Results tagged “nature” from Chester Chronicle - And Finally

Customs men reckon they've got this smuggler bang to flights - after finding 14 Asian songbirds hooked to his socks.

Song Dong was arrested after a 15-hour flight returning to Los Angeles from Vietnam by agents who had been lying in wait for him.

According to the Department of Justice police who inspected Dong "found bird feathers and droppings on his socks, as well as tail feathers visible under his (trousers)."

And Finally thanks CBS13 for this one - there's also a video on their website.

He has been confined to a wheelchair for 20 years. Now a paraplegic man is walking again, and his doctors call it a miracle. CBS13 went to Manteca to find out how a spider bite helped get him back on his feet.

"I closed my eyes and then I was spinning like a flying saucer," explains David Blancarte.

A motorcycle accident almost killed David 21 years ago. At the time he might have wished he was dead.

What I'd like to know is how on earth they caught this thing!

It was love at first sight when Ben the rare duck took a gander at another bird.

But unfortunately for his owners, who want Ben to breed, his true love didn't quite fit the bill. It's another drake called Jerry.

Both have shunned a female called Cherry - who now swims sadly by herself at the other side of their pond.

And as they are the only New Zealand Blue Ducks in this country - and with only 600 left worldwide - staff at the the Wetlands Trust are pretty ducked-off. "Jerry and Ben just haven't stopped flirting," says spokeswoman Grace Rawnsley. "The fact they have turned out to be gay has played havoc with our breeding plans.

This one from the Flintshire Chronicle today - if anyone else has found anything weird then please tell us....

A MYNYDD Isa woman had a special breakfast visitor - a meerkat.

Nurse Jackie Morgan, 52, was astonished to find the little mammal upright and shivering in the morning frost.

Jackie, of Moel Gron, said: "I got out of bed and went down for breakfast and spotted this thing. At first I thought it was a squirrel. I couldn't believe my eyes.

A beaver that has been felling trees after escaping from a farm is being hunted by conservationists.

The beaver is one of three that broke out of the farm in Lifton, Devon, in October, owner Derek Gow said. The other two have since been re-captured.

The last six-stone (38kg) animal is believed to be felling trees up to 20 miles (32km) away on the banks of the River Tamar near Gunnislake, Cornwall.

Mr Gow said he was to use "honey traps" to find the missing animal.

Mr Gow keeps 24 of the animals under licence from government agency Natural England as part of a wildlife photography business.

He said the escaped animal was one of three that got out of Upcott Grange Farm.

It is suspected the electric fence around the beaver pen failed after flooding in the area, Mr Gow added.

The other two, both females, were soon recovered from a nearby lake, but not before they had felled a number of trees on the River Thrushel.