Karl's Weird News

‘Drunk’ parrots litter Australian town:

Hundreds of seemingly drunk parrots are falling out of trees and the sky in a northern Australian town, mystifying veterinary surgeons who are struggling to care for them.

The brightly coloured lorikeets are showing classic signs of drunkenness by losing all coordination and passing out, and then cowering in cages as they recover from their “hangovers”.

“They definitely seem like they’re drunk,” said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin.

“They fall out of trees… and they’re not so coordinated as they would normally be.

They go to jump and they miss the next perch.”

 Hansen said nobody was sure what was causing the symptoms, although it may be a plant they are eating.

Other theories include an outbreak of a mystery virus.

Canadian beavers build world’s largest dam

In a remote corner of northern Alberta, Canadian beavers have built the world’s largest dam, proving once and for all they are worthy of their status as a national symbol.

The roughly 850-metre dam — located at the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park, about 200 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray — is believed to be the work of several generations of beavers.

The massive structure captured international attention this week, more than two years after it was first discovered by an Ottawa ecologist surveying the area through satellite imagery.

The dam is so big, it can be seen from space.

“I think it’s great that our Canadian icon is bringing attention to our national parks,” park spokesperson Mike Keizer told CTV.ca, a reference to the beaver’s role as a national emblem.

But the dam won’t become a tourist attraction, despite the buzz. The wood-and-mud formation stands in an isolated spot, a multiple-day paddle and hike through un-trailed areas – so far that even rangers only view it from the air, Keizer said.

Orangutan takes photos, shares them on Facebook:

She’s like the Ashton Kutcher of the ape world: an orangutan in the Vienna Zoo now has a Facebook fan page to showcase the photos she takes with a digital camera.

The orangutan, named Nonja, uses a Samsung ST 1000 point-and-shoot that automatically uploads the photos.

When this post was published, Nonja had over 9,000 “fans” subscribed to her page.

But there’s a catch: coverage of the camera-toting ape in the U.K.’s Daily Mail explains that the camera has been modified to dispense a raisin whenever the shutter button is pushed.

So Nonja is evidently more interested in tasty treats than in artistic endeavors.

Millions of salmon fail to turn up in Canada

Millions of salmon have mysteriously failed to turn up in a Canadian river as part of their annual spawning, leaving experts baffled and the local fishing industry in despair.

The Canadian government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans projected that between six and 10 million sockeye salmon would return to the Fraser river this month.

But the official count for the annual ’summer run’ — by far the largest of four salmon migrations that see millions of fish return to Canada’s lakes and rivers from the Pacific each year from June to late August — is now just 600,000. Where the others went remains a mystery.

Local fishermen, quoted by the daily Globe and Mail, described the situation as “shocking,” a “catastrophe” and a “crisis,” while public broadcaster CBC said 2009 could end up being the worst year ever for the industry.

Help! Baby elephant falls down hole while out walking in Thailand

His startled expression and pleading eyes say it all. Left stranded in a rather undignified position, this poor baby elephant was in need of some urgent help after he managed to wedge himself in a manhole in Thailand.

After missing his footing and falling down the gaping manhole of a drainage ditch the poor animal was left well and truly stuck.

The unfortunate accident took place while the elephant was out walking in the street with its owner in Rayong province, in the east of the country.

The baby had been taken out to work in the street by a mahout – the men who drive the elephants – but must not have been looking where he was going. Rescuers spent three hours freeing the elephant, who was unharmed, by using a bulldozer to widen the hole.

Be sure to click through to the article – it has a wonderful photo

Jellyfish May Help Keep Planet Cool

Jellyfish and other related creatures may be helping to reduce the effects of climate change by stirring up the oceans, according to a new study in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.The finding is the latest in a decades-old debate over whether swimming animals can contribute significantly to ocean mixing, the process by which warm water on the surface combines with the cold water far below.

Mixing plays a role in global climate change because carbon dioxide in the air above oceans dissolves in the surface water. Through mixing, it can get pulled into the depths and stored there for long periods. The process is also a key regulator of the Earth’s temperature and the ocean’s nutrients.

“It’s important for us to understand the dynamics of the ocean in order to really understand what’s going to happen to climate over land,” says John Dabiri, a bioengineer at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and co-author of the paper.

…

To avoid predators, jellyfish and related animals often hide far below the ocean’s surface during the day and swim to the surface at night to feed, according to William Dewar, an oceanographer at Florida State University in Tallahassee who was not involved with the study.

If the work is correct, then it could mean that they’re ferrying cold water to the surface and warm water into the depths of the sea with each feeding cycle. In the process, they may be taking dissolved carbon dioxide with them far beneath the sea, changing the overall carbon balance in the atmosphere.

Thirsty piglets love Tequila

The cage opens and six newborn pigs file out and sprint to their mother.

Without a bark or a grunt, a black Rottweiler/pit bull named Tequila lies on her side. The piglets then suckle the dog’s milk for 20 minutes. The pigs are so eager for Tequila’s milk that they push, bump and jump over each other to get it.

“I’ve been farming for a while and I’ve never ever ever seen anything like this,” said James Favreau, who owns the pigs and dog on his Buckingham farm. “It’s amazing. Two weeks ago, this dog was hunting wild pigs with me.”

Now, Tequila is busy nursing six piglets and eight puppies. The 2-year-old Tequila gave birth to the puppies Monday, the same day Favreau’s 3-year-old Yorkshire produced the piglets. Favreau, 45, said Tequila started nursing the pigs Monday morning shortly after the pigs were born during a rainstorm. Favreau said he rescued one of the pigs from drowning and brought all of them into his home.

SF Zoo’s Same Sex Penguin Couple Splits Up

The San Francisco Zoo’s popular same-sex penguin couple has broken up. Male Magellan penguins Harry and Pepper have been together since 2003.

The pair nested together and even incubated an egg laid by another penguin in 2008, but their relationship hit the rocks earlier this year when a female penguin, Linda, befriended Harry after her long-time companion died.

This did not go over well with Pepper, who became violent. The three penguins were separated for some time following the fight.

“They have been doing okay since,” said Zookeeper Jennifer Katz. “They have been getting along okay. But Pepper is by himself now, so we are keeping an eye on the three of them.”

Mouse steals food from African leopard

A mouse diced with death when it stole some food from under the nose of a leopard at the Santago Rare Leopard Project in Hertfordshire.

Instead of pouncing on the the mouse, the 12-year-old African leopard, called Sheena, simply watched as it fed on scraps of meat thrown into its enclosure.

At one stage she tried to nudge the mouse away with her nose, but the mouse carried on eating regardless.

The extraordinary scene was captured by photography student Casey Gutteridge, a photography student.

The 19-year-old, from Potters Bar, Herts, who was photographing the leopard for a course project, was astounded by the mouse’s behaviour.

“I have no idea where the mouse came from – he just appeared in the enclosure after the keeper had dropped in the meat for the leopard.

“He didn’t take any notice of the leopard, just went straight over to the meat and started feeding himself. But the leopard was pretty surprised – she bent down and sniffed the mouse and flinched a bit like she was scared.

Chihuahua Chases Cougar From Philomath Yard:

A feisty Chihuahua chased a cougar out of a Philomath yard earlier this week. As Pete Springer reports, it’s the third cougar sighting in the area in the past year. Chiquita the Chihuahua and Rosie the border terrier charged the cougar after it jumped a backyard fence. The mountain lion pinned Rosie down but Chiquita kept barking incessantly at the big cat until it jumped out of the yard and ran off. The house is next to a wooded area where Philomath police have posted cougar warning signs. Roger Furhman is with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He says cougars will generally run away when they encounter humans, but people shouldn’t count on a dog to scare a big cat away.

The odd couple: How an orang-utan and stray dog became best friends… and landed a slot on Oprah

Odd couples come in all shapes and sizes but the story of the primate and the canine who are best friends has proved to be a match made in showbiz heaven.

Suryia the orang-utan and Roscoe a Blue Tick hound became friends when they crossed paths at a South Carolina sanctuary for endangered animals. Now they swim together, play together and Suryia even takes the dog for his walks.

Such is their bond that the pair drew the attention of National Geographic magazine and Oprah Winfrey, who will feature them tomorrow in a special show called Amazing Animal Friendship.

Meet the happy-faced spider sure to make you smile

This amazing happy-faced spider found in Hawaii is bound to leave you beaming from ear to ear. The tiny insect, which measures just a few millimetres across, has developed bizarre markings which look just like a smiling face.

Scientists think the spider, which is harmless to humans, has evolved the patterns to confuse predators. spider This tiny spider has developed markings that look like a smiling face But it’s no laughing matter for the spider which is under-threat from extinction from its home in the rainforests of the Hawaiian island chain in the Pacific ocean.

Spider expert and geneticist Dr Geoff Oxford, 62, from the University of York, said studying happy-face spiders was a real joy. He said: ‘I must admit when I turned over the first leaf and saw one it certainly brought a smile to my face.

‘Hero Dog’ Pulls Injured Friend From Oncoming Traffic

Footage from a traffic camera overlooking a busy freeway in Santiago, Chile captured a dog performing a heroic act ? pulling an injured friend from oncoming traffic. The video, from Azteca America Colorado, shows an injured dog lying in the middle of a freeway after being hit by a car, while a rescue dog dodges traffic to run to its side. The rescue dog then drags the severely injured canine across lanes of traffic as cars swerve around it. No motorists stopped to help either dog, but a highway crew arrives at the end of the video.

Hat tip to Kara!

Elephant cured of drug addiction:

An Asian elephant that became addicted to heroin after being fed bananas spiked with the drug is to return home after undergoing a detox programme. The four-year-old animal, called Xiguang, received methadone injections for a year at five times the human dosage, state media said. It was illegally captured by traders in 2005 in south-west China. When police arrested the traders and freed the elephant, it was found to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Elephants show flair for arithmetic

The elephant’s memory is legendary, but in a large, grey surprise to science the mighty Asian elephant turns out to have a distinct flair for maths as well

Under carefully controlled experimental conditions ? essentially comprising a large cage and two buckets of assorted fruit ? one elephant at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo managed to get its sums right 87 per cent of the time. A slightly less gifted pachyderm across the country in Kyoto scored a still respectable 69 per cent.

Piglet with monkey’s face

Curious locals flocked to the home of owner Feng Changlin after news of the piglet spread in Fengzhang village, Xiping township.

“It’s hideous. No one will be willing to buy it, and it scares the family to even look at it!” Feng told Oriental Today.

He says the piglet looks just like a monkey, with two thin lips, a small nose and two big eyes. Its rear legs are also much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump instead of walk.

Feng’s wife said the monkey-faced piglet was one of five newborns of a sow which the family had raised for nine years.

First Lungless Frog Found

The first recorded species of frog that breathes without lungs has been found in a clear, cold-water stream on the island of Borneo in Indonesia.

The frog, named Barbourula kalimantanensis, gets all its oxygen through its skin.

“Nobody knew about the lunglessness before we accidentally discovered it doing routine dissections,” study lead author David Bickford, a biologist at the National University of Singapore, said in an email.

Dolphin rescues stranded whales

A dolphin swam up to two distressed whales that appeared headed for death in a beach stranding in New Zealand and guided them to safety, witnesses said Wednesday.

The actions of the bottlenose dolphin — named Moko by residents who said it spends much of its time swimming playfully with humans at the beach — amazed would-be rescuers and an expert who said they were evidence of the species’ friendly nature.

The two pygmy sperm whales, a mother and her calf, were found stranded on Mahia Beach, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of the capital of Wellington, on Monday morning, said Conservation Department worker Malcolm Smith.

Rescuers worked for more than one hour to get the whales back into the water, only to see them strand themselves four times on a sandbar slightly out to sea. It looked likely the whales would have to be euthanized to prevent them suffering a prolonged death, Smith said.

“They kept getting disorientated and stranding again,” said Smith, who was among the rescuers. “They obviously couldn’t find their way back past (the sandbar) to the sea.”

Along came Moko, who approached the whales and led them 200 meters (yards) along the beach and through a channel out to the open sea.

Long-lost bracelet found in chicken

Aaron Giles lost his identification bracelet 28 years ago in his grandfather’s barn.

This fall, Aaron, 32, received a phone call at his Massachusetts home informing him that his long-lost bracelet was found inside a chicken gizzard in Fairmont.

The bizarre finding occurred at Olson Locker when a large number of chickens were being processed recently at the business, owned by Mark and Chuck Olson

Clam claims oldest animal record

A clam that lived on the seabed in the frigid waters off Iceland’s north coast has been hailed as the longest-lived animal ever discovered.

The mollusc, which is thought to have lurked beneath the waves until at least the age of 405, would have been a juvenile when Galileo picked up his first telescope, Hamlet was first staged and the gunpowder plot failed to blow up King James I.

The Arctica islandica clam was plucked from 80m-deep water by researchers at Bangor University in Wales, who were dredging the north Iceland shelf for the creatures. By studying their shells, the scientists hope to learn how the marine environment has changed in recent centuries.

The clam was alive when it was brought to the surface, but at that point, the researchers had no idea how old it was. Only after cutting through the shell and counting annual growth rings under a microscope did they date the mollusc to between 405 to 410 years old.

Shock: kids smarter than chimps

IN another case of researchers reporting the bleeding obvious, European scientists have found that children are smarter than chimpanzees.

A unique study comparing the abilities of human toddlers to chimpanzees and orang-utans found that two-year-old children have social learning skills superior to the apes, the researchers said.

In one social learning test, a researcher showed the children and apes how to pop open a plastic tube to get food or a toy contained inside. The children observed and imitated the solution.

Chimpanzees and orang-utans, however, tried to smash open the tube or yank out the contents with their teeth.

Size matters when croc meets shark

An extraordinary encounter between two of nature’s most fearsome man-eaters has been photographed by an amateur fisherman.

Indrek Urvet said that he watched in astonishment as a four-metre (13ft) saltwater crocodile made swift work of a much-smaller bull shark by the remote Daly River in the Northern Territory. “I just saw this big croc come charging out of the water with a shark flapping in its jaws. I turned my boat to take some photos. Suddenly the croc saw me. He turned around and came shooting towards me.”

Mr Urvet, who said that fishermen on the river frequently lost their catch to the bull sharks before they could reel it in, retreated and watched from a safer distance as the crocodile devoured the metre-long shark.

Reptiles found in Saudi’s luggage
A Saudi man’s attempt to smuggle live reptiles out of Egypt in his hand luggage has been foiled by horrified security officers at Cairo airport.

Snakes, chameleons and baby crocodiles were found in the 22-year-old’s bags as he tried to board a Saudi-bound flight.

Police had become suspicious when X-ray machines at the departure gate gave odd readings. Among the reptiles they found was a cobra, squirming to escape.

The animals were confiscated and turned over to Cairo Zoo.

Seven-legged lamb born

A six-day-old lamb at a veterinary clinic on New Zealand’s South Island bleats like any other newborn sheep, but is rather different in other ways.

This lamb has seven legs, local media reported today.

Two of the extra legs hang uselessly behind the lamb’s forelegs. The animal has three hind legs, one of them with two hoofs. It walks using its two forelegs and three hind legs, the Ashburton Guardian newspaper said.

US cat ‘predicts patient deaths’

A US cat that is reportedly able to sense when a nursing home’s residents are about to die is baffling doctors.

Oscar has a habit of curling up next to patients at the home in Providence, Rhode Island, in their final hours.

According to the author of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the two-year-old cat has been observed to be correct in 25 cases so far.

Staff now alert the families of residents when he sits down next to their ailing loved one.

Dog Nurses Kitten Found in SUV’s Hood

By all accounts, Tahoe is a typical kitten: cute, sleepy and hungry. But his eating habits are far from typical, as the stray’s been nursing from a 3-year-old dog named Lillie.

Ever since the kitten was found under the hood of Eunice Collins’ running Chevrolet Tahoe a few weeks ago, he’s been feeding from the unusually cooperative longhaired dachshund. Tahoe feeds in the morning, at night and after naps, purring and pawing at the dog’s belly.

“That’s not going to happen very often,” said veterinarian John Beck, who added that the “kitten got lucky, basically” that he found a dog with those maternal instincts.

Amazing Science: Apes ‘Talk’ to Humans

The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, is home to seven bonobos — a close relative of the chimpanzee — and three orangutans. But if you think Iowa might be a strange place for them to live, don’t say it out loud … these apes understand English.

Really. No kidding.

You can talk to the apes, and they know what you are saying.

The residents of the Great Ape Trust are part of groundbreaking language research where the apes are being taught to communicate with humans by pressing 350 lexigrams — symbols that appear on a screen and represent thoughts and objects.

Alabama Boy Kills 1,051-Pound Monster Pig, Bigger Than ‘Hogzilla’

An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog that just may be the biggest pig ever found.

Jamison Stone’s father says the hog his son killed weighed a 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.

If the claims are accurate, Jamison’s trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.

Female Sharks Can Reproduce Alone, Researchers Find

A team of American and Irish researchers have discovered that some female sharks can reproduce without having sex, the first time that scientists have found the unusual capacity in such an ancient vertebrate species.

Their report that sharks can reproduce asexually through the process known as parthenogenesis is being published online today in the British journal Biology Letters. Researchers have observed parthenogenesis in certain species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and bony fishes, but the new finding suggests that vertebrates’ ability to reproduce without sex evolved much earlier than scientists had thought.

Monkeys, capybaras are zoo’s odd couple :

They’re Japan’s odd couple. Capybaras and squirrel monkeys, unlikely neighbors in the wild, are living in the same enclosure at a zoo outside Tokyo and so far, they’re loving it.

The monkeys ride on the capybara’s backs and kiss the world’s largest rodents, who tolerate their tricks. But in the wild, their paths do not cross — capybara’s live on river banks while the monkeys live in forests..

Bigfoot risks extinction, says Canadian MP

Bigfoot, the legendary hairy man-like beast said to roam the wildernesses of North America, is not shy, merely so rare it risks extinction and should be protected as an endangered species.

So says Canadian MP Mike Lake who has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada’s species at risk act, alongside Whooping Cranes, Blue Whales, and Red Mulberry trees.

“The debate over their (Bigfoot’s) existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing,” reads a petition presented by Lake to parliament in March and due to be discussed next week.

Spider Bite Has Same Effect as Viagra

A Brazilian spider delivers more than a painful bite that sends most victims to the hospital. Its venom stimulates an hours-long erection. Now scientists have figured out the chemical that seems to be responsible for the penis boost.

In Brazil, emergency room staff can immediately spot the victims of a bite from the Brazilian wandering spider (Phoneutria nigriventer). Patients not only experience overall pain and an increase in blood pressure, they also sport an uncomfortable erection.

“The erection is a side effect that everybody who gets stung by this spider will experience along with the pain and discomfort,” said study team member Romulo Leite of the Medical College of Georgia. “We’re hoping eventually this will end up in the development of real drugs for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.”

Zoo Says Don’t Stare at the Chimps

We all know not to feed the animals when visiting the zoo. Now the Antwerp Zoo has urged visitors to, please, stop staring at the chimpanzees.

New rules have been posted outside the chimp enclosure at the city zoo urging visitors not to form a bond with a particular male chimp named ‘Cheetah.’ He was raised by humans but is now bonding with the seven other apes at the park, a zoo official said Wednesday.

“We ask, we inform our daily visitors and other visitors that one of the monkeys is particularly open for human contact,” zoo spokeswoman Ilse Segers told AP Television News. “He was raised by humans in a family and therefore we are trying to integrate him, to try to get more social integration with the group.”

She said Cheetah’s continued interaction with humans was “delaying the social integration of the animal in the group,” and isolating the ape from the others.

Hero Cat Roused Sleeping Owner as Carbon Monoxide Filled Family’s Home

A cat helped spare a family from death by carbon monoxide poisoning by jumping on the bed and meowing wildly as fumes filled the home, the owners said. Eric and Cathy Keesling said their 14-year-old cat, Winnie, played a crucial role in saving their lives March 24 after a gasoline-powered water pump in their basement caused the odorless but deadly gas to build up. About 1 a.m., the domestic shorthair began nudging Cathy’s ear and meowing loudly. “It was a crazy meow, almost like she was screaming,” said Cathy, who hesitated to get up until Winnie’s caterwauling and jumping persisted.

Group captures dog-sized ‘monster’ toad

An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a “monster” toad the size of a small dog. With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer. “It’s huge, to put it mildly,” he said. “The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male … I would hate to meet his big sister.”

Dog saves owner with modified Heimlich

Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman’s chest. The dog’s owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig newspaper she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn’t work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved.

Lost Lab Brothers Meet at Dog Daycare

They were called Wallace and Gromit, a couple of abandoned yellow Labrador retriever siblings who wound up at the Coulee Region Humane Society. The pups were 5 months old last June when they were adopted out, but to separate homes. Months later, Pat Kucera at Diggity Dog Daycare noticed two yellow Labs named Levi and Cooper would “play like crazy” every time they got the chance during visits to his facility.

Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior

Some animals are surprisingly sensitive to the plight of others. Chimpanzees, who cannot swim, have drowned in zoo moats trying to save others. Given the chance to get food by pulling a chain that would also deliver an electric shock to a companion, rhesus monkeys will starve themselves for several days.

Biologists argue that these and other social behaviors are the precursors of human morality. They further believe that if morality grew out of behavioral rules shaped by evolution, it is for biologists, not philosophers or theologians, to say what these rules are.

Teens Accused of Making Ostrich Impotent

Three teenagers may be on the hook for a hefty fine if a court decides that their festive firecrackers outside an eastern German farm scared the libido right out of an ostrich named Gustav.

Rico Gabel, a farmer in Lohsa, northeast of Dresden, is claiming $6,450 in damages for the alleged antics of the three youths, ages 17-18, between Dec. 27 and 29, 2005.

According to his lawsuit, the farmer claims that fireworks set off by the boys made the previously lustful Gustav both apathetic and depressed, and thus unable to perform for a half-a-year with his two female breeding partners.

Antifreeze-Like Blood Lets Frogs Freeze and Thaw With Winter’s Whims:

The freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw see-saw of this winter’s temperatures may be a sign of global warming. But for now wood frogs are weathering the flux in style, according to an expert on the amphibians.

“They undergo freeze-thaw cycles all the time,” said Kenneth Storey, a professor of biochemistry at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Some animals migrate to warmer climes for the winter and others burrow deep underground to sleep until spring. Wood frogs instead seek cover under leaves near the surface, where they actually freeze and thaw with their surroundings.

Chimpanzees ‘hunt using spears’:

Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates, according to a study in the journal Current Biology. Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.

Mother cat adopts newborn Rottweiler

Who says cats and dogs don’t get along?

Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marveling at a short-haired mother cat that has adopted a 6-day-old Rottweiler puppy that was rejected by its mother.

The tiny pup, named Charlie by Humane Society volunteers, nurses alongside a jumble of black and gray kittens recently born to Satin, who was taken to the shelter by an owner unable to care for her.

Chimps hold clues to roots of domestic violence

Male chimpanzees can be highly aggressive toward female group members, even using branches as clubs to beat them. Research carried out over many years in the Kibale National Park in Uganda now links this to female promiscuity and suggests that there would be more attacks on women if human society was as promiscuous as ape society.

However, another conclusion of today’s study is that because men play a role in bringing up children, unlike male apes, they are aggressive towards women who they suspect of cheating on them, since they may end up having to raise another man’s child.

Scientists Can’t Get Sloth to Move

Scientists in the eastern German city of Jena said Wednesday they have finally given up after three years of failed attempts to entice a sloth into budging as part of an experiment in animal movement.

5 Komodo dragons born at British zoo

A British zoo announced Wednesday the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.

In an evolutionary twist, the newborns’ eight-year-old mother Flora shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.

A case of reptile erectile dysfunction

Mozart, an iguana stuck with a permanent erection six days after a mating session at a Belgian zoo, may have to have his penis amputated if the condition does not improve.

“He will see the vet on Thursday,” said Enid Balemans, spokeswoman for the Aquatopia Zoo in Antwerp, stressing that veterinarians were still considering alternative treatments.

Flying dinos had bi-plane design:

The first flying dinosaurs took to the air in a similar way to a World War I bi-plane, a study shows. A fresh analysis of an early feathered fossil dinosaur suggests that it dropped its hind legs below its body, adopting a bi-plane-like form.

Shot duck survives 2 days in refrigerator

Neither gunfire nor two days in a refrigerator could slay this duck. When the wife of the hunter who shot it opened the refrigerator door, the duck lifted its head, giving her a scare.

Escaped Chimp Gets Snack, Cleans Bathroom

Keeper Ann Rademacher says Judy went into the bathroom, picked up a toilet brush and cleaned the toilet. Rademacher says the 37-year-old Judy was a house pet before the zoo acquired her in 1988, so she may have been familiar with housekeeping chores. Judy wrung out a sponge and scrubbed down the fridge.

African Lion Kisses, Hugs Woman Who Saved It

People in Cali, Colombia, are shocked to see the bond between a large African lion and a woman who saved it from abuse, involving long, affectionate kisses and hugs between the pair. Ana Julia Torres, who runs the Villa Lorena animal shelter in Cali, fed and nursed Jupiter the African lion back to health years ago after it was found abused and emaciated in a traveling circus.

Sometimes I really love my meals too!

Cats In The Belfry

A Tennessee man who kept 114 dead cats and a dead German Shepherd named Snowy in three freezers is suing police for seizing and destroying the frosty animal carcasses, which, he claims, had “emotional value” to him and were destined for a pet cemetery he was building. William Davis wants $1.5 million from the Murfreesboro Police Department and other defendants, according to a complaint filed last week in Rutherford County Chancery Court.

Parrot’s oratory stuns scientists:

The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African grey called N’kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.

Thailand tree apes use song as warning

Wah, wow, hoo! Turns out humans aren’t the only primates using songs to warn of life’s dangers and travails. White-handed gibbons in Thailand’s forests have been found to communicate threats from predators by singing — the first time the behavior has been discovered among non-human primates, researchers said Wednesday.

Head-banging snakes may predict quakes

China has come up with an earthquake prediction system which relies on the behavior of snakes, state media said on Thursday, two days after two quakes struck off neighboring Taiwan. The earthquake bureau in Nanning, capital of the Guangxi autonomous region in southern China, had developed its system using a combination of natural instinct and modern technology, the China Daily newspaper said.

Live Giant Squid Caught on Film:

A Japanese research team has succeeded in filming a giant squid live — possibly for the first time — and says the elusive creatures may be more plentiful than previously believed, a researcher said Friday.

Fingers point to cat in Beanie Baby mystery

For weeks, Piedmont police were stumped by the Beanie Baby bandit. The popular stuffed animals were mysteriously showing up overnight on porches and in the yards of two homes on Rose Avenue. One of the families feared a stalker. Now, police in the tranquil East Bay city think they may have identified a suspect: Gertie, one of the family’s cats, which was caught on a surveillance camera carrying the plush toys in its mouth.

Wisconsin Hunter Bags Deer With 7 Legs

Rick Lisko hunts deer with a bow but got his most unusual one driving his truck down his mile-long driveway. The young buck had nub antlers _ and seven legs. Lisko said it also had both male and female reproductive organs. “It was definitely a freak of nature,” Lisko said. “I guess it’s a real rarity.”