Gecko

  • American admits smuggling Aussie lizards – by strapping them to his body (again)

    Posted: July 28th, 2010 - 6:04am by Doug Powell

    Fresh off reports that a Peruvian man tried to smuggle 18 baby moneys into Mexico City by strapping them to his body, Michael Plank, owner of US-based Big Game Reptiles, admitted in a Californian court he smuggled 15 live Australian lizards into the US by strapping them to his chest.

    Acting on a tip from a "confidential informant", a pat-down search on Plank after he arrived at Los Angeles international airport last November on a United Airlines flight originating in Sydney found two money belts strapped to his chest containing two geckos, two monitor lizards and 11 skinks worth more than $US8500 ($A9400).

    Plank pleaded guilty after initially denying the charges.
     

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    Wacky and Weird  |  0 Comments
    Australia, Gecko, Lax, lizards, smuggle, sydney
  • Tenko the gecko found in broccoli, adopted by family

    Posted: January 21st, 2009 - 8:46pm by Doug Powell

    And I thought I was emotionally deprived ‘cause I only had a cold-blooded pet – a turtle – as a child.

    Some kid in Meole Brace, near Shrewsbury, which is apparently in the U.K., found a four-inch gecko in broccoli purchased from supermarket Tesco.

    Mother Paula Walsh said,

    "My daughter had been cutting the broccoli for lunch when she screamed, 'Mum come quick, come quick - there's something crawling in the broccoli'. I pulled gently and out he came."

    The family decided to keep the little salmonella factory and named it Tenko the gecko.

    Tesco said its suppliers had rigorous and thorough checking processes but was glad Tenko had found a good home.
     

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    Salmonella  |  0 Comments
    Broccoli, Gecko, Turtles, Uk
  • Which came first, the gecko or the egg?

    Posted: May 15th, 2008 - 10:48am by Doug Powell

    Australia's ABC News Online reports that Dr Peter Beaumont, the Northern Territory president of the Australian Medical Association, says he may have accidentally discovered how the potentially deadly salmonella bacteria gets inside chicken eggs when he discovered a dead gecko between the inner shell and the membrane of a chicken egg he cracked open while cooking.

    He believes the discovery is a world first and has handed the egg shell over to health authorities who will look for the presence of bacteria in the yolk and try to work out how the gecko got into the egg.

    Dr Beaumont says he suspects the gecko entered the chicken before it entered the egg, stating,

    "Eggs are made inside chooks up this tube from their bottom. Now obviously this tube is in contact with the whole outside world. It has to be that the gecko climbed up inside the chook and died up there while the egg was being formed before the shell was put on it."

    He says the discovery could have wide reaching implications for the egg farming industry, as it may explain how the potentially deadly salmonella bacteria gets into eggs.

    Look at the cell phone on that gecko (gordon, below).



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    Salmonella  |  4 Comments
    Australia, Egg, Gecko