Animals
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Wolf

Huge spike in dog attacks in Cambridgeshire, UK

Raymond Brown
Cambridge News
Fri, 11 Sep 2015 17:06 UTC
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Biting Dog.
Disturbing figures reveal the number of dogs reported to police for being "out of control" in public causing injury in Cambridgeshire has doubled in two years.

The shock data comers amid an increase in the number of hospital admissions nationally for dog bites and attacks with children under 10 most likely to be the victims, according to official statistics.

From 2005 to 2012 the reports numbered from 51 to a high of 74 in each year. But in 2013 the number increased to 101 and last year, latest figures show, it hit 120, according to data released using freedom of information laws.

A total of 46 police cautions were handed out to owners, 35 were charged, 79 were involved in a community resolution, 125 were issued summons, 11 were given a conditional caution and 219 were "filed".

In 47 cases the suspect was not identified, there was 39 cases of insufficient evidence, victims in 32 cases did not want further action and 71 cases were closed as well as five that were not followed up as they were deemed "not in the public interest".
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Attention

Sharks prowl in record numbers on East Coast


The New Zealand Herald
Fri, 11 Sep 2015 16:50 UTC
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© APResearchers captured or tagged a record 2835 sharks from Florida to North Carolina in April and May.
A newly released United States federal study shows a record number of sharks swimming off the coast from Florida to North Carolina.

The Virginian-Pilot reports the increase comes as North Carolina set a record for shark attacks this northern summer.

Eight people have been attacked along the North Carolina coast this year, the most since a Florida group began counting attacks 80 years ago.

The new study shows researchers captured or tagged 2835 sharks from Florida to North Carolina in April and May. That compares with 1831 sharks tagged in the most recent survey in 2012. The largest captured was a 3.8m tiger shark.

Source: AP
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Attention

Black bear attacks man near Los Alamos, New Mexico

Staci Matlock
The New Mexican
Fri, 11 Sep 2015 16:10 UTC
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© New Mexican file photoA female black bear that onlookers named Guadalupe hangs out along the Santa Fe River last September before state Game and Fish Department officials tranquilized and relocated her.
A black bear attacked a man running on a trail near Los Alamos this week, marking the third bear attack on a person this year in New Mexico, the state Department of Game and Fish said Thursday.

Officials said 2015 has seen the most bear attacks on humans in 16 years.

The Canyon de Valle Trail north of Los Alamos, where the attack occurred Wednesday, has been closed until further notice, and officers are looking for the adult female bear.

The 56-year-old Los Alamos man suffered deep flesh wounds and scratches to his head, chest and hands from fending off the bear, but he was able to walk 2.5 miles to his car, Game and Fish officials said. The man flagged down a motorist, who drove him to Los Alamos Medical Center. He was later transported to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for treatment.

The man, who was not identified, told officials that he had been running on the trail at about 7 p.m. Wednesday when he came across the female bear and her cub. The cub ran up a tree, and he tried to scare the mother bear away by making noise, the man said. But the bear charged and knocked him into a streambed. The mother bear then began biting and clawing at his head, according to a Game and Fish Department report.

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Attention

Man killed by wild boar south of Rome


thelocal.it
Thu, 10 Sep 2015 13:56 UTC
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© Henry HoffmanThe wild boar population in Italy has exploded in recent years.
A 65-year-old man bled to death on Thursday after being attacked by a wild boar near Frosinone, south of Rome.

He is the fourth person to have been killed by a wild boar in Italy in less than two months.

Ansa reported that the attack happened in the town of Ferentino.

It comes just days after Coldiretti, the farmers' association, called on the Lazio region to bring in measures to control the wild boar population following several sightings in and around Rome.

In the town of Bracciano, 30km northwest of the capital, a young girl is still in a coma after the car she was travelling in with her mother slammed into a wild boar that was crossing the road.
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Wolf

Jackal usually found in southeast Europe turns up in Denmark

Christian W
The Copenhagen Post
Thu, 10 Sep 2015 17:12 UTC
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© Attis1979The European jackal is usually found in southeast Europe
Denmark seems to be attracting all kinds of interesting animals these days.

First the wolves made a spectacular return to Denmark after a 200-year absence, and now the European jackal has suddenly popped up in the Jutland countryside.

It has been confirmed that a dead male European jackal - which is usually found in southeast Europe (mostly in Greece and Serbia) - has been found near Karup in Jutland, and nothing suggests that it has been released or has escaped from captivity.

"It's always very exciting and quite rare to see new mammal species in Denmark's nature," said Ella Maria Bisschop-Larsen, the president of the conservation society Danmarks Naturfredningsforening. "Although we have experienced the raccoon dog and the wolf recently."

"We're not too happy about the raccoon dog, but the wolf, which is a native species, needs protecting. Now we must discuss how we will handle it if there are more jackals out there or if more arrive."
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Wolf

Man killed by dogs near Salton Sea, California

Rosalie Murphy
The Desert Sun
Wed, 09 Sep 2015 18:16 UTC
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© Riverside County Department of Animal ServicesTwo dogs were taken into custody after they killed a man and injured a woman in North Shore Tuesday. They were taken to the Riverside County animal campus in Thousand Palms.
The victim of Tuesday's fatal dog attack in North Shore was identified as a 65-year-old resident.

Emilio Rios was pronounced dead at 6:32 a.m. in front of a home at 70-670 Sea Gull Drive, according to the Riverside County Coroner's office.

Riverside County sheriff's deputies found him at about 6:15 a.m. Shortly after, they heard a cry from a woman who was being attacked by dogs nearby.

The officers sounded lights and sirens, which scared the dogs away, and paramedics transported the victim to a local hospital, where she is being treated for major injuries.

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Attention

Massive Great White shark dies following beaching on Cape Cod

M. Alex Johnson
msnbc.com
Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:32 UTC
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© Wellfleet, Massachusetts Police DepartmentA stranded Great White shark on Whitecrest Beach in Mass. on Sept. 6, 2015.
Dozens of holiday beach-goers formed a bucket brigade to try to save a mammoth great white shark that beached itself over the weekend on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but the beast died, authorities said.

At least 100 people at White Crest Beach for the Labor Day weekend rushed to help the 1-ton, 14-foot-long shark, which was reported beached at 8:09 a.m. Sunday, Wellfleet police said. Many of them relayed buckets of water to splash on the shark while specialists from the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and the National Park Service were called.

Police said the shark was helped out to deeper water by a Shark Conservancy boat. The animal appeared to be injured, they said, and NBC station WJAR of Providence, Rhode Island, reported that the animal later died.

"It was gasping for air on the shore," a witness, Bill Bellrose, told WJAR. "It was big — it was a big shark."


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© Wellfleet, Massachusetts Police Department
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Arrow Down

Scientists to reanimate 30,000-year-old 'giant virus' found in Siberia


The Telegraph, UK
Tue, 08 Sep 2015 19:24 UTC
Virus
© Getty ImagesCells of the Mollivirus sibericum. The virus has been buried deep in the Siberian permafrost for over 30,000 years, is thought to be the newest representative of what are loosely known as "giant viruses".
Scientists said they will reanimate a 30,000-year-old giant virus unearthed in the frozen wastelands of Siberia, and warned climate change may awaken dangerous microscopic pathogens.

Reporting this week in the flagship journal of the US National Academy of Sciences, French researchers announced the discovery of Mollivirus sibericum, the fourth type of prehistoric virus found since 2003 - and the second by this team.

Before waking it up, researchers will have to verify that the bug cannot cause animal or human disease.

To qualify as a "giant", a virus has to be longer than half a micron, a thousandth of a millimetre (0.00002 of an inch).

Mollivirus sibericum - "soft virus from Siberia" - comes in at 0.6 microns, and was found in the permafrost of northeastern Russia.

Climate change is warming the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions at more than twice the global average, which means that permafrost is not so permanent any more.

"A few viral particles that are still infectious may be enough, in the presence of a vulnerable host, to revive potentially pathogenic viruses," one of the lead researchers, Jean-Michel Claverie, told AFP.
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Attention

Tourist attacked by elephant in Zimbabwe

Suzanne Breen
Belfast Telegraph
Mon, 07 Sep 2015 19:18 UTC
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A shot from the video of the elephant attacking Stephen Montague
This is the terrifying moment when an elephant attacks a Northern Ireland man on holiday in Africa.

Stephen Montague was sitting with relatives in a restaurant in Zimbabwe when the animal swung its massive trunk at them, throwing them off their chairs.

Stephen's brother-in-law was wounded when the elephant's tusks cut into him. The family, who are on a photographic safari, seem to have had a lucky escape.

The animal went away when guards in the complex intervened. While elephants are generally not aggressive, males can be volatile and attack humans. Around 500 people a year are killed by elephants.

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Attention

Surfer bitten by shark at North Shelly Beach, Australia


abc.net.au
Mon, 07 Sep 2015 18:47 UTC
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© Shaun HiltonJustin Daniels, 42, was bitten on the hand and shaken from his board during the shark attack.
A surfer who was bitten by a shark on the New South Wales Central Coast says it was like re-watching the Mick Fanning attack and he is lucky to have escaped with only minor injuries.

Justin Daniels, 42, from Berkeley Vale suffered minor puncture wounds to his left hand after being bitten close to shore about 6:15am at North Shelly Beach, north of Gosford.

"It easily could have taken my hand or arm or come back for me. I am lucky. It was frightening," Mr Daniels said.

"You are being attacked by a live animal ... It is survival, I was in a zone and I just wanted to get out of there."

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