Couple randomly attacked, 1 stabbed, by group of teens in Toronto, police say
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy.
The person in charge of the Mexican zoo where Gen-chan initially lived said the hippo was male and import documents also indicated that information, according to Osaka Tennoji Zoo.
Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
"Gen-chan arrived as a male from Mexico's Africam Safari in 2017 and has been raised as a male until now. But as he ages, he does not exhibit male-specific behaviour and his reproductive organs cannot be visually confirmed," Osaka Tennoji Zoo wrote in a blog post translated from Japanese on April 18. "There was some doubt as to whether it was really a male."
Zookeepers noticed Gen-chan didn't make any courtship calls to female hippos and didn't scatter her feces around to mark territory like other male hippos, according to Tokyo Weekender, an English-language lifestyle magazine in Japan.
But the zoo in Osaka, Japan recently confirmed that an outside institution conducted DNA tests and determined the hippo was female.
"However, based on this result, we recognize the importance of reconfirming the sex of introduced animals, and will take precautions to ensure that this does not happen again," Tennoji Zoo wrote on its blog post last week.
It said it won't be changing Gen-chan's name. The hippo's male moniker was chosen through a public contest, Japanese public broadcaster NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) reported.
"We will continue to strive to provide a comfortable environment for Gen-chan, so we hope that you will continue to come and see Gen-chan," Tennoji Zoo wrote.
Sapporo Maruyama Zoo in Japan also admitted on March 1 to making a similar blunder. It wrongly believed that a 21-month-old lion named Clay was male when it was actually female, Tokyo Weekender reported. The zoo realized its mistake when it noticed the animal didn’t grow a mane and didn't pee the same way as other male lions.
Mistaking the gender of animals isn't rare. Earlier in January, fans were surprised to learn that He Ye, a four-year-old giant panda in Chengdu, China, was actually a girl, English-language state newspaper China Daily reported. He Ye was known as the twin "brother" of his sister He Hua, also known as Hua Hua, until a DNA analysis revealed He Ye was female. The twins are popular in China. He Ye had displayed male characteristics when she was younger, but they became less obvious as she grew older, according to China Daily. Experts said that out of all large mammals, the sex of giant pandas is the most difficult to determine, the Chinese publication reported.
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
Ron Ellis, who played over 1,000 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was a member of Canada's team at the 1972 Summit Series, has died at age 79.
The wildfire that sparked Friday and caused evacuation orders for more than 3,000 people in Fort Nelson, B.C., and the nearby Fort Nelson First Nation, has grown to nearly 1,700 hectares in size, according to a Saturday morning update from the BC Wildfire Service.
Hours before the final, Dutch contestant Joost Klein was dramatically booted out by organizers over a backstage incident. He had failed to perform at two dress rehearsals on Friday, and contest organizer the European Broadcasting Union said it was investigating an "incident."
From London, to Mildmay, Collingwood and St. Thomas, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
A growing number of civilians and police officers are demanding the dismissal and arrest of Haiti's police chief as heavily armed gangs launched a new attack in the capital of Port-au-Prince, seizing control of yet another police station early Saturday.
Irresponsibly using a credit card can land you in financial trouble, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says when used properly, it can be a powerful wealth-building tool that can help grow your credit profile and create new opportunities.
Where you live plays a big factor in what you pay at the grocery store. And while it's no secret the same item may have a different price depending on the store, city or province, we wanted to see just how big the differences are, and why.
A man who was accused of sexually and physically assaulting a woman had his charges dropped in April, just weeks before he was set to stand trial in Toronto, due to a lack of judges in the region.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.