Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 29 Sep 2021
The World for People who Think

Animals

Better Earth

New Breeding Ground For Endangered Whales? High Numbers Of Right Whales Seen In Gulf Of Maine


Science Daily
Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:37 UTC
right whales
© NOAA/Misty Niemeyer
Three North Atlantic right whales are visible at the surface on Jordans Basin. A fourth whale is visible just below the surface at lower left.
A large number of North Atlantic right whales have been seen in the Gulf of Maine in recent days, leading right whale researchers at NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center to believe they have identified a wintering ground and potentially a breeding ground for this endangered species.

The NEFSC's aerial survey team saw 44 individual right whales on Dec. 3 in the Jordan Basin area, located about 70 miles south of Bar Harbor, Maine. Weather permitting, the team regularly surveys the waters from Maine to Long Island and offshore 150 miles to the Hague Line (the U.S.-Canadian border), an area about 25,000 square nautical miles.

"We're excited because seeing 44 right whales together in the Gulf of Maine is a record for the winter months, when daily observations of three to five animals are much more common," said Tim Cole, who heads the team. "Right whales are baleen whales, and in the winter spend a lot of time diving for food deep in the water column. Seeing so many of them at the surface when we are flying over an area is a bit of luck."
      Read More...
Cow

India: Mysterious outbreak among buffaloes


The Imphal Free Press
Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:47 UTC
The chief of Bolongdai village (Nungba), Ningkham Gangmei informed IFP over the telephone today that a mysterious outbreak of a disease has led to the death of over 12 buffalo heads. According to him, about five buffaloes were reported dead in the village prior to Christmas while another seven have died till yesterday.

He said that he had no reports of death of other types of cattle coming from the village and expressed concern that the outbreak could also affect other villages since cattle graze together.
      Read More...
Info

Queensland, Australia: Grasshopper plague hits The Spit

Matthew Killoran
Goldcoast.com.au
Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:24 UTC
A plague of grasshoppers has risen from the sands of the Spit, blanketing the dunes with the ravenous creepy-crawlies. Thousands of the insects, of various shapes, sizes and colours, are crawling over fences, plants and the Coast's beaches.

Entomologist and associate professor at Griffith University Gold Coast campus Clyde Wild said the hot weather was to blame for the sudden infestation.

"These will have been eggs laid in the sand or soil last year," he said. "They survived well because we have had a mild winter. Then, something like the bright, sunny weather we've had comes and they rise to the surface."
      Read More...
Bug

Washington State: Mysterious South Kitsap Worms Weave Web of Intrigue

Derek Sheppard
Kitsap Sun
Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:24 UTC
snow worms
© Derek Sheppard/Kitsap Sun
A close-up view of the inch-long "snow worms" Bill Thornton found in his parent's Port Orchard backyard clearly shows the segments, which look like an earthworm. The running theory is they they're juvenile earthworms, but samples have been sent to a scientist for review.
Who knew snow could be so creepy? And crawly.

Bill Thornton of Port Orchard certainly didn't, until he noticed something in his parents' backyard early Christmas morning.

"The more I looked, the more I found, and they were literally crawling up out of the snow," he said.

Worms - "snow worms," as he's started calling them - squiggled by the thousands atop the backyard snow.

That discovery launched Thornton on an odyssey as he tried to figure out what the worms are and where the came from.
      Read More...
Info

Killer Mice Bring Albatross Population Closer To Extinction


Science Daily
Thu, 01 Jan 2009 21:16 UTC
Image
© Ross Wanless BirdLife International
Introduced mice are responsible for declines in Tristan Albatross and Gough Bunting.
The critically endangered Tristan albatross (Diomedea dabbenena) has suffered its worst breeding season ever, according to research by the RSPB (BirdLife in the UK). The number of chicks making it through to fledging has decreased rapidly, and it is now five times lower than it should be because introduced predatory mice are eating the chicks alive on Gough island -- the bird's only home and a South Atlantic territory of the United Kingdom.

The mice are also affecting Gough Island's other Critically Endangered endemic species, Gough Bunting Rowettia goughensis. A recent survey of the bunting's population revealed that the population has halved within the last two decades. Now there are only an estimated 400-500 pairs left.

"We've known for a long time that the mice were killing albatross chicks in huge numbers. However, we now know that the albatrosses have suffered their worst year on record", said Richard Cuthbert, an RSPB scientist who has been researching the mice problem on Gough Island since 2000. "We also know that the mice are predators on the eggs and chicks of the Gough bunting and mice predation is the main factor behind their recent decline."
      Read More...
Wine

Purple squirrel baffles experts


Telegraph.co.uk
Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:01 UTC
A purple squirrel which appeared at a school has baffled experts who are unable to explain its colour.
Image
© Solent News and Photo Agency
TV wildlife expert Chris Packham believes Pete will moult and lose his purple fur in time for spring.

Teachers and pupils at Meoncross School in Stubbington, Hants, were amazed when they saw the creature through the window during a lesson.

Since the squirrel, now nicknamed Pete, was first seen, it has become a regular fixture at the school but no one has been able to say whether the animal has fallen into purple paint, had a run-in with some purple dye, or whether there is another explanation.

Dr Mike Edwards, an English teacher, said: "I was sitting in my classroom and looked out the window and saw it sitting on the fence. I had to do a double take
      Read More...
Cow Skull

Bison Are Back, But Can They Survive?

Jacqueline Froelich
National Public Radio
Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:31 UTC
Image
© AP
Bison walk toward the corral during the recent annual roundup at The Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Pawhuska, Okla.
An estimated 60 million bison roamed the prairie when Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492. By 1900, only hundreds were left after herds were slaughtered for meat, pelts and sport. Although there are now half a million bison in the United States, researchers have discovered that most of them carry cattle genes - placing the animals at risk.

In the Oklahoma Flint Hills, an autumn moon set on The Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve as scientists and cowboys gathered at dawn recently for the annual bison roundup. Instead of horses, wranglers climb aboard trucks. They rumble toward a herd of 2,600 bison standing quietly in a nearby pasture. They drive part of the herd into a tight group, and then stampede them into a holding trap.

The shaggy beasts' heaving breath swirls through the corral into a thick, white fog. Over the next 10 hours, ranch hands use plastic paddles to spank the bison through a maze of alleys and corrals toward their annual physical.

bison
© AP
Over the next 10 hours, ranch hands use plastic paddles to move part of a herd of 2,600 bison through a maze of alleys and corrals toward their annual physical.
In turns, each bison slams into the examination chute. A brace closes around its neck and heavy grates squeeze it still. A bull is checked for injuries, given a shot and weighed. He stands 6 feet at the shoulder and weighs almost 2,000 pounds.

The huge bison huffs with anxiety. Up close, he seems prehistoric - his shaggy brown head hangs low beneath a humped spine, curved horns showing bits of blood. Preserve director Bob Hamilton says he may look like a bison, act like a bison and even smell like one - but he's a cattle hybrid. And if he carries maternal cattle DNA, that could impair his metabolism and his offspring.
      Read More...
Butterfly

Condor chick found dead: Male was one of three born in wild this year


Monterey Herald
Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:15 UTC
One of three condor chicks raised in wild nests was found dead by scientists Sunday after the big bird's radio transponder emitted a "mortality signal," according to Ventana Wildlife Society senior wildlife biologist Joe Burnett.

Biologists from the society's condor recovery project in Big Sur found the lifeless body of a wild California Condor chick lying in thick brush beneath a tall stand of redwoods, only a half mile from its coastal nest site.

The wild male chick, known as No. 475, was recently observed making short flights in the nest area, which is normal behavior for a 9-month-old condor, Burnett said.
      Read More...
Fish

Shark jumps out of aquarium into swimming pool

Matthew Moore
Telegraph.co.uk
Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:08 UTC
A shark managed to jump out of its aquarium on to a water slide at a hotel swimming pool used by guests.

The female reef shark, one of various exotic creatures in the popular Mayan Temple aquarium at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, tumbled down the slide - known as the Leap of Faith - after vaulting the one foot high and 18 in wide barrier around its pool.

Although the creature survived the journey its body could not cope with the chlorinated water in the swimming pool at the bottom of the slide. Rescuers managed to return the 12-year-old shark to its own pool but it died shortly afterwards.

Staff at the Atlantis resort said that guests were never at risk as the water park had yet to open for the morning. The shark posed no threat to humans and regularly swam with guests in its aquarium.
      Read More...
Frog

Australia: Crocodiles wiped out by invasion of the toxic toads

Kathy Marks
The Independent
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:10 UTC
Cane Toad
© AP
The cane toad is famed for its indestructibility

In a contest between a toad and a crocodile, it seems obvious the croc will win. Not, though, if its adversary is a cane toad - the poisonous pests laying waste to Australian wildlife.

Researchers have found that, in some waterways in the Northern Territory, numbers of freshwater crocodiles have more than halved over the past two years. The reason is cane toads, which are fatal when eaten.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts