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Bug

Bugged: Earth's insect population shrinks 27% in 30 years

Seth Borenstein
kimatv.com
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 13:19 UTC
This undated photo provided by Michael Thomas in April 2020 shows a clouded sulphur butterfly in Cromwell, Conn.
© Mike Thomas
This undated photo provided by Michael Thomas in April 2020 shows a clouded sulphur butterfly in Cromwell, Conn.
The world has lost more than one quarter of its land-dwelling insects in the past 30 years, according to researchers whose big picture study of global bug decline paints a disturbing but more nuanced problem than earlier research.

From bees and other pollinators crucial to the world's food supply to butterflies that beautify places, the bugs are disappearing at a rate of just under 1% a year, with lots of variation from place to place, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science.

That's a tinier population decline than found by some smaller localized studies, which had triggered fears of a so-called insect apocalypse. But it still adds up to something "awfully alarming," said entomologist Roel van Klink of the German Centre for Integrative Biology, the study's lead author.
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Attention

Boy is eaten alive by stray PIGS after wandering out of his house to play in India

Sam Baker
Daily Mail
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 13:00 UTC
Four-year-old V. Harshavardhan was killed by a herd of wild pigs as he played near his home in Hyderbad, India (stock image)

Four-year-old V. Harshavardhan was killed by a herd of wild pigs as he played near his home in Hyderbad, India (stock image)
A four-year-old boy in India died after he was attacked by a herd of pigs which then ate part of his body.

V. Harshavardhan left his home in Saibabad, Hyderbad, at 4pm on Tuesday and went to play at an isolated area near his home.

The herd of wild pigs dragged the boy to a rubbish dump where they killed and then ate him.
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Blue Planet

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: The phase out of humanity


Adapt 2030
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 02:07 UTC
Earth Day 2020
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)
With Earth Day the signal to a move away from renewables is set in motion, humans are the problem and need to be phased out after being relegated to menial tasks and medieval surfs on Universal Basic Income as the wildlife renews itself returning where human apes once roamed. There will be no return to normal, you are being phased out.


Comment: See also:

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Info

Researchers find first traces of amphibians in Antarctica


Cosmos Magazine
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 19:41 UTC
Palaeontologists at Seymour Island
© FEDERICO DEGRANGE, CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES EN CIENCIAS DE LA TIERRA AND JONAS HAGSTRÖM, SWEDISH MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Palaeontologists at the fossil site on Seymour Island.
The discovery of the earliest known modern amphibians in Antarctica provides further evidence of a warm and temperate climate in the Antarctic Peninsula before its separation from the southern supercontinent Gondwana.

The fossils, which belong to the family of helmeted frogs, are described in a paper in the journal Scientific Reports by researchers from Sweden, Argentina and Switzerland.

They discovered the remains of a hip bone and ornamented skull bone during expeditions to Seymour Island between 2011 and 2013. The specimens are about 40 million years old, from the Eocene period. Both belong to the Calyptocephalellidae family.

No traces of cold-blooded amphibians or reptiles from families still in existence had previously been found in Antarctica.

"Among Recent amphibians, the frogs (Anura) have the widest distribution, covering all continents except Antarctica, where the conditions have been uninhabitable for over tens of millions of years," the researchers write.
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Attention

Humpback whale washes up on San Francisco beach


The Press Democrat
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 18:09 UTC
A dead humpback whale washed up at San Francisco’s Baker Beach on Tuesday.
© Dean C. Smith
A dead humpback whale washed up at San Francisco’s Baker Beach on Tuesday.
A severely decomposed young humpback whale washed ashore on a San Francisco beach and experts said Tuesday they were trying to determine how it died.

Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Chief Pathologist at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, said the center was alerted early Tuesday to a dead whale on San Francisco's Baker Beach.

A small team of scientists from the center and California Academy of Sciences performed a partial necropsy on the 37-foot-long (11-meter) whale. Details on what killed the whale won't be available until a final necropsy report is completed, he said.

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Question

Mystery disease killing Germany's blue tits


Deutsche Welle
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 21:01 UTC
There has been an unexplained spike in deaths in Germany's blue tit bird population

There has been an unexplained spike in deaths in Germany's blue tit bird population
An unknown contagious disease is affecting Germany's blue tit bird population, said conservation non-governmental organization NABU. It received over 11,000 reports from the public of sick or dead birds between April 9 and April 17.

The Eurasian blue tit is a small bird native to Europe. It is around 12 cm (4.7 in) long with blue and yellow feathers. A spate of blue tit deaths in Germany, first noted on March 11, prompted NABU to launch the self-report survey.

Particularly hard-hit are blue tits in the lower Mosel wine region and the region around the city of Oldenburg, in Lower Saxony. "At least in these regions there is a noticeable death rate above all among the blue tit population," said NABU on its website.

The disease appears to mainly affect blue tits, but the great tit and other small song birds are sometimes infected.
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Cow

Signs and Portents: Mutant cow born with two heads and two spines in Wessington Springs, South Dakota

Matt Clemenson
The Star (UK)
Wed, 22 Apr 2020 20:51 UTC
Farmers have been left shocked by the birth of a twin-headed calf in the US
© Pen News/Amber Kolousek
Farmers have been left shocked by the birth of a twin-headed calf in the US
A mutant calf with two heads has been born on a farm in the US - to the shock of a family of farmers who had never seen anything like it before in five generations.

Scott Kolousek of Wessington Springs, South Dakota, USA, was halfway through the 2020 calving season when he discovered one of his cows having difficulty delivering her calf.

The poor little thing's front legs and head were out, and everything seemed normal, but it would come no further until a caesarean section revealed the reason why.

"We didn't know the calf was unusual until the vet pulled it out during the c-section," said his wife, Amber.
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Attention

Signs and Portents: Afghans not astounded with birth of two-headed calf amid parallel governments


Khaama Press
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 11:09 UTC
two headed
A video which purportedly shows the birth of a two-headed calf in Afghanistan has gone viral on social media but the majority of people say they are not astounded with the miracle as the country is already being ran by parallel governments which came into being after the end of a two-headed government or the National Unity Government.

The video of the two-headed calf is widely being posted on social media platforms, specifically on Facebook for the past few days.

The calf was reportedly born in Kata Khel Village of Balkh district in northern Balkh province of Afghanistan.

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Attention

Gray whale washes ashore north of Pacific City, Oregon


katu.com
Mon, 20 Apr 2020 14:28 UTC
A gray whale washed ashore on the beach of the Sandlake Recreation Area north of Pacific City on April 18, 2020.
© Tillamook County Sheriff's Office
A gray whale washed ashore on the beach of the Sandlake Recreation Area north of Pacific City on April 18, 2020.
A 40-foot gray whale washed ashore north of Pacific City Saturday, the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies responded after the camp host to Sand Lake Recreation Area discovered the whale had washed ashore overnight.

Biologists from Oregon State University performed an autopsy on the male whale Saturday afternoon.

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Question

Hundreds of dead seals mysteriously washing ashore in Nova Scotia, Canada

Aly Thomson
CBC News
Sun, 12 Apr 2020 19:17 UTC
Several hundred seal carcasses have been found in Cape Breton and Sambro, N.S.
© Marine Animal Response Society
Several hundred seal carcasses have been found in Cape Breton and Sambro, N.S.
Hundreds of dead seals have washed up on shores in Cape Breton and near Halifax in recent days, prompting an investigation by the Marine Animal Response Society.

Andrew Reid, the society's response co-ordinator, said it has received a number of reports over the last week about juvenile seal carcasses washing ashore in Cape Breton and Sambro, N.S., just outside Halifax.

Reid said there are believed to be several hundred dead seals in total, including roughly 70 in the Sambro area.

Eleven washed up on Geoffrey Howard's family property in West Pennant, just outside of Sambro. He said he went out to look after hearing his neighbour counted 27 along the shoreline on his property.

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