Strange/Rare Fauna Reports
Strange/Rare Fauna Reports
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25 December 2003
The cute and cuddly set grabbed their fair share of the headlines this year and as John Hathaway reports, the news about animals wasn't always cute or cuddly.
It has been a dog of a year for dogs - so much so that the image of our "best friend" has been tarnished and a dog's standing in New Zealand life today has radically changed.
Elsewhere in the animal world lions and tigers got a bad press, a pig flew, sheep became reluctant seafarers and a possibly mythical panther stalked New Zealanders through the South Island hill country.
But dogs, for good or bad, hogged the headlines.
For some reason that science and animal behaviour studies have yet to explain, dogs this year changed their public face and their loveable best friend image to become seemingly untrustworthy, anti-social and, in many cases, to be feared.
This year reports of dogs biting children, dogs biting adults, dogs attacking owners and dogs generally lashing out at humans, became too frequent.
Too frequent to the extent that New Zealanders re-examined their relationship with dogs and, doing so, mandated the state to step in and pass laws aimed at keeping dogs under much tighter control.
The Dog Control Amendment Bill passed through Parliament by 109 votes to seven, driven by public horror at the terrible attack in January on little Carolina Anderson in an Auckland park. Carolina's sufferings, those of her parents and also those of the two men who owned the dog that attacked her drew huge sympathetic outpourings from New Zealanders.
And just as the Carolina story was peaking another dog in Christchurch and then one in Wairarapa took to small children, in each cases inflicting severe wounds. Public concern grew, more dog horror stories came to light, owners were fined or jailed and one by one, dogs that had never before put a foot wrong, were destroyed by order of the courts.
Local Government Minister Chris Carter tried hard to get his legislation to include compulsory microchipping of all dogs - he also succeeded in getting more powers for dog control officers, tougher penalties for those dog owners who breached the law, and more power for local authorities to impound dogs.
The jury will be out for some time as to the effectiveness of the new law and stories of pet dogs biting the hand that feeds them are still current. For dogs, this year has brought them less freedom and greater measures of control, public odium and distrust and a new notoriety.
There were, nevertheless, several feel-good stories about dogs, the tale of Taupo, the guide dog who took sick in the bush, sparking a midnight mercy dash in Tongariro National Park.
Taupo, named after the Taupo Lions Club who sponsored her, was guiding her owner research scientist Paul Kibblewhite on a three-day walk when she wandered away and ate 1080 poisoning. Fortunately for Taupo there was a vet in the tramping party and help came after he called another vet to send in medicine and supplies.
Three Turangi men tramped in rain, wind and the dark for three hours with the medicine and Taupo was treated in the bush. The next day a helicopter airlifted the dog to Taupo where she recovered, leaving Mr Kibblewhite saying he was humbled by the rescue effort and praising the "fantastic " effort of her rescuers.
Tigers took headlines as well this year. There was the story of tigers living in a New York apartment and tigers taking to their trainers,
sometimes with horrendous results.
A hungry circus tiger attacked and killed an animal trainer at a circus in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa.
Circus workers shot the tiger to free the trainer but it was too late, she had already died of her injuries.
And lions were centre-stage too when animal trainer and illusionist Roy Horn was mauled by a lion in a show in Las Vegas in October. Horn was in intensive care for several weeks and part of his skull was removed to reduce cranial pressure after the mauling.
A shipload of unfortunate Australian sheep attracted world interest in July and August after they got stranded in the Middle East. It seemed, for a while, that they might be forever at sea ending the voyage as seagull or shark bait.
Saudi Arabia refused to land the 57,000 sheep, saying too many had scabby mouth. No one else wanted them, either to buy or for free and the Australian government came under international pressure when it was learned that more than 3000 had already died due to heat stress.
For five weeks the sheep tossed about on the ocean until the Australian government eventually found a buyer - as the New Zealand Government held back a live shipment to Saudi Arabia until the mess was sorted. The sheep eventually made their way to the table, their original destination.
Closer to home the story of a truckie-teasing panther kept New Zealand agog for several days. People said they saw the panther but none was as adamant as truckie Chad Stewart who was convinced he had seen a black panther at Mayfield, northwest of Ashburton, late in September.
Investigators found few leads when they followed up Mr Stewart's report apart from some cat "scat" which they said more than likely came from a feral cat. The elusive panther meanwhile, was being seen as far afield as Christchurch, Auckland and Roxburgh and there was even one report that a black panther was seen "chewing on a moa".
But no black panther surfaced and the mystery remains - could it have been an illegally imported real panther, or was it just a large feral cat? For Mr Stewart, however, there is no doubt - he is certain that what he saw was indeed a black panther and since the sighting he has been looking over his shoulder while unloading stock in that part of Canterbury.
The last word, however, goes to little Crackle the pig. Although she died earlier this month Crackle became an overnight world celebrity after she "fell" from the sky before the startled gaze of a Bay of Plenty forestry worker Greg O'Grady.
Poor Crackle - it's thought the little Captain Cook piglet, no bigger than a can of drink, had been plucked from her native bush nursery by a hawk which then must have dropped her, literally into Mr O'Grady's lap.
He rescued her and it seemed her destiny was secure. Rotorua SPCA cared for her until she found a new home on a Kaharoa lifestyle block with six-year-old Joshua Anderson - who named her Crackle. Joshua swore Crackle would not end up gracing the Christmas dinner table.
But Crackle may have pined too much for her mother or she may have been taken from her mother at too early an age - whatever, Crackle succumbed peacefully in her pen one night earlier this month.
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Another Texas Chupacabra?
LAST UPDATE: 10/14/2004 7:39:53 PM
Please visit our MEDIA CENTRE to view the pictures attached to this story.
By Lynn Winthrop, Lufkin Daily News
LUFKIN, Texas -- Local animal experts are having a hard time identifying a strange looking animal killed in Angelina County on Friday -- an animal that looks eerily similar to the as yet unidentified "Elmendorf Beast" killed near San Antonio earlier this year.
"What is that?" are the first words out of anyone's mouth when shown photos of the animal, according to Stacy Womack.
Womack -- who has more than 20 years experience working at Ellen Trout Zoo and for a local veterinarian -- said she's seen and handled a lot of different animals, but that she's never seen anything like this one.
"It's not a dog," she said. "I'd bet my lottery ticket on that."
The animal's blue-grey skin is almost hairless and appears to be covered with mange. A closer look at the animal's jaw line reveals a serious overbite and four huge canine teeth, and a long, rat-like tail curls behind the animal's emaciated frame.
The animal was shot and killed shortly before noon Friday after crawling under her mother's house in Pollok. Womack said large dogs in the yard "went nuts" and alerted the family, but would only whine and wouldn't go under the house with the animal. Her brother shot the animal, tied a rope around it and dragged it out from under the house for a closer look, she said.
Womack was called to take a photograph of the animal, and possibly help identify it, as well. A live animal, just like the one in the picture, darted across the road in front of her car while she was driving to the scene.
When she arrived with her camera and expertise in tow, Womack said she almost couldn't believe what she was looking at.
"It was so necrotic, its tissue was just rotted," Womack said. "It had no hair, a severe overbite and its claws were entirely too long for a dog."
She said the animal's front legs were much smaller than it's hind legs, and that despite it's overall ghoulish appearance, it's extremely long canine teeth were in excellent condition. Also, despite having been shot, there was virtually no blood seeping from the animal's carcass. The animal's ear also "broke like a cookie" when it's head was held up for a photograph, she said
"It's body looked like something that has been dead for a month or so," Womack said. "Like I said, I've worked in the veterinary field for more than 20 years and I've never seen anything that bad."
The animal was male and weighed between 15 and 20 pounds, she said. The identical animal that sprinted across the road ran with it's head down and it's tail between it's legs, according to Womack, but wasn't tall enough to be a coyote or a wolf. She said the live animal is probably the dead one's mate.
"I would just like to see somebody go out there and try to trap the other one," Womack said. "Because it's in misery, too, and what if it gets into the population?"
Womack showed pictures of the animal to a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden, who "totally freaked out" and called for a department biologist, she said. The biologist told her it was likely a coyote with mange, but wasn't able to match the animal's skull shape -- and overbite -- with pictures of coyotes in reference books, according to Womack.
Pictures were also dropped off at the Texas Animal Health Commission, where the veterinarian was out of the office and hadn't contacted Womack as of Tuesday afternoon. She said a biologist was on the way to Pollok to collect a tissue sample of the animal, for DNA testing.
"I just want people to be aware that things like this happen," Womack said. "If it's not the mange, it's something that doesn't need to be in the environment."
C.R. Shilling, of the West Loop Animal Clinic in Lufkin said that after seeing pictures of the animal -- and stressing that his determination is "pure speculation" -- he believes the animal is probably a coyote. The animal likely suffers from demodex mange, he said, and possibly a secondary skin infection or even a congenital skin defect, as well.
"That's just a congenital defect," Shilling said when asked about the animal's unusual jaw configuration. "We'll even get dogs like that in here."
Shilling said that without seeing the animal itself, it's hard to make an exact determination of what the animal might be. The possibility of it being a dog/coyote mix would be "unusual, but possible," he said.
"It appears to be an extremely undernourished dog," Ellen Trout Zoo Director Gordon Henley said after being e-mailed several photos of the animal. "Wild animals don't typically wind up like that, but undernourished, neglected, domestic animals do."
After enlarging one of the photos and conferring with the zoo's veterinarian, Henley said he feels the animal's mangy, crusty skin could be a result of either neglect or living in the wild. Undernourishment or a congenital deformity could have caused the animal's gross overbite, he said.
"I think what we've got here is a poor, suffering, undernourished and possibly abused canid," Henley said. "Possibly a coyote, but more likely a dog."
WOAI-TV in San Antonio has aired several stories on the so-called "Elmendorf Beast" since a nearby rancher shot and killed one earlier this year. The animal depicted on the station's Web site, at www.woai.com, looks eerily similar to the one discovered in Pollok.
The rancher from Elmendorf, located southeast of San Antonio, killed the animal after 35 of his chickens disappeared in one day. The animal was also almost hairless, with blue-grey coloring and four large "fangs." The station reported that tissue from the animal has been sent for DNA testing, and that it will be several more weeks before the tests are completed.
Speculation in the area as to what type of the animal the rancher killed has varied from simple to mystical. Some say it's a wild Mexican hairless dog, and other than the skin condition and jaw, pictures of the breed do bear a resemblance. Others believe it's the mythical chupacabra -- or "goat sucker" -- an animal Mexican folklorists say stalks rural areas killing livestock.
One area hunting guide even believed the animal might be a muntjac, a small antelope-type animal imported into the state by ranchers, according to the station's online reports. Muntjac are herbivores, but do have upper canine teeth that are elongated into "tusks" that curve outward from the lips. Muntjac are also called "barking deer" for a sound they'll emit to warn others of predators.
Like most deer, however, the Muntjac have split hoofs instead of paws, and certainly don't have long, rat-like tails.
A San Antonio Zoo mammal expert told WOAI-TV the animal is clearly a member of the canine family, and could possibly be a mix between a dog and a coyote. The expert also said the animal was clearly suffering from some sort of skin ailment, and may also have a congenital deformity of some sort.
Sightings of similar animals have been reported across the country, from California to Maryland.
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Australians Hunt Hairy Beast-Man
[Original headline: Mysterious bear-like creature may become Australia's Loch Ness monster]
A mysterious bear-like creature sighted several times near a tiny Queensland town could become a major tourist attraction akin to Scotland's Loch Ness monster, local officials said Tuesday [Feb 8]. The metre-high (3.3 feet) creature with black hair covering its body has been spotted near Gayndah in the state's southeast, adding mystery to a legend that has its roots in Aboriginal folklore. Aborigines in the area are convinced of the existence of a Jongari, or hairman, said Gayndah Mayor Peter Huth. A 10,000 dollar (6,500 US) reward for its capture has been posted by Tim The Yowie Man (his real name) who runs the Australian Centre for Mystery Investigations based in Canberra. A local newspaper has put up 1,000 dollars for the first photo. The creature was spotted by Gayndah resident Shirley Humphreys in January. Although it looked like a man it had the shape of a bear and ambled along, rather than walking or hopping, she said. Humphreys saw the animal from about 70 metres (231 feet) at dusk on a sandbank by a river before it vanished into trees. Her brother Allan Bucholz also claims he saw the animal fleetingly four or five weeks earlier and there have been other strange happenings such as tools thrown around outside a shed. "Half of the (Gayndah) councillors are non-believers about the whole thing," Huth said. "But I can honestly say I really do believe the people who've reported the sightings. They're credible people and they're very respected members of our community. They did see something. There's no doubt." He said there was a story going around that a bear escaped from a nearby circus in 1959. Cryptozoologist Steve Rushton said there had been sightings of bears throughout the area over the years, adding that a book, "Diaries of a Welsh Swagman" written in the late 1800s, contained tales about wild bears throughout Australia, Cryptozoology is the study of the possible existence of scientifically undiscovered animals. Whatever the truth, Huth sees it as a plus for the town and hopes the mystery will attract tourists in the same way the Loch Ness monster has to Scotland. He has already been interviewed by the BBC. "I can't understand why anyone would see it as a negative," he said. "I think it's a very positive sort of story without a doubt."
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Melanie Christiansen
The World Today
Friday, 15 September 2006
Scientists in north Queensland cannot figure out what has happened to all the bats that usually populate the region.
CSIRO bat researcher Louise Shilton says up to 50,000 spectacled flying foxes have not been seen since a week after cyclone Larry tore through north Queensland.
"Typically we'd be seeing animals at a number of sites throughout the wet tropics at this time of year and we're not seeing them in anywhere near the numbers we'd be expecting," she said.
Dr Shilton says the scientists have evidence that the bats have not been killed.
She says it seems the bats are simply missing.
"It may sound quite funny and I can understand why people would think that was quite amusing and it is, it's a conundrum really," she said.
"I mean how do you lose that many animals and as you know, when they're congregated in large numbers during the day time they're very visible, vocal animals.
"So it's really anyone's guess at the moment whether they've gone perhaps into continuous tracts of rainforest where people just aren't seeing them, if they could've gone further inland into drier country and they could be co-roosting with other species, such as the little red flying fox and the black flying foxes."
Dr Shilton says it is an important mystery to solve because the spectacled flying fox is listed as vulnerable to decline.
"In terms of the conservation and also the management of these animals we really need to know where they are," she said.
"If we don't know where the animals are then we can't provide any form of reasonable population estimates.
"So it's important that we do keep track of them so that we can obtain and provide the best information on how many animals there are but also what type of habitat they're using and what is needed for them."
But the news that the bats are missing comes a relief to some fruit and vegetable growers in north Queensland.
Shane O'Connor, a lychee grower who lost his crop in the cyclone, is pleased the flying foxes are not around at the moment.
But he is convinced they will be back.
"These animals have been around for thousands of years and this is not the first cyclone that they've come across," he said.
"We have huge areas of rainforest north of here all the way up Cape York Peninsula and I think it's fairly reasonable to assume that this has all happened before and that the flying foxes will be fairly safe somewhere."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200609/1742195.htm?queensland
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26 Oct 2000 AUSTRALIA:
Big red's a mystery.
A MYSTERY is deepening in south London over an Australian visitor who is commanding respect and a degree of fear - a 1.85m kangaroo. The big red has reportedly taken up residence at a golf course in Beckenham Place Park, Lewisham, and it's thought it escaped from a zoo.
A woman claimed her dog had been kicked out of undergrowth by the "Beast of Beckenham" as she walked by the course. Animal welfare authorities have not made a sighting of the kangaroo, and so
far no zoo has reported one missing.