Caught on video: Dramatic moment lions attack their trainer in a Las Vegas hotel

By Daily Mail Reporter

The lion moves in on one of the trainers as his colleague tries to distract the animal


Most couples want their honeymoon to be a roaring success, and for Titus and Drew Ellis it was ... literally.

The newlyweds, from Montana, were celebrating in Las Vegas on September 1 and for a bit of added excitement decided to check out the lion enclosure at the MGM Grand Hotel.


*** See the Video below ***


Taking the pain: The trainer is obviously in trouble as the lion continues the attack despite the efforts of his associate


Titus was videotaping the male and female lions and their two trainers when all of a sudden the male took exception at something that was going on and made a lunge.

A struggle ensued and a female also decided to join the fray but the trainer managed to break free with the help of his colleague and made a hasty escape from the enclosure with the male still appearing extremely agitated.


Doukle trouble: The female now joins the action as the male continues to lunge towards trainer as he makes his escape, leaving his colleague to sort things out


Panic over: The badly shaken trainer makes his exit from the enclosure while the lions are brought under control by the second handler


The video is now creating a worldwide buzz after featuring on the Wednesday morning edition of Good Morning America.

There is no evidence of any blood being spilled, but the trainer is evidently in great pain during the attack. Soundproof glass muffled any noise, however.

Jack Hanna appeared on GMA and he said the attack would be considered mild. The trainer was lucky it was the male getting over-excited as females launch much more devastating attacks.



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Nine lives? Lucky black cat Jack is down to eight after surviving being impaled on a rusty fence

By Sara Mccorquodale

Rescue: Jack is hardly the cat that got the cream but is on the mend after firefighters cut him free from the fence on which he was impaled


Cats are revered for their nimble swagger, cool demeanor and ability to leap from object to object barely making a sound.

But as poor Rotherham moggy Jack discovered, even feline grace can fail you if the stakes are too high.

For scrambling along a rusty fence the three-year-old much-loved pet slipped and found himself impaled on one of its metal spikes.

The Rotherham native was rushed to the vet with the spear still lodged in his leg.
However, after an emergency operation and some tender loving care brave Jack is on the road to recovery.

Although he had to have a large section of his fur shaved and is currently showcasing a rather uncomfortable plastic cone round his neck, the moggy will be good as new in no time at all.


"Terrible state": The moggy was discovered with a rusty spike in his leg


All has ended well, but for Jack's owner's - Nicola Milbourn and Robert Hulme - the incident has been a traumatic experience that has resulted in them demanding Rotherham Council remove the fence.

The couple, both 32, said Jack was in a "terrible state" when they discovered him.

"The firefighters were great, they cut Jack free and we were able to rush him to the vet where they carried out the operation," said Milbourn.


Feline better: Jack has been patched up and is on his way to recovery


"He is doing well now and he should make a good recovery. But we are asking the local council to remove the fence because it is so dangerous.

"The thing is the fence is not necessary because it is in front of a seven foot high concrete fence," she said.

"It's bad enough that Jack was hurt but it could have been a child."


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A fly-past not seen for 400 years: How the first flock of British cranes since the 16th century were set free

Test flight: Two cranes explore their territory after being released into the wild


Its piercing cry echoed over our marshes and wetlands - until it was hunted to extinction.

But 400 years on, the crane is making a comeback.

Experts who want to return the species to its former habitat have hatched eggs from Germany and are reintroducing a flock of 20.

The fledglings, which were brought up in a Wildfowl and Wetland Trust centre in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, in the spring, were given their first taste of the wild last month.

In ten years, it is hoped their population will flourish, just as nature intended.

Breeding cranes vanished from Britain in the 16th century, the victims of hunting and draining of the wetlands.

Since then, practically the only birds seen in the UK were those passing through to breeding grounds overseas.

And although a small colony was established in Norfolk in the 1980s, the group has remained vulnerable.

Experts have gone to great lengths to ensure the latest group's survival. The birds are mature enough to be set free at a secret location in the ancient Somerset Levels wetlands.


Hatching a plan: Wearing hooded bird suits designed to stop cranes bonding with humans, ornithologists holding feeding sticks (circled) release a bird


But they are so impressionable that none of the team dares go near them unless they are dressed in suit and hood designed to make them look like a bird, in case the cranes bond with humans.

Ornithologists involved in the programme, the brainchild of the RSPB and the WWT, use litter sticks painted to resemble crane necks and heads to feed them. And wooden cut-outs of cranes are used to attract the birds to safe feeding grounds.

Project manager Damon Bridge said: 'This is such an exciting time. From first collecting the eggs back in April our aviculturalists have been working round the clock to give these birds all the care and attention they need.

'Every day we are leading the birds out of their enclosure and getting them used to the wild.

'It'll be great to see them leave the fold and make their own way in the world.'





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We're going to need a bigger bowl! Fisherman catches massive 30lb 'goldfish'

By Mail Foreign Service

What a whopper! Angler Raphael Biagini got the surprise of his life when he landed this gigantic koi carp on a fishing trip to France. At 30lb it's thought to be the largest of its kind ever caught in the wild


It might look like an enormously generous fairground prize.

But no goldfish bowl in the world could contain this catch.

The orange koi carp weighs 30lb - the same as an average three-year-old girl - and is thought to be one of the largest of its kind ever captured.

It took Raphael Biagini ten minutes to reel the creature out of a lake in the south of France - moments after fellow anglers told him they had spent six years trying to snare the legendary 'giant goldfish'.

Mr Biagini, pictured, said: 'To begin with, we couldn't tell what was at the end of the line, but we knew it was big.

'The fish was a good fighter, but not enough to win.'

After an impromptu photoshoot, the 30-year-old from Montpellier returned his prize catch to the water.


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Right, no more monkey business! Weighing in at 15st, Britain's fattest orangutan is put on a diet

By David Derbyshire

Cutting back on the calories: Oshine was kept as a pet in Africa for 13 years before being rescued. Since arriving at rescue centre in Dorset her weight has rocketed and keepers have now put her on a strict diet


Before you ask, no, Oshine the orang-utan is not happy about her new diet.

After all, when you’re used to burgers, jelly and sweets, a plate piled high with salad is bound to be a bit of a disappointment.

Weighing in at a hefty 15 and a half stone, tubby Oshine gives a whole new meaning to the phrase Great Ape.

But now, Britain's fattest primate is changing her ways.

After being rescued from the care of a couple of well-meaning but misguided, owners, Oshine is being put on a strict diet of fruit, yoghurt, lean meat and vegetables.

Keepers at Monkey World in Dorset hope the 13-year-old will be back to normal size within a few months and ready to try for her first baby.


Time to get moving: The orangutan is now receiving a more natural, healthy diet and meeting others of her own kind for the first time


Oshine arrived at the rescue centre from South Africa where she was kept as a pet since she was a baby.

Her sedentary and unnatural lifestyle meant her weight rocketed. A wild, healthy orangutan would normally weigh between five and 12. stone.

Dr Alison Cronin, director of Monkey World, said: 'As she grew older, her owners found they could only keep her calm by constantly feeding her. They meant well, but it was misguided care.'

The owners contacted Monkey World two years ago when they realised they could not offer Oshine a healthy lifestyle as a pet.

She flew the ten and a half hours to Heathrow on August 31 in a specially designed cage and was immediately placed on a diet.

'We have been working to give Oshine a more natural life with others of her own kind for more than a year,' said Dr Cronin.

'The long-haul journey for such a delicate endangered species such as an orangutan is fraught with difficulties and danger.

'With Oshine’s weight problem we were especially concerned about her travel arrangements and making sure that the journey was stress-free and safe.'

Although a fully-grown adult, Oshine is now living in the orangutan creche at Monkey World. She will live alongside four captive born babies born in European zoos who have been abandoned by their mothers.

The Monkey World team say living alongside babies will teach Oshine 'how to be an orangutan'.

Once she loses weight, gets fitter, and understands more about ape behaviour, she will 'graduate' into one of two breeding groups where it is hoped that she can start her own family.


Oshine arrived at the rescue centre from South Africa where she was kept as a pet since she was a baby


'Now that she is at the park, we have her on a healthy diet of vegetables and fruits and she is getting a lot more exercise climbing through the specially designed, two storey orangutan creche,' said Dr Cronin.

'It will take a few months for Oshine to reach a more appropriate weight and then she will be ready to meet a new man and consider a family of her own.'

Monkey World is home to Europe’s only orangutan creche and has 14 orangutans. It not only breeds the apes but offers a home to any babies born in European zoos that are orphaned.


In the creche orphaned babies are cared for by a team of dedicated primate care staff and an adult female orangutan, A-mei.


A-mei is surrogate mother to the young orphaned orangutans, Dinda, aged four, Hsiao-Ning, seven, and Joly and Lingga, both five.

In the wild, orangutan are threatened by the destruction of forests for farmland for food and palm oil - used in processed foods in West.


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It's Snakes R Us: The six-month-old girl given a PYTHON to play with by her parents

By Mail Foreign Service

Giving it a squeeze: Sidhi Siddharth Sinune grabs the python with her little hands. It was given to her to play with by her farmer father who earns extra cash as a snake catcher in a remote area of Maharashtra, south-west India


It's a sight to make most parents go cold with fear - a six-month-old girl playing with a python.

But Sidhi Siddharth Sinune who isn't even old enough to walk, never mind run away from the reptile, treats it as a plaything.

This is because it was given to her by her farmer father who earns extra cash as a snake catcher.


Chew on that: The girl munches on the python's tail while playing near her home


He brings home his prey for his daughter to play with because he says he is too poor to afford toys.

'Sidhi has an unusual bonding with the snakes and surprisingly they too like to play with her,' said Siddharth Sinune.

'Being a poor farmer, I can't buy her costly toys but I can get her snakes to play with.'

So while he and his wife are working in nearby fields in a rural part of south-west India the youngster pats the powerful snake which is capable of killing her by constriction in an instant.

In one image she squeezes its scales with her little hands in another she chews on its tail with her gums. Shrieking with delight she lets it weave through her legs.

Although not venomous, pythons are constrictors that kill by constriction, or by swallowing their prey whole.

After catching snakes which stray into the fields close to the village in the state of Maharashtra Sidhi's father releases them back to the surrounding forests.


New best friend: Sidhi shrieks with delight as a giant python weaves through her tiny legs

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Meet the couple who don't bother keeping wolves from their door... they invite them in (and now have TEN)

By Daily Mail Reporter

Wolf at the door: Colette pets Shadow, the female black Alaskan timberwolf hybrid who was the first wolf to enter the house


If you're considering getting a domestic pet, your first thought might not be a pack of wolves. But this California couple have no fear about living with the powerful predators.

Paul Pondella and partner Colette Duvall have formed a bond with the animals over the years and, as these incredible pictures show, are very happy to share their lives - and their sofas - with them.

It all started when Paul rescued a female black Alaskan timberwolf hybrid, Shadow.


One man and his wolf: Paul Pondella and his Alaskan timberwolf hybrid Takoda, play with the newborn pups on in Studio City, California.


The product of a mating between a male domestic dog and a female wolf, she was welcomed into the house in Studio City, near Los Angeles, that Paul shares with Colette and is now the oldest wolf resident and alpha female of the pack.

The couple were so in love with Shadow and the idea of living with wolf hybrids that they introduced more of the animals - Allie and Takoda, who had seven newborn pups.

While they look as soft and cuddly as any pooch in these pictures, Paul said that they have needed to dedicate thousands of hours to train the animals because of their wild and fearsome nature.


Puppy love: Paul and his partner Colette Duvall have 10 wolves in the house, including a recent litter of puppies


Play time: Paul shows his trust in the wolves by placing his hand in Tokoda's mouth


He said: 'It is a fact that when wild animals become habituated to people, they may lose their fear of humans, especially if they are fed or if they associate humans with providing food, but like any large predator, wolves are perfectly capable of killing people.'

But now that they have been integrated into their unusual living arrangement they are completely at home with the humans - so much so that they are more than happy to slouch on the chairs, sofas and even the couple's bed as if they own the place.

The extraordinary half-wolf half-human family has become so large that it has outgrown its current home and Paul and Colette are now looking to move to a large ranch that will give them all enough room to play in.

When they move home they will carry on a project that has been a passion for the couple ever since Shadow first came into their lives.

When they began caring for the wolf dog hybrids Paul and Colette set out on a mission to educate children about the fabulous creatures and debunk some of the myths surrounding them.

Their program, the Shadowland Foundation, involves a variety of activities to highlight the plight of wolves and educate about nature through first hand experience.


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Why a mother's love gives humans and monkeys bigger brains

By Daily Mail Reporter

Monkeys have relatively large brains because of mothering after birth new research suggests


Humans and other primates can thank their mothers for their big brains, research has shown.

The evolution of big-brained mammals has mostly been due to mothering, a study has found.

Scientists had thought that growing a large brain chiefly depended on having a fast metabolism.

But marsupials such as kangaroos and possums, whose young develop in a pouch instead of a womb, have relative brain sizes just as big as those of other mammals despite their slower metabolic rates.

Researchers found that brain size in both marsupials and placental mammals correlated with length of maternal care.

Marsupial brains grow slowly and mainly after birth in the mother's pouch, while the brains of placental mammals grow rapidly in the womb.

Primates such as humans and chimpanzees may benefit from the best of both worlds, the research suggests.

They spend both a long time in the womb, and a long time being cared for by their mothers after birth. This could account for their unusually large brains.

The research is reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Dr Anjali Goswami, one of the authors from University College London, said: 'For a long time, our interest in our own large brains has focused the field on placental characteristics, such as high basal metabolic rate, and made us overlook the role of maternal care after birth on the evolution of big brains.

'However, if we take primates out of the equation, we discover that marsupials, despite having much lower metabolic rates, have similarly sized brains, or sometimes even bigger brains, than their placental mammal counterparts.

'So clearly, evolving big brains isn't just about having a high metabolism. Instead, it seems that maternal care is the most consistent factor driving the development of big brains across all mammals.'

She added: 'It appears that primate brains benefit from the best of both methods of increasing brain size - their brains grow rapidly during gestation in line with their fellow placental mammals, but also develop significantly after birth during a maternal care period which is only comparable to marsupials in terms of length.'


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Revealed: How red crabs on Christmas Island are able to complete their mammoth migration

By Daily Mail Reporter

Millions of Christmas Island red crabs complete their epic migration across the island to breed


It is one of the wonders of the natural world and also one of its most puzzling.

Every year, millions of tiny red crabs make the arduous trek five kilometres to breed on the beaches of Christmas Island.

Now, scientists have discovered the key to their remarkable athletic feat.

According to research from the University of Bristol, hormonal changes give the crabs the energy to carry out this massive trek.

Lucy Turner, a researcher at the University of Bristol, said: ‘During the wet season on the island, in November or December, and prompted by the arrival of the monsoon rains, millions of the crabs undertake an arduous breeding migration from their home on the high rainforest plateau to the ocean to reproduce.

'This is a journey of several kilometres - a long way when you are a relatively small land crab (less than 20cm long).

‘Scientists have long been puzzled by what mechanisms enable the necessary changes to take place in the crabs’ physiology to allow this journey to take place, and how they make such a dramatic switch from hypoactivity to hyperactivity.’

Scientists have discovered that it is a Crustacean Hyperglycaemic Hormone (CHH) that enables the crabs to make the most efficient use of their stored energy in the muscles (glycogen) and its conversion to glucose to fuel the migration.

Professor Webster, an endocrinologist at Bangor University, added: ‘Their migration is extremely energetically demanding, since the crabs must walk several kilometres over a few days.’

Before the migration, the crabs are inactive and only come out of their burrows to feed.

The team found that giving crabs glucose had a very different outcome depending on whether it was the dry or the wet season.

During the dry season, forced activity resulted in a tremendous release of hormone, within two minutes, irrespective of whether glucose had been administered.

However, in the wet season, the glucose completely prevented the release of the exercise-dependent hormone, showing that they were controlled by a negative feedback loop.

Professor Webster said: ‘Glucose levels were clearly regulating hormone release at this time.

'This made sense since it ensures that during migration, glucose is only released from glycogen stores when glucose levels are low, using the crabs’ precious reserves of glycogen, to ensure that they can complete the migration.’


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Who's a Wookie boy, then? Dognapped terrier returns after Mail appeal

By Chris Brooke

Back in safe hands: Wookie the Yorkshire terrier is walked by the Wilsons' two-year-old daughter Katie after he was returned to his owners by the RSPCA


Yapping happily, Wookie the dognapped Yorkshire terrier was safely back home yesterday.

Paul and Alison Wilson were left distraught when an irate female motorist snatched their dog after he ran in front of her car on a country lane.

But after an appeal in Friday's Daily Mail, the dognapper apparently left him at an RSPCA animal centre 40 miles away in York.

Wookie, playing with the Wilsons' two-year-old daughter Katie yesterday, seems to have had something of a makeover during his ten days away.

He has put on weight and had a haircut.
The Wilsons, from Farndale on the North York Moors, are just glad he's back home.


Before: Wookie as he looked before he was dognapped by an irate female motorist after he ran in front of her car


After: The Yorkshire terrier has had a haircut and gained weight in the ten days he was missing


'One theory is this woman had lost her own dog and maybe Wookie reminded her of it,' Mrs Wilson said.

'Of course that doesn't excuse what she did but as far as I'm concerned it's over now because we have Wookie back.

'We are absolutely overjoyed, we thought we'd never see him again. Our family was missing a huge part without him.’


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