After falling off moving truck, tiger roars through Doha traffic jam

Doha, Mar 8: A tiger was spotted wandering through a traffic jam on one of Doha's busiest roads today, and government officials said they would investigate the incident after footage appeared online.

Pictures and video showing the tiger roaming among cars on the Doha Expressway flooded social media in the tiny Gulf country.

Footage including a 20-second video on YouTube and Twitter showed the big cat running through lanes of heavy traffic, apparently trying to find a way off the congested road.

Footage also emerged showing the tiger initially falling onto the road from a moving truck.

The interior ministry took to Twitter to say it was investigating the incident. “We assure all that the concerned authorities (are) following up with what has been trending over spotting a tiger in some areas of the country,” it tweeted.

Twitter users said the incident happened today morning, although this could not be immediately verified. One picture released on social media claimed to show that the big cat had been captured safe and sound.

It was not clear who owns the tiger, but keeping wild animals, including tigers, as pets is not uncommon in wealthy Gulf countries.

Last year, the government had to make an appeal for the owners of an escaped cheetah cub to come forward after it was found north of Doha. After one sighting of a tiger several years ago, a spoof Doha Tiger twitter site was created.

One social media user, Sultan Al-Qassemi, complained on Twitter after seeing the footage that: “This obsession of keeping wild animals by rich kids in the Gulf has gone too far.”

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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