Animals
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Better Earth

Ouch! Dutch wood closed to public after buzzard attacks


Dutch News
Wed, 31 May 2017 17:37 UTC
warning about buzzards
© DutchNews.nl Read more at DutchNews.nl: Dutch wood closed to public after buzzard attacks http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/05/dutch-wood-closed-to-public-after-buzzard-attacks/
A regional park organisation in Zuid-Holland has closed a popular wooded area near Lisse to the public because several people have been attacked by buzzards. The Keukenhofbosch, close to the popular tulip park, is home to a breeding pair and several people have been left with bloody injuries, a forestry worker from Het Zuid-Hollands Landschap told news agency ANP. Reports about the buzzards' aggressive behaviour were first recorded several weeks ago.

'They attack people who come to close or enter their territory,' the spokesman said. 'Sometimes they pretend to attack but some people have actually been pecked, resulting in nasty head wounds.' The young buzzards will likely leave the nest within six weeks or so, and then the wood can be reopened to the public.
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Eye 2

Snake regurgitating another live snake filmed in Newton, Texas

Ben Hooper
UPI
Tue, 30 May 2017 09:11 UTC
Snake regurgitates live snake in video captured in Texas
Snake regurgitates live snake in video captured in Texas
A Texas couple taking video of a snake with a strange object in its mouth were shocked when the serpent regurgitated a second snake, which was still alive.

Christopher Reynolds said he and his wife were leaving his mother's Newton home Sunday when he spotted a snake near the road and stopped to look at the reptile.

Reynolds said he and his wife initially thought the snake, which had a strange object in its mouth, was dead, but it soon surprised them by starting to move.

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Attention

Pelicans found sick, dying along the coast at Ventura and Santa Barbara, California

Cheri Carlson
Ventura County Star
Sat, 27 May 2017 20:53 UTC
dead birds
A local rescue group has found dozens of sick and dying pelicans along the Ventura and Santa Barbara coasts in recent weeks.

One cause likely is domoic acid poisoning, which has taken a toll on birds and marine mammals throughout California in recent months.

Domoic acid is a naturally occurring toxin in the algae.

Fish eat the algae but generally not enough to harm them. Sea lions and birds, however, eat so many of the fish that they are getting a level that is toxic to them.

For a while, the hardest hit type of bird seemed to be loons, said Julia Parker, animal care director for the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network.

"Now, it's affecting the pelicans," she said.

Comment: See also: Algae toxin killing marine mammals along Southern California coast

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Attention

Woman found mauled to death after apparent bear attack in Akita, Japan


The Japan Times
Tue, 30 May 2017 12:30 UTC
Police officers put up a no-entry sign at the foot of the mountains in the city of Senboku, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday.
© KYODOPolice officers put up a no-entry sign at the foot of the mountains in the city of Senboku, Akita Prefecture, on Saturday.
Akita Prefecture is stepping up vigilance against bears attacking people in the wake of the apparent mauling death of a local woman over the weekend.

Masako Oishi, a 61-year-old assistant nurse from the eastern Akita city of Senboku, was found dead shortly after noon on Saturday in the city's mountains. She set off on a hike at around 6 a.m. with a female acquaintance to pick bamboo shoots, a seasonal delicacy.

At around 8:30 a.m., the acquaintance returned to the parking lot at the foot of the mountains, but Oishi did not return, according to police. When locals searched for her, they found her dead, bleeding and lying on the ground.

She had been mauled on several parts of her body, including her head, shoulders and arms, leading the police to suspect she was attacked by a bear.
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Attention

Dead minke whale found at Long Beach Peninsula, Washington

Janet I. Tu
The Seattle Times
Mon, 29 May 2017 09:16 UTC
People at Long Beach Peninsula, Pacific County, view a small minke whale that had died and washed ashore Sunday.
© Tiffany Boothe/Seaside AquariumPeople at Long Beach Peninsula, Pacific County, view a small minke whale that had died and washed ashore Sunday.
In a relatively rare sighting, a dead minke whale, with its diaphragm pushed outside of its mouth, washed ashore Sunday on Long Beach Peninsula, Pacific County, about a quarter mile north of Klipsan Beach Approach.

The whale had died before washing ashore, with gases from decomposition building up inside the animal. Once the whale reached the beach, the pressure from the gases combined with its own weight pushed its diaphragm outside of its mouth, causing the balloon-like shape at the head of the whale, said Tiffany Boothe, an administrative assistant at Seaside Aquarium, who took the video and photos seen here.


Seaside Aquarium, based in Seaside, Ore., along with Portland State University, are coordinators in dealing with marine mammals that wash up in northern Oregon and southern Washington.
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Attention

Wild boar charges children at playground in Vienna, Austria


The Republic
Mon, 29 May 2017 21:07 UTC
Wild boar
A wild boar charged at children at a playground in Vienna, then hid in shrubbery next to an apartment house before being shot by police.

Police spokesman Patrick Maierhofer says the children ran away and nobody was hurt, in the latest of occasional attacks involving wild pigs that live in close proximity with humans in the leafy outskirts of the Austrian capital.

Maierhofer was cited by state broadcaster ORF Monday as saying that police decided to kill the animal Saturday after municipal veterinary authorities told them they had no sedation substances available.

Leigh Turner, Britain's ambassador to Austria, was left shaken and slightly injured earlier this month after being chased recently by a hostile boar in Vienna's Lainzer Tiergarten nature park.

Source: AP
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Attention

Hunter recovering from black bear attack in Boise County, Idaho


kivitv.com
Mon, 29 May 2017 19:36 UTC
Black bear
Black bear
Marvin Jennings of Boise and his uncle from Lynwood, WA where hunting near Clear Creek Sunday evening when according to Idaho Fish and Game an encounter with a Black Bear occurred. the pair were hunting over a bait area when the uncle shot and wounded a black bear. When Jennings approached the bear knocked Jennings down and bit him multiple times on the left arm and leg before being killed by a handgun.

Jennings is in serious condition at St. Alphonsus according to hospital spokesperson.

We will continue to update this story as details become available.

This is the release from Idaho Fish and Game

Boise hunter recovering from bear encounter

A Boise-area hunter will recover from bite wounds he received after being attacked by a wounded black bear near Grimes Creek in Boise County. Marvin Jennings (43) of Boise and his uncle from Lynnwood, WA were hunting over a bear bait site on Clear Creek Sunday evening, May 28 when the incident occurred.
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Fish

Mystery surrounds death of 30,000 fish at Rampally lake, India


RT
Mon, 29 May 2017 18:15 UTC
dead fish in India
© The Times of India / YouTube
More than 30,000 dead fish washing up on the shores of Rampally lake near Hyderabad in central India prompted an angry response from environmental activists, who claim it shows the area's alarming pollution levels.

The mass death follows similar incidents last week in which a total of 60,000 fish were found dead in the waters of Shamirpet lake and Medchal lake on the outskirts of the city.

Local officials claim the fish succumbed to a bacterial infection caused by high temperatures - but environmental activists insist responsibility lies with domestic and industrial polluters.
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Boat

Gonna need a bigger boat: 9ft great white shark leaps into fisherman's boat (PHOTOS)


RT
Mon, 29 May 2017 10:00 UTC
Shark
© Andy Murch / Global Look Press
A 73-year-old Australian fisherman claimed his most spectacular catch when a ferocious great white shark leapt right out of the ocean - and into his boat.

Terry Selwood was fishing offshore on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia, on Saturday when the shark, measuring 2.7 meters (9ft) in length and weighing about 200kg (440lb), launched itself into his small boat.

And, terrifyingly, with the boat measuring just 1.4 meters across and 4.5 meters in length, there wasn't enough room for both of them.

Comment: See also: Fisherman survives shark attack in United Arab Emirates

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Bug

A third of the honeybee colonies in America died in 2016: Why you should care

Sean Rossman
USA Today
Sun, 28 May 2017 09:46 UTC
honey bee
Honeybee
America's beekeepers watched as a third of the country's honeybee colonies were lost over the last year, part of a decade-long die-off experts said may threaten our food supply.

The annual survey of roughly 5,000 beekeepers showed the 33% dip from April 2016 to April 2017. The decrease is small compared to the survey's previous 10 years, when the decrease hovered at roughly 40%. From 2012 to 2013, nearly half of the nation's colonies died.

"I would stop short of calling this 'good' news," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland. "Colony loss of more than 30% over the entire year is high. It's hard to imagine any other agricultural sector being able to stay in business with such consistently high losses."

The research, published Thursday, is the work of the nonprofit Bee Informed Partnership and the Apiary Inspectors of America.
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