Rare trees, foul deeds and Aussie birdies too…
Australia’s Bird of the Year. Election results from across the ditch are in too. The Black Throated Finch has won the most votes by the biggest wining margin in the history of the event. With two rounds of voting many early favourites fell by the wayside, including the magpie and ibis. Over there too things got a little heated, with some campaigns acting like a pack of galahs.
From the best of the internet. “Pavlov probably thought about feeding his dogs every time someone rang a bell.”
A sentence too short? In Australia there were calls for longer sentences to be imposed after a farm owner and farm worker in Victoria were convicted of killing 420 wedge-tailed eagles over an 18-month period. Both received fines with the worker sentenced to 2 weeks jail. Closer to home and another prosecution has recently happened in Christchurch after the deaths of over 1700 fish and eels in a creek. The storage business responsible will pay $242,350 in fines.
Rare trees found. It’s rarer than the kākāpō – a tree so scarce that only thirteen were known to exist in the wild. Ever since Auckland teacher John Bartlett discovered the white rātā in 1975 the population has shrunk from 35 to little more than a dozen. With the population too spread out for pollination things were looking grim. Now however an enclave of seven Bartlett’s rātā has been found in Lower Hutt, proving there’s hope for the species yet. Yay!
Who will believe you? Sometimes the dog actually does eat your homework. And sometimes, if you’re the teacher, the dog eats everyone’s homework.
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