Cobra's Albino From India

This rare albino cobra may look beautiful, but it is just as deadly as the rest of its species.
The three-and-a-half foot reptile was the only one of his albino siblings to survive, and is now kept on his own in a specially constructed enclosure.

Called Goya, he spends most of its day indoors due to his sensitivity to light, only venturing outside for his daily meal of five live rats.

Visitors flock to the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in the Indian city of Chennai because of Goya's remarkable beauty, according to the trust's curator.

"We explain to them that Goya is actually lucky to be here because he would not survive for long in the wild as he has virtually no camouflage," Nikhil Whitaker said.

"Cobras in India are revered amongst the Hindu population, so you can imagine the interest a specimen such as this creates," he added.

"We sometimes think that he knows that he receives special attention and plays up to that."

Goya, who is a milky colour with shades of pink, was a gift from Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka where they specially breed albino snakes.

Cobra bites can be fatal because of their deadly venom, but they only attack humans if they believe their survival is threatened.

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The Leopard sharks With Swimmer in California

Paddling into the crystal clear waters she had no idea she was walking into every swimmer's nightmare -dozens of sharks collecting off the coast of Marina Del Rey, near Los Angeles, California.

Before she knew it, she was surrounded by dozens of Leopard sharks - and had to make a dash for the shore.

The dramatic episode was captured on film by a traffic helicopter from a local news show last month.

The KTLA helicopter had been in the skies following news stories and providing traffic updates for the Los Angeles television station.

In almost comic scenes, it catches the moments she suddenly spots the array of fins and realising her predicament she sprints for the beach.

Distinctively marked with dark brown spots on a silvery grey background, they are known to grow up to seven feet in length.

In hindsight the swimmer can reassure herself that the leopard sharks posed little danger to humans.

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The Hedgehog Blonde Found in Gobowen, Shropshire.

Staff at wildlife centre are nursing back to health an extremely rare but prickly character.

A blonde hedgehog, which was found weak and struggling in Gobowen, Shropshire, has been taken to the Stapeley Grange Centre in Cheshire.

A spokesman said they had never had a blonde hedgehog before.

The hedgehog, thought to be a few months old, will stay at the centre until she reaches a satisfactory weight and will then be released.

Recessive gene

Dr Andrew Kelly said the centre receives about 600 hedgehogs a year but has never received a blonde one.

"They are extremely rare so it's a delight to have one in our care," he said.

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Mr. Drew Hammonds Snapping Turtle At Earlswood Lake Near Birmingham

When fisherman Drew Hammonds saw a spiky armour-plated creature at the end of his line, he made a snap decision.
He dropped his rod and started to run. But after a quick look back he realised he had landed a snapping turtle.
And being so far from its native U.S., it was very snappy indeed.
Mr Hammonds, 37, caught the turtle early last Tuesday while fishing with friends at Earlswood Lake near Birmingham.

‘I only went fishing for carp,’ he said. ‘I thought I’d caught a big one when my rod started to bend. ‘Then I spotted a big shell coming out of the water, with spikes on its back.

‘It was hissing and spitting when we caught it - it was really vicious. You couldn’t go anywhere near it without it going for you.

‘It ripped through my net and my friend’s net.’ Worried that the turtle was hurt, the men tried to remove the hook in its mouth before putting it back in the water.

‘It kept snapping at me so I had to be careful. In the end I used metal forceps to cut through the hook. I had to do it quickly, because it was going for my hand.’

Turtle specialist Paul Eversfield identified the creature as an alligator snapping turtle (macroclemys temminckii). Mr Eversfield, from the British Chelonia Society, said the turtles were native to the southern states of the U.S.

‘They are potentially the largest freshwater turtles in the world with record size of over 100kg,’ he said.
‘As such, they represent the top predator in their natural environment and are capable of eating large fish and water fowl. Their natural diet is fish, crayfish, and smaller turtles.

‘Having been around, largely unchanged for nearly 200 million years, their survival strategy obviously works very well.

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