World Cup Wildlife

As an American and not a sports fan, I may be prejudiced, but somehow I'm not surprised that the World Cup is bringing out the hooligan in our fellow species:

A parrot in England has caught World Cup fever - and she's added bad language to her taste for vodka and Coke and habit of bathing in beer:

Landlady Amanda Weston, 50, who runs the Duke of Albany pub in Weymouth, Dorset, said: "She loves watching the football and after Saturday's performance it was things like 'come on England you w*****s' and 'shoot the ref'.

Landlord Malcolm Weston, 52, said: "Roxy is a saucy bird. She does raise an eyebrow or two. She comes out with swear words I have never even heard of. I think she's brilliant."

On location at the World Cup itself, though, they've got more to worry about than a little bad language. We reported earlier on concerns that baboons that steal from cars would target tourists, but they're not confining themselves to either tourists or vehicles. Journalist Henry Winter gave a play-by-play of the action at breakfast one morning via his Twitter feed:

Baboons everywhere, grabbing bread off table. Kitchen cats hissing at them & staff seeing them off with pebbles & paint-ball gun. Score-draw.

Baboons just taken the lead - & the sugar, five sachets at a time, even the canderel, now sitting in trees, pouring sugar down throats. 2-1.

Baboons on roof now just out of range of gun-man firing small marbles. “I aim for the arse” says Mr Primate Control. Accurate up to 50 yards.

Nothing is sacred to these maruading primates - not even the athletes themselves and their innocent families. One bunch invaded a hotel room at a resort in Sun City occupied by the family of England's Peter Crouch.

The footballer's fiancee was quoted as saying "These three baboons jumped in, walked straight through the bedroom into the lounge to the fruit bowl, took what they wanted and walked out.” Clearly a levelheaded woman, she doesn't make it sound like much, but remember, these are baboons:

A source close to the family said: “One minute they were sat back having a bit of peace and quiet, the next thing they were confronted by these terrifying beasts.

“It all sounds funny to say some monkeys popped in and burgled them. The actual experience was anything but.

It was like having wild Alsatian dogs in the lounge with them. Fortunately they left without causing any harm.”

The family got off easy: The Johannesburg Times reports that they ignored warnings to keep sliding doors and windows locked in unoccupied rooms. Let's hope they learned their lesson.


Baboon with no respect for property from Flickr user tedlington.