Animals
S


Attention

Bevy of 5 otters attack boys swimming in Shasta Lake, California

Ryan Sabalow
Centre Daily Times
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 12:22 UTC
Otters
Chris Whitney and Jacob Savage were 70 yards from shore on a Sunday morning swim in Shasta Lake when they spotted five lithe, brown shapes swimming toward them.

But this family of North American river otters weren't there to give the boys an escort to shore.

They were furious.

On the other side of the lake with a beer in his hand, Chris' father, Ryan Whitney of Cottonwood, said he heard 14-year-old Jacob scream first. Then 13-year-old Chris.

Ryan Whitney said he could see the animals in the water, but he assumed the boys were merely frightened because the otters had gotten so close. He grew more alarmed as he watched three of the otters chasing the boys as they swam frantically back across a narrow section of the lake's Sacramento River arm.

"The boys finally made it to shore after a minute or two and they came running up the shore still yelling," Ryan Whitney said Thursday. "And I noticed blood all over their legs and their feet. They sat down and they were crying in pain."

Jacob had scratches on his neck, a bite on his thigh and some minor bites and scratches on his legs, Ryan Whitney said. Chris got the worst of it.


Comment: See also the following reports of 'rare otter attacks' from the last few years: 9 year old boy recovering from otter attack near Kalispell, Montana

Minneapolis girl attacked and chased by otter in Wisconsin lake

Boy and grandmother attacked and injured by river otter on Pilchuck River, Washington

River otter attacks woman swimmer in British Columbia lake

Girl, 13, attacked by otter in Kalama River, Washington

Woman recovering after 'vicious' OTTER attack in West Yellowstone, Montana

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Bizarro Earth

Hundreds of sea urchins washed up on UK beach


The Telegraph, UK
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 23:56 UTC
Sea Urchins
© APEX NewsSea Urchins.
At first they looked like baseballs or perhaps esoteric vegetables. Finally the hundreds of odd orbs washed up on beaches and have been identified as a species of urchin known as a sea potato.

The sight of hundreds of the objects alarmed holidaymakers in Devon and Cornwall who steered well clear, fearing they could be poisonous. A dog walker, however, was brave enough to take one home as a memento, the Sun reported, before throwing it into the bin as a precaution.

Scientists have identified the objects as sea potatoes, a sea urchin which can grow up to three inches in diameter and able to survive in waters up to 650 feet deep. They have been dubbed sea potatoes because of their dried brownish yellow shells.

Hundreds of the urchins were washed up on the beach between Penzance and Marion on Wednesday night. The last time as many appeared on land was in May 1995. The sea potatoes or Echinocardium cordatum, to give the urchin its scientific name, lives in sand burrows and are commonplace on some sandy beaches.

"You get lots of them on Torbay main beach, for example," told the Guardian. "They are related to starfish and usually covered with little spines."

Mass strandings were not particularly rare, he added.

"I think such things happen from time to time and are entirely natural - bit like bushfires."
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Attention

Record year for cetacean strandings in Ireland as fin whale washes up on Dublin beach

Barry Arnold
Dublin Live
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 17:55 UTC
Whale washed up on Shankill beach
© Gary PaulWhale washed up on Shankill beach
A whale has washed up at Shankill Beach amid windy conditions in south Dublin.

In this video, the whale, roughly 25 feet long, appears to be dead as it sits in shallow water after being pushed inland in the bad weather and rough sea conditions.

The mammal, believed to be a milky white whale, was first spotted off the coast of Wicklow on Thursday evening.

A video of the floating body has been posted online via Twitter.
@BrayPeople whale washed up on Shankill beach, huge, sad pic.twitter.com/dYooL6z6UZ

— barbeldearbra (@barbeldearbra) 19 August 2016

Comment: According to the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group,
Together with four other strandings received in the last couple of days, this brings the total of strandings received by IWDG so far in 2016 to 152, the highest on record for any year to this date.


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Attention

Endangered manatee discovered dead in Shem Creek, South Carolina

Bo Petersen
The Post and Courier
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 11:59 UTC
A dead manatee was found Tuesday washed up in the marsh at the mouth of Shem Creek
© Jonathan WhiteA dead manatee was found Tuesday washed up in the marsh at the mouth of Shem Creek
It didn't look real, at first, when Jonathan White glanced at the marsh bank as he paddled out of Shem Creek. Then he realized the manatee was dead.

The carcass of the large sea mammal was found Tuesday and recovered Wednesday by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. A necropsy was underway.

White, of Oakmont, Pa., and others who saw it thought it might have been struck by a boat. An adult manatee has few if any natural predators.

"It was sad," he said. "They'd never hurt anything."

But no sign of a strike was found.

"The results were inconclusive, except to note an acute cause of death," said Erin Weeks, DNR spokeswoman. "There were no obvious propeller wounds or broken ribs, but the animal had been healthy and feeding full of plant material up until its death." The manatee a young male, 9½ feet long, she said.

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Wolf

Boy aged 3 dies following dog attack in Essex, UK

Matthew Weaver
The Guardian
Fri, 19 Aug 2016 10:01 UTC
Dog attack
A three-year-old boy has died after being mauled by a dog in Essex, the second fatal dog attack in four days.

The latest incident happened at a property in a residential street in Halstead at 5.40pm on Thursday.

A 29-year-old woman was arrested for allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control and injuring a person, Essex police said. The dog was seized by police and placed in kennels. Police said they had yet to establish its breed. Two officers were guarding the owner's home in Parker Way, Halstead.

The three-year-old boy was airlifted to Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridgeshire where he died from his injuries, the East of England ambulance service said.

On Monday a 52-year-old man was killed by a dog that had been returned to its owner despite concerns that it was dangerous.

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Info

DNA reveals Ötzi the Iceman's clothes were made from many different animals

Danny Lewis
Smithsonian
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 09:00 UTC
Ötzi the Iceman
© OetziTheIceman /Flickr CCA reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.
Since 1991, when the 5,300-year-old mummy commonly known as Ötzi was discovered atop a mountain in the Italian Alps, researchers have studied every inch of his remarkably preserved remains. Scientists have uncovered hints as to what he ate, how he lived, diseases he suffered from and even how he died.

While Ötzi's frozen body has provided a wealth of knowledge about the lives of ancient Europeans, there are still many limits to what researchers can learn about him. Of particular interest is the species of animals that lent their hides for Ötzi to wear. After being frozen in ice for millennia, the hair and leather samples are too damaged for archaeologists to analyze with standard DNA techniques.

But using new analysis methods, scientists have unlocked a trove of information from the Copper Age man. They describe their results in a study published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

"Just based on the hair or just based on the type of leather, it's not easy sometimes to come down to the species level," microbiologist Frank Maixner, one of the study's authors, tells Smithsonian.com. "It was clear to have a little bit more insight, we had to go for the DNA."

In order to learn more about Ötzi's fashion choices, Maixner and his colleagues at the European Academy of Bozen/Bolzano (EURAC) used a form of DNA analysis that relies on markers found in mitochondrial DNA. While most DNA is stored in chromosomes within cells, mitochondria contain a tiny piece of their own DNA. It's a small fraction of the total human genome, but for the scientists, it was enough to pinpoint several animals that Ötzi turned into specific pieces of clothes.
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Wolf

Family dog kills boy in Oudtshoorn, South Africa

Lauren Isaacs
Eyewitness News
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 17:29 UTC
Dog attack
The dog has reportedly been put down after the incident occurred at the weekend in Oudtshoorn.

A four-year-old boy has died after being attacked by the family dog in Oudtshoorn.

The incident occurred at the weekend.

The police's Malcolm Poje says the child died in hospital.

"I can confirm that we've opened an inquest docket pertaining to the incident in Oudtshoorn, where a young child was apparently attacked by a dog. He was taken to hospital with multiple injuries to his face and head. He had unfortunately succumbed to his injuries."

The dog has reportedly been put down.
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Wolf

Child dies after dog attack in east Las Vegas, Nevada

Craig Huber
fox5vegas.com
Thu, 18 Aug 2016 17:18 UTC
Dog attack
Las Vegas Metro police reported a child was pronounced dead on Wednesday after being attacked by a dog.

Metro's Lt. Timothy Hatchet said the attack occurred before 3:30 p.m. in the 6000 block of Duck Hills Springs Drive, near East Desert Inn Road.

Hatchet said the child was visiting a friend's house when the dog, a pit bull, attacked. The child was taken to Sunrise Hospital Trauma, where he or she was later pronounced dead.

Metro detectives were investigating the attack Wednesday night, and the dog was taken by animal control officers.
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Attention

Wilderness guide shoots brown bear to save couple from attack in Alaska

Stephen Gutowski
The Washington Free Beacon
Wed, 17 Aug 2016 15:13 UTC
Shot bear
An Alaska wilderness guide used his 9mm handgun to save a husband and wife from a bear attack during a fishing trip last week.

Phil Shoemaker, a guide for over 33 years, was accompanying the couple on a fishing trip to a small stream deep in the wilderness when they startled a brown bear. He wrote in American Hunter that he decided to bring a 9mm pistol with him for protection since he knew bears might be in the area.

"Larry and his wife were fishing with me, and because we were going to a small stream I had fished before, which had numerous large male brown bears, I decided to take my Smith & Wesson 3953 DAO 9mm, rather than the S&W 629 .44 Mag. Mountain Gun I have carried for the past 25 years, as the larger boars are usually less of a problem than sows with cubs," Shoemaker said.
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Attention

Black bear kills safari park worker in her car in Japan


Bangkok Post
Tue, 16 Aug 2016 14:30 UTC
Asiatic black bear
Asiatic black bear
A safari park employee in Japan died on Tuesday after being attacked by a bear which somehow climbed into her car, local officials and police said.

An Asian black bear was seen climbing into a small vehicle at the Gunma Safari Park, northwest of Tokyo, and attacking park employee Kiyomi Saito inside the car, a local police spokesman said.

Saito, 46, suffered injuries to the left side of her chest and stomach and was rushed to hospital where she was later confirmed dead, the spokesman said.

"The details are not yet known, including how the bear got inside the car," he told AFP, adding the animal was a five-year-old male and weighing 160 kilogrammes (352 pounds).
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