ZOO PAYS TO KEEP POPULAR FLUFFY THE PYTHON

Somehow, naming a snake Fluffy, seems somewhat inappropriate especially since Fluffy is a reticulated python. For those of us not familiar with snake or python terminology and according to Wikipedia, a reticulated python is a non-venomous python species found in Southeast Asia. This is the longest snake in the Old World and competes for the title of the world's longest snake with the South American green anaconda, Eunectes murinus. No subspecies are currently recognized.



Fluffy was bred by Bob Clark who raised him from a hatchling and the zoo paid $35,000 to the snake's breeder in Oklahoma to keep the reticulated python on permanent display. By the way Fluffy is a male despite the feminine moniker. While on loan last year, the python helped draw 1.53 million visitors, just under the zoo's attendance record of 1.56 million set in 2006, said Pete Fingerhut, the zoo's associate director.


Fluffy is about as long as a moving van and thick as a telephone pole.


"I really love that snake; I think it's a special animal," Fluffy's raiser said. "It's so big and tame and wonderful. But I have to deal with the realities of life like everyone else. I like to have the money, and I know she's got a great place to live there."



Tame? A boa? Presumably when raising a boa, one does so with a great deal of care...and caution. In as far as Mr. Clark's professed love for Fluffy - different strokes for different folks!


The Columbus Zoo doesn't buy animals very often, said Executive Director Jerry Borin. Its animals generally come as exchanges from other zoos or through breeding loans or donations, he said.

Fluffy is on display in a 25-foot enclosure with a pool and a few plants, where he eats two 10-pound rabbits a week. In the wild, pythons native to Asia eat whatever they can catch, starting with mice and lizards when they're small and graduating to pigs and goats. There are a few reports of human victims.



Somehow and maybe it's just me but the idea or mental picture of Fluffy putting the squeeze and bite on live rabbits is very disconcerting. The largest known reticulated python, named for the cross-hatching patterns on their skin, was 32 feet, 9 1/2 inches when killed in 1912 in Indonesia.

PASSING GAS A NO-NO AT SOCIAL CLUB

Given all the serious problems in the world, this is really one for the "don't-they-have-anything-better-to-do" books.

A 77 year old pensioner no less, has been banned from his social club in Devon, England for passing gass or breaking wind as they say in jolly, old England. Here among friends we would say, he farted.

The victim/gas-ee, Maurice Fox, received a letter from the Kirkham Street Sports and Social Club in Panignton, advising him to consider his action, which club members believed was "disgusting."

Mr Fox said that the club letter was a surprise. I bet.

All of us at some time or the other have - well - passed gass unwillingly for various reasons. True it's not pleasant but it's a bodily function that we have no control over.

A club member for 20 years, Fox said, "I am happy to oblige them, there is no problem. I do get a bit windy - I am an old fart now."

He admitted to having to leave the club about three times a night.

In its letter,the club said: "After several complaints regarding your continual breaking of wind (farting) while in the club, would you please consider that your actions are considered disgusting to fellow members and visitors. You sit close to the front door, so would you please go outside when required. So please take heed of this request."

Presumably, he is expected to leave the room if he feels that a fart is on the way. Thing is it's difficult as many people will attest, to be able to differentiate a fart from just plain stomach rumbling.

Mr Fox, who lives nearby, said the letter was a surprise because he had been given no verbal warning.

He commented in his defence that although he makes a lot of noise, there is no odor.

"I think someone has complained about the noise. I am a loud farter, but there is no smell. I do not think it [the letter] is unreasonable. You get ladies in there."

Mr Fox also spends two days a week at the nearby Palace Place club, but said he had no complaints about flatulence there.

The club said there was no one available for comment.

Other than a social faux-pas, he hasn't committed anything that deserves being banned.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/7126973.stm