Welcome to Brainless Boneheads! Every Friday, Don Chase & Sarah find some of the wildest, craziest stories out there to help kick off your weekend with a smile.
– Brainless Boneheads is a regular Friday feature from Don Chase & Sarah. Read more Brainless Boneheads here.
Pay Up or The Animal Goes Free
In the land down under, Colin Shoemark doesn’t play. When Colin’s phone rings, it’s usually very serious because he catches snakes for a living. Recently, Colin got a call about removing a slithery creature from a home. Sure enough, there was a red-bellied black snake attempting to hide behind the family refrigerator. Colin used his professional abilities and caught the serpent. Here’s where it gets interesting. The customer then refused to pay Colin. Colin said fine and released the snake back into the home. Instantly the customer had a change of heart and decided to pay up.
Biologists Track Northern African Pythons In Florida’s Everglades
ShareMIAMI, FL - JANUARY 29: Edward Mercer, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission non-native Wildlife Technician, holds a Burmese Python during a press conference in the Florida Everglades about the non-native species on January 29, 2015 in Miami, Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission along with the Everglades Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (ECISMA), Miami-Dade County, National Park Service, South Florida Water Management District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Geological Survey, University of Florida were surveying an area for the Northern African pythons (also called African rock pythons) and the Burmese Python in western Miami-Dade County. The teams of snake hunters were checking the levees, canals and marsh on foot for the invasive species of reptile. Many of the non-native snakes have been introduced in to the wild when people release pet snakes after they grow to large to keep. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Illegal Immigration Imperils Arizona Wilderness
ShareAJO, AZ - MARCH 27: A rattlesnake tastes the air on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Reserve on March 27, 2006 near Ajo, Arizona. Because of escalating environmental problems associated with the region?s massive illegal immigration and stepped up border enforcement efforts, the vast and desert wilderness in and around the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Reserve and Organ Pipe National Monument has been described as the nation?s most embattled wilderness by reserve officials. Immigrants crossing the desert are discarding tons of used water bottles, excess clothing and other trash as they elude the Border Patrol. Border agents trying to stop them, and vehicles that cross the border illegally, are accelerating widespread off-road vehicle damage on the fragile Sonoran Desert plain at an unprecedented rate. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Desert Threat
Sharecirca 1980: A sidewinder, a small venomous rattlesnake, raises its head to strike a human hand. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Ada Barak’s Carnivorous Plant Farm Offers Snake Massage
ShareTALMEI ELAZAR, ISRAEL - SEPTEMBER 11: (ISRAEL OUT) Meirav Stardinner receives a snake massage from Ada Barak at Barak's snake spa on September 11, 2008 in Talmei Elazar, Israel. Barack's income comes mostly from exhibiting her plants which eat everything from insects to small mammals. She discovered snakes' therapeutic value after letting people hold them after her act "Some people said that holding the snakes made them feel better, relaxed," she says. "One old lady said it was soothing, like a cold compress." Now she uses a combination of big snakes for deep massage and little ones for light massage, though all are non-venemous. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
Wildwood Trust, Hit Hard By Pandemic, Prepares To Welcome Back Visitors
ShareCANTERBURY, ENGLAND - MARCH 11: A adder in its enclosure at the Wildwood Trust on March 11, 2021 in Canterbury, England. The Wildwood Trust charity near Canterbury in Kent, is home to around 1450 animals, across 82 species and specialises in native British species such as dormice, wildcats and red squirrels. The centre also cares for animals such as Bison, Wolves, Lynx and European Bears. Like many zoos and wildlife parks, Wildwood relies heavily on footfall, donations and memberships to sustain the cost of caring for the animals on site. In 2020 the site was closed for around 5 months. Keeping the animals fed costs around £11000 GBP a week alone not to mention staff and site maintenance. The conservation leg of the charity has been hit hard by the pandemic too, with funds for vital conservation projects including bringing dormice, wildcats and red squirrels back from the brink of extinction, shrinking massively. Many of the planned reintroductions were postponed in 2020. Last June the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) opened up a £100m GBP fund aimed at supporting zoos and aquariums struggling with the impact of coronavirus, with the caveat that they needed to be down to (initially) just six weeks of reserves in order to be eligible for support. That was later extended to 12 weeks. The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) has since called on the government to remove the “prohibitive barriers” to the government funding proposals, and as of late 2020, only 12 applications were received. Wildwood Kent has not been eligible to apply for the funds leaving its future in the balance. Wildwood hopes to reopen to the public on 12 April when covid restrictions across the UK are lifted. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
