Free Republic

Suffolk Owl Sanctuary Yesterday at 12:00 AM · This soggy little owl was found in a ditch a few weeks ago. Usually in these instances we assume injury of sorts that is preventing the owl from flying - occasionally becoming wet causes them to become grounded too - so you can imagine our surprise that when we examined her, we found her to simply be extremely obese! Upon weighing her, she was a rather chunky 245g (which is roughly a third heaver than a large healthy female little owl) and she was unable to fly effectively due to the fatty...

Epigenetic changes affect neurotransmitters that lead to pair-bond formation. Love really does change your brain — at least, if you’re a prairie vole. Researchers have shown for the first time that the act of mating induces permanent chemical modifications in the chromosomes, affecting the expression of genes that regulate sexual and monogamous behaviour. The study is published today in Nature Neuroscience1. Prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) have long been of interest to neuroscientists and endocrinologists who study the social behaviour of animals, in part because this species forms monogamous pair bonds — essentially mating for life. The voles' pair bonding, sharing...

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- A rodent -- type and origin unknown -- eluded capture after invading U.S. President Barack Obama's speaking space in the Rose Garden. Obama was commenting on the Senate's passage of financial reform legislation Thursday when the varmint burst through the shrubbery, scurried in front of the presidential podium, then disappeared in some bushes, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Witnesses said the rodent began its run from the right and exited on the left. The critter's political views were not known.

Rodent Scurries By as Obama Lauds Wall Street Vote May 20, 2010 WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the midst of his battle with the titans of Wall Street, President Barack Obama was nearly upstaged by a rodent. Obama had just begun a Rose Garden statement lauding the end of a Senate filibuster on his financial overhaul when some kind of rodent dashed out of the bushes to his right, just outside the Oval Office. As photographers snapped away in the sun-drenched garden, the critter scurried straight past the gray podium with the presidential seal and made a bee-line for another set...

<p>LOWELL, Ore. -- They're still here, on plywood platforms and under blue tarps, watching the forest from the treetops and waiting for word that their efforts have paid off.</p> <p>Four years ago two young men climbed 180 feet up an old-growth Douglas fir in the Willamette National Forest to block plans to log 96 acres of timber. Protesters say they've been there every day since, making it the longest continuous tree-sit against old-growth logging in the Northwest.</p>