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Baby elephant attacked by crocodile

The scene was captured by amateur photographer Johan Opperman while taking pictures of a family of African bush elephants grazing by a water hole and cooling down.

Under the watchful eye of its family, the young elephant headed to the edge of the waterhole to grab a drink.

However, a crocodile pounced on the youngster, hoping for a kill by locking its jaws around its trunk.

Hearing the baby’s distress calls, the herd of elephants scared off the reptile by trumpeting and stamping around.

After the attack the herd stayed with the youngster.

Once the herd decided all was well, they crossed the dam together, just metres from where the crocodile had been hiding.

Mr Opperman, from Pretoria, in South Africa, captured the incredible moment while on a day trip in the country’s Kruger National Park.

The 38 year-old said: “The elephants were just grazing in the area, drinking water and cooling down – typical elephant behaviour.

“The crocodile grabbed the baby elephant and made an attempted kill – it was hoping for a nice lunch with elephant on the menu.

“From a couple of experts, I’ve heard that this is however very rare, and that crocodiles do not normally try to catch elephants.

“When the crocodile got hold of the baby elephant, the whole herd of elephants first went crazy, running around and trumpeting, and then proceeded to come to the rescue of the baby elephant.

“After it was saved, all the elephants of the herd stayed around the baby elephant for a while, making sure that it was okay.

“The ones coming to the rescue were most probably female, especially the matriarch female.

“I did not realise exactly what I managed to catch on film until I got to my holiday resort that night and looked through the photos on my computer.

“The screen on digital cameras is not the greatest and made it hard to see the details of what was captured.

“When the ‘action’ started, I just started clicking away in typical amateur fashion, hoping to get at least something.

“It was quite a surprise to later see on the larger computer monitor that I actually managed to get one photo of the crocodile pulling on the elephant.”

Lizard in mid-day meal, 77 students fall ill

As many as 77 school students fell ill after consuming their mid-day meal which allegedly contained a dead lizard, officials said in Seoni on Saturday. The incident took place on Thursday at Jaitara village of the district. The reptile was found in the vegetable which was distributed under the
mid-day meal scheme, they said.

The students who consumed the meal started vomiting and were admitted to the district hospital here, they said, adding the School Education Department has suspended the headmaster R L Pandey.

Police have registered a case against a self-help group, which had supplied the meal, under IPC section 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) among others.

Madhya Pradesh Minister for Labour Jagannath Singh, who is in-charge of Seoni district, met the students in the hospital and directed District Collector Manohar Dubey to investigate the incident, following which a five-member panel has been set up.

Opp Councilman recovering from snake bite

An Opp Councilman is recovering from being bitten on the finger by a timber rattlesnake.

Councilman Scotty Short was bush hogging last week and he moved some limbs and was bittten by a snake.

Short’s wife, Heather, said he initially thought it was an oak snake.

“He got to thinking maybe it wasn’t an oak snake, he remembered from the Rattlesnake Rodeo that they had one timber rattler that looked a lot like an oak snake,” she said. “He got there (to the hospital) about 30 minutes after her was bit.”

“He saw Dr. Bob Williams and he seems to think that he’s going to heal OK,” she said.

“We do go back to see him next week. But I really do think he’s going to be OK. His finger is still really black.”

Heather said she just thankful that it wasn’t the weekend, because the couple’s son would have been out there and he would have been the one moving limbs.

Snake warning for dog owners

DOG owners have been put on high alert after two fatal encounters between canines and snakes in the strip of bush behind the off-leash area at Kingston Beach.

And there have also been reports of high snake numbers in the Peter Murrell Reserve that borders Kingston, Blackmans Bay and Howden, as well as reports of snake encounters in the Burnie hinterland.

Burnie vet Donald MacKenzie said owners needed to act quickly if they knew, or suspected, their dogs had been bitten by snakes.

He said snake venom varied and the impact of a bite on a dog also varied from season to season.

In a delayed response, it can take 24 to 36 hours for the venom to affect a dog but in other cases a dog can be dead before it gets to a vet.

“The dog can be dead in 15 to 20 minutes,” Dr MacKenzie said.

“Last summer, I treated a lot fewer dogs for snake bites, not because there were fewer incidents but because they were dying so quickly.

“If you can get to a dog while it is still sitting or standing and not lying on its side paralysed, and administer the anti-venom, it has a high chance of survival, about 90 per cent.”

Treating a dog with anti-venom does not come cheap and owners should be prepared for a bill of between $1500 and $2000.

Dr MacKenzie said the high danger time in the seasonal standoff between reptiles and canines was between 3pm and 6pm.

To protect pets, residents living on outskirts of urban areas and on rural properties should ensure the grass around their homes is short.

Snakes are also attracted to wood piles and water sources.

Dr MacKenzie said Tasmania’s snake danger season was arriving earlier each year and now stretched from October through to Easter

Lake detectives find rattlesnakes in home after making drug arrests

After making a drug arrest in Groveland Friday night, Lake County detectives stumbled on something they hadn’t expected: Rattlesnakes.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office special investigations unit had a warrant to search a home in the 10500 block of Bay Lake Road as part of a drug investigation and detectives were watching the home when they saw two men leave the house in a white truck about 9:30 p.m.

When the detectives stopped the men, they determined that the driver, Hannice Jeffery Simmons Jr., 41, was actively smoking methamphetamine from a glass pipe. Simmons, a convicted felon, also was sitting on a loaded .380 handgun, according to the sheriff’s office.

Detectives arrested Simmons and the other man, 40-year-old Carl Brian Castle, on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

When the detectives searched the home, they found more methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia. They also discovered three rattlesnakes in an aquarium, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is expected to charge Castle, who owns the home, in connection with possession of the snakes. State law requires people who want to own venomous reptiles to obtain a permit.

Detectives also expect to obtain arrest warrants for methamphetamine possession for two other people who live in Castle’s home, according to the sheriff’s office.

Later, alligator — reptile is gone from Indigo Run storm drain

No one seems to know exactly where the large alligator stuck for months in a storm drain on Hilton Head Island has gone, but it’s no longer trapped in a pipe in the private Indigo Run development.

Joe Maffo, president of local gator wrangling firm Critter Management, said the 11-foot gator probably found freedom by backing up more than 100 feet through the development’s drainage system.

Maffo had been periodically checking on and trying to extract the gator, which was discovered by a landscaper in late 2009. It had rubbed off most of the skin on its nose while pushing against a manhole cover in an effort to free itself.

When Maffo returned in April, the gator was gone, and some rocks and sticks nearby were out of place, he said.

Maffo has not been called back to Indigo Run since, so he could not say if the gator has been seen.

Darryl Butler, the development’s director of security, said the gator hasn’t been spotted.

“Not that big one,” he said.

He referred further questions to general manager Brad Phillips, who could not be reached for comment.

As far as Maffo’s concerned, the sticky situation worked out perfectly.

“I’m just very, very glad he was capable of getting out of there,” Maffo said. “Any time they can go back to nature, I love it.”

Fluker’s add sends the wrong message

In my opinion good company, bad choice of marketing. This is the add that appears inside the front cover to the December edition of Reptiles Magazine. The add reads “UNFLUKENBELIEVABLE, We’re just helping your pets achieve their maximum potential so they can enjoy the finer things in life”

Now I am a smoker and a light drinker but this just strikes me as a very bad choice to push there products, I was pissed when they changed the name of the Winston cup but at the same time this is not the type of advertising I want my children reading about nor do I want them thinking the diner things in life are tobacco and alcohol. If you agree with me give Flukers a call at (800)735-8537 and let them know it was a bad choice.

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