Exotic Escapees Fill Germany's Sizzling Summer Hole

From the media's news flow perspective, Bruno's timing was exceptionally bad. The young brown bear, who became the first of its kind to appear in Bavaria in almost two centuries, showed up just as the country was getting ready to go wild with the soccer World Cup.

Nevertheless, his month-long odyssey and eventual death by shooting after Bavarian officials had deemed him a threat to sheep, goats and humans alike made national headlines. Some even blamed Germany's loss to the Italians in the semi-finals on the bear's demise -- after all, he'd come from Italy.

Now that Bruno's gone and the World Cup is over, newspapers, TV and radio stations and -- yes -- the odd Web site are scrambling to find stories that will fill the famous "summer hole" -- the pending break from politics and absence of thrilling parliamentary sessions that can keep people entertained for hours, as everyone knows.

Germany's biggest tabloid, Bild, which called for free raspberry ice cream a few summer holes ago, has already found its filler for 2006. The paper's launched a campaign that wants Germans to drop the formal "Sie" for the informal "Du" when addressing others.

No respect for stardom

While such exaggerated friendliness might still be light years away despite the new post-World Cup Germany, some people in the country stand a good chance of cozying up to this year's escaped animal stars.

Maybe it's the desert-like heat that has set animals on the run in droves. In any case, they certainly don't seem to have any respect for the concept of summer hole star any longer and are now competing for media attention. In 1994, Germans collectively held their breath because of "killer caiman Sammy," who was waiting for victims in a lake. After six days, the poor thing was rescued with hypothermia and eventually returned to a quiet life at his owner's home.

In 1998, Manni the escaped wallaby was less of a threat and more of an amusement as it hopped its way across Germany. "Kuno, the killer catfish" allegedly devoured a dachshund in 2001, although that accusation could never be substantiated.

This year's contenders

But that was then. In 2006, there's at least two iguanas -- one from Hamburg and another in Bottrop in western Germany -- that are vying for summer hole attention. In northern Germany, a kangaroo mother and its baby keep evading authorities while an angler in Heidelberg insists that he's spotted a three-meter-long (three yards) python in the Neckar river.

And then there's Christa, the giant turtle, who escaped from a circus that's currently performing in a town in Saxony.

Now, we don't know about you, but Christa's escape sounds like a perfect marketing trick to us as turtles aren't exactly known for their speedy pace.

Besides, it seems that Christa and the others should really know better as they'd probably be fed delicious frozen fruits and doused with cold showers like animals at German zoos usually are if they'd only chosen to stay at home.

Let's blame it on the heat. We'll keep you updated. And that's a promise.