Page 176 - Animal Facts

Maine is home of the "toothpick capital of the world."

Strong, Maine, a town of about 1,250 residents, was one of the world's largest producers of toothpicks until 2003. The company responsible for this massive industry is Forster Inc., founded in 1887 by Charles Forster of Boston. Before Charles Forster came along, toothpicks were permanent and typically made of substances such as ivory, gold, or silver. Forster was the first to come up with the idea of disposable toothpicks made of wood, and he established his factory in Strong because of the multitude of birch trees in the area.

In 1995, Forster Inc. was purchased by Diamond Brands, the other large American toothpick manufacturer. Diamond went bankrupt and was bought by another corporation in 2003. A month after the acquisition the company, Jarden Corp., announced that the Forster plant in Strong was to be closed. This ended the historic run of a factory which produced 15.6 million toothpicks in its heyday.
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A cat in Boston was summoned for jury duty.

Massachusetts couple Anna and Guy Esposito received a strange court summons in the mail this past month. It was not for either of them, but for their cat Sal! The reason for the mix-up is because Anna had listed Sal as a member of the household during the recent U.S. census.

Naturally, Anna proceeded to attempt to get the cat disqualified from the duty on the grounds that Sal is "unable to speak and understand English." She also enclosed a letter from their veterinarian which stated that Sal is not a human but instead a "domestic short-haired neutered feline."

In a bizarre turn of events, the court rejected Anna's appeal! This means that Sal is required to report to the local court on March 23. Anna expects that Sal will be required to meow when asked to give his verdict on a case.

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A chimpanzee in a Russian zoo had to go to rehab because it became addicted to alcohol.

The chimp, which goes by the name of Zhora, became an alcoholic and addicted to smoking because visitors would frequently offer him booze and cigarettes for their own entertainment. The deputy head of Rostov Zoo claims that zoo officials frequently requested that visitors cease this behavior, but it was to no avail.

Zhora was even kept behind three different rows of fences to keep inappropriate substances out, but the drugs still managed to get to him somehow. The perturbed primate has now been transferred to a different location for rehabiliation, and we wish him all the best.

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Japanese researchers are trying to bring a mammoth back to life!

The plan is to clone a mammoth to create a new mammoth embryo that they can implant into a modern elephant's uterus. This prehistoric animal has long since become extinct. Luckily, scientists have access to the mammoth's DNA by obtaining a tissue sample from the preserved remains of a mammoth in Russia. Since modern elephants are the closest living relatives to mammoths, an elephant will be used to give birth to the mammoth. They hope to have successfully create a living mammoth in the next 5-6 years.

The process that will be used to recreate the mammoth has already been tested on mice. Researchers in 2008 have successfully cloned mice using the frozen cells of mice that had been dead for 16 years.
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Ringing in your ears is caused by your brain attempting to repair itself and failing.

Researchers claim that ringing in your ears, also called tinnitus, is caused by the lack of sound due to gradual hearing loss. This hearing loss can be caused by various factors, among them normal aging, loud-noise exposure, or an accident. The brain therefore is inclined to produce its own sounds to replace the frequencies that are missing in what the ear hears.

Tinnitus is the result when the brain's limbic system (the part of the brain that deals with basic instincts and emotions) fails to keep this sounds from being processed by the auditory system! Around 40 million Americans currently suffer from this chronic annoyance, for which there is no known cure.
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