Animals
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Binoculars

Crazy winter weather brings rare red-rumped swallow from the Mediterranean to Norfolk, UK

Stuart Winter
Daily Express, UK
Sat, 26 Dec 2015 16:09 UTC
Red-rumped swallow
© GETTYRed-rumped swallow
The balmy winter weather with its bees, butterflies and flowering bulbs has produced another phenomenal sighting of a swallow on the wing. And not just any swallow.

A rare red-rumped swallow from the Mediterranean is spending its Christmas on the North Norfolk coast - further evidence that December 2015 is likely to go down on record as the warmest since records began.

The red-rumped swallow that has brought a dash of seasonal, russet colour to our shores is finding enough small insects to maintain its energy levels as it patrols the skies over Norfolk's network of famous nature reserves.

By rights, the red-rumped swallow should be enjoying sunshine south of the Sahara or even as far away as India rather than the skies over Wells-next-the-Sea.

Temperatures as high as 16 degrees in recent days are also helping other fair weather species to survive. A hoopoe has been showing off its powder pink plumage at Hinksford in Staffordshire.
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Attention

Giant squid filmed in marina in Japan


Strange Sounds
Mon, 28 Dec 2015 12:53 UTC
Giant squid
Giant squid
A fisherman found a 3.7-meter (12.1 feet) giant squid swimming beneath fishing boats docked at the Mizuhashi Fisherina in Toyama prefecture on the morning of Dec. 24.

The rare giant squid was captured on video on the cost of the Sea of Japan.

This is the first time a giant squid was seen live at the Mizuhashi Fisherina, as the water depth is only about 2.5 to 3 meters.

The squid stayed inside the marina for several hours, at times swimming alongside divers and was led toward the open ocean later in the day.


Comment: See also: Giant squid caught alive in Japan

Increase in giant squid discoveries off Japan's coast is 'some kind of omen,' says fisherman

Another giant squid caught in fishing net in Japan

Giant squid found in fishing net off Japan

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Cloud Precipitation

Dozens of birds killed by large hailstones in Jonesboro, Arkansas

Ellen Thalls
5News KFSM
Thu, 24 Dec 2015 19:12 UTC
Hunters
Hail Storm causes dozens of birds to fall from sky
Extreme weather battered the Jonesboro area Wednesday (Dec. 23), and that weather is likely to blame for the untimely deaths of dozens of waterfowl.

Comment: See also these similar reports for this year:

Hundreds of birds killed by hailstorm in Ballari, India

Hailstorm kills and injures over 200 birds across Ahmedabad, India

Hailstorm kills 300 birds in Ivaiporã, Brazil

and a similar occurrence from Arkansas almost exactly 5 years ago:

Radar Dopppler images confirm overhead 'turbulence' cause of 2011 mass bird death case in Beebe, Arkansas

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Bug

Funeral shrine celebrates fallen cockroach!

Karen Graham
Digital Journal
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 20:02 UTC
Rosie the Roach
© GoFundMe
The cockroach is a social insect, gregarious, and capable of forming family bonds. Despite knowing this, we still can't stand the sight of the creepy, crawly vermin. However, one cockroach death in Texas prompted a different sort of reaction.

The death of one cockroach isn't enough of a story to be sending out notices on social media, and other than picking the carcass up with a piece of paper towel and throwing it in the garbage, that should have been the end of the story.

But when one particular cockroach quietly died in a stairwell on Texas A&M University a few weeks ago, she lay there, alone and unmourned. No one even thought to sweep her into a dust pan to be tossed in the trash. A singular event, perhaps, but over those two weeks, something extraordinary began to take place.

Professor Michael Alvard passed the dead insect every day, and over time, he noticed a change in the stairwell. First, the cockroach acquired a name, posthumously of course. One day, Alvard noticed that an enterprising student had set a headstone made of pink paper beside the cockroach, inscribed with "RIP Rosie Roach."
Prof Alvard
© Facebook
Alvard says things just took off and grew from that point.
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Eye 2

Tourist bitten by a shark off Gran Canaria

Gerard Couzens
Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 15:43 UTC
Shark injuries
Horror: Victim Cristina Ojeda-Thies tweeted a photograph of the shark's tooth-marks up her arm, after the animal attacked her while she swam off the coast of Gran Canaria
A tourist has been bitten by a shark while swimming off the popular winter holiday destination of Gran Canaria.

Victim Cristina Ojeda-Thies tweeted a photograph of the tooth-marks scarring her arm after she was treated in a hospital on Friday.

But authorities are trying to play down the attack for fear that it would impact on tourism.

'Today I've had a face to face meeting with a shark,' tweeted Ms Ojeda-Thies. 'Things that happen when you swim in the Canaries in December.'

Fernando Frias, President of the Canary Islands Shark Alliance which promotes shark conservation, called the incident a 'one-off'.
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Hardhat

Barred owl attacks Louisiana police officer, causes car crash

Jareen Imam
CNN
Sat, 26 Dec 2015 13:38 UTC
A barred owl
A barred owl flew into a police officer's cruiser and attacked him before the cop was able to escape
One unsuspecting Louisiana police officer was in for a hoot on Christmas Eve.

Covington Police officer Lance Benjamin was riding alone Thursday with his windows down, patrolling the quiet streets of a Louisiana subdivision, when he felt something hard hit the side of his face.

At first Benjamin thought he was struck by a football, he told CNN affiliate WVUE.

"And then I felt some scratching on the back of my head and some pecking," he said.

An owl had flown into the driver's side window and started attacking the officer with its wings, talons and beak.

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Wolf

Baby found dead in Fraser Town, India; police suspect dog pack attack


Deccan Herald
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:32 UTC
Stray dogs
Stray dogs
The mutilated body of a girl baby, aged around 18 months, was found behind the St Francis Xavier Cathedral on Promenade Road in Fraser Town on Friday night.

Based on eyewitness accounts, the jurisdictional Bharathinagar police suspect that the toddler was mauled to death by stray dogs. Local residents who noticed the mutilated body informed the police at around 7.30 pm on Friday. The police immediately shifted the body to the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital. A few people told the police that they saw a few dogs biting the baby. "They chased away the dogs and tried to rescue the baby. However, the baby had died by then. The identity of the baby is yet to be established," said the Bharathinagar inspector.

According to sources in Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospitals, the child was brought dead by the police and no one has claimed the body so far.

Comment: See also: 3-yr-old boy dies following attack by stray dog pack in Warangal, India

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Attention

Second dead whale washes up on Cape Town shore, South Africa

Karabo Ngoepe
Times Live
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:08 UTC
whale carcass
The whale carcass that had washed up on the Kommetjie beach.
Another humpback whale carcass had to be removed from a Cape Town beach after its body washed up onto the shore, this time at Kommetjie.
Another dead humpback whale found in Kommetjie in Cape Town. City says it will be removed tomorrow pic.twitter.com/XItrdvMrWj

— Bonga Dlulane (@BongaDlulane) December 25, 2015

Comment: See also: Dead humpback whale found on Cape Town beach, South Africa

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Attention

Dead minke whale found on Ynyslas beach, Wales

Tyler Mears
Western Mail
Sat, 26 Dec 2015 11:07 UTC
dead minke whale
A dead minke whale on Ynyslas beach in Ceredigion, Wales
A dead minke whale on Ynyslas beach in Ceredigion

A dead 15ft long whale washed up on a West Wales beach on Christmas morning.

The body of the cetacean, believed to be a Minke whale, was discovered on the sands at Ynyslas, near to Aberdyfi and eight miles north of Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion .

A spokesman for HM Coastguard said: "We had reports about a whale washed up on shore on Christmas Day, however due to the bad weather we were unable to remove it
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Wolf

3-yr-old boy dies following attack by stray dog pack in Warangal, India


The New Indian Express
Sat, 26 Dec 2015 20:04 UTC
Stray dogs
Stray dogs
The negligence on part of the civic body in putting a check on the dog menace has claimed the life of a three-year-old boy of Shabunipet locality in the city. The boy died on Wednesday night while he was undergoing treatment at the MGM Hospital.

The deceased, Md Afan Khadri (3), son of Yosufulla, a government employee suffered injuries on his lips, and forehead in an attack by a pack of stray dogs while he was playing outside his house on December 8. The victim's kin immediately rushed him to the MGM Hospital where he was treated for a couple of days as an in-patient.

After being discharged from the hospital, Afan was on regular medication. However, he reportedly developed some complications including severe respiratory problem prompting the parents to rush to the hospital once again on Wednesday. He died while undergoing treatment.

When asked whether there was any negligence on part of the hospital authorities, kin of the deceased said the doctors had offered a good treatment. "He died while he was put on ventilator," he added. The grief-stricken parents, however, have blamed the GWMC officials for their failure in checking the growing dog menace.
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