DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
A lion that escaped from a circus near Rome is seen in front of a house before it was captured and sedated to be brought back to “Rony Roller” Circus, on 11th November, 2023. PICTURE: Carabinieri Military Police/Handout via Reuters
• A lion that escaped from an Italian circus has been taking well-deserved naps to recover from a Saturday night out in the seaside town of Ladispoli that sparked panic before authorities managed to recapture him. The adult lion, named “Kimba”, escaped from the “Rony Roller” circus on Saturday afternoon and was on the loose for around seven hours before he was sedated with an anaesthetic dart. Footage and pictures, some taken by locals, went viral and showed the lion roaming around the town streets, skirting houses and fences, and standing in front of a carabinieri police car. Local authorities are investigating how the lion managed to get out of its metal enclosure. “What happened is very strange…All we can say is that a lion does not have the ability to open a latch and break a lock,” Rony Vassallo, the animal supervisor and trainer at the circus told Reuters. In a Facebook post on Monday, local mayor Alessandro Grando wrote that he would ask council experts to check if there were legal grounds to revoke the permits for the “Rony Roller” circus. The travelling circus was scheduled to stay in Ladipsoli until 19th November. Some locals expressed solidarity with Kimba. “I am sorry, because it is in prison. It should be in its environment, the savannah,” said Ladispoli resident Giuseppe Altavilla. – CRISTIANO CORVINO, ROBERTO MIGNUCCI AND ORIANA BOSELLI, Ladispoli, Italy/Reuters
Exceptional conditions in Alaska’s alpine lakes allowed an ice rescue instructor and his family to skate on an unusual rink. PICTURE: Screenshot of a video by Luc Mehl.
• An Alaskan outdoor educator and ice rescue instructor recalled on Saturday his experience skating on an unusual rink that was formed in the alpine lakes on late October. Luc Mehl told Reuters the once-in-a-decade “ice window” was formed because of an “unusually cold but dry transition into winter”. The weather conditions allowed the Rabbit Lake, in the alpine area near Anchorage, to freeze in a way that maintained the ice thickness suitable for skating on it. Footage shot by Mehl and his wife between October 23-26 showed people skating on the frozen and translucent lake, revealing huge rocks in the bottom. Mehl said he had never seen something similar in the last 12 years he’s been skating there. The instructor also emphasised the importance of having the proper safety measures in place before doing the activity. “Yeah, it is dangerous. And some people even did fall through during that week,” he said. – MARIA PAULA LAGUNA and ANDREA RODRIGUEZ/Reuters
A screen displays a video as Mexican journalist and UFO enthusiast Jaime Maussan hosts a second briefing on unidentified flying objects, known as UFOs, at Mexican Congress, in Mexico City, Mexico, on 7th November, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Quetzalli Nicte-Ha
• Mexico’s Congress heard from researchers last week who declared authentic a set of three-fingered Peruvian mummies recently presented as potential evidence of non-human life forms, while declining to certify that the remains were extraterrestrial. Lawmakers first heard from Mexican journalist and UFO enthusiast Jaime Maussan on 13th September when he presented two specimens in a first-of-its-kind congressional event on UFOs, or FANIs in Spanish. Maussan said the bodies, believed to have been found near Peru’s ancient Nazca lines, were not related to any life on Earth. At the session on7th November, Maussan was more focused on proving the bodies, which were not on display this time, were not fake, ushering in a string of doctors who all said the bodies were those of real, once-living organisms. Still, he left room for questions about their origin. “None of the scientists say [the study results] prove that they are extraterrestrials, but I go further,” he said, suggesting that they could be evidence of non-Earthly life forms. Anthropologist Roger Zuniga of San Luis Gonzaga National University in Ica Peru said researchers had studied five similar specimens over four years. “They’re real,” Zuniga told Reuters on the sidelines of the session. “There was absolutely no human intervention in the physical and biological formation of these beings,” he added, saying he didn’t know the origin of the beings. Zuniga presented a letter signed by 11 researchers from the university declaring the same. The letter made clear, however, they were not implying the bodies were “extraterrestrial”. Maussan’s first presentation was criticised by many experts who dismissed it as a stunt long debunked by the scientific community, pointing to studies on similar remains that concluded the specimens were modified using animal and human bones. When asked about those studies, Zuniga said the specimens were probably fake. The bodies that he and the other university researchers looked at, however, were real, he said. – CASSANDRA GARRISON, Mexico City, Mexico/Reuters
