He took what by the horns? Naked man challenges Pamplona bull - and loses

He took what by the horns? Naked man challenges Pamplona bull - and loses - He might have been high on adrenaline and low on sleep - but it was no excuse for this naked bull-runner who was detained by police shortly after being thrown into the air by a young calf.

He joined thousands of thrill-seekers to run with the bulls on a crowded fourth day at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona today.

Ten people were injured and no one was gored.

But the now infamous streaker, who was tossed up into the air by a young calf in the bullring after the running, was arrested for causing a 'public disturbance'.

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Flying high: The streaker was tossed up into the air by a young calf during the suelta de vaquillas

Running scared: Bull-runners scramble as a naked man is launched by the young calf

Falling down: The streaker took a mighty tumble after being thrown up into the air by the calf

Several runners tripped, fell and were trampled as crowds raced alongside the massive bulls of the famous Miura breeding estate, founded in 1849.

The Sunday run is usually the biggest of the eight that take place annually and is particularly favoured by aficionados because it traditionally features Miuras, renowned as Spain’s largest fighting bulls.

Navarra Hospital reported in a statement that 10 people received treatment for minor injuries including arm and head trauma. Nine of them - all Spaniards of ages ranging from 19 to 41 years old - were kept in for observation.

The naked bull-runner suffered minor bruising to his face.

Red for danger: Revelers in traditional colours run beside Miura ranch bulls during the fourth day of the running of the bulls, at the San Fermin fiestas in Pamplona

Two days ago a 24 year-old Australian tourist was gored in the thigh by a bull, opening an artery, and is in a serious condition in hospital.

Pamplona experts at state television TVE said around 3,500 people had run with the bulls on Sunday.

Close encounters: A runner holds the horn of a bull and a Miura bull slips on streets paved with granite setts

One runner slipped and fell in front of the bunched herd and was trampled near the beginning, a second one tripped close to the halfway point and was seen to be hit by several flying hooves, and a small group jostled each other and hit the cobblestones as the bulls neared the bullring.

Power in motion: Miura ranch fighting bulls scatter the crowd as they head towards the ring

Umble: Bulls from the Miura ranch chase the 'mozos' or runners during the seven-day long festival to honour St Fermin, Pamplona's patron saint

The run covers 928 yards (850 meters) from an enclosure just outside Pamplona’s medieval stone wall, where the pedigree animals spend the night, to the downtown bullring where fights known as 'corridas' take place each afternoon of the festival in honor of the city’s patron saint.

Up and under: A heifer leaps over revellers at the bullring after the fourth running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival

Fun run: A reveller is tossed in the air by a heifer at the bullring

Sunday’s run was quick at 2 minutes, 29 seconds and would have finished even sooner but for one straggler that looked around and charged at several herders in the ring before being guided into a corral.

Knock down: A man falls and guards himself against the hooves of the fighting bulls. The fiesta attracts thousands of tourists despite heavy condemnation from animal rights groups

The largest Miura was a black specimen called Macareno that weighed 695 kilograms (1,532 pounds) while the lightest tipped the scales at a mere 540 kilograms (1,190 pounds), the games and spectacles branch of Navarre regional police said in a statement.

Despite the animals’ size and musclebound appearance, experts admire Miuras for their explosive acceleration, stamina and grace, characteristics that inspired legendary Italian car maker the late Ferruccio Lamborghini to name one of his iconic sports cars after the breed. ( dailymail.co.uk )

The Challenge

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Young penguin takes a wrong turn near Antarctica and ends up on faraway New Zealand beach

Young penguin takes a wrong turn near Antarctica and ends up on faraway New Zealand beach - He's healthy, well-fed and far from home. And he's quickly become the most popular attraction on a New Zealand beach. If only he could talk.

A young penguin apparently took a wrong turn while swimming near Antarctica and endured a 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometre) journey to New Zealand, the first time in 44 years that one of the creatures has been sighted here in the wild.

Christine Wilton was walking her dog Monday when she discovered the black-and-white bird.

"It was out-of-this-world to see it," she said. "Like someone just dropped it from the sky."

Wilton said the scene on Peka Peka Beach reminded her of the 2006 movie "Happy Feet," in which a young penguin finds himself stranded far from home.

The bird "was totally in the wrong place," she said.

In this June 20, 2011 photo released by New Zealand's Department of Conservation, ranger Clint Purches watches an Emperor penguin as he walks along Peka Peka Beach in New Zealand, after it got lost while hunting for food. The young Antarctic Emperor penguin has taken a rare wrong turn and ended up stranded on a New Zealand beach. (AP Photo/Richard Gill, Department of Conservation)

Estimated to be about 10 months old and 32 inches (80 centimetres) tall, the Emperor penguin was probably born during the last Antarctic winter and may have been searching for squid and krill when it got lost, experts said.

Emperors are the tallest and largest species of penguin. They can grow up to 4 feet (122 centimetres) tall and weigh more than 75 pounds (34 kilograms).

Their amazing journey to breeding grounds deep in the Antarctic was chronicled in the 2005 documentary "March of the Penguins," which highlighted their ability to survive — and breed — despite the region's brutal winter.

Emperor penguins can spend months at a time in the ocean, coming ashore only to molt or rest, said Colin Miskelly, a curator at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. He did not know what might have caused this particular one to become disoriented.

The penguin appeared healthy and well-fed, with plenty of body fat. He probably came ashore for a rest, Miskelly said.

However, he added, the penguin needs to find its way back south soon if it is to survive. Despite the onset of the New Zealand winter, the bird is probably hot and thirsty, and it had been eating wet sand.

"It doesn't realize that the sand isn't going to melt inside it," Miskelly said. "They typically eat snow, because it's their only liquid."

However, he said, the bird was in no immediate danger from dehydration because Emperor penguins can also drink salt water in the summer.

A small group of people, mostly parents with children, gathered Monday to watch the penguin on the beach on North Island's western coast. Some photographed him as he stood quietly on the sand or lay in the surf.

Peter Simpson, a program manager for New Zealand's Department of Conservation, said officials are asking onlookers to stand back about 30 feet (10 metres) from the creature and to avoid letting dogs near it.

Other than that, he said, officials plan to let nature take its course. Simpson said the bird could live several weeks before needing another meal.

The last confirmed sighting of a wild Emperor in New Zealand was in 1967 at the southern Oreti Beach, Simpson said.

This time, the bird appears to weigh about 22 pounds (10 kilograms) — healthy for its age, but only about one-third of the weight a penguin would need before it could survive a breeding cycle on the Antarctic ice, Miskelly said. ( Associated Press )

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Nazis tried to teach dogs to talk and read – and claimed one could even discuss religion, incredible new book claims

Nazis tried to teach dogs to talk and read – and claimed one could even discuss religion, incredible new book claims - Only a month ago it was revealed that the Nazis had planned to kill allied forces with poisoned sausages if they managed to set foot on German soil.

Now an equally unlikely weapon in Hitler’s armoury has emerged – talking dogs.

The Germans saw canines as being almost as intelligent as humans and tried to train them to ‘speak’, read and spell, a university academic claims. They even conducted experiments in man-to-dog telepathy.

Howl Hitler: The dictator is pictured here with his two German Shepherds Blondi and Bella. He famously killed Blondi moments before committing suicide in his bunker in 1945

Mind games: Karl Krall experiments with telepathy between dogs and humans

Hitler, a well-known dog lover, hoped the animals would learn to communicate with their SS masters, and supported a special dog school set up to teach them to talk.

Nazi officials recruited so-called educated dogs from all over Germany and trained them to tap out signals using their paws.

Some were said to have been able to imitate the human voice, with one apparently uttering the words ‘Mein Fuhrer’ when asked who Adolf Hitler was. Another was said to have ‘written’ poetry.

The Germans hoped to use the animals for the war effort, such as getting them to work alongside the SS and guard concentration camps.

The experiments are reported in research by academic Dr Jan Bondeson into ‘unique and amazing dogs in history’.

Rolf the speaking dog talking with Frau Moekel. The Germans hoped to use the animals for the war effort, such as getting them to work alongside the SS and guard concentration camps to free up officers

Dog school: This picture shows Frau Schmitt with seven of her pupils. They could communicate through tapping out words with their paws, but were also claimed to imitate the human voice with some success

Young Hitler, pictured right. The Germans viewed canines as being almost as intelligent as humans and attempted to build an army of fearsome 'speaking' dogs

Top dog: Dachschund 'Kurwenal', left, who had a visit from a troop of 28 uniformed youths from the Nazi animal protection organisation on his birthday, and Rolf, right, the speaking dog

HITLER'S LOVE OF DOGS

Blondi (1941 - 30 April 1945) was Adolf Hitler's German Shepherd, given to him as a gift in 1941 by Martin Bormann.

Blondi stayed with Hitler even after his move to an underground bunker in January 1945.

Hitler named one of her puppies 'Wolf', his favorite nickname and the meaning of his own first name, Adolf, and he began to train her.

The dictator was apparently very fond of Blondi and kept her by his side and she even slept in his bedroom.

He bought Bella to keep her company and grew fond of a stray Bull Terrier named 'Fuchsl'.

Before Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, he ordered physician Werner Haase to test pills to help with his suicide on Blondi, fearing that these pills were fake.

He took his own life shortly after she died.

Dr Bondeson, of Cardiff University, visited Berlin where he scoured obscure periodicals to build up an account of the more out-of-this world Nazi ideas. Hitler himself had two German Shepherds called Blondi and Bella. He killed Blondi moments before committing suicide in his bunker in 1945.

The dog school was called the Tier-Sprechschule ASRA and was based near Hanover. Led by headmistress Margarethe Schmitt, it was set up in the 1930s and continued throughout the war years.

Rolf, an Airedale terrier, reportedly ‘spoke’ by tapping his paw against a board, each letter of the alphabet being represented by a certain number of taps. He was said to have speculated about religion, learnt foreign languages, written poetry and asked a visiting noblewoman: ‘Could you wag your tail?’

The patriotic dog even expressed a wish to join the army – because he disliked the French.

A Dachshund named Kurwenal was said to speak using a different number of barks for each letter, and told his biographer he would be voting for Hindenburg.

And a German pointer named Don imitated a human voice to bark: ‘Hungry! Give me cakes.’

Dr Bondeson, whose book Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet Of Canine Curiosities is out now, said: ‘It is absolutely extraordinary stuff.

‘There were some very strange experiments going on in wartime Germany, with regard to dog-human communication.’

Last month, declassified British files showed the Nazis planned to leave poisoned sausages, chocolate and coffee where Allied troops would find them if they invaded Germany. ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - Nazis tried to teach dogs to talk and read – and claimed one could even discuss religion, incredible new book claims

Dog of war in bin Laden mission is breed apart

Dog of war in bin Laden mission is breed apart – The raid that took down Osama bin Laden is thought to have involved one special operative -- a highly-trained military dog, part of an elite corps not to be confused with a family pet.

The US military has refused to confirm if a dog was involved in Monday's helicopter-borne mission deep inside Pakistan, but those familiar with military dogs said only an animal with special breeding and training could have taken part.

"Those dogs are trained to move with the teams. They can identify the friendlies from the non-friendlies at a high rate of speed," said Mike McConnery, owner of Baden K9, a Canadian-based breeding and training firm that provides dogs for elite military units in the United States and elsewhere.

The New York Times first reported that a canine choppered in with the 79 elite US forces for the operation in Abbottabad, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Islamabad, where bin Laden was finally sniffed out after a decade-long manhunt.

Navy - This 2010 US Navy photo shows a Navy SEAL platoon as they perform a land warfare demonstration at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek - Fort Story, Virginia. Any dog that participated in the US mission to eliminate Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last weekend would have been a member of an elite corps of canines with little relation to common family pets, experts say.

US military officials said they could not discuss anything related to tactics, procedures or protocol, including the deployment of dogs.

"If there were a dog, and I'm not saying there was... We're not doing any interviews," said Major Wes Ticer, spokesman for Special Operations Command.

McConnery said even if he were familiar with any purported dog hero, he was muzzled, unable to discuss it for fear of revealing military tactics.

But he said that for a mission such as the one in Pakistan, a dog would need to have skills and training well above those canines already used in many law enforcement or rescue operations.

"They are much more than ball-chasing creatures, they are soldiers," he said.

It was most likely that any dog involved in the raid would have been either a Belgian Malinois or Dutch Shepherd, being among the few breeds with the right skills and temperament for such a mission.

German Shepherds have been used in the past for similar missions, he said, but few are available now with the right breeding and training for such a delicate mission.

"It would be a Malinois or Dutch Shepherd," McConnery said.

"They are dogs that can go from zero to 100 miles an hour in a second. They have catlike agility, and a high level of communication with the handler at a high level of stress... That's a totally different animal than what you see in law enforcement."

In the mission, McConnery said the elite dog could have been used "as a distraction and as a probe."

"If you see my dog coming, you can shoot my dog or you can shoot at me," he said. "If you shoot at my dog I will shoot you. If you shoot me, the dog will get you. This draws the attention of the bad guys and gives you a few seconds to make that entry."

Some media reports suggest the dog could have been a "combat tracker" trained to sniff out individuals, similar to the canines that tracked down Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein hiding in an underground hole.

The Times speculated that the dog used in Abbottabad could have been used to thwart any attempted escape from the fortified compound.

Master Sergeant and dog trainer William Gaskins told MSNBC that the 2,700 dogs used by the US military are a key component of the American fighting force.

"The dogs' sense of hearing is key," he said.

Sometimes "the first... to enter the building will be the dog," Gaskins added.

If the enemy puts explosives behind a door, the use of dogs "would allow the team to enter safely because the dog has swept that door before they enter."

Dogs have been used throughout history by military forces, and in the United States since the Civil War. The US Army Canine Corps was formed during World War II and grew to as many as 10,000 at the time.

Military war dogs -- MWDs -- include mostly German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds and Belgian Malinois but also Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever and other sporting breed dogs have been used for some search missions, according to the Defense Department.

"The German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois have the best overall combination of keen sense of smell, endurance, speed, strength, courage, intelligence and adaptability to almost any climatic condition," a fact sheet says.

The US military has dramatically expanded the use of dogs in Afghanistan to sniff out lethal homemade bombs, which are the main cause of casualties among the NATO-led force.

"They are unsung heroes because every day they are out there, saving the lives of our troops," said Gerry Proctor, spokesman for the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas where most military dogs are trained.

McConnery said any dog accompanying the Navy SEALs would have had to be a member of a team, able to work with all the commandos, not just a single handler.

"If someone goes down, the dog still has to function," he said.

Because of their unusual characteristics, an elite military dog could not be transformed into a household pet, says McConnery.

"The dogs at this level could not become pets," he said. "We have had retired dogs come to live out their lives here at our facility, some go with the soldiers and become part of their families. They are not discarded by any means." ( Agence France Presse )

READ MORE - Dog of war in bin Laden mission is breed apart

Montana probes killing of Yellowstone buffalo

Montana probes killing of Yellowstone buffalo – Montana authorities are examining the remains of a bison from Yellowstone National Park found dead from suspicious circumstances on Thursday after at least two other buffalo were illegally shot to death in the area.

The killings come just over a week after the state and federal agencies that oversee the nation's last pure-bred herd of wild buffalo struck a deal to allow the animals to roam into some parts of Montana without facing capture or slaughter.

The buffalo, or bison, have for decades been barred from making their historic winter migration into Montana when food is scarce in the park's snow-covered high country.

Ranchers are outraged by the free-roaming plan because some Yellowstone bison carry brucellosis, a bacterial infection that can cause pregnant cows to spontaneously abort. Wildlife advocates have hailed the agreement for ushering in a new era of tolerance for the famed herd.

Sam Sheppard - Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Warden Captain Sam Sheppard stands beside a dead bison on the back of a truck near Gardiner, Montana, April 15, 2011.

In recent days, tensions over the agreement have escalated in Gardiner, the Montana town near Yellowstone's north entrance, where some have taken exception to the roaming bison.

Last Friday, state game wardens were called to the area to investigate a mass shooting of a group of bison bulls that ultimately left two of the animals dead.

Some of the animals were struck by dozens of gunshots from a small-caliber firearm not intended for large game.

On Thursday, the investigation took a new twist when the carcass of another bison was uncovered by officers for Montana's wildlife agency in what wardens said appears to be unrelated to the shootings last Friday.

Sam Sheppard, state warden captain, said the killings are all but unprecedented, adding: "This is not something we want to see happen."

It is unlawful to shoot Yellowstone bison in the park and illegal to shoot them in Montana outside of a licensed hunt.

Findings from the probe of the first incident were expected to be delivered next week to a local prosecutor, who ultimately must decide if poaching or other charges will be brought.

Wildlife advocates said the crimes underscore the need to protect Yellowstone's bison.

"These animals were shot numerous times with a small gun, which prolonged their pain and terror," said Buffalo Field Campaign head Dan Brister.

Roughly 700 of the 3,700 Yellowstone bison herd have been captured and corralled this winter for migrating into Montana.

A legal furor that erupted over plans to slaughter those bison that tested positive for brucellosis ended when Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer in February granting the captured animals a stay of execution. ( Reuters )

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More Animals That Deserve To Be Eaten

More Animals That Deserve To Be Eaten - My essay on killing-and-grilling invasive lionfish posted Wednesday seems to have inspired a lot of justified bloodlust and, for a few readers, a further question: What other invasive species should we eat to extinction?


It turns out that invasiovorism is a good idea outside of the Florida reef. No one is cooking the tiny, polluted zebra or quagga mussels ("Most clams and mussels are edible, but that does not mean they taste good!," warns the USGS). But Asian carp, the scourge of the upper Midwest, is considered quite edible by Chinese and Polish immigrants there (carp is a traditional Polish Christmas dish).


The possibilities are limitless: Some enterprising foodie—from the Everglades, perhaps?—recently posted on Chowhound looking for python recipes. Even in cases where you can't eat the invader, there are other uses. In Louisiana, biologists are pushing for the adoption of what writer Barry Yeoman calls "righteous fur": pelts made from Nutria, a type of invasive swamp rat.

Maybe we should stay focused on annihilating invasive sea creatures, though. The U.N. reported in February that global fish consumption has reached a new high, accounting now for 16 percent of all the animal protein people eat. Yes, as many commenters pointed out, individual lionfish may be too small to motivate commercial fisherman. But I have faith in humanity's ability to eat any animal to oblivion, if we set our minds to it. After all, we are, as Time's Bryan Walsh put it, the "ultimate invasive species." ( slate.com)

READ MORE - More Animals That Deserve To Be Eaten

Single Asian carp found in Chicago-area fish kill

Single Asian carp found in Chicago-area fish kill. Authorities are trying to keep voracious species from invading Great Lakes - Environmental officials say they have found a single Asian carp in a canal leading to Lake Michigan — the closest any of the giant fish have come to the Great Lakes.

Environmentalists fear the Asian carp could starve out other fish and devastate the $7 billion-a-year Great Lakes fishing industry.

Department of Natural Resources assistant director John Rogner says the single fish was found Thursday among tens of thousands of other species scooped up during a kill operation in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

M. Spencer Green / AP

A bighead carp, a species of the Asian carp, peers back at a visitor to an exhibit on invasive Great Lakes species at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium.

Authorities dumped a toxin into the canal Wednesday to eliminate any carp while an electrical barrier designed to keep them out of the Great Lakes was turned off for maintenance.

Environmentalists fear that the fish, which consume up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton, could starve out smaller and less aggressive competitors and cause the collapse of the $7 billion-a-year Great Lakes sport and commercial fishing industry.

The carp — which can grow to 4 feet long and 100 pounds and are known for leaping out of the water when boats are near — were imported by Southern fish farms but escaped into the Mississippi in large numbers during flooding in the 1990s and have been making their way northward ever since.

Scientists say more than 180 invasive species have entered the Great Lakes, multiplying rapidly and feeding on native species or competing with them for food. Millions of dollars have been spent trying to control the zebra mussel and the round goby fish, which already have moved between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins.

The Mississippi and the Great Lakes are connected by a complex, 250-mile network of rivers and canals engineered more than a century ago. It runs from Chicago, on the southern edge of Lake Michigan, to a spot on the Mississippi just north of St. Louis.

Tens of millions of tons of goods are moved annually along the shipping canals or through the locks that lead into Lake Michigan.

In the continuing struggle to keep the fish out, Illinois environmental officials began dumping poison Wednesday night in a nearly six-mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Lockport.

Crews then planned to use large cranes with nets to scoop up an estimated 200,000 pounds of dead fish, which were to be taken to a landfill.

The electrical barrier, which was installed in 2002 to repel fish with a non-lethal jolt, has long been the only thing standing between the carp and Lake Michigan, the gateway to the four other lakes. But officials said two weeks ago that DNA from Asian carp had been found between the barrier and one of the locks on the lake. No actual carp have been found in Lake Michigan.

Environmentalists and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm said the locks should be closed while the scope of the problem is established.

"This is an immediate threat to the Great Lakes, to our sport and commercial fishery, and as such it requires some emergency actions appropriate to the level of that threat," said Ken DeBeaussaert, director of Michigan's Office of the Great Lakes. "Closing the locks to prevent the possible spread of the Asian carp into the Great Lakes is an appropriate response on an emergency basis."

Environmental groups also said the government should find a way to permanently separate — through physical barriers or other means — the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds so the invasive species has no way of passing between the two.

Last fall, environmental groups offered several possible solutions, including erecting concrete walls, constructing more locks, even lifting barges over the locks.

The issue "takes on a whole new urgency because of the Asian carp emergency," said Andy Buchsbaum of the National Wildlife Federation. "We don't know where the carp are, and the risk of their being in the canals is too great." ( msn.com )

READ MORE - Single Asian carp found in Chicago-area fish kill