BARTONVILLE, Illinois- A deer crashed into Echo Valley Meats' plate glass window and shattered it Thursday morning. According to owner, Dave Alwan, video surveillance showed the deer crashing into the window and taking off. Bartonville Police Chief Brian Fengel said he has seen deer encounters like this before. "It's rut season for deer," he said. "We've had a lot of deer accidents and it's just a coincidence Echo Valley Meats processes deer meat." But Dave Alwan is not so sure, saying, "Either we're so good, they're just dying to get in here, or some of these deer are seeking revenge for what we are doing to their relatives."

VIROQUA, Wisconsin- A 640-pound concrete elk statue lies on its side in the backyard of Mark and Carol Brye's home in rural Viroqua. The dead deer that tried to destroy it lies about 20 feet away. Some say the love-struck buck ran out of luck when it tried to mate with the 640-pound concrete statue in the Brye's backyard. Some say this was not an awkward and fatal attempt at lovemaking but a fight during the breeding season, commonly called the rut. But all Brye knows is "I could tell the buck poked the statue a couple of times by the chipped paint on it, and eventually it rammed it like a mountain goat. That was a mistake." Brye, is considering removing the antlers from the unlucky buck and gluing them on the elk statue as a remembrance of the strange but true story. "But I can't tip it back up until I get a whole bunch of guys to help me," he said.

CHIBA, Japan- Pink, slimy and repellent, the Nomura's jellyfish is an authentic horror of the deep that's been assaulting Japan. Now the creatures have sunk a 10-ton fishing trawler. The boat was capsized as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish. Four years after they last reared their slimy heads, and for reasons that remain mysterious, an armada of the gelatinous giants has gathered in the Yellow Sea off China and the Korean peninsula. The Telegraph reports that the boat's crew was thrown into the sea. Professor Shinichi Ue at Hiroshima University, told the Yomiuri newspaper, "A huge jellyfish typhoon will hit the country." When the Nomuras grow larger than a metre in diameter, half a dozen of them can destroy a fishing net. The fish caught alongside them are poisoned and covered in slime and rendered unsaleable. So serious was the situation that salmon boats in northern Japan stopped going out, and in some places fishermen lost 80 per cent of their income. Even staff at some of the nuclear power plants along the Japan Sea coast found that the jellyfish got sucked into the pumps which take in sea water to cool the reactors. No one is sure about the reasons for the slimy plague.

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania - A woman was killed by a captive 350-pound black bear as she cleaned its cage Sunday night. Kelly Ann Walz, 37, was pronounced dead at the scene of her husband's exotic pet business, which he was operating with an expired license. Walz, has a lion, cougar, jaguar, tiger, black bear, leopard and two servals on the property. Kelly Ann Walz went into the bear's cage Sunday, throwing a shovelful of dog food to one side to distract the bear while she cleaned the other side. At some point the bear turned on her and attacked. Game officials on the scene told reporters, "Why this woman chose to go in the same area that the bear was in is beyond me. It's a fatal mistake. These things are wild animals. And apparently feeding them on a regular basis is not enough to keep them from killing you."

THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES- Giant Alien Snakes: It's not the title of a creepy new horror movie. According to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), nine species of giant snakes alien to North America will become established in the wild and wreak havoc on the ecosystem. These snakes can grow longer than 20 feet and weigh over 200 pounds. The slithering giants would be capable of surviving in the wild, and since they breed quickly and lack native predators, they could quickly cause trouble in U.S. ecosystems. So where did these snakes come from? Most of them were once pets that escaped or that people released into the wild. "If you want to be good to Mother Nature, do not under any circumstances let [your snake] go," study USGS zoologist Gordon Rodda. "They would rather live in your house and have you move outside, when it comes down to it, and with them at 200 pounds of raw muscle, you just might have to comply."

LA MARQUE, Texas- A driver blamed a low flying pelican and a dropped cell phone for his veering his million-dollar sports car off a road and into a salt marsh near Galveston. The man said he was driving his luxury, French-built Bugatti Veyron when the bird distracted him, causing him to drop his cell phone, and when he reached to pick it up he veered off the road into the salt marsh. The car was half-submerged in the brine about 20 feet from the road when police arrived. An auto specialist on the scene said he doesn't know if the car was salvageable, but that, "Salt water isn't good for anything." Police report while the morose owner watched his car being pulled from the marsh a pelican perched nearby watching the proceedings. They are not sure if it was the same bird that started the chain of events.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma- It's not unusual to see a deer or a cow crossing Oklahoma's rural highways. But an elephant? A couple driving home from church nearly slammed into a giant pachyderm that had escaped from a nearby circus late Wednesday. "Didn't have time to hit the brakes," driver Bill Carpenter said Thursday. "All I had time to do was say, 'Elephant!'" Carpenter, 68, swerved his SUV at the last second and ended up sideswiping the 29-year-old female elephant. "Had I hit that elephant, it would have knocked it off its legs, and it would have landed right on top of us," he said. "We'd have been history. I know you can hit a deer or maybe a cow, but running into an elephant in Oklahoma just doesn't happen. The good Lord was with us," Carpenter said. The elephant's tusk punched through the side of the SUV, tearing up sheet metal. His wife, Deena, called the police but the dispatcher didn't believe her: "'You hit a what?'" he said. Local veterinarian Dr. Dwight Olson was called to the scene but said "The biggest thing I have ever treated was a bull mastiff. I did what I could but you make one mistake with a patient like this and your career could be over."

NOVA SCOTIA, Canada- A teenage folk singer, Taylor Mitchell, 19, was attacked and killed by two coyotes in a national park in eastern Canada. "Coyotes are normally afraid of humans. This is a very irregular occurrence," said Bridgit Leger, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Biologists said attacks by coyotes are extremely rare because the animals are usually very wary of humans, but that may be changing. Suggestions by some in online national park website chat areas claim singing her folk songs may have been what provoked the coyotes to attack but park officials said the idea folk music is irritating to coyotes is offensive and that making any noise, including singing folk songs, to let animals know you are approaching, is a good idea.

MARCO ISLAND, Florida- Numerous squirrels have been attacking tourists from the sea. Nobody has ever seen anything like it before but squirrels are hitting the beach from offshore and chasing swimmers out of the water. Tourist Betsy Miller said, "We never should have taught squirrels to water ski. Have you seen those funny videos with water skiing squirrels behind little boats? Well, I think it's back fired on us."

MONTGOMERY, Alabama- Alex Debbenwhite knew his Bull Mastiff, Bluto, would accept his newborn, Steven, but didn't know how devoted Bluto would become. "If Bluto could change diapers, he would," said the proud Papa. "This giant doggie loves this baby. You wouldn't think a 150 pound canine could be so gentle with 11 pounds of humanity but this dog just seems to loves us," said the relieved parent.