Animals
S


Black Cat 2

Cats busy celebrating Human Slave Day!


News Thump
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 19:10 UTC
Cats
© Ground Zero Web
Cats across the country are today celebrating the hairless monkeys that cater to their every whim.

In parks and gardens from the South coast to Scotland, cats are entertaining each other with stories of their lumbering slaves and the lengths they will go to in order to please them.

Cat Ginger Williams told us, "I have a couple of the big ones that I allow to live with me; They're a bit of a nuisance most of the time, but I'm happy to take this one day out of my busy schedule to recognise their contribution to my ongoing satisfaction.

"They will clean up after me on demand, and will often remain still if I need somewhere warm to rest and the floor is too cold to sit on.

"Like any slaves, they need a bit of managing and are a bit slow on the uptake, but I have them pretty well trained by now. I only have to raise an eyebrow and they bring me food or a toy.

"If they behave well, I will sometimes reward them by letting them stroke me. Sometimes."

When told that in reality he actually 'belongs' to the hairless monkeys, Williams said, "You actually believe that? Hilarious."
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Arrow Down

Rat invasion: Upper West side playground in Manhattan overrun by rats of all sizes


CBS
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 03:22 UTC
rats playground central park manhattan
Rats of all sizes have been spotted all over the place at the Toll Family Playground in Central Park.
There was outrage on the Upper West Side this weekend, with parents saying huge rats are ruining their visits to the neighborhood.

They also told CBS2's Erin Logan their concerns are not being taken seriously and they have had enough.

"A ton of rats," said Sam Valera. "It grosses me out because there's so many."

Rats of all sizes have been spotted all over the place at the Toll Family Playground in Central Park.

"We just got here like 20 minutes ago, and I just saw a mouse in the sprinkler and then there was like three rats just in the border," said Lauren Frank.
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Attention

Shark attacks snorkeler off Marsa Alam, Egypt


Egyptian Streets
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 12:10 UTC
Shark attacks
Marsa Alam beach was closed for 48 hours after a shark attacked a 20-year-old Austrian tourist Christine Schachinger while snorkeling Saturday morning in the Red Sea.

Schachinger was rushed to a private hospital in Marsa Alam, a popular tourist spot located in the eastern south of Egypt, and received treatment on her right leg. She was later transferred to Austria for further medical treatment.

"There is no threat to the Austrian tourist's life," medical sources in the Red Sea governorate reported.

Although shark attacks are not common in Egypt, environmentalists say certain actions on the part of divers and swimmers may provoke attacks.

The Society for the Rescue and Protection of the Environment of the Red Sea warns against feeding sharks.
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Bizarro Earth

Flesh-eating 'sea fleas' savage Australian teen's legs in bloody feeding frenzy


RT
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 20:26 UTC
flesh eating sea fleas
© Museums Victoria / FacebookThe flesh-eaters were identified as lysianassid amphipods, a type of scavenging crustacean, commonly known as “sea fleas.”
A young Australian man took a dip in the ocean to soothe his legs after a day of playing football but was horrified when he returned to the beach to find his legs bleeding uncontrollably from what appeared to be thousands of tiny bites.

Sam Kanizay, 16, spent Saturday evening unwinding at Dendy Street Beach in Brighton, Melbourne when he got the fright of his life. He didn't notice anything was wrong at first as the water was so cold - temperatures reached as low as three degrees Celsius (37°F) last week.

"When he got out, he described having sand on his legs, so he went back in the water," his father Jarrod Kanizay told the AAP.

"He went back to his shoes and what he found was blood on his legs... They ate through Sam's skin and made it bleed profusely."

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Magnify

Mysterious hybrid strain of anthrax is killing chimps & spreading to other species in the African Rainforest

Peter Dockrill
sciencealert.com
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 21:21 UTC
anthrax
© Joachim Puls/filmsalz
A strange breed of anthrax bacterium killed more than half of the dead chimps analysed in new research from Africa - and scientists say the fatal infection could wipe out the local chimp population in the Ivory Coast.

As grave as the findings are, the greater implications of the Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis (Bcbva) bacterium could be that its infection vector isn't just limited to chimps - with researchers unexpectedly finding the strain had also killed animals from numerous other species.

"To our surprise, almost 40 percent of all animal deaths in Taï National Park we investigated were attributable to anthrax," says virologist Emmanuel Couacy-Hymann from the Ivorian Animal Health Institute.
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Eagle

Symbolism? Lobster fishermen rescue one-eyed bald eagle from the ocean near Schoodic Island, Maine

Ben Hooper
UPI
Thu, 03 Aug 2017 16:59 UTC
Overreach?
Overreach?
A lobster boat crew in Maine rescued a one-eyed eagle they spotting swimming near their boat in the Atlantic Ocean.

John Chipman Jr., who shared photos and videos of the eagle on his Instagram account, said he and his crew mates spotted the one-eyed raptor doing a breast-stroke through the water near their boat July 27.

Chipman said he and his fellow fishermen used a raft made from a personal flotation device, some plywood, and rope to fish the eagle out of the water.

The video shows the soggy eagle is eventually able to take off and fly away.


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Wolf

Infant dies following attack by family dog in Bangor, Maine

Dawn Gagnon
BDN Maine
Sun, 06 Aug 2017 13:19 UTC
canine attack
© Angela Antunes / CC by 2.0
An infant died after the child was injured by the family's dog, according to the Bangor Police Department.

The Bangor police and fire departments responded on Saturday, July 29, to a local residence after receiving a call about an injured infant, Bangor police Detective Sgt. Brent Beaulieu said Sunday morning in a statement.

The child, who had been injured by the family's Shepherd mix, was transported to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

"Unfortunately, the child succumbed to the injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital," Beaulieu said.

Beaulieu declined Sunday to say where the incident took place.
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Attention

Marauding monkeys attacking residents of Boyolali, Indonesia


Free Malaysia Today
Sun, 06 Aug 2017 12:51 UTC
A task force set up to patrol the area will shoot monkeys if necessary, although traps will also be used to return others to the forest.
A task force set up to patrol the area will shoot monkeys if necessary, although traps will also be used to return others to the forest.
Indonesia has deployed armed police and soldiers to help villagers on the island of Java fight back against marauding monkeys that have been terrorizing their area, stealing food and even attacking vulnerable elderly residents and a child.

The long-tailed macaques have been growing increasingly bold in their interactions with humans in the Boyolali district of Central Java, north of the city of Solo.

"The monkeys had started coming here two months ago," said police chief Aries Andhi. "After we shot one of them, the rest didn't come back. Now they are back again."

A task force set up to patrol the area will shoot monkeys if necessary, he said, although traps will also be used to return others to the forest.

"As long as they don't disturb the villagers, we won't shoot them," said Andhi.
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Attention

Zookeeper dies following bear attack at Swedish wildlife park


The Local (Sweden)
Fri, 04 Aug 2017 09:49 UTC
bear
A 19-year-old zookeeper has died after being attacked by a bear at a wildlife park in northern Sweden.

Police and emergency services were called to Orsa Rovdjurspark at 10:30 on Friday morning after one of the zookeepers was attacked and seriously injured. The man, who was born in 1998, received medical attention at the scene but later died of his injuries.

The CEO of the company that owns the park explained that the attack took place during a special activity for guests, where people get to go into an enclosure with the zookeepers. The enclosure was supposed to be empty, but the bear managed to get in. Police believe it may have dug its way in.

"First and foremost I want to say that this is a difficult day. I'm thinking about my colleague and his family a lot. It started out as a normal day, a family had booked the activity and normal routines were followed. I'll leave it to the police to work out what went wrong," the park's head Sven Brunberg said at a press conference on Friday.
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Info

Carbon 14 dating and settled science


Malaga Bay
Sat, 05 Aug 2017 20:41 UTC
Carbo 14 Norwegian Blues
© Malaga Bay
A depressing aspect of some published papers is that they assiduously avoid analysing the raw data.

Instead they plunge headlong into transmogrifying their raw data into Settled Science.

This is regrettable because a simple reality check can provide some valuable insights.
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