The Eurasian Lynx Lynx lynx is the largest at 30kg and 70cm to the shoulder in height. It can be found from central and northern parts of Europe well into Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Iran. In recent years successful reintroductions have occurred in Germany and Switzerland. If the UK scheme is given the go ahead ecologists hope the species can transform habitats in a positive way.

The 'famously' effective reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park in the 1990's in the US transformed the ecosystem in many positive ways. In very simple terms what happened was, the Elk the wolves hunted could no longer lounge around by the fresh water sources in case of wolf attack; the waters became less marshy and flowed better, cue the return of fish and marginal water plants. The reduced Elk numbers meant more tree saplings survived and Beaver populations increased as they had less competition with the now more cautious Elk. Essentially the entire ecosystem improved with the return of a top predator.

The hope in the UK is that returning such a predator to large British estates in Norfolk, Cumbria and Aberdeenshire would have a similarly positive effect and control the overabundance of deer in the areas.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/11457882/Wild-lynx-to-return-to-Britain-after-1300-years.html

The Belgian NGO (non-governmental organisation) APOPO assists locals to train the rats to detect both landmines and tuberculosis. Apopo's aim is to provide solutions for global problems and inspire positive social change. They operate in half a dozen countries including Vietnam and Thailand.

Great stuff too I think. Just love positive organisations like this; I also want a pet giant rat. You can sponsor a rat's training, or even buy them a big bunch of bananas as a treat - more at APOPO https://www.apopo.org/en/.

The future for trained sniffing rats may be huge; they are cheaper to train than dogs, easier to move around and being lighter are less likely to set off the mines! They may one day appear at airports and even hospitals sniffing out both disease and explosives.

After initially thinking 'snake' the family were surprised and excited to find they are in fact giant earthworms. The species is probably Digaster longmani which grow up to 2 metres in length; a mere tiddler compared to the Giant Gippsland Earthworm Megascolides australis, which can reach lengths of 4 metres.

Little is known about them as they live deep underground in burrows and rarely come to surface except when flooded out.

Myself and no doubt many lions are very pleased with this outcome. Most of these 'trophies' are the result of so called canned hunting where lions are reared in captivity, then drugged or released into small 'wild' areas so morons with guns can 'hunt' them to show how brave, skilful or tough they are. A pretty barbaric hobby if you ask me.

Sadly, you can still legally import such trophies into the EU, US and even New Zealand. Anyway, well done Greg, let's hope NZ follows soon.

Come and visit me and our creatures at the Animal Ark stand, bring family and friends along as well. Last time some 5,000 attended so put it in your diary and come and see some great creatures and have a family day out.

They also occur in New Guinea and Indonesia where they are considerably larger than Australian specimens. They were accidently introduced into the island of Guam where they are a 'famous' feral pest, responsible for the rapid decline if not extinction of many local bird species. Guam has no native snake species. They have been managed in Guam by building snake proof fences, trapping and dropping poisoned mice in parachutes.

More at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-27/parachuting-mice-to-combat-tree-snakes-on-guam/4543912

Brown Tree Snakes are venomous but are in the family Colubridae, so are rear-fanged, and are not considered dangerously venomous - whereas many of our Elapid family snakes are. They are however happy to bite and strike repeatedly once aroused. Some infants and children have had considerable reactions to their bites so caution is always advised if they need to be caught for relocation or study.

They are nocturnal and hunt both in trees and on the ground with mammals, birds, bird eggs as well as lizards being standard prey species. Six to twelve eggs are laid. In Australia average lengths of about 1.4 – 2 metres, overseas around 3 metres.