It is said that the top two reasons to go whale watching are the experience and the thrill, according to the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. But surely the passengers aboard Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari off the coast of California recently got much more than an experience and a thrill of a lifetime recently. They got to watch a whale giving birth to an offspring. “For a minute, many of us thought it may be a shark or predatory event.  But no, instead of the end of life, it was the beginning of a new one,” according to a passenger who got it all tape.

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Moose on the loose

Craig Lapointe, a homeowner in Saskatoon, Canada, returned home one afternoon recently to find two broken front room windows, apparently the work of a moose on the loose in his neighborhood, reports the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. Lapointe suggests the moose was foraging for food, got too close to his home causing a pet dog and a pet cat to make their presence known which, in turn, riled the moose causing it to break the windows. Ryan Brook, a wildlife researcher, says it is a likely explanation. “If there was a pet, and in this case, there sounds like there was more than one pet, the animal may have hit more than once on purpose.  Moose can be very aggressive.  They’re big.  Often the biggest animal around.  They have a tendency, if they’re startled by animals or people, they may go on the offensive.”

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This just in

And the award goes to a gutsy, young bar-tailed godwit that dared to fly non-stop for eleven days from Alaska to Australia, a daring 8,435 miles, says the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. How does the Guinness World Records know that the bird didn’t land for a rest en route? Eric Woehler of Birdlife Tasmania explains that other species of birds might land on the water to rest and feed but not a godwit.  If it lands on water, “it’s dead.  It doesn’t have the webbing in its feet, it has no way of getting off.  So if it falls onto the ocean’s surface from exhaustion, or if bad weather forces it to land, that’s the end.” The previous record for such a flight was held by another godwit that flew 8,218, according to the record keepers at Guinness.

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