Bizarre animals

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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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Giant fruit-eating lizard species that lives in trees discovered in Philippines
7th April 2010

A giant species of monitor lizard that lives in trees has been discovered in the forests of the Northern Philippines. The 6ft 6in-long brightly-coloured lizard is a secretive, fruit-eating species which was found in the forests of the heavily populated and largely deforested Luzon Island. The discovery of the monitor lizard was described as an 'unprecedented surprise' by scientists.

The species (Varanus bitatawa) is restricted to the forests of the central and northern Sierra Madre range, where biologists have conducted relatively few surveys of reptiles and amphibians. Hunted for its tasty flesh, the brightly-coloured lizard is actually well known to tribespeople living in the forests of the island as they hunt it for its meat. However, scientists were unaware of its existence.

Genetic tests revealed it was a different species from a closely-related monitor lizard, from which it is geographically separated by three non-forested river valleys on the island. The researchers suggested it was a highly secretive species which never left forests to cross open areas.

Although the lizard can grow to more than 6ft in length it weighs only about 22lb, said Rafe Brown of the University of Kansas, whose team confirmed the find. 'It lives up in trees, so it can't get as massive as the Komodo dragon, a huge thing that eats large amounts of fresh meat,' said Mr Brown. 'This thing is a fruit-eater and it's only the third fruit-eating lizard in the world.' Discovering such a large vertebrate species is extremely rare, Mr Brown said.

The lizard, a new species of the genus Varanus, is skittish and able to hide from humans, its primary predators, which could explain why it has gone undetected by scientists for so long. Biologists first saw photographs of the big, skinny lizard in 2001, when those surveying the area passed hunters carrying the lizards' colourful carcasses, but the species at that point had never been given a scientific identification.

In the next few years, Brown said, ethnobiologists kept hearing stories 'about these two kinds of lizard that everyone liked to eat because their flesh tasted better than the ones that lived on the ground; this thing was described as bigger and more brightly coloured'. The two kinds of lizard described by the local people were two names for the same animal, Mr Brown said. In 2009, graduate students at the end of a two-month expedition kept seeing signs of the big lizard. There were claw-scratches on trees and clumps of pandanus trees, whose fruit the lizard prefers. The clumps indicated that the lizards had eaten pandanus fruit and then excreted the seeds in clusters.

'It was literally in the last couple days of the expedition, we were running out of money and food and this was the payoff: they finally got this gigantic animal,' Mr Brown said. Hunters who had heard of the team's interest brought a barely-alive adult male lizard to their camp. The team euthanized the animal and did genetic tests that confirmed it as a unique species, Mr Brown said.

DNA analysis showed there was a deep genetic divergence between the new lizard and its closest relative, Gray's monitor lizard, which is also a fruit-eater but lives on the southern end of Luzon, rather than the northern end where the forest monitor lizard lives.

'They are extremely secretive,' Mr Brown said of the new species. 'I think that centuries of humans hunting them have made the existing populations ... very skittish and wary and we never see them. They see and hear us before we have a chance to see them, they scamper up trees before we have a chance to come around.'

These findings were published in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters, with additional work by scientists in the Philippines and the Netherlands. The scientists said the lizards, which highlighted the 'unexplored nature of the Philippines', could become a flagship species for conservation efforts to preserve the remaining forests of the region.

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Five unusual animal mating rituals
From necrophiliac snakes to 'traumatic insemination' and group sex, here are five of the weirdest mating rituals from the animal kingdom.

Porcupines
No, it's not the prickly issue of spines getting in the way, more the porcupine penchant for golden showers that makes their mating ritual a little odd. Firstly, the male begins by following his selected partner around, carefully sniffing every spot in which she urinates.

Then, once the pair are comfortable, and the female has obligingly reared up belly-to-belly with her mate, he then proceeds to urinate all over her. If she accepts, they then go on to mate until the male is worn out. If she doesn't accept, the male is forced to try again meaning the weird urine-based courtship can go on for up to six months.

Red-sided garter snakes
The small and highly poisonous snakes are big fans of group sex and, it seems, not necessarily that fussed if their partner is even alive. Up to 25,000 snakes slither into a large den, with some females having up to 100 males attempting to mate with her at a time. They then form 2ft 'nesting balls', which has the unfortunate consequence of crushing some of the poor females to death.

The males however do not take this as a sign to stop and, overtaken by lust, continue to mate with her cold dead corpse. Now that is weird.

Bed Bugs
The bed bug mating ritual is a bit like a dodgy B-movie horror script. The male engages in a process called 'traumatic insemination', which is just as gruesome as it sounds. Rather than go through the process of wooing a mate and a long-winded relationship, the male bed bug simply stabs a hole in the female's abdomen before inseminating her, hence the moniker 'traumatic'.

Lynx Spiders
The way to a Lynx Spider's heart is through their stomach. The male spins a web, which captures his beauty, before spinning silk around her. The web is actually a wonderful aphrodisiac for the female Lynx Spider, who happily tucks into her silken bonds.

Meanwhile, the male spider gets into position and then mates with his partner while she is distracted with her slap-up dinner.

The male Uganda kob
When mating season arrives for the male Uganda kob, one lucky male is in for a very tiring time. After each male has set up a mating territory, or lek, all of the females select a single male, and proceed to mate with him.

Eventually the male is too weak to continue (usually due to lack of food and a distinct lack of recovery time) and the females move on to another mate.

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Motorway madness as this little fellow takes death-defying peeks from hole in highway
15th April 2010

Here's one critter who likes to live dangerously. A yellow-bellied marmot was spotted taking death-defying peeks from a hole in a highway.

Photographer Zack Clothier noticed the crafty creature - a type of ground squirrel - while stopping to shoot scenery in Montana. He watched amazed as the creature ducked in and out of a hole in the asphalt on the Beartooth All-American Highway near Cooke City.

Zack explains: ‘I first noticed the marmot after stopping to photograph the landscape at a pullout along the road. I saw him at a distance but at first did not realise that it was in a pothole. I thought it was just sitting in the road as they do this quite often, but while setting up my tripod I saw a car approaching the marmot out of the corner of my eye.

‘I thought for sure it would scurry out of the road to avoid being hit so I continued what I was doing, still observing from the corner of my eye. When the car got almost on top of it the marmot seemed to just melt into the road. I could not see the pothole from where I was standing so at first I was just as confused as the motorists.

‘I knew that the animal did not just pull a “David Copperfield” and vanish without a trace, so I approached closer and saw the hole in the road. The marmot soon raised back up from the hole when the next vehicle approached and I began shooting, moving slightly closer every time he was out of sight. I am not positive whether or not the marmot actually lived in the hole but it never left it. When it finally stopped popping its head out I walked over to the hole it seemed to be quite deep and tunnelled to one side underneath.’

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not a fake at all... uh uh, no way!

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Killer elephant on testosterone-induced sex rampage in India
Wildlife experts are hunting a rogue bull elephant in southern India accused of killing at least 10 female elephants during a testosterone-induced 'sex rampage'.
30th April 2010

An elephant has been on a 'sex rampage' in southern India An elephant has been on a 'sex rampage' in southern India. 15 experts have formed a task force to track the killer elephant through the Periyar forest in Kerela. Eight females were killed last year, before another two gored corpses were found last month.

According to reports, the elephant's behaviour has been caused by an increase in testosterone levels, which has led to more aggression from the randy bull elephant when the females spurn his advances. "Looking at the post-mortem reports of the dead females and other evidence that our team has gathered, we are sure that they were all killed by the same tusker [bull elephant]," Kerala's Chief Wildlife Warden KK Srivastava told the BBC.

One of the tusks is said to have been damaged, meaning the sharpened ivory has become a lethal weapon with which the bull can pierce a female's skin. Officials are aiming to tranquilise the elephant before trimming his tusks, though concerns have been raised because 'The terrain in the reserve is hilly and there is a reservoir. Once the animal is hit by the tranquiliser, it begins to run. We are worried it might get killed. So we cannot take a risk'.

Srivastava believes that the elephant is getting better, as he has only killed two females so far this year: "We'll watch him for this year before we decide to do anything. Maybe he'll just get better on his own," he said.

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Serial killing elephants... I blame video games!

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3 metre 'King of Herring' found in Sweden
A rare 12-foot long Giant Oarfish - the world's largest bony fish, also known as the 'king of herring' - has been found off the coast of Sweden for the first time in 130 years.

The 'king of herrings' specimen - measuring more than 3 metres long - was found on the western coast of Sweden The 'king of herrings' specimen - measuring more than 3 metres long - was found on the western coast of Sweden

The dead fish was spotted in Bovallstrand on Sweden's west coast by 73-year-old resident Kurt Ove Eriksson, who found it floating near the shore on Saturday. 'It was very long and shiny,' Eriksson told The Associated Press on Wednesday. 'It also had whiskers, even though it looked like they had been broken off. And a strange light-pink dorsal fin.'

It was handed over to The House of the Sea aquarium in the town of Lysekil, where expert Roger Jansson says it's being kept pending a decision on what to do with it.

Johansson said on Wednesday the Giant Oarfish can grow up to 36 feet (11 meters), and is believed to live in deep waters. He says the last recorded discovery in Sweden was in 1879. 'I've been fishing around here since 1957 and I've never seen anything like it,' said Eriksson. 'But I've seen enough fish to know that it was a deep-water fish.'

Sightings of the Giant Oarfish are believed to have inspired tales of sea serpents.

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If they really could get to 11m in length then I've no doubt they're what sea-serpents are!

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Escaped elephant goes on tour of Zurich
An elephant that escaped from the circus spent an hour wandering around the Swiss city - even taking a swim in Lake Zurich - before being recaptured by its keepers.

Zurich police spokesman Michael Wirz said that officers pursued Sabu the elephant through the city's banking and commercial district for over an hour on Sunday before a keeper managed to bring the animal under control.

Impressively, given that it was a four ton elephant galumphing around an unfamiliar city, there were no reports of any injuries, or of any damage to property. Sabu got away from the Circus Knie while she was being loaded into a trailer at about 7pm, circus spokesman Niklaus Leuenberger said.

On her whistlestop tour of the city Sabu even managed to find time to have a quick swim in Lake Zurich.

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The Owl and the Pussycats
By JOHN COLES
16th June 2010

LEARNING to fly in a lions' den could have been a very paw choice for this baby tawny owl. But the youngster incredibly managed to survive for THREE days alongside Indu the Asiatic lioness and her mate.

The owlet is thought to have fallen from its nest above the enclosure at Paignton Zoo in Devon and landed inches from the killers. Visitors watched as Indu lazily eyed the tiny intruder who would have made an easy snack. But the seven-year-old lioness decided to spare the bird and after several clumsy efforts it managed to take off and fly to safety.

These photos of the owl and the very big pussycat were taken by retired teacher Sheila Hassanein, 64. She said: "Someone saw the chick fall out of a tree and it landed right in the lion enclosure. A big group of people quickly gathered round to watch. We were all very concerned about the owl as it looks completely helpless in there. It was so tiny compared to the lions. At one point one of the lions went over to it and I felt sure she was going to eat it, but she just didn't seem bothered at all."

"The staff couldn't go in there to remove the chick so it was in there for three days before it was able to fly off. It was very lucky to escape because I saw a pigeon land in there once and the lion ate it up straight away."

A zoo spokesman said visitors were keen for the owlet to be rescued but staff could not allow anyone to enter while the cats were in the paddock. The pair of Asiatic lions are part of a European breeding programme to protect the endangered species, as only 300 live wild in India.

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And also today:

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