Animals
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Wolf

Fox attacks man in Dutch garden


dutchnews.nl
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:39 UTC
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© Eduard Plate
A hungry fox pacing next to a chicken coup in the garden of a family home in Zeewolde has attacked the person filming its actions on a mobile phone.

Eduard Plate, who is a Flevoland provincial councillor for the VVD, spotted the fox hanging around his neighbours' chickens on Wednesday afternoon and started filming it. After a few seconds the fox turned and saw Plate. It leapt at him, forcing him to run off and stop filming.

Plate called in pest control experts who caught the fox and took it to Lelystad where it was killed, RTL news reports.

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Attention

Woman mauled by grizzly bear near Skilak Lake, Alaska

Kathryn Robinson
nbcnews.com
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:06 UTC
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Bear
An Alaskan woman is recovering after being mauled by a grizzly bear while jogging with a co-worker late Tuesday night, authorities said.

Gabbriele Markel, 20, and Kaitlin Haley, 26, were running on a trail along Skilak Lake, 50 miles south of Anchorage, when an adult grizzly bear came out of the thick brush next to the trail and attacked Markel, knocking her to the ground, police said.

Police told NBC News the two women work at Alaska Wildland Adventures lodge and were about three-quarters of a mile from the lodge.

Police spokeswoman Megan Peters said Haley ran back to the lodge for help while the bear was still on top of Markel.

Haley and several other employees ran back from the lodge, armed with bear spray, and saw Markel walking towards them. The employees transported Markel across the lake via boat and met with emergency officials, Peters said.

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Attention

Swimmer attacked by great black-backed gull in County Kerry, Ireland


rte.ie
Wed, 05 Aug 2015 13:00 UTC
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Great Black-backed Gull
A swimmer reportedly needed tetanus shots after being attacked by a seagull in the sea at Fenit in Co Kerry last week.

The attack took place last Tuesday afternoon, around 70m off the shoreline.

Medical attention was needed, senior county council officers have confirmed.

The gull swooped on the man, believed to be a visitor to the area, and returned a second time, even though the swimmer was trying to resist the bird.

The man beat the gull away, but it drew blood from his hand.

Lifeguards directed him to the emergency department at Kerry General Hospital, where he is understood to have received tetanus shots.
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Wolf

Child seriously injured by family dog in Plant City, Florida

Marcus A Grayson
wtsp.com
Tue, 04 Aug 2015 18:21 UTC
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© Marcus Grayson, WTSPThe Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says it was a 50-pound female boxer that attacked the child. Investigators are seen impounding the dog and her puppies.
A child was taken to Tampa General Hospital with serious injuries after being attacked by the family dog Tuesday.

Teresa Budd, a Good Samaritan and witness, says that though she was shocked by what she saw, and glad to be at the right place at the right time.

"He was tossing around like a dog does when they get into things (demonstrating a growl). He would go back and forth and attack again," says Budd.

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Attention

Carcass of deep-diving Cuvier's beaked whale found on beach at Discovery Bay, Australia

Bridget Judd
abc.net.au
Wed, 05 Aug 2015 17:49 UTC
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© Scott Baker Scott Baker stumbled across a dead Cuvier's beaked whale on a remote stretch of beach west of Portland.
The carcass of an elusive Cuvier's beaked whale has been found stranded on a beach at Discovery Bay in Portland, in south-western Victoria.

The deep-diving mammal was discovered on a remote stretch of beach west of Warrnambool on Sunday.

The whale species is known to dive to depths of up to 3,000 metres and can spend more than two hours underwater.

Scott Baker, who came across the carcass while hiking, knew the find was significant.

"It was very exciting, they're not very commonly found," he said.

After photographing the animal, Mr Baker contacted researchers for a second opinion.
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Attention

6 pilot whales die after beaching in Cape Breton, Canada


cbc.ca
Tue, 04 Aug 2015 17:25 UTC
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© Elaine LegaultBeached whales are shown on the shores of St. Georges Bay in Judique
Sixteen pilot whales beached on a shore near Judique, Cape Breton, Tuesday morning, sparking a rescue effort involving about 20 people.

Andrew Reid with the Marine Animal Response Society said 10 of the whales were pushed into deeper water and survived. Six others died.

Local resident Maggie MacIntyre said people gathered at the beach early in the morning for the rescue effort.

"There were between one and four people surrounding each whale," she said.

"For as many whales as we could, people were just trying to keep them upright and trying to nudge them out to deeper water."

MacIntyre said the whales ranged in size, including a baby that was less than a metre long and adults that were up to 3½ metres in length.

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Attention

Dozens of dead seabirds found on beaches around Homer, Alaska

Quinton Chandler
Alaska Public Media
Wed, 05 Aug 2015 15:16 UTC
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© KBBI Bishops Beach
The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge is receiving multiple reports indicating a significant increase in dead and dying birds found on beaches in the Homer area over the last two weeks. The reports are coming from beach walkers and local citizen scientists dedicated to surveying sea bird populations. Leslie Slater is the Gulf of Alaska Unit Biologist for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. She says the number of birds reported is in the dozens.

"So it's hard to give a real exact number of the normal number. I would say on a given stretch of beach we normally don't find more than one within a couple of miles stretch."

Slater says there are a lot of potential reasons for the increase in fatalities but the prevailing cause is likely tied to the birds' food sources.

"What we're seeing more precisely is that birds seem to be starving. That's sort of the ultimate cause of their deaths but something might be happening before that. We might be having a PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) outbreak or another situation called domoic acid where these biotoxins can build up through the food chain and ultimately cause the deaths of these birds."
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Binoculars

Red-winged blackbird rides on red-tailed hawk's back

Ben Hooper
upi.com
Tue, 04 Aug 2015 18:51 UTC
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© Mike White"Hitching a Ride."
The U.S. Department of the Interior shared a photo from a wildlife refuge showing a red-winged blackbird hitching a ride on the back of a red-tailed hawk.

The photo, which was shared by the department on Facebook and Instagram, was snapped by eagle-eyed photographer Mike White at the DeSoto and Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges in Nebraska and Iowa.

"We occasionally see territorial blackbirds (among others) dive-bombing raptors, but this is definitely something you don't see every day," the department said.

White's photo was titled "Hitching a Ride."
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Attention

Another dead whale found near Pacifica, California: 4th since mid-April


sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com
Mon, 03 Aug 2015 17:48 UTC
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© Tom MattuschTom Mattusch provided this picture of a dead Humpback Whale floating off the Pacifica Coast.
Boaters were being warned to watch out for a large dead whale found floating off the Pacifica Coast near shipping channels.

"We found this Humpback Whale, floating, rather bloated," boater Tom Mattusch said.

The whale was found just a few miles off the coast, swollen to the size of a small house.

The fishing vessel Hulli Cat was returning from a Farallon bird watching trip when Mattusch spotted it.

"I've been coming out on the ocean since 1967, and this is the first bloated, floating whale that large I've ever seen," Mattusch said.

An increased number of dead whales have been washing onto Bay Area shores. Another dead whale washed onto the beach in Pacifica Sunday.

Comment: See also:Dead whale found on beach in Pacifica, California: 3rd since mid-April

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Sheeple

1,000 sheep die mysteriously in Kazakhstan


rferl.org
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 15:02 UTC
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Dead sheep in Kazakhstan
Kazakh authorities are unable to explain the sudden death of around 1,000 sheep in a single district.


Comment: See also these other recent reports of mysterious mass animal deaths in Kazakhstan: Death toll of rare saiga antelope reaches 85,000 in Kazakhstan

More mass animal deaths in Kazakhstan: 70 rare dalmatian pelicans found dead in country's west

Over 1 thousand dead seagulls discovered in Kazakhstan sector of Caspian Sea

If these deaths are being caused by viruses, then perhaps the following extract from the book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection (The Secret History of the World) by Pierre Lescaudron, may be of some relevance here:
Space-bound bio-hazard

Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe have shown how viruses can be spread in the Earth's atmosphere by dust in the debris stream of comets. [313] When Earth passes through this stream, the dust and viruses enter the upper parts of our atmosphere, [314] where they can remain suspended for years until gravity finally pulls them down. [315]

Microbes can also be brought by meteorites directly to Earth's surface. That's the conclusion of the same Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, who published a paper showing the presence of fused fossilized microorganisms in a meteorite that recently hit the ground. [316] Wickramasinghe conducted extensive tests that ruled out any possibility of terrestrial contamination. A cosmic origin for some microbes may explain why so many new viruses emerge in Asia. The Earth's atmosphere is thinnest at the Himalayas and its surrounding region, [317] therefore 'drop-downs' should take less time there. It might also explain why new strains of viruses usually affect birds first, as we see with the numerous avian flus. [318] During their drop-down, microbes are first present in the sky, where they can contaminate birds before eventually reaching the ground.[321]
In addition, there's this report to take into possible consideration - Why the U.S. Is Building a High-Tech Bubonic Plague Lab in Kazakhstan?

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