Animals
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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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Attention

Australia: Kangaroos victims of factory fluoride

Deborah Gough
Age
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:13 UTC
Scores of starving and pain-ridden kangaroos have been culled after developing tooth and bone deformities from breathing and ingesting fluoride emissions.

Many more are believed to be suffering from growths that will kill them.

The affected kangaroos are living near the Alcoa aluminium smelter in Portland, in the state's south-west, and the Austral Bricks factory at Craigieburn.

Autopsies performed at Melbourne University on 49 kangaroos culled at Alcoa on a single day last year found all but one were suffering from flurosis, which leads to excessive bone growths, or lesions, on joints in the paws, ankles and calves.

It can also cause tooth and jaw deformities that hinder eating and foraging.
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Bizarro Earth

Bees Hurt by Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Roger Alford
The Associated Press
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:55 UTC
Frankfort, Kentucky - Mountaintop mining has obliterated flowering trees and plants that honeybees need for food in the central Appalachians, and some Kentucky lawmakers are asking coal companies to plant pollen-producing vegetation when they finish digging.

A nonbinding measure passed Thursday in a House committee.

Before the vote, Tammy Horn, a bee researcher at Eastern Kentucky University's Environmental Research Institute, exhorted lawmakers to approve the measure that would "encourage" coal companies to plant a variety of nectar- and pollen-producers on mountains that have been deforested by mining.
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Fish

Florida's Wildlife Freezing to Death

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:45 UTC
Image
© Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation CommissionMore than 200 manatees have washed ashore since January, and carcasses are still turning up.
Manatees, sea turtles and fish in the Sunshine State are dying in record numbers because of the unusually long cold snap.

With temperature in central Florida dipping down again this week, conservationists are bracing for more animal and plant deaths due to unusually long winter cold snaps that have resulted in record wildlife losses.

Manatees have been among the hardest hit, with over 200 killed in January alone, and carcasses continuing to wash ashore. The highest number of manatee deaths for a single calendar year in Florida waters is 429, so local officials are closely monitoring these endangered marine mammals.

"Manatees can experience what is known as cold stress syndrome when they are exposed to water below 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degree Celsius) for long periods," Florida's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute spokesperson Carli Segelson told Discovery News. "This can result in death, or weaken manatees, leaving them more vulnerable to other health issues later."
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Binoculars

New Zealand Teen Fights Off Shark with Body Board


The Associated Press
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:21 UTC
A teenage New Zealand girl bitten by a shark bashed it over the head with her body board until it let her go, she said.

Lydia Ward, 14, was in waist-deep water with her brother on Monday at Oreti Beach on the country's South Island when the shark - believed to be a broad-nosed seven gill shark - grabbed her hip. She said she did not notice the shark until the attack was under way.

"I saw my brother's face and turned to the side and saw this large gray thing in the water so I just hit it on the head with a boogie board," Ward told National Radio, adding that she had read about a surfer who fought off a shark attack with her board. "That's what she did, and that's what you're meant to do."
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Alarm Clock

US: Deadly fish virus now found in all Great Lakes


Media-Newswire.com
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:42 UTC
A deadly fish virus that was first discovered in the Northeast in 2005 has been found for the first time in fish from Lake Superior, report Cornell researchers. That means that the virus has now been documented in all of the Great Lakes.

The viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus ( VHSV ), which causes fatal anemia and hemorrhaging in many fish species, poses no threat to humans, said Paul Bowser, professor of aquatic animal medicine at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine.
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Bizarro Earth

Coral in Florida Keys suffers lethal hit from cold

Curtis Morgan
The Miami Herald
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:54 UTC
Bitter cold this month may have wiped out many of the shallow water corals in the Keys.

Scientists have only begun assessments, with dive teams looking for "bleaching" that is a telltale indicator of temperature stress in sensitive corals, but initial reports are bleak. The impact could extend from Key Largo through the Dry Tortugas west of Key West, a vast expanse that covers some of the prettiest and healthiest reefs in North America.

Given the depth and duration of frigid weather, Meaghan Johnson, marine science coordinator for The Nature Conservancy, expected to see losses. But she was stunned by what she saw when diving a patch reef 2.5 miles off Harry Harris Park in Key Largo.

Star and brain corals, large species that can take hundreds of years to grow, were as white and lifeless as bones, frozen to death. There were also dead sea turtles, eels and parrotfish littering the bottom.
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Bizarro Earth

15 Whales Die Beached in New Zealand, 33 Coaxed to Sea

Ray Lilley
The Associated Press
Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:01 UTC
Rescuers in New Zealand managed to coax 33 beached whales back out into deep waters Sunday, but another 15 of the pod died, a conservation official said.

The 48 pilot whales stranded Saturday at Port Levy on South Island, but scores of volunteers joined Department of Conservation workers to refloat them off the shallow, muddy inlet, said the department's community relations manager, Grant Campbell.

It was the third mass stranding on the New Zealand coast this summer. Some 125 pilot whales died in the two other beachings, while 43 were returned to the ocean.

Campbell said that in the latest incident, residents were quick to help after spotting the whales apparently feeding in the inlet before they stranded.
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