Animals
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Snowflake

2,000 alpacas killed by snowstorm in Peru

Robert Felix
iceagenow.info
Wed, 08 Jul 2015 14:51 UTC
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© Correo PunoAlpacas
Although data of the losses caused by the snowstorm last weekend are still being consolidated, regional deputy manager and head of the Civil Defense Operations Center Regional Emergency (COER), German Chaiña Quispe gave some preliminary scope.

He said that eight provinces received snowfall, with the hardest hit being San Antonio de Putina, Carabaya and Sandia.

Snow killed more than two thousand alpacas in Puno, while more than 2000 families and 73 thousand animals were harmed in the town of Ananea.

He added that the other affected districts are Quilcapunyo, Putina and Sina.

Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for this link
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Binoculars

Lost yellow-nosed albatross from the South Atlantic turns up near Reykjavík, Iceland

Emilía S. Ólafsdóttir Kaaber
Iceland Review
Wed, 08 Jul 2015 12:57 UTC
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© Jared MeinAtlantic yellow-nosed albatross and whale
Last week a tourist on a whale-watching trip in Faxaflói, just outside Reykjavík, was attempting to photograph a humpback whale when a bird interrupted the shot.

Upon further inspection, the bird was discovered to be an albatross, and likely an Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross, a rare sight so far north.

Bird-watching enthusiast Mike King shared the photo, taken by his nephew Jared Mein, on Twitter, where it was noticed by Birding Iceland.

"Albatrosses are rarely found in the Atlantic region of the northern hemisphere. The species that live in the Atlantic are all native to the southern hemisphere, and some are known to go into the northern hemisphere of the Pacific Ocean. So this is a bird far outside of its normal territory," ornithologist Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson told RÚV.
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Info

Bonobos observed making wooden spears, daggers and stone shovels like our human ancestors

Richard Gray
Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 08 Jul 2015 15:27 UTC
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The bonobos used sticks to dig out food hidden under the ground and lever large rocks out of the way, as shown in the sequence of images above.
They are our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom and now it seems bonobos may actually be far more human-like than we ever believed.

The great apes, which are cousins of chimpanzees, have been seen creating and using tools much like our early human ancestors.

Researchers have reported witnessing bonobos modifying branches to create spears and using antlers and rocks as daggers, scrapers, shovels and hammers.

They claim their skills with these tools resembles the techniques attributed to the Oldowan stone tool culture that appeared in ancient humans living between 2.6 million and 1.7 million years ago.

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Roses

6-year-old boy killed by dog in Hendersonville, North Carolina


wxii12.com
Wed, 08 Jul 2015 14:56 UTC
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A 6-year-old boy died after being attacked by a dog Tuesday at a North Carolina home, deputies said.

The incident was reported around 4:15 p.m. near Hendersonville, sister station WYFF reported. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

Henderson County deputies said the dog, which they identified as a pit bull, was so aggressive that they had to shoot and kill the animal before getting to the child.

Emergency officials also had to push down a fence to get to the child, deputies said.

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Attention

3 dead sea mammals wash ashore at San Francsico's Ocean Beach

Leslie Brinkley
abc7news.com
Mon, 06 Jul 2015 13:52 UTC
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One man came across a dead sea lion pup, an elephant seal and a dolphin that washed ashore Ocean Beach Monday afternoon.
There was a disturbing sight at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Monday three large marine mammals washed up dead on the beach.

Joey Deruy took his usual walk along Ocean Beach near the Golden Gate Park windmills. At 3 p.m. he came upon a dead sea lion pup but kept walking. A few minutes later, he tripped upon the carcass of what appeared to be a huge elephant seal.

"So many dead animals, it felt really tragic," Deruy said.

Then a bit further down the beach he found a dead dolphin.

"Just so many, a variety of exotic animals dead like that I think is just very peculiar. Where the dolphin was, there was actually more dolphins... still swimming by the one that had died and beached," he said.


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Question

Tens of thousands of nesting birds desert colony on Seahorse Key, Florida


News and Record
Tue, 07 Jul 2015 18:21 UTC
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© John RaouxIn this Friday, June 19, 2015 photo, Vic Doig, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist observes empty bird nests in Seahorse Key, off Florida’s Gulf Coast
The din created by thousands of nesting birds is usually the first thing you notice about Seahorse Key, a 150-acre mangrove-covered dune off Florida's Gulf Coast.

But in May, the key fell eerily quiet all at once.

Thousands of little blue herons, roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, pelicans and other chattering birds were gone. Nests sat empty in trees; eggs broken and scattered on the muddy ground.

"It's a dead zone now," said Vic Doig, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist. "This is where the largest bird colony on the Gulf Coast of Florida used to be."

For decades, Seahorse Key has been a protected way station for myriad bird species. It's part of the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1929 as a sanctuary for birds devastated by decades of hunting for their colorful plumage. Accessible only by boat, today it's a rare island off Florida not dominated by human activity and development.
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© John RaouxIn this Friday, June 19, 2015 photo, a broken bird egg shell is seen in Seahorse Key, off Florida’s Gulf Coast.
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Wolf

Teenage fisherman fights off coyote in Spotswood, New Jersey

Susan Loyer
mycentraljersey.com
Tue, 07 Jul 2015 18:11 UTC
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A teen fisherman reported a run-in with a coyote in Spotswood.
A 17-year-old fisherman reported a run-in with a coyote Sunday evening in the borough.

Anthony Bonsante, of South River, was fishing for catfish in a stream of DeVoe Lake, between Domino's Pizza and Immaculate Conception, an area that came highly recommended by his dad, who fished there in his youth.

"As it started to get dark, I lit my lantern," Bonsante said Monday afternoon. "As soon as it really got dark all around me, I heard something walking around. I thought it was something small like a rabbit or something."

But the noise kept coming closer. Bonsante said he picked up his lantern and started to look around.

"I saw two big yellow eyes in the small patch of woods nearby," he said. "I held my lantern up and it started walking towards me. It bowed its head and started to growl at me. It started to circle up on me. I was panicked for a second. I thought, "What do I have to defend myself?' "

He saw a big stick a few feet away and, without turning his back on the animal, he grabbed the stick.
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Attention

Bottlenose dolphins seen near Aarhus, Denmark for the first time in 7 decades


thelocal.dk
Mon, 29 Jun 2015 17:53 UTC
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© Gregory Smith/FlickrBottlenose dolphins, shown here near the Galapagos, are rare near Denmark.
The Bay of Aarhus has some new playful and curious inhabitants in the form of a breed of dolphin that hasn't been spotted in more than seven decades.

Bottlenose dolphins are usually a rare sight in the waters surrounding Denmark but in the past week there have been several spotted swimming near the nation's second-largest city, Aarhus.

Rowers and boaters in the Bay of Aarhus have had unusual company over the past week or so. Several Danes have reported that they have seen dolphins swimming in the bay and a handful of videos are starting to circulate around the internet.

Marine biologist Carl Christian Kinze told TV2 Østjylland that the recent sightings of bottlenose dolphins are incredibly rare.

"They haven't been seen in the Bay of Aarhus with certainty for more than 20 years," he said.

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Attention

Humpback whale washes up on Danish shore for first time in over 100 years


thelocal.dk
Tue, 07 Jul 2015 17:44 UTC
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© Asger Ladefoged/ScanpixThe whale's remains were brought to the Natural History Museum on Monday.
For the first time in over a century, a humpback whale has washed up on Danish shores. Making the discovery even more interesting is the fact that its cranium had "fallen out".

Something seems to be happening in the waters around Denmark.

Not only are bottlenose dolphins now being found frolicking in the Bay of Aarhus, but now humpback whales seem to have arrived off Danish shores as well.

A five-metre long humpback washed up on a beach near Thy last week, creating a bit of a mystery because the corpse lacked a cranium and the whale's tail had been wrapped in rope.

Researchers from the Natural History Museum of Denmark spent Monday cutting the corpse into manageable-sized chunks for further examination in hopes of clearing up the strange find.

"This is huge. Humpback whales aren't normally seen in Denmark. There are only a few times per year that we need to cut a whale up and last summer it was a couple of sperm whales," the museum's Morten Tange Olsen told BT.
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Sheeple

Hay bale-jumping sheep show off woolly acrobatics

Ben Hooper
upi.com
Tue, 07 Jul 2015 16:44 UTC
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Sheep jumping from bale to bale
A YouTube user shared footage of a talented flock of sheep showing off their acrobatic skills by leaping from hay bale to hay bale.

Karen McKovuson posted a YouTube video showing a trio of sheep on a farm jumping between hay bales in a display of woolly athleticism.

The video is believed to have been filmed in Ireland.

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