Lab Chimps Laugh And Hug At Taste Of Freedom

The emotional moment a group of chimpanzees saw daylight for the first time after being kept in a laboratory for their whole lives has been caught on film.

This video has no audio.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video#video=26544785

The video shows the animals edging out of the door hesitantly at first and looking curiously up at the sky.
But they then appear to celebrate their new found freedom by hugging each other and laughing.

The 38 chimps were taken from their mothers shortly after they were born and kept in a research facility in Austria.

They were used for tests based on diseases such as HIV and hepatitis and kept in isolation.

They were rescued in 1997 after the pharmaceutical company behind the research was sold and taken to a farm where keepers have since tried to reintroduce them to the outside world.

It is only now that experts felt the time was right and the chimps were ready to experience fresh air.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/lab-chimps-laugh-hug-taste-freedom-162813744.html

Stork baby delivery

The stork baby delivery service was working overtime to deliver these five babies to a nest in Burgenland, Austria, which experts are claiming is a sensation.

Stork expert Joachim Tajmel said: "I have once seen four storks born together, but five is really unique, it's great."

The quintuplet storks hatched out in the small Austrian village of Strem are just two weeks old and are yet to flee their nest.

Instead they enjoy looking at the view from their aerial nesting place. And waiting for their heard working parents to bring in fish, freshwater crabs and frogs.

The storks are expected to spread their wings and fly on their own by the middle of August - and will then migrate with their parents.

White Storks fly south from their summer breeding grounds in Europe in August and September, heading for Africa. There, they spend the winter on the savanna from Kenya and Uganda south to the Cape Province of South Africa

"In our region here in Austria we have great conditions for the storks, plenty of food that helps them survive and thrive even when there are five young."

Neighbour Marianne Geosits, who lives near the stork nest, is keeping a close eye on the hatchlings confimed nobody could remember ever having seen five babies in a single nest.

She said: "It is I hope a good sign and will bring good luck."

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/stork_nest_austria

Austrian frogs pinched by Italians (Via HerpDigest)

Austrian frogs pinched by Italians

BigPond News, April 20, 2011 -Austrian Wildlife authoritiesare hopping mad that efforts to save the local frog population are being hampered by Italian poachers.

Officials in southern Austrian province Carinthia say poachers are collecting frogs from the roadside buckets they have been guided into to save them from busy highways, and are then smuggling them home to Italian dinner tables.

Frogs' legs are a delicacy in some parts of Italy and officials have told Austrian state television that the victims tend to be those with the meatiest thighs.

Frogs attempting to cross some Austrian highways are channelled by a series of fences into roadside buckets. Once a day, volunteers collect the buckets and carry the amphibians to the other side of the road and set them free.

But 'the Italians strike before the frog pickers come', says Carinthian environmental official Bernhard Gutleb.

The delicacy can be costly. Officials warn that those caught with their hand in the bucket face fines up to 3600 euros ($A4889).

Nearly one third of the world's 6485 frog species are on the brink of extinction, according to Save The Frogs - a nonprofit organisation dedicated to amphibian conservation.
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Kitten causes havoc in police chase

A kitten caused havoc in Austria after going on the run from police, who had to dismantle a force car to rescue her. Police and firefighters were called to a Vienna suburb after residents heard desperate meowing and a night-long search ensued.

When the cat was discovered under the bonnet of a car, she sprang away from police and took refuge behind several cars until seemingly disappearing - until her meowing started again. The wayward animal's calls for help were traced to a police car.

It took half-an-hour's hard work boosting the car up on a jack before the cat was released from a small space inside the vehicle's floor panel.

http://latestnews.virginmedia.com/news/oddly_enough/2010/07/28/kitten_causes_havoc_in_police_chase

Lemurs back behind bars after crime spree

22 July 2010, 10:58

Two escaped lemurs have been returned to an Austrian zoo after embarking on a week-long crime spree.

The duo hot-footed it from Salzburg's Hellbrunn Zoo by dashing out of the door when their keeper walked in.

CEN reports that they celebrated their freedom by attacking local residents' washing lines, turning over garden furniture, stealing fruit and harassing domestic pets, before winding up in a hotel bar.

Hotel manager Andreas Hasenohrl said: "I couldn't believe it when I came in for work in the morning. It looked like they were looking for something to drink.

"They were playing with the bottles, but I gave them a banana instead and quickly shut all the doors and windows."

Keepers were then able to recapture the law-breaking primates, and have since renamed them King Julien and Maurice, after the ruler of the lemurs and his trusty sidekick in the film Madagascar.

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Lemurs_back_behind_bars_after_crime_spree