I blame Bush!
More than 10,000 sightings of wild and exotic animals have been reported in the UK since 2000 and the figure is set to grow, according to a new study. It seems there are more wild animals on the loose than ever before, including 5,931 big cats, 332 wild boars and 3,389 sharks in British waters.
The British Big Cat Society has reported a dramatic increase in big cat sightings in recent years, with 2004-5 figures already up 3.5 per cent on the previous year's study. Hundreds of wild and exotic creatures usually found in the zoo or the jungle are sighted every week up and down the country, it found. As a result of climate change, ... Global warming!
... zoo thefts and animal escapes, it is no longer uncommon to see wild animals such as panthers, leopards, snakes and racoons in the UK, experts claim. Animal sightings since 2000 also include 51 wallabies, 43 snakes, 15 owls, 13 dangerous spiders including a tarantula and a Black Widow, 13 racoons, 10 crocodiles, seven wolves, four eagles, three pandas, two scorpions, and a partridge in a pear tree one penguin.
My personal theory is that feral cats of which there are millions here are experiencing giantism, i.e. getting much bigger, to fill the ecological niche that results from the absence of large predators (in Oz).
Can't wait until someone catches a 200lb feral moggie.
Something similar happened in New Mexico. The native wolf species was eliminated somewhere around the early 20th Century. Since then the native coyotes have grown in size to about that of a wolf. The religious worshippers of nature are now trying to reintroduce the wolf even though nature has already taken care of the issue through natural selection. Its going to be interesting to see two similar size predators competing in the same environment.
#6
Oh. My bad. Saw the headline and thought that it was an article about Muslim immigrants.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
09/18/2006 8:49 Comments ||
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#7
Legalize gun use.
EXACTLY RIGHT. The removal of the British people's right to keep and bear arms, the subsequent waning of British identity, and the rise of Britanistan is no coincidence. I can think of quite a few 'exotic beasts' that a well armed British public could rid themselves of....the two-footed kind.
#8
Chang: on top of that aren't wolves and coyotes subspecies of each other?
Posted by: Phil ||
09/18/2006 9:53 Comments ||
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#9
animal sightings since 2000 also include 51 wallabies, 43 snakes, 15 owls, 13 dangerous spiders including a tarantula and a Black Widow, 13 racoons, 10 crocodiles, seven wolves, four eagles, three pandas, two scorpions, and one penguin. and a partridge in a pear tree.
#10
The wallabies, crocodiles, pandas and the penguin strike me as exotic. The rest seem pretty tame. Only the Brits would have the presence of mind to report exotic spiders instead of squashing them. Although the big cat problem I can relate to. Last year our local security office put out a warning that mountain lions were seen in security videos checking out cars in the company parking (San Diego) lot at night. I am even less sanguine about the proposal to reintroduce grizzlies into Southern California.
#12
That would be the Red Panda, Chuck- the Giant Panda's raccoon-like cousin. One escaped from Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney a while back, and moved into a bamboo patch in a Mosman backyard. Owners thought they had a possum, did they get a surprise!
#13
Chang: on top of that aren't wolves and coyotes subspecies of each other?
Related, but not that close, AFAICR.
Saw a dead coyote on the highway near Cincinnati. No mistaking that odd, angular build.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/18/2006 11:58 Comments ||
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#14
Wolves (Canis lupus) and coyotes (Canis latrans)are, in fact, separate species.
If you saw two side by side you'd never again mistake one for the other. Full grown wolves are well over 100 lbs, stocky of build, with heavy jaws and forward facing eyes.
Coyotes are rarely over 40lbs, much slimmer, and have eyes placed slightly further back on their heads.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/18/2006 13:28 Comments ||
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#15
"I say, Wifred, isn't that a saber-tooth tiger?"
As somewhat of a raccoon expert, due to my current location in the wilds of New Hampshire, I should clarify about the menace presented by raccoons:
They are somewhat large (some over 100 lb), with your typical forward facing predator's eyes, and their fang-filled jaws have been measured as producing upwards of 600 lbs/in of pressure.
Further, they have been clocked in excess of 30 mph over short distances -- speeds which they can attain thanks to their long legs and overall sprinter's build.
They have been termed "Nature's perfect killing machine" by a local raccoon-ologist.
So, I really think the defenseless population of Britain is owed our sympathy in the face of the threat represented by these dreadful masked killers.
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
09/18/2006 15:33 Comments ||
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Was that raccoon you saw in N.H. - you know, the one with the huge body mass and (!) pressurized fangs - seen anywhere near the Seabrook nuke plant, by any chance?
Or perhaps you found the amber liquid early and often the day you observed said creature?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/18/2006 16:36 Comments ||
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#20
While it is well known that raccons can get very large, I'm having difficulty with the concept of a 100-lb raccoon and a 30mph running speed with a "sprinter's build". They ain't built that way if you've ever seen one running across the road at night.
In addition, anyone who calls a raccoon "nature's perfect killing machine" simply hasn't been a) out in the woods enough, b) seen enough wildlife, c) done any studying of wildlife interactions or predator-prey relations whatsoever, d) hasn't looked at wolf spiders ever, and e) is simply too stupid to be considered any kind of wildlife expert at all in any fashion.
#21
No Mo Uro: AFAIK, Coyotes and Wolves can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, both with each other and with red wolves (such as they are). And domestic dogs.
Posted by: Phil ||
09/18/2006 18:21 Comments ||
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#23
Late to the party as always... but ages ago, I ran across a book that postulated that the wolves which terrorized Europe in the late Middle Ages (there was apparently a notorious pack of them which haunted Paris, for a while) were actually wolf-mastiff hybrids. Those legendary so-called wolves were reported to have had displayed some characteristics of wolves, which are usually rather shy and not terribly large... but also those of domestic dogs, especially mastiffs--- which had been bred for war, were not afraid of humans, absolutely freaking huge, and not adverse to attacking humans, wherever they were.
Make of that what you will...
LAGOS - A Nigerian military aircraft crashed on Sunday with 17 people on board including senior army officers, a defence spokesman said. He said initial reports suggested there were survivors but it was not known how many.
The plane crashed on a flight from the capital Abuja to Obudu Cattle Ranch, a hotel and conference centre in the southeastern state of Cross River where the officers were due to attend a series of meetings.
There has been an air crash involving a Nigerian air force Dornier 228. It left Abuja on its way to Obudu. We are not sure yet how many survived, said spokesman Felix Chukwuma, adding that the location of the crash was not yet known. Details of who was on board were not immediately available.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/18/2006 00:00 ||
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A Dornier 228? Didn't they stop making those in the '40s?
14 September 2000, a Komatsu D375A-2 pulled an abandoned tank from its archival tomb under the bottom of a lake near Johvi, Estonia. The Soviet-built T34/76A tank had been resting at the bottom of the lake for 56 years. According to its specifications, it's a 27-tonne machine with a top speed of 53km/h.
From February to September 1944, heavy battles were fought in the narrow, 50 km-wide, Narva front in the northeastern part of Estonia. Over 100,000 men were killed and 300,000 men were wounded there. During battles in the summer of 1944, the tank was captured from the Soviet army and used by the German army. (This is the reason that there are German markings painted on the tank's exterior.) On 19 September 1944, German troops began an organised retreat along the Narva front. It is suspected that the tank was then purposefully driven into the lake, abandoning it when its captors left the area.
At that time, a local boy walking by the lake Kurtna Matasjarv noticed tank tracks leading into the lake, but not coming out anywhere. For two months he saw air bubbles emerging from the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armoured vehicle at the lake's bottom. A few years ago, he told the story to the leader of the local war history club "Otsing". Together with other club members, Mr Igor Shedunov initiated diving expeditions to the bottom of the lake about a year ago. At the depth of 7 metres they discovered the tank resting under a 3-metre layer of peat.
Enthusiasts from the club, under Mr Shedunov's leadership, decided to pull the tank out. In September 2000 they turned to Mr Aleksander Borovkovthe, manager of the Narva open pit of the stock company AS Eesti Polevkivi, to rent the company's Komatsu D375A-2 bulldozer. Currently used at the pit, the Komatsu dozer was manufactured in 1995, and has 19,000 operating hours without major repairs.
The pulling operation began at 09:00 and was concluded at 15:00, with several technical breaks. The weight of the tank, combined with the travel incline, made a pulling operation that required significant muscle. The D375A-2 handled the operation with power and style. The weight of the fully armed tank was around 30 tons, so the tractive force required to retrieve it was similar. A main requirement for the 68-tonne dozer was to have enough weight to prevent shoe-slip while moving up the hill.
After the tank surfaced, it turned out to be a 'trophy' tank, that had been captured by the German army in the course of the battle at Sinimaed (Blue Hills) about six weeks before it was sunk in the lake. Altogether, 116 shells were found on board. Remarkably, the tank was in good condition, with no rust, and all systems (except the engine) in working condition.
This is a very rare machine, especially considering that it fought both on the Russian and the German sides. Plans are under way to fully restore the tank. It will be displayed at a war history museum, that will be founded at the Gorodenko village on the left bank of the River Narva.
Looking at the two tracked machines, the modern yellow Komatsu dozer is a reminder of how machine technologies have advanced, and the region's prospects of peace and prosperity have brightened.
#3
The T34 was originally an American design adopted by the Soviets - rejected by the US Army for being too costly to procure in Depression-era America + too PIncorrect in WW1 and only WW1 = WAR TO END ALL WARS, NO MORE WARS America. Not a prob, though, for Purges-happy Uncle Joe Stalin + "Whats a deficit"" Commie USSR.
#4
Not meaning to be picky but the hex turret and the twin top hatches displayed is in fact a T-34/76 "D" model. It is possible that in the translation that the Russian "D" would be confused for an "A"
The "A" model was stopped in production in 1940, and the "D" was the last production model in 1944.
#7
So thats a Russian lake? WHere I come from we call it a mud bog.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/18/2006 8:45 Comments ||
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#8
The Christie suspension was adopted by the USSR in the BT series and the T-34, but the rest was indigenous. I'm no fan of Stalin's regime, but they could design some things (mostly weapons) very well.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/18/2006 9:31 Comments ||
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#10
..There's another interesting story about an old warrior resurrected from a lake in that part of the world : the only known surviving Brewster Buffalo fighter, the USN's first monoplane fighter. It didn't do well at all in US service (the protoypes were screamers but equipment the USN added turned it into a lumbering target that couldn't get out of its own way) but the Finnish versions were extremely nimble little dogfighters. The story of how the sole survivor is worthy of a James Bond movie and can be found at http://www.warbirdforum.com/bw372.htm
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/18/2006 9:37 Comments ||
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Regaridng the tank, I have to wonder: as it appears that they drove it in, I wonder how the heck they got out without drowning ? Is it possible to rig the accelerator on those things so they kee[p moving with nobody at the controls ?
Posted by: Carl in N.H. ||
09/18/2006 11:47 Comments ||
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#13
Carl: There have been instances in which a tank crew parked unwittingly on soft ground and during the night, the tank mired. Hcances are good that is what happened and the tank was just abandoned, leter to sink.
NEW Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has been forced to defend her husband's sexuality against a campaign orchestrated by a secretive fundamentalist Christian sect with a track record of targeting the Left in Australia.
Ms Clark described yesterday as "vile, baseless lies" allegations of homosexuality against her husband of 25 years, academic Peter Davis, and accused the Exclusive Brethren of hiring private investigators to follow her family. She took aim at the National Party, whose leader Don Brash was reported last week to be having an affair with a millionaire businesswoman. She accused its supporters and right-wing commentators of creating a "poisonous" political environment where "bile" thrived.
Ms Clark said her husband was "extremely upset" by the campaign against him. She also hit out at the media, which had "shown no scruples with running this sort of base slander".
FRESH delays for Airbuss flagship A380 programme are expected to be announced within weeks after a detailed internal study of the project, writes Dominic OConnell. The admission of more hold-ups is likely to come after the completion of a 100-day review by Christian Streiff, who was appointed chief executive of Airbus this year.
If confirmed, the delays will be the third set announced in the past 18 months. EADS, Airbuss parent company, is also likely to have to provide for extra costs on the programme.
The A380, which flew into Heathrow in May, is the largest passenger plane ever built. The first aircraft for commercial service are scheduled to be delivered in December to Singapore Airlines, which had planned its first flight from London to Heathrow before the new year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/18/2006 00:00 ||
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How many rounds of celebratory drinks have they had at Boeing already because of Airbus "delays"? They're gonna get cirrhosis if this keeps up.
Pass the Romulan ale shipmates. According to Statistics Canada the current boom has taken Alberta where no province has gone before. "Alberta is in the midst of the strongest period of economic growth ever recorded in any Canadian province," the federal number cruncher reported last week. "And there is no sign of slowing down."
Indeed, we may soon need to find some new superlatives to describe what's happening in Wild Rose Country. We're talking economic warp speed. The province's per capita income has doubled over the past decade to $66,275, which is more than 50% above the national average. As Statistics Canada points out, that's the widest income gap ever recorded among provinces in the nation's 137-year history.
Canada not big enough for you? Across North America we have the largest percentage of our population employed, and the lowest unemployment rate. The job market is so tight it squeaks. That's bad news for business. But the good news for business is that profits in Alberta have doubled in the past four years to a staggering $53 billion. Alberta accounts for about 15% of the national economy, but almost 30% of Canadian business profits.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2006 00:00 ||
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Sniff, sniff, been forecasted for prosperity since the 1990's, as ALBERTA is often described as the most "American-esque" and "free market" of Canada's provinces.
#2
"According to the International Monetary Fund, Alberta's exports of oil and gas will ensure that Canada is the only member of the Group of Seven wealthiest countries to escape the economic slowdown predicted for the U.S. and Europe."
If socialists are allowed back into power in the GWN, you can kiss this prediction goodbye.
Alberta is the most successful province because it is the one most like the U.S. and the least like Europe. Period.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
09/18/2006 5:37 Comments ||
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#3
Alberta's prosperity is almost totally driven by oil and gas conversion and will do well since there is little chance oil will get below $25/barrel. In addition, there is no reason that some of that wealth can't be duplicated in Wyoming and other states with a lot of coal and oil shale (though at a higher price).
Posted by: ed ||
09/18/2006 10:18 Comments ||
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#4
I take it that the $66,275 is in Canadian dollars. Does anyone know what that is in US $?
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/18/2006 11:50 Comments ||
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#5
Currntly the CAD is at .892 to the Dollar. Here's the current chart. That would make it $59,211 USD.
#6
Bollocks! The only reason Alberta is having this spectacular economic growth is OIL (and NOT the most freemarket crap...). Name any other product they product (other than mad cow). Pretty soon you'll be praising Venezuelas' economic prosperity...
One reason I'm pissed at this article is the fact that they also are the most selfish, self-centred, and self-grandising province in the country...geez, I wish Ontario had the 'entreprenaurial' spirit to lay all that oil under its feet.
Posted by: sHaKeY STeVe ||
09/18/2006 12:13 Comments ||
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Posted by: sHaKeY STeVe ||
09/18/2006 12:15 Comments ||
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#9
The fact that the rest of Cnada has to pay world market value for 'Albertas' oil makes me think that maybe we should buy Venezuelan oil...after all, this would stop their whining premier from threatening to separate from the Yukon...
Posted by: sHaKeY STeVe ||
09/18/2006 12:17 Comments ||
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#10
...and the fact that the rest of Canada calls them 'blue-eyed Saudis'...not in a complimentary way...
Posted by: sHaKeY STeVe ||
09/18/2006 12:19 Comments ||
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#11
We don't call Texans or Alaskans "blue-eyed Suadis. One more thing I'm thankful we don't have in common with Quebeckers.
NEW DELHI: The leaders of a village in the Indian state of Rajasthan ordered 150 men to dip their hands into boiling oil to prove their innocence after food was stolen from a local school, a newspaper reported on Sunday. In late August the school's principal informed police that rice and wheat had disappeared but no action was taken, the Sunday Express said. The council, or panchayat, of Ranpur village, 340 km south of state capital Jaipur, then decided to take the law into its own hands.
After 10 days spent trying to identify those responsible, it issued what the paper called the "medieval diktat". The 150 men from Ranpur and two neighbouring hamlets were told to pick a copper ring from a cauldron of boiling oil. The council elders then announced that the 50 who refused the order must be behind the crime. Many are now nursing their burns. "We would have been ostracised had we refused. Out of fear all of us agreed. This is not the first time this has been done," said one 45-year-old man. He has now testified against the elders, who have been arrested.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2006 00:00 ||
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BEDEVERE: What makes you think she is a witch?
VILLAGER #3: Well, she turned me into a newt.
BEDEVERE: A newt?
VILLAGER #3: I got better.
VILLAGER #2: Burn her anyway!
VILLAGER #1: Burn!
CROWD: Burn her! Burn! Burn her!...
BEDEVERE: Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
VILLAGER #1: Are there?
VILLAGER #2: Ah?
VILLAGER #1: What are they?
CROWD: Tell us! Tell us!...
VILLAGER #2: Do they hurt?
BEDEVERE: Tell me. What do you do with witches?
VILLAGER #2: Burn!
VILLAGER #1: Burn!
CROWD: Burn! Burn them up! Burn!...
BEDEVERE: And what do you burn apart from witches?
VILLAGER #1: More witches!
VILLAGER #3: Shh!
VILLAGER #2: Wood!
BEDEVERE: So, why do witches burn?
[pause]
VILLAGER #3: B--... 'cause they're made of... wood?
BEDEVERE: Good! Heh heh.
CROWD: Oh, yeah. Oh.
BEDEVERE: So, how do we tell whether she is made of wood?
VILLAGER #1: Build a bridge out of her.
BEDEVERE: Ah, but can you not also make bridges out of stone?
VILLAGER #1: Oh, yeah.
RANDOM: Oh, yeah. True. Uhh...
BEDEVERE: Does wood sink in water?
VILLAGER #1: No. No.
VILLAGER #2: No, it floats! It floats!
VILLAGER #1: Throw her into the pond!
CROWD: The pond! Throw her into the pond!
BEDEVERE: What also floats in water?
VILLAGER #1: Bread!
VILLAGER #2: Apples!
VILLAGER #3: Uh, very small rocks!
VILLAGER #1: Cider!
VILLAGER #2: Uh, gra-- gravy!
VILLAGER #1: Cherries!
VILLAGER #2: Mud!
VILLAGER #3: Uh, churches! Churches!
VILLAGER #2: Lead! Lead!
ARTHUR: A duck!
CROWD: Oooh.
BEDEVERE: Exactly. So, logically...
VILLAGER #1: If... she... weighs... the same as a duck,... she's made of wood.
BEDEVERE: And therefore?
VILLAGER #2: A witch!
VILLAGER #1: A witch!
CROWD: A witch! A witch!...
KARACHI: Eighteen Pakistani pilgrims died during a three-day festival at a Muslim shrine, some by heat stroke and others by drowning in a river, a police official said on Sunday. Thousands of devotees attended the annual celebrations of Muslim saint Lal Shahbaz Qalander in Sehwan Sharif. Twelve people, mostly old men and women died of heat, while six young devotees drowned while swimming in a river near the shrine.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/18/2006 00:00 ||
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We need to rush these poor suffering people a massive airlift of Danish cartoons!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
LAGOS - A Nigerian military aircraft crashed on Sunday with 17 people on board including senior army officers, a defence spokesman said. He said initial reports suggested there were survivors but it was not known how many.
FRESH delays for Airbuss flagship A380 programme are expected to be announced within weeks after a detailed internal study of the project, writes Dominic OConnell. The admission of more hold-ups is likely to come after the completion of a 100-day review by Christian Streiff, who was appointed chief executive of Airbus this year.
Pass the Romulan ale shipmates. According to Statistics Canada the current boom has taken Alberta where no province has gone before. "Alberta is in the midst of the strongest period of economic growth ever recorded in any Canadian province," the federal number cruncher reported last week. "And there is no sign of slowing down." 
