MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: RECENT ALLIGATOR EPISODES IN SHANGHAI

A couple of days ago Bob Skinner passed on some information to me about Chinese Alligators in Shanghai although this report (from Chinacartimes.com on August 7th 2012 of all places) erroneously describes them as Crocodiles.

Forget New York, Shanghai Has Its Own Crocodiles Lurking About.

Rumours about Crocs and Alligators have been doing the rounds in New York for as long as anyone can remember, the problem with New York is that its actually quite cold in the winter so any man eating reptile would have to find a nice warm place to spend the winter. Shanghai is a little different however, it gets cold in winter but not overly so, throw in the fact that exotic wild animals can be bought relatively easily either for dinner or for amusement and you have a potentially dangerous situation

[The creators of this web story don`t seem to realise that the alligator is/was a native of the Yangtze which joins the E.China sea at Shanghai).

Shanghai Daily has an interesting story on the third crocodile caught in Shanghai`s creeks and rivers this year:

“Wild animal protection authorities said they caught a 1.5m long crocodile in a creek in a suburban residential area after terrified residents saw it swimming near the creek bank yesterday afternoon.

It is the third crocodile that officials said they have caught in the Pudong New Area this year.

The crocodile was seen by residents swimming in a creek near a supermarket on Changqing Road in Pudong at about 2pm yesterday. The unusual scene attracted a group of residents to a nearby bridge to watch, witnesses said.

“I was going home after shopping at that supermarket when I suddenly saw it under the bridge”, said a witness surnamed Wang. “ At first I thought it was just a big black fish but when its head floated onto the waters surface – I realized it was a crocodile!”

An official surnamed Tang with the Pudong Wild Animal Protection Station told Shanghai Daily at first they tried to use a tool to clamp down on the crocodile`s head.But the crocodile went below the surface. Tang said.

They then used a big fishing net to catch it about 4pm.

Local police were still investigating where it came from. On May 12, a crocodile was seen in a suburban creek in Pudong`s Kangqiao Area. Police said they had to kill it after failing to catch it. On January 15, a dead 2.1 meter-long crocodile was found in a creek in Pudong`s Yangyuan Area. Wild aniaml experts said it might have escaped from a restaurant (1)

1 http://www.chinacartimes.com/2012/08/07/forget-york-shanghai-crocodiles-lurking/

WOLVES IN HACKNEY?

WHO LET THE (PRAIRIE) DOGS OUT?

Kithra sent us an interesting story yesterday. She knows that Gavin L-W is on leave of absence while he writes a book about guitars (we'd better get a copy Mr Wilson, or we will sulk mightily), so she is sending newsblog submissions to us. I am glad she did, because it has opened up a whole can of worms. Because this is the third Cornish record of prairie dogs that we have received in the last two years, and the second UK report this year.

The news report, which can be read in its original glory HERE reads:

A couple from Cornwall have photographed a prairie dog while they were on a moor in Cornwall.
Linda and Godfrey Stevens were on the Goss Moor trail when they spotted a small furry creature that they could not recognise.

Godfrey Stevens said: "We didn't expect to see anything like that." Newquay Zoo confirmed the picture was that of a prairie dog. They are mammals from the squirrel family and are from the grasslands of North America. Mr Stevens said: "We expected to see wild flowers. It was a real surprise for us." John Meeks from Newquay Zoo said it was a black-tailed prairie dog "without a doubt".

Well, yes. It is indeed a black tailed prairie dog without a doubt. Unlike previous incumbents, the current management of Newquay Zoo are not inclined to making idiotic quasi-cryptozoological statements in the press. But the important thing is how did it get there? Prairie dogs are North American ground squirrels that live in large social groups on the grasslands of North America. And it is the 'large social groups' that is the important feature here.

Black tailed prairie dogs are highly inappropriate pets for this reason, but also for a logistical one; they are great burrowers and will dig long tunnels. Therefore, unless one is very careful, the chances of escapes are very high indeed. There is also a third reason why they are not widely kept as pets. Look at this pricelist, pinched today, from the website of a highly regarded specialist animal dealer:

Arabian Spiny Mouse Acomys cahirinus dimidiatus £ 10.00
Egyptian Spiny Mouse Acomys cahirinus cahirinus £ 10.00
Harvest Mouse Micromys minutus £ 25.00
Striped Grass Mouse Lemniscomys barbarus £ 10.00
Multimammate Mouse Mastomys natalensis £ 5.00
African Pygmy Mouse Mus minutoides £ 15.00
African Dwarf Dormouse Graphiurus murinus £ 25.00
Duprasi (fat tailed gerbil) Pachyuromys duprasi £ 15.00
Pallid Gerbil Gerbillus perpallidus £ 10.00
Shaws Jird Meriones shawi £ 15.00
Bushy Tailed Jird Sekeetamys £ 25.00
Acacia Rats Thallomys paedulucus £ 10.00
Nile Rats Arvicanthis niloticus £ 10.00
Hand Reared Gambian Pouched Rats Cricetomys gambianus - Males £ 250.00
Cricetomys gambianus - Females £ 300.00
Richardson Ground Squirrel Spermophilus richardsonii £ 100.00
13 Lined Ground Squirrel Spermophilus tridecemlineatus £ 100.00
Black Tailed Prarie Dog Cynomys ludovicianus £ 100.00
African Pygmy Hedgehogs Atelerix albiventris £ 150.00 from
Long Eared Hedgehogs Hemiechinus auritus auritus £ 150.00 from
Sugar Gliders Petaurus breviceps £ 150.00
Steppe Lemmings Lagurus largurus £ 20.00
Mediterranean Lemmings Microtus guentheri £ 15.00
Lesser Jerboa Jaculus jaculus £ 75.00
Greater Jerboa Jaculus orientalis £ 100.00

All the ground squirrels, including prairie dogs, are expensive at a hundred quid a pop, and the fact we have now received three reports from the same geographical area between Feb 2008 and this morning, would suggest that either there is someone in the area with more money than sense who keeps on buying these charming little rodents only to let them escape, or there is a well-established colony of these rather charming little fellows in captivity somewhere in mid-Cornwall, and that the escape record of this afore-mentioned colony is somewhat akin to Hogan's Heroes.

I think that an intensive search of the area with small mammal traps is probably in order, and that that those in charge of the British list should really come to terms with the fact that we have a new invasive species on our hands.

Hurrah!

ANOTHER ALABAMA ALLIGATOR

One of the things about the Fortean omniverse I have always found entertaining is the way that stuff always happens in batches. On the same day that I received this story
about alligators in Alabama, I also received this series of photographs and what purports to be a news story:



"The picture to the left was taken by a KTBS helicopter flying over Lake Wiess about 90 miles north of Birmingham, Alabama. The helicopter pilot and the game warden were in communication via radios; following is a transcript of their conversation:

"Air1, have you a visual on the 'gator? Over. "
"Approaching inlet now; over."
"Roger, Air1."
"'Gator sighted. Looks like it has a small animal in its mouth. Moving in; over."
"Roger, Air1."
"It's a deer!"
"Confirm, Air1! Did you say 'deer'? Over."
"Roger. A deer, in its mouth. Looks like a full-sized buck . That's a BIG 'gator! We're gonna need more men. Over."
"Roger, Air1. Can you give me a idea on size of animal? Over."
"It's big... 25 feet long...at least! Please advise; 'gator is heading to inlet... Do I pursue? Over."


That has to be a HUGE 'gator to have a whole deer in its mouth! The deer was later found to be a mature stag and was measured at 11 feet! Are you ready to go skiing on Lake Wiess ?! If you ski at the west end of the lake, try not to fall!

This alligator was found between Centre and Leesburg, Alabama, near a house! Game wardens were forced to shoot the alligator... guess he wouldn't cooperate.

Anita and Charlie Rogers could hear the bellowing in the night. Their neighbors had been telling them that they had seen a mammoth alligator in the waterway that runs behind the Rogers' house but they dismissed the stories as exaggerations. "I didn't believe it," Charles Rogers said; however, they later realized the stories were, if anything, understated. Alabama Parks and Wildlife game wardens had to shoot the beast. Joe Goff, a 6'5" tall game warden, walks past the 28-foot, 1-inch alligator (8.5 metres) he shot and killed in the Rogers' back yard.

We sent the pictures to our resident herpdude Richard Freeman who wrote back:

"The Alligator with deer in its mouth was real. The 28 foot 'gator was bad photoshop. The biggest 'gator ever recorded was 19 feet 6 inches and shot in Louisiana in 1890. The biggest in recent years was about 15 feet.
The only crocodilian reliably measured at over 28 feet was a 28 foot 4 inch Indo-pacific croc."

I would like someone with a knowledge of North American deer to take a look at the first two alligator pictures and try to give us a more reliable size estimate.

MICHAEL MALONE: Sweet Home Alabama

The bloggo is beginning to do the job that I originally intended: it is spreading the word of the CFZ's singular take on cryptozoology, animal welfare, natural history and the other stuff we do, and making contact with like minded folks across the globe. As a result, the CFZ family is expanding rapidly. Yesterday I received an e-mail from a bloke called Michael Malone: were we interested in a series of reports about the cryptozoology of Alabama and his hunt for out-of-place alligators? Well, of course we are and I told him so. Last night I came back from the pub after a convivial evening with our Texas contingent and I found this waiting for me.

I know that Michael is preparing a series of reports for us, but this initial one was too good to ignore....




I've been exploring the Flint River in Madison County, Alabama for years. It's home to several endangered species but nothing remarkable (Alabama Snail Darter; a tiny fish, for one). In the past, Big Foot sightings along the river were common but with population growth along the river, I doubt anything like a Big Foot could still be in the area.

The Alligators are all in Wheeler Lake, created by damming the Tennessee River as it passes through North Alabama. I've just started exploring the swamps in the area.

Supposedly the Alligators all come from a misguided effort to protect the species in the 70's. About 50 young 'gators were released into Wheeler Lake in an effort to control beaver populations. They were released by a well-meaning politician who didn't go through the correct channels. At least that's the story; I can not find out who released them or why. If true, and it is generally accepted as such, then the expectation was they would survive a year or two, reduce the beaver population and be captured and returned to the south or die in a harsh winter.

That didn't happen. They attempted to capture them in the 80s but didn't get them all. Best guess by the people who run the wildlife refuge is that 50+ of them may still live on the lake with another 20+ moved off the lake to other areas. None are expected to be more than four feet long.

The problem with that is there is a known Alligator, known as stumpy (see photograph), living off the refuge on a nearby army base. It's take to calling a large water impound its home and the water is artificially warmed by outflow from the base. Stumpy is nearly 10 feet long and is so named because he's missing a good portion of his tail. He crawls out onto a test range every so often and the army photographers snap his pictures. It's assumed that this large 'gator is a released pet that found a niche in which to live and is protected by the security on the base.

What haven't been found are nests or successful breeding populations. The rumors persist; far too many to just be released pets. We've had some mighty cold winters since the initial releases. What I hope to do is find and mark via GPS a few locations where the 'gators live this summer, try and find nesting areas now that the babies should have hatched and the mommies aren't going to be aggressively protecting them, then return in the fall to known sites and see how they are preparing for winter. Lots of theories but no proof.

Along the way, I'm going to keep my eyes open for other strangeness. The Flint River Big Foot supposedly migrated to Wheeler Lake and have been 'seen' swimming the Tennessee River in the recent past. I have my doubts about that; the river is quite wide and quickly flowing in the area. But hey, I'm going into places Fishermen don't go, so who knows?

Besides, on my first trip into the backwaters I'm fairly sure I saw a small (>1foot) 'gator jump off a log into the water (okay, fall off the log; 'gators aren't great jumpers) but not before I could get close enough to photograph or even confirm what I think I saw. And more importantly and fun, I got attacked by an angry mallard mama that didn't like me interrupting her evening swim with her ducklings. I didn't know ducks could swim underwater! Cool experience to learn!

Pictures are forthcoming and I'll write up my first trip soon. Thanks for your interest!

SCOTTIE WESTFALL: All because I lost my router

Jon,

I lost a router last week, and I was without internet access.

However, if I had internet access, I would have noticed an unusual cat story in my local daily news website. Amazingly, for a small county in very rural West Virginia, we have a daily internet news site.

This cat was captured in a cage trap. And no one knew what it was. It was like a domestic cat with rounder ears and lots of spots.

After perusing the photos on the news story, I instantly thought "Bengal!" Bengals are a hybrid between domestic cats and the Asian leopard cat. They are widely marketed as pets in the US, although they are usually backcrosses with domestic cats. The F1's are often too much for the average person.

It turns out that a local cat breeder had purchased an F1 Bengal for breeding purposes. Somehow, the cat got out.

It was then trapped in the cage trap. The owners of the trap didn't know what it was. So they called the local authorities-- who didn't know what it was either!

And here's the kicker: instead of doing some research on what the animal was or even trying to find its owner, they took the cat to a remote area AND RELEASED IT!

Now, the cat's owner is looking for her. And local authorities look like total fools.

This has now made statewide news. It's not quite to the level of the supposed African lion that was running loose in the southeastern part of the state, but it's pretty bad.

Now, if I had been able to access the internet on Monday, I would have known what it was. I know the owner of the news website, and he would have received a response from me. He then would have passed this along to the authorities, and I'm sure the authorities would have at least performed a google search. And then they probably wouldn't have been as cavalier about turning such an animal loose.

And then a woman might have been reunited with her cat.

And all of this because my last router stopped working.

I've done a full story on it here: http://wildlifemysteries.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/strange-cat-captured-and-then-released/

`CAUSE IT'S WITH YOUR MUSSELS THAT YOU MOST EASILY OBTAIN KNOWLEDGE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6/12/09

CONTACT: Suzanne Peyer, smpeyer@wisc.edu, 608-262-9225; Carol Eunmi Lee, carollee@wisc.edu, 608-262-2675

ZEBRA MUSSELS HANG ON WHILE QUAGGA MUSSELS TAKE OVER

MADISON - The zebra mussels that have wreaked ecological havoc on the Great Lakes are harder to find these days - not because they are dying off, but because they are being replaced by a cousin, the quagga mussel. But zebra mussels still dominate in fast-moving streams and rivers.

Research conducted by Suzanne Peyer, a doctoral candidate in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Zoology, shows that physiological differences between the two species might determine which mollusk dominates in either calm or fast-moving waters.

"Zebra mussels quite rapidly colonized rivers close to the Great Lakes right after their introduction, within a year or two," Peyer explains. "Quagga mussels were introduced in the Great Lakes around 20 years ago, but they are still not found in the rivers or tend to be present in low numbers."

The mussels are similar in many ways. Their habitats overlap, and both are suspension feeders that filter water to extract their food. But the cousin species are different in many ways, too. Zebra mussels prefer to attach to a hard surface, while quagga mussels can live on soft bottoms, such as sand or silt. Zebra mussels also prefer warmer water temperatures and do not grow as big as quagga mussels.

Peyer's research focused on the ability of the mussels to attach to underlying material. Both species attach to rocks, sand, silt or each other by producing tiny but strong "byssal" threads, string-like strands of protein. These threads act as an adhesive that enable the mussels to attach to surfaces, regardless of how slippery the surface is. Byssal threads are the reason mussels are so difficult to remove from boats or water intake pipes.

Peyer collected both mussel species from Lake Michigan. In the lab, she subjected the mussels to different water velocities that simulated river flow conditions. Her research results supported her hypothesis that zebra mussels are able to produce more byssal threads than quagga mussels, enabling them to attach more securely to underlying material. They are also better able to hang on where water is flowing, such as in a river or stream.

"The results were that zebra mussels produced byssal threads at about twice the rate of quagga mussels," Peyer says. "Zebra mussels can ramp up their byssal thread production under different flows."

A statistical model Peyer developed also predicted that, with increasing velocity, zebra mussels produce more threads than quagga mussels.

According to this model, the zebra mussels show high plasticity, or the ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. Plasticity can be an adaptive characteristic that allows an organism to survive under new conditions. In this case, the new condition is increased flow.

Zebra mussels are also able to stay attached better. At the highest velocity, only 10 percent of the zebra mussels detached, but 60-70 percent of the quagga mussels detached.

Results from her research, funded by the UW-Madison Sea Grant Institute, is published in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.

According to Peyer's research adviser, Professor Carol Eunmi Lee at the UW-Madison Center of Rapid Evolution, no one has previously looked at differences in attachment between these species as an explanation for their distribution patterns in North America.

"It's the first time somebody actually went and systematically looked at functional differences between the two species that would explain the different kinds of substrate that they could invade," she says. "In that sense, Suzanne has produced a really elegant and clever study. It has very concrete hypotheses and results."

Zebra mussels were first introduced in the Great Lakes in the late 1980s, hitchhiking their way into North America in the ballast water of ships from the Caspian and Black Seas. Within a few years, zebra mussels had colonized shallow water, beaches and water-intake pipes in layers up to 8 inches thick. Although quagga mussels came onto the scene a few years later, they have recently become the dominant species in calm waters of the Great Lakes.

These mussels have permanently changed the ecosystem. Before the mussels invaded, Lake Michigan water was mostly cloudy and millions of tiny microorganisms provided a food base for fish. Because the mussels filter the microorganisms, the waters today are surprisingly clear, allowing light to penetrate to greater depths, which in turn promotes prolific, nuisance algae blooms.

Quagga mussels may be the reason Diporea, a small shrimp-like species that serves as a food source for larger fish, is no longer abundant. The whitefish that feed on Diporea are growing to less than half of their expected size.

Both Peyer and Lee hope that understanding the biological differences between the two mussel species will help those who manage the Great Lakes.

"We need to be aware of the distinct differences between the two species," Peyer says. "If we understand the differences in their biology, we might help to make management more efficient and more effective in the end."

THE LAZARUS LIZARD

http://wildlifemysteries.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/the-lazarus-lizards/


Have you ever heard of a “Lazarus” lizard?

No. They aren’t called that because they rose from the dead. There’s nothing really spectacular about them at all.

In fact, they are rather banal. In Europe, they are common enough to call them “wall lizards.” They are often seen basking on stone and concrete walls in the summer sun. However, these particular wall lizards aren’t in Europe at all. They are found in Southwestern Ohio and Northern Kentucky.

What’s a European lizard doing in the Ohio Valley?



Follow the link above, and `retrieverman` will tell you...

NEIL ARNOLD: Strange stories

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Neil Arnold to the CFZ bloggo with this first guest blog. I have known Neil for fifteen years now since he was a schoolboy with ambitions for adventure and I was an earnest young hippie who merely wanted to start a club for people interested in unknown animals. Nothing much has changed over the years. We are just both a tad older...

I had to leave a lot of information out of my new book MYSTERY ANIMALS OF THE BRITISH ISLES: KENT, otherwise it would have been a ridiculously bloated bible of Kent animal weirdness. Among some of the strange and quirky stories I left out include, the gardener named Cyril who, whilst strimming an overgrown patch at Joyce Green Hospital, was confronted by a great beast. The creature, a three-feet long Bosc monitor lizard sprang from the undergrowth and terrified the witness.

And let us not forget recent rumours that a porcupine was on the loose down towards the Romney Marsh area of Kent. The animal was discovered by a mooching dog but disappeared down a fox hole of all places! And then there was the ‘monster’ of Greenwich, which found its way to the Eagle Heights Birds of Prey Centre in rural Kent, after it was pulled from the depths of the Greenwich Park Pond, London. The American Snapping Turtle, more at home in the swampy river bottoms, was destroying the eco-system of the pond by devouring ducklings, frogs, newts and fish, before it was captured. At the time a London-based RSPCA Inspector claimed that more than 400 exotics were picked up each year as unwanted pets around London alone. More than 50% of these ‘pets’ were large snakes!

One of the funniest tales pertains to an iguana which was seen running up Brixton High Street! And also the man who strolled into a London pub for a pint and came home with a ‘small lizard’, which turned out to be a caiman croc’!

In UK fishing circles the current urban legend doing the rounds concerns the possible dread that the Asian Snakehead fish, is prowling the depths of many a lake. This concern seems unfounded, but recently an angler fishing on a lower tidal stretch of the Thames, at Woolwich, came across a dead fish which he at first thought may be the all conquering Snakehead. He contacted the Environment Agency who stated it was in fact a walking catfish. A fish able to move across land with the use of its pectoral spines and a shuffling motion. This one certainly wasn’t one that got away!

PALM CIVET ON BODMIN MOOR

Darren Naish wrote: "Hey Jon, is this for real?" Well, buddy, it would certainly appear so. As I wrote back: It is the first that I have heard about it, but it is certainly a palm civet. There were a few at an animal dealer in Hertfordshire last year - and it would not surprise me THAT much if they got into culture, and subsequently got loose. I would not have thought that they would have survived the last winter though - it was a little harsh by recent British standards....

MUIRHEAD'S MYSTERIES: Tortoises in Essex, and a letter from Ken Livingstone

Richard Muirhead is an old friend of the CFZ. I have been friends with him for 40 years now, since we were kids together in Hong Kong. He is undoubtedly one of the two best researchers I have ever met; he and Nigel Wright both have what Charlie Fort would have no doubt called a wild talent; a talent for going into a library, unearthing a stack of old newspapers, and coming back with some hitherto overlooked gem of arcane knowledge. Twice a week he wanders into the Macclesfield Public Library and comes out with enough material for a blog post..

Dear folks,

It`s time for my update from the improbable world of Richard Muirhead. This evening I am giving the Macclesfield Courier a brief skip (we will resume with it after Easter) and turning to a letter I written on May 7th 1997 when I was living as a student in Oxford. (Not at Oxford University I hasten to add, but at Oxford Brookes University where I was doing my MA) I also publish for the first time a very brief and absolutely genuine letter to me about newts from Ken Livingstone M.P. as he then was in response to mine to him asking-was the “effet” a newt, or not?

Dear Mr Muirhead

By luck I saw your letter about tortoises in the wild in a recent issue of the Cambridge Evening News. I hope the following information helps you.

Between 1959 and 1964 my uncle kept a caravan for weekend and holiday use at Great Gibcracks Farm,near Chelmsford in Essex.The farm was about half a mile from the road, up a long and rutted drive. It was an extraordinary place, an Edwardian model farm built by an eccentric who placed busts of Dante and other poets in copses,had a swimming pool dug and planted exotic trees and shrubs.By the 1960s it was falling to pieces about the current owner.

Beyond the farm were two cottages and then woodland.The nearest houses to the farm,apart from the cottages,were almost a mile away.

In late May or early June 1964 my younger brother,Nigel,and I found a tortoise moving along a furrow in a ploughed field immediately alongside the farm.(The field had been ploughed at Easter then left.) I can`t be more precise about the date; I do know that I`d been given a weekend away from preparing for the O levels looming over me.

The tortoise just fitted on my palm so would have been almost 6” long. We had kept several tortoises as pets in the past;this one had a darker shell than I could recall seeing before and yellow mottling between the eyes.It appeared to be a spur thighed tortoise.

We went to the farm,the cottages and then to the houses nearest the field but no one knew anything about the tortoise.Using the local bush telegraph we let people living farther away know but the tortoise was never claimed and became our pet,with the name Shostakovich-why that name was selected I can`t remember.Shostakovich was found dead in summer,1967.

In 1980 Nigel mentioned he had talked with a man who lived in a village called Bicknacre in the 1950s and 1960s;Bicknacre is not far from Gt.Gibcracks and we sometimes walked there through the woods.The man said that he twice found tortoises in the fields but had never traced their owners.Sadly,Nigel died in 1990 and I remember no details,like the man`s name.

I hope that your research is fruitful;the adjustment of animals to British conditions has always interested me.I have wondered if the Surrey puma and Exmoor beast are abandoned pets that are now acclimatized.I am sure you know about the scorpions that colonized the railways station at Ongar in Essex.

It would be more interesting though to discover native tortoises and native pumas. I hope one day to read about your research.

Yours sincerely.

J.S. Holford-Miettinen

I rang a Cambridge number about 2 months ago to try and find out more about the tortoises but got no reply. Now for “Red Ken`s” letter, it is very brief:

April 22nd 1996

“Dear Richard Muirhead Thank you for your letter of 15 April about the terms eft or evvet. They were just other names for newts-not crocodiles or anything else.

Yours sincerely,Ken Livingstone.

I have a lot of respect for a person as busy as he must have been to reply like this, albeit briefly. After Easter I will continue with the Macclesfield Courier and octopus invasions of the south coast of Britain,an historical approach. Bye for now and Happy Easter! Rich.

NO SQUAWK TILL BROOKLYN

I am always impressed by obscure websites.

I was looking for statistics on the ringnecked parakeets which are living wild in the UK when I came across http://www.brooklynparrots.com/ which is a site dedicated wto the feral parakeets of New York. I don't know whether it is purely because I am as mad as a bagful of cheese at the moment, but I find it very easy to get sucked into the dramas of other people's animal-related adventures.

I guess that blogs like this fulfil the same emotional niche for me that soap operas do for other people.

I was particularly pleased to read the account from last week of how the introduced monk parakeets are now receiving legal protection..

For the past year, I have been working with NYC Council Member Tony Avella (Queens) in sheparding a proposed resolution calling for the protection of wild Quakers in New York City, and calling upon the NY State Legislature to change the State Environmental Conservation Law adding wild Quakers to the list of "protected birds."At the Stated Council Meeting of Tuesday, March 24, 2009, this proposal became reality when Council Member Avella introduced the proposed resolution, Resolution No. 1872-2009, to the Council. The resolution was immediately referred to the Council Committee on Environmental Protection, where, it will be discussed, and then probably open to public commeNt.

When that happens, testimony may be called for, and I ask that those of you especially most expert with wild Quakers, stand ready and volunteer some time for testimony.

http://www.brooklynparrots.com/2009/03/breaking-news-pro-parrot-resolution.html

More on the Allendale Wolf

Last night I crowed mightily that due to the good offices of our friend Theo Paijmans in Holland we had snapped up a teensy piece of cryptozoological history. But then the e-mails came flooding in. What was the Allendale Wolf you wanted to know.....

Local farmers from the village of Allendale, very near to Hexham, had reported the loss of their livestock, so serious that many sheep were being stabled at night to protect them. A shepherd found two of his flock slaughtered, one with its entrails hanging out, and all that remained of the other was its head and horns. Many of the sheep had been bitten about the neck and the legs - common with an attack made by a wolf.

Hysteria soon set in. During the night, lanterns were kept burning to scare away the wolf, and women and children were ordered to keep to the busy roads and be home before dusk. The 'Hexham Wolf Committee' was soon set up to organise search parties and hunts to bring down the beast using specialised hunting dogs, the 'Haydon Hounds', but even they could not find the wolf. The Wolf Committee took the next step and hired Mr W. Briddick, a trained tracker.

Read on

THANKS TO THEO

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Postcard:-Famous-ALLENDALE-WOLF,-Killed-in-1904_W0QQitemZ360134475025QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090225?IMSfp=TL090225129002r28284#ebayphotohosting

Theo Paijmans writes telling us that a small piece of cryptozoological, or at least fortean zoological history is for sale on eBay.

Thanks Theo, you have just cost me $14 because the CFZ museum should really own a copy :)

GLEN VAUDREY: The lost grey seal of Dobby's Lock

Whenever I find myself in a new place with a few hours to spare I try to visit the local museum to see what cryptozoological delights it might contain. While I have yet to find an example of anything resembling either a stuffed almasty or a glass case containing a giant spider with a body the size of a dinner plate I have nevertheless spotted a few items of interest.

The first thylacine I saw (don’t get too excited it was stuffed) was in a dusty cabinet in of all places Kendal museum, it was a while ago and all I remember about it was that it had a vague hint of purple about it. Having taken a few pictures of the unfortunate creature I then promptly misplaced them and it would be over ten years before they resurfaced. Frustrating as the search for those photographs had been I had at least the knowledge that I hadn’t lost a photo of a live thylacine.

The next rather surprising animal that I found was an out of place seal. You could say that being stuffed and put on a plinth in Warrington museum is about as out of place as a marine mammal could get and you wouldn’t be far wrong. What was truly remarkable about this grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) was how it found its way into the museum’s collection.

It was on the 17th June 1908 that the lock keeper at the delightfully named Dobby’s Lock on the River Mersey two miles upstream from Warrington noticed something unexpected in the water, an adult male grey seal. The reason that it was so unexpected is that this point is over twenty miles from the sea and considerably further still from the North Wales coast where it was believed the seal had come from.

For the creature to have reached so far it would have had to have swum up the Mersey as far as Howley weir which it was assumed to have cleared with the help of a high tide, and then continued on its way westward. The seal may have successfully negotiated Howley weir but Dobby’s lock proved more of a challenge.

Despite its obvious desire to make the journey all the way to Manchester the seal managed to get no further than Dobby’s lock for in the all too familiar ending to tales like this it was promptly shot dead. It then took a good number of men to drag the 8ft 5in long, 104 stone body out onto the quayside where it was laid out for public viewing, for a small charge of course. Word of the seal soon got around which resulted in the Warrington Museum Committee purchasing and mounting the specimen for the princely sum of £7, money well spent it seems for after it went on display in the museum’s gallery in the summer of 1908 there were an extra 14,000 visitors by the end of that year as a direct result of the interest generated in the fate of one lost grey seal.

ON THE DHOLE

On febuary the 11th a pack of 20 dholes or Indian hunting dogs, escaped from their enclosure at Howletts Zoon near Cantabury, Kent. 12 returned to their enclosure themselves. This is quite normal as escaped zoo anima;s, most of whome were captive born, become confused and scared in the wild and head back to were they feel secure. 5 more were tranqualized by vets, one died and two more are still at large. Dholes are not generally considered dangerous to humans though captive ones may have lost their fear of people.

Spokesperson Tricia Corkhill said it was unclear how they had escaped but everything was being done to catch them.She said: "The situation is under control and we have trained animal keepers and vets with tranquilliser guns looking for the missing dogs."They pose little or no danger to the public but they shouldn't be approached anymore than you would approach a fox or stray dog." They are captive-reared and used to the park so will want to get home."

Engineer Ben Towler, 27, was driving through Wingham on Wednesday morning when he almost ran over the sandy-haired one. "It looked like a big ginger wolf with a lion's mane – kind of like a fox on steroids," he said.

The wild dogs, were made famous as villains in Kipling’s timless classic The Jungle Books in the story Red Dog were they threthern Mowgli’s wolf pack. Mowgli defeats them with the aid of the giant python, Kaa. In the vacuous Disney verstion they are ommited and Kaa, a wise and noble creature in the books is turned into a nasal, whining villain.

The reasoning being that ‘The American public would not except a snake as a hero’.

NEIL ARNOLD WRITES: Jon, here are a couple of links regarding the recent escaped Dholes from Howlett's Zoo Park at Canterbury. please could you slip maybe a mention of this into the book ? And maybe use them for your daily blog, as the links provided below include a video. tragically, these animals, on the verge of extinction, in two instances, were shot by the police...bastards.

http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kol08/article/default.asp?article_id=56973&commented=1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/kent/7883629.stm

http://www.kentnews.co.uk/kent-news/Two-escaped-wild-dogs-still-missing-from-Howletts-newsinkent20884.aspx?news=local

The Weird Tale of the Weardale Wolverine

We have been in contact with Jan for ages, and it is with great pleasure that we welcome her aboard, not only as a guest blogger, but as a Co. Durham representative for the CFZ. With Davy Curtis already at the helm in the country, the two of them will make a dream team par excellence...

The winter snows lay deep and untouched on the high moors of Weardale. It was dark – a thin crescent moon, shrouded in snow-laden clouds sailed high in the heavens, but other than my car’s headlights, this was the only light for miles.

I’d stopped several times on that single track road in the middle of nowhere, mostly to let the odd disgruntled rabbit hop out of the way of the car, and once to wonder at the pure white ghost which was a barn owl hunting along the verge.

It’s a road I know well. The wilderness it runs through is home to many species, but other than the occasional rabbit, people don’t notice just what’s “out there”.

If you sit quietly surrounded by the cotton grass at the height of summer, you’ll hear the silver song of the skylark, and if you follow the notes into the sky, you may be fortunate to see the tiny black dot which is the small brown bird singing his heart out.

There are brown hares, adders, short-eared owls, Merlins, Hobbys, buzzards a-plenty and, if you are really fortunate, red kites, eagle owls and once, a golden eagle.

One summer’s day I braked hard to avoid a fleeing rabbit... only to hit the stoat which was chasing it.

That night, however, nothing stirred but the rabbits, until I’d reached the little pine wood at the top of the moors. As I turned the corner, and started the long decent back into the valley, a strange creature ambled along in the car headlights. I’d seen it before, and I STILL didn’t know what it was.

It was the size of a large boar badger, but with longer legs. It’s tail was bushy and help almost straight out from its spine. It was various tones of brown and tan. And it ran like a weasel.

Now... it was too big to be a mink an otter or a pine martin, bigger too (and the wrong colour) for it to be a racoon (although I DID see a racoon in Cumbria) so, either this beast was a large odd-coloured badger, which carried its tail wrong... or it was a wolverine. I followed it in the car as it ran down the centre of the road. It was touching 25mph, and I got the feeling it wasn’t even trying. After 50 yards, it jumped over a dry stone wall and into a field, where it disappeared into the night.

Of course it left no discernable tracks on the road, and I couldn’t get into the field, so I left it to go its own way, and promised to return the next morning with a camera.

As so often happens, it was several days before the weather cleared enough to make driving on the moors a viable option. There was no sign of the beast. I asked a walker if he’d seen anything unusual, but he’d seen nothing all day... (typical!)

It’s been 2 years now since I saw it, and although I’d seen the creature several times previously to that beautiful night, I never did see it again.

FISH YOU WERE HERE II: The Empire Strikes Back

Continued from last night..

It probably seems unlikely to any readers under the age of 40, but only half a century ago Great Britain was the hub of the greatest empire that the world has ever seen. On maps in schoolrooms all over the globe great swathes of the world were coloured pink to denote the fact that they were a pivotal part of the empire on which the sun would never set. Although the impact of the British Empire on the commerce, politics, and defence of the former colonies is well known, what is not widely realised is the effect that centuries of empire building had upon the Zoology of British colonies all over the world, and, indeed upon the motherland herself.

Whilst working on this two-part article we were surprised to find quite how many species of fish that we had assumed were native to the British Isles, were in fact no such thing, and were amazed how many British fish had been translocated to a pond or stream in some corner of a foreign field.

The Tench, for example, is an unassuming, bottom living fish found in still, and slow-moving waters found across Western Europe. Although they are edible, anyone who has tried to eat a tench souffle for example, will confirm that they are far from being the most appetising of Mother Nature's under water subjects. It is surprising, therefore, to learn that Frank Buckland - the founder of the Acclimatisation Society, whose name has cropped up in these pages before - introduced them to Madras in India in 1866 and again in 1873, 1874 and 1876. They were introduced to Tasmania in 1858 and from thence to the mainland, by the Australian branch of the society, also introduced them to New Zealand a few years later.

It must be admitted that Buckland could well be perceived as a zoologist of the "because I can" brigade, and there is very little that one finds out about him which is really surprising. However, the same species was introduced into Indonesia - by the Government - in 1927, and apart from remarking that Johnny Foreigner is a rum cove, it is hard to fathom out why they undertook this exercise. They were introduced into South Africa in 1910 - bizarrely enough - as a food source for another introduced species; the large mouth bass. They were introduced into Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ), in 1938, Canada (1915) and the United States in 1877. In these cases, however, the motivation is an obvious one - the fascination that so many British expats have with a dangling worms on strings into muddy water of a weekend.

Rudd - another humble Western European species of no great economic importance have also spread across the globe as a result of Empire. On this occasion it was the French Empire who introduced this fish to several of them of their North African colonies for reasons best known to themselves. Curiously they have also turned up in Canada and parts of the United States with no one knowing how they got there, although other introductions to the USA over the years have been recorded for both food and sporting purposes. They were amongst the first species to be shipped to New Zealand aboard HMS British Empire in 1864, although none survived the journey. From 1971 onwards fertilised Rudd ova were smuggled into New Zealand illegally, and the species has now become established on both north and south island to the detriment of local wildlife.

The common perch has been introduced to Cyprus (1971), Spain (1970), and South Africa (1915) as well as New Zealand, Australia and to the Azores - all for sporting purposes. However, what was most surprising to us - at least were the foreign species which have become a familiar part of the British ecosystem. Carp, for example, were originally natives of central Asia, but were introduced to Britain some time in the middle ages. A book published in 1486 notes them as uncommon in British waters, but they soon spread across the country. Although most fish were introduced into the UK for sporting or gustatory purposes, at least four species arrived purely as a result of the aquarium trade. The two colonies of Guppys which survived for some years in artificially heated water in the UK are common knowledge, but less well-known are a species of cichlid which became established in a Liverpool Canal after a tropical fish shop went bust, and a small but viable population of the North American pumpkinseed in Somerset, and another one in Surrey, which have since died out although another colony in Hampshire remains healthy. More problematical are the bitterling which have been recorded from a few isolated locations in Lancashire, Derbyshire and the Welsh borders. These have long been assumed to have been introductions because although these are popular aquarium fish - especially during the 19th and early 20th century - they were popularly believed only to exist in central Europe, Asia Minor and eastward across Eurasia. However, the recent discovery that the pool frog is actually a British native, and furthermore has been recorded in exactly the same locations as the British bitterling, suggests that this attractive small fish may indeed have been a British resident all along.

Perhaps the most striking piscine introductions to British waters are the Zander and the Wels. Both originally natives of central Europe and Asia Minor, they were both introduced to the UK by Frank Buckland's cronies. The Zander is an extremely aggressive species which has disastrous effects on the native livestock of any area which it colonises, and the wels - or European catfish - is not only the largest freshwater fish in the world, but has even been rumoured to have eaten people. During the summer of 2002 the present authors led an expedition to Martin-Mere in Lancashire where "something" had been reported attacking swans on a nature reserve. It turned out to be a wels catfish, and we estimate that it is in excess of eight feet in length.

There is a popular misconception that the Zander is a cross between a pike and perch. This is complete nonsense, but the belief lives on. It is shaped vaguely like a pike, and has the bars and coloration of perch, but is not closely related to either. It has the voracious appetite of a pike and as it can also tolerate brackish water, its incursions into British waterways are viewed very seriously indeed. By 1996 this species had been reported from the Midlands, East Anglia, Kent and was making serious incursions into the Cotswolds. Despite all efforts to eradicate it, and its special position within the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1980, which condemns it to an ignominious death, it looks as if - sadly - this piscine predator is here to stay.

Global warming, and the attendant climate changes have already seen some exciting additions to our marine fauna. Such species as barracuda and even great white sharks have been noted from British waters in recent years. It is tempting to theorise that as our climate changes further, more freshwater species from warmer climes will become established. The White Cloud Mountain Minnow - a Chinese species which one of the present authors remembers catching as a child in Hong Kong - has reached as far afield as Madagascar and Columbia. Other species familiarly kept by aquarists have also spread around the world from their original locations. When our great grandchildren go down to the local pond with jam jars and nets in the 22nd century, what species will they bring back with them?

GUEST BLOGGER FLEUR FULCHER:ROCKY RACOON STEPPED INTO HIS ROOM ONLY TO FIND A WATER PISTOL...

Hooray for the irrepressable Miss Fleur Fulcher. She turned up unnanounced at the 2008 Weird Weekend, and seemed to somehow stroll around the place causing high strangeness wherever she trod. The nearest analogue any of us have ever met to a real-world version of J.K.Rowling's Luna Lovegood, we have persuaded her to occasionally step out of her wardrobe full of pretty frocks and strange inhabitants in order to give us her insight upon the natural world. Yesterday she spat venom at Sarah Palin. Today she waxes lyrical about a lost raccoon..

Those among you who think that bird watching is a boring hobby can learn something from the experience of David and Ena Webber from Christchurch. Deciding to join in the RSPB big bird watch this year they got more than they expected. But the startling visitor to their attractive garden was not of the winged type. Gazing back at Ena from one of their trees was a charming looking spectacled chap who looked very much at home.

Thinking at first it was just an odd looking neighbourhood moggy Ena fired a water pistol at it (good for her!) thinking it would stop the creature from scaring her feathered friends. Apparently it was at this point that she realised what it was, as it looked unimpressed about its wet awakening, it gave her a look that she thought meant “Stop it, I want to go back to sleep”. Left alone whilst Ena phoned the local police the racoon decided against making an escape and stayed perched in the cosy tree.

The police, on arrival, tried to coax the little chap from the tree with an apple on a stick. This did not work so the RSPCA were called. By this time the racoon had decided he wanted to go somewhere a little less crowded and left with the RSPCA. Apparently there are no reports of a missing racoon in the area, but as he was obviously well fed and cared for it is thought he is a recent escapee.

This little chap is not the first raccoon to be found roaming the UK, since 2007 you can keep them as a pet without even needing a license.

In 2003 one was found sitting on a shed roof in Penzance and in 2004 a Coati was seen a dozen times ambling around the lake district. So next time you fancy a bit or ornithology you might get a little more than you bargained for!

Indian Surprises

2009 has already thrown up some interesting surprises on the Indian subcontinent, with at least two wildlife sightings of note.

Indroda National Park is a nature reserve in Gujarat on the west coast of India, near the border with Pakistan. They have a museum and a zoo, and according to their website:

"In addition to the animals in the zoo, the wilderness created in an area of about 400 ha at INP is inhabited by a large number of animals, birds and reptiles. This includes around 180 species of birds of which 65 have been reported to be nesting here. The park is, in fact, a paradise for bird watchers. Moreover, the common venomous and non venomous snakes are abundantly found in the Park. As per the census conducted in 2004 by the Foundation, the wilderness of the park has 545 Nilgai, 475 common langurs and 819 peafowls."

However, they now have a rare, and totally unexpected resident - a Rusty-spotted Cat - one of the smallest species of cat in the world. The Rusty-spotted Cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus) only measures 35-48 cm (14-17 in) in length, plus 15-25 cm (6-10 in) tail, weighing in at only approximately 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs). A healthy adult female can weigh as little as a kilo, which makes it arguiable that it is even smaller a species than the black-footed cat (Felis nigripes) of southern Africa.

GEER, the organisation who manage Indroda Nature Park are understandably making quite a big deal of the sighting. CN Pandey, the director said: "Last night, GEER staff was patrolling when they spotted this cat and photographed it. It is rare to spot this cat in Indroda Park let alone the state. In the past it has been spotted in Surpaneshwar in south Gujarat and by Bharat Pathak in Gir forest."

It is not a particularly rare species, being classified as "Vulnerable" but it is nice to hear of a species increasing its range.

The other notable wildlife sighting of the year so far, in India at least, is the "hyaena" reported from Kolkata (Calcutta) airport. It was seen by a pilot coming in to land who "promptly reported the sighting - probably a stray dog or one of the jackals that live in the airport grounds - to air traffic control. Officials in the control tower asked a Jet Airways flight from Mumbai, scheduled to land in a few minutes at 6.50 pm, to hover over the city. As an inspection was carried out to check for the presence of the animal, the Jet flight was delayed by 10 minutes.

Airport officials later said they immediately carried out a spot verification on the runway , but could not find any animal".

This species os commoner than the rusty spotted cat, being graded as `Near Threatened` and having a range that covers parts of the Middle East, Africa and bits of India and Pakistan, but it is unusual to have a report from a major international airport.