The Daily Drift

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Carolina Naturally is read in 200 countries around the world daily.   

 
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Today in History

1512   The laws of Burgos give New World natives legal protection against abuse and authorize Negro slavery.  
1831   HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, departs from Plymouth. It will eventually visit the Galapagos Islands where Darwin will form his theories on evolution.  
1862   Union General William Rosecrans' army begins moving slowly toward Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from Nashville.  
1913   Charles Moyer, president of the Miners Union, is shot in the back and dragged through the streets of Chicago.  
1915   In Ohio, iron and steel workers go on strike for an eight-hour day and higher wages.  
1932   Radio City Music Hall opens.
1933   Josef Stalin calls tensions with Japan a grave danger.  
1939   A series of vicious earthquakes take 11,000 lives in Turkey.  
1941   Japanese bombers attack Manila, despite its claim as an open city.  
1944   General George S. Patton's Third Army, spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, relieves the surrounded city of Bastogne in Belgium.  
1945   The International Monetary Fund and the Bank for Reconstruction and Development are created.  
1947   The new Italian constitution is promulgated in Rome.  
1950   The United States and Spain resume relations for the first time since the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.  
1956   Segregation on buses in Tallahassee, Florida, is outlawed.
1968   The United States agrees to sell F-4 Phantom jets to Israel.  
1979   President Hafizullah Amin of Afghanistan is ousted and murdered in a coup backed by the Soviet Union, beginning a war that will last more than 10 years.  
1983   Reagan takes all responsibility for the lack of security in Beirut that allowed a terrorist on a suicide mission to kill 241 Marines.  
1984   Four Polish officers are tried for the slaying of Reverend Jerzy Popieluszko.  
1985   Palestinian guerrillas kill 18 people at airports in Rome and Vienna.  
1996   Taliban forces retake strategic Bagram Airfield during Afghan civil war.
2001   China receives permanent normal trade relations with the US.  
2004    Radiation reaches Earth from the brightest extrasolar event ever witnessed, an explosion of magnetar SGR 1806-20.  
2007   Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto assassinated.  
2007   After Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of Kenya's presidential elections, rioting begins in Mombasa, precipitating an economic, humanitarian and political crisis.

The Internet in Real Time

By the time you finish reading this sentence, there will have been 219,000 new Facebook posts, 22,800 new tweets, 7,000 apps downloaded, and about $9,000 worth of items sold on Amazon... depending on your reading speed, of course.
Now that the Internet is widely available, just one second of global online activity is jam-packed full of events, from communication with others to data storage to entertainment options galore.

Man would like his missing mushroom back

Someone has stolen a 4-foot tall homemade mushroom sculpture from a front yard in Northeast Portland.

The owner, Aurelien Carnoy, carved it himself from a stump with a chainsaw over several weeks. He says the stump was just sitting at The Grotto nearby, and no one could move it, and if he could move it he could have it.
He took the stump home, got a chainsaw and began carving. His inspiration for the sculpture was Portland itself. “There should be mushrooms all over the place and I don’t see any. The mushrooms will take over the world,” he says.

YouTube link.

While he was gone for a few days, someone came by and stole the mushroom. He has filed a police report even though he knows it’s down on their list of priorities. “I just hope they didn’t sell it for a cheap price,” he said.

Burglar whose neighbor set Home Alone-style water bowl trap traced by trail of wet footprints

Akin Akinniran, 30, clambered through the window of Mariamma Sesy’s home on November 4 dressed head-to-toe in black and wearing a mask. But Ms Sesy, who lived next door to Akinniran in Swingfield House, Templecombe, Homerton, east London, was 
so concerned about security she had set her own homemade burglar trap – a row of bowls filled with water under her kitchen window.Last week he was sentenced to five years in prison by Judge Joanna Korner after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Ms Sesy ran into the kitchen and screamed once she heard the bowls smashing as Akinniran climbed through the window, but she did not recognize her neighbor.

Neither did her husband, who also came rushing into the room before Akinniran fled out of the front door. But the couple found a six-inch silver knife in the hallway outside and took photos of a set of wet footprints leading to Akinniran’s front door.
Police carried out DNA testing on the knife and arrested Akinniran, who now lives in London Fields. Akinniran initially denied the offense, but pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary at his preliminary hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court last Friday. Sentencing him to five years in prison at the hearing, Judge Korner told the court: “The police were very lucky he hadn’t done a runner”.

Woman called 911 in order to assault police officer with pot of soup

A Florida woman called 911 for help earlier this month and then swung a pot of soup at a responding deputy, according to a Broward Sheriff's Office report. Karine Pierre Louis, 29, is accused of striking two deputies when they appeared at her door in Tamarac.

She is charged with two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer and misuse of the 911 system. According to the report, Louis called 911 about a "verbal domestic incident," prompting two uniformed deputies to appear at her home.
When one of the deputies knocked, Louis opened the door, said "I need help," and swung the pot at the deputy without warning. The soup-filled pot hit the deputy's face, authorities said.
The deputy's partner handcuffed the woman, who kicked him while she was being escorted to the sheriff's substation in Tamarac. Louis "intentionally called 911 to have the Broward Sheriff's Office come to her residence to commit the crime of battery to a law enforcement officer," the report said. Louis remains in jail on an $11,100 bond.

The Drunkest Days in America

The arrival of December heralds the beginning of “the Drinking Season.” BACtrack, a company that makes smartphone-enabled breathalyzers, compiled data on 300,000 blood-alcohol content (BAC) tests in the U.S. to come up with this graph of the results over the calendar year. The graph is interactive at the site.
The results show a definite difference in how drunk people get on Super Bowl Sunday, Valentines Day, and St. Patricks Day compared to non-holidays. Strangely, New Years Eve shows lower BAC results than the other holidays. Although the differences in the days are quite believable, the raw data doesn’t tell us anything about the average American. You must keep in mind that people who test themselves from a portable breathalyzer are already disposed to drink more than the average person.

Kissing Teacup and Saucer

Johnson Tsang is an artist in Hong Kong noted for his amazing depictions of faces, especially kissing faces, in sculptures. Many of his works appear to be made of flowing liquid arrested in time.
Continuing with his kissing theme, Tsang made this romantic image of a couple kissing as a teacup and saucer. He calls it Lifetime Partner and dedicates the work to his wife, Prudence.

The Amazing Origins Of 15 Etiquette Rules

Why do we say 'Bless You' after sneezes, why do we shake hands upon greeting, and why do the bride's parents have to pay for the wedding? Nowadays, they're just considered good manners, but some of our most familiar etiquette rules have long and surprising histories.

Colonial New York Was Rowdy, Filthy, Smelly

Early manuscripts newly posted online by New York City's Municipal Archives depict New Amsterdam as an intoxicated Dutch settlement and show its leader, Peter Stuyvesant, struggling to bring order.
Today, nearly four centuries later, the residents of that once lawless outpost - now known as New York - and anyone else with an Internet connection can read some of the earliest laws promulgated in North America.

The Sphinx Observatory

Science At The Top Of The World

It may look like the hideaway of a super villain from a Bond movie but this is the Sphinx Observatory, dedicated to research which must take place out at an altitude of 3000-3500 meters.
It is situated in Jungfraujoch, Switzerland. At an astonishing 3.571 meters above sea level, the Sphinx observatory in the Swiss Alps is the highest-altitude built structure in Europe.

The Last Victorian Leviathan Steam Ship

The SS Great Eastern was an iron sailing steam ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and built by J. Scott Russell & Co. at Millwall on the River Thames, London. She was by far the largest ship ever built at the time of her 1858 launch, and had the capacity to carry 4,000 passengers from England to Australia without refueling.
An Iron Monster, framed in a cloud of billowing white sails, or looming through the hellish black smoke - this was the ultimate Victorian luxury Trans-Atlantic liner, affectionately called the 'great babe' by its eccentric designer.

20 Facts You Might Not Know about 'Patton', Both the Man and the Movie

General George S. Patton (1885-1945) was a great American general who led armies to victory in north Africa, Sicily, France, and Germany during World War II. He had a larger than life personality and was, at times, as controversial as he was successful. In 1970, actor George C. Scott depicted him in the blockbuster movie Patton.
In 2012, Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, a professor at the US Naval War College, wrote a book about the creation and influence of this film: Making Patton: A Classic War Film's Epic Journey to the Silver Screen. It contains fascinating bits of information about the real Patton and the film Patton. Here are some that I've gleaned from Sarantakes's book:

1. Gen. Patton believed that he had been reincarnated from many previous military lives. Specifically he believed that he had been a Greek soldier who resisted the Persian invasion of Ionia, a Roman soldier in the Tenth Legion under Julius Caesar, a Viking warrior, a Scottish Highlander fighting for the House of Stuart, a French soldier who escorted Napoleon Bonaparte on his retreat from Russia, and a member of a New York regiment during the American Civil War (8-9).
2. The opening speech in the film is a compilation of several that Gen. Patton gave (2).

Read the rest over at Neatorama

10 of the United States' Most Intriguing Archaeological Mysteries

There are quite a few places where early Americans left their marks, but did not leave us any explanations. European explorers had never seen anything like them, and local people said they’d always been there for reasons lost to time. Many of these mysteries are symbols or possibly language carved in rocks. One huge design in California wasn’t even discovered until a plane flew over in the 1930s! And then there’s the Miami Circle.

A recent discovery, the Miami Circle was only unearthed in 1998 when a Florida developer knocked down a 1950s apartment complex, revealing a circular pattern of holes in the limestone bedrock. Further excavation turned up tools similar to those used by the once-local Tequesta people, and radio-carbon testing suggests the site is nearly 3,000 years old.
The State of Florida now owns the plot, which still sits at the water's edge beside a series of high-rises, to protect it from developers. Archaeologists believe the holes are actually signs of a bit of prehistoric development: post-holes for some kind of permanent shelter.

Read about nine more of these America mysteries at Atlas Obscura.

Chonosuke Okamura, Visionary

by Earle E. Spamer

Time was, if one was interested in natural history he did it for the enjoyment of it. There were no professional natural- historians in the world - or at least they were not paid for the job. Gentlemen of leisure cast about the natural world, indulging themselves in the ins and outs of living things and the ups and downs of evolution. Some made startling and worthwhile contributions to science; most were deemed eccentric amusements for the rest of the world.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Chonosuke Okamura of Nagoya, Japan, took time to look at things in a different light. Sadly, he has disappeared from the scholarly publishing scene, perhaps the last of the eccentrically productive naturalists. Not wasting his energies on the formalities of peer review, he took the fast track of communication. He delivered his findings directly to numerous paleontological professional meetings in Japan (one wonders if he was treated politely as an odd uncle, or giddily as a paleontological P.D.Q. Bach). He published more extensive descriptions and analyses in the Original Reports of tile Okamura Fossil Laboratory.
The Great Discoverer
Okamura did no less than discover the Silurian Period beginnings of all vertebrate life, including humans, 425 million years ago. Nearly everything he found was a new subspecies, whether the species was extant or extinct. Some examples are Gorilla gorilla minilorientalis (gorilla), Canis familiaris minilorientalis (common dog), Homo sapiens minilorientalis (humans), Pterodactylus spectabilis minilorientalis (pterodactyl), and Brontosaurus excelus minilorientalis (a dinosaur).

Figure 2 (left) “Fossil of kissing.” (Okamura. 1980. fig. 75.) Figure 3 (right) “Marble statue of the kiss by Nagaiwa miniman” (Okalllura. 1980. fig. 76.)

 (Did I mention, that they were all diminutive, discovered through the eyepiece of Okamura’s microscope? In his description of the mini-man, he wrote, "There have been no changes in the bodies of mankind since the Silurian period ... except for a growth in stature from 3.5 mm to 1,700 mm.") 

Figure 4  Faces of minimen. The bottom-center face appears to be a mini-bank robber, an aspect of miniman social structure apparently not discussed by Okamura. (Okamura. 1983. fig. 4.)

Big Thoughts from Little Things
Using slabs of polished limestone from Mount Nagaiwa in lwate Prefecture, Okamura scrutinized the surfaces with a microscope. There he saw tiny shapes, which most geologists have thought to be mineral grains and the fossils of tiny foraminifera and coral fragments. But Okamura discerned that the figures resemble millimeter-sized remains of many modem animals, including human beings. He had discovered, in a world older than Lilliput, the beginnings of vertebrate evolution. He unwittingly revealed inherent flaws in both Darwmism and Creationist worldviews. He found the beginnings of modem culture, too: his "protominimen" show evidence of solid work ethics, art crafting, social nobility, theological beliefs, and hairdressing.

Okamura also saw dragons, horrific denizens of the mini-world of Mount Nagaiwa. He illustrated one disturbing example of the "Head of a miniman in the alimentary canal of a dragon." All of these things are meticulously documented in his profusely illustrated Japanese-and-English Period of the Far Eastern Minicreatures (1980),¹ New Facts: Homo and All Verlebra Were Born Simultaneously in the Former Paleozoic in Japan (1983),² and an illustrated book (1983?)³ entirely in Japanese. His life's work has been summarized in The Annals of Improbable Research (in vol. 1, no. 4 and in vol. 2, no. 4), and more widely acknowledged in book form in English, German and Italian (Abrahams, 1997, 1999). Chonosuke Okamura was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize for Biodiversity in 1997 (AIR 3:1).

 

Figure 6 Comparative illustrations of the head of a miniman and the skulls of a modern human and an early hominid or proto-human. (Okamura, 1983? fig. 9)

Extinct Wild Horses Contributed to Today’s Domestic Breeds

A new study, led by Ludovic Orlando of the Center for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, compared the DNA obtained from two well-preserved horse fossils between 16,000 and 43,000 years old from arctic conditions in Russia, with those of the Przewalski’s horse—the only surviving population of wild horses—and five breeds of modern horses, which were first domesticated some 5,500 years ago. The team detected a set of 125 candidate genes favored by humans in modern horses that involve physical and behavioral traits, including genes that were already known to evolve under strong selection in horses. Some of those genes affect the development of muscles and bones, which would have been necessary for utilizing horses for transportation. Other genes favored by domestication control the animals’ response to fear. Negative impacts could be seen in the increasing levels of inbreeding and the accumulation of deleterious mutations that can occur in small populations. The study revealed that Przewalski’s horses have a proportion of deleterious mutations similar to domesticated horses, due to their recent near extinction. Finally, the genomes revealed that the ancient wild horses contributed to the modern population of domesticated horses, but not to the Przewalski’s horses. “This confirms previous findings that wild horses were used to restock the population of domesticated horses during the domestication process,” said co-author Mikkel Schubert of the Center for GeoGenetics. For more on horse genetics, see "Dappled Horse Paintings Decoded by DNA."

Men arrested for stealing cow then trying to make getaway with it in stolen ambulance

Two cousins have appeared in the Mahwelereng Magistrate's Court in Limpopo Province, South Africa, for allegedly stealing a cow and an ambulance they used as a getaway vehicle, police said on Monday.

Blade Olifant, 26, and Kgothatso Olifant, 27, allegedly stole a cow and loaded it in the back of an ambulance in Mahwelereng, said Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi. "The two bundled a cow inside a privately owned ambulance oblivious of the fact that is was marked and easily identifiable," Hangwani said in a statement.
"Community members contacted the police who quickly set up a roadblock where the duo, with sirens blaring, thought they would not be stopped." Police found a live cow inside the van as well as bottles of beer. The two were released on a warning and are to appear again on 15 January.

YouTube link.

The cow was identified by its owner after it was placed under the care of the local Society For Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals. "Sometimes the criminal makes it almost too easy for the police," Mulaudzi said. "The two broke a basic rule for any crook - leave nothing behind that can identify you."

Circus deceived children with dogs painted as pandas

Two painted chow chow dogs posing as pandas have been seized from a circus in northern Italy, after tricking children into handing over cash, police have said. The male and female dogs were seized by police after it became clear that they were not, in fact, pandas.

To an unassuming child visiting the circus in Brescia, a small furry animal with white and black stripes may do the trick. But police were not fooled, who said the dogs were put on display ahead of the circus show.
Children posed for photos with the animals, paying a fee for the “panda” privilege. The environmental police moved in to seize the animals, which they said were in general good health but had particularly watery eyes. This was “probably aggravated by the continuous exposure to camera flashes”, Italy’s environmental police said in a statement.
Police moved in on animal cruelty grounds and the circus owner is facing charges over the animals’ false passports. The chow chows were imported from Hungary and were six months younger than documents stated, police said. The circus owner could also be charged for cheating his customers out of cash.

Cockatoo rescued by firefighters after getting stranded in palm tree

A young cockatoo had to be rescued from a palm tree in the St Kilda suburb of Melbourne, Australia, on Monday night.

A woman had been feeding her 3-month-old pet cockatoo down at the beach when a gust of wind blew past, picking up the bird, before it landed on top of a palm tree. The bird was incredibly tame, but had its wings clipped so it couldn’t return safely to the ground.
The owners waited for several hours hoping the bird would come down on its own. They called the RSPCA but they were unable to attend. Firefighters responded at 6.26pm with a fire truck and a ladder platform, which was extended 15 meters to the top of the tree.

YouTube link.

Leading Firefighter Ben Schutt was able reach out and the bird crawled onto his arm – very grateful to be rescued. The ladder platform slowly lowered LFF Schutt and the cockatoo (named Spirit) to the ground and its very happy owners. The rescue took 20 minutes to execute.
There's a news video here.

Loyal dog chased after ambulance taking homeless owner to hospital

A dedicated dog chased an ambulance carrying its owner after the man suffered an epileptic fit earlier this year in Taguatinga, Brazil.

The dog stood by its homeless owner when he suddenly collapsed until paramedics arrived at the scene. As they sped to a nearby hospital with the man, they spotted the dog in the rear-view mirror sprinting after the emergency vehicle.

One of the paramedics filmed it easily keeping pace. With the determined dog hot on their tail and a long journey ahead, the crew pulled over and welcomed it inside.

YouTube link.

At the hospital, the faithful companion later stood beside its owner's stretcher where it reportedly remained for the length of the man's stay, which occurred in March this year.

Runaway pet ostrich found racing traffic on motorway

A runaway ostrich caused a commotion on one of China's busiest highways after bursting through a toll booth barrier and then racing traffic.

The 6.5ft tall bird broke through the barrier in Yiwu before running off down the road. He was found by traffic police hours later, but not before it had been involved in a race with a car, picking up its speed and running alongside.
The police had to wait for the tired bird to rest for around 10 minutes before they were able to successfully take the creature away. After the incident, it was revealed that the ostrich is the pet of a nearby villager.

YouTube link.

The owner said that he has a pair of pet ostriches, and he called the police when he realized that the male one had gone missing.

Pup Does a Jig When He Sees His Human

YouTube Link

There's a lack of information on this video's info page to tell me the circumstances of it, but this place looks to me to be a doggie day care, or perhaps a training session. Whatever the environment, the owner of the doggie star of this video arrives at the facility and the dog is unable to contain his excitement, doing a dance and jumping up and down. That's what you call a standing ovation!

How Adopting a Pig Changed One Couple's Lives

Canadian couple Steve Jenkins and Derek Walter adopted what they thought was a pygmy piglet and brought her to live with them. They named their pet Esther. Within two years, Esther grew to be a whopping 667 pounds! It was obvious that Esther wasn't a pygmy, but by the time they realized their mistake, the couple had grown to love her as a member of their family. They found her to be highly intelligent and good natured.
Steve and Derek's love for Esther changed their lives in more ways than one. It made them reconsider eating meat. They went from carnivores to vegans. The couple began to consider animals such a central part of their lives that they decided to start their own animal shelter. After raising over $400,000 on Indiegogo, they launched their operation. That Esther must be Some Pig! Follow the adventures of Esther and her humans on their website, and via social media on Facebook and Twitter.

Orangutans are “Persons” in Argentina

A court case involving Sandra, a 29-year-old orangutan in Argentina may have ramifications for other apes, or even other non-primates. An animal rights group filed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Sandra, alleging that her rights were being violated by her confinement at the Buenos Aires Zoo.

In a landmark ruling that could pave the way for more lawsuits, the Association of Officials and Lawyers for Animal Rights (Afada) argued the ape had sufficient cognitive functions and should not be treated as an object.

The court agreed Sandra, born into captivity in Germany before being transferred to Argentina two decades ago, deserved the basic rights of a “non-human person”.

The zoo has ten days to file an appeal. Otherwise, Sandra will be transferred to a primate sanctuary in Brazil. Sandra has been at the Buenos Aires Zoo for twenty years, and usually tries to avoid contact with the public. A similar case in New York involving a chimpanzee ended with a ruling that chimpanzees are not “persons” with human rights.

Rhino Calf's Big Bottles Bringing the Brawn

Now for something ridiculously cute. This three-week-old greater one-horned rhino calf (the largest of the rhino species) is already a big boy. He requires a lot of nourishment. When the calf was not gaining as much weight as expected while living with his mother, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park staff began to hand-feed him the large bottle shown here every two hours. The as-yet unnamed calf, who gulps his bottles down, has gained weight ever since. Adding 30 pounds since birth, the rhino now weighs in at 190. Adult rhinos weigh between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds. The calf is watched around the clock by staff in the meantime, and is taken outdoors for exercise daily. Once plentiful in Southeast Asia, the greater one-horned rhinoceros is now found only in India and Nepal. The species is listed as endangered due to poaching. There are an estimated 3,250 greater one-horned rhinos remaining in the wild. This calf is the 68th of the species born at the park since 1975, making the facility the leader in the world for breeding of this species.
Images: Ken Bohn, San Diego Zoo Safari Park

YouTube Link

So, a horse ran into a fish and chip shop ...

Just before lunchtime on Friday, a horse galloped into Jumbo's Family Restaurant in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland.
After slipping on the floor and falling over, the horse picked itself up and walked up to the counter, where a young employee grabbed its reins and calmly led it back outside.

YouTube link.

Heroic monkey saved life of friend that had been electrocuted at Indian railway station

In a heroic act, a monkey saved another's life who had lost consciousness after being electrocuted at Kanpur station in Uttar Pradesh, north India.

The monkey was electrocuted while walking on high tension wires at the city's railway station, before falling.

The monkey tried to resuscitate its unconscious friend by biting and dipping him in the water by the tracks.

YouTube link. LiveLeak link.

After about 20 minutes the electrocuted monkey regained consciousness and began moving.

Scottish SPCA called out after woman mistook hat for injured parrot

The Scottish SPCA were called out to rescue an injured parrot in Aberdeen only to discover it was a hat. A lady spotted what looked like a parrot lying in the middle of the road on Friday and called the animal welfare charity to rescue it.

However, it soon became clear the creature was in fact a hat. Animal Rescue Officer Karen Hogg said, "It's fair to say the lady who called was mortified when I called her back to tell her it wasn't actually a parrot. When she was on her way home from the shops, she thought she saw an injured bird on the road.

"The hat has green holly which she assumed was the body and a red bobble sticking out which she thought was the parrot's head. As the lady was driving at the time she wasn't able to stop and get a good look so called to alert us. When I got there it was a nice surprise to find there wasn't an animal in danger and I must admit it gave me a bit of Xmas cheer.
"The hat is now being safely looked after at our centre in Drumoak. If anyone recognizes the hat they are welcome to come and collect it. Although this incident turned out to be a false alarm, we'd always encourage people to give us a call if they think an animal is in need of help."

Mystery after seal found in the middle of a field 20 miles from nearest coastline

A seal was found in the middle of a field in Merseyside. The sea mammal was discovered in a "distressed state" by a dog walker on Monday, close to Newton Brook near Newton-le-Willows, by a startled member of the public. It is unclear how the seal got to the field but it was found about 20 miles from the nearest coastline.

Experts believe the grey juvenile seal may have swam from a colony in Hilbre Island, in the Dee Estuary, and got lost. Farm owner Gary Watkinson said: “It’s quite unusual. We just saw it lying there this morning.” A woman who lives nearby said she saw the seal when she opened her curtains and assumed it was a pony which had collapsed. She said: “I thought it must have been hurt. The poor thing must be so scared.”

YouTube link.

A Merseyside Police spokesman said: “A report came in from dog walker at 9.39am of the animal on a farmers’ field in Newton-le-Willows. It’s within a field that’s fenced. A wildlife officer is en route - we need to work out who it belongs to, and how it got there. There’s no danger to the public, we just want to ensure the animal’s welfare.”

YouTube link.

In a later statement, Merseyside police said: “Police and fire officers, with the help of a local farmer have herded the seal on to a RSPCA trailer. Its condition is described as being exhausted and has now been taken to the RSPCA’s wildlife hospital in Stapeley Grange, Nantwich, for assessment.

Animal Pictures