Animals
S


Bad Guys

Chinese zoo blamed for death of 11 Siberian tigers

Alexa Olesen
Associated Press
Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:25 UTC
Siberian Tigers
© Associated PressIn this Jan. 8, 2010 file photo, an endangered Siberian tiger runs away with a chicken tossed by tourists at the Harbin Tiger Park in Harbin.
Beijing - Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China's frigid northeast, state media said Friday.

A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.

Siberian tigers are one of the world's rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild.

Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, a local animal protection agency, was quoted by the China Daily as saying 11 of the zoo's tigers died of malnutrition in the last three months after subsisting on a meager diet of chicken bones.

Two others were shot dead by police in November after the hungry animals attacked a zookeeper, the report said.

The Liaoshen Evening Post, a local Shenyang newspaper, reported on its Web site that the company that owns the zoo was trying unsuccessfully to auction the zoo property, and many staffers complained they hadn't been paid in 18 months.
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Fish

Appearance of "Earthquake fish" spook Japanese


CBC News
Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:40 UTC
Rare, deep-sea oarfish have been washing ashore, and they've got ecologists and superstitious fishermen worried:


Oar fish live in the depths of the ocean, surfacing infrequently when they are sick or damaged. In Japan it is believed the appearance of oar fish means an earthquake is imminent. Since November, over 19 of the rare fish have washed up on the shores of Japan. The animal is thought to be the origin of ancient mariner myths of sea serpents.

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Bug

'Globetrotting' New Worms Discovered on Great Barrier Reef and Swedish Coast


ScienceDaily
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00 UTC
Image
© Pierre De WitThe new species of Grania discovered off the Gullmarsfjord.
Between the grains of sand on the sea floor there is an unknown and unexplored world. Pierre De Wit at Gothenburg University knows this well, and has found new animal species on the Great Barrier Reef, in New Caledonia, and in the sea off the Gullmarsfjord in the Swedish county of Bohuslän.

The layer of sand on ocean floor is home to a large part of the vast diversity of marine species. Species representing almost all classes of marine animals live here. The genus Grania, which belongs to the class of annelid worms Clitellata, is one of them.

Grania the globetrotter

Grania is a worm around two centimetres in length and mostly white, which is encountered in marine sand throughout the world, from the tidal zone to deep down in the ocean. The researcher Pierre De Wit, at the Department of Zoology of the University of Gothenburg, is analysing exactly how many species of Grania there are and how they are related to other organisms.
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Blackbox

Mysterious ailment is killing foxes

Ashley Archibald
The Union Democrat
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:11 UTC
Image
© NTAFoxes
An unidentified disease is making its way through the fox population of Tuolumne County, leading to an increase in sick foxes that have appeared in populated areas.

According to Jennifer Clarke, Tuolumne County Animal Control manager, agents responded to 12 to 14 cases of sick foxes in February alone.

"It's cyclical," she said. "Every seven or eight years a disease will make its way through a certain population of animals."

Animal Control only tests dead animals that have come into contact with humans and domestic pets. It also only tests for rabies.

Four foxes have met this criteria. One was touched by a person and the other three were attacked by pet dogs.
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Fish

UK: Mystery fish found on Isle of Mull beach


STV News
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:42 UTC
Mull Dealfish
A couple discovered the strange looking fish - which was later identified as a Dealfish.
A mysterious fish washed ashore on the Isle of Mull sparked detective work by conservationists.

A couple on holiday from England reported the unusual specimen to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust on the isle.

The Richardsons had found the fish washed ashore near the hamlet of Ulva Ferry on the west coast of Mull.
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Frog

Common weed-killer chemically castrates frogs: study


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:26 UTC
chemicals castrating frogs
© AFP/File/Jeff PachoudFile photo shows a frog at the Besancon Natural History Museum. One of the most common weed-killers in the world, atrazine, causes chemical castration in frogs and could be killing off amphibian populations worldwide, a study published showed.
One of the most common weed-killers in the world, atrazine, causes chemical castration in frogs and could be killing off amphibian populations worldwide, a study published showed.

Researchers compared 40 male control frogs with 40 male frogs reared from the moment they hatched from eggs until full sexual maturity in atrazine concentrations in the range that animals experience year-round in areas where the chemical herbicide is found.

Ninety percent of the male frogs exposed to atrazine had low testosterone levels, decreased breeding gland size, feminized laryngeal development, suppressed mating behavior, reduced sperm production and decreased fertility, while the control group showed features typically found in male frogs.

And what happened to the remaining 10 percent of atrazine-exposed frogs was deemed "the most dramatic finding" of the study by the researchers, led by Tyrone Hayes of the University of California at Berkeley: they developed into females that copulated with males and produced eggs.

The larvae from those eggs were all male, the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found.

"Many studies have focused on death from disease and its role in global amphibian declines and sudden disappearances of populations, but virtually no attention has been paid to the slow, gradual loss of amphibian populations due to failed recruitment," the study said.
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Bizarro Earth

Thousands of dead fish raise stink at Rio lagoon


Associated Press
Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:30 UTC
Dead Fish
© ReutersDead fish float along the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon in Rio de Janeiro.
Thousands of dead fish washed up on the shores of a popular beachside lagoon in Rio over the weekend, offending joggers' olfactory senses and leading the city to fight the stench with disinfectant.

The official state news service Agencia Brasil said about 100 city employees working full-time cleared nearly 80 tons of fish as of Sunday (local time). There was no immediate estimate of how many died, but several species were involved.

Rio's environmental secretary speculated that increased levels of a harmful algae may be the immediate cause of the sudden die-off Friday.
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Question

Flamingos die en masse in Cyprus but experts say they are not worried yet


Cyprus Mail
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:28 UTC
The number of dead or dying flamingos on Larnaca's Salt Lake has increased to between 30 and 40 from around ten earlier this week, it emerged yesterday.

Fifteen more birds have been collected from the lake and taken to the Veterinary Department for testing but the results are still pending. The results of water samples taken are also pending.

The flamingo deaths were briefly discussed during the Parliament's Environmental Committee meeting yesterday but no new information emerged, said Martin Hellicar, Campaign Manager for Bird Life Cyprus.
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Black Cat

Leopard savaging a crocodile caught on camera


UK Telegraph
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:41 UTC
Image
© Hal Brindley/SOLO SyndicationThe astonishing spectacle of a leopard savaging a crocodile has been captured for the first time on camera.
A series of incredible pictures taken at a South African game reserve document the first known time that a leopard has taken on and defeated one of the fearsome reptiles.

The photographs were taken by Hal Brindley, an American wildlife photographer, who was supposed to be taking pictures of hippos from his car in the Kruger National Park.

The giant cat raced out of cover provided by scrub and bushes to surprise the crocodile, which was swimming nearby.

A terrible and bloody struggle ensued. Eventually, onlookers were amazed to see the leopard drag the crocodile from the water as the reptile fought back.

With the crocodile snapping its powerful jaws furiously, the two animals somersaulted and grappled. Despite the crocodile's huge weight and strength, the leopard had the upper hand catching its prey by the throat.
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Alarm Clock

US: Pelican deaths caused by storm-linked food scarcity

Mike Lee
Union Tribune
Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:02 UTC
A shortage of food is largely to blame for the hundreds of sick or dead brown pelicans that have appeared in recent weeks along California's coastline, wildlife researchers confirmed yesterday.

A series of winter storms since late January has driven anchovies and sardines deeper into the ocean - too deep for the birds to catch, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said. Some pelicans they studied had little to no body fat and unusual foods in their digestive tracts.
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