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 A new species of deer discovered in Vietnam >>
           Sao La taken in its habitat
This is the first of the new mammal species discovered. First found in Vu Quang forest reserve, which is in Ha Tinh province of north central Vietnam. Specimens are also known from Nghe An province just to the north, and it is suspected from Thua Thien-Hue province and Dak Lak in the southern central highlands. Based on this information, we believe that Pseudoryx nghetinhensis has a wider distribution in the forest area.

more photos will be in the photo page>>
 

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The Bunyip Encounter description >> 
The dated encounter of the Bunyip>>

In 1847 a young herdsmen saw a Long-necked Bunyip grazing while he was looking for some cows in a flooded area. A local settler, George Hobler, reported the young herdsman's story to the Sydney Morning Herald. The description below show Hobler's report.
 

"It was about as big as a six months' old calf, of a dark brown colour, a long neck, and long pointed head; it had large ears which pricked up when it perceived him (the herdsmen); had a thick mane of hair from the head down the neck, and two large tusks. He turned to run away, and this creature equally alarmed ran off too, and from glance he took at it he describes it as having an awkward shambling gallop; the forequarters of the animal were very large in proportion to the hindquarters, and it had a large tail."

In 1872, three men watched a dog faced bunyip swimming in the Midgeon Lagoon, New South Wale for about half an hour. One of the men gave the below first-hand description to the Wagga Wagga advertisers.
 

Half as long again as an ordinary retriever dog; the hair all over its body was jet-black and shining, its coat was very long, the hair spreading out on the surface of the water for about 5 inches, and floating loosely as the creature rose and fell by its own motion. I could not detect any tail, and the hair about its head was too long and glossy to admit of my seeing its eyes; the ears were well marked.

Information for this news is obtained from www.cryptozoology.com

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The look into the rare Cape lion of Africa >> 

The Cape lion is said to be extinct since 1850.They have been hunted for trophies or shot by lifestock owners to protect their animals.But now a lion called Simon found in a Siberian zoo named Novosibrisk has the charachteristics of a Cape lion with the black colored mane and hair that covers his body.

Cape lion's facts >>

• The Cape lion is bigger than the Kruger and Kalahari lions that are common in game reserves of sub-Saharan Africa.

• The Cape lion resembles the extremely rare Barbary lion of northern Africa but has shorter legs and a darker and smoother mane.

• The cubs of Cape lions are covered in brown spots, which fade as the animals grow older. Cape lions develop their manes earlier than most lions; eventually these distinctive black manes extend down the back and over the belly

• The Cape lion is thought to have once roamed freely on the slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town. Today, Table Mountain—1,086 meters (3,563 feet) high and named for its flat top—is a popular tourist attraction, visited by 600,000 people a year. Elephants and rhinos also once lived on the mountain

• Jan van Riebeeck, who settled the Cape in 1652, commissioned the building of the Castle of Good Hope to protect the Cape's original European residents from hungry Cape lions and other threats. The first castle was built of wood, but was replaced by a stone building that was started in 1666 and took 30 years to complete. The castle still stands today and is the oldest building in Cape Town.

information in this news is obtained from www.nationalgeographic.com

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US: Web: Column: Attack Of The Killer Tomato Cops >>
 Ever think about taking up gardening? When I say forget about it, you might wonder why. After all, according to Vita Sackville-West, "The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done something for the good of the world." Sure, but the trouble isn't well-meaning sodbusters and seed-tossers, it's "well-meaning" drug warriors.

Cops have a hard enough time distinguishing between marijuana and hemp plants ( one will get you high, the other won't ); now they're diversifying their ignorance to include standard garden produce ­ something Glen Coberly found out the hard way.........

While sorting through his tomato vines last week, an unmarked, dark-green helicopter buzzed overhead, followed moments later by scads of flatfoots brandishing firearms, ordering Coberly and a visiting friend to hit the dirt like dropped sacks of potatoes.

"They had their guns out," said Coberly, quoted in the July 20 Middlesex, Va., Daily Press.

Within minutes, one officer was introducing the two to Ms. Miranda, while another inspected the contraband crop. A Homer Simpson "Doh!" could probably be heard for miles because they found no cannabis, just juicy red tomatoes. Going from sativa to salad is bad news for a drug bust.

The Daily Press headlined the snafu, "Drug agents ketchup to wrong suspects: Tomato vines, pot similar from the air."

Sure enough, flying over Middlesex County to scope out pot plantations, one member of the helicopter crew said the tomatoes looked like marijuana because "the color was right." The officer, according to the Daily Press, asked not to be named because he was working undercover.

Piffle.

He didn't want to be named because he's a chowderhead. Confusing tomatoes with dope does not look good on a resume ­ and worse on the 6 o'clock news. Getting publicly tagged, "Joe Schmoe, the officer who mistook tomatoes for marijuana," might be a career-inhibiting move ( though, considering this is the government we're talking about here, probably not ).

Middlesex County Sheriff Guy Abbot apologized before leaving the scene, saying later, "[W]e're not perfect; we make mistakes."

Without doubt, this mistake can be blamed on bad policing. The Keystoners should have double-checked before raiding. Triple-checked. It's not like the suspect's going to flush the whole crop down the toilet, thus requiring ( or excusing ) a "dynamic entry" or no-knock-style raid. Besides, the day after the raid the same officer who explained that tomatoes look like pot from the air because of the color admitted that the hue could have been obscured by the cloudy skies.

Catch that? On an overcast day, we treat word from an airborne officer like gospel. What is this, Saturday morning cartoons?

Before police rush in like Power Rangers, I would hope they'd use better recon than some guy in a chopper with less than great visibility. Neither the AP nor Daily Press articles filed on the incident confirm any police fact-checking before going off half-cocked.

Kid Icarus spots some leafy stuff, and it's gung-ho, Geronimo!

Worse, this was a major operation. The antidrug team that descended upon Coberly involved the National Guard, state police and a local narcotics taskforce. What if Coberly was showing his friend a pistol or rifle at the time of the raid? People who own guns do that sort of thing. Let's say he's just bought a new shotgun and the two are talking about duck hunting: "Hold on, let me show you my new Remington."

He'd run inside while his friend picks a few tomatoes and then hear the "whump-whump-whump" of the chopper get closer as he stepped outside, looking up to spy the bird circling overhead.

Maybe by then the police have already converged on the house, running out back, where the chopper pilot tells them their suspect is armed, shouting: "Drop the gun!"

Police raids not being common occurrences during produce-picking sessions, Coberly might spin around ­ "What?" ­ a bit confused, gun still in hand.

Which do you think he'd sense first? The physical shock of the 9mm. slug penetrating his body or the audible register of the pistol? Many bullets, interestingly enough, move quicker than the speed of sound.

And, in reality, it wouldn't even have to be a gun. In high-stress situations, police get less than keen with distinguishing weapons from whatever else. Remember Amadou Diallo, shot multiple times by New York police for brandishing a loaded wallet? In "Shakedown: How the Government Screws You From A to Z," James Bovard recounts the case of Erdman Bascomb, killed by Seattle cops when they stormed his apartment and shot him, thinking the TV remote in his hand was a gun.

You might want to consult the props department, but for the tomato raid, a garden hoe would probably suffice just fine.

Sure the shooting would be justifiable. They always are. The guy had a gun, maybe; of course, the police had to fire. What else do you expect them to do, get shot?

A better question is to ask why they showed up in the first place.

What fewer and fewer people seem to expect from police is police work. Investigation is the science of evidence collection and proper interpretations of that evidence. A few flyovers in overcast skies looking at a plant that can only be distinguished by its color ( and just think about how many other plants besides tomatoes share the same shade of green as do cannabis plants ) is hardly good evidence collection, and, given the conditions, worse interpretation is inevitable.

Given that, what we should expect before police rush in ­ endangering their own lives and, even more importantly, the lives of citizens that are innocent until proven guilty ­ is a little verification. They should have verified what the chopper said, peeked over the fence, or something, for pity's sake. Instead they stormed in, armed, to arrest a guy for growing salsa ingredients.

"We're just trying to do our best to protect citizens," said Abbott. Yeah? Well, how about looking before you leap, next time? That's sure a start.

And as for the rest of us, always be wary of people looking to do "something for the good of the world," especially drug warriors.

Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)
Copyright: 2001WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.

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Illegal Animal Market Trives >>

Mexican authorities fail to sway vendors
By Marion Lloyd, Globe Correspondent, 7/29/2001
HARCO CERCADO, Mexico - Clad in grimy, hand-me-down clothes and crippled by arthritis, 75-year-old Kasimira Garcia seems the unlikeliest of criminals.
But that's the point.
Like dozens of other women who pawn their illegal wares along this three-mile stretch of Mexico's Highway 57, Garcia's pitiful appearance is her best protection against the law.
The row of sun-bleached stalls 50 miles north of the central desert outpost of San Luis Potosi serves as Mexico's main market for endangered animals. Everything from great horned owls to threatened cascabel rattlesnakes is openly for sale. And rarer, highly endangered animals such as golden eagles and desert tortoises can be ordered from other vendors in the village of Charco Cercado.
Prices can range from as little as $2 for a yellow-winged Calandria lark to $10,000 for a golden eagle, according to wildlife specialists.
Observers say the shabby roadside market is the public face of a multimillion-dollar industry in Mexico that rivals drug smuggling in terms of its easy profits. Endangered animals plucked dead or alive from the jungles of southern Chiapas state to the sandy plains of Baja California are brought here for export to markets as far away as New York City and China.
But while environmental officials are aware of the problem, they say they are no match for these fiercely independent desert residents, who after more than 30 years have become experts in civil disobedience.
''There is a certain degree of ungovernability,'' said Diana Ponce Nava, deputy director for natural resources in Mexico's Federal Environment Secretariat.
Ponce Nava added that every time authorities have tried to confiscate the animals, the residents have responded by taking up arms against police and pushing their women and children onto the front line. ''The raids become little wars,'' she said. ''We want to enforce the law. But we don't want to draw blood.''
The community has a history as a smuggling hub. A devastating drought in the early 1950s forced residents to abandon farming and turn to other sources of income. They began by trading animals for food and clothing, and later, in the 1970s, moved into full-scale retail.
The lack of tough wildlife protection laws has also allowed their trade to go virtually unchallenged. Mexico didn't create its federal environmental protection agency until 1994. And authorities lacked the power to jail violators until Congress passed the country's first detailed wildlife protection law last fall.
Government efforts over the last 20 years to provide job alternatives have had little impact. Officials have tried one idea after another - including donating hundreds of goats for a proposed cheese farm - but the locals refuse to end their illicit businesses.
''It's very difficult to eradicate in a short time period a practice that that goes back more than 30 years,'' said Ponce Nava. ''We have to convince people that poverty is not an excuse to commit crimes.''
Nearly all of Charco Cercado's 1,000 residents know they're breaking the law, but they say there's little else for them to eke out a living.
''We do what we have to to survive. It's not our fault,'' said Paulina Jarameyo, 31, as she looked at a pair of great horned owls sweltering in their roadside cage. Their price: about $18 each.
Although environmental activists acknowledge the residents' economic situation, they say that these hard-luck stories are usually an excuse for illegal trade and that women like Jarameyo often exaggerate their plight by dressing shabbily.
''It's all a sham. They don't want to stop selling animals because they know it's good business,'' said Humberto Fernandez Borja, director of the Mexico City-based organization Conservacion Humana, which is fighting the trafficking of other endangered species like cacti from the surrounding Chihuahua Desert. ''The alternatives are there. They just aren't as profitable.''
In reality, wildlife experts said, the profits from the sale of endangered animals are often greater than those for drugs. A parrot bought for $5 in the jungles of Chiapas can sell for as much as $1,500 on the streets of New York. Mexico is also the world's leading supplier of endangered cacti and reptiles.
''It's a mega-diverse country, which makes Mexico very attractive to those who traffic in wildlife,'' Borja added. ''It's a very, very big problem.''

This story ran on page A11 of the Boston Globe on 7/29/2001.
This news is taken from www.bostonglobe.com

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