Mating frogs may have been occasionally getting it wrong for hundreds of millions of years. We know that males today will sometimes select an inappropriate partner during the breeding season – a frog from a different species, a turtle, a fish or even an inanimate object. Now there is evidence that these mistaken attachments could be an ancient feature of frog reproduction, arising early in the amphibians’ evolution.

Frog mating is often hard to miss. In most species it involves a process called amplexus, in which males grip onto a female tightly for hours or days at a time until the eggs are fertilised. But there are plenty of records of male frogs grappling an unpromising target such as a frog from a different species or a dead individual. One explanation is that such mistakes are more likely to happen in species that breed in large numbers with a low ratio of females to males, and where multiple species occupy the same breeding pond.

Konrad Lorenz once observed a Shell Parakeet who grew amorous with a small celluloid ball. And many other animals exhibit mating behavior toward what researchers refer to as "biologically inappropriate objects." Bulls will treat almost any restrained animal as a receptive cow. Their general rule in life seems to be, "if it doesn't move away and can be mounted, mount it!"

During the early 1950s, researchers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center surgically damaged the amygdala (a region of the brain) in a number of male cats. These cats became "hypersexual," attempting to mate with a dog, a female rhesus monkey, and an old hen. Four of these hypersexual cats, placed together, promptly mounted one another.

All things considered, it appears that the elephant's testes may experience temperatures dangerously high for mammalian sperm production, even under normal body temperatures. High temperature metabolism tends to be coupled with cellular oxidative stress, which increases the probability of mutations. Such mutations could be gene duplications, including multiplications of the TP53 gene.

its also easy to forget that herbivores can be just as big of a source of stress for other herbivores as the threat of predation... To put it simply there is always going to be something causing an individual some type of stress out there (even from their own species).

Seven years ago Aleck and his mate were walking down a country road when an auto came speeding along. Aleck escaped but his wife didn't. Their owner picked up the wife's carcass and, with Aleck looking on, put it in an empty oil drum where he cremated it. From that sad day to this Aleck has stuck by that oil drum in the yard, apparently thinking his wife is still inside. He defends the drum against all intruders with vigorous honks, beating of wings and sharp nips of his blunt bill.

Deaths associated with camels involve kicking, stomping, kneeling or sitting on a victim, or biting and shaking and throwing. Lethal mechanisms include hemorrhage from vascular injuries and internal organ disruption, crush asphyxia, and blunt craniospinal injuries. Death may also follow falls from camels or vehicle collisions.

My first novel, Kicked to Death by a Camel, was nominated for an Edgar in the category of Best First Mystery. Some readers have maintained that the best thing about it was the title. Neither Kicked to Death nor any of my subsequent novels, most recently Chakra and The One-Donkey Solution, met much commercial success, but they enabled me to make stories out of my personal experiences, mostly during travels to the Middle East.