Expats fund bid to save the wildcat

Expats fund bid to save the wildcat

Published Date: 04 April 2010
By Tom Peterkin

A MASSIVE conservation project backed by American dollars is to be launched this summer in a bold attempt to bring the Scottish wildcat back from the brink of extinction.

Wildlife experts, scientists and volunteers are working on a £750,000 plan that they hope will save the unique creatures that have been mythologised in Highland folklore.

Almost hunted to extinction, there are now thought to be fewer than 400 Scottish wildcats left – an alarming statistic that has prompted a rescue bid that will be the UK’s largest ever conservation project.

Ex-pat Scots living in the United States, who appreciate the wildcats’ ancient links with their clans, have contributed tens of thousands of pounds to the project, which could run for ten years.

The first step will be setting the first of thousands of box traps in remote areas of west Scotland later this year to catch the feral cats that are interbreeding with the wildcat population. They will then be neutered to protect the genetic purity of their wild cousins.

The Texan-based Summerlee Foundation, a private grant-making organisation, has contributed cash, as has Bosack Kruger, another animal welfare foundation in the USA. Further grants have come in from the Shuman Trust in Britain and Sir Cameron Mackintosh’s Mackintosh Foundation. The show business impresario has a country home near Mallaig.

The creatures, which are the only surviving members of the cat family that are native to Britain, are now found only in remote parts of Scotland. They cannot be tamed and will fight to the death to protect their young.

For centuries, their fighting spirit and independence were revered by the old Highlanders and wildcats are depicted on some clan crests including MacPherson and Mackintosh.

The key to the plan is trapping and eventually eradicating the estimated 100,000 feral or farm cats roaming the Western Highlands. These can mate with true wildcats – therefore contaminating the wildcats’ genetic line.

Now that man is forbidden by law to kill the creatures, feral cats pose the greatest threat to the pure bred wildcat (felis silvestris grampia) – a beast which has lived in Scotland for two million years.

When a wildcat mates with a feral cat, the resulting litter produces so-called hybrid cats, which themselves can produce fertile offspring.

The conservation project, which is to be led by the Scottish Wildcat Association, will begin in Ardnamurchan, the most westerly point on the British mainland.

Around 100 meat-baited box traps will be laid on the remote peninsula – one of the last remaining wildcat havens.

Vets will neuter any feral cats caught to prevent them breeding with wildcats before they are released. Thousands of box traps are likely to be set across the Highlands to the West of Loch Ness and Loch Lochy.

Steve Piper, of the Scottish Wildcats Association, said: “If we can clear out all of the feral cats in an area of around 7,000 square miles, there will be only wildcats left and they will be able to recolonise their natural habitat.”

Scientists have also developed a genetic test that can determine the purity of a wildcat’s breeding. Later in the summer, the plan is to test the hair or blood of any surviving wildcats that are found.

The test results will give scientists a precise indication of how much work needs to be done to ensure the wildcat’s survival.

“These results should give us an idea of how many are left and how badly hybridised some of them have become,” Piper said.

The project’s lead researcher is the American scientist Dr Jim Sanderson, a member of the Small Cat Conservation Alliance and the Feline Conservation Federation, and who is regarded as one of the world’s leading field researchers of wildlife with a speciality in small wildcats.

Outside Scotland, he has been involved in tracking rare animals such as the Andean Mountain Cat, the Bay Cat and the Fishing Cat.

Sanderson said: “The Scottish wildcat is the last remaining wild cat in the UK, and with a total population thought to be between 200 and 400 it is considered critically endangered. If the situation worsens it can only become extinct.

“I think the Scottish Wildcat Association’s plan is presently the only viable comprehensive plan to save the Scottish wildcat from extinction. The time to act has come.”

Sanderson added: “In Spain, the Iberian lynx, which also numbers around 200 individuals, is the subject of a ¤30-million conservation programme. The Scottish wildcat conservation programme doesn’t even have a million pounds, so I would urge everyone who cares about this animal to support the Association’s plan in the coming years.”

Wildcat experts based in Scotland have also been consulted on the project.

Andrew Kitchener, the principal curator of vertebrates at the National Museum of Scotland, who has studied the wildcat, has been acting as an adviser to the project.

Kitchener said: “The evolutionary story of the wildcat goes back almost two million years and the Scottish population is the most northerly population of wildcat in the world and there are bound to be some evolutionary adaptations that are unique to the Scottish wildcat.

“They have probably been in Britain for 9,000 years – around five or six thousand years before the domestic cat was even invented. If we can’t even look after the Highland tigers on our doorsteps, how can we ask the people of India to look after their own tigers.”

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Expats-fund-bid-to-save.6202638.jp

 

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Turkeys on the Loose in Sussex

Several reports of turkeys roaming Sussex have alerted wildlife groups

March 2010. 12 Turkeys have been spotted in different locations roaming freely round Sussex Towns and Villages over the past 3 weeks.

The most recent report was of 2 turkeys on a wall in Lewes. There have also been recent sightings of 7 Turkeys roaming around Alfriston and 3 turkeys wandering around Glynde village.

Volunteer rescuers from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service have been called out to all these incidents by numerous local residents who were wondering what the unusual visitors are to their gardens.

Not farm turkeys
“I’ve not known anything like this, getting so many calls about turkeys in different locations like this. I don’t think they are farm turkeys as they can all fly.” said Rescue Co-ordinator Trevor Weeks from East Sussex WRAS.
A turkey in a tree in Alfriston, Sussex.
Credit Kathy Martyn

“We have had complaints about the damage they cause in gardens; people worried about the turkey’s safety and worried that they will get caught by foxes or hit by cars. We have only managed to catch the ones at Glynde have, all the others have flown up into trees when we approach them” added Trevor.

Invasive species
WRAS is unsure whether a well meaning turkey lover is dumping them or letting them go or why there is suddenly such a spate of turkeys running loose. “I secretly hope that these were purchased before Christmas and then their owners turned vegetarian and couldn’t eat them, but it would be a shame if they were injured by a car as a result of them escaping or being released” said Trevor.

WRAS is urging people to ensure their enclosures are secure and that their turkeys and other domestic or agricultural animals are safe and cannot escape. “If one of these birds causes an accident the owner would be liable for the damage caused not to speak of the suffering the bird would go through.” Said Trevor, “if you do not want your pet turkeys any more contact one of the animal sanctuaries across Sussex to find a new home for them.”

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/sussex-turkeys.html

Mink project enters final year in Hebrides

Mink project enters final year in Hebrides

April 2010. An ambitious mink project which covers 305,000 hectares and is the largest single species eradication ever attempted is now entering its final year of trapping. The Hebridean Mink Project (HMP) started in 2001 and has undergone two separate phases in combination with considerable effort by trappers and management teams.

1764 mink caught so far
Phase one caught 532 mink throughout the Uists and South Harris. And the current second phase, striving towards the ultimate aim of total eradication from the Outer Hebrides archipelago, has so far resulted in 1232 mink.

The distances involved are significant when placed in a national context; 3,297 km of coastline, 4,721km of freshwater loch edge and 1,831km of river and stream. This equates to 20%, 25% and 3% respectively of Scotland’s potential mink habitat.

10,000 traps
In order to achieve this, more than 10,000 trap positions have been utilised in order to target every potential mink territory. All cage traps are opened on a rotational basis and when open are checked daily.

Iain Macleod, the mink project manager, said: “From the very start of the project we have been learning lessons; there is no manual for what we are trying to achieve, and the sheer hard work of the trappers is what makes this even possible.”

Mink cause serious damage to birds and fish
Non-native American mink is a highly adaptable semi-aquatic carnivore which has been causing significant damage to ground nesting bird species, especially seabird colonies, and freshwater fisheries throughout Scotland.

Several areas of Lewis and Harris have for the first time produced no mink after a sequence of trapping, indicating that the population has locally been removed. This includes the area of East Loch Tarbert and Scalpay – previously one of the highest mink densities found anywhere in the Outer Hebrides.

“The efforts of the trappers are really starting to pay dividends and it is now up to the entire team to use the available population science and follow our strategies through in those areas were mink still persist,” Iain continued.

Ground-nesting birds recovering
“Ground-nesting bird numbers appear to be recovering and in the case of the terns of Lewis and Harris they showed a significant improvement, not only in their productivity last year but also their geographical distribution. Whilst it cannot be claimed this is wholly due to the mink project, the removal of a significant predator must be a contributing factor.”

North Uist
As part of the continuous monitoring work eight mink have been caught in an area in the north of North Uist. This brings the total number of mink caught in the Uists since the start of phase two to 26. This includes those caught on some isolated offshore islands such as Boreray and Hermetray.

And Iain added: “We continue to face challenges on an almost daily basis and the fact that our continued monitoring work in the Uists has discovered isolated satellite populations is one more which we will need to manage and develop a strategy for during the next year.

Please report mink sightings
“I cannot stress enough the importance of mink sightings being reported. We have always relied on the local populace of the Outer Hebrides to report sightings as soon as they are seen so that we can react to them quickly, before the animal leaves the area. In addition, those wishing to volunteer are always welcome and if individuals would like to contact the project, arrangements can be put in place.

“Whilst disappointing to discover that a relatively small number of mink have re-established in North Uist, it is not unusual for eradication schemes to face these setbacks. Everyone involved with the project is committed to eradicating mink from the entire archipelago and we will use all our available resources to try and achieve this goal in the year we have left.”

Martin Scott, RSPB Scotland conservation officer in the Western Isles, said: “When people introduce mammal predators to islands where they don’t naturally occur, wildlife nearly always suffers serious and challenging problems. The Hebridean Mink Project tackles such problems, and we wish the workers and volunteers success.”

Mink colonisation
“The re-discovery of mink on the Uists demonstrates the importance of seeing such projects through to completion. We believe that with the right support and management this can be achieved in the Western Isles, benefiting wildlife, creating jobs and supporting poultry, angling and fish farm businesses. RSPB Scotland will continue to support the project by monitoring and reporting the responses of wild bird populations.”

Mink first found their way into the islands’ environment in the 1960s and 70s as escapees from fur farms and flourished in the abundant suitable habitat available in the Outer Hebrides.

Bird species which have suffered include Arctic tern, common tern, little tern, black throated diver, red throated diver, corncrake, dunlin and ringed plover.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/mink-hebrides030.html

75 Starlings Die in Mysterious Crash Landing

March 2010.

Mystery surrounds the death of 75 starlings which crashed to the ground and died on a single driveway in Somerset. The birds were spotted falling from the sky and onto the driveway of a house in Coxley, Somerset, on Sunday 7 March.

RSPCA animal welfare officer (AWO) Alison Sparkes was alerted to the unusual incident by the police and went to help. She discovered that most of the birds had suffered broken beaks, broken legs and wings and abdominal injuries, but were otherwise in good bodily condition.

All but five of the birds were dead and, sadly, the rest had to be put to sleep by veterinary staff at the RSPCA’s West Hatch Wildlife Centre, Taunton, Somerset, due to their severe injuries.

Alison said: “It was a remarkable sight and I’ve never seen anything like it before. Onlookers said they heard a whooshing sound and then the birds just hit the ground. They had fallen onto the ground in quite a small area, about 12 feet in diameter.

“They appeared to be in good condition other than injuries that they appear to have suffered when they hit they ground. Our best guess is that this happened because the starlings were trying to escape a predator such as a sparrow hawk and ended up crash landing.”

There is no evidence that the birds had been poisoned or were ill before they crashed into the ground.

Further sighting of mysterious Cannock Chase Wolf

Further sighting of mysterious Cannock Chase Wolf

 

Feb 10 2010

 

Sunday Mercury

http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2010/02/10/further-sighting-of-mysterious-cannock-chase-wolf-66331-25804746/

Sighting of a wolf-like creature over Cannock Chase have continued to flood in, with eyewitnesses claiming to have seen the fabled beast near to Huntington woodland.

Readers say they have spied a creature they believed to be a wolf near woodland off the Stafford Road.

The sightings follow a raft of eyewitness reports claiming to have seen the creature in undergrowth near Pottal Pool.

“I was walking my dog near to Broadhurst Green and I believe I saw something that could be described as a wolf,” resident Mark Sutton said.

“It was not a panther and it was too large to be a dog. It was walking through the bushes without a care in the world.

“It was about 50 metres away from us, but it didn’t seem fussed.

“It disappeared back into the Chase. I’m sure a lot of other people would have seen it. It wasn’t trying to stay hidden.”

Over the past 20 years, many people have claimed to have seen a big cat prowling Cannock Chase, fuelling speculation a panther roams the area.

But the recent sightings seem to suggest the fabled Chase Panther could belong to the wolf-family.

Last week resident Peter Derbyshire also said he saw a wolf-like creature while driving near Pottal Pool.

“I was driving through the trees in the direction of Stafford when I saw something dark moving amongst the bushes on the right hand side of the car,” he said.

“I slowed down to get a better look. It was probably about 80 metres away. It was aware I had slowed down, but did not seem too fussed. It disappeared into the bushes and I lost sight of it.

“It was definitely not a cat, it had more of a dog’s characteristics. It had a long nose and sharp, pointy ears.”

Wild Boar in the Forest if Dean Extinct by ‘August’

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/gloucestershire/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8505000/8505553.stm

 2nd Feb 2010

Interview at above link on Real Player

A new group, called the Friends of the Wild Boar, has claimed the numbers of wild boar in the Forest could be so low that the boar may once again disappear entirely from the Forest of Dean.

Late last year, the Forestry Commission carried out a survey and came up with a tally of 90 rising to 150, but the group suggest numbers could be even lower.

Rob Guest, deputy surveyor for the Forest of Dean, said this attitude is “scaremongering” and doesn’t take into account the breeding season when sows at less than a year old can “drop up to 11 piglets”.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s Andy Vivian has been to meet the group.

Chasing the Thylacine

Chasing the ThylacinePosted: 05 Feb 2010 11:23 AM PST

independent – On a bright summer morning in the back end of Tasmania’s north-west, I wandered into an office of Forestry Tasmania for advice about a forest dirt road. The sketch map the official offered was expected; not so his story. On that same track a decade or so ago, he had seen a creature that was not supposed to exist. And not just him; loggers and surveyors, an old-timer shacked up in the bush, all had glimpsed the animal before it slipped away into one of the most ancient rainforests on Earth.

Foresters are generally a practical bunch who measure life by certainties such as sawlogs and stray limbs lost to heavy machinery. When they swear to a sighting, you begin to wonder if there’s truth after all to the Tasmanian tiger.

There are really only two things you need to know about the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial. The first is that it looks nothing like its namesake except for the sandy orange coat and stripes that extend down to a stiff tail. The tiger – or thylacine as it is usually known because of its scientific name, Thylacinus cynocephalus, which means “pouched dog with a wolf’s head” – is an evolutionary concept-creature that bolts the back half of a kangaroo on to a rangy dog the size of an Alsatian. The second is that it has been extinct for seven decades. Or it has unless you ask around. Then it turns out they’re everywhere.

The first one I saw was in Hobart, the state capital. In the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, a small crowd gathered around footage of a restless creature in the city zoo with a slender snout that opened to a snake’s gape and a stiff gait that another believer later compared to a dairy cow. When “Benjamin” became history one chilly September night in 1936, he is thought to have taken the species with him.

Start to look, however, and a tiger will be there staring back at you. It gazed coolly from the label on my bottle of Cascade beer. It slinked into grass on the number plate of every car in front. And tigers rampant flanked the heraldic crest on state buildings – who needs unicorns when you have a home-grown fabulous beast?

No wonder tiger-hunters become obsessed. To the newcomer, Tasmania is the surprise of Australia. It is an island of hidden secrets in a nation of infinite space; a place where real-life devils utter banshee wails and moss-bearded giants stand silently in forests that predate mankind. In this Middle Earth of lost myths, a legendary tiger is just part of the scenery, and there’s a lot of that to cover in a state that’s one-quarter wilderness.

Many otherwise eminent people have suffered ridicule and nights cooped up in a chicken shed with a camera in their pursuit. The government’s Parks and Wildlife Service mounted its own two-year hunt in 1984 before it pronounced the species extinct and devoted its energies to finding feral foxes instead. That only upped the ante.

“Parks don’t want to say anything publicly to attract attention,” Ned Terry confided. We were drinking coffee in Deloraine in the state’s north, where farming villages were scattered over my map like seed and the landscapes are so vivid that the first pioneers christened their settlements Eden, Paradise and Promised Land. Hard to believe that the Alpine wilderness of Cradle Mountain lay an hour’s drive south. “The bush was full of tourists after a national park fellow reported a thylacine on the central east coast a few years ago. But those blokes got a lot of cameras out there to look for foxes. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some skulduggery going on.”

In this zoological X-Files, the 80-year-old bushman plays Mulder. Every couple of months he listens patiently to an excited witness, asks a few questions to weed out the fakers, then follows up whoever is left. His latest credible lead in half a lifetime’s tiger-chasing came from Lake Peddar in the south-west wilderness.

“Fellow camped out there says he heard one for three weekends in a row; that yapping noise they make when hunting. Says it ran so close he could smell it.”

Many witnesses mention the smell – a sharp, hot, animal stink that electrifies the air. “Smelled it myself once,” Terry said. “Makes the hairs on your neck stand on end, I can tell you.”

The truth is out there, somewhere. Probably (I dragged out of Terry) in the remote northern corners of the state. So, in the late afternoon I rolled east over swells of grass bound for Scottsdale. Every so often a timber farmhouse heaved aloft on a crest then vanished into the rear-view mirror. Beyond lay the high country of the north-east.

Around seven thylacine sightings a year, more than anywhere else in Tasmania, were made up there in the half-century after Hobart Zoo lost its star attraction. A few tiger-hunters still came to shoot blurry images, stalking the edge of old-growth rainforest that had barely changed since Tasmania ripped away from the global supercontinent of Gondwanaland.

In the pub I met a farmer who yarned about a wolfish head that had poked through the bracken fern. “When he comes out he sits up like a kangaroo, then starts sniffing the air like one. I thought: ‘What the hell’s that?’” A stray dog, perhaps, I suggested. “No dogs up there,” he bristled.

It turned out the area was swarming with rumours. Craig Williams, Tasmania’s premier wildlife guide and a fourth-generation bushman, kept up a rumble of anecdote and oath as we skirted the forest, stopping occasionally to practise an arcane element of bushcraft or stare after a furry backside that disappeared into the scrub. He indicated a farmstead as we swerved around one corner. “You know the last thylacine died in 1936? An old bloke shot one there in 1946. Said it was killing his chooks [chickens].”

Later, after a meal that belonged to a Sydney restaurant rather than a remote mountain shack, Craig told tiger tales around the campfire. There was the thylacine witnessed by four people on a logging road just over that ridge, and the waxy scat found late last year by the manager of a wilderness lodge. Or there was his mate whose car had broken down up here one night: “He said he heard these high-pitched yaps following him as he walked.”

Apparently Craig’s grandfather and great-grandfather used to trap thylacine on the mountain behind us. I tried and failed to reconcile the mysterious thylacine with the plantation forest that now striated its flanks. Could it really survive here?

As the sky deepened to a velvety black, Craig strobed the treeline with a torch. There were secrets as well as possum eyes in the dark spaces between eucalyptus trunks. Suddenly, at the edge of our clearing, something twitched. A stoat-like animal froze in the torch’s beam then skittered into the bush – a spotted-tailed quoll.

“Amazing killing machines; the ultimate predators,” Craig said with admiration. “They’re only a few kilos, but they can pull down a wallaby.” With jaws that opened to 90 degrees and overlapping teeth, it was a distant relation of the thylacine colloquially known as a tiger quoll. “Been quite a few tiger sightings by quite a few people made around here.”

I’d lost my bearings way back on the unmarked dirt roads. “Good,” said Craig. “I don’t want loads of people running around with traps and cameras. If the tiger’s up here, let him be. That’s what I reckon.” Another Tasmanian secret was safe.
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Originally posted 7/4/07

Tasmanian Tiger: Not Extinct!

Australian wildlife scientists have re-opened the cryptic case of the Tasmanian tiger, a marsupial carnivore that resembled a striped coyote and which was last seen alive more than 70 years ago.

Scientists think chances are slim that Thylacinus cynocephalus still roams remote areas of Tasmania, the large island just south of Australia, but they can’t help but turn over every possible leaf for evidence.

The last wild Tasmanian tiger was killed by a farmer around 1930, and the last captive died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania’s capital. Fifty years later, the species was declared extinct.

The extinction marked the end of the family Thylacinidae, and of the world’s largest marsupial carnivore. The Tasmanian tiger weighed about 65 pounds, had a nose-to-tail length of six feet and had several vertical stripes running across its lower back and tail.

Despite the official extinction, rumored sightings of the creature have continued to emerge from Tasmania’s temperate forests.

Zoologist Jeremy Austin of the Australian Center for Ancient DNA and his colleagues are examining DNA from animal droppings, or scats, found in Tasmania in the late 1950s and 1960s, which have been preserved in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

Eric Guiler, a thylacine expert who found the scats, told Austin the droppings probably came from a Tasmanian tiger rather than a dog or two common related marsupial carnivores — the well-known wolverine-like Tasmanian devil and the cat-like spotted quoll.

“If we find thylacine DNA from the 1950s scats it will be significant,” Austin said. “This would prove that either the thylacine produced the scat or a [Tasmanian] devil ate a thylacine and dropped the scat. Either way, that is proof that the thylacine was there at the time.”

If they were to find evidence the Tasmanian tiger was still extant in the 1950s, that would mean the beast was able to stay hidden from humans for at least 20 or 30 years.

“If they could survive this long with no real physical proof, then it does add a little more hope to the possibility that they could survive another 50 years without ever being caught, killed [or] hit by a car,” Austin told LiveScience. “This chance is of course not great, but the glimmer of hope is ever so slightly brighter.”

NOTE: The search for the thylacine has interested me for a long time. Here are a few links to other postings…Lon

On the Hunt for the Elusive Tasmanian Tiger

Are There Thylacines In Victoria?

Nick Mooney: We Still Receive at Least Two Credible Thylacine Sightings a Year

Thylacine DNA Restored To Life

New High-Tech Search For Thylacine, Large Cats After Recent Sheep Maulings

Resurrecting the Thylacine: Does it Exist or Will Science Help?

New Tasmanian Tiger Sighting Reported

Is Cannock Chase Panther a wild wolf?

Jan 22 2010

http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2010/01/22/is-cannock-chase-panther-a-wild-wolf-66331-25661678/

A new wave of sightings of a mysterious creature in the area has led to suggestions the fabled Chase Panther could, in fact, be a wild wolf.

Over the past decade, many eyewitnesses claim to have spied a big cat prowling the vast undergrowth of Cannock Chase – The Sunday Mercury even sent reporter Jonny Dangerous out to find the beast.

But this year, residents who have caught a glimpse of the Chase Beast claim the creature is more lupine than feline.

Resident Peter Derbyshire said he saw a wolf-like creature while driving near Pottal Pool.

“I was driving through the trees in the direction of Stafford when I saw something dark moving amongst the bushes on the right hand side of the car,” he said.

“I slowed down to get a better look. It was probably about 80 metres away. It was aware I had slowed down, but did not seem too fussed. It disappeared into the bushes and I lost sight of it.

“It was definitely not a cat, it had more of a dog’s characteristics. It had a long nose and sharp, pointy ears.

“It looked much larger than a dog, though – it had a long back and was dark black in colour.

“It could have been a wolf. It was certainly wolf-like. I think people may have been seeing this creature and believing they had seen a panther.

“It is quite a shock when you see it moving through the trees, because it is so large.”

Peter’s comments back up those of resident Jane McNally, who saw a wolf-like creature while out walking on the Chase.

“I was walking with my partner and his dog,” Jane said.

“We put the dog back on the lead as we thought in the distance there was an enormous ‘dog.’ As we approached the animal we realised this wasn’t a dog and it just stared at us for a while – I said I thought it looked like a fox, but the size of a lioness. It then turned into the wooded area, and we proceeded to walk on.

“As it turned its long, bushy black tipped tail, we realised it was definitely not a dog.

“I have just logged onto the net and went onto images of wolves, and can honestly say whatever we saw yesterday was the closest thing to a wolf.”

Wallaby goes on the run on Motoway

Motorway traffic was brought to a standstill in Blackpool on Sunday as police attempted to catch an escaped wallaby.
The animal, which is privately owned, was seen bouncing down a road near to Junction 4 of the M55. Police slowed traffic while RSPCA inspectors attempted to catch the animal.
A Lancashire Police helicopter was also at the scene. The drama began at 8.55am after several motorists called 999. It ended four hours later when a vet was drafted in from Blackpool Zoo to sedate the wallaby with a tranquilliser dart.
The animal, which was cornered by police in a garden, is now safely back with its owner. Insp Alistair Campbell of Blackpool Police: “We had nine officers at the scene and the police helicopter was also deployed. We slowed traffic on the motorway down to 30mph.
“Eventually we were able to usher the wallaby away from the M55. It’s fair enough to say we’ve never had a situation like this before. We had to consult the RSPCA to help us work out how to capture the wallaby.”
Wallabies are becoming increasingly popular as garden pets in Britain. Private orders for the marsupials, which are native to Australia and New Zealand, have jumped in recent years as landowners seek new ways of keeping their grass neat.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7012129/Wallaby-goes-on-run-on-motorway.html

Fresh Sighting of the Beast of Cannock Chase

Jane McNally has reported spotting a large canine creature on the hills of Cannock Chase.
Miss McNally was out walking on the Chase this week with her partner and their dog when they spotted what they believe was a wolf stalking the area.
“I was walking with my partner and his dog,” Jane told the Sunday Mercury.
“We put the dog back on the lead as we thought in the distance there was an enormous `dog.’ As we approached the animal we realised this wasn’t a dog and it just stared at us for a while – I said I thought it looked like a fox, but the size of a lioness – it then turned into the wooded area, and we proceeded to walk on.
“As it turned its long, bushy black tipped tail, we realised it was definitely not a dog.
“I have just logged onto the net and went onto images of wolves, and can honestly say whatever we saw yesterday was the closet thing to a wolf.”
The Chase has a long history of beast sightings, among other strange occurrences. The area has also been notorious for sightings of giant snakes and even subterranean stone age men prowling the area.

http://www.themorningstarr.co.uk/2010/01/15/fresh-sighting-of-the-beast-of-cannock-chase/