Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Wild otter checks itself into the Jacksonville zoo

When the keepers shut down the otter exhibit at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens Sunday, they left one otter out in the exhibit overnight.
When they came back to open up Monday morning, there were two.
Nope, there wasn’t a birth. A wild North American river otter had found its way in to make itself part of the exhibit.
Craig Miller, curator of mammals, said that’s the first time he’s heard of that happening at the zoo.
"We get birds or squirrels coming in, of course," but never this.
He’s not exactly sure how the otter got in, but the exhibit is primarily designed to make sure the animals inside don’t get out. There’s a gently sloped hill behind the exhibit, and he figures maybe the otter climbed that and squeezed between the gate and the fence.
Once it got to the top of the wall, there was a six- or eight-foot jump down to the water.
Then there’s the question of why. Otters aren’t particularly social, Miller said, and both the wild and captive animals are male. But there were two females back in the holding area.
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Monkey Adopted by Pigs!

A red-tailed guenon monkey who thinks he is a farm animal.
Filmed in Rumangabo, DR Congo.
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Subwoofer Cat

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Injured deer finds vet

A US vet was amazed when an injured wild deer burst into the building where his clinic is based.
A manager at a PetSmart store in Rossford, near Toledo, Ohio, opened a door and spotted the wounded deer outside.
The animal, which was lying in a pool of bloody snow, jumped up and ran through the just opened door, reports the Toledo Blade.
Once inside, the female deer lay down on the floor as blood dripped from her left hind leg, recalled store Manager Trudi Urie.
She called Dr Agustin Cuesta, who works in the veterinary clinic inside PetSmart, who was able to treat the deer's injury and return her to the wild.
"Of all the places to run into, a pet store that has vets in it," said Ms Urie.
Dr Cuesta said the deer had suffered two or three deep cuts and that bone was showing through the fur. He could not determine what caused the injury.
He placed a numbing agent on the wounds before closing the wounds with dissolvable stitches, while covering the deer's head with a towel to stop her panicking.
"We took off the towel from her eyes and slowly she got to her feet," Dr. Cuesta said. "She stood frozen for a few seconds, but after that she ran out of the store."
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