Animals
S


Question

Large bloodsucking predator kills 200 birds in China

Alice Yan
South China Morning Post
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 16:25 UTC
webbed four-toed footprint
© Youth.cnThe hunt is on ... but so far this muddy, webbed four-toed footprint is the only clue left behind by a bloodsucking predator that has killed more than 200 chickens and ducks in a Chinese village.
Chinese villagers are searching for a mysterious bloodsucking predator that has killed more than 200 chickens and ducks, mainland media reports.

For the past week police and residents from the village in Pudong, close to the city of Shanghai, have been hunting for the culprit round the clock, the news portal Eastday.com reported on Saturday.

The predator has left behind just one tantalising clue - a muddy webbed four-toed footprint.

Villagers said the footprint was the size of five-year-old child's hand.

The unidentified predator has only sucked on the blood of its prey, rather than feeding on its meat, the report said.

Residents said many of their birds had died after being bitten during the evenings over the past week. Some rabbits that had been raised by farmers in the village had also died in the same way, the report said.

Dead chickens
© Youth.cnMore than 200 chickens and ducks have been killed by an unknown bloodsucking predator in a Chinese village in the past week.
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Attention

Hundreds of dead sea lions wash up in Chile

Rafael Romo
CNN
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 15:17 UTC
Dead sea lion
Most of the dead sea lions that are washing up along northern Chile are newborn pups. The deaths are part of a widespread die-off observed elsewhere on South America's Pacific coastline.
Marine researchers have found more than 100 dead sea lions -- most of them newborns -- washed ashore along a relatively small peninsula in northern Chile over the past three months, part of a more widespread die-off being observed elsewhere on South America's Pacific coast.

"This is happening along the entire coast of northern Chile and we're getting reports that it's also happening in Peru, our neighbor to the north," researcher Carlos Guerra-Correa told CNN. "We could be talking about hundreds of sea lions washing up ashore dead in the entire region."

The South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens) is the species affected by the die-off observed in the area of the Mejillones Peninsula in Antofagasta province, where the researchers routinely conduct marine studies.

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Butterfly

UN science report warns of fewer bees and other pollinators

Seth Borenstein
The Berkshire Eagle
Sun, 28 Feb 2016 12:15 UTC
A bee collects nectar from a flower on April 24, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.
A bee collects nectar from a flower on April 24, 2012 in Los Angeles, California.

Many species of wild bees, butterflies and other critters that pollinate plants are shrinking toward extinction, and the world needs to do something about it before our food supply suffers, a new United Nations scientific mega-report warns.

The 20,000 or so species of pollinators are key to hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of crops each year — from fruits and vegetables to coffee and chocolate. Yet 2 out of 5 species of invertebrate pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, are on the path toward extinction, said the first-of-its-kind report. Pollinators with backbones, such as hummingbirds and bats, are only slightly better off, with 1 in 6 species facing extinction.

"We are in a period of decline and there are going to be increasing consequences," said report lead author Simon Potts, director of the Centre for Agri-Environmental Research at the University of Reading in England.

And it's not just honeybees. In some aspects they're doing better than many of their wild counterparts, like the bumblebee, despite dramatic long-term declines in the United States and a mysterious disorder that has waned.

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Water

Harvesting fresh water from fog


EngHasel
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 22:16 UTC
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Bug

Invasion of beetles along beaches in Argentina


Strange Sounds
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 19:14 UTC
Beetle invasion
© Marce RodriguizBeetle invasion
A biblical beetle invasion has started along the beaches of Mar de Ajó and San Bernardo in Argentina.

The strange phenomenon surprised locals and tourists, but the cause of this insect plague remains unexplained.


Beetles
Beetle mania
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Attention

Peeved pachyderm: Elephant goes on the rampage in Kerala, India

Harriet Mallinson
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 27 Feb 2016 15:29 UTC
Elephant picking up vehicles and smashing them.
Pick-up van: A religious festival went awry when an elephant began picking up vehicles and smashing them. Devidasan was taking part in a festival at the Bhagavathi Temple in Kerala on Thursday
A religious festival went awry when an elephant began picking up vehicles and smashing them.

The great creature, named Devidasan, was taking part in a festival at the Bhagavathi Temple in the south Indian state of Kerala on Thursday.

However he proved to be at the end of the tether when he started destroying vehicles in his path.

He picked up a motorbike with his trunk before proving his herculean strength by grabbing an auto-rickshaw as though it were a toy and smashing it on the ground.

Devidasan then turned his violence on a nearby pick-up van, throwing it into the air three times before overturning it on its side.

Two mahouts (people who work with elephants) were on the back of the animal throughout the ordeal trying to control him.

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Red Flag

Hundreds of South Auckland birds killed by botulism-like disease


Auckland Now
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 18:24 UTC
Feather in waterflow
© Anna-Marie BakosThe disease is mostly affecting waterfowl including ducks and gulls.
Hundreds of birds in a South Auckland wetland have been killed in a botulism outbreak.

The Department of Conservation and Fish and Game are working with the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre to contain the outbreak.

The wetland is home to tens of thousands of rare native and non-native waterfowl and shore birds and it's estimated around 200 have died so far.

Fish and Game said it's an unfortunate thing to happen, especially in a significant wetland like Miranda.

"There is a botulism outbreak, which is a very serious bird disease. It is caused and spread by poor oxygen levels in the water - the birds ingest it and it's all over." said Don Rood, Fish and Game spokesman.

"It's not a nice way to go, it paralyses them then they die."

Rood said there's little that can be done, aside from burying the bodies, so the bacteria can't spread and re-enter the environment to infect healthy birds.

"What we're worried about is the deterioration of the general environment, when things like this happen there is a tendancy to down play it but anything that is killing birds in such a way is a concern." Rood said.
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Attention

Carcasses of Olive Ridley turtles found along Odisha's Puri coast in India


Odisha Sun Times
Thu, 25 Feb 2016 15:49 UTC
Dead and dying turtles
Dead and dying turtles
Ahead of the mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles, at least 40 turtles of the endangered species were found dead along the beach of Odisha's Pilgrim Town Puri.

Carcasses of the endangered turtles were spotted along the coast near Digabareni Khunti (Weather Pole) here yesterday.

Tourists and local people gathered at the site to witness the rare species of turtles which were lying bloated and decomposed. The forest officials buried the carcasses of the turtles to prevent it from being prayed on by predators like wild dogs, hyenas and jackals and minimise stench emanating from it.

Multiple injuries were found on the bodies of the turtles which points towards possibility of them being hit by fishing trawlers in the sea.

"We suspect that the turtles were killed after being hit by the fan blades of the fishing trawlers in the sea," a forest official said.

Comment: See also: Another dead whale found on coast in Odisha, India; fifth this month

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Attention

Green sea turtles hit by cold weather in Florida

Kristen Mitchell
Orlando Sentinel
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 15:07 UTC
Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA)
© Jim Damaske/The Tampa Bay TimesClearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA) associate sea turtle biologist Brittany Workman listens to the heartbeat of a cold stunned green sea turtle while CMA senior turtle biologist Cassie Seebart tucks another cold stunned green seat turtle in to a heated recovery area Monday, Jan. 25, 2016 in Clearwater, Fla.
Juvenile green sea turtles are washing up on local beaches — dead or in distress — at an alarming rate this year, experts say.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium has picked up more than 129 dead and 93 living sea turtles since Feb. 3, more than the total number of dead specimens collected during all of 2015.

"We've already done a year's worth of work," said Adrienne Cardwell, the aquarium's manager of sea turtles and aquatic biology programs.

Crews have been responding to calls about the stranded young turtles and patrolling Pinellas County's northern beaches for the past two weeks, searching for the aquatic reptiles as water temperatures dropped — leaving many turtles with already compromised immune systems in trouble.

Because sea turtles need external heat to regulate their body temperature, cold water can cause decreased heart rate and circulation, lethargy, shock and even death.


Comment: See also: Around 500 manatees crowd into a Florida spring to stay warm

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Cowboy Hat

Symbolic? Russian man strangles attacking rabid wolf with bare hands


RT
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 19:23 UTC
Angry wolf
© Rafael Marchante/Reuters
A man in the Rostov region in southern Russia killed a rabid wolf barehanded after the animal attacked him, a woman, and a dog.

The wolf came into a village at dawn. He first bit a woman who was working in the yard outside her house, and then launched itself at the dog in front of her neighbor's. The owner heard his dog barking and rushed to the rescue. He first tried to beat off the predator with a stick, but the wolf became even more enraged and managed to bite the man several times. The man then abandoned the stick and, having become as enraged as the wolf, went on the offensive, grabbing the animal by the neck.

The man strangled the wolf to death, local veterinary service told RIA Novosti news agency.

Both the man and the woman are now being treated at a hospital, doctors said, without specifying the dog's fate. In inspecting the wolf's body, specialists found that it had been infected with rabies.

Authorities have been fighting an outbreak of the disease in the region by vaccinating various animals, including cattle, and were even forced to quarantine a number of areas in the Rostov region.

Meanwhile, in the Republic of Komi in northern Russia a man died after being bitten by a rabid polar fox. The victim worked at one of the region's field deposits, and was attacked by the animal in January, Sever TV channel reported. Instead of immediately consulting with medics, the man treated his wound himself with iodine.
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