Tangled buck rescued after months

Wildlife officials in California said a buck, which ran off with a backyard hammock caught in its antlers, was located months later and freed from its entanglement.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the buck ended up with its antlers entangled in a backyard hammock in Fair Oaks as a result of being lured in by residents who were illegally feeding wildlife.

David Mollel, an environmental scientist with the department, was finally able to locate the buck and tranquilised the animal. He removed the buck’s antlers to protect it from poachers. The antlers will grow back in the spring, officials said.

The buck was released at the scene.

Butter sculptures on virtual contest

Organisers of the 105th Pennsylvania Farm Show, which will be held virtually, are calling on residents to make butter sculptures for the “Butter Up!” contest.

The farm show said submissions will be accepted January 9-16 of sculptures crafted from up to five pounds of butter — much smaller than the 1,000-pound sculptures typically displayed at the in-person version of the event.

The winners will be selected by followers of the Farm Show Facebook page and they will receive gift cards.

The rules state participants are allowed to use chicken wire, sculpting wire and a base to support the sculpture, but may not use food dye or any other type of colouring.

Sharks shows off its walking skills

A talented shark species was recorded last year for the first time using its pectoral and pelvic fins to potter along the seafloor in Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

Named the leopard epaulette shark, Hemiscyllium freycineti, it joins eight other species of walking sharks and researchers predict there are many more to be found.

“As for many ‘new’ species of sharks, these animals were known but just considered to be a population of another species,” wrote research fellow Christine Dudgeon from the University of Queensland.

There are now nine species that are reported to be walking sharks. All are very similar — small (typically less than one-metre total length), elongate with a long, single lobed tail. The body shapes are essentially identical and the only thing that separates them morphologically is their patterns. They are highly ornate and the patterns do vary from location to location.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 9th, 2021