Animals
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Attention

Elephant runs amok, kills mahout in Parassala, India


Mathrubhumi
Thu, 20 Apr 2017 09:54 UTC
An elephant brought for a temple festival ran amok and killed its mahout.
An elephant brought for a temple festival ran amok and killed its mahout.
Another mahout escaped by climbing atop a nearby palm tree.

An elephant, which ran amok, killed its mahout near here on Thursday, police said.

The incident occurred as the elephant was being brought for a nearby temple festival at Parassala, police said.

The elephant suddenly ran amok and lifted the mahout with its truck and hurled him to the ground, police said.

The mahout succumbed to his injuries before reaching hospital.

Another mahout escaped by climbing atop a nearby palm tree.

Source: PTI

Comment: According to another report this is now the third mahout killed by this particular elephant.

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Attention

Spike in monkey attacks recorded in Singapore

Alysha Chandra
The New Paper
Thu, 20 Apr 2017 13:44 UTC
monkey
Monkey attacks in Segar Road have been so frequent in recent weeks that a clinic there has run out of tetanus vaccine.

This month alone, the My Family Clinic at Block 485, Segar Road, saw eight patients who came in with monkey bites and scratches.

The clinic's staff had to place a sign outside the clinic telling patients to inform them upon registration if they have been bitten or scratched by a monkey.

Clinic staff told The New Paper that this was because the clinic had run out of tetanus vaccine and they would have to direct these patients to a hospital or polyclinic, where stocks of the vaccine are available.

Residents at Segar Road have seen a spike in monkey attacks recently. Holland-Bukit Timah GRC Member of Parliament Liang Eng Hwa told TNP that he had received 10 reports of residents being injured by monkeys in the Segar Road area this year.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it had received about 160 reports on monkey attacks and nuisance in the Segar area since last October.
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Attention

Whale euthanized following beaching off Sanibel, Florida


nbc-2.com
Wed, 19 Apr 2017 13:31 UTC
beached whale
An NBC2 viewer sent in video of a small whale being rescued off the coast of Sanibel.

In the video, workers can be seen attempting to push the whale out into the water.

Witnesses said the whale washed ashore around noon near the Sanibel lighthouse.

The 8-foot whale was euthanized, according to Officer Brian Norris with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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Attention

Rare Arctic birds delay migration north from Andhra Pradesh, India

P Oppili
The Times of India
Tue, 18 Apr 2017 12:58 UTC
Red knots
© USFWS/Breese GregRed knots
A rare sighting has been made at Pulicat lake on the city's fringes - birds from as far as the Arctic region - as the migratory season ends.

Over the last month, city-based birders spotted red knots (Calidris canutus), great knots (Calidris tenuirostris), bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica), ruddy turnstones (Areneria interpres), Caspian plovers (Charadrius asiaticus), red necked stints (Calidris ruficollis), dunlins (Calidris alpina), Asian dowitchers (Limnodromus semipalmatus), long-toed stints (Calidris subminuta) and lesser flamingoes (Phoeniconaias minor), Nature Trust founder K V R K Thirunaranan told TOI. The bar-tailed godwit is said to be the longest non-stop flyer, while waders are usually the last to leave tropical regions such as Chennai after the migratory season, he said. Lesser flamingoes usually arrived in mid-April.
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Bacon

Missing hunter eaten by crocodiles in Zimbabwe


RT
Thu, 20 Apr 2017 12:58 UTC
crocodiles
© Jon Nazca / Reuters
The weeks-long search for a missing professional hunter has been called off after rescuers found what they believe to be his remains inside two crocodiles.

South African Scott van Zyl, 44, disappeared on April 7 while on a hunting trip in Zimbabwe with his dogs and a tracker.

Zyl, who runs a safari and hunting for tourists in South Africa, and the tracker reportedly left their pickup truck and took off into the bush in separate directions in search of game animals.

Comment: See also: Four people killed by crocodiles within a month in Zimbabwe

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Attention

Another dead whale found in South China

Connor Frankhouser
That's
Wed, 19 Apr 2017 18:14 UTC
whale
Yet another whale has perished in south China, this time in Hainan's Wenchong City, a settlement of just over 100,000 people situated 60 kilometers southeast of provincial capital Haikou.

The whale's decaying corpse exuded a powerful smell that attracted a large number of onlookers, according to Tencent News.

Its been a hard knock life as of late for cetaceans off of China's coast. Not only are they being imported in droves, especially to Guangdong, to satisfy China's nascent water theme park industry, but they are also seemingly perishing en masse in China's coastal waters. A 20-ton whale was recently found dead off of the coast of Shanghai, a pregnant sperm whale died in Guangdong just days before it may have given birth and, perhaps most gristly, a decapitated dolphin was being sold at a wet market near Zhuhai. All of these deaths have occurred since 2017, clearly not the year of the whale in China, began.
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Attention

White-nose syndrome takes heavy toll on northern long-eared bats in Missouri

Ida Sophie Winter
The Columbia Missourian
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 13:16 UTC
Northern long-eared bat
© Jeanette BaileyNorthern long-eared bat
A winter survey of Missouri caves found an alarming decline in the population of a bat species once common across the state.

Surveys of more than 300 caves and mines earlier this winter found a total of seven northern long-eared bats, Shelly Colatskie, a cave ecologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, said.

The species' decline accelerated in the past two years. Surveys of 375 caves and mines in 2015 found 2,684 northern long-eared bats.

Shauna Marquardt, a biologist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Columbia, said the bats were absent this winter in numerous caves where they'd been seen before because of white-nose syndrome. The northern long-eared bat is especially vulnerable to the disease that has ravaged bat populations in parts of the United States.

Comment: See also: All but 23 of 10,000 bats in Durham, Pennsylvania bat mine have died

White nose syndrome: the mysterious bat fungus that threatens entire species, everyone else

US: A race to solve mystery of bat-killing fungus

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Black Cat

Mountain lion snatches dog from inside house in Pescadero, California

Kalin Kipling
The Sacramento Bee
Wed, 19 Apr 2017 12:28 UTC
A cougar
© DreamstimeA cougar
A Pescadero family had a very rude awakening early Monday morning when a mountain lion came into their home and took the dog.

A woman reported that she and her child were sleeping in a bedroom with their 15 lb. Portuguese Podengo at the foot of the bed and the dog started barking aggressively at 3 a.m., according to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office.

They had left the French doors slightly ajar to give the dog outside access, and the woman saw the shadow of an animal enter the room, take the small dog from the bed and leave, deputies reported. Upon searching for the dog with a flashlight, the woman found large wet paw prints at the bedroom's entrance and immediately called 911.

Deputies combing the area found paw prints similar to a mountain lion and notified the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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Fish

'Blue tide' of countless jellyfish-like creatures wash ashore in Oregon

Jamie Hale
The Oregonian
Tue, 11 Apr 2017 12:18 UTC
Bluish Velella velella sea creatures have washed up by the thousands on Oregon beaches in recent days, including at Seaside and near Fort Stevens.
© Tiffany Boothe / Seaside AquariumBluish Velella velella sea creatures have washed up by the thousands on Oregon beaches in recent days, including at Seaside and near Fort Stevens.
A stroll along the Oregon coast just got a lot more... blue.

Countless jelly-like sea creatures called by-the-wind sailors have once again washed ashore in Oregon, creating what some call a "blue tide" at beaches along the coastline.

Formally known as Velella velella, the tiny gelatinous creatures have a tendency to get stranded in innumerable heaps along the coast, driven ashore by strong summer and spring winds. As the name suggests, by-the-wind sailors utilize clear, triangular sails to travel across the surface of the ocean, drifting where the breeze takes them.

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Black Cat

Leopard wanders into village in India, mauling boy and forest ranger

Dinesh Dubey
Daily Mail
Tue, 18 Apr 2017 20:34 UTC
People scatter as the leopard runs towards a crowd of villagers
People scatter as the leopard runs towards a crowd of villagers
A leopard strayed into a village in India and attacked a boy and a forest ranger before officials were able to tranquillise it and lock it up in a cage.

The boy, Milan Rana, and forest ranger Bijay Khuntia were attacked in Bolangir district in the state of Orissa.

Another man, Satyajit Kundakel, suffered minor injuries when he jumped off the roof of a house in a bid to save himself from the marauding leopard.

After a rescue operation which lasted 12 hours the leopard was captured, caged and taken away.

The animal first appeared in the village in the early hours of Monday morning, when it sneaked inside the house of a villager, Aniruddh Rana.

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