Animals
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Attention

India's worst locust attack in 27 years, and worse is yet to come


India Today
Mon, 25 May 2020 23:58 UTC
locusts
© PTISwarm of locusts in Jaipur
Swarms of the desert locust, which invaded India via Pakistan in April, have made their way to at least five states, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Desert locust move in large groups, called swarms, and can eat crops up to their own weight every day. When millions of locusts descend on a crop, they destroy everything.

The desert locust is considered the most destructive migratory pest in the world and a single swarm covering one square kilometre can contain up to 80 million locusts. As per eyewitnesses, the swarm which entered India from Pakistan was about two to three kilometres long.

In December 2019, when the parts of Gujarat were invaded by locust, they had destroyed crops spread over 25,000 hectares of land. This time, the attack is more widespread.

Comment: Biblical-style events appear to be a pretty common occurrence in our days.

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Attention

Carcasses of 2 whale species washed ashore on coast in 24 hours at Dahanu, India


Times of India
Mon, 25 May 2020 12:15 UTC
whale
The carcasses of a Baleen whale and a Pygmy sperm whale washed ashore different coasts of Dahanu between Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, the highly decomposed carcass of a Baleen whale, around 45 feet and 8 feet width, washed ashore Parnaka in Dahanu.

The carcass that left a stinking smell in the surrounding attracted the attention of locals who informed the forest department.

Comment: Another dead whale washed ashore on the 24th of May in Kendrapara, Odisha.

Off North America a humpback was found dead near Moriches Inlet, New York on May 22, a deceased gray whale was found at Seaview, Washington on the 20th while the same species also turned up dead off Santa Cruz, California on the same day.

Over the same week at Hines Bay in Australia a rare (for the region) Sei or fin whale was discovered dead on the 18th.

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Bug

Millions of cicadas are expected to emerge in US after 17 years underground

Allen Kim
CNN
Sat, 23 May 2020 10:48 UTC
Millions of cicadas will return to swarm parts of the US this summer
© GettyMillions of cicadas will return to swarm parts of the US this summer.
As if we didn't have enough to worry about with giant murder hornets invading the US and a global pandemic, millions of 17-year cicadas will emerge from the ground this year.

As many as 1.5 million cicadas per acre may emerge, and people living in Southwest Virginia, parts of North Carolina and West Virginia could witness this unique phenomenon, Virginia Tech says in a news release.

Luckily, cicadas are harmless to humans. At most, the noise they make could become a nuisance.

"Communities and farms with large numbers of cicadas emerging at once may have a substantial noise issue," said Eric Day, Virginia Cooperative Extension entomologist in Virginia Tech's Department of Entomology.

"Hopefully, any annoyance at the disturbance is tempered by just how infrequent -- and amazing -- this event is."
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Blue Planet

Mystery of the moving moss balls

Nell Greenfieldboyce
NPR
Fri, 22 May 2020 07:09 UTC
Iceland
© Ruth MottramGlacier mice in Iceland.
In 2006, while hiking around the Root Glacier in Alaska to set up scientific instruments, researcher Tim Bartholomaus encountered something unexpected.

"What the heck is this!" Bartholomaus recalls thinking. He's a glaciologist at the University of Idaho.

Scattered across the glacier were balls of moss. "They're not attached to anything and they're just resting there on ice," he says. "They're bright green in a world of white."

Intrigued, he and two colleagues set out to study these strange moss balls. In the journal Polar Biology, they report that the balls can persist for years and move around in a coordinated, herdlike fashion that the researchers can not yet explain.

Comment: See also:

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Black Cat 2

Signs and Portents: Oregon family surprised by birth of two-faced kitten

Meaghan Wray
Global News
Fri, 22 May 2020 17:04 UTC
An Oregon family was surprised when they discovered their cat’s litter included a special kitten with two heads.
© BJ KingAn Oregon family was surprised when they discovered their cat’s litter included a special kitten with two heads.
While checking on her pregnant cat, an Oregon woman was surprised to find she'd already given birth, and one of the kittens had two faces.

On Wednesday morning, Kyla King was checking on her expectant cat on her farm east of Albany when she noticed four kittens had already been born. One hiding behind its mom, Portland station KOIN-TV reports, had two heads.

"I came back out and looked again," she told the Albany Democrat-Herald, "and I was like, 'Ah!'"

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Cow

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Food price gouging, global hunger riots and real estate collapse


Adapt 2030
Thu, 21 May 2020 07:29 UTC
rapid food inflation
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
The final blow to the way of life you and I know will be the new 50 days on 30 days off lock down strategy being implemented globally beginning this summer. Meat, chicken and poultry packers will not be able to open at even a fraction of former throughput. Chile gives us a glimpse of where that will lead. Real Estate market crashes as BOA unloads 10+ million shares of a real estate ETF. Put on the shoulder straps, and buckle up.


Comment: Food riots break out in Santiago, Chile, as government extends lockdown for third month and makes it even STRICTER

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Roses

Bumblebees bite plants to make them flower early

Virginia Morell
National Geographic
Fri, 22 May 2020 18:18 UTC
bumblebee
© Stephen Dalton, Minden PicturesA buff-tailed bumblebee flies among flowers in England. Many bumblebee species are declining due to climate change.
How it actually works remains a mystery, but if replicated by humans, it could be a boon for agriculture.

Bumblebees aren't merely bumbling around our gardens. They're actively assessing the plants, determining which flowers have the most nectar and pollen, and leaving behind scent marks that tell them which blooms they've already visited.

Now, a new study reveals that bumblebees force plants to flower by making tiny incisions in their leaves — a discovery that has stunned bee scientists.

"Wow! was my first reaction," says Neal Williams, a bee biologist at the University of California, Davis. "Then I wondered, how did we miss this? How could no one have seen it before?"

Comment: See also:

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Attention

Study finds microplastics in Florida birds of prey for 1st time

Eleanor Imster
EarthSky
Fri, 22 May 2020 11:13 UTC
Ospreys, like the one pictured here, are among the types of birds of prey in Florida that have been found to be accumulating microplastics in their stomachs.
© Linda Walters/ University of Central Florida.Ospreys, like the one pictured here, are among the types of birds of prey in Florida that have been found to be accumulating microplastics in their stomachs.
A new study has confirmed the presence of microplastics in birds of prey, including hawks, ospreys and owls. The accumulation of microplastics in birds' digestive systems could lead to poisoning, starvation and death.

A new study has found, for the first time, the presence of microplastics in the digestive systems of terrestrial and aquatic birds of prey in Florida, including hawks, ospreys and owls.

Microplastics are not a specific kind of plastic, but rather any type of plastic fragment that is less than 5 mm in length - less than the size of a pencil tip. They enter natural ecosystems from a variety of sources, including cosmetics, synthetic clothing, and industrial processes.

The accumulation of microplastics in birds' digestive systems could lead to poisoning, starvation and death, according to the study, which was published online in the journal Environmental Pollution. University of Central Florida biologist Julia Carlin is the study's lead author, said that birds of prey are critical to a functioning ecosystem:
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Attention

Subsidizing the slaughter: Big wind kills another Bald Eagle, gets more federal subsidies

Robert Bryce
Forbes
Fri, 15 May 2020 19:41 UTC
A bald eagle flies over Mill Pond in Centerport, New York in 2018.
© Bruce Bennett/GettyA bald eagle flies over Mill Pond in Centerport, New York in 2018.
On May 1, the Toledo Blade reported that a wind turbine in Bowling Green, Ohio had killed an adult bald eagle. Six days later, the Treasury Department announced that it would provide another extension of the production tax credit, the lucrative subsidy that the wind industry has relied on for decades.

The death of the eagle provides a stark reminder of the deadly toll that the wind industry is having on some of America's most iconic wildlife and how that toll will skyrocket if the many proponents of an all-renewable-energy system get their wish. And the extension of the PTC provides a stark reminder of how an influential industry can manipulate the Washington favor factory and in doing so, turn what were supposed to be temporary subsidies into permanent ones worth billions of dollars per year - and even more remarkably, get those subsidies extended without ever getting the money appropriated by Congress.

The eagle was killed at the Wood County Landfill in January. Matt Markey of the Toledo Blade broke the story. Markey reports that two employees of the landfill heard the turbine hit the eagle. Upon hearing the noise, they turned to "witness a large bird tumbling to the frozen ground. What they soon learned was the severed wing of the bird floated in its slower descent and landed about 50 feet away." The employees reported the eagle death to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which collected the animal and contacted the US Fish and Wildlife Service. (The four-turbine wind project responsible for the bald eagle's death is 50-percent owned by the city of Bowling Green. The project provides 1.5 percent of the city's electricity.)
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Attention

Gray whale washes ashore on Bainbridge Island, sixth in Washington waters this year

Mike Reicher
The Seattle Times
Thu, 21 May 2020 12:09 UTC
Maggie Kizer and her son, Eli, 3, paddle board near a dead gray whale that washed up on the shore of Manitou beach on Bainbridge Island on Tuesday.
© Amanda Snyder / The Seattle TimesMaggie Kizer and her son, Eli, 3, paddle board near a dead gray whale that washed up on the shore of Manitou beach on Bainbridge Island on Tuesday.
Continuing an unusual die-off of gray whales, a carcass washed ashore on Bainbridge Island's Manitou Beach on Tuesday.

The whale is a 42-foot long adult female, and had been dead for a while, said Michael Milstein, spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries West Coast region.

It was not immediately clear how this whale died, he said. A team from the nonprofit Cascadia Research Collective visited the carcass to take photos and samples of its skin and blubber Tuesday, he said. Examination of the whale found no external signs of ship strike or entanglement.

The blubber was fibrous and dry, which suggests the whale was not getting enough to eat. A more thorough examination of the whale will take place later this week, when the whale is relocated.
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