Animals
S


Horse

Immigrant megafauna are re-wilding the world

Erick Lundgren, Arian Wallach, Daniel Ramp & William Ripple
The Conversation
Tue, 03 Oct 2017 09:33 UTC
wild horses
© Andrea HarveyMost of the world’s wild horses, such as the Australian brumby, are outside their historic native range.
Throughout history, humans have taken plants and animals with them as they travelled the world. Those that survived the journey to establish populations in the diaspora have found new opportunities as they integrate into new ecosystems.

These immigrant populations have come to be regarded as "invaders" and "aliens" that threaten pristine nature. But for many species, migration may just be a way to survive the global extinction crisis.

In our recently published study, we found that one of the Earth's most imperilled group of species is hanging on in part thanks to introduced populations.

Megafauna - plant-eating terrestrial mammals weighing more than 100kg - have established in new and unexpected places. These "feral" populations are rewilding the world with unique and fascinating ecological functions that had been lost for thousands of years.

Today's world of giants is only a shadow of its former glory. Around 50,000 years ago, giant kangaroos, rhino-like diprotodons, and other unimaginable animals were lost from Australia.
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Black Cat 2

Tiger kills 15th person this year in Pilibhit, India

Keshav Agrawal
The Times of India
Sun, 01 Oct 2017 19:23 UTC
TIGER
On the opening day of Wildlife Week on Sunday, when officials of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, social forestry and WWF were busy discussing the growing threat of tiger attacks in the region, a Khargapur village resident was mauled to death by a big cat.

Officials said that the area where the attack took place comes under Neuria police jurisdiction and is around 300 meters from Mahof forest range of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. The man was mowing grass in an agricultural field along with others when he was attacked.

Khargapur village pradhan Harjit Singh said that while sub-divisional magistrate Poornima Singh rushed to the spot along with police force to review the situation, no one from forest department bothered to pay a visit. "The tiger was apparently in a nearby field when Bablu and a few others were cutting grass. The attack was so quick and sudden that the villagers present there didn't get a chance to rescue Bablu. The animal then disappeared through cropped fields of sugarcane," he said.
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Attention

Boy killed by bear in Kaghan, Pakistan


The Express Tribune
Sat, 30 Sep 2017 19:07 UTC
bear print
An 18-year-old boy Muhammad Yousuf was mauled and killed by a bear while coming back home with his herd of goats and sheep from jungle of Kund Bangla. According to village people, Muhammad Yousuf Noor while returning home in the evening with a herd of goats was attacked by a wild bear.

The nearby people rushed towards the spot after hearing the growls of the bear and the cries of the boy and witnessed the boy being thrown into a ravine.

Noor died on the spot. Bear encounters are not common in the area whereas leopard and wolfs attack has been witnessed in the past. The residents of Kund Salbori were unclear that what prompted the bear to attack.
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Attention

Bear mauls elderly man to death in Bandipora, India

Ejaz-Ul-Haq Bhat
Greater Kashmir
Sun, 01 Oct 2017 18:58 UTC
bear print
An elderly man was mauled to death in a bear attack in Chichinar village of Aloosa locality in Bandipora district on Saturday morning.

An official said that Nazir Ahmad Chauhan, 75 son of Umer din Chauhan a resident Chichinar was attacked by a bear early morning outside his home.

"He died on the spot after being attacked by the bear," he said. Meanwhile, PDP General Secretary Nizam-ud-din Bhat visited ChichinarGujjar Patti to express sympathies with the victim family and demanded compensation from the wildlife department to the family.

He said that wildlife department should be made active in Bandipora because there are such threats to lives of human beings and animals in several areas of Bandipora like Tanghat, Panar, Sumlar, Ajas, Malangam, Binlipora, Kudara, Doban and Chuntimulla.
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Attention

Another whale shark found dead, the latest in Gujarat, India

Bharat Yagnik
The Times of India
Fri, 29 Sep 2017 13:42 UTC
whale shark
After a 30-feet long whale was found dead last week, body of a male whale shark, about 15 feet long, was found at Madhavpur coast on September 28.

A team of ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Veraval, reached the spot to assess the reasons for its death.

Tarachand Kumawat, a scientist with Marine Bio-diversity in Veraval, said that there was a cut on the body which was probably due to a fishing propeller. "We are yet to finalize the reasons for its death. The dead shark was a sub-adult whale shark."

A whale shark, that was tagged in Gujarat, has covered a distance of about 5,500km since it was tagged. The shark has moved from Sutrapada towards the coast of Somalia, It now seems to be circling back to the Gujarat coast.

The migratory path of a female whale shark had been satellite-tagged off the Saurashtra coast in December 2016 under the Whale Shark Conservation Project run by the WTI and the Gujarat forest department.

Comment: There's been a spate of such incidents involving this species over the last 2 months, see also: Three dead beached whale sharks found in Indonesia

Whale shark found washed ashore in Tamil Nadu, India

Dead whale shark washes ashore on beach in Puri, India

Dead whale shark found in Tanza Bay, Philippines

Dead whale shark found in Tamil Nadu, India

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Wolf

61-year-old woman killed by pit bull terrier in Gilmer County, Georgia


wsbtv.com
Fri, 29 Sep 2017 12:33 UTC
PIT BULL ATTACK
A woman died after she was attacked by a pit bull on Thursday.

Gilmer County police said Kathy Sue Nichelson, 61, was attacked shortly after she arrived at a home on Goose Island Road.

A bystander saw Nichelson on the ground and stopped to help her. The dog then attacked the bystander before he escaped to his vehicle to call 911. He did not sustain any life-threatening injuries.

Police and emergency crews arrived and attempted to keep the animal away while EMS tried to treat Nichelson. Authorities said the dog came towards public safety personnel aggressively, and the animal was put down by deputies.

Authorities said the investigation into the animal's behavior and its owner are ongoing.


Comment: Other severe attacks recently reported are of a woman in hospital after being mauled by a pit bull in Blackfoot, Idaho and of another woman savaged by 3 dogs in Peru, New York.

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Attention

Signs and Portents: Two-headed turtle discovered at farm near Little Rock, Arkansas

Rachel Herzog
Arkansas Online
Tue, 26 Sep 2017 17:49 UTC
Arkansas State University is home to a two-headed turtle and a two-headed snake, both found in Arkansas.
© Nick KiriazisArkansas State University is home to a two-headed turtle and a two-headed snake, both found in Arkansas.
Arkansas State University assistant herpetology professor Lori Neuman-Lee isn't scared of reptiles — but she never thought she'd be studying two-headed ones.

Since she joined the faculty about a month ago, her lab has become home to a snake and a turtle found in Arkansas that have four heads between them.

On Sept. 6, an electric worker found a two-headed rattlesnake outside a home on Arkansas 248. The snake was brought to Forrest L. Wood Crowley's Ridge Nature Center in Jonesboro, then given to Neuman-Lee.

When Neuman-Lee went to pick up the snake Sept. 8, she said, facility director Shaun Merrell asked if she was interested in another reptile— a two-headed snapping turtle found on a farm near Little Rock.

"I said, 'Sure,'" she said with a laugh. The turtle was in her lab less than a week later.

Comment: See also: Signs and Portents: Electric worker finds two-headed snake in Forrest City, Arkansas

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Fish

Thousands of monster-sized goldfish culled from Canadian pond


National Post
Wed, 27 Sep 2017 11:28 UTC
giant goldfish
© PostmediaThousands of gold fish have been removed from a pond in Cobourg, Ont. on Friday November 14, 2014.
Workers have dipped nets and a naturally occurring chemical into a storm water retention pond near Edmonton in a bid to kill thousands of unwanted goldfish that have made the water body home.

Officials say the aquatic invaders are the result of goldfish reproducing after people released their unwanted pets into the wild or flushed them down the toilet.

Leah Kongsrude, St. Albert's environment director, says she's seen captured goldfish up to 30 centimetres in length, compared to ones sold by pet stores that measure only about two centimetres.

Kongsrude says goldfish are hardy and can out-compete naturally occurring species for food.
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Attention

Dead whale found on Oslo Beach, South Africa

Shona Aylward
South Coast Herald
Fri, 29 Sep 2017 10:01 UTC
DEAD WHALE
It is not known why the animal died.

The news of a juvenile whale washed ashore attracted hundreds of people to Oslo Beach this evening.

The whale was reported this afternoon by building contractors who had seen it on the beach while working at a nearby house.

The KwaZulu-Natal Sharks Board was summoned to inspect the mammal, estimated to weigh between two and three tonnes, but it was already dead.

Michael Muller, manager of the Lower South Coast SPCA, said the onus was now on the municipality to remove the carcass.

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Attention

Three dead beached whale sharks found in Indonesia


The Jakarta Post
Fri, 29 Sep 2017 09:39 UTC
whale shark
Three whale sharks were found dead at Nangalili Beach in Benteng Dewa village, West Manggarai regency, West Nusa Tenggara, on Tuesday.

Two of the whale sharks were found dismembered after fishermen and local people took their meat for consumption, Kupang National Marine Conservation Bureau (BKKPN) chief Ikram Sangadji said, adding that the sharks died before they were found by the fishermen.
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