THERE have been some fantastic animal stories in the news this week.
The newspaper “silly season” must be well and truly upon us, the time during the summer when papers are a little thin on hard news and have to pad out pages with humorous and human interest tales.
It made me smile and reminded me of my days 20 years ago as a cub reporter on a weekly newspaper in South Yorkshire.
Its “animal-mad” editor sent me out every Thursday morning to find a good animal picture story for the front page.
Some of the more amusing tales I found included a guard cat from one of the region’s less affluent villages.
Then there was a dedicated dog which went to school every day and learned how to open the main door and find his owner; pre-intercom and security coding on school access doors, of course.
A couple of stories that took my eye this week were about a rare frog with a northern accent and a disabled tortoise which has received a little human help to get its love life back on track.
The pool frog was recently reintroduced to a secret site in the UK and is now to receive legal protection to ensure its survival
The species with a northern croak – whatever that sounds like – dates back to 1000 AD at Saxon sites in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
The last native pool frog died in the 1990s in Norfolk.
A more amorous future is guaranteed for Arava, the tortoise who was struggling to find love after her back legs packed in.
So staff at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo fitted the four-stone shelled one with a board so she can get close up and personal with a new mate.
Already a pairing with a 10-year-old male is moving along nicely.
