The Hamilton Spectator – Monday, August 19, 2013
Endangered Species Not at Immediate Risk
A tree-dwelling animal with a teddy-bear-like face and rust-coloured fur has become the newest mammal species discovered by scientists.
The olinguito, the smallest known member of the raccoon family, lives in the cloud forests high in the Andes Mountains of Colombia and Ecuador, reported a team of scientists from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., which described it in the journal ZooKeys Thursday.
The animal has actually been displayed in museums and zoos over the past 100 years, but was mistakenly identified as a different, known species among its close relatives, the olingo.
“It’s been kind of hiding in plain sight for a long time,” Kristofer Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and lead author of the new report, told The Associated Press. (Source.)
Meanwhile, scandals involving Sens. Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy, Mac Harb and Pamela Wallin have cast a pall over the entire Senate and politicians in general.
Senators who have lived within the rules and shown respect for the public purse deserve to have their names cleared.
As it stands, cynics regard them all as scallywags enjoying a free ride on the public’s dime, while contributing little value to the Canadian body politic. (Source: Winnipeg Free Press)
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This cartoon was featured in a gallery of Editorial Cartoons and attracted quite a number of comments on Yahoo! Canada News for August 2013. Here it is on Yahoo News’ Facebook page.