Turtles slow to mature

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"Loggerhead turtles," reports BBC News, "take almost half a century to reach maturity, say scientists. A female turtle, the researchers report in the journal Functional Ecology, will not start to lay eggs until she is 45."

Back rubs for fish

"Life on the reef can be stressful," says the New Scientist. "Fortunately for some of its fishy inhabitants, they can call on a masseur to soothe their nerves – the first non-primate known to do so. Surgeonfish (Ctenochaetus striatus) make regular use of cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) to remove their parasites and dead skin. Marta Soares of the ISPA University Institute in Lisbon, Portugal, noticed that the cleaners seem to offer another service, too: They can placate an agitated surgeonfish by rubbing back and forth on its pelvic and pectoral fins. … [In an experiment, all]the surgeonfish readily approached the model [cleaner fish] but those in the tanker with the moving model were able to position themselves beneath it and use its fake fins to gain a back rub. These fish were more relaxed, as measured in terms of the steroid hormone cortisol, which is released in response to stress."

Steve Jobs and iCat?

From PETA's tribute page to the Apple visionary: "We remember Jobs for so many innovative ideas, including Apple's iPhoto facial recognition software which recognizes the faces of cats in addition to those of humans, reflecting the importance of companion animals in our homes and hearts."

Playmate unwelcome

"Monkeys at a Brazilian zoo have attacked and injured a man who swam into their enclosure, saying he wanted to play with them," Associated Press reports. "[The man]tells Globo TV he was drunk when he jumped into the water separating the spider monkeys from the public at the Sorocaba zoo near Sao Paulo on Sunday. The network aired amateur video of the shirtless man being mobbed by at least six monkeys and screaming in pain as they bit him. He freed himself and was treated for bites on his hands and arms."

Pet hippo kills owner

"A farmer in South Africa has been killed by his pet hippopotamus, after repeated warnings that it was a wild animal that could never be tamed," The Guardian says. "Marius Els, 40, an army major, was bitten to death by the 1.2-tonne hippo he christened Humphrey and tried to domesticate on a farm in Free State province. Els's savaged body was found submerged in the river where, years earlier, the hippo had been rescued from a flood. It grew too big for the people who adopted it and was bought by Els at the age of five months, becoming a pet on his 400-acre farm and learning to swim with humans. … Armed with giant canine teeth, hippos are said to kill more people each year than lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo and rhinos combined."

Deer in the headlights

Ryan Swartz, a sheriff's deputy in Huron County, Mich., was responding to a car accident last week when he discovered a doe deer standing dazed on the road, The Telegraph reports. "His attempts to encourage the deer to move were captured on [his]patrol car camera. 'I figured as I walked up to it, it would just run off the road [but]it just stood still. It wasn't moving at all. So I went up and I pet it and I was thinking that would get the deer off the road,' deputy Swartz told local television station WNEM TV5. Desperate to get the deer out of the path of oncoming traffic, the deputy then picked it up and carried it to the embankment where it recovered its senses and ran off. Despite the successful outcome, Sheriff Kelly Hanson warned that his deputy's actions were 'not recommended.' "

Bigfoot builds nests?

"Bigfoot hunters are hailing the strongest evidence so far to show that the legendary Yeti really does exist," says Britain's Sun newspaper. "Experts discovered strangely twisted trees in a remote part of Russia, suggesting a creature building nests in the same way as orangutans and gorillas. The trees had been twisted together by force to form an arch in the Kemerovo region, an area known for frequent sightings of the 'Wildman.' Bigfoot experts from Russia, Canada, the U.S. and Sweden met to swap notes at a conference in Moscow before mounting an expedition to Siberia. Biologist John Bindernagel, 69, said: 'We didn't feel like the trees we saw in Siberia had been done by a man or another mammal. Twisted trees like this have been observed in North America and they could fit with the theory that Bigfoot makes nests.' "

Thought du jour

"Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the other animals … except the weasel."

Homer Simpson, fictional TV character