WEIRD ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

- Predictions page

"Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear but around in awareness."
- James Thurber


NEW Page - (2005) UNUSUAL ANIMAL BEHAVIOR .

Mysterious Creatures - An assortment of strange and mysterious creatures, such as the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil, Chupacabras and many more.


December 2000 -
Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster may be the earth's fault, says an Italian scientist. Luigi Piccardi, who suggests that the leviathan is an illusion created by geological activity. He believes the monster is linked to the Great Glen Fault which runs along the loch. Piccardi has previously theorized that the visions of the Oracle of Delphi were the result of hallucinogenic vapors seeping through a fault line from hydrocarbon-bearing rock strata, and he has suggested that other mythological sites in Greece are strongly correlated with active geological faults.

Chinook Salmon Changing Sex, Perhaps Due to Stress in the environment. Genetic samples taken from the 1999 return of wild chinook there show 80 percent of the females tested began life as males.

Dec. 18, 2000 - Rampaging elephants have devastated vast swaths of cropland and destroyed 44 communities in northern Nigeria since last weekend. The elephants had strayed from a nearby game reserve and stomped through the communities of Gwoza, Chibok, Damboa, Biu, Kwaya-Kusar and Bayo. A local resident said, "This is the worst elephant invasion of our area within the last 35 years. The elephants destroyed farmlands, cash crops and economic trees." Agriculture Commissioner Ibrahim Bulama reported that the government was planning to fence in the Yankari game reserve to prevent the pachyderms from grazing outside its borders and to keep communities out of the path of the animals' annual migration routes.

Hawaii's Big Island is being overrun by a dramatic population explosion of tree frogs, reaching a density in some places of as many as 8,000 per acre. The numbers of two types of Caribbean frogs in Hawaii County has soared more than tenfold in less than two years. The frog populations had also become established on the islands of Oahu and Kauai. It is of grave concern whether we can control the frog population. The jump in the amphibians' numbers could threaten native ecosystems. Every night, the frogs consume tens of thousands of insects which normally would be eaten by native birds.

Tens of thousands of migrating birds have taken over cisterns in water storage areas of an industrial sector of central Iran because their normal stopover resting places have disappeared after months of drought. Storks, ducks and flamingoes are arriving in huge numbers from Siberia and northern Europe, but lakes, wetlands and a river in the Iranian region of Isfahan on the birds' migratory path are dried up.

November 2000 - 'Psychic pets' - Rupert Sheldrake's desk is covered with statistical data on an African gray parrot that lives in New York. The parrot seems to be able to read her owner's thoughts. The parrot is the latest addition to a database that includes 2,700 case histories of pets and their unexplained behavior. Sheldrake, a biologist, has appeared on Good Morning America, 20/20 and other shows to talk about the telepathic bonds between humans and animals. Last year, he published 'Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home — And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals.'

Reports of rat infestations have risen 18 percent in the past year in Britain, which is under siege from an emerging breed of rat that is not vulnerable to any present day poisons. Not only have the rodents developed resistances to previously deadly anticoagulants, but THEY HAVE BEEN LEARNING FROM OTHER RATS TO AVOID THE POISONS. The English rat population has soared to its highest levels in recent memory.

October 2000 - Hundreds of dead sharks began washing up along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico, where biologists are mystified as to the cause of their deaths. Officials estimate that at least 200 to 300 blacktip reef and Atlantic sharpnose sharks have been observed. Traces of blood found on the nostrils and gills of some of the sharks suggest that an infection might be to blame. Other ecologists have theorized that a lack of oxygen in shallow water could be the cause.

Sharks have killed two people in two days in the same area off the coast of Australia — the first time such a thing has happened in over two decades. A teenager fell victim one day, while another man was fatally attacked while on his honeymoon.

If you're traveling to Palermo, Sicily, bring an umbrella — because the skies have been raining rats. Rodents that otherwise leap from rooftop to rooftop in the rundown center of Sicily's capital, had grown too fat to jump and were plummeting to the streets, sometimes hitting passersby below.

"Here's something that's weird beyond belief," according to botanists - a meat-eating plant that grows underground without direct sunlight.

August 28, 2000 - A dolphin saved a 14-year-old boy who could not swim from drowning in the Adriatic sea , pushing him to the surface and helping him to a nearby boat. He fell from the boat as he was sailing with his father in the gulf of Manfredonia, off the southern Italian coast. As he was slipping under the water, something pushed him up. "When I realized it was Filippo, I hung on to him," the boy said, referring to the dolphin. The mammal carried the boy to the boat and swam away. The dolphin has lived in the gulf's waters for years, locals say, and has been dubbed Filippo.

Eighteen Egyptian cats stood vigil for a week over the body of their master. When Bahgat Mostafa Said , 63, died Aug. 19 in his apartment in a Cairo suburb, his cats rallied round, meowing and watching over him. A week later, police came to investigate a smell coming from the apartment. They found Said surrounded by his feline family. When police officers approached the body, the cats set upon them and attacked, scratching ferociously. It took the officers two hours to remove the cats before they could retrieve his body.

August 8, 2000 - Rain of Fish Hits England - "In an event of almost biblical proportions, a rain of fish fell on Norfolk, England, last Sunday, covering the seaside resort with slithering two-inch-long sprats. Weather experts were able to explain the rare weather phenomenon, which was triggered by a small mini-tornado. A powerful updraft, generated during a thunderstorm over the North Sea, formed a mini-tornado more than a mile offshore from the city of Great Yarmouth. The small funnel cloud scooped up and carried away thousands of small fish swimming close to the surface. The storm clouds carried the small sprats — related to the common herring — a half mile inland and deposited them as a silver rain over the area. Met Office spokesman Andy Yeatman said, "It's impossible to say where the fish came from, but often these clouds can be carried a distance of one or two miles."

Recent tracks have been discovered and attributed to the legendary Bigfoot, which weighs some 600 pounds and stands 8 feet tall. But an Idaho biologist who has seen the same evidence disagrees.

June 20, 2000 - "Perhaps wooed by 200 tons of manure in a farmers field, a plague of flies has invaded homes in the rural town of Naples, western New York, said residents. ''You can't sleep,'' Don Melville, a resident, said. ''You wake up with flies crawling on your face.'' The local health officer has notified the town board of the situation, declaring it a health hazard. Some residents have temporarily abandoned their homes, and five houses have been sprayed with insecticide. Most of the town's 1,200 residents say nothing like this has ever occurred in Naples, which lies south of Rochester by about 40 miles. Late May, Farmer Mark Adams distributed the manure onto his 18 acres from his 100,000-hen egg farm, plowing it into the soil two days later, he said. Last week, however, house flies started squeezing into every crevice possible, including cars, household air vents, and screened windows. Adams was accused of using manure that was housing millions of fly larvae by neighbor Ervin Paulsen. Others guess the manure should have been plowed deeper. However Adams has said that the manure did not teem with larvae but instead suspects the swarms of flies could be due to coupling factors: the field being next to a swampy area, and the latest rainy weather. " (www.discovery.com)

"Could shark sightings and attacks in Gulf waters off Alabama and Florida be linked to this year's Southeastern drought? Pensacola, Fla., charter boat captain Bubba Thorson says yes. And the National Marine Fisheries Institute says it makes sense. The lack of rain has improved water clarity. That attracts smaller fish into shallows and bays. The small fish are followed by larger species that prey on them, including sharks. Shark sightings are common along the Gulf Coast during the summer, but many people believe they are more numerous this year. Two men were attacked by a bull shark last Friday near Gulf Shores. One man lost an arm and the other had a huge bite along one side. Both men survived. An 8-foot bull shark attacked a 22-foot pleasure boat in the gulf on Tuesday near the Fort Pickens Area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The attack was in 3 feet of water about 20 yards from the beach. The boat sustained minor damage."

June 19, 2000 —"Hundreds of chickens in the eastern Polish village of Stubienko have fallen prey to flocks of normally peaceful storks that have begun to run amok. The long-legged birds are usually regarded as bearers of good luck, but Polish Radio Rzesow reported last week that they are now behaving more like the avians in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller The Birds. At least 600 chickens have been killed, as well as numerous ducks and turkeys during stork rampages. The radio report said there had also been sporadic attacks on humans. Residents are at a loss to explain the aberrant behavior, and farmers have taken to keeping their poultry indoors, letting them out once a day under tight surveillance. Some ornithologists have surmised that the black-and-white birds' unusual appetites have been triggered by a local drought that has killed off their normal diet of frogs. "

June 6, 2000 — A seaplane on Australia's far northeastern coast was overturned and sank on Monday after it became the object of a mislead saltwater crocodile's amorous advances. Coastguard Bob Harvey reported that a fisherman on a trawler in the area heard strange noises and upon investigation found the reptile intent on mating. The crazed croc tried to mate with a float on the aircraft that was moored off Princess Charlotte Bay. The animal was so large that he caused the plane to tip and sink. Harvey said, "The plan is to try and salvage the aircraft but I wouldn't like to be the diver going down to hook the ropes onto it. Maybe this crocodile mightn't be that happy at seeing the love of his life depart the area." He continued, "Obviously it was very big, it would need to be to have enough weight to tip this aircraft over. But I mean they grow in excess of 20 feet up here."

May 31 - ADDIS ABABA - Drought-stricken peasant farmers tending their fields in southern Ethiopia got a nasty shock when the heavens opened and they were pelted by fish, a local newspaper reported. "The unusual rain of fish which dropped in millions from the air -- some dead and others still struggling -- created panic among the mostly religious farmers," the weekly Amharic newspaper said. Saloto Sodoro, a fish expert in the region, attributed the phenomenon to heavy storms in the Indian Ocean which swept up the fish before shedding them on the unsuspecting farmers. Southern Ethiopia has been in the grip of a severe drought for two years which aid officials say threatens the lives of up to eight million people.

May 23 - The sight of masses of earthworms crawling out of the ground in a Taiwanese city sparked panic among the population who now fear another devastating earthquake may soon strike the island.

May 16 - A species of ant that usually limits its population by waging war has made itself into a major pest in the United States using an unusual strategy — inbreeding These colonies may recognize each other as relatives, thereby reducing the tendency to fight. Colonies of inbred ants were so prolific that they are the No. 1 bug pests in parts of California, while the more genetically diverse colonies in Argentina are so low-profile they are hard to find and those ants constantly wage war on each other. A giant "supercolony" of closely related ants lives in a swath of territory from San Diego to Ukiah, 100 miles north of San Francisco.

May 14, 2000 — The small, scruffy sheep on Scotland's northernmost Orkney island are smarter than other sheep and, according to biologist June Morris in a report to the London Telegraph, have brains that are 18 percent larger than average. The sheep have responded to the difficult environment and paucity of natural resources on North Ronaldsay Island by evolving to cope with the tough circumstances. They exist almost primarily on seaweed washed up by strong tides on the shores of the low-lying island. Their unusual diet imparts a unique taste, and the sheep are a popular item at London's restaurants.
A six-foot-high stone dike encircles the island, keeping the sheep on the shore and off of agricultural land. The only exception is during lambing, when ewes are allowed to graze in grass pastures inside the dike for several months before being returned with their young to the beach. The sure-footed sheep are able to climb rocks and are also said to be good swimmers. Shepherds on the island say that when the sheep want to vault over walls, they "cheat" and use other sheep as stepping stones.
A veterinarian on North Ronaldsay Island said, "They can't be moved like ordinary sheep. They seem to act as a single unit. You'll be chasing a flock forward and suddenly through some kind of telepathy the whole lot will turn as one and run back past you." (from discovery.com)

May 12, 2000 — Attacks by roving flocks of wild turkeys are on the increase around suburban Boston and state wildlife experts can't explain why. Roving flocks of wild turkeys in suburban Boston have begun attacking residents, blocking traffic, ripping up gardens and leaving their droppings everywhere. A resident of Walpole was attacked while taking a walk with her grandchildren. Another woman was rushed by a flock of the birds as she opened her front door to get the morning paper. A postal worker in the city of Danvers has begun to carry a broom as protection following numerous attacks. He has refused to deliver mail to a number of homes on his route saying, "They would fly against the vehicle, peck the tires and if I stepped out to deliver parcels, they would chase me. If you swing at them, they take two steps and then come back." Animal control workers in Walpole have failed to trap the aggressive birds with a net gun because the turkeys run away from them at speeds of up to 30 mph. State wildlife experts are at a loss to explain the birds' sudden bizarre behavior. Jim Cardoza, a wildlife biologist for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said, "Nothing's changed that much that could have caused this." He theorized that an usually large number of the birds made it through the warm winter and are now migrating into the suburbs because people feed them. He also noted that it is mating season for the big birds — a time when males become more aggressive.

April 26, 2000 - Strange Creature Sighted in S. Africa - Residents of the community of Ezitapile in South Africa's Eastern Cape have reported seeing a strange snake-like creature lurking near their homes. Captain Mpofana Skwatsha of the Aliwal North police reported that area livestock become agitated whenever the strange yellow beast is near. The animal has been described as having a body the shape of a 20-quart barrel with a head like a horse and a mane down its back. It has been spotted in the surrounding indigenous forest with its long tail coiled around a tree. There have been no reports of attacks on locals or livestock. discovery.com

The chickens in Sonoma, Calif., have started attacking neighborhood children

A record number of harbor porpoises have washed ashore between Maine and North Carolina, and scientists so far are baffled by the deaths. At least 162 of the small, coast-hugging porpoises have washed ashore, dead or dying, through mid-April. The number of strandings is more than triple the 51 reported for all of last year, and well above the record 103 deaths reported for 1971. "This is an extraordinary event. We've never seen anything like it," said Stephen J. Jordan, director of Maryland's Sarbanes Cooperative Oxford Research Laboratory. "This is more strandings in a month than we'd normally see in a year."

Beavers are expanding rapidly into cities - In April they have chewed down 9 cherry trees on the Washington D.C. mall.

March 23, 2000 - Monkeys Battle Humans For Drinking Water - At least eight monkeys were killed and 10 people left injured on Monday after a two-hour duel between starving Kenyans and thirsty monkeys in the Somali Desert. Residents of the area have been forced to exist on relief food and water supplies for the past six months due to an ongoing drought. The Daily Nation reported that the battle took place at a small trading center on the northern border of Kenya, about 375 miles north of Nairobi, when three water tankers arrived at the drought-stricken town. When the parched monkeys saw the water being drawn off the tankers, they attacked the people that had grouped there. They clawed and bit so ferociously that the humans were forced to flee as the primates quenched their thirst. A local official who witnessed the bloody event said the group returned with axes and machetes and fought back the simians in a lengthy battle. Victims were treated for their injuries at a nearby clinic after the monkeys were finally driven away. Residents said the event compounded fears that even more aggressive wildlife such as elephants and big cats would also attack for the same reason.

DECEMBER 1999 — A rare white saltwater crocodile swam out of the mangrove swamps of Australia's Cape York Peninsula one night last month just as wildlife officers were conducting a survey of the area. The rare 2 year-od female reptile surfaced in the Wenlock River, north of the city of Weipa. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service crocodile researcher, Mark Read, says, "This is the first white one I've seen. They are a pretty rare beastie." Read says he believes that the white estuarine crocodile was the first ever to be found in Queensland, and perhaps in all of Australia.

May 21, 1999 — Worms Invade East Africa -
An invasion of caterpillars is devouring farmland in eastern Africa at alarming rates, threatening thousands of acres of crops. The caterpillars, known as "African army worms," have already eaten away at grass and grain fields in Burundi, Kenya and Rwanda. The worms have destroyed more than 247,000 acres (100,000 hectares) in Kenya alone. Officials said the problem could worsen the famine already affecting several countries in the region.

April 20, 1999 -- A leopard, forced out of its habitat following a devastating earthquake in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh several weeks ago, killed two people and injured another over the weekend. A four-year-old boy was killed by the leopard in the town of Dabara as he was standing outside his home on Sunday, the Press Trust of India reported. In another incident, the leopard killed a nine-year-old boy in the nearby town of Aryapani. The agency said the animal was believed to be the same as the one involved in the Dabara incident. Officials told reporters that the cat also attacked and injured a woman in the community of Dalal but fled when local residents scared it away. All the towns are located in the Garhwal region of the state, which was devastated by a recent earthquake in which more than 100 people were killed. The quake forced many wild animals out of their natural habitats and into surrounding communities.

April 15, 1999 -- Tiger Terrorizes Indonesian Community - Residents in a community south of the Indonesian island of Sumatra are being terrorized by a hungry tiger which has killed and eaten at least 40 goats during the past two weeks. People living in the town of Pengekahan have stopped going out of their homes after dark, and some are terrified to go to work on nearby coffee plantations after the latest incidents. Wildlife experts believe that the endangered tigers' shrinking habitat in the area has left the cats little choice but to forage into human settlements for food.


April 1, 1999 -- Mass Fish Deaths in Upper Nile River - Floating carcasses of fish, hippos and crocodiles in the famed Nile River of southern Sudan have alarmed local residents and baffled government officials. Residents in the town of Juba believe the river's polluted waters are causing the deaths, and refuse to use the water or eat any of the fish from the Nile.
One environmental official described the river water as "greenish and smelly because of the decomposing marine creatures."
The local government on Tuesday issued a statement saying that laboratory tests had established that the water was safe for human consumption. The water scare has aggravated an already acute shortage of water, with Sudanese lining up around the few wells scattered in town.

March 30, 1999 -- Crazy Ants Killing Christmas Island Crabs -
Killer ants on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean are decimating the island's world-renowned crab population. During the past 18 months, the ants have killed 3 million crabs by digging down into the crab's burrows, where they kill and eat them. The "crazy ants" -- so called because of their frenetic movements -- are attacking the crab population at a phenomenal rate, according to Monash University ecologist Dennis O'Dowd. "I've never seen a single invader have so much impact in such a short time," said O'Dowd, who is doing a long-term study of the crabs. The crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes, is believed to have been introduced to the island by West African traders about 50 years ago.