The annual monkey party

A village in Thailand, filled picnic tables with snacks and sweets for the wild monkeys as part of what’s become an annual “birthday party” for the creatures.

The town of Lopburi marked the Annual Monkey Party by putting out picnic tables filled with fruit, candy, ice cream and juice for the monkeys, which live in and around the town’s Buddhist temple. Wild monkeys from all around the town were seen celebrating their own day with joy, while filling their stomach with their favourite food items.

The tradition is a mass birthday party for the locally loved animals, residents said.

Footage from the event shows the monkeys visiting with members of the crowd and even climbing on some spectators’ heads.

Eel stuck up in the nose

A Hawaiian monk seal got an eel caught in its nose — and it wasn’t the first time for these endangered creatures.

The same “eels in noses” phenomenon has been seen nearly a handful of times in the last few years. “We don’t know if this is just some strange statistical anomaly or something we will see more of in the future,” the NOAA wrote.

The agency has two theories on why it happened in this case: A cornered eel was trying to defend itself or escape, and wound up in the seal’s nose. Or the seal could have swallowed the eel first and regurgitated its prey out the wrong way.

Good news, though, at least for the seal. “All of the seals that we have encountered in this slippery situation have been quickly caught by our response teams and the eel gently and successfully removed,” the agency said. “All the seals were released and haven’t shown any issues from the incidents.”

Wild diner visits Chinese inn

A wild elephant wandered into a Chinese inn and spent about four hours feasting on corn and oranges, the business’ owner said.

Xu Hongwei, owner of the inn in Yunnan Province and a member of the local elephant patrol team, said he warned guests at this business to remain on the second floor when the animal wandered inside about 4:30 a.m.

The unexpected visit of the elephant surprised the owner and workers at the restaurant, but there was no sign of panic and the incident was dealt with patience.

Xu said locals, who are familiar with the elephant from previous incidents where the wild animal wandered near homes in search of food, controlled traffic outside the inn to allow the elephant to safely leave on its own.

There were no injuries to elephant or human during the visit, but the pachyderm left a big mess behind at the inn, Xu said.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 15th, 2018