couchtripper

that lobster is huge! shame they couldn't just put it back in the sea

Two-headed turtle goes on display in Pa.

NORRISTOWN, Pa. - A pet store has bought a two-headed turtle from a collector and plans to keep it on display, the store manager said. The 2-month-old turtle, actually conjoined red-eared slider twins, fits on a silver dollar.

It has two heads sticking out from opposite ends of its shell, along with a pair of front feet on each side. But there is just one set of back feet and one tail.

The turtle is apparently healthy, and the species can live 15 to 20 years, said Jay Jacoby, manager of Big Al's Aquarium Supercenter in East Norriton. The turtle has not yet been named.

The store would not disclose how much it paid.

The same exotic-turtle collector sold another Big Al's store a conjoined-twin turtle about 20 years ago, Jacoby said. The man lives in Florida, but he declined to identify him.

i'd seen pictures of two headed turtles where both heads come out the same end of the shell, but never one with a head either end!

Amazing rescue of the bear who jumped off a bridge
1st October 2007

The "bare necessities of life" included a net and a pole from an army surplus store after a bear was stranded on the ledge of a bridge over a ravine in California. The Bruin bear was crossing Rainbow Bridge on Highway 40 near Truckee when he jumped out of the way of two approaching vehicles. He ended up clinging to a ledge - for almost 24 hours.

His rescuers strung the net underneath the 80-year-old bridge before an animal control officer shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart. After the animal lost consciousness, volunteers used a pole to push it into the net, then lowered the bear onto the floor of the ravine.

More than 100 spectators cheered the sleepy-headed bear when he picked himself up and wandered off.

The moment a dolphin joins the world
6th October 2007
www.dailymail.co.uk


It is one of the rarest and most magical sights in the natural world. A bottlenose dolphin goes into labour . . . then a calf emerges, tail first. Mother guides baby gently to the surface, where they swim together for the first time.

Very few dolphin births have been captured on film in such astonishing detail. This one was recorded at a wildlife park pool in Rimini, Italy, where photographer Leandro Stanzani was in exactly the right place at the right time.

"To take good pictures is not easy," said Mr Stanzani, who has been taking photos of dolphins for 14 years. "Most births happen during the night when the light is very poor. Sometimes dolphins prefer to stay far away from windows. Sometimes water quality is poor. This time I was extremely lucky. It was daytime first of all. There were three photographers, one at each of the three underwater windows - and I was at the right one! The others couldn't even see the event."

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Ok, so it's not exactly bizarre, but it's certainly cool to see...

There was no time for social niceties, table manners or even a please and thank you. When little pigs insist on stopping for lunch, there's nothing much a mother on the move can do. This sow and her litter had been roaming the New Forest in Hampshire when the youngsters decided it was time to tuck in. Rather than battle the might of a half dozen little squealers, she pulled up in the middle of the road and let them have lunch. Motorists were forced to wait, with tailbacks stretching along the road. Roaming pigs are a common sight this time of year as the pannage season gets under way, an ancient custom which allows pig farmers to turn their animals on to Crown land for up to 60 days of grazing.

"The sow was feeding her piglets in the middle of the road and there was no way of moving her," said Bernie Bedford, a local doctor who took the picture. Dr Bedford, of Hythe, near Southampton, said: "I was driving along the B3079 Bramshaw to Landford road when I turned a bend and suddenly saw this amazing sight. Local radio even broadcast a warning that the pigs were a traffic hazard on that road. Cars had to carefully crawl around her but it wasn't easy."

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Biting off more than it could chew...
26th October 2007

A fisherman found a fish in waters off the South Coast of Grand Cayman that had swallowed another fish more than four times its size. McPherson "Dorson" Wright's attention was drawn to an object floating on the surface nearby. The fish, aptly named the Great Swallower, was just 7.5 inches in length. The fish it had eaten measured 34 inches, which is close to three feet in length.

Mr. Wright said that normally its expected that "big fish to eat down the small fish," but this greedy little creature had a huge appetite and eyes far bigger than its belly. When I first saw it, I really couldn't believe my eyes," said Wright. "It had obviously just died, so I decided I had to put it in the boat and take it down to the Department of the Environment to investigate it further."

On later inspection by scientists, it was established that the fish had consumed an extremely large and aggressive "snake mackerel" that was more than four times its own length. Snake mackerel have a similar appearance to barracudas. Scientist Mr Sutton of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute added that it was likely "the finding would be written up in a scientific paper" and was intrigued about how the Great Swallower avoided being eaten by the snake mackerel.

The fish may even make it into the world record books and may be shipped to the United States for further inspection. Local Marine Scientist Phillippe Bush said, "I would hate to see what a three-foot-long Great Swallower is capable of eating."

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gah!

pirty, down in the new forest you get them and ponies living wild all over the place

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest



its a nice place down there, i used to go a lot when i was a kid

Is this Bigfoot ... or is it a bear with bad skin?
30th October 2007

It is furry, lives in the woods and walks on all fours. Beyond that, there are no hard facts about the furtive creature spotted prowling around the foot of a tree in Pennsylvania. But its mysterious appearance has prompted a storm of speculation - and prompted many Bigfoot believers to grab their cameras and head for the woods.

The animal was photographed by Rick Jacobs, who captured the images after fastening a camera with an automatic trigger to a tree in the Allegheny National Forest on September 16. He had hoped to get pictures of deer - but instead ended up with something more sinister. "I couldn't figure out what it was," he said. "But I've been hunting for years and I've never seen anything like this."

Mr Jacobs contacted the Bigfoot Research Organization, which pursues reports of the legendary two-legged creature, also known as the sasquatch, that some people believe lives in parts of the U.S. and Canada. "It appears to be a primate-like animal. In my opinion, it appears to be a juvenile Sasquatch," said Paul Majeta of the Bigfoot group.

Despite the furore, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has a more conventional opinion. Agency spokesman Jerry Feaser said conservation officers routinely trap bears to be tagged and often see animals that look like the photos. "There is no question it is a bear with a severe case of mange," Feaser said.



According to most reports, Bigfoot is a large ape with dark brown or dark reddish hair. There have been recorded sightings of the creature since 1840 but most scientists dimiss the sasquatch as myth. However, the Bigfoot legend refuses to die and there have been a number of elaborate hoaxes, as well as some possible genuine spots. The best known and most controversial was a film shot by two Americans Roger Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin which purported to show a genuine recording of Bigfoot.

<img src="https://www.bigfootencounters.com/files/mk_davis_pgf.gif" width="700">

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A new species of wild pig previously unknown to science has been discovered in the Brazilian jungle. The large creature grows to a length of more than four feet and is almost twice as heavy as its nearest relative. Named the 'giant peccary', the creature was unknown until the skins and bones of animals killed by local hunters came to the attention of Dutch biologist Marc van Roosmalen. The pig-like animals do not travel in large herds and prefer to remain in small family groups while its well known relatives tend to travel in herds of hundreds.

Mr van Roosmalen, from the National Institute for Amazon Research in Manaus, has caught the giant peccaries on film. The animal, only known to live along the remote banks of the Aripuana river, is thought to be endangered by the illegal timber trade and road building. Local tribes call it "Caitetu Munde", which means "great peccary which lives in pairs" and may have been spotted by an American rubber-cutter, John Yungjohann, who worked in the Amazon from 1906 to 1919. In his book "White Gold" he talks of three different "bush pigs" including a "great big one". He wrote: "They travel in pairs, and are very lively. They will attack on sight - either you have to be swift and a sure shot or climb a tree."

Larger than the other species, the giant peccary is more slightly built with longer legs and a relatively small head. It also has different markings and walks almost silently. While other peccaries dig up the ground in search of seeds and roots, this one mostly lives off freshly fallen fruit. Researchers have pointed out that "unprecedented" illegal extraction of timber and gravel was taking place in the Rio Aripuana region. They have recommended that the giant peccary be placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' Red List of threatened species.

Lurking off Mexico's eastern shore in the Sea of Cortez, these flap-jack-like creatures burst out of the water with graceful precision. Soaring as high as two metres above the plankton-rich green water, mobula rays are a sight to behold.

Both mantas and mobulas are members of the Family Mobulidae, a group about which, very little is known. Mobulas can grow up to ten feet though they are considerably smaller than their Manta Ray cousin. Mantas, the most well known of, which is the Pacific Manta Ray, can exceed disc-like shapes of up to twenty-three feet.

For some time now, the comings and goings of the mobula have remained something of a mystery. Scientists do not know why large schools spend a few days in one area, or why the disc like creatures breach the water in spectacular fashion. Is it to dislodge the parasite-cleaning remoras that attach to their backside? Is it some way of keeping fit, of practising the underwater gathering of food? Could it be a form of play? What if jumping was a form of co-operative hunting, a way of tricking vibration-wary mysids into migrating downwards and into the open mouths of other mobulas below?

Keller Laros, a dive master based out of Hawaii has logged long hours underwater observing Pacific Manta Rays, the largest of munkiana's mobulid cousins. The smaller manta ray's out-of-water acrobatics is not unlike its feeding behaviour below the surface. Underwater, mantas have been observed doing loop after loop in the same place, concentrating their prey into a tight area. As they circle, they direct the green soup into their mouths with the cephalic lobes found on each side of their head.

Karey Kumli, research associate at the Pacific Manta Research Group located at Santa Rosa Junior College, thinks the breaching behaviour isn't done deliberately. She said: "We wonder why they go through that plane between water and air, and I ask why would they avoid it. They'd have to be pretty careful to avoid being airborne. Remember, when they are in the air, there's so little resistance compared to that offered by water that a slight bend of a fin would send them tumbling." In short, mobulas spin out in the absence of the resistance provided by water.

However, like most beautiful species of the sea they face the many dangers posed by man. According to SeaWatch - www.seawatch.org - sports fishermen in Parque Nacional Bahia de Loreto, say that their business is off 40 per cent to 50 per cent from last year, and the consensus among commercial fisherman is that there are no fish left to catch.

Longlines, trawls, spear-guns, nylon nets, and large-scale commercial operations have replaced the individual fishermen using a hand line. And it is by no means unique to the Sea of Cortez. Worldwide, by-catch accounts for 20 million tons a year of unwanted fish. About one-fourth of the world's catch is thrown back. The ratio is even higher among the take from shrimp trawlers. Today, due in part to the work of Sea Watch, the Mexican government now imposes a $10,000 fine for those convicted of intentionally killing a Pacific Manta Ray.

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brilliant looking things!

10th December 2007

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) today released the first known footage of the long-ear jerboa, which looks like a mouse-sized kangaroo with enormous ears. The little jumping Mongolian rodent was filmed hopping about in its natural habitat in the Gobi desert by the scientists from the ZSL's Edge programme, which focuses its efforts on animals which are "evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered".

The jerboa, found in the deserts of Mongolia and China, is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. It is threatened by disturbance of its habitat - with the domestic cat emerging as a newly-introduced predator into the rodent's range. It is one of 10 species which has been selected for the focus of the first year of the scheme because it was receiving little conservation attention.

All the Edge species are highly distinct genetically, with few close relatives, but are extremely endangered and need immediate action to save them from becoming extinct. Dr Jonathan Baillie, ZSL head of field conservation and leader of the expedition to Mongolia, said: "The footage and images from this expedition really are extraordinary and incredibly charming.

"The long-eared jerboa is a bit like the Mickey Mouse of the desert, cute and comic in equal measure. When people see ZSL's footage of this tiny, threatened creature I am convinced they will want to get involved in its conservation. Unfortunately, this is just one of many amazing and unusual animals that are highly threatened but receiving little or no conservation attention."

The long-eared jerboa (Euchoreutes naso) is a jumping rodent whose legs are specially adapted for jumping like a kangaroo and is easily recognised by ears which are about a third bigger than its head. It is a primarily nocturnal insect-eating animal which spends its daylight hours in underground tunnels.

By RICHARD SHEARS
17th December 2007

When the large furry creature first scuttled into their jungle camp looking for its supper, the scientists assumed it was a cat. But after several further visits, when it tamely allowed itself to be picked up, they realised they were actually holding a giant rat. The monster rodent was the most spectacular discovery in a remote area of Indonesia which experts are describing as a "lost world" of hitherto-unknown animals and plants.

At the other end of the size scale was a pygmy possum thought to be one of the world's smallest marsupials - creatures which carry their young in a pouch. "These are two animals which were totally unknown to science and we're absolutely thrilled to have discovered them," said one of the explorers who ventured into the thick jungles of Indonesia's Papua province.

It was in 2005 that the team first visited the Foja Mountains where, it is believed, no modern human had ever stepped. On that first visit, scientists discovered dozens of new plants, birds, butterflies and frogs. On their second they were excited to find more, along with the giant rat and the pygmy possums. "It's comforting to know that there's a place on Earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature," said Bruce Beehler, vice-president of the U.S.-based wildlife group Conservation International. The giant rat is the biggest known in the world by far and weighs 3lb; about five times as much as a typical city rat. It is 2ft long, plus tail, and shows no fear of humans.

As they travelled through the forest, the scientists heard the calls of birds they could not identify and were convinced there were many more creatures yet to be discovered. They are planning a third expedition next year. Foja has been described as wildlife's last frontier, where exotic creatures live without any threat from mankind, mainly because there are no roads or tracks and the nearest native villages are scores of miles away.

Papua has 104 million acres of tropical rainforest and some of the richest biodiversity in the world. But it is under threat from illegal logging and clearing for palm oil plantations.

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Remember that bit from Robin Williams about the Falkland Islands?

28th December 2007

Okay, so the coat's not all it might be. And the physique is definitely not going to win any prizes in the Afghan hound Hunk of the Year awards. But does this scrawny, raggedy canine called Aflie care? Not a bit. This is the first time he has been able to move easily for years after four vets spent three hours shaving and cutting away more than 11lb of filthy, matted hair while he was under a general anaesthetic. Afghans are known for their beautiful long hair. But Alfie's coat had been neglected for so long that when he was found abandoned in Bradford he was barely able to walk.

RSPCA inspector Rachel Oprysk could not believe the level of neglect he had suffered. She said: "I was horrified at what state he came to us in. He was struggling to walk and cock his leg, because of the weight of his coat. He's probably not been groomed for months - if not years. The extent of the matting is the worst I have ever seen in a dog. Dogs like Alfie, with long hair, need a lot of attention to keep their coats healthy. It can be quite high-maintenance. The weight of the matting must have been painful - it would have been like having his hair constantly pulled. His skin had been infected from the constant drag and the dirt."

Alfie, who is thought to be between two and four years old, is now almost bald in places, but is making a strong recovery. "You can tell he's much more comfortable now," said Miss Oprysk. "He'll be on antibiotics for another week to get rid of his skin infections, but he's already a lot happier. He is bounding about and having fun, he must feel so much lighter. He can move around. He looks a bit dishevelled but as time passes, his coat will grow back just like human hair."

Alfie is recovering at the Animal Home and Clinic in Bradford, where he is kept indoors as much as possible so that he does not feel the cold. Miss Oprysk is urging his owners to come forward. She has asked anyone who has any information to contact the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999.

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The poor bugger! But, it's great to see they sorted him out.

Bit like me when I shaved my beard off a few years ago, I could jump, hop, skip AND ride a bicycle ALL after one day of grooming. But, fuck this poor dog's "parents" for leaving him in this state. Lovely chap now eh? him, not me by the way.

HUGE Scorpion





These ancestors to our current day (and size) scorpions were believed to grow up to 2 metres long and were one of the first amphibious animals.

Looks more like a Lobster to me

There's probably obvious differences with Lobsters and Scorpions...but i'm no expert.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7213571.stm
Funny looking thing!!