Obese 100 Year Old Crocodile Dies from Overeating After Worshippers Keep Throwing it Chickens and Goats for Good Luck

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Visitors to the Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali Shrine in Sadar Upazila of Bagerhat district in south-western Bangladesh believe that feeding the crocodile would guarantee them good fortune

An obese 100-year-old crocodile has died from overfeeding after worshippers repeatedly threw it sacrificial chickens for good luck.

Visitors to the Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali Shrine in Sadar Upazila of Bagerhat district in south-western Bangladesh believe that feeding the crocodile would guarantee them good fortune.

And in uncertain economic times, more and more shrine visitors have been throwing chickens and even goats to the bloated ancient croc.

Bald Eagles Allegedly Poisoned at Marion County Baseline Landfill

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The bald eagle—the symbol of our nation—which is protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, faces a new threat in Marion County today.

Michelle Whitfield, Head of the wildlife department at the Animis Foundation, said bald eagles and other wildlife are being poisoned, but not how one would think.

The Animis Foundation alleges that the Marion County Animal Shelter has been dumping euthanized animals at the Marion County Baseline Landfill, which is located next to the shelter.

Zoo Realises it has Been Trying to Mate Two Male Hyenas for Four Years

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A zoo in Japan has been forced to admit that it tried to mate two male hyenas for four years, after mistakenly thinking that one of them was female.

Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo said it had been given the spotted hyenas, Kami and Kamutori, as a “male and female pair” as part of an exchange with a South Korean zoo in 2010.

After the two animals struggled to reproduce, the zoo conducted a gender test under anaesthesia.

Raccoon Dog – The Night Wanderer

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Although the raccoon dog resembles a raccoon, due to its shape, size and facial characteristics, it is very much a member of the dog family. It is considered to be one of the earliest species that other dog species have evolved from.

It is native to east Asia, but has also been introduced into eastern Europe. Due to habitat destruction and extensive hunting and trapping – mainly for its fur – the numbers have declined in east Asia. In Europe, however, it is considered an invasive species.

Animals That Self-Medicate

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In an effort to self-medicate, a bonobo female selects stem of a M. fulvum plant for stripping. Image courtesy of LuiKotale Bonobo Project, copyright Max Koelbl.

Many animal species have created their own pharmacies from ingredients that commonly occur in nature.

Birds, bees, lizards, elephants, and chimpanzees all share a survival trait: They self-medicate. These animals eat things that make them feel better, or prevent disease, or kill parasites like flatworms, bacteria, and viruses, or just to aid in digestion. Even creatures with brains the size of pinheads somehow know to ingest certain plants or use them in unusual ways when they need them.

World’s Longest Snake Has Virgin Birth—First Recorded in Species

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An 11-year-old reticulated python produced six babies without mating in 2012.

An 11-year-old reticulated python named Thelma produced six female offspring in June 2012 at the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, where she lives with another female python, Louise. No male had ever slithered anywhere near the 200-pound (91-kilogram), 20-foot-long (6 meters) mother snake.

New DNA evidence, published in July in theBiological Journal of the Linnean Society, revealed that Thelma is the sole parent, said Bill McMahan, the zoo’s curator of ectotherms, or cold-blooded animals. (Read: “‘Virgin Birth’ Seen in Wild Snakes, Even When Males Are Available.”)

Killer Whales are so Smart They can Learn to Speak “Dolphin”

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Killer whales are smart; that we know. Here’s a thing that might tip them into “scary smart” territory: they can learn the language of another species.

Orcas that were socialized with bottlenose dolphins started making similar sounds as the dolphins, with more clicks and fewer longer calls, according to a study by University of San Diego graduate student Whitney Musser and Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute senior research scientist Dr. Ann Bowles published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Denmark to Ban Sex with Animals

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Denmark is planning to banish bestiality, following the recent examples of Germany and Norway, said the country’s food and agriculture minister. The bill was long-awaited both inside the country and abroad.

“I have decided that we should ban sex with animals. That is happening for numerous reasons. The most important is that in the vast majority of cases it is an attack against the animals,” the food and agriculture minister, Dan Jørgensen, told Ekstra Bladet, a Danish tabloid.

Chickens have Gotten Ridiculously Large Since the 1950s

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Here are three different breeds of chicken, raised on the exact same diet:

The left-hand chicken is a breed from 1957. The middle chicken is a breed from 1978. The right-hand one is a breed from 2005. They were all raised in the same manner for this paper and were photographed at the same age. 

The one on the left is a breed from 1957. The middle one is a 1978 breed. And the one on the right is a commercial 2005 breed called the Ross 308 broiler. They’re all the same age. And the modern breed is much, much, much larger.

In just 50 years or so, chickens have been bred to be much bigger. The image above comes from a studydone by researchers at the University of Alberta, Canada, who raised three breeds of chickens from different eras in the exact same way and measured how much they ate and how they grew. This allowed them to see the genetic differences between the breeds without influences from other factors like food or antibiotic use. They recently published their results in Poultry Science.

Scientists Discover Cancer-Fighting Berry on Tree that Only Grows in Far North Queensland

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Scientists have been surprised by the rapid cancer-fighting properties of a berry found only in Far North Queensland.

An eight-year study led by Dr Glen Boyle, from the QIMR Berghofer medical research institute in Brisbane, found a compound in the berry could kill head and neck tumors as well as melanomas.