No one is safe, not even Drop bears

I've been in a glass cage of emotion! No internets for weeks, which has made me feel very out-of-tune with the world... but the first thing I did read was the multiple murderous hippopotami in South Africa.

1. Farmer gouged to death by pet hippo Humphrey who was 'like a son to him'
2. Escape from the jaws of a hippo

While hippos are pretty dangerous in general, I was intrigued to know if there had been any honey badger attacks (specific aren't I). I didn't find any honey badger media but I did find this:

Koalas under attack from cows

Who'd have thought that a cow would be spooked by a koala enough to have a murderous streak. They are thuggish in their approach too. So watch out for the koalas, Eastern Staters. Next we'll be hearing about cows with guns...


Another article I found was this:

Melogale cucphuongensis sp.nov

This is a new species, unknown to science referred to as a "ferret-badger". It's interesting looking enough. At first I thought they called it a ferret-badger because they had no idea which one it was more closely related to; then I did a little more research and found the strangest handful of cute, ferret-badgers. They look a little like Palm civets to me.

A species of Melogale, Chinese ferret-badger
(image from Scienceblogs)

Eagles like pork chops too

April 2011: A Wedgetail eagle in Kalbarri gorge, WA. Rounded a bend towards the Murchison River near Little Red Hill and Big Red Hill (damn Australia, we're bloody imaginative). Saw the eagle on the ground and we were pretty excited to see that it had caught something barely minutes before we arrived. This caused a HUGE debate in the car as to what it had caught - the majority said "rabbit"... I claimed "pig".

The car spooked the wedgie, so she tried to drag her prize away into the bushes. We were curious but were also interested in checking the state of the river for future fishing expeditions a few metres away. We hopped out the car and the wedgie decided that we were after her and dropped her kill in the bushes nearby. I wondered over carefully, and used a stick to examine the carcass (didn't want to leave gross human smells on eagle food :P) since the wedgie was still hanging around to grab her meal back the moment we left.

Guess who was right?!?!

Pork chops of Razor-back piglet!!
(headless)

Whale: The large and plushie

Mocha Dick by Tristin Lowe.

I want one... but I want a shark or Liopleurodon instead. That would be so awesome, curled around my bed or even used as a bed. Very cool. But I want this for another reason... any of these felty predators can easily protect me from the dreaded Architeuthis plushieii.

Architeuthis plushieii
(as named by myself: not official name)

Trophies

If you're like me and love animals, would like to decorate your room or house with animal things like mounted trophies BUT hate the notion that an animal has to die for you to have it featured in your home... then try Faux animal trophies! There are sooo many in various designs and mediums.

I'd recommend purchasing snare wire animals from Iganyana Arts: the wire is from poachers' snares which have been dismantled and collected then turned into beautiful wire animal sculptures by locals and sold to tourists with the money supporting the community (therefore reducing the need to poach in the reserves for black market money or food). Ultimately, this aids in protecting the wildlife.

This is a clever and beautiful way to display animal art with soft lighting - a faux trophy light-fitting designed by Christophe Hascoet, Annabel Karim Kassar, Isabelle Rolland (you better have >$7.5K for one).
Recycled cardboard! You can purchase a moose, deer, elephant or rhino from Cardboard Safari

This gorgeous cow is made from paper. Just paper. Created by a wonderful artist, Anna Wili Highfield

DEAD plush animals aren't scary at all when sewn, stuffed and mounted by aicreatures on Etsy

Convert and old sweater into an animal trophy bust, or you could have a look and maybe take a liking to one of Rachel Denny's knitted deer busts.

Woven basket style animal trophies - very cool when paired with a wicker dinning or lounge set. These can be found at Ballard Designs.

There are the masses of Papier-mâché, porcelain, wood and plastic/resin casts and crafted animal trophies too. Too many to list.

The functional hanging trophy ~ can be used as a hat or key rack. These are simply cute and the style is humorous. Designed by New Zealander, Phil Cuttance.




And a few ... hehehe ... silly ones I stumbled upon :P

Foxes are cute, but evil little bastards

Power was out... technically still is.

Nearly 48hrs with no running water or electricity makes you feel very primitive. And when you finally have a generator to power up the essentials while you wait for the power company to fix it (*cough cough* 9pm two nights ago). Things like running the water pump so you can shower and flush the toilet (yay!), fridge (luckily nothing went bad), fan (damn summer heat) and a little TV (cos the lights don't work and the light emitted from the TV is enough to make sure you don't walk into chairs, coffee tables and couches in the darkness).

You realise, after so long without power, how much you've de-evolved to near-Neolithic origin. I've been too scared to turn my laptop on in case I ended up in the dark again. You feel real fear when all the lights go out and all you have are the moon and stars (if that, since its been overcast) and then you hear that faint high-pitched howl of a fox as it runs through the bush. Lets just say, my nights have been far from peaceful.

The tiny, cute face of a glaringly evil Mr. Fennec fox (photo by floridapfe)

"Bird brain"... not such an insult

So, I was going through the TED library of film clips for something interesting to watch and I stumbled upon this piece of gold: Einstein the Parrot.

This was as equally impressive as the documentary I saw of Alex the African Grey who passed away in 2007 at age 31. The vocal range of these guys is amazing and the understanding and recognition of commands and simple words and phrases is really impressive. But the brains don't end at the African Grey Parrot. . .

The kea, (possibly my favourite parrot of mischief) a large New Zealand parrot, have also been know for their intelligence. They've been observed to become destructive (damaging cars, bins, and home roofing), disruptive and bored whilst in captivity; requiring mental stimulation in the form of rather complex puzzles.