The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories (9 page)

Held the second Saturday in July in Wayne, Nebraska, the Annual Chicken Show features a crowing contest for roosters, a free omelet feed for humans, and a chickenflying meet, fully sanctioned by the International Chicken Flying Association. Included events are a “Most Beautiful Beak” contest, chicken bingo, and an egg drop (participants risk getting egg on their faces by trying to catch a raw egg dropped from a fully extended cherry picker). The National Cluck-Off selects the person with the most lifelike cluck and most believable crow. Another contest offers prizes to the man and woman who sport the most chickenlike legs.

According to
National Wildlife Magazine
, dolphins experience unihemispheric sleep: one half of the brain rests while the other half stays vigilantly awake. Dolphins sleep with one eye closed—the eye opposite the dozing half of the brain.

MIKE, THE HEADLESS WONDER CHICKEN

In 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, went to his barnyard to butcher a chicken for his family's dinner. But the chicken in question had other ideas.

Olsen skillfully beheaded the fowl with a swift ax chop, and the body, like those of so many freshly killed chickens, began to stagger around. Then it took off running. The next day, Olsen found the headless rooster, still alive and pecking. Unable to kill a bird with such a clear will to live, the farmer began using an eyedropper to feed grain and water down its esophagus. He then drove the bird 250 miles to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. There, scientists determined that Olsen's ax blow had missed the rooster's jugular vein, and a subsequent blood clot had kept the bird from bleeding to death. The brain stem, which controlled most of the bird's reflexive functions, remained attached to the body. Oblivious to the fact that most of his head was missing, the rooster continued trying to peck for food, preening its feathers, and sleeping with the top of his neck under his wing.

Over the next eighteen months, Olsen continued to use an eyedropper to feed the bird, who flourished in spite of his handicap, growing from two and a half pounds to a robust eighteen pounds. Dubbed Mike, the
Headless Wonder Chicken, the plucky rooster and Olsen set off on a national tour and became the subject of articles in
Time
and
Life
magazines. Unfortunately, Mike's miraculous life came to an abrupt end in an Arizona hotel. The rooster choked, and Olsen was unable to find an eyedropper to clear his feathered friend's throat.

Today, Mike still has his own fan club, and his dauntless spirit is celebrated annually in Fruita on the third weekend in May. “Mike's Festival” includes a chickenrecipe contest, a chicken-dance contest, and a 5K “run like a headless chicken.” Appropriately, the event's Web site states, “Attending this fun, family event is a nobrainer.”

ANIMAL CRIMINALS

Centuries ago, animals were often put on trial for crimes ranging from witchcraft to theft to murder.

Throughout history, the animal that's been prosecuted most in court is the pig. In 1547 France, for example, a mother pig and her six babies were sentenced to death for killing and eating a child. The sow was executed, but the piglets were pardoned because it was felt that they were led astray by the bad example of their mother.

The only known criminal hanging of an elephant took place in Erwin, Tennessee, on September 13, 1916. The convict's name was Five-Ton Mary, and she had killed a keeper.

In 1963, the courts of Tripoli sentenced seventy-five convicted banknote smugglers to death at one time. They were all pigeons.

EARLIEST DOCTORS

Chimpanzees exhibit an apparent knowledge and use of medicinal plants. They have been recorded using thirteen different plant genera from eight families as medications for a variety of ailments. Indigenous populations of the same regions use many of the same plants to treat a variety of stomach upsets, headaches, and parasitic infections. Chimpanzees seem to have an extensive knowledge of which part of the plant to use; they have been seen consuming the leaves, the pith, and the roots during times of illness.

NOT CUTE

According to the book
Weird U.S.
, more than one person reported spotting a humungous penguin waddling
down Clearwater Beach, Florida, in 1998. The bird was reportedly a striking fifteen feet tall and left giant web tracks in the sand. Around the same time, boaters in the gulf told reporters about a huge penguinlike bird they'd seen floating in the water, and a pilot claimed to have seen a creature of a similar description on the banks of the Suwannee River.

“The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise.” —MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

THE FOURTEEN-TOED TAPIR