MelSkunk's stories

Raptor groups are worried that foolish parents might give children clamouring for a pet owl, like the one shown in the Harry Potter movie, a real owl.
Many raptor shelter and rescue groups have already started recieving calls from people looking for rare snowy owls, like Hedwig, the owl shown in the movie, and they fear an massive increase of unwanted owls in the wake of the film.


Unlike what the movie shows, owls in general are antisocial and hard to tame, need large spaces to fly, and have to be feed full mice and chicks to maintain health. Owl advocates are recommending parents adopt owls at zoos, or give their children stuffed owls instead.

Despite the best efforts of various national and international organizations, Brazil's National Network Against the Trafficking of Wild Animals (RENCTAS) estimate over 38 million wild animals are taken from the forests of that country every year.

Over 1 billion dollars are estimated to have been made by local traffickers each year through the sales of rare species to international collectors, most of whom live in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
Birds are the biggest trade item, making up 82% of caught animals, and most do not survive the trip.

For more information, read the article here at the BBC website, and for more on international bird trafficking specifically, read the World Parrot Trust site.

For all the amateur astromomers out there, this year's Leonid show promises to be spectacular.

In North America, the show will start at 11:00 pm EST on November 17th, and peak at 5:00 am EST. At 4000 meteors predicted per hour, that'll be pretty spectacular, but if you live in Australia, Japan or other parts of the Pacific rim, tune in at about 1:00 am to 4:00 am on the 19th because 8000 to 14000 are predicted per hour at that peak (but it'll be morning in North America, so we won't see them).

The Leonids peak every 33 years, but after next year (which will be marred by a full moon) we won't seen this sort of display until the end of the century, as the pattern is broken by Jupiter's effect on the comet trails that cause these yearly desplays.

Mayor Reinhard Reynisson of Husavik, Iceland, is looking into finding ways to solve his town's waste problem. A small fishing community, Husavik has a lot of guts and scales left over from it's local industry. Now he mayor thinks crocodiles may be the best answer.
Geothermal water already used by the town would make a good home for the wayward reptiles, and the packing plants and fish farms would keep them fed and busy. The crocs would also be likely to attrack tourists to the northern community.
Read the full article here.