Animals
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Attention

Three human-eating lions given 'life sentence' in Gujarat, India


Khaleej Times
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 15:45 UTC
Asiatic Lion
Asiatic Lion
Seven lion attacks in villages near the Gir wildlife sanctuary in Gujarat state have killed three people since March, while four victims have suffered serious injuries.

Three lions identified as having eaten villagers in western India have been caged and will never be released back into the wild, forest officials said Thursday.

The male and two females were among 17 lions rounded up after a 14-year-old boy was dragged away while sleeping outside his house near the lion sanctuary in the Gir National Forest in Gujarat state, the world's last refuge for wild Asiatic lions.

The boy was the third person killed since April in the area, prompting protests by villagers and local lawmakers who demanded authorities hunt down the man-eaters.

A pride of 17 endangered Asiatic lions, which only live in the forest in Gujarat, have been captured in the past month.
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Attention

Dead whale washes up on beach in Bowen, Australia


Daily Mercury
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 15:00 UTC
A dead whale washed up on a Bowen beach.
© Ruby Hill A dead whale washed up on a Bowen beach.

A dead whale found washed up near the North Queensland Cruising Yacht Club in Bowen this morning has been buried.

A spokesperson for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) said Whitsunday Regional Council (WRC) coordinated the burial of the carcass this afternoon.

Under a Memorandum of Agreement with QPWS, council staff collected measurements, photos and a blubber sample aided by a local turtle volunteer.

After conferring with a James Cook University researcher, a QPWS spokesperson said judging by the pictures posted to Facebook, the whale was believed to be either a dwarf minke whale or an Antartic minke whale.

The whale was brought to the public's attention this morning when Ruby Hill posted a photo to a Bowen community Facebook page.

"This poor little whale didn't make it, pictures taken in front of sail club," Ms Hill said on her post.

In the pictures, the whale looked to have been attacked by another animal.

The QPWS spokesperson said predation was commonly seen in stranded marine mammals that were already sick, injured or deceased.

As dwarf minkes are known to travel through Bowen on their annual migration to the northern Ribbon Reefs near Cooktown in June and July, the spokesperson said it wasn't unusual to spot them in the area.
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Attention

Black bear attacks woman running marathon in New Mexico


krcgtv.com
Mon, 20 Jun 2016 14:05 UTC
Black bear
Black bear
Wildlife officials say a bear attacked a woman running a marathon in a national preserve in northern New Mexico.

The woman suffered several bites and scratches and had injuries to her head, neck and upper body that weren't life-threatening.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish says the woman was racing Saturday afternoon when a female black bear confronted her in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Officers say the victim surprised the bear after her cub had run up a nearby tree.

Other joggers helped her until emergency crews arrived. She was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital.

Game and Fish and the National Park Service are warning people to stay away from the area. Officials are trying to find the bear to euthanize it and test it for rabies.

Source: Associated Press
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Bug

Hundreds of thousands of giant spider crabs gather off the coast near Melbourne, Australia

Ben Hooper
UPI
Thu, 16 Jun 2016 11:33 UTC
Hundreds of thousands of giant spider crabs gather on the floor of Port Phillip Bay, and now in your nightmares.
© Storyful Hundreds of thousands of giant spider crabs gather on the floor of Port Phillip Bay, and now in your nightmares.
A scuba diver off the coast of Melbourne, Australia, captured video of a stunning sight: hundreds of thousands of giant spider crabs.

Sheree Marris, an Australian aquatic scientist, captured video of the crabs, which feature nearly 30-inch legs attached to their 6-inch-wide bodies, gathering on the floor of Port Phillip Bay.

Marris said the spectacle was the largest gathering of crabs she had ever seen.

"I've been diving for 15 to 20 years and I've seen a lot of cool things, but this is the largest aggregation I've ever seen -- a never-ending mass of crabs," she told 9News. "I was going in a straight line swimming and for five minutes I kept seeing thousands and thousands of them."

The crabs were making an annual migration that has previously been documented on video, but this year's migration appears unusually large, possibly the largest ever documented.

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Bizarro Earth

Mussels shells getting thinner researchers say

Ria Misra
Gizmodo
Sat, 18 Jun 2016 16:36 UTC
Mussels
© Gizmodo
Do you enjoy eating mussels? Cool, same. Something, however, is happening to mussels as we know them. And it's changing them in a pretty horrifying way.

A team of researchers from the University of Chicago has been comparing the shells of live mussels pulled from the Pacific coast today with historical shells, some of them thousands of years old. They've come to an alarming realization: Mussel shells are getting thinner and thinner.

Shells collected that are over 1,000 years old are on average 27 percent thicker than today's shells, the researchers note in new paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Thick shells were the norm until about the 1970s, when shells were 32 percent thicker than they are today. Then, things suddenly started to get thin fast.

The unsettling cause for the thinning shells is the rapidly acidifying waters of the Pacific Ocean. Essentially, the mussels are in the process of a slow dissolve in the acid bath they now spend their lives stewing in.

If the thought of being slowly consumed from all around as you swim isn't quite horrifying enough, the researchers project that this is only the beginning of the bad news for yummy shellfish. With an ocean that's only growing more and more acidic, we could easily see mussels—with their new brittle bodies—die out.

Reference - Royal Society B
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Attention

Young humpback whale washes up on Bethany Beach, Delaware


delmarvanow.com
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 17:59 UTC
The whale was first seen by a neighbor Friday morning
© Suzanne ThurmanThe whale was first seen by a neighbor Friday morning
Early Friday, beachgoers noticed a 30-foot surprise on the coastline of Bethany Beach.

A dead humpback whale washed ashore near Pelican Pouch with the morning tide, according to officials.

Scientists that responded to the scene noticed a large gash in the male's neck that could have been caused by a propeller. However, it is too early into the investigation to say for sure, said Susan Thurman, executive director of the MERR Institute.

The whale was about 30 feet long, indicating that it was between 1 and 2 years old. Since the whale was on its back, scientists with the MERR Institute could not be sure.
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Black Cat

Mother pulls mountain lion off her 5-year-old son near Aspen, Colorado

Darren Whitehead
9news.com
Sat, 18 Jun 2016 11:53 UTC
Mountain lion
Mountain lion
A five-year-old boy was attacked by a mountain lion at around 8 p.m. Friday.

The attack happened in the family's yard at their home near Lower River Rd. about 10 miles northwest of Aspen.

The boy suffered injuries to his head, neck, and face, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office.

A news release said the boy and his older brother were outside their home playing in the yard. The boys' mother was inside the home and heard her son start screaming.

The mother ran outside and saw the mountain lion on top of her child. She then fought off the lion and pulled her son out of its grip.

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Wolf

Woman found dead following attack by dog pack in Manor, Texas


kvue.com
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 20:38 UTC
Caged dog
© City of austin
The Travis County Sheriff's department is investigating an incident in Northeast Travis County after deputies discovered the body of a woman attacked by several dogs.

Deputies said they were dispatched to the 12300 block of Fay Street near east Parmer Lane in Manor Wednesday night.

Erin McCleskey, 36, was visiting the residence to handle a business-related matter when she entered the front gate of the property and was attacked by dogs, according to a press release from the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

Her family told KVUE that she worked as a licensed contracted process server for her stepdad's company, EZ Messenger. The company handles civil paperwork like child support, divorce papers and lawsuits.

Animal Protection officers impounded six dogs from the properties. They also found 14 young puppies that were also living on the property.

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Attention

Signs and Portents: Two-headed piglet with 3 eyes born in China


Daily Star (UK)
Wed, 08 Jun 2016 18:45 UTC
This piglet was born with two heads
© CENThis piglet was born with two heads
The adorable little creature, just a few days old, has two heads and two mouths, but bizarrely only three eyes.

Farmer Zhong Xulong said he noticed the "special" piglet as soon as it was born along with 13 of its siblings.

One of the piglets in the litter is said to have died soon after being born, but surprisingly the two-headed animal survived.

Xulong's dad, Zhong Guoyuan, said the family has been raising the sow for more than three years, and that it was the first time she had given birth to such a piglet.

He also claimed not to have noticed anything strange prior to the sow giving birth to her latest litter in the village of Fengtian, in China.

The piglet has four legs and seems to be able to eat and breathe with either head, Xulong said, adding that he is not able to explain the bizarre "third eye" in the middle of its two faces.
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Attention

32 whales strand on East Java coast, 15 likely dead


The Jakarta Post
Thu, 16 Jun 2016 15:58 UTC
The pilot whales that were not helped back to sea were brought ashore for burial in alignment with local tradition
The pilot whales that were not helped back to sea were brought ashore for burial in alignment with local tradition
Dozens of pilot whales have beached on the coast of East Java, discovered on Wednesday by residents in Probolinggo, East Java. The giant marine mammals are thought to have become stranded due to changes in the sea temperature.

The short-finned pilot whales were seen around the shore on Wednesday afternoon. Most managed to return to the sea but returned to shore as one had become stuck, leaving them all trapped by the sudden low tide.

Wahid, the Maritime Resources Management Office head, said at least 32 pilot whales had been found stranded. Seven of them were less than two meters in length and the local fishermen had tied them to prevent them getting washed further ashore.

"Approximately 25 whales came ashore around the estuary, 15 of these whales are not moving and are likely dead [...] the colony may have been searching for cooler waters but got stranded," he said as quoted by kompas.com in Jakarta on Wednesday night.

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