That spring, for example, in Palm Beach Gardens, thousands of poisonous cane toads-introduced to Florida years ago from South American to control agricultural pests on sugarcane plantations-emerged from the city’s gutters and canals, taking over an entire neighborhood. His adorable assailant was taken to a state facility and later adopted out to a Floridian with a penchant for (and proper experience with) exotic pets.Īccounts of such odd creatures running amok in Florida have become commonplace-in an indignant editorial in 2019, the Orlando Sentinel dubbed the Sunshine State a “Jurassic Park” of exotic species.
Hicks drove Litersky, bleeding, to an urgent care center for bandages and antibiotics. It wasn’t a lemur but a kinkajou, a carnivorous mammal native to the South American rainforest. Finally, a team of animal control officers and officials from the state wildlife agency managed to corner the creature. Sheriff’s deputies arrived quickly, but, outmatched, they could only peek around the door and watch as the quadruped ripped up the shower curtain. Grabbing a frying pan, Litersky backhanded the animal into the bathroom while Hicks dialed 911.
Litersky tried to shoo his assailant outside, but it latched onto his leg, biting him and slashing his calf. And then, Hicks recounted, “it just bum-rushed him.” When he’d opened the front door, he’d been surprised to find the critter was still there, waiting on the step. As Hicks would later explain to a local newspaper, Litersky had gotten up early to go to work. Sprinting out of bed, she discovered Litersky and the little animal doing battle in the kitchen. The next morning, Hicks awoke to screams. As the sun dipped into the Gulf of Mexico on that muggy summer evening in 2019, the couple watched the maybe-a-lemur grasp the melon chunks in its clawed forepaws and nibble away at them. The internet says lemurs eat fruit, so Litersky set out some watermelon. Whatever it was, it was cute-with the big, imploring eyes and rounded ears of a teddy bear-and seemed friendly. It looked a bit like a raccoon, but its color was too mustardy, and a bit like a cat, but its tail flexed and gripped with remarkable dexterity.Ī Google search suggested the mysterious beast might be some type of primate, maybe a lemur. THE EVERGLADES, FLORIDAGillian Hicks and her boyfriend, Michael Litersky, were sitting on the porch of Hicks’s apartment in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, when they noticed a strange animal slinking along the fence.
0 kommentar(er)
