Bits for Pets Blog

Southern Exhibition 2006
Saturday 7th October 2006

The Amateur Entomologists’ Society (AES) is the UK’s leading organisation for people interested in insects. Members include novices and professional scientists alike - from the very young to those with a lifelong interest in insects.

The exhibition is held at Kempton Park Racecourse on the 7th October and is the ideal place to buy entomological books, equipment or talk to other entomologists.

There will be a members’ Wants and Exchanges table, and members are asked to let the Registrar know if they would be interested in using it. The table is willing to accept items donated by members for sale for the Society’s funds, plus items sold on behalf of members will incur a minimum donation to funds of 10% of the selling price.

Information about exhibition space and tables for trading can be obtained from the AES Registrar. His address is below:

AES Exhibition
PO Box 8774,
London,
SW7 5ZG.

or email: exhibition@amentsoc.org

Click Here! for more information

Experts have said a rare jellyfish found in water in a part of Leicestershire is “an amazing find”.

Amateur wildlife enthusiast Michael Gray from Newbold was out walking his dog when he saw something unusual in Stanigal Water.

On closer inspection, he found a 2cm-wide Amazonian freshwater jellyfish and contacted local wildlife experts.

Since the 1800s, the sightings of the creature, usually found in Brazil, have been few and far between in the UK.

It is thought the jellyfish could have been brought into the country on imported aquatic plants or fishing bait.

Mr Gray said: “I was just out walking the dogs when I spotted something in the water.

“On closer inspection, I saw it was a jellyfish and as I always carry my camera around with me, I took a photo and sent it into the county council.”

Click Here! for the full story

It smells awful and may even frighten your pet moggy, but Chessington World of Adventures is already attracting interest by auctioning off a year’s supply of tiger poo.

Excrement from the zoo’s two tigers is on sale on the ebay internet auction site with a starting bid of £240. In what some may take as proof you can sell anything on the internet, the auction had attracted a bid of £241 by Friday evening.

The park believes it will scare off cats and foxes if placed in people’s gardens.

Research carried out earlier this year found tiger dung is capable of warding off smaller cats, which scientists presume is a genetic trigger warning of larger predators in the area.
continued…

The initial research came from Australia, where scientists found that a formula of the big cat’s droppings warded off wild goats for three days and, as such, could be used as a dual fertiliser and repellent by farmers.

Dr Peter Murray from the University of Queensland said: “You might want to put it around the perimeter or under each tree so it would cause all those herbivorous animals to say “it’s too scary, there’s something here that might bite me”.

Click Here! for the full story