The Strange and Unusual
An unusual six-clawed lobster has been donated to the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor.
Named Lola, the unusual lobster was caught by a fishing crew off the coast of Hyannis, Mass.
Aquarium Manager Aimee Hayden-Roderiques says on one side where a singular claw would be Lola has five lobster claws arranged in a starfish pattern and on the other side a normal claw. She tells WMTW-TV that the claw deformity is a genetic mutation that lobsters can have throughout their life or from regrowth from a damaged or lost claw.
Lola is expected to go on display in the next several days.
–––––––––––––––––
Storks Like Us
A stork once detained by Egyptian authorities on suspicion of being a winged spy has been found dead.
Mahmoud Hassib, the head of Egypt’s southern protected areas, said Saturday that local residents found the dead bird on an island in the Nile, south of the ancient city of Aswan.
In August, a local resident found the stork in Egypt’s Qena governorate, some 450 kilometers (280 miles) southeast of Cairo. Both he and police were suspicious of the European wildlife tracker found on it. Authorities later let the bird go.
However, controversy trails the bird into death. An Egyptian wildlife organization claimed on its Facebook page the bird was “eaten by local villagers.” Hassib denied that the bird had been eaten, though he didn’t know an exact cause of death.
–––––––––––––––––
Tally Me Banana
A banana plant at Smith College was apparently so determined to keep growing that it broke through a pane of glass on a greenhouse roof.
Rob Nicholson says he’s seen plants do lots of amazing things in his 21 years as manager of the Northampton, Mass. college’s Botanic Garden, so he wasn’t entirely surprised. But he did say it was annoying that the pane on the 30-foot high roof now needs to be replaced.
Nicholson told The Daily Hampshire Gazette he learned about the situation when a staff member who worked on the weekend left a note on his door.
Nicholson says he has seen photographs dating to 1904 that show that same banana plant in nearly the same location.