This is a bit of a cheat as I see it in Nuremberg Zoo, in an en closure that the public can go into, with ibis, black stork and spoonbill.
But they are beginning to breed in England, along with little egrets. I just wanted to link to this brilliant headline: Egrets? We’ve had a few, in the Independent (the yellowish-brown colouring is in the breeding season, apparently).
LATER NOTE: diamond geezer has a good write-up.
Here are three in Embankment Gardens, still waiting to be distributed (they must be the Brown, Cameron and Clegg three named by diamond geezer:
and here’s a nice jewelled one in Coutts:
The animal party wants to rename the muskrat:
Partij voor de Dieren wil nieuwe naam muskusrat
PERSBERICHT Groningen, 6 oktober 2008 – Als onderdeel van de zojuist gestarte campagne voor de waterschapsverkiezingen, lanceert de Partij voor de Dieren een wedstrijd rondom het bedenken van een nieuwe naam voor de muskusrat. De muskusrat is namelijk helemaal geen rat, maar een soort woelmuis. Hij staat dichter bij de hamster en de bever dan bij de zwarte en de bruine rat.
(via Onze Taal)
It’s just been announced that the polar bear cub Flocke will be on public view from April 9. Here is a guide for visitors – after all, the school Easter holidays end next Friday, so from March 31 there will be a few days to visit the Zoo while it’s still civilized.
I can’t get the hang of Google Maps, but if you scroll to the right here you will eventually see the zoo, marked with a blue line.
It is embedded in deep forest, on a hilly and wooded site, and you can see the sandstone where the stone for Nuremberg Castle was quarried. So it’s quite a large and civilized zoo for the visitor – less so for some of the animals. A bit like a mixture between a more generously planned zoo and a crowded inner-city zoo. It would still be in Dutzendteich if Hitler hadn’t wanted that area for a parade ground. And look what happened to that.
Parking is difficult except on the civilized days I just mentioned. So do yourself a favour and get the tram from the main railway station. At the moment, it normally runs every ten minutes and takes fifteen minutes to get there, and you get out closer to the zoo than if you had to park some distance away.
See more in the continuation.
Telling the bees is an old tradition, but telling the cats should perhaps be avoided. The Times Online:
A pensioner who was charged with murdering his partner after police recorded him apparently confessing to his cats was cleared yesterday by a jury that decided his comments were the ramblings of an old man.
David Henton, 72, was hugged by members of the jury before returning home to his two long-haired Persian cats Pudsey and Twinkle.
I suppose long-haired Persian cats are even harder to groom than normal Persian cats.
The content of the recordings was disputed:
At one point according to the prosecution, Mr Henton said: “Good God alive. Don’t panic now. Police car I got. Good God I don’t believe I’ve done it.” But the defence version of the same segment read: “Good God alive. Police car I got . . . come on now, I’m coming,” interrupted by coughing, a clunk and road noise.
