A woman has been left critically injured after being set upon by a bear in a forested area, with residents warned to stay away as the animal fled.

The attack happened Tuesday at the edge of the forest in Skofljica, some 10 kilometres (6 miles) southeast of Slovenia's capital city, Ljubljana, police said. The bear is said to have launched a horror attack on the woman before retreating into the forest, with authorities urging Skofljica residents to keep away from the area and be cautious. It came just days after authorities approved the culling of 206 brown bears, whose population in the area has grown to around 1,000.

The small Alpine nation of just over 2 million people is home to several vast forests with many protected nature zones. Despite strong opposition from animal rights groups, authorities occasionally approve bear or wolf culls. Two bear attacks on people were recorded in 2022, according to Slovenia's official STA news agency.

Authorities are investigating a deadly dog mauling of a 1-month-old girl in Queens, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

Investigators were at the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City on Tuesday, bringing out bags of evidence from a 6th-floor apartment unit which became the setting of a disturbing scene.

A police source told NBC New York that the mother of the child called 911, claiming the baby girl was sleeping in bed between her and her boyfriend. When the couple woke up, they allegedly saw their German shepherd-pit bull mix puppy attacking the infant.

The dog had jumped on the bed and was biting the girl's face, according to the law enforcement source.

Over 100 sheep and goats belonging to nomadic families were killed after they were struck by lightning in the Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Tuesday.

The incident occured in the upper reaches of the Budhal sub-division, when lightning, accompanied by heavy thunder and hail storm, hit a shepherd's camp during the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday, officials said.

The nomadic families from the Targain village of Budhal had moved to the upper reaches along with their livestock as part of the seasonal migration in search of greener pastures and established their camp near Marg top as per their traditional practice.

A team of officials from the Budhal Sheep and Husbandry Department visited the site this morning and prepared a detailed report on the losses incurred by the affected families, who have made an urgent appeal for compensation and rehabilitation support.

In a heart-wrenching incident that highlights the growing menace of stray dogs in Karnataka, a 6-year-old girl was mauled to death in Tiptur taluk of Tumkur district.

The victim, identified as Divya, was playing in front of her house in Ayyanbavi village when a pack of stray dogs suddenly attacked her. The brutal assault left the child with severe injuries, including her intestines being exposed due to the bites.

Hearing her screams, neighbors rushed to the spot and managed to chase away the dogs. Divya was immediately taken to Tiptur Hospital, but tragically, she succumbed to her injuries during treatment.

The incident has triggered outrage among locals, with growing calls for urgent government intervention to control the stray dog population and prevent such tragedies.

A man who was attacked by his own dog at his home has died, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

Emergency responders were called to a residence on Kendall Road in Riga, New York, around 8:20 p.m. Monday, when it was reported that a man was attacked by his dog, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Brendan Hurley.

Richard L. Dambrowski, 46, suffered "significant physical trauma" to his face and neck from the encounter, which occurred inside the house, Hurley said.

Dambrowski was pronounced dead at the scene, Hurley said.

A man died Tuesday following a dog attack in Caseyville, according to police.

The incident involved three pitbulls, Caseyville Police Chief Woodrow Hall said.

Kent P. Recklein, 67, a resident of Caseyville, was pronounced deceased at the scene at 2:14 p.m. Tuesday, St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said. Police responded to a call reporting the attack at approximately 2 p.m., Hall said.

Hall said the department is still investigating the incident, so they do not know the exact details of the attack. He declined to share a specific location of the attack, but said the three dogs were taken by St. Clair County Animal Control.

A dead whale has been spotted off Mare Island in Vallejo.

SKY7 was overhead Wednesday evening.

This is at least the seventh dead whale that has washed up along a Bay Area beach this year.

Giancarlo Rulli with the Marine Mammal Center told ABC7 after the initial on-air broadcast, the gray whale was an adult female that was first spotted deceased last week.

According to the California Academy of Sciences, the 39-foot-whale was spotted underneath a pier near the Phillips 66 Refinery in Rodeo making access difficult.

They suspect the gray whale was possibly hit by a vessel.

The Marine Mammal Center said due to the advanced state of decomposition and location, a necropsy will not be performed. And the whale will be left to naturally decompose.

Researchers have recovered Homo erectus bones from the seafloor, which points to an unknown hominin population hunting on land that is now underwater in Southeast Asia.
Bones from an extinct human ancestor have been recovered from the seafloor, revealing a previously unknown Homo erectus population in Southeast Asia that may have interacted with more modern humans, new studies find.

The H. erectus bones were among a cache of more than 6,000 animal fossils hoovered up as part of a construction project off the island of Java in Indonesia. This is the first time scientists have seen fossils from the submerged parts of the Indonesian archipelago, which connected islands like Java to the Asian mainland during the last ice age, when sea levels were lower.

These lost lands, called drowned Sundaland, were once vast open plains interspersed with rivers around 140,000 years ago. The newly discovered fossils revealed the rivers were teeming with fish, turtles, river sharks, hippos and other marine life, while terrestrial giants such as elephants, the elephant-like Stegodon and water buffalo populated the plains, according to the studies.

H. erectus' presence on this landscape confirms that our ancient ancestor was taking advantage of drowned Sundaland's fertile hunting grounds, at least between Java and another, smaller island called Madura. This region, once a valley, is now submerged in a body of seawater called the Madura Strait.

The researchers found cut marks on some of the fossils that confirmed the Madura Strait hominins (humans and our close relatives) were hunting turtles — the earliest evidence of this in Southeast Asia — and large game. The remains also suggested that these hominins were selectively targeting cow-like bovids in their prime, which Indonesian H. erectus isn't known for. This hunting strategy is associated with more modern humans on the Asian mainland, raising the possibility that the newly discovered H. erectus population copied the strategy from other human relatives.

According to Mortaza Hessari, head of the excavation team, they have uncovered significant evidence of fishing and maritime activities across various cultural periods during ongoing investigations at the Kopal site on the Makran coasts (Dashtiari county, Sistan-Baluchestan province).

Hessari stated: "These discoveries include not only stone tools from the Paleolithic period but also unprecedented evidence of fishing tools such as fishing hooks and net weights, indicating the sustained use of marine resources in this region during prehistoric times."

He added: "In one excavation trench, a fishing weight was found alongside a collection of shells, marine animal bones, and pottery shards dating back to the 4th millennium BC. Laboratory studies of these marine remains could provide valuable insights into the aquatic species utilized by the inhabitants of this area during the late prehistoric period."

At least 40 sheep and goats of a nomadic herder died in a lightning strike late last night in the forest area of Hariganiwan in Kangan area of Ganderbal district.

An official said that the livestock belonged to Abdul Wahid Khattana of Sunderbani, Rajouri, who is presently putting up at Chechi Pati, Hariganiwan, as part of seasonal migration.

The lightning strike occurred amid a brief but intense thunderstorm, catching the animals in the open and resulting in their instant death. (KNO)