The birth of the endangered Baird’s tapir

The calf, born June 3 to mother Luna, is now on display alongside the facility’s capybaras in an enclosure located in the Elephant Odyssey section of the zoo.

“The calf is starting to get ‘zoomies’ and likes to mouth and play with leaves and food even if she’s not eating it. They spend their time grooming, nursing and laying together,” the zoo said in the announcement.

The birth was hailed as a milestone for conservation efforts for the Baird’s tapir, which is listed as Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

Ghostbusters fan collects 2,012 pieces of memorabilia

A British man with a record-breaking collection of 2,012 items related to his favourite film franchise said being in his home “is like living in a Ghostbusters’ museum.”

Darren McQuade’s collection of 2,012 pieces of Ghostbusters memorabilia took the Guinness World Record from Ohio man Robert O’Connor, whose collection was tallied at 1,221 items in 2020.

McQuade, whose rarest items include a Ghostbusters 2 Christmas cracker box and a Ghostbusters stunt kite, recently appeared as an extra in the latest Ghostbusters film.

The collector works as a professional magician and said he often works a Ghostbusters theme into his tricks.

Man grows extra-lucky 63-leaf clover

A Japanese man borrowed some of the luck of the Irish and broke a Guinness World Record by growing a 63-leaf clover. Yoshiharu Watanabe started cross-pollinating clovers at his Nasushiobara home in 2012 to break the world record.

“Since the number of leaves has increased year by year, I have been aiming for the Guinness World Records title ever since,” he told Guinness World Records.

Watanabe used a combination of letting his clover patches pollinate naturally and hand-pollinating those with the most leaves. After several tries, Watanabe finally achieved clover with 63 leaves, beating the previous record of 56 leaves, set by fellow Japan resident Shigeo Obara in 2009.

Spring onion-infused coffee is the rage in China

Spring onion-infused lattes are all the rage in China these days. No one knows exactly how, where or when the spring onion latte was created.

It is the latest addition to an ever-growing list of bizarre combinations generally known as ‘dark cuisine’ or ‘hei an liao li’ in China. Dark cuisine refers to food and drinks that put people’s sensibilities to the test. The chilli-infused ‘hot ice latte’ we featured a few months back is another example of Chinese dark cuisine.

Reactions to the spring onion latte have been mixed. Some people said that they had never thought they would one day have to ask for onion-free coffee, while others declared themselves intrigued by the unique latte, but worried about bad breath.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 6th, 2024