Animals
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Eye 2

Shark attack off Australian coast leaves surfer seriously hurt


The Guardian
Thu, 30 Jul 2015 17:55 UTC
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© Mike Parry/Minden Pictures/Corbis Great white sharks have been responsible for previous attacks on the NSW north coast.
The 52-year-old surfer undergoes surgery on arm and leg injuries after punching the great white when it attacked him from behind

A surfer has suffered serious injuries after fighting off a great white shark which attacked him off a beach in northern NSW.

The 52-year-old man from Evans Head, named in media reports as Craig Ison, punched the shark when it attacked from behind during his regular early morning surf on Friday.

He was undergoing surgery on Friday after suffering injuries to his legs and hands.

His friend, Geoff Hill, said Ison was paddling back to shore as the shark pursued him, biting him and knocking him off his board before the surfer punched it away. He was then helped to shore and received first aid

"It was like watching a Mick Fanning replay," Mr Hill told the Northern Star, referring to the world champion surfer's headline-grabbing escape from a shark in South Africa earlier this month.

Pictures of Ison's punctured surf board show a large bite mark and a shark expert from the NSW department of primary industries has confirmed the predator was a great white.
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Bizarro Earth

Voracious, potentially infectious African land snail spreading in Florida

Kerry Sheridan
news.discovery.com
Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:30 UTC
african land snail
© Wikimedia Commons/Sonel.SAThe giant African land snail is causing problems for Floridians.
Florida plant detectives are on the trail of a slippery foe, an invasive African land snail that is wily, potentially infectious, and can grow as big as a tennis shoe.

In the four years since Giant African Snails were discovered in Miami, they have slowly but surely spread to new territory, alarming residents in the southern suburbs and the neighboring county of Broward.

Their slimy tracks have led agricultural experts on an odyssey of discovery about animal behavior, folk religion and the precise amount of chemicals and cash it takes to kill the world's biggest gastropods.

Since 2011, Florida has spent $10.8 million on the Giant African Snail eradication program, according to state agriculture department spokesman Mark Fagan.

That is 10 times more than officials spent to wipe out the snails' last invasion of Florida in the 1960s, an effort that lasted an entire decade.

And there is still no end in sight.

Comment: These snails can grow as big as rats and have been found in a number of other states as well.

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Attention

Dead whale found on beach in Tannirbavi, India


daijiworld.com
Thu, 30 Jul 2015 15:02 UTC
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A dead whale was found at Tannirbavi beach here on Thursday July 30.

The whale was found to have suffered injuries, with wounds and blood marking its body.

Locals who found the whale expressed suspicions that it might have been injured after getting hit by a ship.

The whale is said to be weighing around 15 tonnes.

As the news got around, curious locals arrived to have a glimpse of the whale.

This is the second such incident in Mangaluru region in the past one week. On July 24, a dead whale had washed ashore at Mogaveerpatna near Ullal.

Comment: See also: Decomposed body of whale found on Ullala beach, India

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Smiley

Baby elephant chases swallows over South African road

Ben Hooper
upi.com
Thu, 30 Jul 2015 14:43 UTC
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"Such a cute video of a tiny new-born elephant trying to chase away the low flying swallows that are around him," the video's description on the Kruger Sightings YouTube channel reads.
An African elephant calf was caught on camera wandering into a road and chasing sparrows at a South African national park.

The video, posted to the Kruger Sightings YouTube channel, shows a newborn elephant calf wandering in a road inside Kruger National Park and running after birds surrounding it.

"Such a cute video of a tiny new-born elephant trying to chase away the low flying swallows that are around him," the video's description reads.

The elephant fails to catch any swallows, but appears to succeed at having a great time trying.

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Attention

Thousands of dead crabs wash up at Port Monmouth, New Jersey


newjersey.news12.com
Mon, 27 Jul 2015 19:41 UTC
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Thousands of dead crabs have washed ashore at the Bayshore Waterfront Park in Port Monmouth.
Thousands of dead crabs have washed up at the Bayshore Waterfront Park in the Port Monmouth section of Middletown.

Visitors to the park say the crabs were found all along the coastline, as well as in the water, and that the smell from the crabs baking in the hot sun was unbearable.

"When we were trying to go swimming, they'd come up and hit your legs," says visitor Brooke Zimmerman. "It's gross."

Fishermen tell News 12 New Jersey that the crabs are spider crabs, which are commonly found in the Raritan Bay.

Some of what was found along the coast are the shells shed by crabs during the last full moon, which is a normal process, according to a Monmouth County park ranger.

A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection says dead crabs washed up in the area two weeks ago as well. The department is looking into the cause of the deaths.
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Sheeple

Extreme cold weather conditions culminate in abnormal livestock losses in New South Wales, Australia

Skye Manson
mobile.abc.net.au
Thu, 23 Jul 2015 17:49 UTC
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© ABCLambs abound on Bindi Murray's property at Woodanilling
Extreme cold weather conditions in southern New South Wales last week created a perfect storm of unfortunate events for some sheep producers, culminating in some significant livestock losses.

The Department of Primary Industries, at the Cowra Research Station, is conducting autopsies on an abnormally high number of lambs from its commercial lambing flock.

The national average for lambing mortality is 10 per cent in ewes with single lambs and 20 per cent for twins.

But researcher, Dr Gordon Refshauge, said the mortality rate in this instance is almost 40 per cent.

He said he had never seen a situation like it.
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Attention

Monkey enters house and bites boy, 11th simian attack within a week in Panchkula, India

Hina Rohtaki
The Tribune (India)
Sat, 11 Jul 2015 16:51 UTC
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© Nitin MittalVictims Anita Dhiman and Tejas Rathi show monkey bite marks in Sector 25, Panchkula.
Expectant woman among 11 attacked in Sector 25 in a week

Seven-year-old Tejas, a resident of Sector 25, was sitting inside his room and having his meal when a monkey entered from the rear door and attacked him. Tejas was bitten on his left leg.

Residents of Sector 25 are living in constant fear of monkeys, who have attacked them even inside their houses. Eleven persons, including an expectant woman, have fallen prey to the simian menace in the past one week.

Sudha, a housewife and local resident, was bitten thrice on her leg by monkeys in one go while she was in her house with her mother-in-law. The monkeys entered from the rear door, which the victims had left open. In another incident, a college girl was attacked at her place. "My younger daughter, Hita, was bitten by a monkey at home. She suffered bites on her leg," said the victim's father, Sudhir Dhiman.
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Wolf

North Charleston woman in ICU after husband's dog rips off her arm

Melissa Boughton
The Post and Courier
Mon, 27 Jul 2015 19:15 UTC
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A North Charleston man's pit bull attacked his wife Sunday and tore her arm off.

Katherine Rizk, 48, of Ayscough Road, is "not doing well" after her arm was amputated from the elbow down, according to her husband Mahmoud Rizk. She remains in the intensive care unit at Medical University Hospital.

"It's been awful," the 30-year-old said. "She's devastated, very upset and she's in shock."

The dog, named Tiger, was euthanized Monday by the Charleston Animal Society after Rizk voluntarily surrendered him, according to a police report. The organization declined to comment about the incident.

Rizk said he had Tiger for three years, since he was a puppy, and that the pet had never been aggressive before. He said Tiger had been on a golf course earlier Sunday and was cut, and speculated the dog snapped after his wife pressed on the wound while petting him.
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Attention

Woman survives black bear attack near Timmins, Canada


kitchener.ctvnews.ca
Tue, 28 Jul 2015 18:59 UTC
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© Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESSA black bear is pictured in a May 27, 2012 file photo.
A 60-year-old woman from Guelph was released from hospital following a bear attack on Friday at Watabeag Lake near Timmins, ON.

Ontario Provincial Police say two women were walking in an area where there were cottages when they ran into the bear.

Police say the bear attacked one of the women and she was treated at a hospital in the Matheson-area but was later released.

The OPP say officers located the bear and killed the animal because it displayed aggressive tendencies toward them.
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Black Cat

Only 100 tigers remain in Bangladesh's famed Sundarbans forest


The Guardian
Mon, 27 Jul 2015 16:22 UTC
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© Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images A rescued tiger leaps into a river after being released from a cage in the Sunderbans on the border of India and Bangladesh.
Only around 100 tigers remain in Bangladesh's famed Sundarbans forest, far fewer of the endangered animals than previously thought, according to a census.

Some 440 tigers were recorded during the previous census in 2004 in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and one of the last remaining habitats for the big cats.

But experts said better methodology was the reason for the huge drop in the numbers, saying hidden cameras used this time around, rather than pugmarks, gave a much more accurate figure.

Tapan Kumar Dey, the government's wildlife conservator, said analysis of camera footage from the year-long survey that ended in April found numbers ranged between 83 and 130, giving an average of 106.

"So plus or minus we have around 106 tigers in our parts of the Sundarbans. It's a more accurate figure," Dey told Agence France-Presse about the survey, which has not yet been publicly released.
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