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Rare albino squirrel spotted in same spot as legendary resident

Albino squirrels are something of a nature anomaly, with just one in every 100,000 of the animals born with the genetic condition. To spot one, let alone two, in the same spot, is something of a phenomenon, so imagine Gomshall resident David Stretch's shock at spotting a white squirrel in the same Dorking churchyard that famed town squirrel Albi was seen in 2009.

The creatures are hard to miss with their bright pink eyes due to no melanin pigment in their skin, and fluffy snow white fur© David Stretch

Albi was a local celebrity in the town, and could often be spotted prancing around the St Martin's Churchyard prior to sadly being killed by a car in October 2009, Surrey Live reports. Not many other albino squirrels have been seen in the area since.

The creatures are hard to miss with their bright pink eyes due to no melanin pigment in their skin, and fluffy snow white fur. David said it was "such an amazing sight to see", before adding that his wife and daughter even saw Albi "a few years back before he sadly died."

He spotted the new albino squirrel cutting through the courtyard, and saw it "happily eating and husking through the trees."

In April 2021, another white squirrel was spotted in exactly the same place, with Dorking resident Paul Smart telling SurreyLive at the time: “It was the first time I had ever seen an albino squirrel. I was just on an Easter walk and had cut back through the church grounds, where there are often plenty of grey squirrels. The white squirrel was just playing with the grey ones behind the church under the trees.

“I have showed the pictures to my friends and family but no one else has ever seen an albino squirrel either - it’s so rare. I did a bit of research when I got home and apparently there are only about 50 in the UK.”

Killer whale mothers ‘pay high price’ for raising sons, say researchers - - old

Raising sons is an exhausting experience that leaves killer whale mothers less likely to produce more offspring, a new study suggests.

20120827KCB_SJ1-100© Provided by The Independent

According to the research, each living son cut a mother’s annual likelihood of successful breeding – a calf surviving to the age of one – by about half.

Furthermore, the effect continued as the sons grew older, indicating they were a lifelong burden on their mothers, the scientists said.

Killer whale, or orca, mothers are known to provide more support to sons than daughters, especially after daughters reach adulthood.

Researchers suggest the findings confirm that this support comes at a considerable cost to the mothers.

The study was carried out by the universities of Exeter, York and Cambridge, and the Centre for Whale Research.

Dr Michael Weiss, of the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter, said: “Our previous research has shown that sons have a higher chance of survival if their mother is around.

“In this study, we wanted to find out if this help comes at a price.

“The answer is yes – killer whale mothers pay a high cost in terms of their future reproduction to keep their sons alive.”

In the study, researchers used data from 1982 to 2021 on 40 females in the “southern resident” killer whale population, which live off the Pacific coast of North America.

Both male and female resident killer whales stay in the group they were born into, and each group is led by an experienced female.

The southern resident orcas are fish-eating whales and feed predominantly on salmon.

Mothers commonly bite salmon in two, eating half and giving half to their sons.

Although the mothers also feed their daughters, this stops when they reach reproductive age.

But the sons continue to be fed into adulthood.

The scientists suggest the strategy is unusual and could even be unique.

Explaining how this could have evolved, Professor Darren Croft, Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter, said mothers gain an “indirect fitness” benefit: helping their sons survive and reproduce improves the chances of their genes passing to future generations.

But the approach may now cause problems for the future viability of the population.

Southern resident killer whales specialise in eating Chinook salmon, but these fish have become scarce in many parts of the whales’ range, with many stocks threatened or endangered.

With the food limited, the southern residents are also endangered.

Just 73 southern resident killer whales remain and – as they do not interbreed with other killer whale populations – this number is critically low.

Prof Croft said: “For this population that’s living on a knife’s edge, the potential for population recovery is going to be limited by the number of females and those females’ reproductive output.

“A strategy of females reducing reproduction to increase the survival of male offspring may therefore have negative impacts on this population’s recovery.”

The study, published in Current Biology, was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) and National Marine Fisheries Service (US). 

Dog law owners may not know about that could see them jailed for 14 years

The cliche goes that a dog is for life, not just for Christmas - and there is a good reason behind it. A lot of responsibility comes with being a pet owner, from buying the right food and plenty of water to making sure you pick up dog mess while you are out on a walk.

Stock image: Pit bull terriers are a restricted breed© Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Of course, many will know that the latter can see you landed with a fine, but there are some other laws owners may not know about that could end up with them serving time behind bars. The gov.uk website details a variety of penalties for dog-related offences and while all attacks can be punished, it is an offence just to own some breeds.

Below SurreyLive has all the information you need to know about dog attacks and the punishments that come with them. There is also the full list of banned dog types which can be seized by police. 

Can I be sent to jail if my dog injures someone else?

Put simply it is an offence to let a dog be dangerously out of control anywhere in a public place, private place (like a neighbour’s garden) or an owner's home.

A dog is considered out of control if it injures someone or makes someone worried a dog may injure them. A court can also decide if a dog is out of control if it attacks another animal or if the owner of an animal thinks they could be injured if they tried to stop an attack on their animal.

The penalty for this crime depends on the severity of the incident. You can get an unlimited fine or six months in prison if your dog is out of control and you may not be banned from owning a dog in the future.

If you let your dog injure someone you could be jailed for five years and fined, while if you allow a dog to kill someone you could serve up to 14 years in prison. Attacks on guide dogs also carry a jail sentence of three years and a fine.

Which dog breeds are banned in the UK?

In the UK it is also illegal to own certain types of dogs. It is also against the law to sell, abandon, give away, or breed any of the following breeds:

Whether a dog is banned or not depends on what it looks like rather than its breed or name. For example, if your dog matches the characteristics of a Pit Bull Terrier it may be a banned type.

Police can also take away these dogs even if it is not acting dangerously or a complaint has not been made. This dog will then be released or kept in kennels while the police apply to a court.

Drug gang bosses have turned to “designer bulldog” breeding earning thousands of pounds per pet, an investigation by Panorama has found.

Keanu - an American Bully with extreme features - BBC Panorama© BBC Panorama

The eight-month investigation by the BBC programme found that criminals were making thousands breeding dogs with extreme and unhealthy characteristics, such as excessive skin folds or large, muscular frames.

The programme found that networks of dealers were exploiting the growing demands for dogs with unusual features, such as huge frames or disproportionately short legs. The tops of the dogs’ ears are also cut off in a painful and illegal practice known as “ear cropping”.

Some of the animals are sold on social media for over ten thousand pounds.

Undercover reporter Sam Poling found evidence that a convicted county lines drug dealer was conducting deals on American Bully puppies from inside prison.

Puppies with cropped ears - BBC Panorama© Provided by The Telegraph

She found that the unscrupulous dealers also exploited a loophole in dog breeding regulations whereby a business selling puppies needed a licence from the council, while breeding exclusively from male dogs through selling their semen or having them mate did not require a licence.

An animal welfare investigator who spoke anonymously to Panorama said that the lax regulations made extreme dog breeding attractive to criminals.

The programme, broadcast on Monday night on BBC One at 8pm, follows Ms Poling as she spends eight months secretly filming the underground dog breeding world.

One dealer, Thomas Rayment, was jailed in 2021 for running a heroin and crack cocaine gang in the north of England but his Facebook messenger account was used repeatedly to set up a deal with Poling.

His business partner, Ryan Howard, said during secret filming that Rayment was brokering the deal from prison but later denied this when contacted by the BBC.

'Same business model as selling drugs... but with dogs'

An animal welfare investigator told Panorama: “It’s a massively lucrative trade. The big breeders… the majority of them are criminals, drug dealers, organised crime gangs who are driving up the market. It's exactly the same business model as selling drugs. But we're talking about dogs.”

BBC Panorama identified another dog breeding business which was not connected to organised crime but was producing English bulldogs with extreme features, despite the owners having recently been successfully prosecuted for animal welfare offences.

Karl and Victoria Shellard were convicted of animal welfare offences last year having bred dogs with unhealthy features such as huge skin folds inhibiting their breathing. The Shellards were selling their extreme English bulldogs for up to £20,000 each on social media.

The couple were fined £19,000 each but despite their conviction they are still in business, with Karl boasting in undercover footage that he made between £90,000 and £100,000 in one month from carrying out nearly 41 studs.