Re: Animal Thievery Reported Worldwide

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/05/30/Squirrel-stealing-flags-at-Mich-cemetery/UPI-12891243709217/
Squirrel stealing flags at Mich. cemetery
PORT HURON, Mich., May 30 (UPI) -- The superintendent of a cemetery in Port Huron, Mich., says a squirrel is responsible for the theft of nearly a dozen small U.S. flags (cut)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/30/2585161.htm

Parrot Steals Tourist's Passport
Posted Sat May 30, 2009 4:42am AEST
A wild New Zealand parrot - perhaps with a desire to spread its wings further afield - has pinched a Scottish man's passport in a bag snatch.
The passport was in a brightly coloured courier bag in the luggage compartment of a bus heading into the popular tourist destination of Milford Sound in the Fiordland region of the South Island, the Southland Times reported.
The kea, the world's only alpine parrot, struck when the bus stopped and the driver was busy in the luggage compartment. When the driver turned around the startled kea flew away with the passport.(cut)

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2009 09:15PM by Frank Furter.

What the heck does this have to do with nature, parks, or the wilderness?

Actually this collecting behavior to form middens is interesting as a source of study for palentologists, archeologists, and biologists.
The middens of red squirrels are an important source of White Bark Pine nuts for grizzlies in Yellowstone, for example. In Yellowstone, packrat middens have provided interesting data on changes in rodent populations and plant species over thousands of years. Studies in Grand Canyon have yielded archeologic information. Many animal middens have been reused for thousands of years.

some interesting links:

http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Research/midden_research.htm

http://news.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-2/Pack-rat-middens-give-unique-view-on-evolution-and-climate-change-in-past-million-years-3320-1/

http://www.scirpus.ca/dung/midden.htm

http://www.greateryellowstone.org/ecosystem/wildlife/grizzly.php

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2009 07:01AM by Frank Furter.