Animals
S


Attention

Millions of animals dead as floods, algae blooms and disease takes it toll around the globe

Gary Walton
The Big Wobble
Tue, 15 Aug 2017 18:37 UTC
dead fish
10th August 2017 - 90 TONS of fish have died in fish farms in Vung Tau, Vietnam.

Nearly 90 metric tons of farm-raised fish in the southern province of Ba Ria- Vung Tau have been killed once again, leaving local residents with the heavy burden of loss and debt.

9th August 2017 - Hundreds dead Shearwater birds found washed up on Long Island beaches in New York, America.

Hundreds of great shearwaters have turned up dead on beaches on Long Island and southern New England this summer, and no one seems to know why. In addition to the birds on Block Island, birders and biologists have reported dead shearwaters on Rhode Island beaches in Tiverton and Charlestown.
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Bizarro Earth

Alligator found taking a dip in Atlantic City hotel pool

Jeff Goldman
NJ.com
Tue, 15 Aug 2017 14:10 UTC
Alligator New Jersey hotel
Atlantic City police are investigating how an alligator wound up in a motel pool at the Bayview Inn and Suites in New Jersey on August 15, 2017.

Animal control workers removed a 3-foot alligator found in the outdoor swimming pool of the Bayview Inn & Suites in Atlantic City on Tuesday morning.

The alligator was discovered taking a dip in the pool at the motel on North Albany Avenue, Atlantic City police said in a statement.

It has been safely lifted from the pool around 10 a.m.

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Question

Are the lakes of Oklahoma being terrorized by a freshwater octopus?

Katherine Harmon Courage
Scientific American
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
Oklahoma octopus

As the rate of unexplained drowning deaths has reportedly crept up in Oklahoma's placid lakes, some observers have turned to an unusual explanation: a freshwater octopus.

The legend of a killer cephalopod lurking in the murky waters of the state's Lake Thunderbird, Lake Tenkiller or Lake Oolagah has been surfacing for at least the past several years. Animal Planet's Lost Tapes even aired an investigation of this crypto-creature. This beast (or beasts), dubbed the "Oklahoma Octopus," reportedly drags swimmers down with its many strong arms.

How could a sea creature have found its way to lakes in the Heartland?

This unlikely animal, people have explained, might be a rare living fossil, left over from the time (tens of millions of years ago) when this part of the country was, indeed, a shallow sea-and a perfect octopus habitat. Over the millennia, this particular line of octopuses has adapted to freshwater, these proponents suggest.
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Health

Seal bites man in Friday Harbor, Washington

Lynsi Burton
Seattle PI
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 14:05 UTC
Popeye has been a local fixture for more than 20 years
Popeye has been a local fixture for more than 20 years
Visitors come from far and wide to see the Friday Harbor mascot, harbor seal Popeye.

But on Thursday, Gerald Balmer got an unwelcome greeting from the marina mainstay.

The 71-year-old Smokey Point resident had just finished fishing with friends and was sitting in a 24-foot boat at the Friday Harbor marina in the San Juan Islands, his arm across the top of the boat's wall.

Popeye, recognized by her blind, milky white left eye, emerged from the water and tore into Balmer's arm, about three feet above the sea.

"She just jumped up there and grabbed my arm," Balmer said.

Luckily, a registered nurse was aboard the neighboring boat and cleaned and bandaged Balmer's arm, which suffered a few deep cuts.
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Attention

Hunter in Namibia trampled to death by elephant he was trying to kill


New York Post
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:59 UTC
Elephant
Namibian media say an elephant trampled and killed an Argentine who was in a group of hunters tracking a herd of elephants.

The Namibia Press Agency said the hunter, identified as 46-year-old Jose Monzalvez, was killed on Saturday afternoon in a private wildlife area 43 miles northwest of the small town of Kalkfeld.

The agency said Monzalvez, who worked for an oil company, was with another Argentine and three Namibians when he was killed. It says one of the elephants charged before the group was able to find a spot to aim and shoot.

The report says Monzalvez had a hunting permit with him and that relatives have been informed of his death.

Source: Associated Press
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Attention

'Mutant piglet' with two bodies and EIGHT legs dies minutes after birth in China

Lily Liu and Rachel Bishop
Mirror
Mon, 14 Aug 2017 15:50 UTC
Deformed pig
© AsiaWireThe 'mutant' pig with two bodies and eight legs.
A 'mutant pig' born with two bodies and eight legs has died just minutes after being born.

Farmer Gao Baiqi, who owns the sow, said the piglet appeared to have been joined to a parasitic twin.

Gao said he had "never ever seen anything like it" after the pig was born with underdeveloped skin and numerous extra limbs.

Gao, who lives in Fe County in Linyi City in China's eastern Shandong Province, spotted the little piglet among the rest of the sow's litter after they were born.

Comment: See also:

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Sun

Drought kills 2 million animals in Ethiopia


Vanguard
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 13:08 UTC
dead animals
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that two million animals have been lost to a "devastating" drought in Ethiopia.

The UN agriculture agency said that the drought had devastated herders' livelihoods as it exhausted pastures and water sources.

It said the current food and nutrition crisis was significantly aggravated by the severe blow to pastoral livelihoods.

"For livestock-dependent families, the animals can literally mean the difference between life and death - especially for children, pregnant and nursing mothers, for whom milk is a crucial source of nutrition.

"With up to two million animals lost so far, FAO is focusing on providing emergency livestock support to the most vulnerable pastoralist communities through animal vaccination and treatment, supplementary feed and water, rehabilitating water points, and supporting fodder and feed production".
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Wolf

92 animal bite cases reported in a day in Sarawak, Malaysia


New Straits Times
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 11:33 UTC
The Sarawak Health Department said of the total, 84 involved domestic pets (dogs and cats), while eight involved feral animals (dogs, cats and rats).
© NSTPThe Sarawak Health Department said of the total, 84 involved domestic pets (dogs and cats), while eight involved feral animals (dogs, cats and rats).
A total of 92 new cases of animal bites were reported in the state yesterday.

The cases comprise the districts of Serian (42 incidents), Kuching (35 incidents), Samarahan (12 incidents) and Sri Aman (3 incidents).

The Sarawak Health Department said of the total, 84 involved domestic pets (dogs and cats), while eight involved feral animals (dogs, cats and rats).

"This brings the cumulative number of animal bite cases (in the state) since April 1 to 2,062," it said in a statement.
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Attention

Man beats off 'psycho brown bear' by punching it in the head after he was attacked in Sverdlovsk region of Russia

Will Stewart
Daily Mail
Sat, 12 Aug 2017 17:57 UTC
The ten minute duel, in the Sverdlovsk region, in central Russia, left unarmed Alexander Lopukhin, 44, 'convinced he would die'
The ten minute duel, in the Sverdlovsk region, in central Russia, left unarmed Alexander Lopukhin, 44, 'convinced he would die'
A Russian man fought off an angry 'psycho' brown bear with his bare hands after he was attacked while picking mushrooms.

The ten minute forest duel, in Sverdlovsk region, central Russia, left unarmed Alexander Lopukhin, 44, 'convinced he would die'.

But in a final bid to stay alive he grabbed the bear by the head with one hand and punched its muzzle with the other.

The mother bear with a cub nearby sat down stunned after the man's attack, and then retreated.

With blood pouring from his wounds, and the tip of his nose almost severed, Mr Lopukhin then walked four miles through the forest until his phone came back within coverage and he could summon help.

He said he had come across bears previously while picking mushrooms, but never faced an attack.

He added: 'These animals do not attack people unless they are touched or provoked. But, of course, there are exceptions.
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Clock

The great American eclipse may make animals act strangely

Deborah Netburn
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 19:31 UTC
Chickens during an eclipse
© Los Angeles Times
It's not just humans who will be affected by the Great American Eclipse coming on Aug. 21 - expect animals to act strangely too.

Anecdotal evidence and a few scientific studies suggest that as the moon moves briefly between the sun and the Earth, causing a deep twilight to fall across the land, large swaths of the animal kingdom will alter their behavior.

Eclipse chasers say they have seen songbirds go quiet, large farm animals lie down, crickets start to chirp and chickens begin to roost.


Elise Ricard, public programs supervisor at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, recalled the eerie silence that accompanied the start of a total eclipse early on a June morning in 2012.
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