Thú

Trại gia súc:

breeding cubs for TikTok and Instagram
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ram-tiktok-aoe

Quote:

---

According to a new report by the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and the Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group the number of lions in captivity has more than tripled since 2018 – a trend fuelled in part by the rising popularity of exotic pets among the country’s wealthy elite. A growing network of lion farms cater to this demand – many of them run by amateurs with little experience in wildlife care.

Some buyers are Thai and some are foreigners but all of them are wealthy – lion cub prices in Thailand start from $5,000 (£3,700), with white cubs fetching up to $15,000. Keeping a lion is costly, requiring reinforced enclosures and up to 10kg of fresh meat a day.

While lion ownership requires a licence, breeding does not – anyone who legally owns lions can also breed them. Cubs don’t need to be registered until they are 60 days old, and hybrid species such as ligers are excluded from the law altogether. The result is a thriving industry, with the trade in lion cubs alone estimated at more than $1m (£740,000) a year.

---

Con gà cục tác lá chanh
Con lợn ủn ỏn mua hành cho tôi
Sư tử khóc đứng khóc ngồi
Mẹ ơi đi chợ mua tôi thịt bò
(Ca dao)

Giết cho ngọt cho bùi:

Pitcher plant’s nectar is laced with nerve agent
https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ic-nerve-agent

Quote:

---

The pitcher plant Nepenthes khasiana oozes an enticing sweet nectar on the rim of its pitchers for visiting insects, particularly ants, to feed on to lure them into the trap. But the nectar is laced with a toxic nerve agent called isoshinanolone, which strikes at the ant’s nervous system, leaving it with sluggish movements, weakened muscles, and causing it to groom itself excessively.

Eventually the prey falls upside down in spasms, with the nerve agent sometimes killing it outright. But apart from isoshinanolone, the nectar also contains three types of sugars that can all absorb water and make the rim of the pitcher especially slippery, so the prey is more likely to slide down into the pitchers.

---

Mật ngọt chết ruồi.
(Tục ngữ)

Ngừng bắn:

US military to stop shooting animals to train medics for battlefield
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...field-training

Quote:

---

The US military will stop its practice of shooting pigs and goats to help prepare medics for treating wounded troops in a combat zone, ending an exercise made obsolete by simulators that mimic battlefield injuries.

The prohibition on “live fire” training that includes animals is part of this year’s annual defense bill, although other uses of animals for wartime training will continue. The ban was championed by Vern Buchanan, a Republican congressman from Florida who often focuses on animal rights issues.

Buchanan’s office said the defense department will continue to allow training that involves stabbing, burning and using blunt instruments on animals, while also allowing “weapon wounding”, which is when the military tests weapons on animals.

---

Con người đánh nhau mục súc chết.
(Tục ngữ)

Da hồng lội bì bõm:

Pink platypus spotted in Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...sland-victoria

Quote:

---

Stylianou had been on his first trout fishing trip of the season in September when he saw the platypus, which he has nicknamed “Pinky”. He watched it feed at the top of the tannin-stained river for about 15 minutes.

“The bill and feet are super obviously pink,” he says. “When he did go a bit further into sunlit areas, he was easy to follow underwater, which is how I got so many videos of him surfacing.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPVh...RyYWxpYQ%3D%3D

---

Em như một vịt hồng
Lội sông chẳng lạnh lùng…
(Ngộ thiệt man)

Đau như tôm tươi:

Do prawns feel pain?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...awns-australia

Quote:

---

It may be an inconvenient truth but scientists say there is now compelling evidence that these aquatic animals, with their hard shells and soft insides, are sentient, and are able to experience fear, pain and distress.

In the season of goodwill to all, should we spare a thought for crustaceans? Prof Culum Brown of Macquarie University says many things people do to crustaceans as part of the food chain are “horrendous”.

Scientists and welfare advocates say crustacean welfare should be given a higher priority when the animals are caught, killed or transported, used in experiments, kept as pets and in their natural environment. Many would like to see a ban on live animal sales, exports and on boiling alive.

Studies also show crustaceans can learn, remember and solve problems, even though the physical structure of their nervous system is totally different to ours. Crabs can solve mazes to find food, they will remember the way, and when the maze is rejigged will adapt using trial and error.

---

Miếng ăn là miếng tội tình
Có ăn một miếng sát sinh một lần
(Ca dao)

Thú đau thương:

Florida state-sanctioned bear hunt
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...rida-bear-hunt

Quote:

---

The Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) on Tuesday announced that 52 bears were killed between 6 and 28 December, and promised to release a “full harvest report” in the coming months that will provide details about where and how the animals died.

The overall tally of 52 bears was far lower than the 2015 hunt, a planned three-week event that was shut down within 48 hours when almost 300 bears, many of them females either pregnant or with cubs, were slaughtered.

Critics, however, say the state’s “war on bears” is based on “bloodlust, not science”, and have highlighted far-fetched claims such as Republican state representative Jason Shoaf’s 2024 assertion that black bears high on crack were breaking into people’s homes and “tearing them apart”.

---

Ví dầu người thợ muốn săn
Thợ kêu gấu dữ xong rồi thợ săn
(Ca dao)

A rabbit hole:

Japanese island a rabbit paradise
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...bit-okunoshima

Quote:

---

From 1929 until the end of the second world war, the island hosted poisonous gas research and production facilities run by the Japanese imperial army. The operation was so secret that Okunoshima was not included in contemporaneous maps of Japan.

The manufacture of weapons of chemical warfare – which was not exposed until the 1980s – also marked the beginning of the island’s connection to rabbits. About 200 were used in experiments to test the efficacy of gas that Japan’s army used during the Sino-Japanese war and, later, to arm balloon bombs targeting the US.

In the early 1970s, a nearby elementary school released a small number of rabbits on the abandoned island, hoping they would bring it back to life. In 2024, nearly 200,000 people visited Okunoshima, drawn by its eminently Instagram-friendly coastline and the promise of entering a rabbit paradise.

---

Trải bao thỏ lặn ác tà
Đáp tàu vô đảo la cà viếng thăm
(Dặm trường thố thanh)

Đắt như cá tươi:

Tuna record £2.4m at Tokyo auction
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...kiyoshi-kimura

Quote:

---

Kiyoshi Kimura, who styles himself the “Tuna King”, paid the top price for the 243kg (536lbs) specimen, which was caught off Japan’s northern coast.

“I’d thought we would be able to buy a little cheaper but the price soared before you knew it,” said Kimura after the pre-dawn auction. “I was surprised at the price. I hope that by eating auspicious tuna, as many people as possible will feel energised.”

The 510.3m yen price at the new year auction was the highest since comparable data started being collected in 1999. The previous record was 333.6m yen for a 278kg bluefin in 2019 after the market moved from its traditional Tsukiji area in central Tokyo to a more modern facility. The top bidder last year paid 207m yen for a 276kg bluefin.

Shortly after this year’s auction, the tuna was butchered and turned into sushi for Kimura’s restaurant chain, selling for about 500 yen (£2.40) a roll.

---

Có cá đổ vạ cho sushi.
(Tục ngữ)

Bear necessity:

Bear living ‘rent-free’ under California home has been removed
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...a-home-evicted

Quote:

---

Altadena resident Ken Johnson first noticed the bear was living in the crawl space below his home in late November.
“He’s a nuisance and he’s living under my house rent-free,” Johnson told the Orange County Register last month.

After the Eaton wildfire tore through the Angeles national forest and scorched parts of Altadena last January, wildlife – including several bears – sought shelter in the community. In the weeks after the fire, at least two 500lb-plus black bears sought refuge in homes evacuated during the wildfire, though it is unclear if 2120 was one of those bears.

On Tuesday, a Lake Tahoe-based non-profit called Bear League stepped in to help Johnson by shooting at the bear with paintball guns, which drove it from under the house.

“I couldn’t believe it was so fast,” Johnson told KTLA. “These guys went in, they crawled in behind him and, boom, he was out.”
The bear tried to come back two days later but was met with a deterrent – an electrified mat that covered the crawl space’s entrance, according to KTLA.

---

Đuổi như đuổi tà:
(Tục ngữ)

Nó không nhỏ mà nó còn có võ:

Single-tusked elephant killed 22 in India rampage
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...india-jharkand

Quote:

---

Since the beginning of January, 22 people have been killed by a single-tusked elephant that has been tearing through forests and villages in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.

The attacks have mainly taken place at night as the elephant has entered small villages. The first victim was a 35-year-old man in Bandijhari village on 1 January. Since then, those trampled to death or suffering fatal injuries have included a couple and their two young children and a forest department official.

The region has been put on high alert and residents living in the Chaibasa district, where the elephant was last spotted, have been warned to stay away from the forest areas and not go out at night.

Over the past five years, more than 2,800 people in India have died from deadly encounters with elephants.

---

Tránh voi chẳng xấu mặt nào.
(Tục ngữ)