Atlantic coast leopard frog groans and coughs

A NEW frog species has been discovered living in South Jersey that does not croak like common frogs, in fact it groans and coughs!

This Atlantic Coast leopard frog was unexpectedly identified by the sounds it makes —it is about the size of a thumb.

The species recently was identified in an online scientific journal by a Rutgers University-led team that included researchers from Yale and state universities in California, New York and Louisiana, along with a state Department of Environmental Protection zoologist.

Brian Zarate, a DEP zoologist, said “…the discovery of this frog literally in our backyard shows New Jersey’s swamps and marshes, even those in urban and suburban landscapes, still have tremendous value for our native wildlife, and we shouldn’t discount their value.”

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IN eight months, 211 cats have gone missing from Ipswich, Suffolk, England and no one can explain why.

Owners of these cats are worried as there are no traces of the missing cats either dead or injured, anywhere. Frustrated by the police’s response, cat owners Louise Catchpole and Deni Parkes have turned pet detectives — and joined forces with other cat lovers and set up a website and a Facebook page, to try to track down those responsible.

When the cats first started going missing no one, apart from their owners, took any notice. However, when up to six cats went missing in one area over a few days, the town people got too curious.

According to Deni, “It all seems very, very odd. This many cats don’t go missing. There are no bodies in bins or on the roads.

“The police have been sympathetic, but they are pretty powerless unless they catch someone red-handed.

“Some might be glad, because they don’t like cats, but if a crime is being committed in your community against cats, ask yourself what other crime are these people capable of?

Last month, 30 cats were ¬reported missing from the small town of Irthlingborough, in Northants.

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CHILDHOOD is all about doodling and playing with imagination but when your doodle takes real shape in a stuff toy, it becomes awesome! So ‘Budsies’, a toy manufacturer, creates a custom, handcrafted stuffed animal based on a child’s artwork.

The Florida-based company can turn basically anything into a plush toy, including doodles and even pictures of actual people.

Budsies founder Alex Furmansky said he was inspired to create toys from doodles after watching his younger sister’s drawings eventually be thrown away.

By turning his little sister’s drawings into stuffed animals, Furmansky said it enabled her “quirky childhood artistry to live forever.”

So if you order your Budsie doll, you have to be patient; the one-of-a-kind toys take at least five weeks to make.