Animals
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Attention

Whale found stuck to bow of ship near docks in Sheerness, UK

John Nurden
KentOnline
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 10:01 UTC
Jack Smedley and the whale carcass he and his crew brought into Sheerness docks
Jack Smedley and the whale carcass he and his crew brought into Sheerness docks
First it was Greenpeace protestors. Now Sheerness docks has had an unexpected visit from a whale.

The body of what is thought to be a 25-feet long pilot whale was found stuck to the bow of the 49,000-tonne car transporter American Highway as it arrived.

Dad-of-three Jack Smedley, 25, of Yarrow Drive, Minster, was working for Sheerness firm Medway Marine and Shipping Services when he had the surprise call to remove the whale.

He said: "It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It's not the type of job you expect to end up doing on Sheppey."

Veteran dockworkers have told him there have only been three whales found in the harbour over the past 50 years.

Skipper Peter Sands guided the Mabel 6 mooring boat into position while Jack, a scaffolder by trade, lassoed the whale's fin with rope.
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Attention

Thousands of leopard sharks, other sea life mysteriously die in San Francisco Bay

Bigad Shaban, Rachel Witte and Michael Horn
NBC
Wed, 04 Oct 2017 19:30 UTC
Dead leopard sharks
© Nate ReedDead leopard sharks
As many as 2,000 leopard sharks have mysteriously died in the San Francisco Bay over the past few months. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says determining the cause is not a priority for the state since the sharks are not threatened or endangered, however, scientists say additional research and resources are crucial since the threat is now believed to be preying on other marine life.

"This year is unusual in that there has been a large number of other species that have also been dying," said Dr. Mark Okihiro, a research scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "This pathogen can tackle a variety of different species ... we've had a much more diverse group of fish that have been found dead in the San Francisco Bay."

At least 500 bat rays, hundreds of striped bass, 50 smooth-hound sharks and about 100 halibut died in the bay between February and July, according to Okihiro's estimates.
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Attention

Sun bear kills woman and seriously injures husband in Riau, Indonesia


The Sun Daily
Wed, 04 Oct 2017 14:58 UTC
Sun Bear
Sun bear
A sun bear mauled a couple in a rare attack in Indonesia, killing the wife and seriously injuring the husband, officials said Wednesday.

The couple were walking through their rubber plantation in Riau province on Tuesday when the animal lunged at the woman, provincial police spokesman Guntur Aryo told AFP.

The woman, Bunai, died while her husband Saruli has been hospitalised after being severely wounded in the attack.

Doctor Nuzelly Husnedi, director of the Arifin Achmad hospital, said the 6o-year-old man had suffered a serious puncture wound to the back of his head, as well as gashes to his face and neck.

Officials are investigating the incident and trying to find the bear.
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Attention

Dead pygmy right whale discovered near Port Vincent, South Australia

Lucy Short
York Peninsula Times
Wed, 04 Oct 2017 10:44 UTC
DISCOVERY... Ashlee and Kady Schwertfeger, of Barmera, came across this pygmy right whale while walking near Port Vincent last week.
DISCOVERY... Ashlee and Kady Schwertfeger, of Barmera, came across this pygmy right whale while walking near Port Vincent last week.
A whale has been collected for research after being found dead on a local beach.

Barmera twins Ashlee and Kady Schwertfeger were walking along the Walk the Yorke trail north of Port Vincent when they spotted the whale about noon last Thursday, September 28.

They went onto the beach for a closer look and discovered the pygmy right whale, a species rarely seen and not usually found in gulfs.
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Attention

Ship brings dead whale on its bow into Port of Tauranga, New Zealand

Michael Daly
Stuff
Wed, 04 Oct 2017 10:36 UTC
A dead whale carried into the Port of Tauranga on a ship's bulbous bow was thought to be a Bryde's whale.
A dead whale carried into the Port of Tauranga on a ship's bulbous bow was thought to be a Bryde's whale.
A dead whale estimated to be 12-metres long has been carried into the Port of Tauranga jammed onto the bulbous bow on the front of a cargo ship.

Department of Conservation staff thought it was a Bryde's whale and more than 12m long, although not all of the animal was visible out of the water when it was moved on Wednesday, DOC Tauranga Rotorua area operations manager Jeff Milham said.

"We are talking about a big whale."

DOC and port staff and tangata whenua had been at the scene during the afternoon to work out what to do with the whale.
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Attention

Man fights off grizzly bear attack in British Columbia

Barry Coulter
The Free Press
Mon, 02 Oct 2017 18:27 UTC
Bear attack
Jake Blackmore of Cranbrook was released from Elk Valley Hospital in Fernie on Monday, October 2 after being attacked by a grizzly bear while hunting elk on September 30.

"I'm the luckiest most blessed hunter and dad in the world and can't wait to get back out there and chase some more bulls around," said Blackmore on a Facebook post on September 30.

On October 1, Blackmore posted, saying that he'd been asked to share his story about the bear encounter and described the harrowing event in detail.

He and his hunting partner, his 16-year-old son Jeron were hunting elk along the Elk River when he saw a bull. Jeron moved ahead while Blackmore watched the animal through his binoculars. That's when he heard a noise to his left.

"I turned my head just in time to see mama G Bear coming at me at full speed," he wrote.
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Fish

Fish fall from the sky in Tamaulipas, Mexico


ABC News
Thu, 28 Sep 2017 07:22 UTC
Fish fall from the sky in Mexico
© Tamaulipas Civil Defense via Facebook
Civil defense officials in northeast Mexico say a light rain was accompanied by small fish that fell from the sky.

Tamaulipas Civil Defense says in a brief statement that rain Tuesday in the coastal city of Tampico included fish. Photos posted on the agency's Facebook page show four small fish in a bag and another on a sidewalk.

According the U.S. Library of Congress, it's a phenomenon that has been reported since ancient times. Scientists believe that tornadoes over water - known as waterspouts - could be responsible for sucking fish into the air where they are blown around until being released to the ground.

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Sheeple

Signs and Portents: Five-legged lamb born near York, UK

Alex Matthews
Daily Mail
Mon, 02 Oct 2017 17:31 UTC
Fiver's extra limb (pictured) was making it hard for the lamb to feed, so Mr Norton decided to amputate
Fiver's extra limb (pictured) was making it hard for the lamb to feed, so Mr Norton decided to amputate
A five-legged lamb nicknamed 'Fiver' was saved from the dinner table thanks to a one-in-a-million extra limb.

Fiver caused quite a stir when she was born on Andrew Bell's farm near York.

But shortly after she took her first wobbly steps - the lamb appeared destined for the knife.

Thankfully for Fiver it was the vet's scalpel rather than the butcher's blade.

Mr Bell's vet daughter, Katy, helped deliver Fiver and said neither she or her father had ever seen a lamb like her before.

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Attention

Signs and Portents: Two-headed buffalo calf born in Karachi, Pakistan

Liz Dunphy
Daily Mail
Tue, 03 Oct 2017 17:07 UTC
The two-headed buffalo calf was born on September 27 at Lucky Foods Dairy Farm in Karachi. It has a condition called polycephaly - where an animal has two or more heads but one body
The two-headed buffalo calf was born on September 27 at Lucky Foods Dairy Farm in Karachi. It has a condition called polycephaly - where an animal has two or more heads but one body
A two-headed buffalo calf has been born - and welcomed as a miracle - in a farm in Pakistan.

The calf was born on September 27 at Lucky Foods Dairy Farm in Karachi and has yet to be named.

It has one body, two heads, four eyes, two mouths, two noses and four ears as the result of a rare condition called polycephaly in which an animal is born with more than one head.

The condition is believed to occur when an embryo begins to split into twins but stops so that the twins remain attached.

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Horse

Immigrant megafauna are re-wilding the world

Erick Lundgren, Arian Wallach, Daniel Ramp & William Ripple
The Conversation
Tue, 03 Oct 2017 09:33 UTC
wild horses
© Andrea HarveyMost of the world’s wild horses, such as the Australian brumby, are outside their historic native range.
Throughout history, humans have taken plants and animals with them as they travelled the world. Those that survived the journey to establish populations in the diaspora have found new opportunities as they integrate into new ecosystems.

These immigrant populations have come to be regarded as "invaders" and "aliens" that threaten pristine nature. But for many species, migration may just be a way to survive the global extinction crisis.

In our recently published study, we found that one of the Earth's most imperilled group of species is hanging on in part thanks to introduced populations.

Megafauna - plant-eating terrestrial mammals weighing more than 100kg - have established in new and unexpected places. These "feral" populations are rewilding the world with unique and fascinating ecological functions that had been lost for thousands of years.

Today's world of giants is only a shadow of its former glory. Around 50,000 years ago, giant kangaroos, rhino-like diprotodons, and other unimaginable animals were lost from Australia.
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