Posted on 08/26/2002 9:38:13 AM PDT by Hugin
TORONTO- Scientists spent four months tracking by satellite the journey of a goose named Kerry that migrated 3,000 miles from Northern Ireland to the Canadian Arctic.
They finally found it last week - in an Inuit hunter's freezer.
"Kerry shot in Canada!" reads an Aug. 22 update on the migratory tracking project's Web site.
Kerry was one of six light-bellied Brent geese under study by Britain's Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the National Geographic Society.
When signals from Kerry's satellite transmitter showed he had moved from one Arctic island to another and then stopped, the researchers asked Canadian wildlife officers to help find the goose.
An initial search in the wetlands near Resolute Bay found nothing, the Web site reported.
"However, as they reached the town the transmission signals became stronger and, with the help of the local Wildlife Conservation Officer, they tracked the transmitter to the home of a hunter," said the Web site report.
"The hunter admitted that he had shot Kerry on Bathurst Island on July 22 had brought the goose back home with him," it said. "This explains why we saw Kerry's transmitter move from Bathurst Island to Cornwallis Island at the end of July."
Of the six birds the project tracked, only three are still sending signals, according to the Web site.
Perfect place for my parrot joke:
Jimmy received a parrot for Christmas. The parrot was fully grown, with a very bad attitude and worse vocabulary. Every other word was an expletive; those that weren't expletives were, to say the least, rude.
Jimmy tried to change the bird's attitude by constantly saying polite words, playing soft music...anything he could think of. Nothing worked.
He yelled at the bird, and the bird got worse. He shook the bird, and the bird got madder and more rude.
Finally, in a moment of desperation, Jimmy put the parrot in the freezer.
For a few moments he heard the bird swearing, squawking, kicking and screaming and then, suddenly, there was absolute quiet.
Jimmy was frightened that he might have actually hurt the bird, and quickly opened the freezer door. The parrot calmly stepped out onto Jimmy's extended arm and said, "I'm sorry that I offended you with my language and my actions, and I ask your forgiveness. I will endeavor to correct my behavior."
Jimmy was astounded at the changes in the bird's attitude and was about to ask what had changed him, when the parrot continued, "May I ask what the chicken did?"
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