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Carcass of sperm whale found in the Firth of Forth, Scotland

Cheryl Peebles
The Courier (UK)
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:41 UTC

A dead sperm whale has been found floating in the Firth of Forth nine days after one or more were spotted swimming further upriver.

The 40ft carcass was spied near the Isle of May.

A group from the island launched a boat and found the young whale about a mile out.

On July 5, up to three whales believed to be sperm whales were sighted off the coast of Kinghorn.

The massive species, which grow to over 50 ft long, are rarely seen so far up the Forth.

Observers reckoned that one of the whales was sick or injured, as another whale appeared to be supporting it.

David Steel, Isle of May reserve manager for Scottish Natural Heritage, said it was a "sad end for a giant of the sea".

10-year-old girl killed by stray dogs in India

andhrawishesh.com
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:19 UTC

In a tragic incident, a 10-year-old girl died on the spot after stray dogs attack her.

According to the police, the incident happened in Srikakulam on Thursday. The girl D. Spandana, a Class V student was walking to the field to give tea to her father D. Bodesh. But stray dogs attacked her. The dogs bit the girl with such severity that a nerve on her neck was damaged.

Police said "the dogs attacked the girl outside the village. The scene indicated that Spandana tried to resist before collapsing from the attack. No one else was at the spot at the time of the incident. Locals rushed her to the hospital, where the doctors declared her dead."

TD legislator and government Whip Kuna Ravikumar and few others visited the family members of Spandana to console them.

Angry birds: City birds are more aggressive than their country cousins

Lindsay Key
Phys.org
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC

© Virginia Tech Scott Davies, a postdoctoral associate in biological sciences in the College of Science, measured territorial aggression in male song swallows at three rural and three urban sites in the New River Valley during the spring of 2015.

No need to head to the movie theater or download the video game app: Angry Birds can be found right in your backyard this summer—if you live in the suburbs, that is.

Virginia Tech researchers recently found in Southwest Virginia that birds that live in suburban areas exhibit significantly higher levels of territorial aggression than their country counterparts. The results were published in Biology Letters June 22.

"A possible reason for this is that these birds have less space but better resources to defend," said Scott Davies, a biological sciences postdoctoral associate in the College of Science. "Living near humans provides better food and shelter, but it also means more competition for these limited resources."

Davies and co-author Kendra Sewall, an assistant professor of biological sciences in the College of Science, measured territorial aggression in 35 urban and 38 rural male song sparrows at three rural and three urban sites in the New River Valley during the spring of 2015.

Lightning strike kills thoroughbred horse near Midway, Kentucky

Eric Mitchell
Blood Horse
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 11:53 UTC

Grade I winner and freshman sire Brilliant Speed was found dead in his paddock at Three Chimneys Farm the evening of July 13, struck down by lightning, according to Chris Baker, chief operating officer for the farm.

"He was found stricken in his paddock," Baker said. "The autopsy confirmed the cause was a lightning. We got hit by a freak storm that came up. It wasn't in the forecast of the any of the several resources we use to monitor the weather."

Brilliant Speed was a son of Dynaformer, who was a perennial leading sire and hallmark stallion at Three Chimneys, near Midway, Ky. Dynaformer died at age 27 in 2012 shortly after suffering an aortic valve rupture.

"Brilliant Speed was a class horse in the form of Dynaformer," Baker said. "We had high hopes for his progeny, which you would have expected to get better with age. You know the best lies ahead."

2 rare Irrawaddy dolphins die in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

N.Adri
The Jakarta Post
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 09:57 UTC

Protected species -- A local resident rescues a wounded Irrawaddy dolphin, locally known as pesut, from the Mahakam River, East Kalimantan. Mahakam pesut currently number only 87 individual animals, down from 96 recorded last year.

© TempoProtected species -- A local resident rescues a wounded Irrawaddy dolphin, locally known as pesut, from the Mahakam River, East Kalimantan. Mahakam pesut currently number only 87 individual animals, down from 96 recorded last year.

Conservation activists are calling for a more concerted effort to protect the habitat of Irrawaddy dolphins, or pesut, in Mahakam River in East Kalimantan after two of the protected species were found dead, thought to be as a result of widespread environmental problems.

Save Mahakam Pesut Community activist Innal Rahman said the Mahakam pesut was a protected species as it was critically endangered. The population of Mahakam pesut now numbers only 87 individual animals, down from 96 recorded last year.

The first dolphin was found dead in Kutai Kartanegara regency on July 3. It was suspected that the female dolphin died four days before it was found by local residents traveling on the river.

"We saw it stranded near a coal stockpile of coal company PT Morris," said Rahman, who spotted the dolphin at the location. At 233 centimeters in length and a body circumference of 128 cm, it is believed the dolphin was fully mature.

Leopards now attacking people in their houses in India

Jotirmay Thapliyal
The Tribune (India)
Thu, 14 Jul 2016 17:38 UTC

Leopards now attacking humans in their houses

Man-leopard conflicts in Uttarakhand are increasing as the latest trend shows desperate leopards are now venturing into houses in villages and brazenly attacking villagers. There have been two incidents of leopards entering the inner rooms of houses and attacking people fast asleep. A few days ago, a woman managed to escape from a prowling leopard that had entered her house in the Gangolihat area of Pithoragarh district. Similarly, in another incident, a leopard attacked family members fast asleep in their house in the Jakhnidhaar block of Tehri Garhwal district around midnight last night. However, in both cases the inmates of the houses showed exceptional bravery and managed to save themselves.

The first incident happened in Gangolihat tehsil of Pithoragarh district on July 9 when Prema Devi, a resident of Sunyoda village, fought a leopard that had entered into a room of her house. Despite getting injured, Prema Devi hit the leopard with a stick and forced the animal to flee.

Similarly, Vimla Devi along with her four children was fast asleep when a leopard barged into her house in the Jakhnidhar block of Tehri Garhwal district last night. The leopard attacked Vimla but her 16-year-old son Pankaj showed bravery and attacked the animal with a stick. Taken by surprise, the leopard fled the house. Both these incidents point towards the fact that villagers in hills are now not safe even in their houses.

Mutant fish with frightening face, sharp teeth and body of an eel caught in central Russia

Gareth Davies
Daily Mail
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 23:59 UTC

Fishermen were left reeling when they caught this bizarre mutant-looking black fish with a frightening face, big sharp teeth and the body of an eel

Fishermen were left reeling when they caught this bizarre mutant-looking black fish with a frightening face, sharp teeth and the body of an eel.

It was caught in the Kama River in central Russia's Udmurt Republic by fishermen using earth worms.

There is still confusion over what the creature is, with the fishermen themselves saying it's a mutated freshwater fish while others claim it's a piranha.

The creature, which held up against the fisherman's arm looks to be at least two feet long, completely stumped its hunters when they pulled it out of the water.

2 pedigree cows killed by lightning bolt in County Wicklow, Ireland

John Lawrence
Irish Independent
Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:01 UTC

2 pedigree cows were killed by a bolt of lightning as they grazed.

Victor Jackson, from Kiltegan in Co Wicklow, described how both heavily pregnant Holstein Friesian cows were found "stone dead only three feet from each other" after a period of intense thunder and lightning.

He found one of the valuable cows, who was mainly white in colour, "with singe marks on her back where she had been roasted".

"There were about 30 cows in a group at the time and they were standing near an electric fence in the wide open. There was no shelter," said the award-winning dairy farmer.

"There had been a lot of thunder and lightning in the area at the time. At one stage there was an almighty bang of thunder and it nearly shook the house."

But he only suspected something was wrong with his herd when some surviving animals walked into his yard.

2 dogs killed by lightning bolt at animal rescue shelter in Darlington, South Carolina

wbtw.com
Wed, 13 Jul 2016 20:44 UTC

Two dogs at a local animal rescue were killed this week after lightning struck their kennels.

According to the Darlington Rescue Facebook page, the incident happened Monday night when a severe thunderstorm rolled through the area.

The dogs were electrocuted because their bodies were in contact with the kennels when they were struck. "Cora", a young brown and white hound mix, and "Amelia", a blue bull mix, were killed by the storm.

Holley Farmbrough said they could feel the electrical current running through the metal when they went into the kennels, and immediately turned the power off.

Power was lost - and remains lost in many areas - and our shelter staff and volunteers are scrambling to care for our residents as best they can, while also grieving for two innocent lives lost, the page stated.

Wild elephant kills man trying to take a selfie in Nepal

iol.co.za
Wed, 13 Jul 2016 20:26 UTC

A man was killed in southern Nepal as he tried to take a selfie with a wild elephant, authorities said Wednesday.

The man had been driving a water tanker when he stopped to take a photograph with the animal. The wild elephant attacked the man and killed him, Parsa Wildlife Reserve officials said.

The wild elephant was part of a herd moving from the western to the eastern part of the reserve, an annual movement during the monsoon.

A herd of 21 jumbos made the movement on Tuesday. The elephants disrupted traffic on the highway that passes through the forest for several hours.

There are 65 elephants in the Parsa Wildlife Reserve and around 170 total wild elephants in the country. About the same number are kept as working elephants at tourist resorts and government-run breeding centres.

Deaths from elephant attacks are not uncommon in southern Nepal's buffer zones near forest areas.

Source: DPA

Comment: See also: Elephant kills woman taking photographs on Java, Indonesia

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Animals
S

Carcass of sperm whale found in the Firth of Forth, Scotland

10-year-old girl killed by stray dogs in India

Angry birds: City birds are more aggressive than their country cousins

Lightning strike kills thoroughbred horse near Midway, Kentucky

2 rare Irrawaddy dolphins die in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Leopards now attacking people in their houses in India

Mutant fish with frightening face, sharp teeth and body of an eel caught in central Russia

2 pedigree cows killed by lightning bolt in County Wicklow, Ireland

2 dogs killed by lightning bolt at animal rescue shelter in Darlington, South Carolina

Wild elephant kills man trying to take a selfie in Nepal

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