Belgian teens held with 5,000 smuggled ants
Nairobi, April 16: Two Belgian teenagers were charged Tuesday with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser known species.
Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives.
They told the magistrate they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal.
In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis Ng’ang’a and Vietnamese Duh Hung Nguyen also were charged with illegal trafficking in the same courtroom, following their arrest while in possession of 400 ants.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the four men were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-coloured harvester ant native to East Africa. (AP)
600 kinds of dogs? Pet illustrator Lili Chin aims to capture them all in whimsical drawings
Washington, April 16: Illustrator Lili Chin became fascinated with dog behaviour in 2008 after her Boston terrier, Boogie, bit their landlord and they almost got evicted.
Ordered by her landlord to get training for Boogie, Chin sought out animal behaviourists. Soon, she was using her drawing skills to collaborate with them on posters and pamphlets aimed at helping pet parents better understand their dogs and cats by reading their body language.
That ultimately led Chin to write the books Doggie Language (2020) and Kitty Language (2023). With whimsical illustrations that drew on her animation experience, she interpreted signs of distress, irritation, content or excitement in body movements such as a wagging tail or flattened ears.
The books have proved so popular that some pet trainers recommend them to clients to help make sense of a pet’s difficult behaviour. Chin offers free downloads of certain infographics for noncommercial use.
Coming out this week, Chin’s third book, “Dogs of the World: A Gallery of Pups from Purebreds to Mutts,” is an ambitious attempt to introduce and illustrate every type of dog around the globe – more than 600 by her count. (AP)