How would you like to have been one of the custom officials opening up a package that had come from Hong Kong that had been marked “personal clothing” only to find about 300 live scorpions and spiders!

The scorpions and spiders had been packed in nets, bottles and transparent plastic boxes and were concealed under clothing and newspapers within the package. Tarantulas were also included in the spider tally.

“The scorpions almost bit the examiner,” Nelson Ebio, a port collector at the Central Mail Exchange Center, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It was the first time the post office had encountered such poisonous mail, he said.

The package had arrived from Hong Kong on a Monday, but it wasn’t clear who had sent the package or why although it’s been speculated that the package was intended for someone who collects these types of invertebrates and insects. My guess, having been involved in reptile keeping, is more along the lines that these creatures were being smuggled into the country illegally for the pet trade.

The spiders and scorpions have been handed over to Manila parks and wildlife officials.

The spiders and scorpions were later handed over to the parks and wildlife office.

My wife and I have been thinking of taking a vacation. Not just any vacation - a trip to Australia. We’ve always wanted to go and we think that we will finally do it sometime next year.

In preparation we’ve started doing a little research into how much flights will cost, the price of accommodation, and of course what we’ll do when we are finally in Australia. We aren’t even sure exactly which part of Australia we’d like to go to but I’d like to see Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne as well as much wildlife as possible.

I think we’d probably go to Melbourne first so I’ll have to look up some Melbourne Hotels. You might already know that my wife is a gardener so I’m sure she’ll want to visit the botanic gardens while we are in Melbourne.

Hey I just took a moment to see if I could find any Cheap Melbourne Hotels and I found a site that not only lists all types of hotels, but it also talks a little bit about the city of Melbourne and says that it’s fairly easy to travel between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane using a discount airline. That’s good to know. This site might have just saved us money on Accommodation in Melbourne and airfare from one part of Australia to another! Cool.

Obviously we still have a lot of research to do before we can fully begin to plan our trip. As I said it would be nice to go to the Botanical gardens, maybe a zoo or two, and to see the sights within the City of Melbourne and any other places we go in Australia. I’m sure it’ll be an experience that we won’t forget.

A woman living in a small community west of New York City was startled when she looked out her kitchen window and saw a black bear looking back in at her.

“I was making a pot of coffee, and I turned around and there he was in the window looking at me,” said Lorraine Grossman.

The womans scream spooked the 211 pound bear who ran and climbed a nearby tree. He reached a height of 40 feet and wouldn’t budge. The woman found herself entertaining more than 50 neighbors who gathered in her Maplewood home to watch the bear in the tree for five hours. The bear didn’t do much more than yawn though.

“He’s really kind of cute,” said Joanne Penaluna.

State wildlife officers eventually shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart. After hanging on for about 10 minutes, the bear dropped into a net. It was taken away, tagged, then released at a state wildlife management area.

“It’s not something you get to see every day — bears falling out of trees,” said Pete Samek, whose 5-year-old daughter, Lucy Rose, watched from his shoulders.

Bears usually hibernate from December to March, though they can be easily roused, said Larry Katz, chairman of the animal sciences department at Rutgers University.

“It’s a little early for them to be waking up,” he said. “Someone or something probably walked over the area where it was hibernating.”

Authorities said the bear, a male estimated to be 2 or 3 years old, might have been snacking on birdseed and likely wandered in from the nearby South Mountain Reservation.

In the North Idaho city of Sandpoint the police are telling residents to stop chasing the moose. During the past few weeks, the Sandpoint Police Department has received dozens of phone calls each day reporting moose inside city limits. Area residents have taken to chasing the moose. Police Chief Mark Lockwood said.

The towns residents are sharing the city with about three to five moose. It’s not all that uncommon for moose to come into areas with a lower elevation in the winter months as the snow is usually not as deep.

“When these animals roam into the city, they can become frightened and disoriented, making them more dangerous than if they were encountered in the wild,” Lockwood said.

One woman pushing a jogging stroller recently chased after a moose in an attempt to photograph it, with a pack of people close behind. If things don’t change, Lockwood said police may have to cite residents for “molesting wildlife.”

“Do not approach any moose, even if it seems quiet and gentle,” Lockwood said. “If approached repeatedly, even by the best-intentioned onlookers, it may become aggressive. Sooner or later Bullwinkle is going to stomp somebody.”