h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanks for the tip Shorn. I've kept numerous rats in the past, and never even *thought* of tickling them. My rat keeping days have come to an end however - so my headstone, under *regrets* will have to read. .. Never tickled rats.

Sorry to be a nuisance but I've just added 8 more paragraphs under the heading "Bird feeding tips for cat owners". I've also found out how to do footnotes and gone mad and put in 5 of those. Would any of my poor overworked peers care to peruse the new bit and see if it's ok ...... please. Thank you.


Frogbit, that's just too too sad

On my way.

I notice you mention a few times about not wanting to upset cat owners. You may like to include this as a humourous side piece to help keep the rage levels down

Big Cats and Birds
In the remote mountainous highlands of New Zealand introduced deer, goats, possums, rabbits and other smaller mammels are destroying the habitat of the native, often unique, mainly endangered, birds. A sensible solution could be to introduce equally endangered Bengal and Siberian Tigers. These tigers would prey on the animals destroying the bird's habitat and they themselves would be protected by law from everything except rich camera toting American and Japanese tourists. The native New Zealand population could in turn prey on these foreign invaders by setting cunning traps to seperate them from the contents of their wallets.

I have read the updated version. I didn't know that about the cheap seed. I think there's lots of useful information in what you have added although I'm not sure about putting in all the prices Shorn, as that's specifically UK and will go out of date. Maybe just something general about being able to do something for as little as £3. On the other hand the prices are useful information too so I don't know.

We have increasing numbers of reports of a very large cat loose in Shropshire. The paper has taken to calling it a Puma . One farmer claims to have lost a couple of animals to it. There are similar reports in other parts of the UK. They are sometimes put down to over active imaginations but sometimes to escaped or deliberately freed pets. A whole new dimension to the domesticated cat problem .

looking over the article I liked what I saw. I particularly liked the concluding remarks and the way they were set apart by that block quote. I can't help wonder however if that particular quote isn't slightly off the subject. I note that your peers have already given over fourty responses here. I don't think mine ever aroused such interest. By the way I left a long rambling post on another thread about home page.

Thanks folks.

I don't know about your "Big Cats and Birds" paragraph Loonytunes. It's funny but I can't think where it would fit in to entry.

You're right about the prices Waz. My page of links is back now. Up to date prices can be found by clicking on the links. I've just updated it with a recipe for a bird pudding that can be made, to use up the peanuts that are still in good condition after a couple of weeks in a feeder but should really be replaced with fresh ones. I'll put a reference to the page in this entry later, when I have a bit more time. It's here if you'd like to check it out.

Handy bird sites, tips and tails:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A628175

I wonder about all those big cat stories on the news. Why is there never any really solid evidence - you know, droppings or something? They've been reported for years. Don't they ever die? Where are their bones. Maybe they got some tips from the Loch Ness monster

I'm not entirely confident about that quote either Shagbark but I'm hoping the eds (if it ever gets that far) will make the decision for me on that one. I'll pop over and answer your other message in a little while. I'm on a break at work at the moment. Time to finish my tea and biscuit and get my beak back to the grind-stone now

This thread has begun to look more like a "talking point" than a Peer Review thread , (ps I'm not critisising, it's nice to see that people have opinions).

However, to get back reviewing, IMHO this article is just about ready for the guide, however I'm not sure about the first and last sentences in the first paragraph. Is there any chance of changing the first person?

I said a long time ago in this thread that I thought this article was good, and I think it's got better with time.

Thank you very much! How ever so kind of you!

Your wish is, of course, my command. I've changed the first person bits at the beginning. Hope it's ok. If it's not, just say the word and I'll change it some more.

Hi guys re: big cats not being found/no evidence. I forget which paper I read it in, by they managed to catch a lynx in London a couple of months ago. I'll see if I can find anything more.

And here it is, as reported by the independent on 9-4-01 - Apologies for the length, but if we could post lynx here. . . .
'Beast of Cricklewood' captured by RSPCA
By Matthew Beard
09 May 2001
The Surrey puma and the mythical Beast of Bodmin may be the figment of some fertile imaginations, but there was no mistaking a worryingly tangible big cat lurking in suburbia yesterday.
RSPCA investigators called out to catch a "black cat" on a wall in north London were so accustomed to big cat sightings that they had prepared themselves for a ginger tom.
Instead, they encountered what must inevitably earn the soubriquet of The Beast of Cricklewood: a 18-month-old lynx, more usually identified with rocky and forested regions of Asia.
A resident of Cricklewood raised the alarm when she noticed the European lynx perched on her garden wall and called the police, fearing that a leopard was on the loose.
Ray Charter, the head keeper of big cats at London Zoo, conceded last night that he was astonished. "We get numerous calls reporting big cat sightings and so far all of them have proved incorrect," he said.
"It usually turns out to be a large domestic cat; so you can imagine how I felt when I bent down expecting to see a large ginger tom, only to be met by a much more exotic face."
Mr Charter and other animal handlers from London Zoo advised local residents to take themselves ­ and their pets ­ into the safety of their homes.
For a time, the lynx ­ classified as a dangerous wild animal whose diet includes small deer ­ remained on the loose as zoo staff wielding hand-nets failed to trap it.
The animal was finally cornered under a flight of steps and sedated with a blowpipe. Vets identified it as an 18-month old female European lynx. The cat is being treated for malnutrition and an injured left hind leg in London Zoo's hospital but is expected to make a full recovery.
Speculation continued among the concerned residents of the north London suburb yesterday as to where the cat may have come from. But a spokesman from London Zoo dismissed the theory that it could have been surviving in the wild.

I like it

Interesting article on the lynx Frogbit. Well spotted! I'd go along with the zoo spokesman and the RSPCA in thinking that type of incident is rare and there aren't populations of big cats living wild in Britain. Hope the poor thing is fixed up and well fed now.

What is it that you like Whisky - the lynx story of the replacement of the first person bits? Both?

Sorry Loonytunes. I've taken out the angry quote so that the tone of the conclusion matches the rest of the article. I left if for a couple of days then came back and read it with 'fresh eyes'. That paragraph just didn't fit in. The tone was friendly all the way through then had an unexpected kick in the pants at the end. Hope you don't mind.

Now I just have to have a little rant on behalf of the poor old long suffering wild birds about one of those unhelpful things that humans do (probably without thinking). I had a walk round a huge field close to where I live on Friday afternoon. It used to be several smaller fields but they ripped the hedges out to make it easier to process with big farm machinery. Still, the hedges that were left were heavy with elderberries, blackberries, sloes, hawthorn berries, rosehips and crab apples. I walked round the field again the following day and almost all the fruit had gone - removed by the hedge mangling machines that have replaced the skilled hedge layers. This is what our famous British poet (was it Wordsworth?) called "the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness". It's at time of year when the birds shouldn't be struggling to find food. But *some* farmers (the "custodians" of the British countryside) don't seem to understand that this is a bad time to send in their hedge manglers. Mutter mutter mutter.

Did someone hint earlier that big cats were off topic?

Article from my local newspaper: A Mid Wales farmer says a mysterious big black cat.....has been spotted near his land carrying a ginger cat in its mouth. Said farmer is reported as having seen the 'puma-like creature' several times and having had animals taken from his land.

Er, "The season of mellow fruitfulness" was Kipling wasn't it? I remember hearing it on one of his cake ads.

Sounds like one of Radio Sropshire's weather forecasts to me.

Hi there shorn canary

I just wanted to say I liked the article as it stands now.

(by the way, the conversation about lynxes and big cats in England is looking like it could become a seperate entry all of it's own - Big cat sightings in the UK - anyone fancy trying it?)


whisky

Right then, I'll leave it alone and fiddle with it no more. Thank you very much! I'm the shorn canary btw - not a shivering budgie - but you could use a bald eagle smiley for me (I'm a bird with ambition ) -- after all, it's going to take a really big bird to sort out those big s.

Honestly, Frogbit and Wazu, I thought I was in with a chance of winning the h2g2 Philistine of the year award but I see there's going to be stiff competition. Mr Kipling indeed! It was John Keats! It took me ages to find it too .

I didn't know John Keats made exceedingly good cakes

D'oh! More competition! I think I was overestimating my chances

Never mind. There's always next year!

I'm sorry, geography was never my strong point. Where are the Philistines exactly? And shouldn't that be 'Philistino'?