advised that the animals are able to spray dung across large distances."

The suspected theft comes after buffalo broke loose in Lymington last November. It has not yet been said if it is the same herd.

The majority of water buffalo are to be found in Asia but have been increasingly used in the UK to produce speciality milk, cheese and yoghurts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hamp ... 700342.stm
 
Dung warning over missing buffalo

Police have warned people not to approach six missing water buffalo as "they are able to spray dung across large distances".

How far? I mean are you OK at 100 metres??
 
Nah!

Don't worry - you'll be safe behind a fan...

:lol:





I'll get my coat
 
Pig manure swamps German village

A village in the German state of Bavaria is recovering after being flooded with liquid pig manure.

A tank containing the fetid fertiliser burst, sending a deluge of porcine waste into the courtyards and streets of Elsa, police said.

The sewage was half a metre (1.6ft) deep in places.

"The village was swamped with green-brown liquid - the mother of all muck," police spokesman Rainer Prediger, from nearby Coburg, said.

The tank held about 52,800 gallons (240,000 litres) of fertiliser, Reuters news agency reported.

"It was not very pleasant for the villagers," Volker Munk of Coburg police told the BBC News website.

Officer Munk said the slurry ran down the main street, flooding the ground floors of several homes.

Police estimated the accident caused damage that will cost about 100,000 euros (£68,000) to repair, Reuters said.

------------
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/e ... 741262.stm

Published: 2006/02/22 19:11:28 GMT

© BBC MMVI
 
Ee-uw. I used to live on a road that local pig farms used to cart the animals to slaughter houses, and there are few things less pleasant to smell than those kinds of pig products.

Going back to the first post, having worked in retail that doesn't surprise me. I've often found piles of that most special of presents out on the shop floor - don't you just love the Great British Public? :roll:
 
Welcome to Thunderdome!

LINK
Behold the power of poop
City hopes to mine dog park for energy

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- City officials are hoping to harness the power of dog waste in this dog-friendly city where animal feces make up nearly 4 percent of residential waste.

San Franciscans already recycle more than 60 percent of their garbage, but officials hope to turn into energy the 6,500 tons (5,897 metric tons) of dog waste a year -- nearly as much as disposable diapers, according to the city.

Within the next few months, Norcal Waste, a garbage hauling company that collects San Francisco's trash, will begin a pilot program under which it will use biodegradable bags and dog-waste carts to pick up droppings at a popular dog park. The droppings will be tossed into a contraption called a methane digester, which is basically a tank in which bacteria feed on feces for weeks to create methane gas.

The methane could then be piped directly to a gas stove, heater, turbine or anything else powered by natural gas. It can also be used to generate electricity. Methane digesters are nothing new. The technology was introduced in Europe about 20 years ago, and more than 600 farm-based digesters are in operation there. Nine are in use on California dairy farms, and chicken and hog farms elsewhere in the United States also use them.

Neither Norcal Waste spokesman Robert Reed nor Will Brinton, a Maine-based recycling and composting consultant, knew of anyone in the United States who is using the $1 million (euro840,000) devices to convert pet waste to energy. But Brinton said some European countries process dog droppings along with food and yard waste. "The main impediment is probably getting communities around the country the courage to collect it, to give value to something we'd rather not talk about," Brinton said. "San Francisco is probably the king of pet cities. This could be very important to them."

San Francisco -- the city named after Saint Francis, patron saint of animals -- has an estimated 240,000 dogs and cats. Some experts believe methane digestion must become more attractive economically before it gets popular. Landfill space is relatively cheap, and natural gas and electricity also remain fairly inexpensive. Reed points to San Francisco's groundbreaking food composting program, which began 10 years ago, as proof an unusual idea can work in this forward-thinking city. A Norcal Waste subsidiary collects 300 tons (272 metric tons) of food scraps per day from homes and restaurants and converts it into a rich fertilizer sold to vineyards and organic farms.

"Now, the city's asked us to look at dog waste specifically," Reed said. Because animal waste contains disease causing germs, composting it at home with yard waste and food scraps can be unsafe.
 
Ding Dang Dung

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060304/ap_on_sc/cow_dung_gasoline
Japanese Make Gasoline From Cattle Dung
By KOZO MIZOGUCHI, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO - Scientists in energy-poor Japan said Friday they have found a new source of gasoline — cattle dung.

Sakae Shibusawa, an agriculture engineering professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, said his team has successfully extracted .042 ounces of gasoline from every 3.5 ounces of cow dung by applying high pressure and heat.

"The new technology will be a boon for livestock breeders" to reduce the burden of disposing of large amounts of waste, Shibusawa said. About 551,155 tons of cattle dung are produced each year in Japan, he said. Gasoline extracted from cow dung is unheard of, said Tomiaki Tamura, an official of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency. Japan relies almost totally on imports for its oil and gasoline needs.

The team, helped by staff from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology near Tokyo, produced gasoline by adding several unspecified metal catalysts to the dung inside a container and applying a 30-atmosphere pressure and heat of up to 300 degrees Celsius (572 Fahrenheit), Shibusawa said. Details of the catalysts could not be disclosed, he added.

The team hopes to improve the technology so that it can be used commercially within five years, Shibusawa said. In a separate experiment revealing another unusual business potential for cow dung, another group of researchers has successfully extracted an aromatic ingredient of vanilla from cattle dung, said Miki Tsuruta, a Sekisui Chemical Co. spokeswoman. The extracted ingredient, vanillin, can be used as fragrance in shampoo and candles, she said.

Tsuruta said the vanillin was extracted from a dung solution in a pressurized cooker in a project co-organized by a Japanese medical research institute.
 
It's a strange world isn't it!?!

----------
Protesters assault officials with manure

Monday, March 13, 2006 - Bangor Daily News << Back

ELLSWORTH - Two masked protesters disrupted an informational meeting Saturday at City Hall and attacked two state agriculture officials with cow manure. No one was seriously injured, and the pair of assailants escaped.

State veterinarian Dr. Don Hoenig and Shelley Doak, director of animal industry for the Maine Department of Agriculture, were winding up a meeting with local farmers when the attack occurred.

The two protesters entered the upstairs auditorium at City Hall dressed in black, wearing caricature masks and carrying "manure pies," a mixture of manure and wood shavings in aluminum pie tins.

They threw the manure at the two officials with enough force that the spray also struck several of the attendees, including a reporter for a weekly paper, and spattered against walls.

The two left the auditorium and escaped through the front door of City Hall, pursued by at least one of the meeting organizers. They fled through the City Hall parking lot toward Main Street and then disappeared.

The meeting had been arranged to discuss proposed legislation that would authorize the state's agriculture department to develop rules for a livestock identification and tracking program.

Although the discussion had been sometimes heated during the session, it had been, for the most part, civil, until then.

Meeting organizers were upset with the attack and feared that it might undo the good the conversation had achieved. Organizer Lore Lipvich of Mariaville said she was appalled by the action.

"We're trying to work this through so everybody benefits," Lipvich said. "This is not the message we were trying to send."

The attack ended the meeting, but Doak and Hoenig remained for a while cleaning themselves off with paper towels and continued to discuss the identification issue with farmers.

Hoenig said he would insist on a police presence for future meetings on this issue.

Police searched the area but were not able to find the attackers. While some witnesses thought the manure came from a horse, the police report referred to the substance as cow manure.

The case remains under investigation.

www.bangordailynews.com/news/templates/?a=130445
 
Mmmmmmmmmm vanilla:

Vanilla smell extracted from cow dung

07.03.06 5.20am

Japanese researchers have succeeded in making the sweet smell of vanilla come out of cow dung.

A heating process allows cow faeces to produce vanillin, the main component of the vanilla-bean extract, said Mayu Yamamoto of the International Medical Centre.

It could be used in shampoo and candles but not food as "it would be difficult for people to accept [given disclosure of] origins of ingredients".

www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_ ... D=10371369
 
Shit! What's Happening?

Amish village gripped by mystery of the missing manure
Nicholas Wapshott in New York
(Filed: 21/05/2006)

Horse manure left behind by the local Amish community, whose religious beliefs insist that they travel in horse-drawn buggies, has suddenly started disappearing from the streets of Middlefield village - 30 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio - leaving a whiff of mystery in the otherwise uneventful rural spot.

Lisza Wright, who is employed by Middlefield village council to clean up the mess that the Amish horses leave behind, first noticed that equine excreta had disappeared from outside the local Wal-Mart, the Middlefield Mini-Market, the CVS pharmacy and from the Harrington Square shopping plaza.

Fearing that she could find herself out of a job, Mrs Wright filed a complaint to police about the "suspicious situation".

Police launched an investigation, suspecting that "some local gardener was taking the manure and using it as fertiliser". But the culprit was never found.

The mystery of the missing horse manure has left the local authorities completely flummoxed.

"We have just domestic calls and we might have a theft once in a while, and a long time ago we had a couple of bank robberies, but nothing like this," said Dan Weir, 54, the village administrator, who serves the 2,233-strong farming community across Geauga County.

Mr Weir cannot quite understand why, in an area which is completely rural, and where every farm has at least one horse, the thieves have to take the droppings that the Amish horses leave behind.

"You would think there would be plenty out there for everybody," he said.

The Amish, a conservative Christian group inspired in Europe in the 17th century by the Menonnite faith, do not believe in embracing the trappings of modern life.

Since migrating to the United States in the early 18th century, the group has attempted to preserve the elements of late 17th century European rural culture, and has deliberately developed practices that isolate it from American culture.

The strictest Amish communities are not allowed to own cars or tractors, do not use electricity or electrical equipment and are not permitted to have telephones in their homes.

Mrs Wright, who is paid $25,000 (£13,300) a year to make a daily round to tidy up at around 40 hitching posts around the town, expressed concern that she was hired to remove the neat and compact nuggets of dung left behind by horses, but the mess spread around by the thieves as they removed the manure took twice as long for her to clean up.

The council made no comment on whether Mrs Wright's pay should be increased to take account of her new duties of cleaning up after the thieves.
http://tinyurl.com/hf3zh
 
She's a criminal mastermind and playing a double bluff. She has removed said horse poo for private and sale and has complained to push the trail awayfrom her. Case closed. :lol: :lol: (The rose hand gang...anybody???)
 
bumping this thread up for more news of the poo's!

Leeds student may sue after excrement vanishes

A PhD student may sue the University of Leeds after it destroyed his five-and-a-half stone bag of rare lizard excrement.


Daniel Bennett has threatened to take the university to court after it destroyed the material, produced by the rare Butaan lizard.

It had been painstakingly collected for his research project in the university's faculty of biological sciences.

His PhD was based on analysing samples he gathered in fieldwork in remote areas of the Philippines.

When he returned for his third year he found his desk occupied by another student – and his samples burnt by university technicians.

He said: "I was surprised to find my desk space occupied by another student. My personal effects had been carefully stowed in boxes, but there was no sign of my 35kg bag of lizard ****."

He said he had been offered £500 compensation, but had refused the money.

The reptile – a close relative of the Komodo dragon –- was assumed extinct for more than 100 years. Mr Bennett spent five years investigating its diet, numbers and behaviour by sifting through faeces found on the jungle floor.

He then won a scholarship at the university where he was paid to analyse more samples.

A university spokeswoman said Mr Bennett had received an apology and a full response. "He is appealing against this, so the matter is still active; we are unaware of any legal action.

"The loss of these samples was an unfortunate mistake; they were thrown away in error because they were in an unmarked bag. Lessons have been learned and protocols improved to ensure this cannot happen again.

"Mr Bennett is due to graduate with his PhD this year, subject to minor corrections to his thesis unrelated to the loss of the materials."

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 4953220.jp
 
It's shit hot man!

Life thrives in Antarctic hot spots created by seal and penguin poop
By Helen Santoro May. 9, 2019 , 11:00 AM

In the desolate Antarctic landscape, life is hard to come by—unless you’re near some seal and penguin poop. The nitrogen-rich feces enrich the soil and create hot spots with lots of biological diversity that can extend more than 1000 meters beyond the borders of penguin and seal colonies, according to a new study.

Scientists trekked through fields of waste created by elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) and Antarctic penguins, including gentoo (Pygoscelis papua), chinstrap (P. antarcticus, pictured), and Adélie penguins (P. adeliae). The team examined the soil and plants surrounding these colonies at three separate locations along the Antarctic peninsula. Where there are more seals and penguins—and more of their poop—there was more biodiversity in the land, the researchers report today in Current Biology.

The feces partially evaporate as ammonia, which then can get blown more than 1000 meters inland by the wind and is absorbed into the soil, the scientists note. ...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/201...rctic-hot-spots-created-seal-and-penguin-poop
 
Cool shit!

A car owner in India has gone to extreme lengths to protect her vehicle from the punishing summer, as the mercury in the western city of Ahmedabad crosses 45 degrees Celsius.

An image of her car being shared on social media showed her Toyota sedan completely slathered with cow dung to keep it cool in the hot weather, local media reported.

“Best use of cow dung I have ever seen,” wrote Facebook user Rupesh Gauranga Das after sharing the images of the vehicle on the social media platform.

https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/sout...-owner-protects-vehicle-layer-cow-dung-summer
 
I kind of miss seeing dogshits with a wooden icelolly stick jammed into them lying on the pavement.

I think this page of dog-dirt nostalgia may appeal, even without a lolly-stick! :exercise:

My home-town was full of the stuff. We dreaded certain roads, especially at night, when some streetlamps were out.

One day, we were a few miles from home, when my brother fell into a horrible mound of the stuff. My Grandmother was convinced that she knew someone in the neighbourhood, so we went from door-to-door in search of her. The horrific looks on the faces of the ladies who answered the door have stayed with me to this day.

No, we could not come in anyway. Go away! :omg:
 
I think this page of dog-dirt nostalgia may appeal, even without a lolly-stick!:exercise:

My home-town was full of the stuff. We dreaded certain roads, especially at night, when some streetlamps were out.

One day, we were a few miles from home, when my brother fell into a horrible mound of the stuff. My Grandmother was convinced that she knew someone in the neighbourhood, so we went from door-to-door in search of her. The horrific looks on the faces of the ladies who answered the door have stayed with me to this day.

No, we could not come in anyway. Go away! :omg:

One of the few things I find better about modern life is that because most people now pick up their dog's stools, its rare to walk along the street and see a huge swarm of flies rise up in front of you as you approach a jobby on the pavement.
 
...my brother fell into a horrible mound of the stuff.

One Christmas Eve in the late Nineties l had to work. To make things even better, l ended up in a fight with some gobby drunk. l eventually got him prone and went to cuff him, but noticed that his struggles seemed to increase in strength (and volume) the more l pushed his head down.

Long story short, l eventually managed to get the Speedcuffs on him and get him back on his feet. lt was only at this point that l realised that his epileptic threshings and incoherent howls had been due to the fact that l’d splatted him face-down into an enormous pile of dog toffee. He was liberally slathered in canine exhaust, and l too had picked up some fallout.

Booking in before the custody sergeant was...strained.

Even more clenched was the tiny gathering of my shift at midnight. As an indulgence, management allowed us into the nick for a small glass of sherry. lt was very obvious that the rest of my crew was trying to project an image of shift solidarity, while trying to cram themselves into the corner of the custody office farthest from wherever l was.

Thank goodness for wash-and-wear uniforms.

maximus otter
 
Strange as it might seem, I kind of miss seeing dogshits with a wooden icelolly stick jammed into them lying on the pavement.
I saw a dog shit on our street a couple of years back that some genius had lovingly carefully placed a plastic knife and fork on either side of and a triangular folded napkin. I was inspired by this cheerful street art so made a little pirate flag using paper and a cocktail stick and spiked it into the next one I saw.
 
Strange as it might seem, I kind of miss seeing dogshits with a wooden icelolly stick jammed into them lying on the pavement.

I saw a dog shit on our street a couple of years back that some genius had lovingly carefully placed a plastic knife and fork on either side of and a triangular folded napkin. I was inspired by this cheerful street art so made a little pirate flag using paper and a cocktail stick and spiked it into the next one I saw.

So tell me if I'm wrong, but was the point of this to try to get toddlers and young children to eat it? When I was in UK back in my 20s and saw this, that was what I was told. I also know that the trap was often successful, with distraught parents winding up in Hospital emergency with their little coprophages over it ( I was dating Anna Neisthetist at the time, and her nurse buddies told me).
 
I saw a dog shit on our street a couple of years back that some genius had lovingly carefully placed a plastic knife and fork on either side of and a triangular folded napkin. I was inspired by this cheerful street art so made a little pirate flag using paper and a cocktail stick and spiked it into the next one I saw.
Cromer - always classy
 
was the point of this to try to get toddlers and young children to eat it?

The same Grannie who took us door-to-door in a vain attempt to find somewhere to clean up my little brother had some earlier experience of dog-shit. Unwisely, perhaps, she once confided that one of her merriest recollections of childhood was preparing a dog-shit* sandwich for a schoolmate. The fact that Grannie had done this, and admitted it, may have been our excuse for the day we ran up to her and a stately friend, proffering a dog-sausage in a Mars Bar wrapper.

"Is it choclit?" enquired the friend, affecting not to hear what we had actually shouted.
What goes around, comes around. We were certainly in deep shit for it later! :dpoo:


*At least, I think it was dog-shit. This incident was well over a century ago! Had Grannie, perchance, dealt the dollop herself? Probably not, though I would not have put it past her!
 
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