Cactus rustling can get prickly
QUESTION In Arizona in the USA, can you be jailed for cutting down a cactus?
The saguaro cactus ( Carnegiea gigantea), the classic, giant, branched type seen in Westerns, is the iconic symbol of Arizona and its Sonoran Desert.
It’s one of 40 species given highly Safeguarded status under Arizona’s Native Plant Law. Penalties for theft or damage of these plants reflect their value — they cost $100 (£72) a foot and the largest sell for $2,000 (£1,436). There is a maximum jail sentence of three years, nine months.
On federal land, such as Saguaro National Park, it’s illegal to remove any plant. Arizona law does not prohibit or require permits to transplant protected plants on your own land.
Theft of native plants from public and private land is a serious problem, however. Cacti are sought after by wealthy Millennials for their apartments.
Dwindling water supplies mean there is a high demand for landscape plants that can survive in arid conditions.
Poachers can turn a quick profit with little risk. Saguaros are also vandalised, rammed by cars or are victims of ‘cactus plugging’ — being shot at with rifles.
According to Arizona law, the destruction of native plants over a value of $1,500 (£1,078) is a class four felony, along with negligent homicide, kidnapping, credit card forgery and prostituting a minor.
In an attempt to cut down on cactus rustling, radio frequency ID chips have been implanted in saguaros.
Alan Baines, Hunstanton, Norfolk.
QUESTION How many muscles do you use to take one step?
There are 650 skeletal muscles in your body and 200 are used to take a step.
It’s a complex operation. You must lift one foot off the floor while balancing your body weight on the other. Your hips tilt while bending your knee and you land on your heel, propelling your body forward. You then straighten the forward leg while the back leg prepares to bend.
each of these actions requires the coordination of complex muscle groups. The principal agents are the quadriceps, the large muscle at the front of the thigh; the hamstrings, the muscles at the back of the leg; the iliopsoas in the hips; shin muscles; the calves; the buttock muscles; and, to a lesser extent, the abdominal muscles. There are also more than 20 muscles in each foot.
Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
QUESTION Did any Central or South American countries take part in World War II?
AT The onset of World War II, due to financial pressure from the U.S., most of the countries in South and Central America declared themselves to be neutral. however, Chile and Argentina had German sympathies.
Brazil was the only independent South American country to go to war.
At first the country tried to remain neutral, but the U.S. persuaded it to break off relations with the Axis powers. Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy on August 22, 1942, after submarines from those countries sank several of its merchant ships in the Atlantic.
Brazil’s soldiers were known as the Smoking Cobras because of their insignia (above) of a snake smoking a pipe. They adopted it after it was said that ‘ the world would more likely see snakes smoking than Brazilian troops on a World War II battlefield’.
The 1st Brazilian Fighter Squadron was a small, but highly effective, fighting force in Italy. The Brazilian expeditionary Force (BeF) numbered 25,000 and was successful in many battles including Massarosa, Camaiore, Gallicano, Barga, Monte Castello and Fornovo di Taro.
On April 28, 1945, it won its most famous victory in the Battle of Collecchio, capturing more than 13,000 men, including the entire German 148th Infantry Division, elements of the 90th Panzergrenadier and the Italian 1st Bersaglieri ‘Italia’ Division.
From autumn 1944 to the end of the war, an all-volunteer group of 48 Brazilian fighter pilots were attached to the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 350th Fighter Group, 12th Air Force, in Italy.
They were known for their battle cry ‘Senta a Púa!’ (fight with a spur), which was a reference to cock fighting.
These P-47 Thunderbolt pilots flew 445 missions, 2,550 sorties and 5,465 combat flight hours, destroying more than 1,300 vehicles of various types, 250 railway wagons and 25 bridges.
The Brazilian navy was a depleted force in 1942. A few cruisers were deployed in the Battle of the Atlantic protecting Allied convoys bound for North Africa and the Mediterranean.
The Brazilian merchant navy helped support the war effort and more than 1,000 sailors were killed by German U-boats. n IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.
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