Animals
S


Attention

Domesticated axis deer kills owner in Sunset, Texas

Matt McCullock
texomashomepage.com
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 17:24 UTC
Axis deer
Axis deer
A state game warden says the deer that killed a Sunset man last week was not wild it was the man's pet.

50-year-old Sean Talley was found lying inside a pen March 12 with several punctures to his abdomen.

Montague County game warden Chase McAninch says it was an axis buck that attacked Talley.

Axis deer are classified as an exotic animal by the Texas Parks and Wildlife so they are not native or wild.

McAninch says normally you'll spot these deer behind a fence on someone's private property.

He added they are normally not considered aggressive, but like any animal, hormones can play a factor in any animal snapping.
Read More...
Attention

2 rare vaquitas porpoises found dead in the Gulf of California


nbcconnecticut.com
Sat, 25 Mar 2017 16:49 UTC
A vaquita porpoise - a critically endangered species
A vaquita porpoise - a critically endangered species of porpoise
More than half of the population has been lost in the last three years, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The remains of two vaquitas, a critically endangered species of porpoise, were found in the waters off the coast of California in the span of one month. A conservation group calls the discovery alarming.

The vaquita porpoise is on the verge of extinction, with only 30 left in the world, conservation group Sea Shepard says.

"It is devastating," said OonaLayolle, captain of Sea Shepard. "It's been like three years we are now patrolling the north of the Gulf of California and this is really what we don't want to see. It's just so sad."

Loyolle, who has been heading the organization for four years now, said they work in collaboration with the Mexican government to battle illegal fishing and poaching in the oceans.

According to Sea Shepard, a pre-born vaquita was found floating in the Gulf of California, just south of San Felipe on March 12.

Just a week later, the carcass of a female adult vaquita was found in the waters off Baja California.
Read More...
Attention

Forestry worker mauled and badly injured by grizzly bear in British Columbia

Katie DeRosa
Vancouver Sun
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:10 UTC
Bear attack
A Campbell River husband and father has serious injuries after being attacked by a grizzly bear in a remote logging camp north of Vancouver Island.

Ryan Arsenault, a forestry engineer, was attacked Wednesday afternoon near Rivers Inlet at Draney Inlet, on the Central Coast, about 100 kilometres north of Port Hardy, said Arsenault's boss, Larry Fedorkie.

Another worker was nearby and came to Arsenault's aid, using bear spray to deter the grizzly.

"His quick actions certainly saved [Arsenault's] life," said Fedorkie, vice-president of Capacity Forest Management.

Arsenault suffered serious injuries to his left arm, including tissue and muscle damage, a broken right leg and a severe laceration to his head.

Arsenault, who is in his 30s, was airlifted to Victoria General Hospital for treatment. He underwent surgery on Thursday.
Read More...
Info

14,000 year old engraved 'tablets' discovered in France


The Archaeology News Network
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 05:09 UTC
Some forty prehistoric engravings, more than 14,000 years old, have been discovered in Finistere, at the town of Plougastel-Daoulas, in Brittany (northwestern France).

Head of aurochs
© N. Naudinot/PLOS ONE
Head of aurochs
© N. Naudinot/PLOS ONEFragment 317 with a bifacial ornamentation: side A) head of aurochs surrounded by radiating lines; side B) head of aurochs.
Depicting several animals, these artistic vestiges date back to the Upper Palaeolithic period and are extremely rare in Europe.

The discovery, whose secret has been well kept, has only just been unveiled but is in fact not a recent one.

It dates back to 1987.
Read More...
Arrow Down

The weird world of cyborg bugs and animals

Edd Gent
Singularity Hub
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 05:00 UTC
Cyborg Dragonfly
© Draper
Roboticists frequently turn to nature for inspiration for their inventions, reverse engineering the traits that evolution has developed over millennia. Others are taking a shortcut by simply integrating modern technology with living animals.

The idea may seem crazy, but animals and machines are not so different. Just as a network of wires carry electrical signals between a robot's sensors, processing units and motors, the flow of action potentials around our nervous system connects our sensory organs, brain and muscles.

But while there are similarities, the natural world has come up with some intricate solutions to problems that engineers are nowhere near replicating in silicon. That has prompted some scientists to try and piggyback on evolution's innovations by building part-animal, part-machine cyborgs. Here's a rundown of some of the most eye-catching examples.
Read More...
Question

Scientists search for proof that Tasmanian tigers are living in outback Queensland, Australia

Fiona Connor
Daily Mail
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 19:57 UTC
The last known Tasmanian tiger (pictured) died in Hobart zoo in September 1936
The last known Tasmanian tiger (pictured) died in Hobart zoo in September 1936
Scientists will search for the long-lost Tasmanian tiger in Far North Queensland after two promising sightings of what could be the extinct predator.

Experts hold high hopes of re-discovering the Thylacine, based on descriptions of sightings which they believe are 'detailed and plausible'.

Dr Sandra Abell from James Cook University - who recently discovered a second population of the near-extinct northern bettong in the same area, will lead the field survey, Australian Geographic reports.

The search was first instigated after the ABC asked co-investigator Professor Bill Laurance, also from JCU, to respond to a description of a sighting by former tourism operator Brian Hobbs of Ravenshoe.

Mr Hobbs gave Professor Laurance a detailed account of seeing a pack of animals matching the description of Tasmanian tigers while spotlighting in the Cape York Peninsula.
Read More...
Attention

Dead whale with balloon-like swelling found on beach in Chile

Julian Robinson
Daily Mail
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 19:37 UTC
Although the whale is about 52ft long, pictures show how an enormous balloon-like swelling dwarfs its entire head
Although the whale is about 52ft long, pictures show how an enormous balloon-like swelling dwarfs its entire head
This is the moment tourists flocked to see a dead whale - despite warnings a huge swelling coming out of its head could explode at any moment.

The giant carcass was discovered washed up on a beach in Pelluhue, in the central Chilean region of Maule.

Although the whale is about 52ft long, pictures show how an enormous balloon-like swelling dwarfs its entire head.

Thought to be a minke whale, the carcass has attracted tourists and scientists - but there are already fears it could explode.

President of the Vets of Wild Fauna Association Betsy Pincheira said: 'The protuberance is caused because of the common decomposition process. It is an accumulation of gas, generally methane.

'I wish people would not approach because this could explode.'

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Yellow fever killing thousands of monkeys in Brazil


Science Daily
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 17:55 UTC
Northern Muriqui monkeys
Northern Muriqui monkeys
Yellow fever, a virus carried by mosquitoes and endemic to Africa and South America, has robbed the private, federally-protected reserve of its brown howlers in an unprecedented wave of death that has swept through the region since late 2016, killing thousands of monkeys.

Karen Strier, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of anthropology, has studied the monkeys of this forest since 1983. She visited the reserve -- her long-term study site near the city of Caratinga -- in the state of Minas Gerais, in January of 2017. "It was just silence, a sense of emptiness," she says. "It was like the energy was sucked out of the universe."

Using what in some cases are decades of historical data, Strier and a team of Brazilian scientists focused on studying primates in Brazil's patchwork Atlantic Forest are poised to help understand and manage what happens next. They have never seen monkeys perish in such numbers, so quickly, from disease.

Comment: See also: Yellow fever outbreak in Brazil worries U.S. officials

Read More...
Frog

New striped rain-frog species discovered in Ecuador's cloud forests

Kacey Deamer
Live Science
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 17:34 UTC
Ecuadorian rainfrog
© Jaime Culebras/Colorado State University
Researchers have documented a new 'spectacular-looking' species of frog they've named the Ecuadorian rainfrog (Pristimantis ecuadorensis).
A yellow-green frog with eye-catching stripes that was discovered recently in Ecuador's cloud forests has now been deemed a new species of rain frog, according to a new study.

Across the U.S. and Canada, there are about 110 described frog species. By comparison, Ecuador — which is about the size of Colorado — is home to 570 frog species, and counting, according to the researchers. The latest species discovery in Ecuador came from an expedition that focused on studying a similar, threatened frog called the ornate rain frog (Pristimantis ornatissimus).

Scientists previously thought the ornate rain frog population was a single species.
Read More...
Attention

Signs and Portents: Four-legged chicken born in Brazil (VIDEO)


RT
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 13:47 UTC
four-legged chicken
© RuptlyThe chick was expected to die within hours of being born.
A Brazilian chicken has no shortage of legs to samba dance with after being born with four of the extremities. Despite bleak predictions that the chick would die within hours of being born, it has defied all odds, strutting with pride for ten days so far.

Read More...