Raptor groups are worried that foolish parents might give children clamouring for a pet owl, like the one shown in the Harry Potter movie, a real owl.
Many raptor shelter and rescue groups have already started recieving calls from people looking for rare snowy owls, like Hedwig, the owl shown in the movie, and they fear an massive increase of unwanted owls in the wake of the film.


Unlike what the movie shows, owls in general are antisocial and hard to tame, need large spaces to fly, and have to be feed full mice and chicks to maintain health. Owl advocates are recommending parents adopt owls at zoos, or give their children stuffed owls instead.

The article is here. I'm trying to picture this, but somehow I can't. Maybe that's a good thing...

Myth: Further Confusion has sold out of hotel rooms on X day.

Truth: Further Confusion has not filled up its room blocks on any day.

Rumour has been dropping on Ain't It Cool News that Paramount has given up its rights to film adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia, leaving the door wide open for anyone who wants to buy them.

With Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings considered such hot property, could a multi-film series with Reepicheep, Bree and Hwin, Jewel and of course the great Aslan be comming up soon?

ConiFur NW 2001, the fourth outing of this Seattle-region furry convention, was a resounding success. Membership was up from last year, despite the economy (412 paid memberships and 340 actual members on-site). Additionally, many dealers reported equal or better sales than previous years. There were more artists showing and no empty art panels that I recall in either room of the artshow.

Despite the best efforts of various national and international organizations, Brazil's National Network Against the Trafficking of Wild Animals (RENCTAS) estimate over 38 million wild animals are taken from the forests of that country every year.

Over 1 billion dollars are estimated to have been made by local traffickers each year through the sales of rare species to international collectors, most of whom live in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
Birds are the biggest trade item, making up 82% of caught animals, and most do not survive the trip.

For more information, read the article here at the BBC website, and for more on international bird trafficking specifically, read the World Parrot Trust site.

FurNation and the various user pages it hosts are back online.

'Nuff said.

Mara, a 14 year old lioness, joined Jambi, a rare male tiger, in being felled by a batch of tranquilizer-tainted meat that was shipped to the Wellington Zoo in New Zealand earlier this month.

A sequel to the popular "Walk with Dinosaurs", "Walk with Beasts" will bring to life the species of mammals and birds which flourished after the demise of the dinosaurs. From the likes of the wooly rhinoceros and sabretooth tiger to more obscure but equally fascinating creatures such as the terror birds and the early ancestors of whales. Those not able to watch on BBC One when it premieres this Thursday can still enjoy the website, complete with pictures, video clips, facts, and the mammalian family tree.

Some of the yiffnet servers have decided to shutdown quoting complaints they got about Sibe. This reportadly includes DNS services for Yiffnet.

You can get more details from these sites:

http://www.pridelands.org/irc/
and
http://furry.ao.net/closed.html



Pridelands.org lists the following yiffnet IRC servers still operational: yiff.furry.de, irc.critter.net, and irc.chameleon.net.

About a month ago I sent in an article titled "Disney animation to Close Down". That was actually not a fact but an opinion, and so I should have chosen a different title. Here are more details.

To some degree the aerodynamics of birds can be studied by methods derived from aeronautical engineering, but it has become clear that the bird wing has some properties that have no counterpart in aircraft. Some entirely new principles are beginning to emerge. The Lund Wind Tunnel is a window on a world which has never before been accessible to observation.

Further Confusion 2002 will offer two writing workshops.

The limit is six authors.

Each author who wishes to have a story criticized needs to submit it to Further Confusion not later than December 1, 2001. Those authors selected will receive notice via email of their selection. They will also receive a copy of the manuscripts from the other authors in their group.

Cows in India are being given ID cards in an effort to stop cattle smugglers from Bangladesh.

Two amusing stories off the newswire that I felt were worth sharing. Both from a week ago or so...



Moose Narrowly Escapes Halloween Goblins in Terror


Swingset Attacks Area Moose, Suffers Consequences