Animals
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Black Cat 2

Cat collar turns meows into words


NZ Herald
Tue, 03 May 2016 22:46 UTC
Talking Cat Collar
© TemptationsA moggy models the world's first talking cat collar.
That endless meow can sure make a lot of noise, but have you ever wondered what your cat is trying to tell you?

Thanks to a bizarre new invention, you can now hear all about your feline friend's innermost thoughts.

The Temptations Catterbox is the world's first talking cat collar, and it turns meows into words and phrases including "who are you?", "no, no, and no", and our favourite, "are you having a f***** laugh?".

The device records each meow, squeak and purr, which are fed through a unique "miaowgorhythm". If the system detects a sound that matches one of the preset words, the word will play through a microphone in the collar.

But it gets even better. Using a phone app, cat owners can choose the type of voice and accent of the spoken words, to best reflect their feline friend's personality.

Voices include a posh female with an English accent, for a more regal feline, or a male voice with a broad Aussie twang, perhaps more fitting for the easy-going moggy.
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Binoculars

Wrong time, wrong place: Rare American rose-breasted grosbeak turns up on Scottish island in spring

Hans J Marter
Shetland News
Tue, 03 May 2016 18:51 UTC
The rose-breasted grosbeak feeding in Lynn Goodlad's garden
© Hugh Harrop/Shetland WildlifeThe rose-breasted grosbeak feeding in Lynn Goodlad's garden
A woman in Shetland is buzzing with excitement after learning that the colourful bird feeding on a coconut in her garden was the first ever record of a rose-breasted grosbeak in the islands, and only the fifth ever in Scotland.

When Lynn Goodlad noticed the bird on Tuesday morning she initially thought it was a toy and someone was playing a trick on her.

But when finch-sized bird started moving she quickly realised that she was dealing with something very special.

After failing to find the bird in her guidebooks she went online and posted a photo on the Shetland Birds & Wildlife Facebook page.

Within minutes the phone started ringing and online comments began to flow in. The Rare Bird Alert twitter feed posted a photo to the global twitcher community.

"It just snowballed from there. It has been amazing and a little surreal," Lynn described her morning.
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Attention

Suspected rare dwarf sperm whale discovered dead on Gippsland beach, Australia

Kellie Lazzaro, Isabella Pittaway, Jonathon Kendall
abc.net.au
Tue, 03 May 2016 14:04 UTC
Museum Victoria is investigating whether the dead whale found on the beach is a rare dwarf sperm whale.
© DELWP GippslandMuseum Victoria is investigating whether the dead whale found on the beach is a rare dwarf sperm whale.
Authorities believe a whale that died at Lake Tyers Beach in eastern Victoria may be a rarely seen dwarf sperm whale.

The 2.4-metre long adult female whale died while stranded at Red Bluff on Saturday.

The dwarf sperm whale is a small robust whale with a distinctive underslung jaw, not unlike a shark.

The species is so unique it has never been officially recorded in Victoria.

Stranded whales have previously been found in Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

A live sighting of a dwarf sperm whale was confirmed in South Australia in 2006.

Victorian environment department fire crews working on fuel reduction burns in the area were called in to help carry the dead whale from the beach.

Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning biodiversity officer Tony Mitchell said measurements so far suggested the whale was a dwarf sperm whale.
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Wolf

Hyenas attack starving women in Somaliland as drought hits


Sky News
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 13:50 UTC
Hyenas Attack Starving Women As Drought Hits
Hyenas attack starving women
Women collapsing from hunger are being set upon by animals amid Somaliland's worst drought in living memory.

Starving women are being attacked by packs of hyenas in drought-hit Somaliland, an aid agency has warned.

People in the East African state say it is the worst drought in living memory, caused by successive poor rainy seasons made worse by El Nino conditions in the Horn of Africa.

Adan Shariff Gabow, from charity Islamic Relief, said there are cases of women collapsing from hunger and being set upon by starving hyenas.

"They fell down, malnourished, and we understand they were then set on by the animals," he said.

The severe weather conditions have killed thousands of goats and cows, bringing the risk of wide-spread famine, aid workers said.
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Attention

Arctic narwhal strands on Belgium shore for the first time ever

Sarah Keartes
Earth Touch News Network
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 14:41 UTC
For the first time in recorded history, the
© Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor NatuurwetenschappenFor the first time in recorded history, the "unicorn of the sea" has washed up dead in Belgium.
The last time one of these near-mythical beasts was spotted in western Europe was in 1949 (the same year the Polaroid camera first came to market). The animal's skeleton will be moved to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, where it will join the collections as an important natural history specimen.

"This sighting is particularly significant as in the past 14 months we've had other Arctic cetaceans visit our waters," explains Dr Peter Evans, founder of the Sea Watch Foundation, an organisation that works to monitor whales, dolphins and porpoises in the area. "Sea temperatures were unusually low last spring, and [there's] a possibility that the fragmentation of floating ice may have resulted in whales typically associated with pack ice straying much further south." One such animal was a beluga whale, the only other species in the family Monodontidae, to which narwhals also belong.

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are known to travel in groups of 15 to 20 individuals, so there is some concern among scientists that this carcass won't be the only one to surface. However, the topology of the North Sea has been known to function as a "whale trap" under certain conditions, and it's entirely possible that this animal was separated from its pod.
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Attention

Dead Minke whale found on shore at Creevy, Ireland


Donegal Democrat
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 18:20 UTC
Róisin Gallagher, a daughter of Donegal Democrat staff photographer Thomas Gallagher standing beside the whale to give a sense of size and scale.
© Thomas Gallagher Róisin Gallagher, a daughter of Donegal Democrat staff photographer Thomas Gallagher standing beside the whale to give a sense of size and scale.
A dead minke whale washed up on rocks at Creevy Pier between Ballyshannon and Rossnowlagh on Wednesday evening/Thursday morning is attracting interest with increasing numbers of curious visitors arriving on Thursday evening to view the whale.

At approximately 25 to 28 feet in length, it is typical in size for a mature specimen. In general at physical maturity, males and females in the North Atlantic average between 7.9 - 8.17 m (25.9 - 26.8 ft) and 8.42 - 8.5 m (27.6 - 27.9 ft).

It's reported that there was "a steady stream of people" coming to view the dead whale.

The dead whale was lodged on rocks approximately 50 metres 'behind' the pier on the Kildoney side.

At high tide it may well be taken out to sea by the tide but for the moment it has been in the same spot for the best part of a day at high and low tide.
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Attention

2 more oarfish appear off Taiwan during seismic activity

Kara O'Neill
Daily Mirror
Fri, 29 Apr 2016 12:40 UTC
Fishermen were stunned after discovering the fish
Fishermen were stunned after discovering the fish
Two rare earthquake fish were thrown out of the water after a ' mud volcano ' erupted off the coast of Taiwan.

The volcano erupted early Thursday morning in the city of Pingtung following a 5.6-magnitude earthquake .

Fishermen were delighted to find the oarfish, also known as earthquake fish, both measuring 4.4 metres - twice as long as beanpole footballer Peter Crouch - and weighing a whopping seven stone.

Four eruption mouths were spotted in a paddy field in Wandan Town and the hot slurry almost destroyed the whole field.


The huge fish both measure more than 4 metres in length
© CENThe huge fish both measure more than 4 metres in length

Comment: See also this earlier report from about a week ago about the appearance of another 'earthquake fish' in the same part of the world: Giant oarfish emerges after being woken by earthquake off Taiwan

5.6 magnitude earthquake strikes in waters off Taiwan

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Attention

Dead Humpback whale washes up on Duxbury Beach, Massachusetts


The Patriot Ledger
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:22 UTC
Dead whale
© New England Aquarium
Biologists and veterinarians have spent the last two days trying to determine what killed a 27-foot-long humpback whale yearling that washed up on Duxbury Beach on Monday afternoon.

The New England Aquarium said the female whale, which was most likely 14 to 16 years old, had no visible scars and was not tangled in marine gear. After it was moved to higher ground with construction vehicles, aquariums staff and volunteers removed several tons of blubber and tissue from the carcass as they dissected it in an effort to determine what killed.

The aquarium is now working with the Center for Coastal Studies to identify the whale through unique markings on its tail fluke.
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Binoculars

New species of primate, the White-cheeked macaque discovered in northeast India


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
white-cheeked macaque
A new species of primate, the White-cheeked macaque, has been spotted in Arunachal Pradesh by a team of researchers from North East India.

The White-cheeked macaque (Macaca leucogenys), a species new to science, was first discovered in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, bordering the Tibet region of China by a group of biologists and wildlife photographers last year, during a bird watching trip. However it took nearly a year for the scientific community to acknowledge that it was a new species different from macaques normally found in this region.

They narrowly missed being the first in the world to formally report the species after spotting the primate. A group of Chinese researchers, led by Cheng Li had beaten them to it by days reporting the discovery of the species in the American Journal of Primatology. Formally reporting a find in a journal takes precedence over spotting a species.
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Attention

Signs and Portents: Goat 'born with the face of a human baby' in Malaysia

Rachel Bishop
Daily Mirror
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 12:31 UTC
The carcass of the kid that possesses unusually human-like features
© CENThe carcass of the kid that possesses unusually human-like features
A shocked farmer shared pictures of the strange-looking creature, which people have claimed is a fawn - the mythical fusion of goat and human

A farmer has spoken of his shock after he found a newborn goat had the face of a human baby.

Ibrahim Basir shared pictures of what people have claimed is a fawn - the mythical fusion of goat and human - after it was born in the village of Felda in southern Malaysia.

The kid did not last long after its birth and its carcass has now been handed over to the Veterinary Services Department.

Villagers offered Mr Basir, 63, money for the carcass, but instead, he decided to hand it over to the experts to enable them to carry out an investigation on the strange-looking kid.

The strange-looking baby has been handed over to the Veterinary Services Department for investigation
© CENThe strange-looking baby has been handed over to the Veterinary Services Department for investigation
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