Leopard Attacks Halted by Cell Phone Ring

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070605-leopards-phone.html"

According to this story on by National Geographic, Villagers in India are now using "clucking," "bleating," and "mooing" ring tones to distract the big cats and lure them away from human settlements.

By attaching a mobile phone to a cage and playing one of the animal ringtones continuously, local forest guards can lure the leopard into the trap without harm.

"The moos of a cow or bleating of a goat from the phone has proved effective," D. Vasani, a senior forest official, told the Reuters news service.

Since the new ringtone method was introduced a month ago, guards have captured five leopards and released them successfully back into forests.

Birds in the picture

Fort Collins - A tourist-filled raft slammed into the Class 3 rapid Sarah's Hole on the Cache la Poudre River one morning this week.

Some rafters grimaced, others screamed or laughed as they punched through the waves. Their faces were captured by photographer Charlie Malone.

When Malone was done shooting, he pulled the memory stick out of his Nikon camera and slipped it into a tiny Lycra backpack worn by a gray pigeon named Lucky.

Malone gently released the bird riverside, and Lucky took wing.

Malone and the company he works for, Rocky Mountain Adventures, were relying on the uncanny - and scientifically mysterious - ability of homing pigeons to fly for tens and even hundreds of miles and find their way home.
No one knows how they do it, said pigeon expert Charles Wolcott, a professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Wolcott believes pigeons rely on "multiple, redundant systems" to navigate accurately - using vision, smell and even the Earth's magnetic field to orient.

Researchers have covered pigeons' eyes or capped them with magnetically active hats to try to disorient the birds. Still, they locate their home base more often than not.

"It's like wearing belts and suspenders - you can disable any one thing, and they still find their way home," Wolcott said.

Dave Costlow, owner of Rocky Mountain Adventures, estimated that last year, 91 percent of the time, his pigeons delivered film or memory sticks fast enough to print and display rafting pictures before clients, still dripping from their ride, walked back into the store.

They get more and more reliable as the season goes by, Malone said.

"I've had people watch me release the birds, and they still don't believe me," Malone said. "They think it's a stunt."

So while other rafting companies race their film back by car or kayak, Rocky Mountain

Rafters, Fred and Shirley Kremer, from Holland, pick out photos from their white water adventure June 21. (Special to the Post / Nathan W. Armes)takes it on the wing. He is, Costlow said, the only one that does it that way.
"We may not increase our profits because of the attraction of the birds themselves," Costlow said, "but we do increase our profits by having our photos ready."

The pigeons, which fly about 60 mph, make that possible. Most of the time.

This year's rafting and pigeon-training seasons began late, slowed by a chilly spring. Costlow's 16 birds still haven't completely adjusted to their work, he said.

Lucky flew just 15 feet from Malone's hands and landed on a pine branch.

"Go, Lucky! You're the one with the film today," the 27-year-old Malone called.

The bird looked calmly down at the photographer and then gazed across the river.

Three of her nest mates - released with her for company - were soaring in wide, high circles, gaining altitude and their bearings before heading back down the canyon.

Lucky stayed put.

"Come on, Lucky," Malone urged. He needed to get back in his car to shoot pictures of another rafting group on a longer trip upstream.

During homing-pigeon races, birds may fly hundreds of miles in a day, and they almost always make it, Cornell's Wolcott said.

"And then there are these strange occasions - called smashes - where for reasons unknown, you'll let 20,000 go and three appear at the home loft," Wolcott said. "We don't know why."

This day, Lucky wasn't racing - or even in a hurry.

At about noon, back in Fort Collins, the morning's soggy rafters returned to the Rocky Mountain Adventures store.

The photos of the rafters and flailing paddles were there, thanks to a backup driver and car.

Lucky arrived later.

"It's early in the season," Costlow said. "They'll get better."

Oscar the cat predicts patients' deaths

......great article from Yahoo.com. I really believe this cat has the ability to sense when the end is nearing. Decide for yourself in the article below...........

By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 25, 7:25 PM ET


PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.


"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.

Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

Family dog viciously attacked

Terrible, senseless act in Connecticut.

by News Channel 8's Annie RourkePosted Dec. 18, 20079:55 PM
Milford (WTNH) _ A disturbing case of animal cruelty has a Milford pet owner mystified and his small dog recovering from a vicious attack that took place just steps from his home.
The attack happened early Sunday morning around 1 a.m. when Jack Vernon let his dog Sparky outside before going to bed. That's when he says two teenagers, a boy and girl, tried to kill his dog.
"I just sat down, about two minutes later, I hear hee hee hee, laughing and giggling, I said, what the heck are kids doing out this time of night? I go out there and they ran down the street," Vernon explained.
When Vernon went outside he made the disturbing discovery - his 11-year old Pekinese-Pomeranian mix had been slashed with a knife.
"He was gashed all the way from the back, all the way down the front and then the top, they must've stuck him with the knife and then they cut him over the ear and all the way down almost to the jugular vein," Vernon said.
One cut is 14 inches long and the wounds criss-cross over his back and around his ear. After undergoing surgery to literally stitch him back together he now has three drainage tubes inside and is on a whole host of medicine. Still, Sparky's lucky to be alive.
"The vet says, another half-inch and he would've died, he would've bled to death in a matter of minutes," Vernon said.
Vernon says he can't imagine why someone would attack a small, defenseless animal. He is offering a $300 reward to help find who did this to his dog.
If you have any information, you're asked to call the Milford police department.