Awesome Animal News!

[Lotesse]

Here we can post articles and pix of stories about animals in the news! And today's headlines belong with the wonderful Jack Hanna trying to get through an airport with his friends a baby leopard, a young flamingo and a mongoose. How I've always loved Jack Hanna... Oh - - And PLEASE, please post pix whenever possible, and even extinct animals are welcome, like the cool new dinosaur recently discovered in Utah, or whatever animal you have just heard about and would like to share with us.


Here:

(SOURCE http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/17/fla....ap/index.html


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Animal expert Jack Hanna and an 11-month-old flamingo became trapped while trying to squeeze through an airport security turnstile. It took firefighters to finally get the flamingo out.



Hanna, the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on nationally televised talk shows, was returning from a zoo fundraiser with a mongoose, a small leopard and the flamingo. Three other people were with them.



The entourage arrived at the Ohio State University Airport just after midnight Sunday to find the terminal closed. The only way to leave the tarmac was through a 10-foot-tall metal turnstile with several horizontal bars -- not the easiest exit to squeeze through when you're traveling with boxed-up animals, Hanna said.

"I never thought about the crate being square and the turnstile being round," he said.

Hanna, 60, pushed the flamingo's 2-foot-by-3-foot compartment into the turnstile, then continued pushing while straddling the crate.


"I was stuck like a worm. My eyes were as big as grapefruits," he said. "I can't describe the feeling in my stomach. I can't move up or down. The bars are on your face."


Hanna said he eventually squirmed free, leaving the flamingo still wedged inside and everyone else trapped on the tarmac. He then walked to a nearby fire station for help. It took three firefighters to hoist the flamingo's crate up and out of the turnstile, he said.

Columbus fire department logs show the firefighters arrived at the airport at 12:30 a.m. for a "flamingo rescue," spokeswoman Kelly McGuire said.

Hanna joked that the next time he flies through the airport, the biggest animal he'll bring is a gerbil.


For a Flamingo Rescue!!!!

If that's not the bomb, I just don't know what is.