The 'wolf child' delighted to be named the world's hairiest girl - because it makes her more POPULAR at school

By Daily Mail Reporter
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Her nicknames may include 'wolf girl' and 'monkey face'.

But 11-year-old Thai girl Supatra Sasuphan today insisted that she was after being officially recognised as the world's hairiest girl. 


Although the schoolgirl from Bangkok has faced merciless teasing at school, Supatra says being given a Guinness World Record for her hair has helped her become extremely popular.

'I'm very happy': Supatra Sasuphan, 11, is one of only 50 people ever to have Ambras syndrome which makes  hair grow all over her face. She has now been recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. 

'I'm very happy to be in the Guinness World Records! A lot of people have to do a lot to get in,' she said. 'All I did was answer a few questions and then they gave it to me.'
Supatra is one of just 50 known sufferers of Ambras Syndrome - caused by a faulty chromosome - to be documented since the Middle Ages. Before the disease was understood, sufferers were branded 'werewolves.' 

She has thick hair growing over her face, ears, arms, legs and back. Even laser treatment has failed to stop the hair growth.


But while most sufferers have been shunned, Supatra has gradually been embraced by her community, and became a popular and outgoing child.

'One of the most popular girls in school': Supatra with classmates at Ratchabophit school, where she says getting the record for world's hairiest girl has helped her win more friends.

They don't tease me anymore: doctors tried to remove Supatra's hair with laser treatment but it quickly grew back

She said: 'There were a few people who used to tease me and call me monkey face but they don't do it any more.

'I'm very used to this condition. I can't feel the hair as it has always been like this. I don't feel anything.

'It does sometimes make it difficult to see when it gets long.I hope I will be cured one day.'

In other ways Supatra is the same as other children her age - she loves swimming, dancing to her favourite music and playing with friends.


But more than anything, Supatra loves perching in front of the TV at her tiny one-bedroom family home in Pranakom, on the outskirts of Bangkok, to watch cartoons.

Happily families: Suptara with her sister 15-year-old Sukanya, left, her father Sammrueng and mother Somphon

Still attracting stares: strangers look at Supatra on the streets of Bangkok, but her neighbours say her sweet nature quickly won over her local community

She said: 'I like to watch anything on TV, whatever is, I like having it on. I like to watch Bugs Bunny.'


The bubbly little girl is also determined not to let her condition prevent her from leading a normal life.


She said: 'I like to study maths so I can be good at it and teach it to younger children so they can do it too.


'I want to become a doctor so I can help patients when they get injured.


'I want to help people who get hurt and help cure people.'


But Supatra's future didn't always look so promising. When she was first born she had to undergo two operations just to breathe.


Her father Sammrueng, 38, said: 'We found out Supatra's condition when she was born - we did not know before.


'She was not very healthy because her nostrils were only one millimetre wide. For the first three months she was kept in an incubator to help her breathe.She was in the hospital for a total of ten months. We were very worried about her.'

Time for a trim: Supatra's hair grew longer as she got older and her mother now cuts it with scissors, above

Outgoing child: Supatra  during a PE lesson with classmates

Supatra has another operation when she was two-years-old and can now breathe normally.


But when Sammrueng and his wife Somphon, 38, brought Supatra home to live with them and their other daughter Sukanya, now 15, they faced more problems.


'When neighbours first saw Nat they asked what kind of sin I had done. I was very worried about what she would be when she grew up because of other children teasing her,' he said.


But Supatra's sweet nature quickly won over people in her community.


Sammrueng, a jewellery maker, said: 'She gets along with others really well and is very generous. She has a lot of friends.


'She is just the same as any other little girl her age.


'But her teeth grow slowly and she can't see very well."


Doctors tried to remove the hair with laser treatment when she was two-years-old but despite numerous sessions it kept growing back as thickly as before.


Supatra's hair has got increasingly thicker as she has grown up so her mother has to cut it back regularly for her. 


She uses baby shampoo to wash her hair as she is allergic to stronger brands.
Sammrueng said: 'I still hope one day she will be cured. We will do anything we can if it will help her.'

The household pets that are 'half wolf'

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Move over Rover - a new "hybrid wolf" closely descended from wild animals is displacing more traditional dog breeds as family pets.

By Jasper Copping

Hybrid pups sell for up to £5,000 and once fully grown, the animals closely resemble wolves and even howl like the wild animal Photo: APEXNEWS

The animals are the offspring of European and North American wolves which have been mated with domestic dogs.

Animal groups have expressed concerns about the growing hybrid population, warning that the creatures could present a danger to humans, particularly children, who experts say are seen as "prey" by the animals.

In the US, where they have carried out a number of fatal attacks on children, hybrids are banned in some states and in others are only legal once they are five generations removed from wolves.

Chris Laurence, veterinary director of the Dogs Trust, said: "If you have genuine hybrid wolves inside people's homes then that is a worry. I would be very concerned about that, because of their behaviour towards children."

Dr Ros Clubb, wildlife scientific officer at the RSPCA, said:

"In a domestic environment the expression of natural behaviours could be unsuitable and potentially dangerous in a family home."

The growing numbers of hybrid wolves in the UK follows clarification of their legal status by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which means hybrids can be kept without a licence in this country if they are just three generations removed from the wild animal.

Hybrid pups sell for up to £5,000 and once fully grown, the animals closely resemble wolves and even howl like the wild animal.

They can be bred by crossing wolves with a range of dog breeds, including German shepherds, akitas, malamutes, huskies and inuits.

As well as the hybrids, two other breeds closely related to wolves are also growing in popularity in the UK, following the revised guidelines.

These are sarloos, from a cross between a timber wolf and a German shepherd, and the Czechoslovakian wolfdog, which was bred from a Carpathian wolf and a German Shepherd, to patrol borders along the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

Andre Tanner, from South Molton, in Devon, owns a three-year-old male hybrid called Coosa, who is three generations from a timber wolf.

"He will play with me like a dog. Brought up properly, hybrids are civil. They are reasonably dog-like. They can be a bit aloof but also very friendly."

Charlie Richardson, a breeder who specialises in sarloos and who is now planning to breed hybrids, said:

“Hybrids can be good pets. For the right people in the right environment. You would never go back to an ordinary dog. The level of intelligence and social awareness in these animals is staggering. They really are special creatures. The big bad wolf myth is misleading.

“The hybrid - along with the Czechoslovakian wolfdog and the sarloos - are difficult dogs, but not in a dangerous s ense.”

However, Beverley Cuddy, editor of Dogs Today, added: “The relaxation in the law seems madness. To live in a domestic situation with a part-wolf is insane.

“Wolves are wonderful and much maligned in children’s fiction, but they are hugely different from dogs and should be kept separate. Hybrids are a potential disaster area.”

Meet the coywolf - Hybrid Coyote/Wolf

JON WAY/EASTERNCOYOTERESEARCH.COM

Wolves and coyotes are interbreeding to create an animal that has the pack-hunting instinct of wolves and the fearlessness of coyotes.

A newly emerging species is behind the brazen attacks in Durham

Carola Vyhnak
Urban Affairs Reporter

Is it a coyote? Is it a wolf?

Yes and yes. It's a "coywolf."

The predators that are plaguing Durham Region and showing up in urban areas appear to be an emerging species resulting from wolves and coyotes interbreeding.

The larger, highly adaptable animals "have the wolf characteristics of pack hunting and aggression and the coyote characteristics of lack of fear of human-developed areas," says Trent University geneticist Bradley White, who's been studying the hybrids for 12 years.

We're seeing "evolution in action," he says.

But that combination of genetic material from both species has spelled trouble for farmers, who are losing a growing number of livestock to predators.

They report attacks by animals that are bigger, bolder and smarter than regular coyotes. They say hunting in packs to prey on sheep and cattle in broad daylight is becoming a common behaviour.

Durham Region farmers have suffered the most damage to livestock in the province. Last year the food and agriculture ministry paid out a total compensation of $168,000 in the region for 545 dead or injured animals.

Commonly called eastern coyotes, the creatures are actually a mixture of western coyote and eastern wolf that comes from a constantly evolving gene pool, says White, chair and professor of biology in Peterborough.

Going back 100 years, deforestation, wolf control programs and changing habitat, ecosystems and prey conspired to drive down the wolf population. Meanwhile, the number of coyotes – whose original range was in western North America – grew, thanks to their ability to adapt and reproduce with ease. The two species started to interbreed, White explains.

"In many ways, this animal is a creation of human impact on the planet," says White.

Although the coywolf hybrid has only recently been verified through genetic research, White believes they started appearing in southern Algonquin Park back in the 1920s.

Colleague Paul Wilson, a wildlife genetics specialist, says the genetic gumbo from which coywolves emerge produces some that are more wolf-like, while others have more coyote characteristics. But they're definitely bigger.

"Some of these are 80-pound animals, double the size of a typical coyote that used to be 40 pounds."

But there's no cause for alarm, says John Pisapio, a wildlife biologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources, which is studying the role of coyotes and wolves in the ecosystem.

Hybrids may be larger but there's no evidence the population as a whole is more aggressive or prone to aberrant behaviour, he says.

He agrees predation on livestock is a concern – they do kill sheep and smaller animals – but insists attacks on cattle are unusual.

"As a biologist I find it hard to explain how a coyote brings down a 900-pound steer."

In some cases, coyotes might just be feeding on an animal that died from other causes, he says.

The population growth is a natural upswing following a mange epidemic that wiped out big numbers eight or nine years ago, he adds.

Pisapio says instances of fearlessness or brazen attacks are usually the result of coyotes that have come to associate food with people and lose their natural fear of humans.

That belief is echoed by Johnny, "The Critter Gitter," who didn't want his last name used because people don't like that he kills problem wildlife for a living.

"I kill coyotes. I don't sugarcoat it," he says.

But he feels sympathy for them.

"Humans are to blame for making monsters of them," he says. Coyotes are attracted by pet food and garbage left lying around in urban areas, and deadstock on farms.

They're not all bad and often get the blame when dogs kill livestock, he says. Johnny also doubts they're making a regular meal of cattle. During the 30 years he's worked in the province, he's seen only a few cases of "large, healthy animals taken down by coyotes."

But as coywolves become more urbanized and their relationship with people continues to evolve, city dwellers can expect problems, says White, suggesting a control program may be needed at some point.

"They will clearly bump into human activities, and there will be pets eaten in Rouge Valley."