Jottings
been uploaded to YouTube in recent
weeks.
The Harold Hill district of Romford in
East London, for example, has seen an
invasion of fallow deer which normally
live peacefully in Dagnam Park, while
there’s been a flock of lambs playing on
a roundabout at a deserted children’s
play area at Raglan Farm Park in
Monmouthshire.
In Spain, wild horses are exploring the
ski slopes in Granada’s Sierra Nevada,
and a wild boar wandering through
deserted city streets in Barcelona has
been captured on video. Even two adult
wolves have taken a leisurely daytime
stroll through empty streets in a Galician
village.
In Japan, deer are searching for food in
empty railway stations, on Florida’s
deserted beaches baby sea turtles are
thriving as they emerge from their nests
in the sands devoid of humans, and in
Venice a jellyfish is seen happily
swimming in the city’s unusually clean
canals.
In India, a lion has been sneaking into
the town of Gir in Gujarat, monkeys are
playing in the grounds of the
presidential palace in New Delhi, and
peacocks have taken to perching on top
of idle train carriages in Mumbai. In
New York, however, it’s vultures which
are seen circling over the Manhattan
area. Do they know something we don’t?
Locally, YouTube has videos of a family
of flamingos paddling in the surf on
Málaga’s La Misericordia beach and a
pod of dolphins frolicking unusually
close to the city’s shoreline.
Four mountain goats can be seen on a
day out to calle Real in Archidona, near
Antequera, while their Welsh cousins
have invaded the empty streets of
Llandudno where a herd of more than
100 Kashmiri goats have wandered in
from the Great Orme country park.
Residents who spotted the goats feasting
on their hedges and other plants have
called them “vandals” but local police
declined to prosecute them for failing to
stay two metres apart.
So, when the boys in blue won’t help,
who you gonna call? Goat-busters, of
course ...
Talking of Wales, congratulations to the
southern town of Cwmbran which has
smashed its way into the Guinness
World Records thanks to the efforts of a
local man, Brian Dougal. He decided to
challenge Guinness’s claim that Milton
25
Keynes has more traffic roundabouts per
square kilometre than anywhere else in
the UK.
The Buckinghamshire town has 130
roundabouts in its 89 square kilometres,
which works out at 1.42 roundabouts per
square kilometre. But Brian counted 33
roundabouts in the 12 square kilometres
of Cwmbran which works out at 2.75 per
square kilometre.
“My head was spinning when I opened
the letter confirming Cwmbran now
holds a world record,” said Brian, “but at
least we can enjoy getting dizzy knowing
that there is nowhere else in the world
like Cwmbran.”
And finally from Wales, the story of Jack
Martin, a 19-year-old from Pontypool
who is now in isolation after replying to
a message on Facebook. It came from
police asking for information on the
whereabouts of an offender who had
breached a restraining order, and was
also wanted on charges of attempted
burglary and theft.
Martin recognised himself as the subject
of the appeal and replied to it with the
message, “If you see me, keep your
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