Animals
S


Binoculars

Rare Ivory gull from the Arctic turns up in Duluth, Minnesota

Jim Williams
Star Tribune
Tue, 05 Jan 2016 13:53 UTC
Ivory Gull
© Amar AyyashIvory Gull in Duluth
An Ivory Gull, resident of Arctic ice edges, has been seen for the past several days at Canal Park in Duluth.

This small gull is all white in breeding plumage, with black legs and feet.

The Duluth bird shows the random black marking of a bird in its first winter.

Ivory Gulls have been seen before in Minnesota, but rarely. Perhaps 2016 is opening with the year's highlight bird.

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Attention

Dead whale shark discovered on coast of Bukas Grande Island, Philippines

Erwin M. Mascarinas
Interaksyon
Mon, 04 Jan 2016 19:49 UTC
Whale shark
© Wikimedia Commons Whale shark
A 24-foot commonly known as butanding was discovered dead along the coastline of the village Pamosaingan in the town Socorro in Bukas Grande Island, one of the islands comprising Siargao, Saturday afternoon.

"I immediately dispatched four of my police personnel to the area and at the same time informed the Municipal Agriculture Office and the Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Office about the dead endangered mammal," said Police Inspector Alvin Caballes, municipal police chief of Socorro.

Caballes said that by Sunday noon, peak of the high tide, the whale shark was buried near the shoreline of Dapja Beach in the same barangay.

dead whale shark
© Edelito Sangco This photo from a social media account of Edelito Sangco shows a member of the Large Marine Vertebrates (Lamave) Project-Philippines measuring the dead whale shark just before it was buried Sunday noon.
"The butanding was secured at around 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon and with the help of non-government organizations the endangered whale shark was buried the next day at around 12 noon but finished everything by 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon because of several procedures made by the Large Marine Vertebrates (Lamave) that conducted the necropsy on the animal," he said.
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Attention

Dead pilot whale found in Benoit's Cove, Canada

Derek Montague
The Western Star
Mon, 04 Jan 2016 19:41 UTC
dead whale John’s Beach
A dead whale was found washed ashore at John’s Beach recently.
Brandon Collins, 17, had never seen a dead whale washed ashore before.

So when he heard there was one down at John's Beach, he, along with his brother Trevor and friend Jonathan went to check it out.

When the trio arrived, Collins found the dead mammal, which he thought to be a pilot whale, washed ashore. The teenager estimated that the whale was 15-feet long.

"It was amazing at first because you just don't come across this stuff everyday," said Collins, who lives in Benoit's Cove.

The three stayed at John's Beach for about 20 minutes before leaving. Collins said he didn't notify any authority about the whale and doesn't know if it's still at the beach or not.

"I have no clue where it is right now," said Collins.
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Attention

Man survives gruesome shark attack off the coast of Queensland, Australia

David Maher
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 11:28 UTC
Serious but stable: The man bravely fought off the predator
© ABCSerious but stable: The man bravely fought off the predator
A man survived a gruesome shark attack by punching the beast several times.

The 31-year-old suffered severe wounds to his arms and legs in the attack while swimming in the sea off the coast of northeast Australia today.

The spear fisherman survived by punching the deadly predator off Miall Island near Rosslyn Bay, 670km north of Brisbane in Queensland, local coast guard commander Arthur Hunt said.

He said: "He was snorkeling a bit off the beach and said he saw a lot of fish and then the shark came out of nowhere.

"It's the first shark attack we've had up here in a while - I've been with the coastguard for seven years and this is my first."
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Fish

Dozens of dead fish found on Vanderbilt Beach, Florida


abc-7.com
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 11:02 UTC
beach
Dozens of dead fish are washing up on a popular Naples beach, and people aren't sure why.

Wildlife is common on Vanderbilt Beach, but visitors said this weekend, Mother Nature left them with an unexpected gift.

Some are claiming to have seen at least a hundred dead fish.

We contacted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission about the problem. They directed us to the red tide maps on their website, but those maps currently show no instance of the destructive algae off the Collier coastline.

FWC encourages anyone who sees any large amount of dead fish to report it to their fish-kill hotline.

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Binoculars

Wrong place, wrong time: Rare sighting of little swift near Dunbar in Scotland


BBC
Fri, 01 Jan 2016 18:04 UTC
Little swift
© Michelle and Peter Wong/WildscreenLittle swift
A little swift has been spotted in Scotland for only the fourth recorded time.

The bird was discovered at Thortonloch, near Dunbar in East Lothian, on Hogmanay.

The little swift, whose scientific name is apus affinis, breeds from Africa eastwards through southern tropical Asia to western Indonesia.

The bird, which is also known as a house swift, typically nests around buildings and cliffs.

map little swift
© Wikimedia CommonsDistribution of little swift. Resident range: dark green; summer range: lighter green.
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Snowflake

Update: Death toll from Storm Goliath in Texas and New Mexico up to 40,000 head of cattle

John Boylan
Irish Farmers Journal
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 11:58 UTC
1966 South Dakota Blizzard
© NOAAA snow-covered steer in South Dakota after a blizzard in 1966.
While Ireland battles with widespread flooding, snow and wind in the US has caused havoc on dairy farms.

Storm Goliath tore through Clovis, New Mexico, where Glanbia are involved in cheese manufacture, and Lubbock, Texas last weekend. The storm dumped 22 inches of snow driven by wind speeds of 100km/h, causing havoc on dairy farms where it left over 40,000 dairy cattle dead and closed down most dairies.

News of the disaster took some time to come from the region as producers started clearing the snow on feed passages and dealing with power cuts throughout the area.

Texas Association of Dairymen is contacting state and federal leaders seeking assistance. In addition to the 40,000 dairy cattle lost during the storm, beef cattle feedlots are also affected. The huge loss will make any indemnity program trying to make a real impact to the affected farmers hard to achieve as most of the dairy cattle losses in Texas comes from just three counties. One farmer lost 350 cows and there are 30 other farmers in a similar situation.

The Clovis News Journal reported that the Glanbia-run Southwest Cheese of Clovis operated at just 10% of normal delivery on Monday; it had recovered to 90% on Wednesday.

Comment: Earlier report: Snow Blizzard kills more than 30,000 dairy cows in Texas, New Mexico (number could climb higher)

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Blue Planet

Mysterious absence: Where are Hawaii's humpback whales?

AP Staff Writers
Christian Science Monitor
Sat, 02 Jan 2016 20:39 UTC
Humpback whale
© NOAAHumpback whale
December usually marks the start of humpback whale season in Hawaii, but experts say the animals have been slow to return this year.

The giant whales are an iconic part of winter on the islands and a source of income for tour operators. But officials at the Humpback Whale Marine Sanctuary said they've been getting reports that the whales have been difficult to spot so far.

"This isn't a concern, but it's of interest. One theory was that something like this happened as whales increased. It's a product of their success," said Ed Lyman, a Maui-based resource protection manager and response coordinator for the sanctuary.
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Info

Dozens of starving seabirds found grounded inland in Southcentral Alaska

Zaz Hollander
Alaska Dispatch News
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:20 UTC
A Common Murre rests on the side of Crystal Lake Road in Willow on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015
© Bill Roth / ADNA Common Murre rests on the side of Crystal Lake Road in Willow on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015
Normally found skimming the North Pacific, seabirds known as common murres are appearing inland in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and elsewhere in Southcentral Alaska, starving and unable to fly.

Reports of grounded murres have emerged from Moose Pass to north of Talkeetna, with many found this week in the Susitna Valley. The foot-tall black and white birds that resemble small penguins are showing up in odd places -- on the shoulder of busy Knik-Goose Bay Road outside Wasilla, just off a sled dog trail in Willow, tucked up next to a house in Houston.

The influx of murres is inundating local wildlife rehabilitation centers.

On Wednesday alone, 20 murres arrived at the Bird Treatment and Learning Center in Anchorage from Alaska WildBird Rehabilitation Center in Houston, where Susitna Valley residents are bringing grounded birds.

Hundreds of people shared social media posts about the bizarre murre sightings. One Valley resident posted a pathetic photo of a murre on its side in the snow on a Facebook group for Mat-Su lost and found pets with a comment: "This little fella is sitting in our driveway. I'm not sure what's wrong with him but he can't seem to fly away -- he can waddle and that's about it."
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Bug

Carpenter ants social behavior reprogrammed using epigenetic drugs


Phys Org
Thu, 31 Dec 2015 19:19 UTC
carpenter ants
© Shelley Berger, PhD, Perelman School of Medicine, University of PennsylvaniaFlorida carpenter ants, minor caste (left) and major caste, are shown.
In Florida carpenter ant colonies, distinct worker castes called minors and majors exhibit pronounced differences in social behavior throughout their lives. In a new study published today in Science, a multi-institution team anchored at University of Pennsylvania found that these caste-specific behaviors are not set in stone. Rather, this pioneering study shows that social behavior can be reprogrammed, indicating that an individual's epigenetic, not genetic, makeup determines behavior in ant colonies.

Epigenetics is the study of stable, or persistent, changes in gene expression that occur without changes in DNA sequence. Epigenetic regulation has been observed to affect a variety of distinct traits in animals, including body size, aging, and behavior. However, there is an enormous gap in knowledge about the epigenetic mechanisms that regulate social behavior.

Ants provide ideal models to study social behavior, because each colony is comprised of thousands of individual sisters—famously, the queen and all workers are female—with nearly identical genetic makeup, much like human twins. However, these sisters possess stereotypically distinct physical traits and behaviors based on caste.

In a previous study, the authors created the first genome-wide epigenetic maps in ants. This revealed that epigenetic regulation is key to distinguishing majors as the "brawny" soldiers of carpenter ant colonies, compared to minors, their smaller, "brainier" sisters. Major ants have large heads and powerful mandibles that help to defeat enemies and process and transport large food items. Minor ants are much smaller, outnumber majors two to one, and assume the important responsibility of searching for food and recruiting other ants to help with the harvest. Compared to majors, these foraging minors have genes involved in brain development and neurotransmission that are over expressed.
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