This awesome wildlife rescue happened back in October, 2010 in Taku Inlet near Juneau, Alaska. Alaska Quest Charters was crossing the inlet when four deer approached the boat about a mile offshore.  The struggling animals were brought aboard where they recuperated. When they reached the opposite shore, three of the deer took off into the forest. The fourth had to be rolled off with a wheelbarrow, but after a couple hours was able to take off as well.

“About a mile offshore, Sharon, a birder, spotted something odd in the water coming towards the boat through her binoculars.  What she first thought were sea lions or shorebirds turned out to be four young Sitka black-tailed deer (a subspecies of mule deer).

Even though Sitka deer are known for their swimming ability and often cross large bodies of water between islands, these four where in obvious distress in the frigid water and whipping winds that had stirred up two to three foot swells in the inlet.  The biggest sign of that distress was the fact that the deer actually swam towards the boat and tried to board it, their fear of drowning overpowering their fear of people.

Unable to propel themselves out of the water in their exhaustion, they had to be hauled out onto the deck, where they collapsed.  There, the hypothermic deer slowly but calmly recovered.”

[Animal Planet]

HBO’s suburb hockey documentary series 24/7 debuted last night. It will cover the behind the scenes action of the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers in the lead up to their outdoor game on New Year’s Day.

But the real star of the show, and buzz of today’s sports blogosphere, is Ilya Bryzgalov. The loopy Flyers net minder got his Sagan on and decided to explain the universe. Wide eyed, fascinated and peppered with English-as-a-second-language idiosyncrasies, it’s a pretty awesome way to spend 40 seconds.

He later went on to describe the penalties for killing a tiger in China. Namely: the death penalty. Which is hilarious. And coincidently, also 100% true.

24/7: The Road To The Winter Classic airs Wednesdays on HBO.

[Pro Hockey Talk]

[helloandroid]

If you were on the hunt for the world’s smallest frogs, you better get to New Guinea.

Field work by researcher Fred Kraus from Bishop Museum, Honolulu has found the world’s smallest frogs in southeastern New Guinea. This also makes them the world’s smallest tetrapods (non-fish vertebrates).

Some of them were only 8-9 mm in length. Researchers further described them as “aaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww how cute are you little Mr. Frog!”

[Science Daily]

A squirrel has been busted for sneakily setting off a fire alarm after footage was reviewed by school officials.  The squirrel had been living in the cafeteria, but after this little stunt it was captured and kicked out.

“The squirrel was eventually trapped and let go.

“It’s really hard to fine a squirrel, so he got a stern lecture and was released outside,” Henson joked.”

[My Fox Tampa Bay]

A rare find, the Powder of snails. A giant white, albino snail has been located in New Zealand’s Kahurangi National Park.

“Our group had seen three or four snails already that morning as it had rained and they’d come out in the wet conditions.

“Then I saw the white snail and went ‘wow’. We were excited to see it, knowing how extraordinary it was.”

These carnivorous beasts are usually found munching on earthworms and slugs. The snail has now been written into the new Hobbit film. Not really. But it should.

[WeirdWorldNews]

Chinese message boards have lit flame with a romantic controversy filled with taboo, lust and well-lit viewing areas. A sheep and deer have fallen in love at the Yunnan Zoo. When first reported, many reacted skeptically, believing the report to be a cutesy ploy to draw attention to the tourist attraction.

But doubters were proven dead wrong when zoo officials posted the above photo on their weblog. The indisputable evidence shows the hot couple in flagrante delicto.

Thanks to Weird Things writer Ryan for passing this along.

[ChinaSmack]

Catch the rainbow and you could be $500 richer.

The South Florida rainbow snake has been categorized as extinct since last month, but The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson and the Center for Snake Conservation in Louisville, Colo. is now offering a cash bounty for proof it exists.

The SoFla subspecies was last identified in 1952. But since then we had like first gen iPhones that ran on EDGE speeds, so how could anyone be expected to get another photo?

Young says they do not want people going out of their way to catch a snake: “If you see one, it’s likely to be basking on the riverbank while eating an eel or having just finished one.” Eels are the snake’s primary diet. “Take a photo of it. We don’t have to have an actual snake.”

Fisheating Creek in Glades County, FL is a short one hour, 56 minute ride from Weird Things HQ. So… we’ll see you later.

[Scientific American]

In a first for wild animals (not named primates) researchers have concluded that raven utilize gestures with their wings and beaks to communicate to other ravens. This includes pointing at items.

This is different than domesticated animals like dogs using gestures since the raven behavior is occurring naturally without intervention.

[Live Science]

If you are unfamiliar, please refer to this Wikipedia page. La la la la.

[Rather Good via Improbable Research]

Robot Ostrich. Yes.

[Improbable Research]

A Zimbabwe man arrested on bestiality charge initiated a very curious defense for his heinous crime. He claimed the donkey he was busted getting frisky with was in fact a hooker who magically transformed overnight.

‘I had hired a prostitute and paid $20 for the service at Down Town nightclub and I don’t know how she then became a donkey… but I am seriously in love.’

The magistrates have ordered the man get a psychiatric evaluation. Although maybe this works like the prince/frog thing and you have to kiss the donkey so it turns into the glorious hooker you once met.

[Metro]

A couple of fisherman that were fishing near a nuclear power plant in Cordoba, Argentina had themselves a surprise when they pulled this catch on board.  They didn’t notice the extra eye at first because they were fishing in the dark and only noticed it when they shined a flashlight on it.  This specimen has since been sent to a lab to determine if the mutation is a  result of radiation exposure.

“We were fishing and we got the surprise of getting this rare specimen. As it was dark at that time we did not notice, but then you looked at him with a flashlight and saw that he had a third eye”

[Nine MSN]

Wrangled by a man in overalls, friends with people in devil costumes, ladies and gentleman: Medusa, the world’s largest snake.

In an effort to be accepted by their peers, dolphins located in Western Australia’s Shark Bay have been spotted “conching.” What is conching? Conching is a method used to catch fish by trapping them in a conch shell, bringing that shell to the surface and shaking that shell with your beak inside the conch so that the fish falls into your mouth.  The curious part of conching is that this appears to be a learned behavior that other dolphins are observing and mimicking.  Early conchers were doing this as early as 2007 but in the last four months there have been as many as seven documented conching instances.  There is still much speculation as to the actual technique used underwater as scientists have only been able to observe “conching” from the surface.

“That’s significant on a few levels. For one, we already know dolphins are very intelligent creatures, but a horizontal spread of a learned behavior at this rate is pretty off-the-charts. Moreover, scientists appear to have gotten in on this fad at the ground floor (they were observing dolphins conching way before it was mainstream, bro), so they have the opportunity to observe this learned behavior as it spreads.”

[Popular Science]

The world’s first artificial sphincters have been successfully grown and transplanted into mice.  This new technique uses a circular mold in which human muscle cells grow along side nerve gut cells of mice.  The man leading this research is Khalil Bitar of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  Bitar is currently doing testing on some larger animals and hopes to begin testing in humans in as little as three to five years.

“Bitar says that the sphincter he has made wouldn’t replace the outer anal sphincter – the one healthy people control voluntarily – but the inner one, which operates involuntarily. Current treatments include reconstruction using muscle from limbs, electrical stimulation of sacral nerves, mechanical replacements and pumps – but Bitar says these are fraught with complications and failures.”

The goal of this research is not only to be able to solve bowel incontinence issues in the elderly or people who have sustained damage to their anal sphincter, but to also be able to make other important sphincters in the body.

[New Scientist]