Animals
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Wolf

Family dog mauls baby in Saanich, British Columbia

Josh Elliott
ctvnews.ca
Sun, 28 Dec 2014 18:47 UTC
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Saanich police are investigating after a 16-day-old baby girl was attacked by the family dog, a pit bull-rottweiller cross.
A two-week-old B.C. girl is being treated in hospital for significant injuries she sustained in a dog attack by her family's Pitbull-Rottweiler cross-breed on Sunday.

The 16-day-old infant was rushed to hospital with significant head and facial injuries after the dog attack early Sunday, police said.

The incident happened in Saanich, B.C., where police say the dog had lived with the family for about 17 years. It's not known why the dog attacked the child.

The dog's owners agreed to euthanize the animal, but police say they are still mulling whether to lay criminal negligence charges in the case.

"Any time an attack like this happens, we have to look at the criminal side," said Const. Nawid Akbar of Saanich Police. "However, all accounts are leading to it just being an unfortunate accident. A very tragic event."

Investigators have contacted child protective services.

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Attention

100,000 sea stars found stranded on Fripp Island, South Carolina

Rebecca Lurye
The State (South Carolina)
Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:49 UTC
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© Rick Stein
Thousands of starfish were stranded on Fripp Island on Christmas Eve, likely because of the day's stormy weather, according to a marine veterinarian.

Al Segars of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources said he had not looked into the stranding, but said strong winds could have caused the creatures, also known as sea stars, to wash ashore. Christmas Day beachgoers estimated that roughly 100,000 sea stars were on the beach.

The Sea Islands experienced the same thing last year, Segars said.

"I wouldn't say it's anything out of the ordinary," he said. "These guys are just sitting on the bottom, so if you've got a strong wave action, they can't fight the current."

George Sedberry, a science coordinator in national Office of Marine Sanctuaries, said he has not studied this stranding but offered other possible explanations for the sea stars' deaths.
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Attention

Over 1,200 sea turtles have washed up on Cape Cod beaches during December


wildlifeextra.com
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 15:33 UTC
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Sea turtles depend on warmer waters for their survival
Over the past month a record number of sea turtles, most of which have been critically endangered Kemp's Ridley Turtles, have been rescued from stranding on the beaches of Cape Cod in New England, reports the Massachusett Audobon Society.

Normally, around 90 sea turtles strand on the Cape on their migration from the beaches of Mexico to Cape Cod Bay.

Sea turtles spend the warmer months in Cape Cod waters, then swim south to Mexico for the winter each autumn beginning in November. But some turtles get "caught" by the hook of Cape Cod.

Sea turtles that take their body temperature from the environment around them and when the water temperature of the Bay gets down to 50 degrees F they become cold-stunned.
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Wolf

3 residents attacked by possibly sick coyote in Fremont, California


abc7news.com
Fri, 26 Dec 2014 20:09 UTC
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© ABC7 NewsResidential street in Fremont where a coyote was killed by police after attacking three people on Christmas Day.
On Christmas afternoon, Fremont police received several calls about coyote attacks.

The first call came in at 5:41 p.m. about a 42-year-old man who was walking to his car parked in front of a home in the 3100 block of Starr Street when a coyote bit his leg, according to police.

The man apparently ran with his children toward a house and the coyote followed the group. Everyone was able to get inside before the coyote followed, police said.

The man was then driven to a hospital to treat the bite.

Officers responded to the area, but could not find the animal.
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Binoculars

Bean goose from Eurasia takes a wrong turn and winds up on the Oregon Coast

Jessica Robinson
nwnewsnetwork.org
Fri, 26 Dec 2014 18:07 UTC
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© Sarah Swanson A tundra bean-goose (top) has been spotted at the Nestucca Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.
A bird rarely seen in North America has turned a small bay on the Oregon Coast into a major destination for bird watchers this winter.

Sarah Swanson and her husband Max Smith run a blog in Portland called the Must-See Bird Blog. They tried to explain what it's like to spot a tundra bean-goose at Nestucca Bay in Oregon.

"It's just so exciting, I'm trying to compare it something for a non-birder," Swanson said.

"Maybe it's like running into a celebrity at the mall, someone you've always idolized," Smith suggested.

Yes, in the celebrity news of bird watching this has been a top story. It's the first-ever confirmed sighting of a tundra bean-goose in the lower 48. Usually these brown and gray geese spend their winters in Asia and Europe.

In birding parlance, seeing one here is a "mega-rarity."

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Binoculars

Warbler that should be wintering in western Mexico turns up in Louisiana

Jonathan Olivier
The Courier
Sun, 28 Dec 2014 15:48 UTC
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Lucy's Warbler. It is normally found in the Sonoran desert and winters along the Pacific coast of northern Mexico.
A bird rarely seen in Louisiana was among 130 species heard or spotted on Grand Isle during the National Audubon Society's annual winter bird count.

A Lucy's warbler, which normally lives in the U.S. Southwest or in Mexico, was the exciting find of the day on Grand Isle, said Chris Brantley, who organized the count on Louisiana's only inhabited barrier island and one of nearly 30 planned around Louisiana between mid-December and Jan. 5.

There are only a few records of the bird ever being seen in Louisiana, Brantley said.
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Range Map

Comment: Similar recent reports of birds losing their way across the Northern Hemisphere: Four lost flamingos fly NORTH for the winter and turn up in Siberia

Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China

Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK

Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada

Read More...
Attention

Second dead whale found in December on Odisha Coast, India


bhubaneswarbuzz.com
Sat, 27 Dec 2014 21:13 UTC
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In the second incident of its kind this month, the carcass of a large whale was found at the Gouda Nuagaon beach under Krushnaprasad block near Brahmagiri in Odisha's Puri district today.

The dead whale measuring around 30 feet in length, 12-15 feet in girth and weighing approximately 10 tonnes was sighted by villagers at about 2 pm today.

Curious villagers have gathered in huge numbers on the beach to have a glimpse of the large aquatic mammal. Awestruck by the size of the dead creature, the villagers said they had never seen anything like in their lifetime.

Comment: See also: Dead sperm whale found off Odisha coast, India

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Attention

Second manatee found dead in a month, South Mississippi


wlox.com
Thu, 25 Dec 2014 15:49 UTC
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This is the manatee that washed ashore in Waveland
Marine biologists are in Waveland this morning. They rushed to Hancock County after getting reports that a dead manatee washed ashore.

Representatives from IMMS say this is the second manatee to be found in Mississippi waters this month. They call this a "very unusual" trend, because during the winter, manatees aren't normally in the northern Gulf of Mexico. They usually migrate to Florida.

According to the Save the Manatee Club, "Manatees can be found in shallow, slow-moving rivers, estuaries, saltwater bays, canals, and coastal areas - particularly where seagrass beds or freshwater vegetation flourish. Manatees are a migratory species. Within the United States, they are concentrated in Florida in the winter. In summer months, they can be found as far west as Texas and as far north as Massachusetts, but summer sightings in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina are more common."

Manatees are an endangered species.

Comment: See also: Manatee from Florida makes rare visit to Texas waters

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Wolf

Indiana man killed by his own pit bull terrier on Christmas Day

Amy R. Connolly
upi.com
Sat, 27 Dec 2014 14:41 UTC
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A 40-year-old man who gave his pit bull a rawhide bone as a Christmas gift was attacked and killed by the dog.

Edward L. Cahill was found dead on the living room floor with bite marks on his arms and face, the Porter County coroner said. Cahill was home alone with his two pit bulls on Christmas morning when he gave Fat Boy a bone. When his wife arrived home later in the afternoon, she found Cahill in a pool of blood and the dog nearby.

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Attention

Four lost flamingos fly north for the winter and turn up in Siberia

Ted Thornhill
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 12 Dec 2014 23:43 UTC
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Chilly: One flamingo was spotted ambling along the snowy bank of the Usa River in Mezhdurechensk, Kemerovo region
It could be a severe case of bird-bird, or strange weather patterns causing confusion, but at the moment scientists remain baffled about instances of flamingos flying north to bitterly cold Siberia for the winter, instead of south.

Four flamingos recently touched down in various parts of Siberia, to the astonishment of locals, in temperatures as low as -30C.

One landed in the Evenkia district of vast Krasnoyarsk region, which is just 310 miles south of the Arctic circle.

Comment: See also: Wrong place, wrong time: European robin turns up thousands of miles away in China

Rare bird from Mongolia turns up in Wakefield, UK

Wrong time, wrong place: Rare bird found in Barrie, Canada

Read More...