Meerkats and monkeys at Bristol Zoo in the UK have been given a carved pumpkin as a special Halloween treat.
Pumpkins are a great source of vitamins for the animals, as well as being the perfect toy, according to John Partridge, curator of animals. He said: “Carved pumpkins provide the perfect enrichment activity toy as the animals have to delve inside to reach the succulent flesh and plump seeds. Pumpkin is also a great addition to the animals’ regular diets as it is high in vitamins A, C, potassium, protein and fibre, and keeps them looking their best.” (PA)
Strange donations
A suit of armour, a 20-foot canoe and an urn full of ashes are some of the more unusual items donated this year, a charity said.
A gas mask, a used toilet seat and a set of false teeth also turned up in collection bags for veterinary charity The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA).
Bullets, a wetsuit and flippers, an emergency distress flare and a kitchen sink were also donated among the standard clothing, books and bric-a-brac. (PA)
Chimpy rampage
A chimpanzee that broke free from its chains was captured after briefly wandering around Kansas City and smashing the window of a police car.
Police efforts to shoot the animal, named Sueko, with a tranquilliser dart failed and the chimp climbed on a patrol car and struck the passenger-side window with its fist before running off.
Its owner was eventually able to coax it into a cage. (PA)
Cop hits girls with car, ambulance kills one
A Russian police officer hit three girls with his car while driving drunk in Siberia, local officials said yesterday, and one was killed after being run over by the ambulance sent to treat them.
The police officer, who was driving his personal car, ran into the three girls on Tuesday as they walked at night on the side of the road near Kargosok, a town in the Tomsk region.
One of the girls, aged 15, was then run over and killed by an ambulance that arrived at the scene, the ministry said.
The other two girls were being treated in hospital for head wounds and were in stable condition.
The incident was the latest in a string of scandals involving Russian police hitting pedestrians while driving drunk. (AFP)
Poetic injustice
A woman who beat her five-year-old daughter to death while trying to get her to memorise a poem has been spared jail by a Chinese court, state press said yesterday.
Tan Hongying was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in Zhejiang province but the sentence was suspended and she was instead given five years probation, the Beijing Morning News reported.
The report did not say why the court in the city of Jiashan handed down such a light sentence.
The girl died in March after Tan pushed her to memorise a Tang Dynasty (618-907) poem, a common school exercise for Chinese children.
Tan said she “hit the child on five or six occasions, with three or four strikes each time” on the back of the head as the girl tried to recite the poem.
The girl was pronounced dead a day after the March 29 beating, it added. (AFP)
Bear attacks surge in Japan
Bear attacks have shot up in Japan this year and sightings of the animals have spiked, a trend blamed on climatic changes and shifting land use patterns.
At least four people were killed and 80 wounded in bear attacks between April and September in the island-nation, topping last year’s total of 64 attacks.
Some 400 bears were shot dead near human-populated areas on Japan’s island of Hokkaido alone, where two people were mauled to death by bears this year. In the mountainous prefecture of Fukushima more than 150 bears were shot dead after they encroached on residential areas.
Some wildlife experts have blamed a record heat wave this summer which impacted the omnivores’ natural food sources and sent the Asiatic black bears foraging for food in more densely populated farming and residential areas. (AFP)