So long, Mary; hello, Terry. Cleveland zoo tortoise, thought female for 50-plus years, turns out to be male

A tortoise's zookeepers in Cleveland are the ones feeling slow because after more than 50 years, they've discovered "Mary" is actually a male. Officials at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo say it can be tough to establish the sex of a giant Aldabra tortoise because the reproductive organs normally aren't visible. But Mary's maleness was unexpectedly revealed earlier this month during a routine exam.

Spokesman Tom O'Konowitz said Wednesday that the zoo has decided to rename the tortoise Terry.

When the 400-pound reptile arrived at the zoo in 1955, it was assumed he was a she because of a flatter shell, shorter tail and all-around smaller size than most males.

The tortoise is estimated to be between 75 and 100 years old.

-- Associated Press

Photo: Mary, now Terry, at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.  Credit: Associated Press

Your morning adorable: Clever tortoise's home invasion strategy

We couldn't believe our eyes when we first saw this video; once we convinced ourselves that what we were seeing was real, all we could think was that we've been entirely too lax in dismissing reptiles as potential home-invasion threats.  (We're only marginally comforted by the fact that, should one of these creatures manage to break in and steal something from us, we could probably catch up with it.)

We're deeply impressed by this crafty tortoise and its deft maneuvering of its front legs! 

-- Lindsay Barnett

Video: Pettubedotcom via YouTube

82 sea turtles hatch without human help at SeaWorld

The population of endangered green sea turtles at SeaWorld in San Diego grew by 82 in October when the eggs hatched on Shipwreck Beach without human help.

There hasn't been such happy turtle news at SeaWorld since 2003, when 21 sea turtles got an assist from park staff, said Tim Downing, assistant curator of fishes.

This time, the park let nature take its course and didn't incubate the eggs. The babies started poking through their ping pong-sized eggs on Oct. 5. Since then, they have been getting a diet of squid, krill, shrimp and special pellets.

The birth of the baby turtles was announced Monday. Downing said they are in excellent health and should go on display at the park before the end of the year.

It will be up to the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the new turtles stay at SeaWorld and whether they will allow the turtles to mate again next year, he said.

SeaWorld has 30 adult sea turtles in its collection, including three green females and one male. They have all been at the park since the 1960s so they are around 40 or 50 years old, or middle age for the creatures, which live to be well past 100 years.

Rare tree frog, monitor lizard, rodent and others added to ever-growing endangered list

A rare tree frog found only in central Panama could soon croak its last, as deforestation and infection push the species toward extinction, an environmental group said Tuesday.

The Rabb's fringe-limbed tree frog, which only became known to science four years ago, is one of 1,895 amphibian species that could soon disappear in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Switzerland-based IUCN surveyed a total of 47,677 animals and plants for this year's "Red List" of endangered species and determined that 17,291 of them are threatened with extinction.

More than one in five of all known mammals, over a quarter of reptiles and 70 percent of plants are under threat, according to the survey, which featured over 2,800 new species compared with 2008.

"These results are just the tip of the iceberg," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, who manages the list. He said "many more millions" of species that have yet to be assessed could also be under serious threat.

No way! Man caught smuggling pythons and lizards taped to his body in Norway

Imagine the surprise of Norwegian customs official Helge Breilid when he randomly searched the luggage of a young man arriving from Denmark and found a tarantula. The creepy discoveries didn't stop there. Breilid then began searching the 22-year-old Norwegian and found 10 albino leopard geckos and 14 baby royal pythons.

According to the Associated Press, the creatures were individually housed in small bags that were taped to the legs and chest of the alleged smuggler.

The unusual apprehension happened Sunday during a routine customs check of passengers who had just arrived via ferry into Kristiansand.

New report explains largest turtle-related salmonella outbreak in the U.S.

Two girls who swam with pet turtles in a backyard pool were among 107 people sickened in the largest salmonella outbreak blamed on turtles nationwide, researchers report.

The 2007-08 outbreak involved mostly children in 34 states; one-third of all patients had to be hospitalized. In many cases, parents didn't know that turtles can carry salmonella.

Despite a 1975 ban on selling small turtles as pets, they continue to be sold illegally.

The American Veterinary Medical Assn. estimates that the number of pet turtles nationwide doubled from 950,000 in 1996 to almost 2 million in 2006.

"It's very easy to think of turtles as being a very gentle and nice pet," but many carry salmonella, without showing any signs, said Julie Harris, a scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the report's lead author.

Salmonella in turtle feces can end up on their shells and body, and can spread to people who handle them.

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck throws a frog in boiling water (maybe)

We're not quite sure we can actually believe our eyes -- but it seems that Fox News host Glenn Beck has thrown a live frog into boiling water on his television program.

"You know the old saying ... if you put a frog into boiling water, he's gonna jump right out because he's scalding hot, but if you place the frog in lukewarm water and gradually raise the temperature, the frog won't realize what's happening and die," Beck said to his primarily conservative audience.  "Let me get the frogs." 

The camera showed his hand feeling around in an aquarium.  Apparently having grabbed one ("Okay... All right ... So you have the little frogs.  You have the little frogs here"), Beck turned back to the camera and steered the conversation, predictably, to a favorite topic: the president. "Barack Obama has galvanized the country because of the sheer size of the bills he's proposed, and the number of the bills, the urgency he's been placing on the bills, he's forced us to think and get involved," Beck said before inserting a comparison between Republicans and said frogs in boiling  water. 

That was the wind-up. The pitch -- quite literally, Beck threw a small item that his audience was left to assume was a live animal into a pot topped by rising steam -- was apparently not quite what he had in mind.  When no tiny object leaped from the water (the dramatic effect one would assume he was trying to achieve), Beck gazed curiously at the rising steam before turning once more to the camera. 

Turtle whose front legs were amputated gets around with the aid of furniture sliders

Make all the jokes you want about the ironically named Lucky, the box turtle whose front legs were amputated following what his owner believes was an attack by a rampaging raccoon. Lucky won't hear you; he's too busy skidding about on his furniture-slider "legs."

Lucky's owner, Sally Pyne, had created a veritable wonderland for Lucky and her other box turtle, Lovey, in the yard of the Petaluma home she shares with a roommate.  For the summer months, Pyne gave the turtles an outdoor enclosure measuring 12 by 16 feet, complete with a pond and surrounded by a short fence.  Unfortunately for Lucky, the fence was designed to keep the turtles in rather than to keep other, more athletic animals out-- and Pyne suspects that one of these, a raccoon she'd seen in the yard previously, was drawn by the cat food she'd left out for another pet.  It came for the cat food and stayed for the dessert: box turtle.

"In most countries, when a raccoon bites a turtle’s front arms off in a vicious inter-species attack, that little hard-shelled fella would be all out of luck, assuming turtles understand the concept of fortune caused by accident or chance and/or Billy Zane," Best Week Ever's Michelle Collins quipped of Lucky's unfortunate run-in.

Pyne found Lucky seriously injured July 31.  Lovey hadn't been hurt in the attack, causing both Pyne and veterinary surgeon Dr. Robert Jereb to speculate that something -- perhaps a shell deformity or overly portly front legs -- prevented him from being able to withdraw his legs into his shell.  Jereb performed surgery to remove what was left of the turtle's legs, and Lucky was bandaged and given a slew of medications to prevent infection and ease his pain. 

Hungry iguana chows down

Photographer Petar Petrov captured this great shot of an iguana chowing down on cooled cucumber during an exotic animal exhibition in the Bulgarian town of Sevlievo earlier this week. Iguanas are herbivores, or more precicesly folivores, which eat primarily leaves.

According to exotic pet veterinarian Dr. Margaret Wissman, treats like cucumbers and other vegetables are fine for iguanas, as long as they don't make up more than 10% to 15% of the lizard's total food intake.  The lion's share of their diet should consist of "collard greens, turnip greens, mustard greens, bok choy, Swiss chard, clover, red or green cabbage, watercress, savoy, kohlrabi, dandelions, escarole, parsley and alfalfa pellets," Wissman writes. 

Fun fact: The green or common iguana's scientific name is simply Iguana iguana.  (It's not quite as fun to say as Gorilla gorilla gorilla, but we'll take it!)

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Petar Petrov / Associated Press

Indian villagers perform frog wedding to combat rain shortage

A severe rain shortage prompted villagers in the Indian state of West Bengal to fall back on an old tradition -- the frog wedding. The villagers pooled their money to pay for the wedding of two frogs named Ram and Sita, named for the two primary characters in the Sanskrit epic the Ramayana.  From Reuters:

Following an ancient Hindu belief, the frogs' heads were smeared with vermilion paint and the pair were held up in the air in a ritual in front of a traditional clay candle.

"We feted about 3,000 villagers and solemnized the marriage with every single ritual," Shobin Ray, head of a local council in Madhya Baragari village, about 750 km [470 miles] north of state capital Kolkata, told Reuters by phone.

As part of the ceremony, the nearby river was invited to join the celebration and asked for its blessing of the marriage, according to local custom.

India's monsoon season typically begins in early June, but the rains have been slow in coming to much of the country, leaving many residents who make their livings from agriculture struggling.

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Villagers solemnize a frog marriage as they pray for rain in the village of Gazole in West Bengal state, India. Credit: Associated Press