Must be a "hunting dog"

Dogs are supposed to be man's best friend, but for Hunter James Harris his pooch wasn't so much good as it was a good shot.

Harris was shot by his dog in a bizarre accident, when, according to officials of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, he placed his shotgun on the ground to cross a fence and his dog stepped on the trigger.

Harris was hit in the lower leg and is listed in good condition at an Iowa City hospital, and thankfully, no other people or animals were hurt in the incident.

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and kangaroos hopping away

Danish police have appealed for public help to track down a kangaroo that escaped from its owner's home in Copenhagen.

Two of the fleet-footed native Australian marsupials escaped from their owner's residence in the Copenhagen neighborhood of Amager on Monday.

One found its own way home today but the second remains on the loose, police said.

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Mink on the run

Authorities in Germany are trying to re-capture 7,500 mink who have escaped from a fur farm. The mink stole away after unknown criminals opened a large number of cages and destroyed fences at a fur farm in the early hours of Friday morning, police reported Friday.

There is speculation that animal rights activists, who have repeatedly criticized fur farms as cruel, may be behind the incident. However, police admit they have little evidence to go on and are making no statements as to possible perpetrators.

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Cat honored by British Navy

Royal Navy officers are paying tribute to Simon the cat, a rat-catcher on the HMS Amethyst who continued his duties despite being hit by shrapnel and singed during shelling raids by Chinese communists on the Yangtze River in 1949.

Simon stuck to his task despite injury during the 101-day summer siege that followed.

The communists withheld supplies for over three months while they used the ship as a political bargaining chip. But the black and white cat kept up morale and crew credited him with saving their lives by protecting dwindling food stores from a rat infestation.

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Oinks or treats!

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Auction for the Naming Rights for A New Butterfly Species

In an apparent first for butterflies, the Florida Museum of Natural History is auctioning the naming rights for a newly discovered species online to raise money for butterfly research.

University of Florida researchers George Austin and Andrew Warren discovered the new species of owl butterfly earlier this year. The discovery is significant because the species is large and colorful, and is the first butterfly from this group to be named in more than 100 years.

Rather than naming the butterfly themselves, the customary practice when new species are discovered, Austin and Warren decided to auction the naming rights of the new species to raise money to support continued research on Mexican butterflies at the McGuire Center.

View Bid Form

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Arctic Foxes save for lean times

Arctic foxes create "nest eggs" each year to prepare for leaner times, according to a new study.

Like squirrels gathering nuts for the winter, the small foxes hoard bird eggs in case there's not enough of their favorite prey—the collard lemming—to go around in the spring.

The stored eggs can last for up to a year after being buried, thanks to the Arctic permafrost and natural preservatives inside the eggs.

(via)

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