Robbers broke into TV host Mark Morrone’s Parrots of the World pet store and stole $58,000 worth of parrots, including African Greys, Cockatoos, and a Toucan:

Brazen, cage-toting burglars smashed through the rear window of a Rockville Centre pet store early yesterday and made off with 45 exotic birds, worth a total of $58,000, police and the store’s owner said yesterday.

Marc Morrone, the “pet-keeper” for “The Martha Stewart Show,” who has owned Parrots of the World on Sunrise Highway since 1978, told the Daily News the early morning heist was not the work of bird-brained thieves. […]

The bandits stole 20 African Grey parrots, 20 Blue-Faced Amazon parrots, 4 Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and one toucan. The birds retail for $1,200 each.

“This is a terrible tragedy,” Morrone said. “They hurt me emotionally. It’s a personal violation.”

More than his financial loss, Morrone said, he’s worried about the safety of his birds.

Mark Morrone has done so much for animal welfare and education and its such a shame that he was targeted like this.

Here’s a video from YouTube to show you what the store’s bird room looks like and how many birds are typically in there at any given time:

Having been to the store and having met Mark, I can tell you that he is one of the nicest and most sincere people I’ve ever met. He certainly didn’t deserve to have the birds he spent so much time socializing and hand-feeding stolen right out from under him.

The last time I was at Parrots of the World, I found Mark in the expansive bird room, his shirt covered in a mixture of poop and baby bird formula, hand-feeding several parrots. After finishing the morning feedings with the help of his staff, he began to personally great each customer who walked into the store, answering question along the way.

I approached him at one point and asked him about the degus he had for sale. He stopped what he was doing behind the sales counter and came over to the cage of degus on a wall that included possums, hedgehogs, and sugar gliders. He reached into the cage, pulled out a degu, and suddenly put one on my shoulder.

Now, I’ve owned degus before — I adopted a pair of them and had them for 2 years before they succumbed to diabetes after being fed a sugar-inclusive diet of hamster food by their original owners. And they would almost always let me handle them.

But the experience I had in Mark’s pet store was different. He and his staff had handled and socialized this degu so well that not only would it let me hold it, but it climbed across my shoulders, up onto my head, and up and down my back several times, and never tried to get away or jump down to the floor. It was amazing.

And if I didn’t have several other pets at home at the time, I would have bought that degu right there on the spot.

Anyway, my point is that a theft of this magnitude couldn’t have happened to a better person and it just is plain wrong that it did.

If you or someone you know has any information about this crime, please call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. Let’s hope all those birds don’t die in vain as a result of these robbers’ actions.

“Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin was killed Monday morning after suffering a deadly stingray attack while filming a documentary off Australia’s north coast.

Stingray kills ‘Crocodile Hunter’:

Australian media reports say Irwin was diving in waters off Port Douglas, north of Cairns, when the incident happened on Monday morning.

Irwin was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest, according to Cairns police sources. Irwin was filming an underwater documentary at the time.

Ambulance officers confirmed they attended a reef fatality Monday morning off Port Douglas, according to Australian media.

Irwin, 44, was director of the Australian Zoo in Queensland.

Oh my God, I can’t believe this terrible news! I guess many people will say Irwin should have known better while swimming with venomous animals, but what happened is obviously a horrific accident. Killed by a stingray barb through his chest! I can’t imagine what that would be like.

One thing I think is important to realize is that Steve Irwin died doing something he loved and believed in. His work with wild animals and conservation was his life’s work and he was able to bring his message to millions of people through his television appearances.

The Crocodile Hunter was always so energetic about his animals that he was able to inspire many other animal specialists to walk in his footsteps. He always was excited to make a television appearance and I was always happy to see him on shows like the Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Hopefully his life will continue to inspire others to work to further wildlife conservation, just as he did.

Skillz and Scales are my two bearded dragons. They are approximately one year old and love crickets and romaine lettuce.

When I went to turn on their basking light and full-spectrum UVB light (both necessary for optimum bearded dragon health), this is what I saw:

They are obviously bearded dragon buddies and hardly ever get into a scuffle over crickets.

As some of you may know, I have had as pets a good-sized colony of land hermit crabs that I find fascinating to watch and care for.

When I went to put some fresh drinking water into the tank last night, I noticed a long, red thing at the bottom of water bowl. It was a hermit crab leg from my jumbo (read: size of a softball) Strawberry hermit crab Paul!

Now, losing a leg isn’t a good sign for anyone really, but hermit crabs can regenerate limbs (and eyes and antennae) when they molt. So, while I was surprised, I wasn’t too worried. Sometimes hermit crabs can lose a limb if they get into a fight or experience some kind of stress. I removed the leg from the tank.

Tonight, though, the situation went from bad to worse.

I looked into the tank and found a giant red claw sitting on the sand. Paul was a few inches from it, looking quite upset (as one would be after losing an appendage). I jumped into crisis mode and immediately removed Paul from the tank and bathed him in dechlorinated water and a few drops of Stress Coat^TM. Besides seeming a bit shaken up, he was able to walk sans a leg and large claw.

From what I can figure, he either got into a fight with the other large strawberry hermit crab that is fairly new to the tank, or he is suffering some sort of stress because of him.

I set up what crabbers know as an isolation tank — a high-humidity 10 gallon tank with deep sand away from the main crabitat — and placed Paul inside. Now, I’ll just have to wait and see if he’ll be okay.

Obviously, losing two limbs (out of 6) is stressful for him. But, honestly, it is pretty stressful for me, as well. This is the largest hermit crab I’ve ever owned and these are two really large appendages that fell off.

I’ll provide some updates (photographic and otherwise) as things progress. Hopefully, the isolation tank will allow Paul to rest and regain his strength in order to regenerate his claw and leg when he molts. Until then, keep your fingers crossed for Paul…

UPDATE (6/11): This is very upsetting — I returned home to find Paul dead. Goodbye, giant crab.