WebClawer: Siegfried & Roy perform final show with tiger that mauled Roy; National Zoo discovers weeks-old elephant-shrew

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From tigers to elephant-shrews to parrots to goats, it’s a wild day in the animal kingdom:

-- Magicians Siegfried & Roy performed what they say was their final show Saturday (with PETA on hand to protest). Also performing during their farewell act? Montecore, the white tiger who bit and severely injured Roy in 2003. (Roy believes Montecore was actually trying to drag him to safety by picking him up by the neck, as a mother tiger would carry her offspring.) The tiger’s presence in the show ‘was closure.... This was the dot at the end of the sentence,’ said Bernie Yuman, the duo’s manager. Las Vegas Review Journal

-- Zookeepers at Washington’s National Zoo recently discovered a previously unknown zoo resident: a baby black and rufous giant elephant-shrew who’d been hidden for about three weeks. Keepers ‘did not know it had been born until they saw three elephant-shrews in the exhibit instead of two,’ although the newcomer is believed to have been born in late January. The zoo said it’s typical for baby elephant-shrews to remain out of sight for several weeks. Elephant-shrews are not actually shrews, but are distantly related to elephants. They’re native to eastern Africa and are considered vulnerable to extinction. Washington Post

-- A South Milwaukee family is fighting the health department over a pet Nigerian dwarf goat who lives in their home; the Krug family says Gigi the goat is ‘not really a goat. She’s part of our family.’ The health department argues that, family member or not, Gigi is a farm animal. The Krugs have circulated a petition and say they’re willing to pay for an exotic pet permit, but fear that Gigi would do poorly if relocated to a farm where she’d have limited human contact. The Krugs say Gigi enjoys watching Jerry Springer and lounging on a recliner. ‘She’s just so important to us. I hate telling people I have a goat in my house because they look at me like Elly May Clampett. But it’s not like that,’ said Gail Krug. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

-- Maryland resident Brian Wilson was told by doctors that he’d never fully regain the power of speech following a severe head injury. But he says that his pet parrots ‘just kept talking to me and talking to me.... Then all of a sudden, a word popped out, then two, then more.’ To give back, Wilson opened his home to rescued birds in need of new homes through his Wilson Parrot Foundation. ‘You wonder why I rescue birds? They helped me to talk again, so now I take care of them,’ he explained. Telegraph

-- Lindsay Barnett