UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Four-legged duck down to two legs

BRAMSHAW, England, May 2 (UPI) -- A duck that was born in England with four legs now has the usual number of limbs after it lost its third leg in an accident and the fourth fell off.

Stumpy, a 14-month-old resident of Warrawee Duck Farm, lost his third leg last year after it became stuck in a fence surrounding his pen and had to be removed, The Telegraph reported Friday.

The remaining spare limb recently fell off after turning black, leaving the duck with only a pair of stumps where its extra legs used to be, tucked under the legs it uses.

"A couple of weeks ago we noticed Stumpy's spare leg had started to change color," farm owner Nicky Janaway, 44, told The Telegraph. "We kept an eye on it but it got more and more black. When I got Stumpy out of bed at 6 a.m. his leg was still there but in the afternoon it was gone."

Janaway said Stumpy doesn't seem to notice the absence of the spare legs.

"He has probably caught it on something while walking about the farm," Janaway said. "He isn't in pain and he's completely oblivious to the fact that he now just has two legs."

Alligator eludes trappers near school

WINDERMERE, Fla., May 2 (UPI) -- Florida wildlife officials said they hope that an alligator last seen heading into a pond next to a school will move on of its own accord.

The alligator, believed to be a 10- to 12-foot male, has eluded trappers since Wednesday, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Friday. A 7-foot female was trapped in the pond next to the Windermere Elementary School.

The female had been reported several times in the past year. Windermere Police Chief Dan Saylor said trappers decided she was too big to move elsewhere, so she will be killed.

Saylor described the male as "huge."

"It looked like the size of a dinosaur," he told the Sentinel.

The pond has been cordoned off and wildlife officials have asked the public to stay away so the alligator can leave.

"There's a good chance the alligator will take care of the situation himself by moving to an adjacent lake since he was likely courting the female gator the trapper removed and will be looking for another," Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the state fish and wildlife conservation agency, said to the newspaper.

Dolphin follows fish to Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA, May 2 (UPI) -- A hungry dolphin headed up the Delaware River and into the Schuylkill before a dam near the Philadelphia Art Museum forced it to turn around.

Police Officer Anthony Kowalski of the Philadelphia Marine Unit said that a school of herring heading upriver to spawn probably attracted the dolphin, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Police followed the dolphin upriver, but it got away from them near the Philadelphia International Airport, only to be spotted Thursday in the Schuylkill.

Kowalski predicted that the dolphin would head back to Cape May and the open Atlantic once it has spent a few days feeding up.

Ocean wildlife has become more common in the river in recent years, a sign that it has become cleaner. In April 2006, a baby gray seal swam upriver, and in 2005 a 20-foot beluga whale got as far upstream as Trenton, N.J., 30 miles from Philadelphia.

Philadelphia is about 100 miles by river from Cape May and 50 miles from the head of Delaware Bay.

Pet turtle returns after two years

NORRKOPING, Sweden, May 2 (UPI) -- A Swedish family said their pet turtle has been found after he disappeared nearly two years ago.

Marie Swartz Alvetof said Ozzy, a box turtle born to family pets Ester and Gustaf in 2004, disappeared from the family's summer home in July 2006, The Local reported Friday.

The family searched all around the premises for the wayward turtle, but no sign of Ozzy could be found.

However, Swartz Alvetof, who said the family eventually had to sell the cottage, said a neighbor who lives near the cabin contacted them to say Ozzy had been found about 219 yards from where he escaped from his pen.

"We could tell right away that it was Ozzy. There was no doubt. It's sort of like he's one of our children -- he was easy to recognize," she said.

She said the turtle bore some scars from his two-year adventure.

"He was cold, and tired, and weak, and missing a few claws," Swartz Alvetof said. "We don't know if he had frost bite, or got into some scuffles with other animals."