That’s Odd

36 Plains, chasing seemingly endless herds of bison, which sustained their way of life. As settlers came into the territory, The Jewish Home | MARCH 24, 2022 the herds of bison thinned. Over the past century, the Bronx Zoo pioneered the reintroduction of bison into the wild. Today there are more than 500,000 bison in the U.S. and Canada. Texas Battles 178 Fires

Firefighters in Texas have battled 178 wildfires as they scorched 108,493 acres across the state over the past week, the Texas A&M Forest Service said on Monday.

As of Monday, the firefighters gained control over the “Big L Fire,” Hood County officials said. “It burned more than 11,000 acres. The evacuation order for the City of Lipan has been lifted. Firefighters set up a line at Star Hollow Road south of Lipan and that’s where they stopped it from spreading.”

According to authorities, the increase in wildfires is due to “critical fire weather and high winds” detected Sunday. As of Sunday, 23 wildfires in the state were active, Forest Service spokesperson Erin O’Connor said.

The Eastland Complex Fire was the largest, consisting of seven fires and totaling an estimated 54,463 acres. Its four initial fires began last Wednesday and Thursday, the Forest Service added. It is now 60% contained.

The causes of the fires are under investigation. One person, a firefighter, died in the Eastland County blaze.

Fight to the Finish

Perhaps a gunman shouldn’t have opened fire in a Texas sushi restaurant without knowing who else was enjoying sushi at the eatery.

When the gunman fired a shot into the ceiling of the Houston restaurant, UFC fighter Kevin Holland sprang into action.

“When I heard the big bang, I thought it was maybe the table behind me popping a champagne bottle because they were having a birthday party,” Holland related. “Realized quickly it wasn’t no champagne when I turned around and seen people running, glass breaking.”

Holland’s fighting skills came into use when he tried to subdue the suspect.

Holland said he saw another man trying to wrestle the gun away from the suspect and rushed to help.

“I grab the gun with the guy, we face (the gun) down towards the ground,” Holland recalled. “And then I’m like, ‘We’re upstairs – this shouldn’t be facing down.’ So we point it towards the bar and face it up in the air.”

Holland managed to wrestle the gun away and then put him in a chokehold from behind.

The 29-year-old welterweight fighter is 22-7-0 and won his most recent fight on March 5 by knockout.

The suspect was charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon and deadly conduct and is in jail on $30,000 bond, according to court records.

Turns out that Holland is no lightweight.

Glass Frogs

Sometimes, the miracles of Hashem’s natural world are so clear.

Recently, scientists discovered two species of glass frogs just ten miles from Ecuador’s capital city of Quito.

One of the frogs, Hyalinobatrachium mashpi, lives on the southern side of the Guayllabamba river. The other frog species, Hyalinobatrachium nouns, dwells in the northern flank of the valley in the Toisan Range, a steep complex of mountains isolated from the main Andes belt, an island floating above a green sea.

Both creatures exist at roughly the same altitude, in similar humidity and temperature conditions. They both measure between 1.9 and 2.1 centimeters from snout to vent (a standard length measure of amphibians). Their bodies are nearly identical to the naked eye, with lime-green backs peppered by black dots arranged around yellow spots.

Underneath, they both show the calling card of the glass frog: a completely transparent belly revealing a red heart, a textured white liver and digestive system, and, in the females, a pouch of greenish eggs.

“At first, when we started to collect them, we thought they were the same species,” says Juan Manuel Guayasamin, an evolutionary biologist at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, and the lead author on a paper describing the new species, published last week in the journal PeerJ.

But when he and his colleagues analyzed the frogs’ DNA more closely, “we were surprised to learn they actually sport large genetic differences.”

There are 156 known species of glass frogs living throughout the neotropics, mainly in the northern Andes and Central America.

The miracle of their existence is as clear as day.

Lost Your Marbles?

If you’re having trouble eating, it may be because you left your teeth at the Barclay Pizza & Prosecco restaurant in Oldham, England.

Workers there found a full set of dentures on the floor of the bar in the eatery in the early morning hours on Sunday.

Emma Whelan, owner of the establishment, posted a photo to the business’s Facebook page showing a bag that employees labeled “Teeth - Saturday 19 March 2022.”

“We get a lot of things left behind after a night in the Barclay.... We’ve had house keys, phones, even a single shoe (she must have hopped home), but this is a new one,” the post said.

Whelan said the teeth were found at the end of a particularly busy night.

“It’s a full set of teeth,” Whelan added. “I particularly wanted to post it because someone is definitely missing them.”

She wants to get the message out by word of mouth. We hope it’s not a lost cause.

88 Pounds of Wool

“Baa, baa black sheep, have you any wool?”

“Yes, sir, yes, sir. 88 pounds of wool.”

Recently, a sheep was found wandering an Australian mountainside, exhausted and rundown. You see, the sheep had escaped from a farm when it was a baby six years ago and had tens of pounds of wool on its small frame.

A hiker named Alex found the sheep and alerted a local animal sanctuary.

Pam Ahern, owner of Victoria animal sanctuary Edgar’s Mission, said she received the call about a sheep found by a hiker on nearby Mount Alexander.

“He had 40 kilos of wool on him when he came to us,” Ahern related. “He had urine, sticks, twigs and bugs all over him – it was heartbreaking.”

The sheep, nicknamed Alex because of the hiker who found him, had wool so matted that experts needed to be call in to do the shearing, which took an hour.

“Holly came out at midnight and worked on him for about an hour,” Ahern added. “It was critical. If we didn’t get it off him that night, I actually don’t think he would have made it through the night.”

Sheep need to be shorn every year.

Holly Kendall, who performed the shearing, said Alex’s condition began to improve quickly.

“When we finished, he still needed help to stand but you could see his eyes getting brighter by the minute,” she said.

Looks like they fleeced him but good. We can’t baa-lieve it.