Oddity Central

Man Single-Handedly Repopulates Rare Butterfly Species in His Own Backyard
Chinese Barber Uses Leftover hair to Create Awe-Inspiring Artworks
Extreme Marathon Runner Adopts Stray Dog That Ran with Him through Gobi Desert

Man Single-Handedly Repopulates Rare Butterfly Species in His Own Backyard

Posted: 04 Aug 2016 07:38 AM PDT

The California pipevine swallowtail is considered by many experts to be one of the most magnificent butterflies in North America, but the massive development around San Francisco has caused it to slowly disappear. However, one man’s DIY conservation efforts are bringing this beautiful creature back.

Tim Wong, a young aquatic biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, spends his free time raising butterflies, a hobby he fell in love with as a young boy. “I first was inspired to raise butterflies when I was in elementary school,” Wong told VOX.com. “We raised painted lady butterflies in the classroom, and I was amazed at the complete metamorphosis from caterpillar to adult.” Tim used to spend his days in the open meadows outside his home catching, raising and breeding any butterflies he found.

When he got older and learned about the pipevine swallowtail becoming increasingly rare in the San Francisco are, Wong made it his goal to do something about it. Researching the species, he found that while in caterpillar form, it feeds only on a single plant – the California pipevine – which, he realized, had become equally rare around San Francisco.

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Posted: 04 Aug 2016 06:30 AM PDT

Wang Xiaojiu, a 31-year-old barber from Jilin city, China, doesn’t simply sweep shorn hair off the floor of his hair salon and dump it in the trash. At least not before painstakingly arranging it to create highly detailed works of art.

Seen from a far, Wang’s masterpieces look drawn with a pencil or charcoal, but a closer inspection reveals that they are made out of carefully arranged clipped hair. The talented barber told China Daily that he always thought throwing away leftover hair seemed like a pity, so one day he decided to do something creative with it instead. Armed with a hair brush and a plastic card, he started the piles of sheared hair on the floor of his salon into intricate portraits of popular cartoon and comic characters and, mythological heroes, and more.

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Posted: 04 Aug 2016 04:02 AM PDT

When he signed up for a grueling 7-day marathon through the Gobi Desert, ultra-runner Dion Leonard thought the only thing he would end up taking back home with him would be a medal. But he got so much more – a cute, furry friend that ran alongside him for 125 kilometers of the 250-kilometer race.

Leonard remembers seeing Gobi the stray dog hanging around the runners’ camp on the first day of the Gobi March. When the race started, the tiny dog, which turned out to be just 18 months old, decided to join them and managed to keep up the pace despite the harsh terrain. On the second day, Gobi started running with Dion and the two of them became inseparable. “Once we had begun the stage Gobi seemed to like the bright yellow color of my gaiters and proceeded to run next to me,” the 41-year-old British runner told 4 Deserts. “When she came into camp she followed me straight into my tent, laid down next to me and that was that – a bond had been developed.”

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