Have a couple of animal stories to share – was going to write them out separately but decided to do them together so I don’t overwhelm my readers with so many new posts in one day. 
Considerate, aren’t I?
OK, before I begin the stories let me just say it really disgusts me how the officer’s and suspects who use our OWI room for further drug testing seem to always go pee with the door wide open. Do I really need to hear it? They know that we are required to listen so you’d think they’d give us a bit of a break. The other night two suspects and two officer’s all used the toilet leaving the door wide open. Men.
In Brazil on Friday hundreds of baby penguins were found dead on the tropical beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Over the last two months, over 400 dead penguins have washed ashore. Experts are divided on the cause.
Experts at the Niteroi Zoo believe the cause is due to overfishing in the region which makes the penguins swim further from shore to find food. With the strong ocean currents in that area, they believe the penguins can’t get back and drown. One expert at the zoo did admit that about 100 penguins have been brought in this year so far suffering from being drenched in petroleum. The Campos oil field lies offshore in the area but officials are reluctant to blame it for the problem.
Biologists in the area suggest pollution is to blame. They are quick to say that it isn’t just the oil, but also other pollutants in the water which are lowering the animal’s immunity leaving them vulnerable to fungus and lung problems.
Still another expert from Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University, believes the recent weather patterns are at fault. He believes that global warming has increased the amount of cyclones in the area and also produces stronger ocean currents that end up drowning the younger animals.
Every year, Brazil airlifts dozens of errant penguins back to Antarctica or Patagonia.
Closer to home, a federal judge has restored gray wolves to the endangered species protection list. Montana, Wyoming and Idaho had the wolves removed from the list after claiming the tri-state area had a population of over 2000 wolves.
Environmentalists sued to have the wolves put back on the list when the three states began advertising plans to hold public wolf hunts this fall. The states claimed that, as long as the population didn’t fall under 300 wolves, they would not be creating any extinction problem by letting people hunt the animals.
Hooray for U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy for putting these beautiful animals back on the extinction list. Of course the states are appealing his decision but I hope it is upheld. Shame on those states for even considering public hunts of wolves. I understand that they are concerned about a large wolf population endangering local livestock – but there has to be another way to resolve this matter, a way that doesn’t involve mass killings of the animals people have fought so hard to bring back from the brink of extinction.
And last but not least, a tale from a farm in Australia. An elderly woman was attacked by a large kangaroo while checking on some horses on her farm. Apparently wild kangaroos are a common sight on the farm and usually just jump away from people when they are around.
However, this 6 foot 5 inch kangaroo lunged at the woman, knocking her forcibly to the ground. Luckily, the woman’s son’s dog heard her cries and ran out to her aid, scaring the kangaroo off. The woman was in good condition in the hospital.
Kangaroos are not considered aggressive to humans and attacks are extremely rare throughout all of Australia. While males do fight amongst themselves for mates, experts have no idea why this kangaroo felt threatened by this 65 year old woman.
