Animals
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Grey Alien

Creatures from the deep: Jellyfish invasion swamped waters off Sevastopol (VIDEO)

Jellyfish
An intense jellyfish bloom has swamped the waters of Balaclava Bay in Sevastopol, Crimea, turning the area into an bubbly and slimy mass.

The sea creatures amassed near the piers, turning the water into an alien-like landscape, overrun with an infestation of bobbing jellyfish. They are whitish in color and semi-transparent, but the water is so filled with the species that it's hard to see past the top layer of the domed beings.

Fish

'Prehistoric' frilled shark found by scientists in Portugal's Algarve coast

prehistoric shark
Portuguese scientists have captured what they believe to be "a shark from the age of dinosaurs" off the Algarve coast.

The rare frilled shark was caught aboard a trawler, which was coincidentally working on a project for the European Union which concentrates on "minimising unwanted catches in commercial fishing".

According to a press release by the Alliance of Mediterranean News Agencies, scientists from the country's Institute For The Sea and Atmosphere have dubbed the shark a "living fossil", as remains of the shark date back around 80 million years.

frilled shark
© SIC NoticasA rare discovery of a frilled shark was discovered off the coast of Portugal. The shark species is thought to be 80 million years old and is rarely encountered by humans alive.

Black Cat 2

Leopard kills woman in Himachal Pradesh, India; second such incident in same village since May

Leopard
Leopard
The wildlife department has stepped up efforts to track down a maneating leopard in Kinnaur that mauled a 74-year-old woman to death in the district's Ribba village, said a forest official on Saturday.

Kaman Devi was killed on Thursday morning, with the big cat decapitating the woman and taking her head with it. The claw marks on the woman's body confirmed it was an attack by a leopard, said the official. This is the second such incident in the village since May, when a leopard had attacked and killed one Lapsar Devi (74).

The department has ordered that the leopard be caught or killed. Sources in the department said the incident took place around 8.30am, when the woman was outside her home. Rampur chief conservator of forests (wildlife) said in a press release that the leopard pounced on the woman and dragged her to a distance from the courtyard.

Attention

Two people attacked by striped hyena in Gujarat, India

Striped Hyena
Striped Hyena
A woman and a man were severely injured after a striped hyena attacked them in their farms in Chhota Udepur on Friday.

The duo were rushed to a private hospital in Chhota Udepur town for treatment.

The hyena first attacked Khusli Rathwa at her farm in Dhanpur village on Friday morning when she was working there.

According to sources, the hyena injured Khusli on her head and right hand. When she screamed for help, locals rushed there and tried to drive the animal away by pelting stones at it.

Bug

Spiders weave huge cobwebs in forest near Jerusalem, Israel

giant webs in forest near Jerusalem
Giant webs in forest near Jerusalem
Science and nature combine to create a spectacular sight as trees are covered in cobwebs.

On the banks of a creek near Jerusalem, part of a forest is enveloped in what looks like giant netting.

Long-jawed spiders spin huge cobwebs, shrouding trees that glisten in the sunshine.

The unusual sight in the Soreq creek is thanks to a combination of factors. Treated sewage full of nutrients promote the proliferation of mosquitoes that serve as a source of food for spiders, which then reproduce in multitudes.

However in time, colder temperatures are expected to bring a drop in the mosquito population that sustains the web-weavers.


Attention

Unusual numbers of Snowy Owls in Wisconsin for November

Snowy owl
© Sue DoughertySnowy owl
Snowy Owls are being reported from Wisconsin in what has been called unusual numbers for November. One was seen near Bayfield in October. Most of the birds were seen along the Lake Michigan shoreline in eastern Wisconsin.

There have been 15 sightings.

Two sightings in Minnesota and a handful from the upper peninsula of Michigan are on the list. You can an eBird map of sightings at this link: bit.ly/2AmEq09.

One of the Minnesota sightings was in the metro area, the other north of Duluth along the lakeshore.

The report came from Ryan Brady, bird monitoring coordinator for the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative.


Attention

'On life support': Research shows even low doses of common pesticides starve, disorient migrating songbirds

A white crested sparrow is seen in this undated handout photo. Research suggests that two of Canada's most commonly used pesticides cause migrating songbirds to lose both weight and their sense of direction.
© University of SaskatchewanA white crested sparrow is seen in this undated handout photo. Research suggests that two of Canada's most commonly used pesticides cause migrating songbirds to lose both weight and their sense of direction.
Newly published research says two of Canada's most commonly used pesticides cause migrating songbirds to lose weight and their sense of direction.

"This is very good evidence that even a little dose — incidental, you might call it — in their feeding could be enough to have serious impacts," said University of Saskatchewan biologist Christy Morrissey, whose paper was published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

Morrissey studied the effect of two widely used pesticide types — neonicotinoids and organophosphates. Both are used on more than 100 different crops, including wheat and canola, and are found in dozens of commercial products.

The so-called neonics are often applied to seeds before they're planted in the ground. Organophosphates are applied in tiny granules.

Both are known to be lethal to birds in large doses, but Morrissey wanted to study the impact of smaller amounts.

She and her colleagues took three groups of white-crowned sparrows, a common migratory songbird found throughout North America, and exposed them to a small dose, a somewhat larger dose, or no dose at all.

Binoculars

A long way from home: Rare Corncrake from Eurasia turns up on Long Island, New York

Corncrake
© Colin BradshawCorncrake
It is not a short hike to the Corn Crake. But when a bird is so rare it isn't even listed in some North American field guides, you go. You go 50 miles east of New York City and 15 more south. You speed across South Oyster Bay, then the full length of a barrier island, to reach a beach town so boarded-up even the public bathrooms are closed. You scramble across a two-lane highway to a brushy median, high-stepping the thorns, hoping you haven't missed it.

You fly in from Michigan, from North Carolina, from Minnesota. You ditch work and rent a car, rumble in from Manhattan against the crosstown traffic. You drive three hours to what feels like the edge of the world, November's first deep chill sweeping in off the sea, and say, "I would have driven six to see it."

"It only took me 58 years to see this bird," said Paul Desjardins, who came from Connecticut. "I never thought I'd see it."

Not since 1963 has a Corn Crake been documented in New York State, when one was shot in a remote rye field. Before that, the last record came from Grover Cleveland's first presidency, in 1888. That's two Corn Crakes in the past 129 years—until Ken and Sue Fuestal spotted one foraging on the side of a shoulder-less highway on Long Island, just east of New York City, on November 7.


Attention

What is causing the mass die-off of Russian seals and other animals around the world

Over a hundred dead seals wash up on Baikal shore
Over a hundred dead seals wash up on Baikal shore
Researchers are now adding the death of more than a hundred seals in Russia to their growing list of animal mass mortality events around the world.

Russian officials are investigating the deaths of 141 Baikal earless seals after experts say they starved to death.

Alexei Kalinin, an attorney, told the Interfax news agency that the seals' growing population could have attributed to their starvation.

"The dead animals were all hungry," she said. "There was no food in their stomachs."

The seals who belong to a population of about 13,000 washed up on a shoreline of Lake Baikal near the Mongolian border and the majority was pregnant.


Attention

Whale washes up on Dalmeny Beach, Australia

Dalmeny
Dalmeny beach
A morning walk delivered more than sunshine and surf for a Eurobodalla couple on Friday.

Jacinta Ryan and Mark Dudley, of Dalmeny, found the carcass of a whale they believe was mauled by a shark or sharks on November 10.

The couple found the remains on rocks at the north end of Dalmeny Beach.

"It is a walk we like doing when we can," Ms Ryan said.

The couple spotted something large on the rocks.

"I know the rocks pretty well, and I thought originally it was a dead seal, but when we got closer, we realised it was a lot bigger," Ms Ryan said.