Field Notes

Here’s one for the stranger-than-fiction file. From the Associated Press:
With a fox locked onto her arm, an Arizona jogger ran a mile to her car, where she was able to dislodge the animal, throw it into the trunk and drive to a Prescott hospital. The Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said the fox, which later attacked an animal control officer, tested positive for rabies.

From The Buffalo News:
A Chinese restaurant in the Town of Hamburg was shut down by the Erie County Health Department Friday after an inspector found employees butchering a deer inside.

Officials don’t know whether the dead deer . . . had been hunted or if it was road kill.

“From our standpoint, it doesn’t matter,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Anthony J. Billittier IV. . . . “

"In general, you can’t have a dead animal in a food services establishment,” Billittier said. In addition, it’s illegal to sell meat that hasn’t been prepared by a licensed butcher, he said. “What were they going to do with the meat?” Billittier wondered. “I don’t think we’ll ever really know the answer to that.”

From The East Oregonian:
"I have all sizes and ages of frogs to fit your needs," read[s a flyer from Oregon first-grader Cole Gomes]. "My frogs make great presents, pets, projects and pond decorations! Prices vary and cages (are available) upon request. All frogs have been handled by people and make great pets for all ages," the pitch continues, concluding, "Right now I have a special on baby frogs, so call now. . . .”

Problem is, his frogs are on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife protected wildlife list -- so wildlife officials shut the boy’s business down.

I’m sure you will all be shocked to learn that the alleged bigfoot discovery that has been all over the news and keeping chat rooms buzzing for over a week, has turned out to be a hoax.

From The New York Times:
Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice -- handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it -- was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.

From Scientific American:
It was perhaps the most highly touted press conference of the week, but it didn't reveal much in the way of evidence: Three bigfoot enthusiasts announced today that a series of genetic tests performed on samples taken from a carcass they claim is a Sasquatch came back as a mixture of human and opossum [the latter supposedly coming from the creature’s stomach]. . . .

Tom Biscardi, Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer [also] showed the audience two blurry photos, one of a solitary figure in mixed hardwood forest and another of the mouth of what appeared to be the tongue and teeth of a primate. . . .

"It's about what I expected," said Jeffrey Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology from Idaho State University in Pocatello who has studied the bigfoot phenomenon. "Today they should have produced a physical piece of the corpse, if not the corpse itself. Until they produce the body, it doesn't matter. . . ."

[“This] whole thing is very cloak and dagger,” [said Benjamin Radford, who writes for the Skeptical Inquirer magazine and has followed bigfoot hunters for more than a decade]. “It all about, 'We have unnamed scientists working at an undisclosed location under armed guard.'"

From The New York Times:
In the hairy and hoax-filled history of Bigfoot, those who believe in the mythical beast have offered up all manner of evidence, from grainy photos to hoarse recordings to tracks of those aforementioned feet.
But on Friday at a hotel in Palo Alto, Calif., a pair of Bigfoot hunters say they will present what they contend is the most definitive proof yet of an animal that science says does not exist: DNA evidence and photographs of a dead specimen they say they found in a remote swath of woods in northern Georgia. . . .
“I’m not asking anyone to believe us,” [Big Foot hunter Rick] Dyer said. “I’m just asking them to sit and watch, because you’re going to eat your words.”

Stay tuned.

Your apartment building is on fire. You have seconds to grab your most cherished possessions and bolt out the door. What do you take? A family heirloom?  Pictures of the kids? Your wedding video?

From The News-Gazette:

[Drew] Gifford left the apartment barefoot, carrying a cast iron skillet of rainbow trout. . . .Firefighters later got a pair of flip flops from the apartment for Gifford.

Clearly the right decision. I mean, think how overcooked the trout might have gotten otherwise. And the flip flops are a no-brainer.

And another, also from The Star-Ledger:

A bear cub was reported scampering through the drive-through lane of a South Brunswick McDonald's today, police said.

The young bruin was spotted shortly before 9 a.m. at the restaurant on Route 1, near Sand Hills Road, Sgt. James Stoddard said. At least three people called 911, police said.

From the Associated Press:
A deer with a single horn in the center of its head — much like the fabled, mythical unicorn — has been spotted in a nature preserve in Italy, park officials said Wednesday. . . .

The 1-year-old Roe Deer — nicknamed "Unicorn" — was born in captivity in the research center's park in the Tuscan town of Prato, near Florence, Tozzi said.

He is believed to have been born with a genetic flaw; his twin has two horns.

The attractions at Orlando’s hotels and amusement parks just get more and more creative. Now the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Studios has a bear in it’s swimming pool. Or at least it had one.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Police were first told of the bear sighting at 4:13 a.m., after a security guard spotted the bear on a security screen. Reports show that the bear finished its morning dip and left the pool area.