Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Animals: On the rampage! (local edition)

I blame global warming.

  • Bear tries to break into Springs Circuit City:

    A startled bear — perhaps hungry for a plasma TV — broke into a Circuit City store in Colorado Springs this morning.

    "It's been pretty jumping this morning," said Circuit City supervisor Dawn Greene, who was inside the store during the 7:13 a.m. bear break-in.

    The ursine intruder shattered a glass sliding door to enter a customer pickup area and cracked a second glass door, before fleeing into a nearby residential neighborhood and disappearing.

    Check out the video. The poor bear looks through the windows like a homeless waif at a toy store.

  • Also in Colorado Springs, Search ends for "African lion":

    The search for an African lion on the plains east of Colorado Springs was called off Monday afternoon after reported sightings in the morning caused quite a stir among residents.

    But the mystery remains: What is out there?

    If you look at the picture, it's clearly a big dog. Mystery solved!

  • Hungry, hungry hippo: Hippotamus bites Denver zoo worker:

  • A veteran worker at the Denver Zoo suffered a hand puncture wound Monday when a hippopotamus chomped down during routine dental training.

    The keeper was bitten about 9:45 a.m. in the outdoor hippo exhibit as she and colleagues were doing desensitizing training on Mahali, a 5-year-old male, to make dental work more comfortable for the hippo.

    Interesting fact or figure:

    Bite: Few measurements have been made of the precise strength of a hippo's bite, but they have been known to crush small boats in their jaws. . . .

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