Lightning strike kills over 40 livestock in Kangan
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)
At least 22 sheep were killed in a lightning strike in the highland pastures of Jhuleli Patan in ward 2 of Guthichaur Rural Municipality in Jumla on Saturday evening, according to local officials.
The lightning struck a flock of sheep as they had taken shelter under a tree during rainfall. The incident resulted in the death of 16 sheep belonging to Hirabahadur Aidi and six belonging to Dhankrishna Rokaya, both residents of ward 2 of Guthichaur.
Local farmers often drive their sheep to remote pastures for grazing during the season due to a lack of suitable grazing land near their homes. "We were bringing the sheep back home after grazing in the Patan flats when the rain began. The animals had gathered under a tree for shelter when the lightning struck," said ward member Dhan Bahadur Bohara. "It took away their source of happiness."
Another dead whale has washed ashore on a British Columbia beach, the third over two weeks, but a marine wildlife expert at the scene said Friday that there's likely no connections between the latest case to the other deaths.
The Namgis First Nation said in a statement that a resident reported finding the whale Wednesday on a beach near Port McNeill, B.C., on the northwest side of Vancouver Island.
Experts who have examined the animal have confirmed it's a Bryde's whale — a species rarely seen in waters north of the same latitude as Los Angeles, the statement said.
Jackie Hildering with the Marine Education and Research Society is among the researchers on-site, and said this is the only known sighting of a Bryde's whale in B.C.
"Complete mystery," Hildering said when asked about the whale's possible cause of death, noting the animal did not show signs of malnutrition or being struck by a vessel. "There's absolutely nothing grossly on the exterior of the whale to know how it ended up here (and) why it would have died."
Another dead whale has been found stranded on a German island in the North Sea.
The minke whale washed up on the east side of the uninhabited island of Minsener Oog, a spokesman for the Wadden Sea National Park said on Thursday.
It is still unclear why the 6.5-metre-long marine mammal died.
The dead animal was discovered on Tuesday evening and reported on Wednesday, said the national park spokesman. Experts will attempt to take samples from the whale and examine them over the next few days to determine the cause of death.
Pradip Kumar Maitra Hindustan Times Thu, 15 May 2025 20:17 UTC
Human-wildlife conflict continues to escalate in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district after a woman, Kachrabai Bharde, 54, was mauled to death by a tiger on Wednesday. This is the sixth death due to tiger attacks in the district within just five days.
According to reports, the woman went into the forest near Karbada village to collect tendu leaves. She was with her husband, Arun, and other women from the village when the incident occurred. While she was plucking tendu leaves, a tiger hiding in the bushes suddenly pounced on her. Her husband heard the screams and saw the tiger dragging her away. Arun rushed back to the village to alert the locals. Villagers later found Bharde's body lying in a pool of blood in the forest.
Angered by the recurring attacks, locals staged a protest against the forest department and the district administration, demanding proper compensation and a government job for the victim's son. The forest and police officials pacified the crowd and sent the body for post-mortem to the local civil hospital.
4-Month-Old Child Dies after Being Attacked By Rottweiler At Residential Society
A shocking incident surfaced from Gujarat's Ahmedabad, where a four-year-old baby lost her life after being attacked by a pet dog in Gujarat's Ahmedabad on Monday. The disturbing incident was recorded on CCTV installed in the society. The video soon went viral on social media.
The incident took place in Ahmedabad's Radhe Residency. According to a report by Aaj Tak, Pratik Dhabi's sister took his four-month-old girl child, named Rishika, in her arms and went outside. Notably, a girl living in the same society was walking in the parking area with her Rottweiler pet dog.
However, when the girl was talking on the phone, the dog's leash slipped out of her hand, and the animal attacked Rishika's aunt. In the CCTV footage, it could be seen that when the woman with the baby in her arms fell to the ground, the dog attacked the child.
Research finds 75% of bird species in North America are seeing a population decline
North America has a bird problem—not too many, but perhaps too few in the not-so-distant future. New research published Thursday in the journal Science reveals that 75% of the continent's bird species are on a downward spiral, seeing their populations decline between 2007 and 2021. The Washington Post calls the phenomenon "the latest sign of a slow-moving extinction crisis that threatens entire ecosystems," and one that "should serve as a canary in the coal mine for people who live alongside birds."
Researchers analyzed nearly 500 different bird species in North America using the eBird online database, which serves as a landing spot for millions of bird sightings around the globe. Especially alarming was the finding that population loss for most species was largest in spots where resident birds are most prevalent, meaning our feathered friends "are struggling even in their strongholds." The Post notes there doesn't seem to be any one overarching reason for the population declines, with theories ranging from human encroachment on bird habitats and pesticides in their food chain, to rising temps in the Arctic that are disrupting local birds' natural breeding cycle.
A 53-year-old woman was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs at Cholin Oni here on Sunday. The victim has been identified as Prema Sharanappa Cholin.
The street dogs pounced on her when she was plucking flowers from trees grown in the compound of her house in the early hours. She suffered multiple bites and was rushed to a community healthcare centre in the town, where she failed to respond to treatment and died.
The family members of the deceased woman, joined by the locals, staged a protest in front of the hospital expressing their anguish against the town municipal council's (TMC) apathy in addressing the street dog menace. The agitators blocked the highway for a while.
An Oklahoma father found his 6-year-old son covered in blood and bite wounds after he was fatally mauled by several dogs outside their home, officials said.
Deputies received a 911 call about a dog attack at 7:28 p.m. Sunday, May 4, from a home in rural Cleveland County, according to a report by a deputy with the Cleveland County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies arrived five minutes after the call and saw the father walking down the driveway with his son limp in his arms, and a barking, growling dog following close behind him, the report said.
"His body from head to toe had an ungodly amount of bite wounds" and he had no pulse, the deputy wrote.
A woman has been killed by an alligator in a lake in central Florida, authorities said.
The attack happened while the woman was rowing a small boat near the mouth of Tiger Creek stream in Lake Kissimmee, south of Orlando, at around 4pm local time (9pm UK time) on Tuesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) said.
The woman went into the water and wasn't seen again until her body was recovered nearby, the commission said in a statement.
Polk County Sheriff's Office deputies and marine units assisted with the search.
The sheriff's office has said that the woman was in a kayak, which had an enclosed hull, with another person who wasn't reported injured.
But a commission spokesperson said the agency believes the woman who was killed was in a canoe which had an open hull.
Comment: See also: Tiger kills woman in Chandrapur, India - 27th such incident for the district in 2024