ARRAS, in the Pas-de-Calais, has the rat as its symbol. Grain stored there in medieval times attracted the rodents and, perhaps, ‘un rat’ was a pun on the city’s name.

SOME creatures have massive public profiles; elephants, big cats and pandas come to mind.

The whitethroats numbers have been affected by climate change in its winter home in the Sahel.

THE kiwi, New Zealand’s national bird, is the weirdest feathered creature on earth.

FOTA Wildlife Park is famous for its cheetahs; hundreds of cubs have been born there.

THE Old Man of Hoy, in Orkney, is a spectacular sight. This vertical pillar, rising from the sea, 60m out from a sheer cliff-face, is 137 metres high and about 30m thick.

WHO, on mature reflection, would opt to live forever? All might be well, at first, in eternal life but ultimately, tedium boredom and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune would render existence unbearable.

WILLIAM Shakespeare was born four and a half centuries ago this year; he was baptised on April 26, 1564.

A MYSTERIOUS noise is heard occasionally in the southern oceans and off the coast of Australia.

THE howling of wolves has been heard in Denmark. The species became extinct there in 1813 but, two centuries later, footprints have been found in Jutland. According to the Timber Wolf Information Network, at least four individuals visited the country recently.