Quirkies: Hedgehog sex, man bites panda and hotels for pets
Wednesday, 20 Sep 2006 17:23
Pandas: Not as cuddly as they look
It seems like an obvious fact to point out – but alcohol and zoo enclosures aren't the best combination. But one man seemed to dismiss any fears after he drunkenly bit a panda in a Chinese zoo.
Zhang Xinyan, 35, decided that he wanted to "hug" the bear after he had drunk four draught beers. And unsurprisingly, panda Gu Gu was having none of it and lashed out at Zhang's leg. In drunken anger, Zhang then bit the panda's leg, whose fur was said to be too thick to bite properly. After he was ejected by zoo staff and taken to hospital for treatment, Zhang said: "No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much." A lesson for us all.
Another person who just didn't realise that animals aren't as cute as they seem is 35-year-old Serbian Zoran Nikolovic. Upon the advice of a witchdoctor, he had sex with a hedgehog to cure his impotency. After the prickly affair, Nikolovic had to have hospital treatment to mend his severely lacerated penis.
A hospital spokesperson commented: "The animal was apparently unhurt and the patient came off much worse from the encounter."
Vienna's Prater Park was obviously the place to be on Monday for a collection of the weird and wonderful things that human beings can accomplish. At Vienna's World Record Day, organised by the Guinness Book of World Records, Franz Muellner let a helicopter land on his back and then beat records by holding it for 33.6 seconds.
Marco Hort emerged as the champion of stuffing the most number of straws in his mouth, managing to fit 264 straws in there. And whose record did he beat? His own.
A primary school has been forced to suspend classes since the beginning of this week as their teachers have been busy queuing up for divorce. Local authorities in north-east China issued a notice that all teachers' jobs would be axed unless they were widows or divorcees. According to a teacher at the Tongxing Centre Primary School in the Zhenan district roughly 40 teachers had filed for divorce from their spouses before September 6th.
Hate leaving your beloved fido behind when you go on holiday in the UK? Well fear not, as the UK's largest hotel chain has announced that rooms have been designed with specials beds for animals. Travelodge will provide beds complete with mattress, pillow and duvet. Dr Roger Mugford, animal behaviour psychologist, commented: "Hotels need to appreciate people think of pets as family members."