CLEVELAND – Cleveland police were called out to a home on Ira Avenue, after an alligator was found in a driveway.
Around 6:30 p.m. Monday, police arrived at a residence in the 5300 block of Ira Avenue to find a 4-foot alligator. Cleveland police then coaxed the large reptile into the backseat of a zone car.
The animal was taken to Edgewater Park and handed over to the Division of Wildlife.
Police do not know who owns the alligator at this time.
HOPE, Ind. — A pet boa constrictor bit a Hope family’s 1-year-old son, causing minor injuries, police said.
The boy was bitten on the hand Sunday night while reaching into a dresser drawer at the Perez family home on Schaefer Drive in Hope, according to Hope Police Department.
The Perez family told police that the snake, which measured about 4 feet long and two inches around, had gotten out of its cage and that they had been looking for it when the boy got bit.
The boy’s mother, Latonya Perez, heard her son scream, ran into the bedroom and tried to pull the snake from the child’s hand, police said.
The first attempt failed, and Latonya Perez grabbed the snake by the head, forcing it to release the child. Once released, the snake struck at Latonya, police said.
Latonya Perez and her father, George Perez, went to the Hope Police Department station seeking emergency medical treatment for the boy at 8:38 p.m. Sunday and Hope Fire Department responded.
Hope Police Chief Randy Bailey said a report on the incident will be filed with Child Protective Services.
“When it comes to this type of family pet there should be several safety checks in place to ensure child safety,” Bailey said.
A protein key to the development of placenta in pregnant lizards may open the door to a promising new branch of cancer research.
Discovered by Sydney University biologist Bridget Murphy, the VEGF111 compound belongs to the so-called vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) groups of proteins, which are key to the production of blood vessels in the uterus during pregnancy. They are also suspected of playing a role in the growth of cancer cells, which like embryos also require extensive networks of blood vessels.
With reptiles giving birth both to live young and eggs, Murphy became interested in identifying which VEGF proteins were active in lizards, eventually stumbling across the particularly powerful VEGF111 protein in the shy three-toed Australian skink saiphos equalis.
“I found that the three-toed skink, which gives birth to live young, uses a particularly powerful protein to encourage the growth of blood vessels,” Murphy said, adding that the only other place where VEGF111 has been found is in pre-cancerous cells in the laboratory.
It is hoped that by figuring out how this new protein functions researchers might develop new therapies for cancer as well as treatments for the regeneration of blood vessels in patients with heart disease and better approaches for tending wounds.
“Both tumours and embryos must develop an extensive network of blood vessels which bring in oxygen and nutrients to allow them to grow,” Murphy said.
“And they both must avoid rejection by hiding from the immune system of their host.”
Increasing numbes of researchers now suspect that cancers may have merely hijacked he molecular processes which originally evolved for the development of embryos.
“It may be that animals that give birth to live young, such as humans and some lizards, have an increased susceptibility to cancer,” Murphy said.
Murphy is one of 16 early-career Australian scientists selected to take part in the federal government’s Fresh Science program.
CEDAR FALLS – As Jason Dornbush held up the albino Burmese Python in front of children in the Kidsway Activity Tent, they dropped their jaws and stared at the giant snake in amazement.
Dornbush, Grout Museum District science outreach coordinator, and Erin Hogan, Grout Museum District outreach assistant, showed a variety of snakes to a full crowd during their Snakes Alive! presentation Sunday at the Sturgis Falls Celebration in Cedar Falls.
Hogan shared interesting facts about snakes with the crowd and allowed people to pet the live snakes.
Jennifer Klein of Waterloo watched the show with her four children – Arthur, 14, Jack, 12, George, 10 and Lucy, 9.
“It was very cool,” Klein said of the show. “Snakes are scary so it’s really neat to see them at a distance and up close.”
Her kids’ favorite part of the show was touching the snakes.
“They seem like they would be slimy, but they’re not,” said Lucy.
Provided by the Grout Museum and sponsored by Hy-Vee and Veridian Credit Union, the show gave the crowd a glimpse of four types of snakes — corn snakes, ball pythons, bull snakes and the python.
The show also featured the Dean of Juggling Dean Franzen. Franzen has been a professional juggler for 23 years and has been performing at Sturgis Falls for more than 20 years.
“It’s always kind of like my homecoming,” he said of the celebration. “I see a lot of kids here that I’ve seen before. Some of the kids that I have performed for in the past bring their kids now.”
The show was sponsored by Lincoln Savings Bank and featured Chinese devil stick juggling, 4-ball juggling, 5-ball juggling, machete juggling, fire juggling, juggling while balancing spinning plates and juggling while riding a unicycle, among other tricks.
Franzen’s wife, Jolene, also juggled during the show. The pair juggled clubs back and forth all while making the audience laugh with clever jokes.
Franzen got children from the audience involved, often having them assist with his tricks.
“I thought he really appealed to all the kids and some of the adults,” said Kate Dunning of Cedar Falls who was attending the show with her 5-year-old daughter, Lucy. “He was very entertaining; it was spot on for Sturgis Falls.”
LAWRENCEBURG, Tenn. — A 5-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital by helicopter on Sunday after a copperhead snake bit her at a Lawrenceburg campground.The snake bit the child at David Crockett State Park, according to Channel 4’s partners at WLX Radio.The child was taken to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Her condition was unclear.
KUALA LUMPUR — Wildlife officials in Malaysian Borneo are pushing to have its saltwater crocodiles removed from a list of endangered animals, saying the reptile’s numbers have strongly recovered in recent years.
Deputy director of the Sabah Wildlife Department Augustin Tuuga told AFP that a survey of the Crocodylus porosus population showed there were about 11,000 to 15,000 in the state compared to 1,000 to 5,000 two decades ago.
“We are pushing to have the crocodile downgraded from the ‘endangered’ to the ‘not necessarily threatened’ list on the Convention of International Trade of Species (CITES),” he said.
Tuuga said there was big demand for legal crocodile leather from handbag and clothing accessory manufacturers as well as for crocodile meat in kitchens throughout Asia.
“Under CITES, these crocodiles can only come from breeding farms but once the crocodile is downgraded, manufacturers will be able to get the crocodiles from the wild,” he added.
“However, before this can happen we must have an effective monitoring mechanism to keep track of the crocodile population to ensure its numbers do not fall below acceptable levels.”
Saltwater crocodiles have the most commercially valuable skin of its species and are found from Sri Lanka all the way to the Caroline Islands in the Western Pacific.
Tuuga said the increase in the crocodile population has also seen 38 attacks on humans in the last 10 years with 23 deaths and 15 injuries.
The latest was reported this month when the remains of a man who was eaten while looking for shellfish were found in the south of the state, he said.
However, Tuuga said the increasing population was not the only factor that led to the attacks.
“A lot of the crocodile’s habitat has been destroyed by development and much of its food sources have also been depleted so this and the frequent human use of the rivers mean that such attacks will occur,” he added.
With some growing up to seven metres (23 feet) in length, the saltwater crocodile has a large head with ridges that run from the eye along the centre of the snout, with bands on its lower flanks and a yellow underside.
June 28, 2010 (Ramona) – Cal-Fire and the Ramona Fire Department came to the assistance of five hikers who became dehydrated while hiking in the Cedar Creek area of Ramona. In addition, firefighters rescued two of the hikers’ dogs, that were bitten by rattlesnakes.
The hikers did not require transport to medical facilities. The dogs’ owners planned to seek veterinary care for their animals, according to Cal-Fire public information officer Mike Mohler.
Please click on the forum before you leave and join in the fun.
