Animals
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills 25 cattle near Lonsdale, Arkansas

Bill Bowden
Arkansas Online
Fri, 02 Mar 2018 13:12 UTC
lightning
About 50 miles west of Mount Ida, near Lonsdale, 14 cows and 11 calves were killed when lightning hit an oak tree early Thursday and scorched 100 yards of barbed-wire fence along the Garland and Saline county line.

"They were trying to get away from that heavy rain," Mike Rigsby said of his cattle. "It didn't look like any of them moved a bit. They fell over on the fence, actually, tore the fence down."

Rigsby said the lightning melted the wire, which he found in burned, wadded piles.

"We've been farming for 65 years, and this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this," he said. "It was five or six times louder than normal lightning. It woke me up. I thought, 'Whatever it hit, it hit hard.'"
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Info

Humans can use echolocation just like bats says study

Matthew Loffhagen
Outer Places
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 19:06 UTC
Bats
© Flickr/Shellac
One of the more interesting Marvel superheroes is Daredevil, a character who is blinded as a child, but who is able to sense the world around him because his other senses - most notably his hearing - improve to compensate for his disability.

As it turns out, this super power is more real than you might think. According to a new study from Durham University, there are humans who really can use echolocation, just like a bat, in order to see objects in their path based on sound waves that bounce off them.

While this is a power that, theoretically, many people can develop, at present, most of us don't really have a reason to try. After all, those of us who can see will naturally rely on our eyes rather than attempting to learn echolocation. For some blind people, though, this skill is a fabulous help in everyday life, and it now has some scientific backing which suggests it works.
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Question

Hundreds of birds found dead and dying in Parral, Mexico

Julian Friese
Sott.net
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 13:50 UTC
dead birds
On the 25 of February the Mexican newspaper El Sol de Parral (The Sun of Parral) reported the somewhat mysterious sudden death of what appear to be hundreds of Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) in the city of Parrel in Chihuahua, Mexico.

What can be gleaned from extracts of the story via Google translation is that hundreds of dead and dying birds were found on several roads and in a local municipal park. It seems that witnesses claim to have seen the birds falling from the sky. Some were noted to have blood in their beaks while others had been run over by vehicles (presumably already dead or dying).
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Eagle

More symbolism? Two frozen bald eagles locked together in fight rescued along Susquehanna River in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

Maddie Crocenzi
witf.org
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 13:29 UTC
These two eagles were rescued by Rebecca Weaver and her daughter along the Susquehanna River bank near Bloomsburg on Sunday, Feb. 25.
© Submitted, Rebecca WeaverThese two eagles were rescued by Rebecca Weaver and her daughter along the Susquehanna River bank near Bloomsburg on Sunday, Feb. 25.
Two bald eagles were saved along the Susquehanna River bank near Bloomsburg on Sunday thanks to a concerned citizen.

Rebecca Weaver, from Almedia, said her daughter Alyssa heard a strange screeching sound when she was outside. Weaver and Alyssa found the two birds locked together, shivering from the cold water.

Weaver said Scott Township Police came to the property under the impression that they were supposed to collect two dead birds. When police realized the birds were alive, Columbia County Game Warden Rick Deiterich was dispatched.

"The eagles were likely fighting in the sky over territory and dropped to the ground near the river where they continued their battle," said Deiterich in a Pennsylvania Game Commission Facebook post. "They seem to have tumbled into the water and would not, or could not, let go of their grip on one another."

Comment: See also: Symbolic? Bald eagle found covered in ice in Osage County, Oklahoma (VIDEO)

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Wolf

Boy killed by stray dogs in Andhra Pradesh, India


Zee News
Wed, 28 Feb 2018 13:20 UTC
Attacks from stray dogs have been problems from different parts of the country. (Image for representational purposes only)
Attacks from stray dogs have been problems from different parts of the country. (Image for representational purposes only)
In a shocking incident, a nine-year-old boy has been mauled to death by street dog in northern Andhra Pradesh.

The victim, identified as R Jaswanth, was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to injuries on the way. He was a Class III student in the government school in his village. He was a resident of the Ammapalli village near Balijipeta, about 150 km north of Visakhapatnam.

Jaswant was reportedly going to a farm in his village when the attack happened, news agency ANI reported. It is not clear what caused the dog to attack the boy.

Stray dogs have been reported as a menace from different parts of the country in recent years. The issue has been an especially hot-button topic in Kerala. In that state alone, the number of reported cases of people bitten by stray dogs was a whopping 53,000. In May last year, a 50-year-old fisherman succumbed to his injuries after being mauled by a pack of stray dogs in Trivandrum's Pulluvila. Prior to that, a 75-year-old man was found dead after being allegedly attacked by a pack of stray dogs in Kerala's Attingal.
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Attention

Infant on mother's lap in front of house killed by bear in Karnataka, India


Deccan Herald
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:52 UTC
bear print
A black bear mauled and killed a four-month-old girl child when she was on her mother's lap in front of her house at Hadlaghatta in the taluk on Wednesday. The deceased has been identified as Poorvi, daughter of Gowramma.Hadlaghatta in the taluk on Wednesday. The deceased has been identified as Poorvi, daughter of Gowramma.

According to the villagers, Gowramma, Kumar, father and Lavanya, sister, sustained severe injuries. They have been admitted to McGann hospital in Shivamogga. The family members were sitting in front of the house at 8 am when all of a sudden, the bear pounced on Poorvi. When the others tried to rescue the child, the wild animal attacked them also. But the girl child breathed her last on the way to the hospital, they added.
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Wolf

Woman's death 'likely caused' by dog bites in Paphos, Cyprus

Annette Chrysostomou
Cyprus Mail
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 12:24 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
The death of Petrana Mihailova Milkova, found dead in a field last Thursday in Paphos, was "likely caused by dogs", medical examiner Nicholas Charalambous said on Tuesday.

He added that the results of new samples taken from the woman's body would help to determine the exact cause of Milkova's death, which has remained unclear since the time she was found injured in a field.

Asked, if the previously suspected cause of death from a machine was ruled out, Charalambous said that based on the new evidence from the scene and the new samples that were taken, "we are being led in the direction that the woman's death was caused by dog bites."

It is thought the woman could have been attacked by the dogs while walking in the Yeroskipou area of Paphos.
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Bug

Insect population decline reported across Australia

Mark Rigby
ABC (Australia)
Sat, 24 Feb 2018 19:25 UTC
Entomologists are concerned Australia's insect populations are in decline. (ABC News: Penny McLintock)
© Penny McLintockEntomologists are concerned Australia's insect populations are in decline.
A global crash in insect populations has found its way to Australia, with entomologists across the country reporting lower than average numbers of wild insects.

University of Sydney entomologist Dr Cameron Webb said researchers around the world widely acknowledge that insect populations are in decline, but are at a loss to determine the cause.

"On one hand it might be the widespread use of insecticides, on the other hand it might be urbanisation and the fact that we're eliminating some of the plants where it's really critical that these insects complete their development," Dr Webb said.

"Add in to the mix climate change and sea level rise and it's incredibly difficult to predict exactly what it is."
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Ice Cube

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Record sized hail - Sun halos planet wide - Shrimp & fish cold kill (VIDEO)


Adapt 2030
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 11:51 UTC
Hail larger than softballs pummeled an Argentina city Thursday
Huge hail hit Cordoba, Argentina earlier this month
As galactic cosmic rays increase in Earth's atmosphere we are beginning to see record sized hail, intense sun halos across the globe which used to be a rare event. Now winter temperatures are responsible for fisheries collapses of white shrimp in the SE USA and lake fish stocks. This is now affecting terrestrial crops along with aquatic species, its global and we do have a problem that needs to be addressed.


Comment: For related articles see also:

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Binoculars

An extremely rare gyrfalcon from the tundra visits Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

Arlene Koch
Lehigh Valley Live
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 15:02 UTC
A gyrfalcon. (File photo)
A gyrfalcon. (File photo)
It was raining and so warm the morning I wrote this column that I went out on the deck without a coat to refill a peanut feeder. We only put out peanuts in the mornings because they're costly, but at that time, blue jays put on a good show as they come in to grab them. I've seen a jay take three peanuts at the same time.

It was so unusually warm that mid-February day that snowdrops, small white flowers produced by bulbs, were blooming in the front yard. But, as often happens in the winter, the weather was going to turn on a dime. Dropping temperatures and snow were predicted for the next night.

As the day wore on I debated with myself about going for a second look at an extremely rare raptor that's been frequenting several places in the area. A dark-phase gyrfalcon, a tundra breeder and the largest and most powerful falcon in North America, has been drawing birders from miles around and surrounding states.

Comment: See also this report from 2 months ago: Rarely seen white morph gyrfalcon from the high Arctic spotted in New Brunswick, Canada

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