Free Republic

A unique and mysterious guinea-pig-sized rodent, not seen since 1898 despite several organized searches, bizarrely showed up at the front door of an ecolodge at a nature reserve in Colombia, South America. The magnificent red-crested tree rat (Santamartamys rufodorsalis), stayed for almost two hours while two research volunteers took the first photos ever of a creature the world thought would never be seen again. The charming nocturnal rodent made his re-debut to the world at 9:30PM on May 4, 2011 at the El Dorado Nature Reserve in the far north of the country. The Reserve was established in 2005 by...

A theme park has been forced to ban a daredevil squirrel from one of its rides as its antics posed a health and safety risk. The rodent was said to be causing headaches for operators at Alton Towers by getting in the way of improvement work on an attraction at the resort. Workers noticed it riding the revamped Sonic Spinball roller coaster as it was tested in the mornings and joining visitors who were offered an early go on it before the official opening. The grey-haired animal was also caught stealing food from the workers. A spokeswoman for the Staffordshire...