Lion

• Perhaps one of the most unbelievable cases was a video of a two-legged adult red fox taken January 2023 in Derbyshire, England.
• If the animal is able to survive the trauma, limb loss will undoubtedly affect its ability to find, catch or eat food, or even outrun a predator.
• This omnivorous diet and their willingness to scavenge from humans probably contributed to the two legged fox’s survival as it doesn’t have to hunt prey.

Learning to live with it

• The survival chances of a carnivore who loses a limb depends upon which limb or how much of it is lost.
• So losing a back leg means they won’t be able to move as fast.
• Dogs carry more weight on their front legs so their centre of gravity changes more when a front limb is lost.
• Both of these changes will affect other four-limbed animals and have serious repercussions on the ability of a predator to catch prey.
• The injured tiger may have also turned to easier sources of food than wild prey such as livestock.

The devastating effect of snares

• Snares are a problem the world over.
• While working in South Africa as a guide just over a decade ago, I saw elephants with amputated trunks, sometimes up to two thirds shorter than they should have been.
• And yet, some are able to adapt to trunk injuries, probably because elephants have close family bonds.

• But 3% left their limb behind (including African brush-tailed porcupines, small mammals called African palm civets and a type of small antelope called duikers).
• Another study from India that looked at camera trap images reported sloth bears, leopards, elephants, sambar deer and dhole wild dogs with snares around their bodies.

Tara Pirie does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• On the heels of National School Bus Safety Week, the nation's leading electric school bus provider reinforces its mission of providing cleaner, healthier student transportation to all
  BEVERLY, Mass., Oct. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Highland Electric Fleets , the leading provider of school bus fleet Electrification-as-a Service in North America, today announced that the company has provided over one million miles of clean, healthy air to children across America and their communities.
• "Electric school buses are an easy and accessible way for students, faculty and communities to have immediate access to clean transportation and improved air quality," said Duncan McIntyre, CEO and founder at Highland.
• "Our electric school buses have now driven the equivalent of 3,000 trips between New York City and Los Angeles – removing an estimated 1,800,000 pounds of equivalent CO2 from the air while providing cleaner air to all along their routes.
• Highland looks forward to continuing to electrify America and bringing communities their next million miles of clean air."

• They created a new character: a mouse, with large ears.
• Walt Disney was an innovator in terms of space, colour and movement.
• Walt himself holds the record for most nominations (59) and Oscar wins (22 competitive awards, plus four honorary awards) for a single individual.

Steamboat Willie and technological wonders

• He created The Alice Comedies, a series of short films featuring a live-action child actress in a cartoon world.
• Steamboat Willie, released in 1928, was the world’s first fully synchronised sound cartoon.
• A simple story featuring Mickey as a steamboat captain trying to navigate the boat while dealing with various comical situations, Steamboat Willie was universally praised.

The golden age and feature films

• Those early films still dazzle today – think of the Sorcerers’ Apprentice scene in Fantasia (1940) or the Pink Elephants hallucinogenic number in Dumbo.
• And is there any scene, in any film, more heart-wrenching than the death of Bambi’s mother?
• But the golden age never really stopped.

Disneyland and diversification

• It set the standard for theme park design and showed the way forward for the company: diversification.
• After Disneyland came Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971, then versions of Disneyland in Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Buyouts and a cultural behemoth

• These acquisitions solidified Disney’s position as the brand leader in the entertainment industry.
• The deal made some industry insiders uneasy: Disney had become a cultural behemoth, strangling competition, homogenising content and swallowing up entire franchises.

Not all plain sailing

• Its 1946 film Song of the South has long been criticised for its racist portrayal of African Americans and its romanticisation of the plantation era.
• Since 1986, Disney have tried to keep it out of circulation, although clips can be found online.
• Many old films streaming on Disney+ now feature a disclaimer telling viewers some scenes will include “negative depictions” and “mistreatment of people or cultures”.
• LGBTQ+ representation has become more visible since LeFou became Disney’s first openly gay character in its 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast.

• The weekend began Friday night with a reception at a private residence in Rancho Santa Fe.
• Saturday's festivities included an 18-hole scramble golf tournament at the famed Del Mar Country Club, followed by a dinner-gala and live and silent auction that generated the Lion's share of the $1.4 million that was raised for the Foundation.
• The Del Mar Country Club Golf Tournament and Dinner-Gala was co-hosted by Plewes and Madeleine Pickens, owners of the Del Mar Country Club.
• For more information about the SOF Support Foundation, visit https://sofsupport.org/ .