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Child hospitalized after being bitten by shark off Isle of Palms, South Carolina

Noah Feit
The Island Packet
Mon, 21 May 2018 19:52 UTC

A child was taken to a South Carolina hospital Monday after reportedly being bitten by a shark.

The shark bite occurred in the waters of the Isle of Palms, in Charleston County, live5news.com reported.

The Charleston County Consolidated 911 Center dispatch reported that the child was bitten in the calf and foot by the shark, according to postandcourier.com.

Emergency responders received a call about the shark bite just before 4:30 p.m., and an ambulance took the child to an area hospital, live5news.com reported.

French territories under siege from predatory worms

RT
Wed, 23 May 2018 15:36 UTC

Biologists are warning about an invasion of giant predatory worms in French territories across four continents. The infestation has gone underreported for almost two decades and poses a threat to fauna, according to researchers.

Biologist Jean-Lou Justine, amateur naturalist Pierre Gros, and three other colleagues conducted a five-year study of over 700 sightings of giant worms across French territory since 1999, and published their findings in the journal PeerJ on Tuesday. Five years ago, Gros began sending Justine photos of three separate and highly unusual worms he discovered in his garden.

The alien worms are all clones that reproduce asexually. Native to Asia, the predatory creatures feed on earthworms. They possess a bioweapon known as 'tetrodotoxin' which immobilizes their prey. One of Justine's colleagues once reportedly put one of the flatworms in his mouth and described it as "one of the worst experiences of his life."

Giant salamander being eaten to extinction because it tastes like chicken

Stuart Winter
Express
Mon, 21 May 2018 14:51 UTC

A REAL-life river monster that has survived since the age of the dinosaurs is being hurriedly eaten towards extinction. The Chinese giant salamander has become the must have delicacy among Far East luxury diners who prize its lean but chewy flesh said to taste like chicken.

Despite being embedded in Chinese myth and folklore, with the iconic yin and yang symbols for opposites supposedly representing two salamanders entwined, the 6ft-long amphibian is now so desired by epicures that its 170 million history is in peril.

Four years of research across 97 known Chinese strongholds show how the striking muddy brown salamander - affectionately known as "wa wa yu" or baby fish as their distress calls are said to sound like a crying child - has all but vanished from its freshwater haunts.

Although the Chinese authorities prohibit the hunting of the salamander - scientific name Andrias davidianus - the country's ministry of agriculture allows the widespread release of farmed animals to aid its conservation.

This practice, warn conservationists, may be harmful to wild populations as it risks spreading disease and mixing genetic lineages.

After my breakdown, wild birds helped me to heal

Joe Harkness
I News
Tue, 22 May 2018 20:47 UTC

In 2013, I suffered a breakdown, and it nearly broke me. Looking back, I believe there was probably something wrong with my mental health from my mid-teens, but it took until my mid-twenties for it to fully surface. I'd masked it, abusing alcohol and Class A drugs in order to create a full-frontal façade of disgusting arrogance. The reality was that inside, I was screaming out to be able to shrink away and be who I really was - but I had to break in order to rebuild.

I needed more than counselling

After the breakdown, I embarked on a therapeutic journey. The NHS support was less than inspiring. The waiting list for funded counselling was months, and the stress workshops I was offered were flatly delivered. Antidepressant medication was the filler for my cracked mind - lifting my mood and suppressing my negative cyclic thoughts, albeit artificially.

9,191 people died of animal attacks across India in 2017-18 - the highest in 5 years

The TeCake
Tue, 22 May 2018 13:30 UTC

Between April 2017 and March of this year, more than 9,100 people have been reported dead because of animal attacks, stings from reptiles and scorpions. This record is considered to be the highest in the last five years, as stated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a query to the Right to Information. This is just the reports telling the rates and there would be many more cases that couldn't have been possible to make it to the medical departments.

This brings to the average of 766 deaths every month for over 12 months. According to the latest received data, from April 2018, there have been more 143 animal bites and attacks that also resulted in deaths in India out of which 140 cases of them were found to be from the rural areas.

Remains of gray whale found near Bowerman Airport, Washington

Louis Krauss
The Daily World
Tue, 22 May 2018 12:42 UTC

The remains of a juvenile female gray whale were discovered near the western shore of Bowerman Airport on Monday. It's approximately 24-feet-long.

There was no indication of entanglement, said Jessie Huggins from Cascadia Research. She said it had probably been dead for a couple weeks, and that it was likely one or two years old.

You can view it from the furthest viewing point on the Sandpiper Trail with a good camera or binoculars.

Comment: A day earlier a dead humpback whale washed ashore at Ocean Shores about 10 miles further west of the above discovery.

Post mortem on pygmy sperm whale ashore in Melbourne, Australia

Daily Mail
Tue, 22 May 2018 12:29 UTC

A dead whale has been taken to a Melbourne zoo for a post mortem to find out how it washed ashore in the western suburbs.

The distressed 2.4-metre pygmy sperm whale was found by a commercial fisherman washed up around Kororoit Creek, Hobsons Bay, on Monday afternoon.

It was later euthanised after environment department and veterinary staff tried unsuccessfully for hours to save it by enticing it into deeper waters.

Department incident spokesperson Shane Vandenborn said the stressed whale was unable to swim unaided and would have drowned without intervention. Its body was taken to Werribee Zoo for an autopsy.

Source: Australian Associated Press

Dog bites affect over 2.7 million people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh

Brajendra K Parashar
Hindustan Tmes
Mon, 21 May 2018 19:45 UTC

Two years ago, a Rajya Sabha committee went to the extent of putting out newspaper advertisements, inviting suggestions from various stake holders to deal with the dog menace in MPs' areas in Delhi.

It is not known whether the move eased the situation or not for the MPs' there. But in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 31 members to the Upper House of Parliament, dog bites continue to be a big public health problem, affecting more than 27 lakh people every year, according to health department sources.

While the killing of more than a dozen children by feral dogs in Sitapur in back-to-back incidents has only brought the problem to the fore in its worst form, on an average, not less than 100 people are bitten by dogs in each district every day, as per a rough estimate.

The state's health department does not compile any data on statewide cases of dog bites, according to director, medical and health, Padamakar Singh.

Dead humpback whale found at Ocean Shores, Washington

komonews
Mon, 21 May 2018 13:42 UTC

A dead humpback whale washed ashore at Ocean Shores, Wash., on Sunday, May 20, 2018.

A dead humpback whale washed ashore Sunday morning at Ocean Shores.

John Calambokidis, senior research biologist with Cascadia Research Collective, said the whale, a young female, was entangled in crab gear, which may have caused its death.

The dead whale was seen floating off shore Friday and was reported to the Coast Guard. It was found washed ashore Sunday morning.

Calambokidis described the whale as 28 and a half feet long and estimated that it was 1 to 2 years old.

The whale will eventually be buried.

3 monk seals found dead off Oahu, Hawaii

Dillon Ancheta
Hawaii News Now
Sat, 19 May 2018 12:30 UTC

Ua Malie previously seen resting with her pup on a beach.

NOAA officials are stressing the importance of reporting monk seal sightings following the discovery of three dead seals around Oahu this week.

The first dead monk seal was discovered Tuesday. NOAA officials say RK60 was found floating offshore in Kaneohe Bay.

The second discovery was made in Laie on Wednesday when a female pup was found dead. A day later, an adult female seal was found dead in Kahuku. That seal has been identified as Ua Malie, and is believed to be the dead pup's mother.

On all three seals, officials conducted examinations to determine the cause of death.

Way to avoid mentioning that 24 Billion for the tiny hat devils Kunstler.

JohnnyQuest

She is wrong; Justin Trudeau knows that the Earth is warming because he studied drama at University. My Liberal friends can't be wrong, even if...

Pierre Viking

Did anyone ask those countries first if they want the US "protection"? :O

ReRan

That death toll number is likely a conservative one.

Gee

Who's listening? Besides we here, of course.

ReRan

Animals
S

Child hospitalized after being bitten by shark off Isle of Palms, South Carolina

French territories under siege from predatory worms

Giant salamander being eaten to extinction because it tastes like chicken

After my breakdown, wild birds helped me to heal

9,191 people died of animal attacks across India in 2017-18 - the highest in 5 years

Remains of gray whale found near Bowerman Airport, Washington

Post mortem on pygmy sperm whale ashore in Melbourne, Australia

Dog bites affect over 2.7 million people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh

Dead humpback whale found at Ocean Shores, Washington

3 monk seals found dead off Oahu, Hawaii

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