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woollyworm.com
Off to the caterpillar races
For example, the cold and snowy winter along the U.S. east coast this year was little surprise to those who paid attention to Wilbur, a woolly worm caterpillar who is lightning fast when climbing a 42-inch-long string.
Wilbur beat out 1,123 other racers at the 2009 Banner Elk Woolly Worm Festival in the mountains of North Carolina.
The winter forecast is determined from the brown and black coat covering the winning worm. Each of the worm's 13 segments represents a week of winter. Black corresponds with harsh weather, brown with mild weather. Black spots mixed in with the brown indicate snow flurries.
"We've gotten it down to quite a science," said Roy Krege, a festival promoter known as Mr. Woolly Worm. Wilbur's coat indicated a relatively cold and snowy winter.
The annual festival is held the third weekend in October and routinely attracts more than 20,000 people. To win the races, Krege advises to get your worm moving prior to its heat. "Like any good athlete, he's got to warm up in advance," he said. "You can't come out of a dead sleep and say 'go boy.' "
The winner takes home $1,125 in winnings plus the prestige of forecasting the coming winter's weather. The worm's forecast, Krege claims, is 87 percent accurate.
WHERE CAN I SEE THE WOOLY WORMS?
For directions, go to the festivals Website page.
Karen Robbins
Ritzy rats and flamboyant mice
If worms aren't your thing, maybe rats and mice are?
The critters most commonly considered household pests actually "make really great companion animals," said Dale Burkhart, a spokeswoman for the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association which holds a series of shows and exhibitions throughout southern California to encourage breeding and showing fancy rats and mice.
The big event is the annual show held each January in Riverside, California.
Yes, there are rat and mice breeds: tailless, hairless, Russian blue, Siamese, and Burmese, for example. The shows are similar to dog shows, with rats and mice judged by breed standards. There's even a best in show crowned at each event.
"The body needs to be sleek, not fat and chubby, and it needs to be racy looking," said Burkhart of the characteristics to look for in a winning rodent. Other traits include a long, rounded tail, strong bones, full jaw, large eyes, and an unblemished coat.
WHERE ARE THE FANCY RATS AND MICE?
There are shows all around Southern California. Check the AFRMA Website for more info.
Marshall Smith
Leaping Labs, vaulting Vizlas
If you'd rather stick with dogs, check out a disc dog competition for a departure from the stuffiness of typical dog shows.
People have thrown discs for their dogs to fetch as long as there have been discs and dogs, but only the best at the age-old game get a ticket to the Ashley Whippet Invitational World Championships, held this year on September 5 in Naperville, Illinois.
Disc dog competitions are reminiscent of Olympic figure skating events. A judged two-minute choreographed routine set to music showcases dogs and their masters exhibiting a range of catch and throw styles with eye-popping leaps, vaults, and twists.
A second portion called the toss and catch displays a dog's ability to fetch as many discs as possible in a minute and a half. The farther the throw, the more points awarded. An extra half point is awarded if all four paws get off the ground for the catch.
"A dog that is quick, doesn't miss and always goes after the disc - those are some of the ingredients you need to make a champion disc dog," said tournament director Matt DiAno.
The tournament includes regional events around the country and world - Germany, China and Japan this year - and ends with the crowning invitational in Naperville for the top five dogs in each of the qualifiers.
WHERE ARE THE LEAPING DOGS?
There are competitions all around the country, check the Ashley Whippet Website for an event near you.
Loews
Dude catches a bitchin' wave
Dogs and their owners that would rather surf than play fetch should check out the fifth annual Loews Coronado Bay Resort Surf Dog Competition on Imperial Beach, California, this May. That's right, these mutts can surf.
The competition grew out of a teach-your-dog to surf vacation package sponsored by the hotel and now draws dozens of participants and thousands of spectators to watch dogs catch waves and hang 20.
The surf dogs are judged on their board confidence, length of ride, and ability to "grip it and rip it," noted Anne Stephany, a spokeswoman for the competition. "We have dogs that are on the board for quite a bit of time and obviously some who just wipe out right away," she said.
WHERE'S THE SURF DOG COMPETITION?
Coronado Bay Resort is at Ocean Ave. in Imperial Beach near the YMCA Camp Surf.
National Park Service
Back to the bat cave
If a three-egg omelet with cheese, tomato and bat droppings sounds like a breakfast of champions, then head to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico for the annual Bat Flight Breakfast in July.
The breakfast gets underway just before dawn at 5:00 am and park rangers are on hand to field questions as several hundred thousand bats pass overhead on their way home from a night of feasting on insects.
"Although I can't cite statistical data, I would say that the risk of bat droppings falling into your breakfast is very low," Paula Bauer, a management assistant at the park, commented via e-mail.
WHERE ARE THE CAVERNS?
Visitors arrive by way of U.S. Highway 62/180 from either Carlsbad, New Mexico (23 miles to the northeast) or El Paso, Texas (150 miles to the west). A scenic 7-mile (11.3 km) entrance road leads from the park gate at Whites City to the visitor center and cavern entrance.
Rick Murphy
Whoopee in the monkey house
Most trips to the zoo are family outings, but on Valentine's Day a few dozen zoos around the country hold adult only events that provide detailed looks at the birds and bees (and giraffes, elephants, and zebras too).
With names such as "Woo at the Zoo" at the San Francisco Zoo in California and "Zoorotica" at the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan, the general content of the typically sold-out events is self explanatory.
"You don't have to mince words because the kids are here and we do get some very specific questions," said Greg Geise, president and CEO of the Binder Park Zoo, whose presentations also cover the frustrations that arise when conservation breeding programs prove unsuccessful.
"We prepare the situation and the circumstances to get the animals together," he explained, "but then it is ultimately up to them and there's not a lot you can do."
WHERE'S BINDER PARK ZOO?
7400 Division Drive, Battle Creek, MI 49014
WHERE'S SAN FRANCISCO ZOO?
The San Francisco Zoo is located on Sloat Boulevard at the Great Highway, next to the Pacific Ocean.
Jeff White
Airborne amphibians
Each May tens of thousands of people gather 'round in Angels Camp, California, to see whose frog can out jump any other in Calaveras County.
The annual contest was started in 1928 to celebrate the arrival of paved roads to Angels Camp, which was a "huge deal," said Laurie Giannini, a spokeswoman for the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee.
The contest itself, fans of Mark Twain will recognize, was inspired by the author's famous 1867 short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
In this version, frogs are judged by who goes the furthest in three jumps. The winner takes home $900 and winners who break the current world record get a whopping $5,000.
That's a far cry from the $40 Jim Smiley lost to the feller who filled the frog Dan'l Webster full of quail shot in the Twain tale.
WHERE IS IT?
101 Frogtown Road - P.O. Box 489 Angels Camp, CA 95222-0489
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