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4.4 magnitude earthquake near King City, California


KUSI.com
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 09:43 UTC
Image
© USGS
A light earthquake has shaken a Central California region southeast of Monterey Bay.The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude-4.4 tremor struck at 5:21 a.m. Tuesday.

The epicenter was 17 miles northeast of King City. The USGS says the quake occurred at a depth of 6 miles.

The immediate area is largely rural and lightly populated. The USGS public reporting pages show it was felt lightly or weakly around Monterey Bay and to the east in some San Joaquin Valley cities.
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Wolf

Coyotes moving into downtown Chicago

Dawn Rhodes
Chicago Tribune
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 16:52 UTC
Image
© Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Heidi Garbe, left, Associate Research Scientist at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, checks the health of one of two coyote puppies found Tuesday, May 7, 2013 in a northwest suburban forest preserve near Chicago as Andy Burmesch, right, wildlife research technician, records data.
Coyotes usually try to avoid human contact.

Yet animal experts say an increasing number of coyotes are setting up shop in one of most dense urban labyrinths: downtown Chicago.

The seemingly incongruous marriage between coyotes and a people-packed habitat has occurred naturally, according to Stan Gehrt, an Ohio State University professor who specializes in coyote research in Cook County, which includes Chicago.

Gehrt said he and his team know of no deliberate efforts to release coyotes into the downtown area.

"They're all homegrown coyotes, all born and bred in Chicago," Gehrt said.

Gehrt, who runs the Urban Coyote Research program, said the coyote population swelled tenfold during the 1990s. Coyotes are very territorial and only will tolerate so many living in a certain area.
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Black Cat

Vancouver Island man encounters cougar in Ucluelet living room

Andrew Bailey
The Vancouver Sun
Fri, 09 Jan 2015 16:32 UTC
Image
© Andrew Bailey, Western News
Ted Benson and his cat, Mushka, survived a close encounter with a cougar that followed the eight-year-old cat into Benson’s Ucluelet home.
Ted Benson stares down wild animal that entered his home in pursuit of his pet cat

Ted Benson was getting ready for bed Tuesday night when his cat walked in, followed closely by a cougar.

"It was weird, there was no sound, no nothing, it was eerily quiet and just all of a sudden I see my cat squirt in and, next thing you know, all I hear is claws trotting across concrete," Benson said.

"My cat wasn't sprinting at super-human top-speed and neither was the cougar; it was like slow motion: 'Oh, there's my cat,' and then, 'Oh, there's a big cat trying to eat it."

The 37-year-old had opened the front door of his Norah Street home to air it out after having the wood stove burning all evening.

He went into his bedroom around 10:45 p.m. to plug in his cellphone and was walking back into the living room to close the door when he saw his house cat come in from outside.

"Then, all of a sudden, I heard claws on the cement floor and saw a big head lunging to eat my cat," he said. "I thought it was a dog originally; a cougar would be the last thing I'd expect."

Comment: See also: Odd puma behaviour? Vancouver Island woman slams door on curious cougar

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Arrow Down

Stingrays found with tails cut off in New Zealand

Katasha McCullough
stuff.co.nz
Mon, 19 Jan 2015 14:31 UTC
Stingrays
© stuff.co.nz
Washed Up: Four eagle rays were found on Murrays Bay beach with no tails.
The sight of four eagle rays with their tails cut off has shocked beachgoers at Murrays Bay on Auckland's North Shore.

Kourtney Magasiva was walking her dog on the beach with friends just after 10am on January 14 when she saw the dead rays.

"It's terrible animal cruelty to do that to a perfectly healthy creature of the sea," she said.

Magasiva had never seen anything like it at Murrays Bay before.

"Someone's done it on purpose. I'd hate to think they're still doing it," she said.

Agnes Le Port, formerly part of the University of Auckland's marine team, now works at James Cook University in Australia and has caught stingrays and eagle rays for scientific research.

Le Port understood fishers wanting to protect themselves from the barbs but said a better option was to slice them off while leaving the rest of the tail intact.
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Snowflake Cold

Fears for unique Siberian wildlife as heavy snowfall reaches depths of one metre


The Siberian Times
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 21:48 UTC
Image
© Roman Kozhechev, WWF Russia
Fears for unique wildlife as heavy snowfall reaches depths of one metre.
Abnormally heavy snowfall is threatening to decimate much of Siberia's unique wildlife including the rare Amur tiger, experts have warned. Parts of the Russian Far East are covered in snow up to one metre deep, burying many animals and leaving others struggling to move or find food.

Conservationists have already noted cases of young animals dying, with fears the situation could be as bad as the 1980s when up to 90 per cent of species died, including 30 tigers. WWF Russia is demanding urgent measures to prevent a similar catastrophe, with the Amur and Moscow branches of the charity in touch with regional hunting estates to ask them to help feed animals in their areas and prevent poaching.

Pavel Fomenko, the Amur branch coordinator at WWF Russia, said: 'I remember a similar winter at the end of the 1980s, when the snow was so deep that we lost 80 per cent to 90 per cent of all ungulates. I was a part of the inspection team and it was horrifying. The whole valley of the Amba and Bikin rivers turned into a gigantic graveyard. Nearly all the roes, wild boars and Siberian stags died'.

'What happened next was even scarier as during the next winter the tigers were left without pray, and so naturally besieged villages and small towns, hunting dogs, cows and other animals. The official data for that winter shows that more than 30 tigers were killed'.
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Attention

Elephant charges vehicle and punches holes in it, South Africa


enca.com
Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:50 UTC
Image
With thousands of people watching a live streaming safari in the Sabi Sands in the Greater Kruger, two game rangers had a frightening encounter with a raging elephant cow on Thursday.

Charging at their open safari vehicle, the elephant effortlessly stabs her tusks into the Land Rover and pushes the vehicle at least 30cm.

The shaken guide, who later tells the camera he's "only ever" encountered an elephant charge once before, gets up close and personal with the enraged cow, as her tusk slips in a mere few centimeters from his hip.

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Bizarro Earth

Catastrophic flooding continues in southern Africa, considered one of worst disasters in years

Katy Migiro
Reuters
Mon, 19 Jan 2015 16:57 UTC
malawi floods
© AFP
The heavy rains washed away plantations, roads and destroyed power lines in Malawi
Aid agencies raced on Monday to reach tens of thousands of people displaced by catastrophic floods across southern Africa, as more heavy rain was forecast in the coming days.

More than 200 people have died in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar in one of the worst disasters to hit the region in years. Rivers have burst their banks, flooding vast areas and destroying homes, bridges and crops.

"After surveying the flooded districts from the air, we know that the scale of flooding is immense, and with the rains still falling, the water is unlikely to recede quickly," UNICEF's representative in Malawi, Mahimbo Mdoe, said in a statement.

"Stagnant water and poor sanitation can be deadly for young children, so we are in a race against time to reach displaced communities with clean water, sanitation and medical supplies."

More downpours were forecast in Malawi and Mozambique, said the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Comment: The floods have been ongoing for weeks, yet the rains show no signs of abating. Unprecedented flooding has been besieging the entire globe recently, in addition to all types of extreme weather patterns. To fully understand the reasons behind these changes, read Pierre Lescaudron's book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.

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Attention

Another humpback whale found dead on Broulee beach, Australia


Bay Post
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 18:15 UTC
Image

South Broulee and North Head beaches were closed on Saturday after a Humpback whale washed ashore.
Two Eurobodalla beaches were closed for 24 hours over the weekend after a Humpback whale washed onto the shores of south Broulee Beach.

The dead whale was first spotted 300 metres out to see off North Head Beach, forcing lifeguards to close to beach for swimmers safety.

Around mid-day on Saturday the whale was found washed ashore on South Broulee Beach, which was then also closed.

Police attended the scene and taped off a 100-metre exclusion zone around the whale to keep onlookers away.

The whale looked as though it may have been dead for some time and had large chunks missing from its body.

Comment: See also: Sharks feed on humpback whale carcass in Batemans Bay, Australia

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Attention

Man dies in camel bite attack in Bapunagar, India


dnaindia.com
Mon, 19 Jan 2015 16:49 UTC
Image
A 45-year-old man on Monday died in Bapunagar after a camel bit him on his head.

The animal owner has been detained for further legal procedure, police said.

"Govind Trivedi (45) was walking near Jamunanagar slum in Bapunagar area of the city late Sunday night when a camel tied there bit him on his head. After brief treatment, the man died today," Bapunagar police station's inspector P D Parmar said. The animal's owner Lalsingh was questioned about whether the camel was suffering from any disease or if it had bitten any other person in the past, Parmar said.

Comment: See also: Camel escapes from cage and kills owner of wildlife sanctuary

Camel tramples 2 people to death at Texas farm

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Cloud Precipitation

Canada: B.C. storm leaves thousands without power, triggers avalanche warnings


CBC News
Sun, 18 Jan 2015 10:51 UTC
BC Snowstorm
© DriveBC
Avalanche warnings are in effect throughout the B.C. Interior today as the coastal storm that brought significant rainfall overnight moves inland and turns to snow.

The storm was accompanied by strong winds that left at one point left 25,000 B.C. Hydro customers without power. Vancouver Island was the hardest hit. There were also power outages in parts of the Lower Mainland and the Sunshine Coast.

Power to many areas was restored by noon, although areas of Central and North Saanich were without power until 6 p.m. PT according to B.C. Hydro.

Environment Canada says the storm will generate another 25 mm of rain in the Fraser Valley Sunday bringing the total rainfall in the valley from the storm to about 50 mm. It says localized flooding in some areas is possible.

Heavy snow is forecast for highway passes in B.C. with the Coquihalla Highway expected to receive up to 30 cm of snow by Monday morning.
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