REVIEW-JOURNAL (Las Vegas, Nevada) 10 November 06 Tortoise mystery solved - Desert reptile 'missing' after problems with habitat emerge (Mike Kalil)
Was Cactus Cate kidnapped?
Did she die down in her burrow?
Or did the desert tortoise escape her downtown habitat and make a very slow dash for freedom?
For weeks, rumors have swirled regarding the whereabouts of Cate, the desert tortoise Clark County's government adopted and built a habitat for in July.
Initially, passers-by spotted Cate almost daily as she poked out of her burrow or crawled among the rocks and desert plants in her new home on the Clark County Government Center campus downtown.
Then, the hard-shelled reptile vanished in September.
"Where's Cate?" became the common refrain among county workers taking lunch or smoke breaks at picnic tables near the habitat. Some speculated the endangered tortoise had become of victim of foul play.
But the mystery was solved Thursday when, after fielding inquiries about Cate's location from the Review-Journal, county officials hastily returned the reptile to her habitat.
The explanation?
The 20-something-year-old tortoise didn't like her new $125,000 home.
It's easy to understand why.
Desert tortoises spend 98 percent of their time underground, but the pricey "natural" habitat built for Cate had some major design flaws.
"It wasn't habitable when it kept filling up with water," said Rob Mrowka, a manager in the county's Air Quality and Environmental Management Department.
The water in Cate's tiny cave was a side effect of county workers' efforts to keep alive the native desert plants and the 4-foot-long bed of grass they planted in the desert rocks around it.
"They kept watering the grass because it kept dying," Mrowka said.
The water in the burrow put Cate in danger of contracting an upper respiratory infection, or, at worst, drowning.
"The conditions provided less drainage than anticipated," said Christina Gibson with the county's Desert Conservation Program. "She didn't want to use the burrow."
The problems prompted the nonprofit Tortoise Group, Cate's official caretaker, to ask for Cate's removal from her county home in September, seeking more hospitable environs for the reptile.
The county agreed. Tortoise Group's Jerry Shupe took Cate in at her home.
The county had the right intention of building the habitat to teach schoolchildren about a threatened species native to Nevada, but they did not put the right kind of soil in the burrow, said Shupe, a habitat specialist with Tortoise Group.
"The soil got hard, and she was unable to move in the burrow," Shupe said.
At Tortoise Group's request, the county added more of the type of sand found in children's sandboxes to Cate's burrow, increasing drainage.
The two problems are thought to be fixed.
County Manager Virginia Valentine had not been aware of Cate's prolonged absence.
"She's not in the habitat? I didn't know that," said Valentine, who found the mystery surrounding Cate both intriguing and hilarious. "I have no idea where she is. It's probably a little vacation. She is a county employee, so she does get time off."
Said one county wag, referring to the controversy that dominated the Nevada governor's race, "The last time I saw that tortoise, it was at McCormick & Schmick's drinking with Jim Gibbons and Sig Rogich."
On Thursday afternoon, Shupe took Cate back to her habitat at the county building and placed her in the burrow. Gibson cooed at the reptile, trying to make her feel at home in the habitat.
But Cate immediately crawled out of the burrow.
She ate a nearby flower, licked at the habitat's pond and explored her confines, showing no signs of wanting to stay in a burrow that recently endangered her life.
Cate ignored the Review-Journal's requests for comment.
In other tortoise news, county officials are soon to start production of a television program starring members of the same endangered species.
The show, "So You Want to Adopt a Desert Tortoise?" will feature county officials instructing the public on how to care for the endangered reptiles.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Nov-10-Fri-2006/news/10749085.html

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Australia) 10 November 06 Allan the croc's on the run (Jamie Pandaram)
Allan the "comfortable" crocodile who bit a Belgian tourist after the man hit the water with a stick trying to get its attention has so far managed to evade wildlife rangers who plan to take it to a breeding farm.
Allan the croc will be hunted by a team of Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service rangers again tonight after eluding them yesterday at Masons Creek, on the south side of Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland.
Locals at Cape Tribulation are unhappy Allan is being taken away, and believe the stupidity of tourist Stefaan Vanthournout has resulted in the crocodile's punishment of being taken from its home of at least five years.
Allan was named after an Irish tourist by local kayaking tour guide Stuart Vickers two years ago.
"I was out on tour with this Irish guy, and his name was Allan and he was absolutely hilarious, and I saw the croc for the first time and I said 'there you go brother, I'll name him after you'. He was stoked, he'd never had anything named after him before," Mr Vickers, 33, said.
"The croc has never shown aggressive tendencies before, he has been really comfortable around people. From a tourism-based point of view it could be a concern, just for safety.
"When there's areas with crocs and people come from overseas who just aren't aware of that stuff - it can be a concern."
The two-metre croc - if caught - will live out its days in a farm as a breeding crocodile after biting 24-year-old Vanthournout's leg when he tried to get its attention by wading into a creek and slapping the water with a stick two days ago.
Mr Vanthournout was with a group of about six other tourists who ignored crocodile warning signs and went into Masons Creek after spotting the saltwater crocodile lying on the riverbank.
The group waded to the other side of the creek and Allan slipped into the water.
The crocodile was submerged but Mr Vanthournout wanted to get a photo so he grabbed a 30-centimetre stick and started hitting the water so Allan would come up.
Come up he did, lunging at the Belgian and leaving a decent set of teethmarks on his left knee.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service spokesman Mark Read said yesterday Allan would have to be moved because "we have an obligation to ensure we minimise risks to all users, locals and tourists alike".
But the president of the Daintree Cape Tribulation Tourism Association, Alison Gotts, said the crocodile was being unduly punished.
"I just wish they would leave him alone," she said. "I don't think being tormented by an idiotic tourist warrants his removal. I am annoyed by the decision that the crocodile is the one who is punished.
"If you were being taunted by that tourist you would bite him too. No one here wants him to go, he has been here for about five years.
"It is his place, we are the ones that have invaded his space. We feel honoured to be living here with a croc."
But Mr Read offered the theoretical situation of a child being attacked by Allan in the future as enough reason of the Wildlife Service's decision.
He said the farm Allan will be sent to has not yet been determined.
He added that crocodiles are extremely difficult to catch in the daytime so crews would only search for the croc at night.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/allan-the-crocs-on-the-run/2006/11/10/1162661886516.html

DAILY TELEGRAPH (Surry Hills, Australia) 10 November 06 Croc 'befriended' before attack
(AAP) A man had been "befriending" a crocodile in north Queensland for several months before it attacked a Belgian tourist this week who tried photograph it, authorities have said.
A 24-year-old man was bitten on the leg on Wednesday when he tapped the water's surface to attract the 2m-long reptile's attention at Cape Tribulation, about 350km north of Cairns.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service crocodile expert Mark Read has said when wildlife officers returned to the scene yesterday to try to capture the crocodile they found another man less than five metres from the same crocodile taking photos.
Two signs warning of the dangerous animal were close by.
"Apparently he's actually been going down there on a very regular basis on and off for the past two months and getting close to this animal," Dr Read has said.
He has said the crocodile had appeared very comfortable with the man's presence, signalling that the crocodile's natural behaviour had been modified by the man's regular visits.
"Certainly that rings some alarm bells for us," Dr Read has said.
"It has the potential just to completely take away a wild animal's natural fear of people.
"So instead of having a crocodile that skedaddles away every time you turn up, because you're doing it on such a regular basis, it gets to learn to accept you being there and so it doesn't move."
Dr Read has said potentially a crocodile familiar with people would not react until a person was within striking distance.
He has said dangerous behaviour in "croc country" is amazingly frequent with some people knowingly ignoring all warnings.
"It's surprising how many times we see people walking into water up to their waists to throw a bait net, or people who dive off the front of their boats to retrieve a $10 fishing lure," he has said.
The crocodile proved elusive yesterday while walking trails near the area of the attack have been closed and QPWS officers will attempt to capture the crocodile next week which would be sold to a wildlife park.
Meanwhile, Dr Read will approach Surf Lifesaving Queensland with the idea of crocodile awareness training for Townsville surf lifesavers after beaches in the area were closed last month due to crocodile sightings.
The training would dispel "urban myths" about crocodiles and teach lifesavers how to manage them on the beaches if the need arose.
Desert reptile 'missing' after problems with habitat emerge