Ron at PopFi does such a terrific job of finding interesting stories throughout the world that show just how crazy popular culture is.  He shared a story about how a tiger cub was found recently at Bangkok International Airport… found sedated in a pile of stuffed animals.

The tiger was taken to an animal rehab facility while officials try to determine if it was born in the wild or if it is born in captivity.  Despite its treatment, the tiger kitten seems to be in good health.  As for the smuggler, she was arrested and detained for her not-so-subtle animal smuggling attempt.

People. They are crazy!

Photo by J Tillery via Flickr Creative Commons.

Photo by Travis Simon via flickr creative commons.

Gross!

Bedbugs have infiltrated even some of the nicest hotels, homes, fluffy beds, yucky beds, and average beds.  There seems to be an epidemic of them spreading across the country according to the latest news.

According to the Boston Herald, bedbugs are taking over throughout the city to the horror of many, especially in the Back Bay and South End where people are going out of their way to keep their critter crisis on the down low.

The Boston Herald reports that exterminators are told to show up in unmarked vehicles at times when neighbors won’t be able to catch on to what’s going on, as the clients pay huge sums of money to rid these creepy crawlies from their posh homes.

What cities have the most bedbugs?

Be grateful if you don’t live in

1. New York
2. Philadelphia
3. Detroit
4. Cincinnati
5. Chicago
6. Denver
7. Columbus, Ohio
8. Dayton, Ohio
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Los Angeles
11. Boston
12. Indianapolis
13. Louisville, Ky.
14. Cleveland
15. Minneapolis, Minn.

What really gives me the heebie-jeebies is that I’ve spent the night in most of these cities!  No! They weren’t brought by me!  I check my mattresses regularly - even when I go to hotels. Evidently they’re pretty easy to spot in the folds of the mattress.  According to the Harvard School of Public Health, here’s what to look for:

The bedroom and other sleeping areas should be carefully examined for bed bugs and signs of bed bug activity. Folds and creases in the bed linens, and seams and tufts of mattresses and box springs, in particular, may harbor bed bugs or their eggs. They may also be found within pleats of curtains, beneath loose areas of wallpaper near the bed, in corners of desks and dressers, within spaces of wicker furniture, behind cove molding, and in laundry or other items on the floor or around the room.

I hope you don’t find any!

What better story to talk about on a Friday the 13th than a country being attacked by vampire bats? In Urakusu, Peru, hundreds of people have been exposed to rabies through a plague of vampire bats,

Officials in Peru believe up to 500 people in the Peruvian Amazon have been exposed to rabies thanks to vampire bat attacks, and no telling how many of those 500 are on their way to becoming a foaming-at-the-mouth special edition of Dracula.  Vampire bats are infamous for the way they feed off blood, unlike normal adorable bats.

According to PopFi, the increase in bats could be due to deforestation, cold weather, or just the unstopped spread of the disease.  Ew.  It’s kind of like those movies you watch where you know there’s a bad guy in the house.  Instead of running fast and far, the “victim” tiptoes around the house with just a candlestick for protection.  Me?  I’d be running fast and far from Peru right now… at least until the vampire bats were better under control!

Photo by the biella via flickr creative commons.

A town in Australia has been terrorized recently by three super-sized crocodiles.  Two have been eliminated, but one more is still stalking the local farm animals, pets, and wildlife.  And maybe humans.  According to PopFi,

For whatever reason, the town is saltwater crocodile central, as the town has been plagued by not one, but three different giant crocodiles that have been eating livestock and generally terrorizing the citizens of the small town outside Darwin (where the crocs take water aerobics).

The crocodile in the photo is unable to chew up the kid in the photo (it’s dead, Jim) but still… yikes!  Look at that size.. as big as a truck!

CNN had a link today for “8 Feel-Good Websites to Brighten Your Day” and the story of Christian the lion was here,

In 1969 a young Australian, John Rendall and his friend Ace Bourke, bought a small lion cub from Harrods pet department, which was then legal.  ‘Christian’ was kept in the basement of a furniture shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea, the heart of the swinging sixties.  Loved by all, the affectionate cub ate in a local restaurant, played in a nearby graveyard, but was growing fast…

A chance encounter with Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna led to a new life for Christian.  He came to live in an enclosure and slept in a caravan at their Surrey home.  Then in 1971 he was flown to Kenya, his ancestral home, and returned to the wild by lion-man George Adamson.  Almost a year later in 1972, John and Ace returned to Kora in Kenya and it is their reunion with Christian at this time that is shown in the clip.

Go visit the site and watch the video of Christian and the reunion.

My friend Brittney posted a link to this … perfect for a Friday!

Have a great weekend and welcome August!

While cleaning and saving as many animals affected by the massive oil spill off the Gulf Coast is the right thing to do, the efforts may be futile except for a very small portion of fortunate creatures.  According to the Huffington Post, efforts to save the individuals birds would be better spent on preserving wildlife habitats or focusing on an endangered species,

Fewer than 10 percent of brown pelicans that were cleaned and marked for tracing after a 1990 spill in Southern California were accounted for two years later, while more than half the pelicans in a control group could be found, three scientists with the University of California, Davis, reported in a paper published in 1996. The formerly oiled birds also showed no signs of breeding.

Such sad news.  Yet I’d still try to save a bird if I could rather than euthanize.

Photo by USFWS via flickr creative commons.

The eyes believe themselves; the ears believe other people….German Proverb.

As much as I always loved going to the zoo or the circus, there has been a part of me that is bothered.  I’m bothered when I see a caged animal, although I know that some of these creatures are far better off than they would have been when rescued.

And yet…  here’s a post from Environmental Graffiti that shows the eyes of some caged beasts.  It’s a bit sad for me.

What can be seen looking back in the eye that beholds you, something tangible or nothing at all, is for you to decide.

What do you think?