Free Republic

The recent discovery of two beavers sighted along Matadero Creek in Palo Alto could be a sign of a major comeback for the species in the Bay Area. Naturalist Bill Leikam, who is the co-founder and president of the Urban Wildlife Research Project, captured trail camera footage of the semiaquatic rodents wandering along the waterway late last month, as the Mercury News first reported. He set up the cameras after he had been tipped off by a resident who claimed to have seen one while they were meditating on the side of the creek, and sure enough, there they were...

Click the following link: Two Billion Rats of Lake Dongting

They live in the forests and limestone outcrops of Laos. With long whiskers, stubby legs and a long, furry tail, they are rodents but unlike any seen before by wildlife scientists. They are definitely not rats or squirrels, only vaguely like a guinea pig or a chinchilla. And they often show up in Laotian outdoor markets being sold for food. There, visiting scientists came upon the animals and determined that they represented a rare find: an entire new family of wildlife. The discovery was announced Wednesday by the Wildlife Conservation Society and described in a report in the journal Systematics...