Home and Garden

Kangaroo Attacks Woman in Her Garden

BRISBANE, Australia - A kangaroo viciously attacked a woman Tuesday as she picked roses outside her home on the edge of Australia's third-largest city, a report said.


Sylvia Aldren was working in the garden of her home in the northern outskirts of Brisbane when the large kangaroo pushed her to the ground and then kicked, bit and scratched her, Nine Network television said.

Aldren said she sensed trouble when she noticed a few kangaroos nearby and one approached her.

"The look in the kangaroo's eye made me feel that I knew I was in trouble," she said. "I thought this is it, he's going to kill me."

Aldren was taken to a hospital with injuries to her chest, thighs, arms and legs, the report said.

Neighbors said they have been terrorized in recent years by a mob of around 50 kangaroos that live in a nearby area.

The government estimates there are 60 million kangaroos in Australia. Most live in the Outback and rarely attack humans.

Roy Horn Says He's Recovering from Tiger Attack

BERLIN - Animal trainer Roy Horn said he is recovering well from a near-fatal tiger attack last year and is working tirelessly with the trainer who helped Superman actor Christopher Reeve after a crippling riding accident.


"I was almost dead and buried. But now I am better again," the Web site of Germany's Bunte magazine quoted the magician from Las Vegas duo "Siegfried & Roy" as saying Wednesday.

"I have the same trainer as Christopher Reeve and I train nine hours a day with him," Horn told Bunte in his first interview since the attack on his birthday last October.

"Spread the good news. You spoke to me and I am well," said Horn, speaking to the magazine by telephone.

German-born Horn, 59, almost died when his 600-pound (273 kg) male white tiger grabbed him by the neck and dragged him off stage during a performance with partner Siegfried Fischbacher.

Fischbacher said Horn could still not stand up alone but was feeling positive. "He sits in a wheelchair and sometimes I give him a ride around our garden in the golf cart," he told Bunte from the couple's Las Vegas home.

Gardeners urged to help bumblebee

LONDON, England -- UK gardeners have been called upon to do their bit to help prevent the extinction of the bumblebee.


Numbers have fallen drastically during the past couple of decades with figures plummeting by 60 percent for some bee species, the National Trust and government wildlife advisers warn.

Now the trust and English Nature are urging gardeners to preserve the bees' last refuge -- the domestic garden -- by using brightly colored plants, and to avoid growing newer hybrids that are devoid of nectar and pollen.

The charities are using the launch of the internationally-renowned Chelsea Flower show in London next week to promote the plight of the insect.

"Every garden counts in the wildlife stakes, whether large or small, urban or rural, with over 15 million gardens across the country, gardeners collectively can make a huge difference," Fiona Reynolds, director general of the National Trust, said.

They blame modern intensive farming methods, with its use of high doses of pesticides, for the fall in figures, as well as a change away from insect pollinated crops.

The National Trust and English Nature are encouraging farmers to leave wider margins at the edge of fields and grow hedgerows to support bumblebees' natural habitat.

Bee-lovers also blame a common fear and misunderstanding among the public about the bees aggressiveness, leading to large numbers of bumblebee nests being destroyed each year. The mistake is caused by confusing bumblebees with wasps and honey bees.

"Without wild bees our gardens would be sterile places but we do not always give enough thought to how we manage our gardens to encourage these beneficial insects," Reynolds said.

Gardeners should opt for brightly colored flowers such as white, blue, yellow and purple to encourage bees along with 'cottage style' plants including bluebells, rosemary, nettles foxgloves and honeysuckle, she says.