Animals
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Health

Florida man dies from rabies after being bitten by bat

DAVID J. NEAL
Miami Herald
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 13:28 UTC
crazy bat
Shark bite. Gator bite. Now add bat bite to the Florida wildlife chomps that can kill. A resident of Highlands County in Central Florida has died from a bat bite.

The Florida Department of Health said what killed the person, according to a report by Orlando TV station WKMG, wasn't the bite but rather the rabies likely transmitted in the bite. And the person didn't get medical care after being bitten.

The Department of Health website says, "Rabies virus can cause a nearly 100% fatal illness in humans and other mammals. The virus is present in some wildlife in Florida and can spread to unvaccinated pets, which then pose a high risk to the pet owner and their family.
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Wolf

Coroner sees death of woman as likely a dog attack in Hartman, Arkansas

Dave Hughes
Arkansas Online
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 10:31 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
The Johnson County coroner said she suspects that a 75-year-old Hartman woman was killed Monday in a dog attack.

Pam Cogan said the woman, whom she would not identify Tuesday because the woman's next of kin had not been notified, had gashes on her arms, legs and scalp, and puncture wounds that appeared to be made by canine teeth.

There were dog tracks around where the woman's body was found, and neighbors had reported seeing dogs in the area.

Cogan said there is no leash law in Hartman.

Johnson County Sheriff Larry Jones would not speculate Tuesday on how the woman died.
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Wolf

Six-month-old boy killed by pit bull terrier in South Africa


Germiston City News
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 10:22 UTC
PIT BULL ATTACK
A six-month-old baby boy has been killed this morning (Wednesday) after he was bitten multiple times by a dog at a residence in Primrose.

This was comfirmed by ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring.

"ER24 paramedics arrived on scene at approximately 8.15am and were led into the lounge of the home where they found the body of the child.

"Paramedics assessed the young boy and found that he had sustained several serious bite wounds and showed no signs of life," Meiring said.

Comment:

Update: Pit bull kills six-month-old baby, family speaks of the tragedy:
"He was always smiling, had no problems and was very loving."

These are the words of Ané Stols, who spoke to the GCN after the death of her six-month-old baby boy, Callum, on Wednesday morning in Fourth Avenue, Primrose.

Callum was attacked by a pit bull and died at his grandmother's house just after 7am.

A shocked Ané said that it had been an ordinary morning until she received a phone call that would change her life forever.

"I was called and they said my baby was dead," she said.

She had been dropped off at work and Callum's granny returned home with him.

"Apparently she took him out of the car and started walking to the house and the dog started attacking Callum in his car chair," said Ané.

Gerard Edward, Ané's partner of a year, said that the dog had always been aggressive.

Ané added that the dog had never liked children.


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Wolf

Woman dies following dog attack in South Korea

Chang May Choon
The Nation (Thailand)
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 15:34 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
The high-profile case of a Korean restaurant-chain owner who died after she was bitten by her celebrity neighbour's dog has sparked fierce debate about responsible pet ownership and led the government to tighten related laws.

The 53-year-old victim, identified by her surname Kim, was in the lift of her apartment building in the upscale Gangnam district when the incident happened on September 30. She died of septic shock six days later.

The French bulldog, which was unleashed at the time, belongs to K-pop star Choi Si Won's family.

When the story broke last weekend, it set off alarm bells in this country of 50 million people, where one in five owns pets, mostly dogs. Pet ownership is expected to double to 20 million by 2020 as more people who are elderly or live alone turn to animals for companionship.

Comment: See also: Family dog kills 1-year-old baby in South Korea

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Attention

Australian woman captures gigantic earthworm after torrential rains

Mike Wright
Telegraph
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 14:17 UTC
giant earthworm
© Facebook/Kelli MaceThe giant earthworms rarely come above ground.
An Australian woman discovered a gigantic 2ft earthworm after it was driven above ground by torrential rains.

Kelli Mace posted a photo on Facebook of her holding the huge creature with two sticks after it emerged from the earth around Tamborine Mountain, Queensland, and it was soon picked up by Australian news outlets.

The area, which is covered in rain forest, is known for the massive species of worm, known as Digaster longmani, and which can grow up to 3ft long.

Usually they remain deep underground, but heavy rain across the Gold Coast area last week has driven the creatures from their borrows.

The region on the east coast of Australia saw particularly heavy rainfall on Friday when over an inch fell in 36 hours.
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Attention

Signs and Portents overload: Not one but two double-headed sea turtles found on the Cayman Islands in a week

Michaela Broyles
The State
Tue, 24 Oct 2017 17:42 UTC
Two double-headed sea turtle hatchlings were found in the Cayman Islands last week.
© Josh BellTwo double-headed sea turtle hatchlings were found in the Cayman Islands last week.
An intern with the Department of Environment in the Cayman Islands stumbled upon not one, but two live two-headed baby sea turtles last week.

Yes, you read that right — a two-headed sea turtle. Two of them.

"͞This is a rare condition that these hatchlings have," said Lucy Collyer, lead turtle intern with the DOE. Collyer is in her seventh year with the DOE and is working towards her PhD.

"I have been working on turtle projects for 10 seasons now and my fellow interns have worked on multiple seasons also, and this is the first time that we have collectively witnessed a live two headed hatchling, let alone two in one week," she said. "We all have however, come across dead ones."

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Question

Strange animal behaviour: Octopuses are crawling out of the sea and walking onto a beach at New Quay, Wales

Anna Lewis
Wales Online
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 11:33 UTC
Octopus
© SeaMôr Dolphin Watching Boat Trips New Quay
Hordes of octopus have left sea-goers speechless with an unusual invasion on a Welsh beach.

More than 20 of the creatures were spotted making their way up the beach in New Quay, Ceredigion , on Friday night in a mysterious phenomenon which has left staff from a local dolphin watching company completely baffled.

Brett Jones, owner of SeaMôr Dolphin Watching Boat Trips, was returning the boat after a sunset trip at 10pm when he first spotted the sea creatures crawling up on to dry land.

He said: "They were coming out of the water and crawling up the beach. We don't quite know what's causing it.

"Perhaps it's because the sea has been quite rough recently but I've never seen anything like it before. They were walking on the tips of their legs.

"A friend of mine said it happened the night before and there was about 20 last night."

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Attention

75% of seal pups killed after Storm Ophelia batters Ramsey Island, Wales


ITV
Wed, 18 Oct 2017 15:59 UTC
image shows a surviving mother who remained behind to look after her baby. Credit: RSPB
Image shows a surviving mother who remained behind to look after her baby.

An estimated 75% of the seal pup population on Ramsey Island has been killed after ex-hurricane Ophelia.

The RSPB discovered dozens of the dead pups after visiting the island off the Pembrokeshire coast following the vicious weather.

Data collected by the organisation on the 14th of October recorded 120 pups on their nine 'study beaches' prior to the storm. Only 31 were recorded when they returned.

Comment: See also: Dozens of seal pups killed during Storm Brian on the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales

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Red Flag

Surfer attacked by shark at Port Stephens, Australia

Matilda Rudd
Daily Mail
Sat, 28 Oct 2017 15:25 UTC
Shark attacks
A surfer has been rushed to hospital after being bitten on the foot by a shark.

The 31-year-old swam to the shore at Birubi Beach in Port Stephens with puncture wounds to his foot at around 9.30am on Saturday.

He was treated by paramedics and an off-duty nurse on the sand before being taken to John Hunter Hospital when the 'bleeding became a bit of a problem,' a media spokesperson for the lifeguard tower told Daily Mail Australia.
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Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: Lost Tropical Kingbird turns up far north of normal range in Nova Scotia, Canada

Carla Allen
Yarmouth County Vanguard
Fri, 27 Oct 2017 14:39 UTC
The Tropical Kingbird at Chebogue Point, photographed by Ervin Olsen on Oct. 24, represents the first fully confirmed record of the species for Nova Scotia.
© Ervin OlsenThe Tropical Kingbird at Chebogue Point, photographed by Ervin Olsen on Oct. 24, represents the first fully confirmed record of the species for Nova Scotia.
"Man of the Day, Bird of the Year" and "Mega Rarity" were some of the comments posted after Ervin Olsen shared his photo of a rare Tropical Kingbird with the Nova Scotia Bird Society via social media recently.

Olsen spotted the bird on the morning of Oct. 24 on the Cleveland Road in Yarmouth County then followed it to the Chebogue Point Road. By afternoon, other birders had joined him, hoping to add this rarity to their lifer list.

The Tropical Kingbird at Chebogue Point represents the first fully confirmed record of the species for Nova Scotia.

Alix d'Entremont, who (along with Murray Newell) represents Shelburne and Yarmouth counties for the Nova Scotia Bird Society, provided information on the typical habitat of the Tropical Kingbird.

Comment: Interestingly, there was another recent extralimital record of this same species in Tillamook, Oregon

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