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Tags: Caribbean Travel / Hermit Crabs / Crab Races / Hurricane Frederic / Wild Animal Travel / → All Tags
It's Crab Racing Season in the Caribbean
True story: in 1979, I went on a vacation with my parents and sister to the Caribbean island of St. Maarten, and our timing couldn't have been worse. The day after we landed, Hurricane Frederic began lashing the island with rain, and we spent three long, boring days playing charades in our darkened hotel room as water leaked from the ceiling. By the time the storm had passed, our vacation was over, and we made arrangements to fly back home. A rush of people doing the exact same thing, however, necessitated one more night in a hotel near the airport, and while killing time there I noticed a sign advertising crab races at a certain time and place in the hotel. My eight-year-old mind thought that nothing could be cooler than a crab race, and I insisted that we all gather to witness the spectacle. Sadly, the appointed time came and went with nary a crab in sight. The hurricane had ruined the last hope I had to have fun in St. Maarten.
Tags: Wild Animal Travel / Panama Travel / Weird Travel / Monster Travel / → All Tags
New 'Montauk Monster' Crawls Out Of Cave In Panama, Freaks Everyone Out
Last summer, the world was fascinated by the mysterious corpse of the Montauk Monster, a scraggly-looking creature whose body washed up on the shores of Montauk, Long Island. it was unidentifiable as any certain species, but boy did it put Montauk back on the map.
This summer had almost ended without such a grisly discovery, until some children playing outside of Panama City came upon an odd, hairless creature crawling out from a cave. As the ugly thing crawled towards them, they "feared for their safety" and beat it to death with "sticks." They then returned shortly after to take pictures of the (now dead) creature, which of course hit the internet like gangbusters. Kids are so cruel these days, jeez.
Tags: Dangerous Travel / Wild Animal Travel / Sharks / Cape Cod Travel / Beach Travel / → All Tags
Late-Summer Arrival To Cape Cod Beaches: Sharks!
After a quiet summer, the sharks are taking their revenge: The normally bucolic beaches of Cape Cod have been cruised by up to 20 sharks looking for a delicious seal dinner and scaring the living daylights out of the last summer's swimmers.
There has not been a fatal, unprovoked shark attack in U.S. waters since last year, and no attacks recorded this year in Massachusetts at all. But a seal colony in the town of Chatham, Mass. has caused the city to close their beaches indefinitely since Labor Day because great whites can't resist those baby seals—and both species are protected, so they can't be moved from their habitats anyway.
Tags: Wild Animal Travel / Movie Travel / Dolphins / → All Tags
Feel-Bad Travel: 'The Cove' Makes Us Want to Apologize to Flipper
Did you ever go to an aquarium or amusement park as a kid and watch a dolphin show? Did you clap your hands and squeal with glee as the beautiful, smiling animals performed amazing feats of athleticism and intelligence? You did? Well you are an awful, awful person! That's because by supporting venues that use trained dolphins, you're contributing to the barbaric practice of dolphin harvesting that goes on in the coastal town of Taiji, Japan. According to a new documentary called The Cove, 23,000 dolphins are brutally slaughtered there every year in the search for a handful of dolphins that are deemed attractive enough to be trained for amusement parks and other entertainment experiences. The rest become mercury-tainted food.
Tags: Bears / Wild Animal Travel / Camping / Gadgets / → All Tags
New York Bears Prove Smarter than Average, Learn to Open High-Tech Pic-A-Nic Baskets
The bears of California are never going to hear the end of this one. The New York Times is reporting that a group of bears in the Adirondack Mountains has figured out how to open the BearVault 500, a high-tech, supposedly bear-proof container that campers use to safeguard their food in the wilderness. The double-tabbed lid of the BearVault functions like a child-proof top to a medicine bottle, requiring a certain amount of dexterity and intelligence to figure out. It's the latest thinking in bear country food protection, as the old "hang your food high in a tree using a rope" trick is no match for a crafty bear. But New York bears, being mentally superior to other bears, have cracked the BearVault code, which has stymied bears elsewhere in the country.
Tags: Aquariums / Wild Animal Travel / Octopuses / → All Tags
Cephalopods Gone Wild: Crafty Octopus Causes Flood in Santa Monica
Prepare to welcome your new octopus overlords. Workers at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium are mopping up after a curious female California two-spotted octopus loosened a valve in its tank on Thursday, releasing at least 200 gallons (757 liters) of seawater onto the brand new floor. National Geographic reports that such behavior is typical among octopuses, due to their unique combination of strength, dexterity, curiosity, and intelligence. In other words, be very afraid.
Tags: Wildlife / Wild Animal Travel / Monkey Butlers / → All Tags
Beach Party Sunday: Puerto Rico Fighting Hordes of Herpetic Monkeys
It's cold and wet in New York today, the first day of winter, and the mind wanders to thoughts of warm tropical paradises. A trip to Puerto Rico sure would be nice. Icy rum cocktails, gentle turquoise waters, soft white sand, and the constant threat of attack by hordes of diseased monkeys. Did somebody say beach party?
Too bad the Puerto Rican government wants to capture and kill all the monkeys. According to local rangers, the monkeys are an invasive species - having originally escaped from a secret research facility nearly forty years ago - and they pose a serious threat to native flora and fauna, agriculture, and even people.
That's right, some of these randy primates have herpes and hepatitis. Fun!
Tags: Outdoor Travel / Active Travel / Wildlife / Wild Animal Travel / → All Tags
Green Cay Wetlands Preserve: The Place to Get Your Gator Fix in West Palm
We were recently in West Palm Beach, Florida, visiting family and looking for fun stuff to do. There's not much in the way of active pursuits beyond golf, tennis, and bridge in this part of Florida, but if you can peel yourself off the wicker for an hour or two, there is one suburban excursion that we heartily endorse. Green Cay Wetlands and Nature Center is located right in the middle of Boynton Beach, offering a snippet of beautiful wilderness amid the housing developments and shopping centers.
Created in 2005 from a farm that would have otherwise been turned into more housing, Green Cay (pronounced "key") attracts a surprising amount of wildlife, with birds like swallows, ducks, and herons and land-based animals such as turtles, marsh rabbits, and even the odd bobcat prowling around. As is always the case with Florida wildlife, everybody's on the lookout for one of the four alligators that patrol the marshy environment, like this adolescent beast (pictured) we encountered while taking a sunset loop around the 1.5-mile elevated boardwalk. We were hoping he'd chomp the oblivious bird who walked right past his snout, but he didn't move a muscle.
In keeping with the neighborhood, a "hike" at Green Cay is about as easy as hiking gets while still technically fitting the definition of a long walk for pleasure or exercise. That's just fine with us. Coming from New York, it's nice to take things slow and easy for a change.
[Photo: Victor Ozols]
Related Stories:
· Green Cay Wetlands [Official Site]
· Outdoor Travel Coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Where Is / Celeb Travel / Britney Spears / Wild Animal Travel / → All Tags
The Gator Farm Britney Spears Took Her Kids To?
Britney Spears, son Jayden James and sister Jamie Lynn Spears visited Kliebert's Turtle & Alligator Tours yesterday. Hey, Jayden James has already had one brush with danger this week, how about another?
The singer, who also brought her mom, her assistants and older son Sean Preston with her, was on duty this weekend when Jayden was hospitalized for an allergic reaction to some shellfish he ate at a family barbecue. (It was the first time Spears was allowed to take her children out of California per her custody agreement with Kevin Federline. Rough break!)
The kid's fine, clearly, but why tempt fate again by showing him the "literally thousands of alligators" at Kliebert's in Hammond, just south of Britney's hometown of Kentwood? We're just no fun and we don't like giant-jawed animals. But Jamie Lynn would probably prefer to be around gators than the paparazzi, who has been ribbing her over a perceived baby bump which suggests daughter Maddie may be a big sister.
Related Stories:
· The Truth About Jayden's Health Scare [OK! Magazine]
· K-Fed Won't Use Jayden's Allergy Against Britney [iVillage Daily Blabber]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Britneypictures.org]
