Animals
S


Bug

Funeral shrine celebrates fallen cockroach!

Karen Graham
Digital Journal
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 20:02 UTC
Rosie the Roach
© GoFundMe
The cockroach is a social insect, gregarious, and capable of forming family bonds. Despite knowing this, we still can't stand the sight of the creepy, crawly vermin. However, one cockroach death in Texas prompted a different sort of reaction.

The death of one cockroach isn't enough of a story to be sending out notices on social media, and other than picking the carcass up with a piece of paper towel and throwing it in the garbage, that should have been the end of the story.

But when one particular cockroach quietly died in a stairwell on Texas A&M University a few weeks ago, she lay there, alone and unmourned. No one even thought to sweep her into a dust pan to be tossed in the trash. A singular event, perhaps, but over those two weeks, something extraordinary began to take place.

Professor Michael Alvard passed the dead insect every day, and over time, he noticed a change in the stairwell. First, the cockroach acquired a name, posthumously of course. One day, Alvard noticed that an enterprising student had set a headstone made of pink paper beside the cockroach, inscribed with "RIP Rosie Roach."
Prof Alvard
© Facebook
Alvard says things just took off and grew from that point.
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Eye 2

Tourist bitten by a shark off Gran Canaria

Gerard Couzens
Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 15:43 UTC
Shark injuries
Horror: Victim Cristina Ojeda-Thies tweeted a photograph of the shark's tooth-marks up her arm, after the animal attacked her while she swam off the coast of Gran Canaria
A tourist has been bitten by a shark while swimming off the popular winter holiday destination of Gran Canaria.

Victim Cristina Ojeda-Thies tweeted a photograph of the tooth-marks scarring her arm after she was treated in a hospital on Friday.

But authorities are trying to play down the attack for fear that it would impact on tourism.

'Today I've had a face to face meeting with a shark,' tweeted Ms Ojeda-Thies. 'Things that happen when you swim in the Canaries in December.'

Fernando Frias, President of the Canary Islands Shark Alliance which promotes shark conservation, called the incident a 'one-off'.
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Hardhat

Barred owl attacks Louisiana police officer, causes car crash

Jareen Imam
CNN
Sat, 26 Dec 2015 13:38 UTC
A barred owl
A barred owl flew into a police officer's cruiser and attacked him before the cop was able to escape
One unsuspecting Louisiana police officer was in for a hoot on Christmas Eve.

Covington Police officer Lance Benjamin was riding alone Thursday with his windows down, patrolling the quiet streets of a Louisiana subdivision, when he felt something hard hit the side of his face.

At first Benjamin thought he was struck by a football, he told CNN affiliate WVUE.

"And then I felt some scratching on the back of my head and some pecking," he said.

An owl had flown into the driver's side window and started attacking the officer with its wings, talons and beak.

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Wolf

Baby found dead in Fraser Town, India; police suspect dog pack attack


Deccan Herald
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:32 UTC
Stray dogs
Stray dogs
The mutilated body of a girl baby, aged around 18 months, was found behind the St Francis Xavier Cathedral on Promenade Road in Fraser Town on Friday night.

Based on eyewitness accounts, the jurisdictional Bharathinagar police suspect that the toddler was mauled to death by stray dogs. Local residents who noticed the mutilated body informed the police at around 7.30 pm on Friday. The police immediately shifted the body to the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital. A few people told the police that they saw a few dogs biting the baby. "They chased away the dogs and tried to rescue the baby. However, the baby had died by then. The identity of the baby is yet to be established," said the Bharathinagar inspector.

According to sources in Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospitals, the child was brought dead by the police and no one has claimed the body so far.

Comment: See also: 3-yr-old boy dies following attack by stray dog pack in Warangal, India

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Attention

Second dead whale washes up on Cape Town shore, South Africa

Karabo Ngoepe
Times Live
Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:08 UTC
whale carcass
The whale carcass that had washed up on the Kommetjie beach.
Another humpback whale carcass had to be removed from a Cape Town beach after its body washed up onto the shore, this time at Kommetjie.
Another dead humpback whale found in Kommetjie in Cape Town. City says it will be removed tomorrow pic.twitter.com/XItrdvMrWj

— Bonga Dlulane (@BongaDlulane) December 25, 2015

Comment: See also: Dead humpback whale found on Cape Town beach, South Africa

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Attention

Dead minke whale found on Ynyslas beach, Wales

Tyler Mears
Western Mail
Sat, 26 Dec 2015 11:07 UTC
dead minke whale
A dead minke whale on Ynyslas beach in Ceredigion, Wales
A dead minke whale on Ynyslas beach in Ceredigion

A dead 15ft long whale washed up on a West Wales beach on Christmas morning.

The body of the cetacean, believed to be a Minke whale, was discovered on the sands at Ynyslas, near to Aberdyfi and eight miles north of Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion .

A spokesman for HM Coastguard said: "We had reports about a whale washed up on shore on Christmas Day, however due to the bad weather we were unable to remove it
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Wolf

3-yr-old boy dies following attack by stray dog pack in Warangal, India


The New Indian Express
Sat, 26 Dec 2015 20:04 UTC
Stray dogs
Stray dogs
The negligence on part of the civic body in putting a check on the dog menace has claimed the life of a three-year-old boy of Shabunipet locality in the city. The boy died on Wednesday night while he was undergoing treatment at the MGM Hospital.

The deceased, Md Afan Khadri (3), son of Yosufulla, a government employee suffered injuries on his lips, and forehead in an attack by a pack of stray dogs while he was playing outside his house on December 8. The victim's kin immediately rushed him to the MGM Hospital where he was treated for a couple of days as an in-patient.

After being discharged from the hospital, Afan was on regular medication. However, he reportedly developed some complications including severe respiratory problem prompting the parents to rush to the hospital once again on Wednesday. He died while undergoing treatment.

When asked whether there was any negligence on part of the hospital authorities, kin of the deceased said the doctors had offered a good treatment. "He died while he was put on ventilator," he added. The grief-stricken parents, however, have blamed the GWMC officials for their failure in checking the growing dog menace.
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Attention

Villagers find two pygmy sperm whales washed ashore in Borneo


The Borneo Post
Fri, 25 Dec 2015 19:52 UTC
Dead pygmy whale
Iqbal recording some data after checking the carcass of the whale which was washed ashore at Kampung Masjid, Kuala Baram.
Two whales of the Pygmy Sperm species were found washed ashore at Kampung Masjid, a fishing village in Kuala Baram, yesterday.

According to village head Yusree Zainuzzaman, a fisherman had earlier asked for help from the villagers around 1pm to rescue a whale which was still alive.

He said they immediately pulled the mammal, a protected species, back to the sea.

A few minutes later, he said they found another whale from the same species which was bigger than the first one some 500 metres from the spot where the first one was found.

However, the whale had died, he added.
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Attention

Baby humpback whale washes ashore in Malaysia


The Star (Malaysia)
Fri, 25 Dec 2015 19:31 UTC
baby whale
The baby whale that washed up dead on Kg Sg Labu shoreline Thursday morning.
A dead look-alike baby humpback whale was washed ashore near the Kg Sg Labu shoreline Thursday morning.

Officials estimated the almost 20-foot whale to be over a year-old and had been dead when it was found lying on the beach.

Labuan Fisheries Department director Anuar Salam Sulaiman told Bernama the cause of the death was not clear and a report had been submitted to the fisheries headquarter in Putrajaya for a thorough investigation.

There were no signs of trauma, such as propeller marks. But the team from our headquarters will carry out investigations to find the cause of death.

Whether it was caught or trapped in a fishing net or hit by trawler, he said.
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Camera

Scientists discover rare sea snakes, previously thought extinct, off Western Australia


ScienceDaily
Mon, 21 Dec 2015 00:01 UTC
short nosed sea snake
© Grant Griffin, W.A. Dept. Parks and WildlifeThis is a photograph of the rare short nosed sea snake discovered on Ningaloo reef, Western Australia.
Scientists from James Cook University have discovered two critically endangered species of sea snakes, previously thought to be extinct, off the coast of Western Australia.

It's the first time the snakes have been spotted alive and healthy since disappearing from their only known habitat on Ashmore Reef in the Timor Sea more than fifteen years ago.

"This discovery is really exciting, we get another chance to protect these two endemic Western Australian sea snake species," says study lead author Blanche D'Anastasi from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at JCU.

"But in order to succeed in protecting them, we will need to monitor populations as well as undertake research into understanding their biology and the threats they face."

The discovery of the critically endangered short nose sea snake was confirmed after a Western Australia Parks and Wildlife Officer, Grant Griffin, sent a photo of a pair of snakes taken on Ningaloo Reef to Ms D'Anastasi for identification.
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