Oddly enough

Oddly enough

Ohio woman finds groundhog hiding under her car hood

ATHENS, Ohio

An Ohio woman needed animal control, not a mechanic, when it turned out the thumping under her car’s hood was coming from a stowaway groundhog.

Rebecca Martin says she heard the noise while running errands with other family members in Athens in southeast Ohio.

When they pulled over in a Walmart parking lot and lifted the hood, Martin says up popped one of the largest groundhogs she’d ever seen. It then chose to burrow in near the engine, so 911 was called.

Athens County Dog Warden Jeff Koons responded, and it took him more than 5 minutes to get the critter to come out.

When it finally did, it scurried across Martin’s feet and eluded Koons for another half-hour hiding under cars. He captured the groundhog and released it in a rural area.

Special delivery! Chicago zoo gets 3 stork chicks

CHICAGO

Someone’s been bringing the storks babies at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.

The 142-year-old zoo suddenly has the making of a new flock of European white storks after three stork eggs hatched there in the last week.

A mated pair hatched the eggs last week.

Lincoln Park’s bird curator, Colleen Lynch, said it is the first time in the zoo’s history that the species has hatched young there.

Lynch said the storks have built their nest in a viewable outdoor habitat next to the bird house.

A more ominous chick also arrived at the zoo, when two rare Cinerous vultures hatched an egg.

Lynch said the stork and vulture parents both appear to be doing an excellent job of tending their chicks.

Washington inmate kills entangled deer at work farm

WALLA WALLA, Wash.

The Washington State Penitentiary says an inmate on a work crew killed and butchered a deer that was entangled in netting at the prison’s pheasant farm near Walla Walla.

Spokeswoman Shari Hall says the minimum-security prisoner killed the deer using a box cutter that the crew is allowed to use.

Investigators acting on a tip found about 15 pounds of venison in garbage bags in the farm’s break room.

Hall says she didn’t know what the inmate intended to do with the meat. The break room has no cooking equipment, and no campfires are allowed on the farm.

The inmate, who is a former butcher, lost work-crew privileges and could face other punishment. He is incarcerated on a drug conviction and is scheduled to be released in December 2012.

Associated Press