Lawrence Journal-World 05-13-2014

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L A W R E NC E

Journal-World

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LJWorld.com

TUESDAY • MAY 13 • 2014

A Prairie Park primer

No one arrested in fatal shooting

Green iguana

I

t’s a busy time of year for Lawrence’s Prairie Park Nature Center. The facility hosts numerous end-of-year field trips, while the warm weather brings out people looking to explore nature. The center has a wide variety of live animals, from poisonous snakes to ferrets to bald eagles. The animals generally end up at the facility because they were injured and unable to return to the wild, or someone thought they would make a good pet before learning otherwise. To prep you for your visit, or if you can’t make it out to the center at 2730 Harper St., here is a quick primer on some of the more unique animals at Prairie Park Nature Center. See more online at LJWorld.com.

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

GREEN IGUANAS can grow to up to 6 feet and average 12-15 pounds. They can live up to 25 years. This one was found abandoned in an apartment in Lawrence.

Spectacled caiman

nwentling@ljworld.com

Falcon Journal-World Photos

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

THIS SPECTACLED CAIMAN has tripled in size since the Prairie Park Nature Center got him four years ago — and is still growing. The center is trying to find a zoo with a bigger tank that will take him. Lawrence Animal Control confiscated him from a local pet owner who had him illegally. A spectacled caiman can grow to be 6 to 8 feet long and live 25 years.

KANSA, an 11-year-old bald eagle, came to the center in 2003 after being electrocuted by a power line and losing her ability to fly. Remy, a 10-year-old peregrine falcon, was found at age 4 with a gunshot wound that shattered a wing. The center obtained the bird for public education. He can now fly only about 30 or 40 feet. Nature education supervisor Marty Birrell said the bird was named Remy because peregrine falcons, the fastest bird, “hit their prey with the power of a .22 bullet.”

Mouser Giles Bruce/Journal-World Photo

Scarlet macaw

Black-footed ferret

Giles Bruce/Journal-World Photo

TINO, A SCARLET MACAW, yells at (or even bites) visitors who get too close. But he’s also willing to talk and sing. He arrived at the center in 2001 after a KU student who was moving gave him up. “What do you do with a gigantic parrot that makes a huge amount of noise and a mess and is going to live forever? They live 80 years,” said nature education supervisor Marty Birrell.

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

DAVE, a 5-year-old black-footed ferret, came to the center last year on loan from the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center. Black-footed ferrets were declared extinct in the 1970s until a group of them was found in Wyoming in 1981. Fewer than 500 exist in the wild.

INSIDE

Sunny

High: 65

Low: 41

Today’s forecast, page 10A

Windows

Man questioned and police filing report with D.A. By Nikki Wentling

Bald eagle

Business Classified Comics Deaths

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2A 6C-10C 4B 2A

Events listings Horoscope Opinion Puzzles

7A, 2C Sports 3B Television 9A WellCommons 3B

1C-5C 10A, 2C 1B-2B

SAVANNAH, a 3-yearold Maine coon cat, is the resident “mouser” at the center. She was brought on board to help with a rodent problem. Nature education supervisor Marty Birrell picked Savannah among the cats at the Lawrence Humane Society, because she was the one who reacted when Birrell waved a dead mouse in front of their cages. On top of being a good mouse killer, Savannah is great with kids. “I swear, she’s the most popular animal in the building,” Birrell said.

Lawrence police have identified the man who died after a shooting erupted in east Lawrence on Sunday as Charles T. Charles T. Brockman was Brockman, a killed Sunday. 26-year-old Lawrence man. Police said it is unclear whether an arrest will be made in the incident. According to a news release from Lawrence Police Sgt. Please see SHOOTING, page 2A

KU crime decreases sharply By Ben Unglesbee bunglesbee@ljworld.com

Overall crime at Kansas University dropped by 18 percent in 2013, according to annual statistics released by the KU Public Safety Office on Monday. The office said it handled 670 criminal offenses in 2013, down Ralph Oliver, from 818 the chief of KU year before. police Most of those crimes were property crimes, with violent crimes accounting for 1 percent of all crimes. Officials credit the drop to Please see CRIME, page 8A

Vol.156/No.131 22 pages

City divides up grant Funding a plan to build more sidewalks gets a positive recommendation from a key city grant board. However, a neighborhood association does not. Page 3A

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