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Squirrel breeding is a real job—and apparently a very dangerous one if you're dealing with the wrong kind of squirrel. After the mysterious deaths of three German men who all worked as breeders of variegated squirrels—a kind of squirrel native to Central America that's sometimes kept as an exotic pet—researchers have identified a new virus that had apparently jumped from the squirrels to the men, LiveScience reports. The men, who were in their 60s and regularly socialized together, died between 2011 and 2013 from inflammation of the brain, and researchers say at least two of them had been scratched or...

Authorities have arrested the man who was seen taking in a tiger that was spotted roaming loose in a Houston neighborhood on Sunday. That tiger, whose name is India, has yet to be located. Multiple police sources identified the man as 28-year-old Victor Cuevas. Cuevas, who is currently out on bond on an unrelated murder charge, is known to possess several exotic animals. The search for Cuevas began Sunday after he evaded police. But on Monday, he was taken into custody to the Fort Bend County jail. He was supposed to turn himself in at 8:15 p.m. at the Harris...

HUNTERDON COUNTY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – A tiny parasite could become a big problem this year in New Jersey. It’s an exotic tick that’s never been seen before in the United States. It was first spotted on a sheep in Hunterdon County, and efforts to wipe it out have failed. New Jersey has always been home to different species of ticks – five to be exact. But a new variety of the bloodsucking bug is now in the mix. It’s the East Asian tick, sometimes called a longhorned or bush tick. Originally found in Asia, thousands of them are now in...

UVALDE, Tex. — On a ranch at the southwestern edge of the Texas Hill Country, a hunting guide spotted her cooling off in the shade: an African reticulated giraffe. Such is the curious state of modern Texas ranching, that a giraffe among the oak and the mesquite is an everyday sort of thing. “That’s Buttercup,” said the guide, Buck Watson, 54. In a place of rare creatures, Buttercup is among the rarest; she is off limits to hunters at the Ox Ranch. Not so the African bongo antelope, one of the world’s heaviest and most striking spiral-horned antelopes, which roams...

The family's veterinarian also says the same thing. But Aurora Animal Control thinks Capone is a wolf-hybrid. "It's been real painful," 11-year-old Ciara Abbato said. "Our German shepherd, Capone, got out Feb. 24. He jumped the fence. It’s the first time in the seven years we’ve lived here," said Capone’s owner, Tracy Abbato. Aurora Animal Control picked up Capone that day, but turned away his family when they tried taking him home. "They say he is a hybrid-wolf now and don't want to release (him) back to us because he is an exotic animal,” Abbato said. The city ran a...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species native to India and Pakistan are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say they are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve. The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the...

You don't have to go to Africa to hunt exotic animals. In fact, Texas may have more of some endangered exotics than live in the wild. That's because breeding them is a billion dollar business in Texas, where over 100 species roam large ranches and can be hunted for sport. The hunters and the ranchers they pay to hunt the trophy animals say the money generated by hunting these animals is helping to save them. They claim only 10 percent of any species can be killed annually. But to animal rights people fighting to shut them down, they're nothing more...

CAPE CORAL -- Gregg Klowden and Zach Reffner wage war against lizards. BIG ones. In the battle to rid Southwest Florida of the 7-foot invader known as the Nile monitor, speed is essential. "The lizards can climb a tree like a shot out of hell, swim like a fish and outrun a man," said Klowden, a University of Florida-trained biologist. "They do everything but fly." These über lizards, first spotted in Cape Coral in 1990, have taken to the Florida sun so well that they're thriving. Because the rapacious reptiles are such skilled hunters, biologists worry they will devastate endangered...

RIVERSIDE, California (AP) - As many as 30 tigers and other big cats were found dead along with 58 dead cubs discovered in a freezer during a raid at a house, authorities said. John Weinhart, who owns the nonprofit organization Tiger Rescue, was arrested Tuesday, officials said. Weinhart previously has been accused of improperly caring for tigers at his animal sanctuary in nearby Colton, Calif. Also arrested Tuesday was Weinhart's wife, Marla Smith, and the couple's veterinarian, Wendelin Ringel. Weinhart and Smith were booked for investigation of child endangerment, since 13 tiger and leopard cubs - some as young as...