The Weather and Everyone's Health
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Animal News Digest
- It has been discovered that elephants, like only a few other species, can recognize that the reflection they see in a mirror is actually their own. I don't know about you, but I find that to be profoundly cool. I always liked elephants. The full paper was published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), which is nice because not only is it freely available online, but it's also fun to say.
- A 15-lb lobster, estimated to be 50 years old and bought by a restaurant for $150 was released back to the ocean, partly at the urging of the restaurant owner's young daughter. A point for all the Lisa Simpsons of the world! They actually held a raffle to decide the arthropod's fate, and thereby were able to free it without taking a financial loss. Of course, if the raffle winner had been someone else, the story wouldn't be so happy. Wasn't there a Saturday Night Live sketch like that?