Magic Goat Arrested in Nigeria

As a headline this is an editor’s dream (well, it is for this editor, at least). Though apparently it’s not that unusual an occurrence, as belief in witchcraft is still widespread in parts of rural Nigeria. According to the international media, a ‘magic’ goat is behind bars in a police cell after having been arrested on suspicion of stealing a car. A local posse in Kwara state took the goat to a police station claiming that the goat was in fact a known criminal who had stolen a Mazda 323 and had transformed himself into the animal by magic in order to avoid being caught. Police spokesman Tunde Mohammed said that ’scientific evidence’ that the criminal had in fact transformed himself in this way would be required before formal charges were made…. As a alibi, we think that “It wasn’t me, mate - it was my goat”, has a certain potential….

Welcome to the New Pink Iguana. And, Henry the Tuatara is a Dad!

For Charles Darwin fans, 2009 is a special year. Darwin was born two hundred years ago in 1809, and published his revolutionary work ‘On the Origin of Species’ in 1859. In honour of Darwin, the Natural History Museum in London, UK will be hosting special events and exhibitions throughout the year. Much of Darwin’s ground-breaking work was carried out in the Galapagos islands in the Pacific. It seems fitting, then, to describe recent research carried out in the Galapagos that has left some scientists scratching their heads in bewilderment.

This is not a pink iguana

On the Island of Isabela, the discovery of a pink type of iguana, rosada, that was missed by Darwin when he was on his travels, has caused great excitement. Aside from being pink, the rosada seems to be much more different genetically from all the other land iguanas on the archipelago, and more different to the other iguanas than they are from each other (if you catch my drift). Scientists estimate from DNA analysis that the rosada diverged from other species of land iguana somewhere around 5.7 million years ago. Now here’s the thing: Darwin’s observations of differences in types of finches and tortoises etc. on the different Galapagos islands led him to suppose that species diverged according to different environmental constraints. However, at the time when the rosada diverged (emerged), the island of Isabela did not yet exist. So how did it get there then? Watch this space!

Hold the front page! Henry the 111 year old tuatara has finally become a father! In case you were wondering (and we were) the tuatara is a reptile indigenous to New Zealand that looks a bit like a lizard. In evolutionary terms they are pretty ancient, being descendents of a reptile line that dates back to the time of the dinosaurs, some 225 million years ago. So, drawing up a family tree for Henry would seem to be a task that would pose a challenge for even the most obsessive of genealogists! For many years, Henry was thought to be ‘past it’ in terms of sexual activity. In fact, at his home at the Southland Museum on the South Island, he was referred to as the ‘grumpy old man’ because of his anti social behaviour towards other tuatara. Then, last March, he was caught cosying up with a female named Mildred (estimated to be in her seventies, so no spring chicken either). The end result was that 11 babies were hatched, which is great news, not least as the tuatara is an endangered species. As they say: ‘You’re only as old as the tuatara you feel’.

Happy Cows Produce More Milk

In what we only can describe as an example of the ‘Tell us something we didn’t know’ form of research, scientists at Newcastle University’s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development have made the none-too-startling discovery that happy cows produce more milk than unhappy cows (sorry for being a bit snide, but really….!). More specifically, in a study of 516 dairy farmers in the UK it was found that farmers who treated their cows with a personal touch (we’re going to be very, very careful how we proceed down this route) — by giving them names, for example (‘Daisy’? ‘Ermintrude’? er, that’s all we can think of) gained significantly higher milk yields (by up to 500 pints a year in some cases) than those farmers who didn’t give their cattle names. For people who are interested, it doesn’t seem to be the actual naming ceremony that instantly results in a ’laughing cow’. But those farmers who give their cows names are likely to spend more time with their cows on a one to one basis, and are more likely to be better at animal husbandry (let’s stop right there, shall we?).

Our ‘And finally’ piece for this month comes from the story of an inept shark theft that took place in a pet store in Lynbrook, Long Island, New York state in December. Elbert Starks (who else?!!! ‘Starks steals sharks’ what a great line for a song!) - a misguided thirty year old who clearly has ‘issues’ - allegedly stole a nurse shark out of the pet store by hiding it under his jacket, and then took it home and released it into his home aquarium. Police, on pursuing this piscatorial pilferer (sorry) also found a green moray eel in Elbert’s aquarium, apparently bought with a stolen credit card. According to various sources, Brendan Jones, who works at the store, responded to the crime by saying “The guy obviously has a thing for fish. But he obviously made a wrong decision”. Well, obviously. ‘Is an eel a fish?’ I hear you ask (eels don’t look a hell of a lot like haddocks, I think you will admit). Yes indeedy, it would seem, though Wikipedia confused us with the information that ‘the electric eel of South America is not a true eel but more closely related to the carp’. Responsible moral message: “Don’t try to steal sharks. It’s not nice.”