RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The 5-foot Monitor lizard wandering around a condo complex in the city of Riverside had residents freaking out and reporting a Godzilla-like creature in their neighborhood.
Black-throated Monitor lizards are carnivorous, legal to own in California and native to the African grasslands and parts of Asia. Juveniles go for about $100 in pet stores, but they grow.
The animal was captured and taken to Riverside County Animal Services.
Photo: Riverside County Department of Animal ServicesSource
Photo: AFP - Getty Images
A wildlife cameraman took pictures of the calf when he spotted it among a herd of about 80 elephants in the Okavango Delta.
Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in African elephants.
They are unsure of its chances of long-term survival - the blazing African sunlight may cause blindness and skin problems for the calf.
Mike Holding, who spotted the baby while filming for a BBC wildlife programme, said: "We only saw it for a couple of minutes as the herd crossed the river.
Source
In this photo provided by the New England Aquarium,
Truman the octopus is seen squeezed inside an acrylic cube at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Thursday, March 5, 2009. Truman squeezed his flexible frame into the acrylic box while trying to snag a tasty lunch of crabs. He spent about 30 minutes in the box before slithering out, delighting staff and guests who witnessed the spectacle.
In California, the Heal the Bay Santa Monica Pier Aquarium is facing up to $20,000 in damages as a result of a mischievous octopus that flooded the building.
A female California two-spotted octopus swam to the top of her tank, disassembled a valve with her powerful arm, and released at least 200 gallons of seawater into nearby exhibits and offices.
At the Dunedin Aquarium in New Zealand,
Sid the octopus, mysteriously vanished from his tank.
Five days later, he was spotted by a staff member making a dash for the door.
Sid had been hiding out in a drain, which pumps fresh sea water into the aquarium.
He was persuaded back into his tank. He was hungry but otherwise OK.
The aquarium's senior aquarist, Matthew Crane, says Sid has done his time and will be freed.
Photo #1 credit: AP Photo/New England Aquarium
Visitors flock to the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in the Indian city of Chennai because of the remarkable beauty of Goya, an albino cobra.
Goya, who is a milky color with shades of pink, was a gift from Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka where they specially breed albino snakes.
The three-and-a-half foot reptile was the only one of his albino siblings to survive, and is now kept on his own in a specially constructed enclosure. Goya spends most of his day indoors due to his sensitivity to light, only venturing outside for his daily meal of five live rats.
Source:
Telegraph
Authorities in Swaziland have declared war on roosters in the capital city because the birds are disrupting people's sleep. Authorities are set to enforce a 40-year-old law that permits residents to raise up to 12 chickens with permission but no roosters.
(Here's the quote of the week - ready?)"After many instances we have found cocks to be troublesome and they end up making lives miserable for residents," said a Mbabane Municipal spokesman.
Source:
AFPPhoto:
Bill Shatto
There's a new addition to the preemie ward at Cypress Gardens, and keepers are giving it around-the-clock care. An albino wallaby named Bela gave birth to an albino baby about four months ago.
In and of itself, the birth is pretty amazing -- albino wallabies are rare. Fewer than 10 have been born in the United States.
The new baby girl was supposed to stay in her mom's pouch until next winter, where she could nurse, grow fur, and get stronger. But fate stepped in.
About a week and a half ago, a park employee found the new baby outside the pouch. Gardens officials are not sure what happened. They suspect that Bela may have been spooked, and threw the baby out. That's what wallaby moms do in the wild to save their own skins when they're threatened.
Since the baby is not even old enough to stand, it couldn't climb back in. Keepers tried to put it back in, but Bela would have no part of it.
"The mother growled at us. She didn't want anything to do with her," said Jessica Bond, an animal manager. "So it was in the baby's best interest to pull her and hand-raise her."
That's easier said than done. The baby, who hasn't been named yet, eats a few tablespoons of a special formula every three hours. Keepers, who take turns bringing the little one home, are up in the middle of the night feeding her.
Every other feeding they have to grease the baby with Vaseline, which simulates the mom licking her.
Gradually, the feedings will taper off. But she won't be fully weaned for another year.
Source:
MyFox, Tampa Bay
Rare albino tadpoles have been found in a garden pond in Wales.
The tadpoles have the distinctive pink eyes and off-white skin coloration associated with albinism. Although isolated single examples of albino frogs, toads and newts have been seen before this is the first time a whole group has been found.
The pond's owner, who first noticed the white-tinged tadpoles, said he did not see any albino frogs using the pond during the breeding season.
Source:
Telegraph
Found at the always excellent
Biomes Blog
Never mind, it's just a llama, laying down.
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via)
The light was already fading when 80-year-old Martha Smith heard her dog Bo barking furiously outside her Fairburn ranch house late last Thursday afternoon.
She looked outside and saw Bo, a Border collie, facing off with a snarling mountain lion.
So Smith, who was home alone, grabbed her .22-caliber rifle, walked outside and fired a shot at the lion. She missed.
Smith went back inside and called 911, but the dispatcher had trouble finding someone from Game, Fish & Parks to come out right away and take care of the lion.
So Smith grabbed the .22 again and went back outside where Bo was keeping the lion at bay.
She walked to within about 20 or 25 feet of the lion and fired. "I got as close as I could," Smith said. "I figured he'd run. I waited until he lifted his leg to run, and I got him right in the chest where his heart would be."
Source:
Rapid City Journal(
via)
Four-toed jerboa is a small jumping desert rodent that resembles a rat with rabbit ears and can jump distances of greater than one meter.
The first giant anteater born at Smithsonian's National Zoo in 118 years, will be known as "Little Schnozzy," until its gender is determined in a few weeks.
The public will vote for the new name among choices including Aurora, Pilar, Cyrano, and Francisco.
SAGINAW, Mich. - Tours at a 163-year-old home-turned-museum are sometimes disrupted by a grumpy groundhog. The furry critter's digging has foiled some of the Saginaw Valley Historic Preservation Society's attempts to refurbish the house on the city's east side.
"We put in a walkway, and part of that collapsed due to Grumpy's efforts," preservationist Thomas Mudd told The Saginaw News.
Construction workers leveled a mound of soil that Grumpy the Groundhog had settled into, "but Grumpy still has his hole under the handicap ramp," Mudd said.
Mudd's latest tactic is to use fox urine as a groundhog repellent. But other efforts have failed to rid the pest in the past. Mudd tried evicting Grumpy with ammonia and mothballs, but the animal dumped the offending materials outside of his tunnel.
A few years ago, Mudd said he baited a trap with broccoli, caught Grumpy and took him to a wooded park near the Tittabawassee River.
"I waved good-bye to Grumpy, and I was so happy," Mudd said.
Grumpy was back within a week.