Animals
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Wolf

83-year-old man killed by dogs in Pecos, Texas

Julia Deng
newswest9.com
Fri, 03 Jul 2015 19:32 UTC
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A pit bull attack Thursday morning left an 83-year-old man dead in his daughter's backyard, Pecos Police said.

The victim was identified as Norberto Legardo, a longtime Pecos resident friends described as "very kind" and "[someone who] always did good deeds."

He was feeding his daughter's dog at her Eddy Street house, investigators said, when three pit bulls belonging to a neighbor approached them.

"I think the evidence is going to show that somehow the pit bulls got into [his daughter's] yard and started fighting with the dog [he was feeding]," said Pecos Police Chief Clay McKinney. "Mr. Legardo probably tried to break up the fight and then the pit bulls turned on him."

A witness told NewsWest 9 one of the dogs lunged at the 83-year-old's throat and all three were involved in the attack. According to McKinney, "at least two" mauled Legardo.

He added that officials are still in the early stages of the investigation and "don't have many details" about the incident.

Officers were dispatched to the scene around 9:45 a.m. and found Legardo unresponsive. He was declared dead shortly after.

Police said the Labrador he was feeding was found near the residence by Animal Control and is expected to recover from injuries sustained in the attack.
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Attention

Second suspected shark attack in 24 hours near Ballina Shire, Australia

Flynn Murphy
Daily Telegraph
Fri, 03 Jul 2015 15:45 UTC
Image
© 9News
Steve the surfer had a close call with a shark at Lennox Head
A 52-year-old man has narrowly escaped injury after his surfboard was bitten by a suspected great white shark in the second attack in Ballina Shire, Australia in 24 hours.

Beaches will remain closed until Saturday after the attack, which took place around 9am on Friday in Lennox Head, just 12 miles from where local surfer Mathew Lee was critically mauled on Thursday.

While there has been no official confirmation, some believe the shark to be the same which mauled Mr Lee, who was recovering from emergency surgery today in a Gold Coast hospital.

Northern NSW lifeguard coordinator Scott McCartney, who is responsible for around 279 miles (450km) of the Australian coastline stretching south from the northern NSW border, said there was a possibility the same shark was responsible for both attacks.

"But there could also be more out there," he told the Telegraph
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Attention

Wild boar mauls elderly couple to death in Malaysia


asiaone.com
Fri, 03 Jul 2015 15:10 UTC
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© ZaobaoBoar
An elderly couple was attacked and killed by a wild boar while they were tapping rubber trees at a plantation in Kuala Paya near Buloh Kasap here.

The victims, identified as Loo See Sing, 66, and his wife Liow Mei Lan, 68, were carrying out their normal routine in the early morning, but did not return at their usual time.

A villager, who declined to be named, said that the owner of the plantation then went in search of the couple at noon when they failed to return.

"The couple usually head back with their produce by 9am but this time around, they failed to show up, prompting the owner to search for them.

"The duo were found with cuts all over their bodies, which initially led police to believe they were robbed and murdered," he added.
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Attention

Bison attack two more visitors at Yellowstone National Park

Katia Hetter
CNN
Thu, 02 Jul 2015 13:26 UTC
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Bison can sprint three times faster than humans can run, park officials say.
Bison attacked two more visitors at Yellowstone National Park over the past week, for a total of four attacks in the park so far this season.

A 68-year-old Georgia woman remained hospitalized Thursday after encountering a bison while hiking Wednesday on Storm Point Trail, according to the National Park Service.

As she passed the bison, it charged and gored her. A witness reported the attack to a nearby ranger leading a hike, who called for help. Due to the serious nature of the woman's injuries, she was taken by helicopter ambulance to a hospital outside the park. Her condition was unknown Thursday.

The other incident happened on June 23, when a 19-year-old Georgia woman and three friends who work at nearby Canyon Village were walking to their car after a late-night swim at the Firehole River. They saw a bison lying about 10 feet away, and one friend turned and ran. But the animal charged the teen and "tossed her in the air," the park service said.

After the teen went to bed, she awoke a short time later feeling ill and called for medical help. She took an ambulance to a hospital outside the park and "was released with minor injuries later that day," the park service said.
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Roses

Dog kills 3 year old boy in Lawton, Oklahoma

Scott Rains
The Lawton Constitution
Mon, 29 Jun 2015 20:27 UTC
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Jordan "Jo Jo" Collins-Tyson
Lawton police identified a 3-year-old boy killed Sunday in a dog attack.

Capt. Craig Akard, LPD information officer, said the boy Jordan "Jo Jo" Collins-Tyson was killed by a pit bull. Collins was bitten in the neck and killed.

Police were called to a home in the 500 block of Southwest 17th Street around 9 a.m. on the report of the dog attack, Akard said. The boy was found in the backyard of a home along with the dog.

"When officers arrived the dog was aggressive toward them and had to be shot," Akard said. "The dog was taken by Animal Control and the child transported to the hospital."

Akard said the boy was being baby sat by a family friend and was seen playing in the backyard. She reported looking out of the window later and not seeing the boy, then looked out the back door and saw Collins laying on the ground, he said. The babysitter called for help and neighbors came to assist.
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Attention

Sperm whale carcass found off Campbell's Beach, Australia

Matt Deans
The Coff Coast Advocate
Thu, 02 Jul 2015 19:06 UTC
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© Gemima Harvey Coffs Harbour Water Police watch on as sharks feed on a sperm whale carcass off the Coffs Coast.

A sperm whale carcass that is floating precariously close to Coffs Coast beaches may pose a safety hazard with police spotting large sharks feeding on the dead mammal.

The whale was identified as a six metre long sperm whale by Coffs Harbour Water Police this afternoon.

Rising almost two metres out of the water the whale carcass is currently about 800 metres east of Campbells Beach having floated in past Split Solitary Island this morning.

"There is an obvious danger as there are sharks underneath it, we saw four or five sharks feeding off it - two tiger sharks and a great white, varying in size from two metres to four metres in length," Water Police Sergeant Don Stewart said.

"It's a dead sperm whale that has floated in from only heavens knows where."

The whale carcass is visible from Sapphire Beach and police are monitoring its movement.
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Fish

Deadly Portuguese man o' war washing ashore in New Jersey


RT
Thu, 02 Jul 2015 18:52 UTC
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© WikipediaPortuguese man o' war
As officials at North Carolina beaches contend with a string of shark attacks off the state's coast, those in New Jersey have been dealing with an oceanic problem all their own: potentially deadly Portuguese man 'o wars steadily washing ashore.

The strange yet striking animal may look like some kind of jellyfish, but the man o' war is in a different class altogether. Its poisonous tentacles can easily grow to between 10 and 30 feet, and can sometimes reach an astonishing length of 160 feet. The creature is often seen sporting blue and purple colors and has a translucent body that looks like it's filled with air.

Although the man o' war typically populates warm waters in tropical oceans, coasting along the surface of the water and catching small prey with its tendrils, ocean currents and strong winds can sometimes lead it into less expected places, such as the Jersey Shore.

"Typically in the Northeast, we see these animals periodically in the summer, when they are successfully carried north by the Gulf Stream current," Matthew Landau, a professor of Marine Science at Stockton University, told AccuWeather. "Sometimes the currents move these animals into temperate seas when the winds drive them toward coastlines."

The animal has already been spotted at least two dozen times in the stretch between Long Beach Island and Stone Harbor, local WPVI reported. That's a stretch of close to 70 miles.

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Bizarro Earth

Nanjing city mobilizes animals in predicting earthquakes


Chinanews.com
Thu, 02 Jul 2015 16:47 UTC
Pigs and chickens
© www.jschina.com.cnThis combo photo shows pigs and chickens used to help forecast earthquake at a breeding base of a zoo.
Nanjing city in East China's Jiangsu province has built seven new observation sites from which to make general earthquake predictions, using animals like chickens, pigs and fish to help forecast possible risks.

Seven more such sites will be built this year, including one at the breeding base of a zoo, local newspaper Modern Express reported.

At Banqiao ecological park, approximately 40 minutes drive from the city, the behavior of around 200 pigs, 2000 chickens, and fish in a 15-hectare pond is also closely monitored to detect signals of an earthquake.

Breeders here create daily reports regarding animal behavior for Nanjing's seismological departments using popular instant messaging software QQ.
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Info

Plants react to the sound of being eaten alive

Bernie Hobbs
ABC Science, Australia
Thu, 02 Jul 2015 18:30 UTC
Caterpillar
© Diana Meister/iStockphoto



That's the sound of a caterpillar chewing on a leaf. But the real surprise is what happens next: the plant reacts to the noise by churning out chemicals that repel predators.

The discovery was made in 2014, by researchers Heidi Appel and Rex Cocroft from the University of Missouri.

It's been known for a while that sounds can affect the way plants germinate, and the expression of some of their genes, says Appel. "But just why plants were sensitive to airborne sound was a mystery".

Self-preservation is as good an evolutionary strategy as you get, so the pair set out to test whether plants were able to respond to the miniscule vibrations caused by having their leaves chewed.
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Question

Dozens of gulls found dead on road in Kuna, Idaho

Grace Gibney
Idaho Statesman
Tue, 30 Jun 2015 18:18 UTC
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© Susan CarlsonDead gulls near South Cole Road showed no signs of physical injury, according to reader Susan Carlson, who came across them Saturday.
Evin Oneale, regional conservation educator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said residents have reported the dead songbirds for a couple of weeks now. It's unclear how many total birds have died.

The birds found dead show no signs of physical injury and were not sickened by plague, Oneale said. Rather, he said, it appears to be a specific type of pathogen that has yet to be determined.

Kuna resident Susan Carlson was driving on South Cole Road on June 27 when she came upon dozens of birds in the road near the intersection of Barker Road.

"I was just very disturbed by what I saw," Carlson said.

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