A local man discovered a marine mammal on Cape Wolfe beach Sunday afternoon.

Rick Cameron was with his wife, Bethe, taking a leisurely stroll along the shore when they noticed something reflect the sunlight in the distance.

"We first spotted it a kilometer away and thought it was a power boat caught in the rocks because the sun was glimmering over the top, but as we got closer my wife and I began to realize it was something else."

A mysterious 10-foot long black whale carcass rested between the sea and sand, with no signs of trauma or decay.

A surfer has been described as "the luckiest man on earth" after a shark snapped his board in half before biting his hip on the NSW north coast this morning

Byron Bay local Abe McGrath, 35, was lying on his board off Main Beach, about 300m north of the Illuka Wall, just after 6am when a shark "latched" its jaws onto his surfboard.

Fellow surfer Bryce Cameron, 34, said the shark, believed to be a 3.5m juvenile white pointer — also known as a great white shark — came up from underneath Mr McGrath, snapping his board in half then piercing his hip.

"He was laying on his board and he got attacked from below really aggressively, the force of the attack snapped his board," Mr Cameron, who was on the beach and about to head into the water when the attack occurred, said.

A deadly flesh-eating fungus responsible for decimating fire salamander populations in Europe is spreading in Germany, according to researchers.

The Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans fungus first arrived in Europe from Southeast Asia in 2010, wiping out fire salamander populations in Belgium and resulting in severe declines in the Netherlands.

It was first detected in western Germany's Eifel region in 2015, but has recently been found in Essen, nearly 100 kilometers away (60 miles).

"This is a rapid spread and it can occur throughout the country," Sebastian Steinfartz, a researcher at TU Braunschweig's Zoological Institute, told news agency DPA.

The black-and-yellow spotted fire salamander is one of the best-known species in Europe.

While inspecting a home Wednesday, an electric worker in Arkansas found an oddity he had never seen beyond magazines and TV: a two-headed snake.

Rodney Kelso, who works as the operations director at Woodruff Electric in Forrest City, said the snake was sunning itself when he found it outside a home on Arkansas 248.

"Fifty years on the ridge and never have seen such," Kelso said by phone Friday morning.

He put on a pair of gloves and eased the snake into a box.

A dead whale shark was found in the vicinity of Tanza Bay in Cavite province on Saturday, September 9.

Fishermen noticed the whale shark floating lifelessly. It was approximately 17 feet in length and 8 feet in diameter.

They decided to bring it to the Pandawan Fish Port in Rosario, Cavite to turn it over to the Coast Guard Station.

The Provincial Fisheries Office of Cavite is currently assessing the cause of death of the 3-year-old whale shark.

Known as 'gentle giants' of the ocean, whale sharks are the largest living fish species.

A Swede's Saturday morning hunting expedition turned out a bit more exciting than expected.

The hunter was attacked by a bear just outside of Klövsjö in the western Sweden province of Jämtland, Expressen reported.

The hunter was able to shoot and kill the bear while under attack and escape unharmed.

The incident was reported to local officials at 7.37am.

"The bear was reportedly shot when it attacked a hunter. The hunter was unscathed. Police are on hand to investigate," the local police district wrote on its website.

Giant, jelly-like blobs have been sighted off the western coast of Norway, but the identities of these mysterious objects have scientists stumped.

The blobs are about 3.3 feet (1 meter) in diameter and are translucent, except for a strange dark streak running through their center, Science Nordic reported. No one knows what they are, or what made them.

"This is a mystery, actually," said Michael Vecchione, an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian Institution who has been corresponding with Norwegian researchers about the blobs. "It could be an egg mass, or something completely different, but we just don't know at this point until we get some more detailed observations."

Human antidepressants are building up in the brains of bass, walleye and several other fish common to the Great Lakes region, scientists say.

In a new study, researchers detected high concentrations of these drugs and their metabolized remnants in the brain tissue of 10 fish species found in the Niagara River.

This vital conduit connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, via Niagara Falls. The discovery of antidepressants in aquatic life in the river raises serious environmental concerns, says lead scientist Diana Aga, PhD, the Henry M. Woodburn Professor of Chemistry in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

"These active ingredients from antidepressants, which are coming out from wastewater treatment plants, are accumulating in fish brains," Aga says. "It is a threat to biodiversity, and we should be very concerned.

"These drugs could affect fish behavior. We didn't look at behavior in our study, but other research teams have shown that antidepressants can affect the feeding behavior of fish or their survival instincts. Some fish won't acknowledge the presence of predators as much."

If changes like these occur in the wild, they have the potential to disrupt the delicate balance between species that helps to keep the ecosystem stable, says study co-author Randolph Singh, PhD, a recent UB graduate from Aga's lab.

"The levels of antidepressants found do not pose a danger to humans who eat the fish, especially in the U.S., where most people do not eat organs like the brain," Singh says. "However, the risk that the drugs pose to biodiversity is real, and scientists are just beginning to understand what the consequences might be."

The research team also included Alicia Pérez-Fuentetaja, PhD, a professor in the biology department and Great Lakes Center at SUNY Buffalo State; Prapha Arnnok, PhD, of Ramkhamhaeng University in Thailand; and Rodjana Burakham, PhD, of Khon Kaen University in Thailand. The study was published on Aug. 16 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

This piglet has left farmers baffled after it was born with two heads, two noses and three eyes.

Fears have emerged for the deformed animal's survival following the strange birth on Tuesday at a pig farm in Wangcha, a village in China's Shaanxi province.

Puzzled farmers shared a recording of the mutant piglet, which was born among a litter that is not believed to have suffered the same fate.

Currently, farmers say the piglet is alive - but because of its deformities, it is not known how long it will survive.

Another "mutant piglet" with two bodies and eight legs died minutes after being born on a Chinese farm earlier this month.

A woman swimming in the lake at Bear Creek Village was the victim of an attack so rare that wildlife officials aren't certain on a cause.

She was swimming in the lake on the evening of Aug. 17 when she was bitten three times on the legs by a river otter, according to Game Commission wildlife conservation officer Phil White, who investigated the incident.

The otter followed and bit the swimmer as she made her way to shore and then left once she exited the lake, White said.

White, who declined to release the victim's name, said the swimmer sought treatment for her injuries and received a rabies vaccination as a precaution. Otters aren't uncommon in the area, White said, and the primarily aquatic animals travel through Bear Creek Village on their way to the Francis E. Walter Reservoir.

What is unusual, White added, is for an otter to attack a human.