Animals
S


Doberman

Man mauled to death by pack of 5 dogs in Memphis, Tennessee


wmcactionnews5.com
Fri, 19 Jul 2019 10:03 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
A man was mauled to death by dogs early Thursday morning, Memphis Police said.

Officers responded to a dog call at East Belle Haven and Meadowbrook around 2 a.m.

They found a 40-year-old man near the intersection with lacerations over his body.

According to police, multiple aggressive dogs were located across the street.

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Attention

Dozens of dead beached pilot whales found in West Iceland - 2nd recent mass stranding globally


Iceland Monitor
Fri, 19 Jul 2019 11:42 UTC
The beached pilot whales in Snæfellsnes, West Iceland.
© David SchwarzhansThe beached pilot whales in Snæfellsnes, West Iceland.
Dozens of beached pilot whales were detected on Löngufjörur beach on the Snæfellsnes peninsula, West Iceland, yesterday, Morgunblaðið reports.

A helicopter pilot for Reykjavík helicopters and American tourists onboard the helicopter noticed the whales during a sightseeing flight yesterday. Judging from pictures they took, all the whales are dead. This part of the beach, Gamlaeyri, located on the easternmost part of the south side of the peninsula, is off the beaten path and inaccessible by car. There is little traffic in the area, limited to that of hikers and horse riders.

Comment: Interestingly around the same time 47 individuals of same species were found beached on St. Simon Island in Georgia.

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Attention

47 pilot whales strand themselves on St. Simon Island, Georgia - 3 die


wthr.com
Thu, 18 Jul 2019 12:06 UTC
Beachgoers attempt to push more than 20 beached pilot whales back into the ocean
Beachgoers attempt to push beached pilot whales back into the ocean
Dozens of beachgoers helped rescue as many as 40 beached whales on a Georgia beach Tuesday evening.

The whales came ashore on East Beach in St. Simon Island around 6 p.m. Dr. Quinton White, executive director of the Marine Science Research Institute at Jacksonville University, told First Coast News around 25 pilot whales beached themselves on the Georgia coast.

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Attention

Man attacked by seal in highly rare incident off Devon coast, UK

Guy Henderson
Mirror
Wed, 17 Jul 2019 10:53 UTC
Attacks by seals on humans are very rare
© Devon Live WSAttacks by seals on humans are very rare
A swimmer was taken to hospital after being attacked by a seal off the Devon coast yesterday.

The incident prompted immediate warnings for swimmers to keep clear of seals, which may have been trying to protect pups at the time.

Devon Live reported that the swimmer was injured at Shoalstone Pool, near Brixham.

Seals are a familiar sight in the waters off Brixham.

There have been regular encounters in the harbour and at nearby Fishcombe and Churston coves.

Comment: While usually considered rare, attacks by seals on people appear to be on the increase in recent times, as indicated by the following reports for the past 5 years: Woman still in hospital after 100kg fur seal bites her 'to the bone' in Victoria, Australia

Man attacked by seal in Kingswear, UK

Harbour seal climbs aboard kayak, attacks paddler near Chatham Island, British Columbia

Seal bites man in Friday Harbor, Washington

Man attacked by fur seal in New Zealand

Seal attacks 4 surfers at Manly, Australia

Unprovoked seal attack on elderly man in New Zealand

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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 23 cattle in Odisha, India


Orissa Post
Thu, 18 Jul 2019 09:21 UTC
lightning
Lightning strike killed as many as 23 bovines including seven cows, 10 bullocks and six calves in Balibahaka village under Nagari panchayat of Pallahara block in Angul district Wednesday.

According to villagers, the cattle were grazing in the field at about 2:00pm when the incident occurred killing them on the spot.

On being informed, sarpanch Pittan Barik and panchayat executive officer Prasanta Kumar Sahoo reached the spot. Later, deputy collector of Pallahara Ajit Kumar Pradhan sent local tehsildar and revenue inspector (RI) to assess the loss.

Necessary steps will be taken after assessing the loss in the incident, Pradhan said.

Source: PNN
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Jet3

Bird attacks on the rise throughout the US and Canada

Sandy Fitzgerald
NewsMax
Tue, 16 Jul 2019 08:51 UTC
Blackbird
© Carlos Osorio/APBlackbird eats a beetle.
Alfred Hitchcock may have been predicting the future in his movie "The Birds," with bird-against-human attacks apparently becoming more common as people encroach on their natural habitats, according to wildlife experts.

Red-winged blackbirds appear to be a major culprit, reports The Wall Street Journal, with people reporting that the songbirds have been divebombing or slamming in to them as they jog or walk through their neighborhoods.

"You talk to people about being attacked by birds, and they look at you like you're crazy," Stephen Vedder, of Marlborough, Mass., who has been attacked while jogging at a nearby lake.

Comment: While habitat loss due to human encroachment may be a contributing factor, we must bear in mind this is nothing new and only now are we seeing an increase in these attacks. It's notable that animal attacks of all kinds are occurring, and throughout the world, alongside mass mortality events, weather extremes and other changes to their environment:

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Attention

Rockslide blocks salmon spawning in British Columbia, Canada - Livelihoods and wildlife threatened


The Globe and Mail
Fri, 12 Jul 2019 12:00 UTC
rockslide
© The Canadian PressA rock slide on the Fraser River near Big Bar, B.C., has created a five-metre waterfall that is blocking the passage of salmon.
A rock slide on the Fraser River near Big Bar, B.C., has created a five-metre waterfall that is blocking the passage of salmon.

A major rock slide in British Columbia's Fraser River has prompted new restrictions to recreational and First Nations fishing of chinook salmon, as officials scramble to prevent long-term devastation of the population.

The slide in a remote area near Big Bar, northwest of Kamloops in the Interior, has created a five-metre waterfall that is blocking all but a small percentage of roughly hundreds of thousands of chinook from migrating upstream to spawn.

The measures announced Friday represent an "unquestionably difficult" decision in terms of the impacts on First Nations communities and on recreational fish harvesters, said Andrew Thomson, a regional director with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Comment: See also:

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Cow

Signs and Portents: Mutant cow born with two heads and three eyes caught on camera in Argentina

Simon Green
Daily Star (UK)
Mon, 15 Jul 2019 12:32 UTC
SAD: A deformed cow has been born with two heads
© CENSAD: A deformed cow has been born with two heads
The footage shows the poor creature's conjoined heads being held up by a farmer.

While it has three eyes and two mouths, the creature does have two ears as normal.

The bizarre incident took place on a farm in the small village of Nasalo, located between the municipalities of Quimili and Anatuya, in the northern Argentina province of Santiago del Estero.

It is not known if the animal is still alive after the birth but local reports state the farmers were shocked by the strange calf.

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Pills

Flushing drugs could create 'meth gators', warn Tennessee police


RT
Mon, 15 Jul 2019 22:25 UTC
Alligator
© Global Look / Bruce Bennett"Got Meth?"
If you thought alligators were a force to be reckoned with, then you've never met one hopped up on methamphetamine. That's precisely why one police department has asked that residents keep their illicit drugs out of the sewers.

The police in Loretto, Tennessee issued the request on Saturday, after officers caught a suspect in the act of disposing contraband down the toilet during a drug bust.

"Folks... please don't flush your drugs m'kay," the department wrote in a Facebook post. "When you send something down the sewer pipe it ends up in our retention ponds for processing before it is sent down stream."

If it made it far enough we could create meth-gators in Shoal Creek and the Tennessee River down in North Alabama. They've had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help.
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Blue Planet

Giant jellyfish spotted off coast of Cornwall, UK

Mattha Busby
The Guardian
Mon, 15 Jul 2019 11:58 UTC
jellyfish
A giant barrel jellyfish has been spotted off the coast of Cornwall by divers.

"I've never seen one that big," said Lizzie Daly, a biologist who saw the creature near Falmouth. "We had seen a few smaller jellyfish at a beautiful reef nearby, and then out of the murk came this huge, beautiful jelly fish. You just take a double look and ask yourself if it's actually a metre and a half long."

She said swimming alongside the "gentle giant" was "such a serene, grounding experience".

Thousands of the creatures, the largest jellyfish found in British coastal waters, flock through the Atlantic Ocean towards warm coastal waters in the west of the UK each year and are often found washed up on beaches across May and June.

Comment: It makes sense that along with our cooling climate and the rise in extreme weather events, the behaviour of the creatures on our planet is changing too: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Earth changes in an electric universe: Is climate change really man-made?

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