A barreleye fish - this might look like a computer graphic, but it's real... the things that look like eyes at the front are actually nostrils. Its eyes are those round green things inside the transparent head! Very cool.
Bizarre animals
Rare pink hippo snapped by British wildlife photographers
A rare pink hippo has been snapped in Kenya, marking the first time such a creature has been spotted in the African country.
‘It was a young one as it is much smaller than the other hippos and always stayed close to its mother,’ said Will, 26. ‘It was nice to see the other hippos treated it no differently to any other. It was also very shy and after spotting us it hid behind its mother before disappearing into the water.’
Pink hippos are leucistic, where the pigmentation cells fail to develop properly. ‘Usually leucistic and albino animals do not survive in the wild as they are very visible to predators and they get serious sunburn,’ said Will, from London.
A handful of pink hippos have been recorded in Uganda but never Kenya.
Two-legged pig becomes major tourist attraction
A disabled pig may constitute an unlikely tourist attraction, but Chinese travellers from miles around are flocking to see one particular porker who walks on its two front legs.
Young Zhu Jianqiang is lucky to be alive though. As a piglet in a nine strong litter, there were calls for the wee piggy to be put out of her misery. Wang Xihai, the pig’s owner, told the Telegraph: ‘My wife asked me to dump it but I refused as it's a life. I thought I should give it a chance to survive and unexpectedly it survived healthy.’
Mr Xihai’s perseverance paid off and true to her name the piglet survived. Several days after her birth, Wang decided to try and train the pig. ‘I trained her for a while each day. After 30 days she can now walk upside down quite well’, stated Wang.
Wang said since the birth of the pig, which currently weighs 50kg (110lbs) his home rarely is besieged by visitors everyday. ‘I won't sell it no matter how much the offer is,’ Wang said.
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'Charlie the Smoking Chimp' dies from old age
A chimpanzee which became addicted to smoking cigarettes has died from old age having managed to live at least 10 years longer than most chimps.
Dan Newling
6 Oct 2010
telegraph.co.uk
Qondile Khedama, a spokesman for Mangaung Zoo, said Charlie was only an 'occasional smoker', but had none the less become famous around the world for the habit. She explained that although the zoo discouraged the practice, the ape obtained cigarettes from visitors who would throw lit cigarettes to him through his bars.
Ms Khedama explained that Charlie had recently been receiving special care, including a special diet of protein shakes and vitamin and mineral supplements. Ms Khedama said she did not know whether the ape's bad smoking habit contributed to his demise and that post mortem to determine the exact cause of death would take place soon.
The chimpanzee had learnt that he was not supposed to smoke, he would try and hide the habit from his zookeepers. Charlie is thought to have picked up the smoking habit when he worked in an American circus. It has been speculated that he was taught the trick to entertain circus-goers.
Stand back, he bites: British fisherman grapples with ferocious 'fucking big fish'... which has been known to eat CROCODILES
Richard James
20th October 2010
The goliath tigerfish is one of the most fearsome freshwater fish in the world and said to be a much bigger and deadlier version of the piranha. The giant fish has 32 teeth that are of similar size to those of a great white shark and has been known to attack humans and even crocodiles. It has only ever been caught by a handful of fishermen due to the danger it poses and the fact its habitat is notoriously hard to reach.
Wade, the host of ITV's River Monsters show, said he took extra care when reeling in this specimen, which weighed more than 100lbs and was 5ft long. The TV programme looks into mythical reports from around the world of humans being attacked by unknown monsters from the deep before the British host sets out to find and catch the suspect. Commenting on the goliath tigerfish, Wade said: 'This fish is no tench. It is, for all intents and purposes, a giant piranha. It is quite a beast. The teeth on it are incredibly sharp and are about the same length as a great white shark. It also has an extremely powerful bite and has been known to consume prey the same size as itself, attack people and take pieces out of crocodiles. It is thought that these fish attack in a reflex response to a sudden movement or splash. It is very rare to catch one, especially by an outsider because they are found in such a remote and difficult location to get to. There are no guides or lodges on that part of the Congo River.'
Wade revealed he used a sizable catfish as bait for the tigerfish and a 200lbs rod and line. He said he also took care to stand back from it until it was safely in his landing net. 'It is a very dangerous fish to handle. If you aren't careful it could easily take your finger off or worse,' he added. Wade, who spent eight days trying to land the fish, said he returned it to the river soon afterwards.
The new series of River Monsters starts on ITV1 on November 2 at 7.30pm.
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It doesn't look very alive to me... but still, what a scary looking bastard!
Mallard Monroe! Pond bombshell duck is a ringer for movie legend Marilyn
6th November 2010
While the screen legend went to great lengths perfecting her style, this bird’s look is entirely natural. It’s known as a crested duck, and the feather-covered growth is mainly formed of fatty tissue which emerges through a gap in the skull. Amateur photographer Rainey Shuler captured the image at a pond in Soulsbyville, northern California. She said: ‘I had never seen a duck like this. When I first saw the hairstyle I thought I was seeing things. I had to chuckle. It looked as though it was wearing a wig that was ready to fall off.’
Flamingos gathered in the shape of a flamingo is 'holy grail' of pictures
A photographer in Mexico claims he captured a real ‘bird’s eye view’ when a flock of flamingos gathered in this incredible shape.
Mr Haas said: 'I was just leaving when I noticed that the flock was moving into a shape resembling a flamingo. I told the pilot to whip around but go in slowly, since if you startle the flock they will splinter’. His chance to snap the birds was fleeting and Haas only managed to take one picture. It wasn’t until he developed it months later that the picture’s true majesty became clear. It’s the holy grail in photography when you capture an image you’ve never seen before and may never see again. It really was a spiritual moment’, Mr Haas added. ‘Some people have actually said that the image is divine intervention and proof that there is a God.’
Holy creation seems like a stretch, but it is certainly a once in a lifetime snap.
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Two-headed albino snake is star of Swiss 'nature's oddballs' show
A two-headed albino snake is the star attraction drawing the crowds to one of everyone's favourite events of the year - the exhibition of natural world oddballs in Switzerland.
This twin-credible freak of nature is an albino garter snake which boasts two heads - making it look even more intimidating than normal. He is the only two-headed albino snake in the world, according to its owner Tom Beser, who also claims he could command offers well into five figures to buy the animal.
'There are eight of these two headed snakes in the world, albino and normal. But this is the only snake which is both two headed and albino,' he said. 'One collector was offered more than £13,000 for his two headed garter snake and his wasn't an albino. Mince would be worth much more.'
Punk fish stuns trawler men, global warming blamed
Experts say the deep sea beast - known by scientists as Zu Cristatus, or the sickle fish - has been driven into the Med by climate change. Marine specialist Aniello Amato said: 'It's the result of tropicalisation of our sea. Climate change, salinity reduction, the changes in flora and fauna. Several kind of fishes have already arrived in the Mediterranean Sea to displace our more traditional fishes.'
New photo of 'English Nessie' hailed as best yet
Pictures of a mysterious creature surfacing from Lake Windermere have been hailed as the best ever sighting of the English Loch Ness Monster, or "Bownessie".
New photo of 'English Nessie' hailed as best yet
Nick Collins
18 Feb 2011
telegraph.co.uk
Mr Pickles said he saw an animal the size of three cars speed past him on the lake and watched it for about 20 seconds. He said: “It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10mph. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. Its skin was like a seal’s but it’s shape was completely abnormal – it’s not like any animal I’ve ever seen before."
This is believed to be the eighth sighting of a long humpbacked creature – known by local residents as "Bownessie" – in the past last five years. Mr Pickles’ companion Sarah Harrington, 23, said: “It was like an enormous snake. I only saw it for a few seconds but all I could think about was that I had to get off the lake.” The pair were on the last day of a team building residential training course at Fallbarrow Hall, Bowness, Cumbria. They said they had kayaked 300m out into the lake near Belle Isle when they spotted the beast to the south.
Mr Pickles's picture perfectly matches the description of an earlier sighting from the shores of Wray Castle in 2006 by journalism lecturer Steve Burnip. He said: “I’m really pleased that someone has finally got a really good picture of it. I know what I saw and it shocked me, it had three humps and it’s uncanny the likeness between this and what I saw five years ago.”
Photo expert David Farnell of Farnell’s photographic laboratory in Lancaster said: “It does look like a real photo but because it’s been taken on a phone the file size is too small to really tell whether it has been altered on Photoshop or not.” Sceptics remain unconvinced that something so large could exist in the 11 mile long lake.
Dr Ian Winfield, a lake ecologist at the University of Lancaster, said: “It’s possible that it’s a catfish from Eastern Europe and people are misjudging the size but there is no known fish as large as the descriptions we’re hearing that could be living in Windermere. “We run echo sounding surveys every month and have never found anything.”
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Call me a boggle-eyed fool if you like, but isn't that four humps rather than three?
Skating parrot steals the show at Prague festival
He's a multi-talented parrot - he even drives a toy car. He's a multi-talented parrot - he even drives a toy car.
Commonly known as Cirkus Cirkus, the festival is also a competition so, while spectators have a lot of fun, the thirteen contestants must compete for the attention of a VIP jury made up of celebrities and circus agents from around the world.
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Rare 'zonkey' born in China
A rare female zebra and male donkey hybrid, known as a donkra or zonkey, has been born at Xiamen Haicang zoo in south east China.
5 Jul 2011
A zebra-donkey hybrid is also known as zonkey, zebonkey, zebrinny, zebrula, zebrass and zedonk.
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