Free Republic

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Federal authorities say California's $68 billion higher-speed rail could harm the protected kit fox.

With their little faces looking up to the camera, six breeds of foxes stand patiently awaiting their lunch. This is Fox Village, in Japan’s Miyagi prefecture, where for less than £4 (700 Japanese Yen) visitors are allowed entry and can feed the animals. Foxes are heralded in Japan, with many believing they have mystical powers, as well as others who believe they bring good luck as they descend from Inari Okami, the Shinto deity of fertility, prosperity and rice.

Do Foxes Have Magnetic Senses? by Brian Thomas, M.S. * During winter, red foxes hunt snow-covered mice without even seeing their prey—but how? Certainly, hearing plays a crucial role, but researchers from the Czech Republic and Germany found that European foxes pounce on mice much more successfully when facing north, leading them to suggest a more magnetic answer. Foxes may see more than what visible light reveals. The red fox find its prey—often buried as deep as three feet beneath the snow—not only when it faces north, but also when it faces the earth’s magnetic south pole. The fox first...

The parents of the children mauled by a fox are receiving police protection amid concern over threats from animal rights activists. Officers have been assigned to guard the family home and police liaison officers are in contact with Pauline and Nicolas Koupparis. Their nine-month-old twins Lola and Isabella suffered ‘life-changing injuries’ when they were savaged in their cots in Hackney, East London, a week ago. Scotland Yard said it was not aware of a specific threat against the family but admitted that there was ‘concern’ over inflammatory postings on social networking sites. Yesterday a woman phoned the Radio 4 programme...

There is an alert in Pennsylvania, Kentucky,and Maryland for rabies. If memory serves, the areas described in the bulletin are somewhat contiguous,and generally semi-rural.

/ By Geoff • March 20, 2009 Sometimes we see things so often that we simply forget to ask “why are they like that?” For instance, let’s take a closer look at domestic animals. Dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs - animals that we live with, and who couldn’t live without us.Common Traits What do all these domestic animals have in common? Now this isn’t a particularly subtle example, but that’s kind of the point. You can see that all of these domestic animals have large white patches - they’ve lost pigment in their coats in some areas. Why do...

Arctic Foxes Put Eggs in "Cold Storage" for Lean Times James Owen for National Geographic News October 29, 2007 Arctic foxes create "nest eggs" each year to prepare for leaner times, according to a new study. Like squirrels gathering nuts for the winter, the small foxes hoard bird eggs in case there's not enough of their favorite prey—the collard lemming—to go around in the spring. The stored eggs can last for up to a year after being buried, thanks to the Arctic permafrost and natural preservatives inside the eggs. "It appears as if cached eggs are used as a backup...

Julie Banderas is filling in for John Gibson today. Is anybody watching her? She is visibally upset about the comments made about President Bush by Chavez and The Iranian pipsqueek. I appreciate the fact that she kept ferering to president Bush as "Our Commander in Chief" and was angered that thse desopts can speak so freely in "our country" as she put it. It is good to see the there are some in the media with a sense of patriotism.

Tehran, Iran, May 04 – A senior Iranian military commander said on Thursday that no country would dare attack the Islamic Republic since Iran had “scientific knowledge” about the “enemies’ weak points”. “With the scientific knowledge obtained about the enemies’ weak points, no country would dare or has the capability to attack Iran”, Chief of the army’s Ground Forces, Brigadier General Mohammad-Hossein Dadress, said. His comments were reported by the state-run news agency Fars. In April, Dadress said that Iran’s missile capabilities would guarantee its “national interests”. “We do not need foreign support. We have an adequate missile capability which...

Did you know coyotes could climb trees?

There is apparently a spectacular new video tape of a bigfoot, that was shot in Manitoba, Canada. It will be shown today on Foxes "A Current Affair", along with commentary by bigfoot researchers. Supposedly people who are in total denial about Bigfoot have walked away after watching the tapes convinced that Bigfoot is real. I have seen a computer enhanced version of the Patterson video. The creature is clearly a female, with swinging breasts. Anyways, just a placemarker for interested folks.

Forget hounds - foxes could become man's newest best friend, as scientists have shown they can be tamed. After 45 years of breeding, tame foxes that wag their tails, greet humans with excited barks and look cute have been born in Siberia. The original foxes were all black, but the new critters have white patches, big floppy ears, and curly tails. The new foxes are also more curious, better at understanding humans, and less frightened of new things. The scientists bred about 45,000 foxes to get to the tame stage. When breeding the animals, they only chose them on how...

Urban foxes are attacking and killing pet cats because they are struggling to find enough food to eat in British towns and cities. Cat owners have reported an increasing number of attacks and pest control specialists say that the use of wheelie bins, rather than bin bags, for rubbish disposal is partly to blame because it has deprived many foxes of an easy source of food. There are no plans to start a cull of urban foxes Gordon Manson, a pest controller from Balerno, near Edinburgh, says that the number of fox-related calls he receives has doubled. "The population has...

Outfoxing London's legion of urban foxes Sun Nov 7, 3:36 PM ET Offbeat - AFP LONDON (AFP) - Mrs E Reynolds of Bexleyheath, southeast London, was truly in a state of shock. "Last night I sat in my living room and heard a strange noise. On investigating, I discovered a fox in my kitchen," she wrote to her local newspaper, the News Shopper, the other week. "It had wandered into the dining room and then the kitchen, through the French doors," she said. "Having helped itself to my husband's shoe it had come back for one of mine." "This is...

HUDDERSFIELD MP Barry Sheerman has defended his outspoken "no" vote to a ban on hunting. Taking a stand against the vast majority of his Labour colleagues, he was one of only three Government members who voted against the ban last week, amid turbulent scenes inside and outside the House of Commons. "I have always been someone who came into politics to fight for the rights of minorities," he said yesterday. Some political commentators believe the overwhelming ``yes" vote had a deeply political motive - to revenge Margaret Thatcher's treatment of the miners 20 years ago. Mr Sheerman said: "Although I...

Saturday, November 29, 2003 NMSU Biologist Wants Island's Eagles Evicted To Save Foxes By John FleckJournal Staff Writer    What can humans do when the needs of two threatened species clash?     In the case of eagles and foxes on California's Santa Cruz Island, one of the species has to go, according to a New Mexico State University biologist.     Golden eagles eat foxes, and even a few of the eagles pose a serious threat to the fox species, which is teetering on the brink of extinction, according to NMSU wildlife biologist Gary Roemer.     Island foxes are an endangered species,...

Maybe you really are what you eat. This would solve the long-time mystery of why so many of Guam's Chamorro people – up to a third per village -- suffered a devastating neurological disease. A new study suggests that they gorged on flying fox bats that in turn had feasted on neurotoxin-laden cycad seeds. "Through the consumption of cycad-fed flying foxes, the Chamorro people may have unwittingly ingested large quantities of cycad neurotoxins," say Clark Monson of the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Sandra Banack of California State University, Fullerton, and Paul Cox of the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kalaheo,...

LONDON (Reuters) - The British countryside came to town Sunday as around 400,000 rural protesters held one of the biggest marches of recent times in London to defend fox-hunting and their traditional ways of life. Reuters Photo Our Tech Section is growing! Check headlines for: Internet, Enterprise, Software and more... Technology News A vast spectrum of hunters, farmers, landowners and others -- many blowing hunting horns and dressed in country tweeds -- poured into London for the "Liberty and Livelihood" march from remote corners of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. "This is the people from the countryside coming together...