Bizarre animals

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The squirrel photo crasher: How cheeky rodent became star of couple's holiday snap
12th August 2009

The strangest things often pop up when you least expect them. But normally these episodes usually have nothing to do with squirrels. So Melissa Brandts was given the surprise of her life when a curious rodent cheekily joined a photograph she and her husband were posing for.

The couple, who were exploring Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park, Canada, had stopped to take a timed picture of themselves by its picturesque shoreline. Mrs Brandts explained: ‘We had our camera set up on some rocks and were getting ready to take the picture when this curious little ground squirrel appeared, became intrigued with the sound of the focusing camera and popped right into our shot’

The image is so startling that, had it not ran on the prestigious National Geographic magazine's website, many might have assumed it had been digitally altered. Not so, according to Ms Brandts, who told the magazine: ‘It was a once in a lifetime moment - we were laughing about this little guy for days!’

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[web]https://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_ne ... 210394.stm[/web]

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www.montauk-monster.com

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[web]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... inner.html[/web]

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The psychedelic seaslugs that outshine their garden cousins
9th November 2009

These stunning creatures may look like terrifying monsters from the deep - but they are in fact only an inch long. The Nudibranchs, commonly known as sea slugs, are incredibly difficult to spot as many resemble the texture and colour of surrounding plants. Divers can spend years in the sea without ever seeing one because they are so cleverly disguised.

The incredible images were taken by researcher and photographer Thomas Vignaud, who was diving off the coast of southern France. The 23 year old said: 'Most of the nudibranchs have totally incredible colours - like underwater living jewels designed by an artist. There are several thousand known species but we're far from finding the real total. The vivid colours are, like for other animals, used to warn any potential predator, 'I'm not good to eat'. Nudibranch are the perfect subject for an underwater photographer with a macro lens because of their wonderful colours. Finding one of them is always a pleasure, and you know you'll get a good shot. All over the world, pollution and fishing have made the underwater world almost empty. But even in the most deserted places, in the dirtiest waters, you can find a wonderful red, white, blue and yellow sea slug.'

Mr Vignaud, from Marseille, France, said that if you don't know what they are, Nudibranchs are very difficult to find. He added: 'I don't think there is any country in the world with sea that doesn't have any of the magic creatures. But if you have never heard of them then you can dive for several years and never meet any. If you start to know them better, and know how to find them, you'll probably see several every time you go diving.'

Nudibranchs live in virtually all depths of salt water, but reach their greatest size and variation in warm, shallow waters. There are around 3,000 known species found all over the world with the largest growing up to 25inches in length. Many nudibranchs release poison from the sides of their bodies to defend themselves. It is believed that in the course of evolution, nudibranchs have lost their shells and developed other defence mechanisms. Some have developed their anatomy to blend in perfectly with the surrounding plants while others have bright, intense colouring to deter predators.

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Even the name's cool - nudibranch!

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Youths push shopping trolley sheep into supermarket
The RSPCA has condemned "stupid, irresponsible" pranksters who stole a sheep, put it into a shopping trolley and wheeled it into a supermarket.
28 Nov 2009

The youths were caught on CCTV at 3am as they pushed the sheep into the Asda store in Bexleyheath, south east London, and took photos. RSPCA inspector Andrew Kirby, who is investigating the incident, said: "This stupid, irresponsible stunt would have terrified this poor sheep and caused it great stress by removing it from its flock. We have tracked down the sheep's owner but we can't return it to its flock for six days because of restrictions on the movement of livestock." He said the sheep appeared to be in good physical condition.

It is believed the sheep, stolen from a farm in the Gravesend area of Kent, was taken by car to the supermarket. Asda is also appealing for witnesses to the stunt to contact the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999. Store manager Joe Lock said: "We were shocked to discover that a poor sheep had been wheeled into our store. We hope the culprits hand themselves in."

Supermarket staff nicknamed the sheep Rob.

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Pigs really can fly....with the help of a trampoline
Scarlet is trying to prove that pigs really can fly....with the help of a trampoline.
5 Dec 2009
telegraph.co.uk

Gwen Howell discovered her pet's hidden talent after leaving her on the family's trampoline in their garden. Scarlet, a Hungarian mangalitza, loves bouncing around the orchard of her home in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Mrs Howell, 46, an estate agent, said the piglet took over the hobby from their other pet pig Percy after he got too fat. She and husband Steve, 43, had placed Percy, who is also Scarlet's father, on their eight year-old daughter Alex's trampoline several months ago when they discovered its unique circus skills. Gwen said: "We decided we would try and put our boar, Percy on the trampoline one day and he absolutely loved it. He is very tame and quite trainable. He was on there and just went for it and started jumping up and down, we couldn't believe it. It was hard to get him off.

"The only problem is Percy has piled on the pounds and is way to porky to put on the trampoline nowadays. So we tried to put Scarlet on there. Whenever you pick a pig up they squeal really loudly. But we picked her up and of course she screamed, but as soon as she was placed on the trampoline she stopped. She started sniffing around and started to walk on it, then we put some food on there and she started feeling her feet.

"She started to jump a bit and she has only been doing it for three days, for 45 minutes a time, she loves it. All our friends want to see Scarlet in action as soon as they get here, she's become the star attraction. The pigs seem to love the trampoline even more than our two daughters."

Now the Howells plan to get their flying pig an audience with Simon Cowell in the next series of Britain's Got Talent. They are taking Scarlet, Percy and several more of their pet pigs to auditions for the show at Birmingham's NEC next Thursday. Mrs Howell said: "We are really looking forward to going down to Britains Got Talent. Scarlet will be trampolining and two of our other pigs, Arthur and Polly, will be doing their own dances nearby. We hope the judges will be impressed and fingers crossed next week we will have some good news."

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Taekwondo monkeys attack trainer
A troop of performing monkeys instructed in the martial art of taekwondo has taken revenge on their trainer.
16 Dec 2009[/align]
Lo Wung, 42, taught the monkeys so they could entertain crowds outside a shopping centre in Nshi, in eastern China's Hubei province. But the money-spinning primates turned the tables on their trainer when he slipped during a show, with one quick-thinking monkey flooring him with a kick to the head.

Hu Luang, 32, a bystander who photographed the incident, said: "I saw one punch him in the eye - he grabbed another by the ear and it responded by grabbing his nose. They were leaping and jumping all over the place. It was better than a Bruce Lee film."

At one point the monkey trainer grabbed a staff to hit the monkeys, only to find himself facing a stick-brandishing monkey that cracked him over the head. He only managed to get the monkeys under control by tangling them up in the rope that had been used to stop them running off.

Mr Hu said: "He was really furious, he made the monkeys kneel on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs to punish them and make them show remorse for their nasty attack."

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Boffins Create See-Through Goldfish
28th December 2009[/align]
FIRST came see-through frogs but now boffins have come up up with see-through fish. Scientists in Japan have succeeded in producing goldfish whose beating hearts can be seen through translucent scales and skin. The transparent creatures are part of efforts to reduce the need for dissections, which have become increasingly controversial, particularly in schools.

Professor Yutaka Tamaru, at Mie University, said: "You can see a live heart and other organs because the scales and skin have no pigments. You don't have to cut it open. You can see a tiny brain above the goldfish's black eyes."

The joint team of researchers at Mie University and Nagoya University in central Japan produced the "ryukin" goldfish by picking mutant hatchery goldfish with pale skin and breeding them together. Tamaru said: "Having a pale colour is a disadvantage for goldfish in an aquarium but it's good to see how organs sit in a body three-dimensionally," .

The fish are expected to live up to roughly 20 years and could grow as long as 25 centimetres (10 inches) and weigh more than two kilograms (5lbs). Tamaru added: "As this goldfish grows bigger, you can watch its whole life".

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The mystery 'Buckshaw Beast' that is savaging animals and terrorising villagers
20th January 2010

A mystery beast blamed for mauling animals in and around a remote village has been captured on film for the first time. Dubbed the 'Buckshaw Beast', it has been described as a mix between a wild boar and a wolf.

Tony Kenvig, who lives in the Lancashire village of Buckshaw, says he caught sight of the beast as it rifled through his bins late one night. He said: 'All the rubbish was strewn over my garden. This happened on a few occasions and one night I heard snuffles and looked out of my window and saw some kind of hyena standing rigid on its back legs.' He said incidents involving the wolf-like creature first began in early October last year. Since then, residents of Buckshaw Village on social networking sites have been busy trying to establish what the animal is.

Another resident, Shelley Levene, said: 'I've seen it too. It's not a dog. I have two Alsations, both ex-police dogs. I saw it going through my bins. I couldn't understand why they weren't barking, so I went down to investigate and they were shaking and cowering in their kennel. Just the scent of this thing must have been enough to spook them. I no longer walk the streets of Buckshaw alone at night anymore and would advise all other residents to start to be vigilant.

John Russell, who managed to photograph the beast said: 'This is crazy. I can't work out what it is. This was no boar. I saw it move and it had a feline movement. They say it's to blame for the recent deer slayings.' Chris Bailey, from Chipping Wild Boar Park, said it was possible a wild boar could display such behaviour - but it was very unlikely. He said: 'If they are really hungry they could eat a deer. There is lots of countryside around there that they could go into so it is possible. But I'm surprised. I have heard of cases like this before - but only when they are very hungry and looking for food.'

After examining the picture, Mr Bailey said the animal's features did not appear to match those of a wild boar. He said: 'Unfortunately, the picture isn't too clear, but from what we can see, the nose seems shorter and the back legs are different. They look similar to that of a dog.'

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It's a strange looking thing for sure - like a mutant badger. In fact, maybe that's what it is...

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So you think you've had a bad day? Spare a thought for the world's most miserable-looking fish, which is now in danger of being wiped out


In deep trouble: The blobfish is threatened with extinction owing to deep-sea trawling

The unfortunately named blobfish has already acquired a reputation for looking sad.

And now it has good reason for its glum expression - scientists are warning over-fishing by trawlers of its south eastern Australian habitat is threatening to make it extinct.

The bloated bottom dweller, which can grow up to 12 inches, lives at depths of up to 800m, so it rarely seen by humans.

But thanks to increased fishing, the fish is being dragged up with other catches.

Despite being unedible itself, the blobfish lives at the same depths as other more appetising ocean organisms, including crab and lobster.

Deep-sea expert Professor Callum Roberts, from University of York, said the blobfish had plenty to be miserable about.

Prof Roberts, author The Unnatural History of the Sea, said: 'Blobfish are very vulnerable to being dragged up in these nets and from what we know this fish is only restricted to these waters.

'The Australian and New Zealand deep-trawling fishing fleets are some of the most active in the world so if you are a blobfish then it is not a good place to be.

'A very large amount of the deep sea is under threat from bottom trawling, which is one of the most destructive forms of fishing.

'There are some deep-water protected areas around sea mounts in the Southern Ocean but that is only really to protect coral and not the blobfish.

'We've been overfishing areas up to about 200m deep and now we have moved off those continental shelves and into the deep sea in areas a couple of thousand metres deep.

'In 2006 conservationists came very close to achieving a global moratorium on restricting bottom trawling on the high seas.

'They came within a whisker of that but Iceland rejected it so the United Nations was charged with protecting the deep sea species.

'If you add together all the area of the deep sea that has actually been looked at, then it is an area about the size of Paris - [the rest] is a really unexplored area, but we could be destroying it.'

from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... d-out.html

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Crabzilla climbs out of the deep
12th February, 2010

‘Crabzilla’ has a body the size of a basketball and measures 3m (10ft) from claw to claw – big enough to straddle a car. The Japanese spider crab was caught in the Pacific and will be on display at Birmingham’s National Sea Life centre until the end of March when it will start a new life in Belgium. ‘He dwarfs the other crabs – but he’s not aggressive so they’ve nothing to worry about,’ said Sea Life’s Graham Burrows.

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Surfer trains alpaca to ride the waves in Peru
A Peruvian surfer has spent a decade training dogs to ride the nose of his board when he catches waves, and now he is the first to do so with an alpaca.
16 Mar 2010

Domingo Pianezzi, 44, has slowly introduced his alpaca Pisco, a domesticated Andean highland animal that resembles a small llama, to the waters of the Pacific Ocean over the past several months. The duo caught three waves on a yellow 10-foot longboard on Tuesday at a small break south of Lima, Peru's capital. Pisco, wearing a flotation vest, crouched on the board while taking off on each wave and cruised for a few seconds before bailing into the water with a bit of a fright.

Mr Pianezzi, who teaches surfing to children and has competed before at international contests for people and their surfing dogs, came up with the idea of hitting the waves with an alpaca while visiting Australia. "I've surfed with a dog, a parrot, a hamster and a cat, but when I was at a competition in Australia I saw people surfing with kangaroos and koalas," said Mr Pianezzi, who trains the alpaca in the Peruvian beach town of San Bartolo. "So I thought that, as a Peruvian, it would be interesting to surf with a unique animal that represents Peru."

Mr Pianezzi said some San Bartolo residents have accused him of mistreating Pisco by taking a mountain animal into the ocean. Others, however, regard him as an innovator. There are other hurdles. Unlike a labrador, an alpaca does not instinctively jump into the sea for a swim. However, Pisco, named after the distinctive Peruvian liquor distilled from grapes, is getting used to the water, according to Mr Pianezzi.

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Smiley Riley, the dog with a human grin
Just like a happy youngster, birthday boy Riley wolfs down his cake and pulls a satisfied ‘doggy-smile’ for the camera.

It looks like man’s best friend – or at least a pampered poodle – has finally figured out how to make the human gesture of happiness. Riley the dog almost pulled off the illusion while sitting at the table, wearing a hat and celebrating his first birthday with a cake. In fact, owner Maureen Ravelo, 22, from San Jose, California, said Riley’s face was so expressive that she frequently forgets he is a dog.

‘Riley always makes faces like this, and that’s the best part about him. He gives you a new facial expression every time that you forget he’s a dog,’ she said. He can also affect a ‘snobbish’ and a ‘curious’ look, she added. Even Riley – a bichon frise/poodle mix – seems confused about his identity. ‘The most unique part about him is he thinks he’s human like us,’ Ms Ravelo said. ‘He loves to sit up on chairs while we’re eating dinner and sleeps with us in bed. Sometimes, I wonder if he realises he’s really a dog...’

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Me no likey!

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Shocked oil workers catch TWO-AND-A-HALF-FOOT 'woodlouse'
2nd April 2010

This deep sea creepy-crawly gave oil workers a fright, after the unexpected visitor hitched a ride on a submarine sent from a rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The beast normally lives 8,500ft under water and this specimen is thought to be the largest giant isopod ever found at this depth.

Questions were raised over its authenticity because of the release date of pictures - April Fool's Day. However experts have been quick to verify the find. ‘I've seen the pictures, and they are real, and they really do get that big,’ said Craig McClain, assistant director of science for the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina. 'It's definitely not an April Fool's joke. 'It's an isopod,' McClain explained. 'It's like the rolypolys or pillbugs that you find in your garden. It's the same group of animals. 'They're really common in the deep water in the Gulf of Mexico,' he added.

Called the Bathynomus Giganteus, it is a super-sized cousin of the humble woodlouse. The one in this picture purports to be 2.5ft long - an astonishing figure considering the average specimen is half that length. Its legs are arranged in seven pairs, and its front two are able to manipulate and bring food to its four sets of jaws. It is a scavenger that feeds on dead whales, fish and shrimp. The species is abundant in the cold, deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and is a good example of deep-sea gigantism.

Many deep-sea crustaceans and invertebrates tend to be larger than their shallow-water counterparts. It is not yet known whether this is due to the colder temperature, higher pressure or scarcer food resources.

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