Animals
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Attention

Woman and dog injured by black bear near Chico, California

Steve Schoonover
Contra Costa Times
Wed, 24 Jun 2015 19:04 UTC
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Black bear
A woman and her dog were injured when they were attacked by a bear Monday night outside a home near Chico, in Butte County.

At about 11:30 p.m. Monday a woman who lives in Magalia heard a noise in her yard and her dog began barking. She let the dog out, heard sounds of a fight and stepped out herself.

According to California Department of Fish and Wildlife Capt. Patrick Foy, she said a bear immediately came out from beneath a blue tarp, clawed her on the shoulder and bit her before running off.

The woman was taken to the hospital and treated for non-life-threatening wounds and given rabies treatment. The dog, a 9-year-old golden retriever, was taken to a veterinarian, and is in tough shape, according to Foy. "Sounds like he fought hardily," Foy said of the dog.

Fish and Wildlife are deploying a trap to the area to try and capture the offending bear. Foy said it should be in place by the end of the day.
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Attention

Basking shark caught near Australia for the first time in 85 years

Leesa Smith and John Carney
Daily Mail Australia
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 13:01 UTC
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It took a crane to lite the shark out of the boat and another five hours to cut into small enough pieces to carry
The uncommon discovery of a peculiar-looking shark is the first sighting of the second largest living fish in Australian waters for 85 years.

James Owen and his crew accidentally caught the 6.3-metre basking shark in their trawler at Portland, west of Warrnambool, in Victoria on Sunday but instead of selling the sought-after Chinese delicacy, they decided to donate the rare three-tonne male fish to science.

Only smaller than the whale shark, the mammoth fish has an unusual pink/purple hue to its skin and a huge flat nose.

The last recording of this species being captured was in the 1930s by a skipper at Lakes Entrance in eastern Victoria.

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Fish

Fish-killing virus sweeps Europe

Tim Sandle
Digital Journal
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 20:17 UTC
Carp
© Creative CommonsRed koi abound at the pond of a shopping area of downtown Shanghai.
Vienna - Carp edema virus affects fish like carp, causing lethargy and eventual death. The disease originated in Asia and has now been detected in Austria.

The disease is also sometimes called koi sleepy disease. It is an infectious disease of fish, where they gravitate to the bottom of a pond or a river and display little movement.

Physiologically, the eyes of the fish become sunken, the skin undergoes flaking and the gills become swollen.If the swelling of the gills progresses then the fish dies through lack of oxygen.

The fish affected are mainly carp and koi. Carp is a general term for oily, freshwater fish including the silver carp, common carp and black carp.

Koi are a specific type of ornamental carp, which come in a variety of colors including white, black, red, yellow, blue, and cream.

The type of virus and how it reacts is still a mystery to virologists. It is thought that the infectious virus is related to the small-pox family (although it is not hazardous to humans). The case in Austria has allowed scientists to begin exploring the disease in more detail, using the latest molecular biology methods bolstered by electron micrography.
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Arrow Down

Lamb genetically modified with jellyfish sold as meat by Paris butcher

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 11:39 UTC
The following article takes the concept of Frankenfood to a whole other level.
GM Lamb
© AlamyA GM lamb (not shown) was sent to an abattoir from the National Institute for Agricultural Research in Paris late last year and somehow ended up on a butcher’s slab.
From the Guardian:
French authorities are looking into how a lamb genetically modified with jellyfish protein was sold as meat to an unknown customer, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.

The jellyfish-lamb, called "Rubis", was sent to an abattoir from the National Institute for Agricultural Research in Paris late last year and somehow ended up on a butcher's slab.
Yummy.
"A female lamb born to a sheep that was genetically modified as part of a medical research program was sold to a person in the Parisian region in October 2014," said the National Institute for Agricultural Research in a statement, confirming a story first reported by Le Parisien newspaper.

The case has been taken up by a public health court in Paris, a judicial source told AFP.

Rubis "found itself on a plate! Who ate it? No one knows," exclaimed Le Parisien on Tuesday.

France remains one of the staunchest opponents of GM research, ever since environmental protesters pressured the government into banning GM crops in the 2000s.

The European Union authorised the import and sale of 19 GM crops in April, but is likely to pass legislation allowing individual countries to block their use - in part thanks to demands from France.
Don't worry my fellow Americans, that is France, something like this could never happen here.
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Info

Poachers slaughtering African elephants on an 'industrial scale': Study


Metro (Canada)
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 19:09 UTC
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© Getty ImagesElephants stroll through Namibia's Etosha Park
Investigators who collected DNA from the tusks of slain elephants and painstakingly looked for matches in the vast African continent have identified two large areas where the slaughter has been occurring on an industrial scale, according to a study published on Thursday.

The two areas are Tanzania in the east and a cross-border region encompassing several nations in the central-western part of Africa.

Samuel Wasser, an author of the study published in the journal Science, said he hopes the study will focus law enforcement efforts and increase international pressure on host countries to crack down on poaching, but he acknowledged the challenge.

"You're literally asking them to police themselves," Wasser said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. He suggested donor countries could demand more robust conservation efforts in exchange for development aid.

The big size of shipments of confiscated ivory from both regions - over half a ton - indicates the presence of transnational crime syndicates likely operating with corrupt authorities, said researchers who matched DNA from seized tusks to samples of elephant hair, tissue and dung from wildlife parks across Africa.
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Attention

Elephants kill villager in SW China


globalpost.com
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 17:09 UTC
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Asian elephant
A villager was killed and his wife injured by wild Asian elephants while working in farmlands in southwest China's Yunnan Province, said local authorities on Monday.

Villagers found Zhao Si dead and his wife Ming Ba injured in their own croplands Sunday morning in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. The scene was chaotic with footprints of the wild animals.

The attack happened on Saturday. Ming Ba was buried in a collapsed shed in the croplands, which saved her from further attacks by the elephants. She was sent to a hospital for treatment.

The county forestry bureau has strengthened monitoring of the wild Asian elephants nearby.

There have been several attacks in Xishuangbanna, which is home to 250 to 300 wild elephants, in recent years. In 2012 and 2013, two women died in such attacks in the area.

Source: Xinhua News Agency
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No Entry

Invasive flatworm posing threat to local wildlife just made its way to Florida

Jennifer Viegas
DNews
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 11:00 UTC
new guinea flatworm
Invasive New Guinea flatworm
One of the world's most invasive species, the New Guinea flatworm, is on the move and has just invaded six new locations, including the continental U.S. — Florida — according to a new study.

The worm (Platydemus manokwari) is on the "100 worst invasive alien species" list, and is now newly located in New Caledonia, Singapore, the Solomon Islands, Puerto Rico and Florida, according to the study, which is published in PeerJ.

Although the snail lives on the ground, it is able to climb trees to follow and consume prey.

Jean-Lou Justine of the Sorbonne's National Museum of Natural History and his international team of colleagues identified the dreaded worm at the various sites based on observations, DNA sequencing and other techniques.

Because the worm feasts heavily on native mollusks, threatening their populations, the researchers write that "the newly reported presence of the species in mainland U.S. in Florida should be considered a potential major threat to the whole U.S. and even the Americas."
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Attention

Woman injured following pot-belly pig attack in Nampa, Idaho


Idaho Press-Tribune
Fri, 19 Jun 2015 19:31 UTC
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© DPA, AFP/Getty ImagesCanyon County spokesman Joe Decker says the woman was attacked by the pig Thursday morning.
A woman has unknown injuries after she was knocked down and bitten by a pot-bellied pig in Nampa on Thursday morning, Canyon County spokesman Joe Decker said.

The pig escaped from its enclosure on the 3000 block of Karsten Court, he said, but was corralled back onto the property by its owner. That, Decker said, is when it attacked a neighbor who was on the owner's property.

The victim suffered a bite wound and may have sustained additional injuries from the fall.

The owner took the pig to a local veterinarian, and it was euthanized, Decker said. A sheriff's office animal control officer plans to retrieve the animal's head on Friday and take it to the Idaho Department of Agriculture to be tested for rabies.

Because the incident was reported to the sheriff's office via telephone — no officers responded at the time — Decker said the size of the pig and the full extent of the woman's injuries are unknown.
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Attention

Dead fin whale carcass to be left to decompose near Harwich, UK


BBC
Mon, 22 Jun 2015 17:58 UTC
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The whale was dragged in on the front of a cargo vessel, a strandings investigator said
A dead whale thought to have been hit by a ship is to be left to decompose off the Essex coast, experts have said.

Two thirds of the fin whale's carcass, measuring 10m (33ft), was found on RSPB land near Harwich.

It was dragged in on the front of a cargo vessel but experts believe it may have been hit by another ship.

The decision has been taken between scientists and landowners to leave the remains in place as it is not considered a public health hazard.

The body was found last week on private land with no public access, said Rick Vonk, site manager of the RSPB Stour Estuary site.
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Roses

Baby girl undergoing facial surgery after being mauled by family dog in Sydney, Australia

Louise Cheer and Freya Noble
Daily Mail Australia
Sun, 21 Jun 2015 17:22 UTC
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The baby was bitten on the face in a horrific dog attack by the family's Alaskan Malamute (pictured) in Campbelltown
A seven-day-old girl is undergoing surgery for 'significant' facial injuries after she was mauled by her parents' pet dog as she slept in her bassinet at the end of their bed.

First-time parents Aaron and Jessica Graham were sleeping when they heard their baby cry out just before 3.30am on Monday and woke to find their Alaskan Malamute biting their daughter on the face in their Hoddle Avenue home in Campbelltown, in Sydney's south-west.

Outside the young family's home, a chilling warning - 'beware dog on premises' - is seen fastened on their letterbox as two dogs are seen running around the backyard.

Paramedics were called to the home and the baby girl was taken to Campbelltown Hospital for treatment to facial wounds before being moved to The Sydney Children's Hospital in Randwick, in Sydney's east, with her parents by her side.

Inspector Jason Insker said the first-time parents are very distraught over the incident.

Her injuries are not believed to be life threatening and she is undergoing facial surgery, 9News reported.

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