The first to attract attention was a wild boar (in fairness, it should be noted that its French 'citizenship' has not yet been officially confirmed, but experts have almost no doubts about it). It became known at the very beginning of November. At that time, residents of Alderney, one of the Channel Islands (belonging to the British Crown of Guernsey), located 11 kilometers from French Normandy, spotted the boar in the dark.
Its appearance aroused interest among the islanders. The increased attention to the animal is easy to explain: there are no wild boars on the island, which has an area of about nine square kilometers – there aren't even badgers, let alone wild piglets.
Moreover, the import of any animals onto the island is strictly regulated: anyone planning to come to Alderney with an animal must notify the authorities by filling out a special form, but local officials had received no documents before the boar appeared.
The boar's existence, however, was confirmed by local farmers. They managed to see it in the dark – they even offered it a treat and photographed the animal. Nevertheless, the wild boar refused to interact with people and left the plot that had temporarily sheltered it, easily jumping over a fence. For its mysterious behavior, the animal earned the nickname 'Ghost Pig'.
The Ghost Pig immediately became a character in island legends. Residents of Alderney speculated that several months earlier, the boar had climbed onto a small ship traveling from France to the island and then came ashore unnoticed by passengers or crew. There was also an opinion that the animal was illegally brought to the island during a car festival.
Another, more outlandish version claims that the boar – a cross between an ancient pig breed and the modern Tamworth breed (a project to breed such individuals was carried out in the UK in the 1980s) – is a native of Alderney who simply never showed himself to its inhabitants before.
But the most reasonable explanation for the sudden appearance of the animal on the island – which, according to locals, cannot be called anything like a domestic pig, just a too large one – came from hunters. In their opinion, the boar could have swum to Alderney from France, where the population of these wild pigs has increased in recent years and now numbers about one million individuals.
Wild pig specialist Steve Pearsonage from Cheshire, in turn, confirmed that boars actually swim very well, so they can cover several kilometers in one 'swim'. They swim particularly fast if they are greatly frightened by something or someone (for example, a hunter).
In short, it turned out that swimming boars are not such a rarity. But llamas riding on trams – that is a truly surprising event. And it happened to a male llama nicknamed Serge, living in France, just a few days ago.
A group of young people stole the eight-year-old animal from a circus in Bordeaux. Why they needed to do this, they probably couldn't explain themselves – at the time of the 'llama-napping', the whole group was drunk and obviously considered their act part of unrestrained fun. 'We needed it,' the revelers admitted later.
Serge's kidnappers walked him around the city for several hours, took photos, and even managed to ride with him on a tram. The frightened but submissive llama on the tram was noticed by the tram driver, who reported the incident to the police. However, they could not detain the young people immediately. Fortunately, Serge was found fairly quickly – he was standing near a pole, apparently waiting for someone to come for him.
The animal was returned to the circus, and the most intoxicated kidnappers were eventually caught and interrogated at the police station – the circus director filed a complaint against them. When Serge's story went online, a Facebook page dedicated to the llama and the perpetrators appeared. Within a few hours, it garnered over 820,000 likes.
The attention to the incident made the director of the circus where Serge works reconsider his attitude toward the kidnappers, and he withdrew the complaint from the police. Moreover, he even invited the perpetrators to the circus to visit their 'friend'. The guys agreed and came to the llama accompanied by journalists. When asked about the reasons that prompted him to retract his statement from the authorities, the circus director stated that his business is currently going through hard times, and Serge's case should help him attract audiences.
Another fellow of Serge, a nameless deer that ended up on the roof of a garage in the French commune of Verneuil-sur-Indre, did not succeed in attracting attention immediately. Residents of the town in the center of the country noticed him only several hours after he jumped onto the garage.
The helpless deer stood on the roof and could neither jump down nor find a stable position – its hooves kept slipping, and the animal barely stayed on its feet. When locals reported it to the emergency services, specialists were dispatched to the scene, who threw a blanket over the roof.
This was done to drive the deer onto it – on the blanket, he finally managed to stand, but first he had to be nudged with a mop for some time to make him step onto the unfamiliar piece of fabric. In the end, the animal – graceful in its natural environment and terribly clumsy on the garage roof – managed to free itself from its strange captivity and run away.
Lena Averyanova.
Lenta.ru