Free Republic

By Cole Waterman | Cole_Waterman@mlive.com JEROME TWP, MI — Despite a woman’s 911 call, police have confirmed there is not in fact a mythological creature roaming Midland County. About 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 1, a 40-year-old woman called 911 to say a Chupacabra and a capybara were inside and outside her apartment in the 1900 block of West Saginaw Road in Jerome Township, said Sheriff Myron Greene. “She’s reporting an animal out back. She believes possibly it could be a Chupacabra,” says a dispatcher in a Midland County Central Dispatch recording of the call. “What’s the animal?” an officer...

The lavish villas of Nordelta have for years hosted bucolic getaways for Argentina’s wealthy, protected in an enclave where industry titans and soccer stars seek escape from the torments of city life. Yet even an exclusive gated community can’t keep out the world’s biggest rodent. “The problem is that their population is out of control, and people are too scared to do anything. No one wants to look like they’re opposed to nature.” Mr. Iglesias’s lakeside garden gets a daily serving of jumbo scat ... The big rodents, which typically live in family units of as many as 40 animals,...

With many of the world's top golfers having already bowed out of this year's Olympic Games, those intrepid athletes brave enough to make the trip to Rio may be counting on an easier path to victory. While it's true that the likes of Jason Day, Jordan Speith and Dustin Johnson won't be a threat to the attending golfers' Olympic hopes this year, capybaras, mini crocodiles, monkeys, boa constrictors and other native wildlife will. The course that will host Olympic golf next Thursday is located in western Rio's Barra da Tijuca, an upscale neighborhood situated between two large lakes and on...

LUNENBURG— There’s still no sign of Capy. The escaped capybara, a large rodent native to South America, has been on the run since Tuesday. The animal escaped from Marshall Farm in Fitchburg, near the Lunenburg line, and was spotted Tuesday on the property of Frank and Debra McDonald of Northfield Road. The property abuts the Maplewood Golf Course. Maryann Benevento, who owns the public course with her husband, Joe, said the exotic herbivore known as Capy is probably enjoying his surroundings too much to head back home. “He’s probably happy as a clam out there with plenty of water and...