Animals
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Wolf

Denison, Texas woman attacked and severely injured by dog pack

Kristen Shanahan
kxii.com
Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:18 UTC
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A Denison woman attacked and severely injured by a pack of dogs last week is speaking out just a day after being released from the hospital.

Lois Woodall, 34, says she is still in a lot of pain, but she is in good spirits. The bruises on her arms, gashes on her head and scars on her legs will permanently remind Woodall what happened to her the night of November 25th.

She went out to get medicine for her sick daughter and was walking home along the railroad tracks at East Sears and North Travis Avenue when a pack of dogs knocked her to the ground, tearing into her clothes and skin.

"They were pulling my legs, pulling me down and that's when they really start tearing me up, my legs and everything else," Woodall said. "Every time I tried to get up they just got me. One of them just chewed my head up, just pulling my hair, pulling my head real hard."
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Question

Cold weather movement? Southern California invaded by dozens of rare varied thrushes

Sanden Totten
scpr.org
Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:42 UTC
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© Minette Layne via Creative Commons
A rare and striking bird is showing up in large numbers in Southern California.

It's called the varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius) and it has deep yellow and black stripes with patches of white on its underside.

Normally, this species lives in the Pacific Northwest and travels no further south than San Francisco

For some reason, this year is different.

"It's turning up in all these parks and just flying overhead and people are seeing it in all these weird places," said Dan Cooper, an L.A. based biologist and birder watcher.

In addition to it's eye catching color, the varied thrush also has a distinct bird call that sounds almost like a tea kettle whistling.

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Info

Biocide! Abandoned fishing nets trapping the ocean's turtles, seals, sharks and birds

Melissa Hills
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 28 Nov 2014 15:22 UTC
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Experts say up to 14,000 turtles could have died at the Gulf of Carpentaria, northern Australia in the last nine years
These appalling photos reveal the largely unknown damage that abandoned fishing gear dubbed 'ghost nets' in a new campaign is doing to animals in the ocean surrounding Australia.

Turtles are the main victims that get trapped in abandoned nets in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia and experts estimate there could have been 14,000 that have died over the last nine years, large numbers of seals are also getting caught up in the nets across the country's waters.

World Animal Protection has launched the Sea Change campaign with the aim to make fishermen, fisheries and the general public more aware of this problem and they want to save one million animals by 2018.

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Binoculars

Arctic snowy owls may be preparing for another irruption into the U.S.

Marcus Schneck
The Patriot-News
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 17:20 UTC
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© Sean SimmersA snowy owl sits in the grass in a courtyard at Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill.
Cedar Cliff High School in Camp Hill was visited Tuesday by a snowy owl, one of several of the Arctic birds that have shown up in Pennsylvania in recent days. The large, mostly white birds may be the precursors of a repeat of last winter's mass invasion into Pennsylvania and several other states.

Scott Weidensaul, one of the owl researchers who organized the Project SNOWStorm banding and radio-tracking effort in response to last winter's record-setting irruption by snowies, said already this year owls have been spotted in the Gratz Valley of northern Dauphin County, near Morgantown in Berks County, on Presque Isle in Lake Erie and "a bunch on the coast."

Dozens of additional snowy owls have been reported throughout the Northeast, around the Great Lakes, and as far south as Illinois and Maryland.
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Binoculars

2 Rare Arctic ross's geese turn up in Hardeeville, South Carolina

Sarah Bowman
The State (South Carolina)
Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:00 UTC
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© Carol ClemensDA Ross's Goose photographed in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge

When avid birdwatcher Carol Clemens had a chance to see a rare species -- one that usually migrates only along the West Coast -- just 45 minutes from her Hilton Head Island home, she couldn't pass it up.

A Ross's goose, similar to but smaller than a snow goose, had been spotted in the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge near Hardeeville, and Clemens hopped in her car almost as soon as she heard.

"This bird is so unusual that if I hadn't called my friend to go out and see it, then it would have been a lost opportunity," said Clemens, membership co-chairwoman of the Hilton Head Island Audubon Society.

"We were hoping to get a glimpse of the goose, but thought that it would be just a white speck on the horizon," she added. "But then we got almost 10 feet away and could really admire it."

Sadly, the visit by both the goose and its apparent companion proved short-lived -- both have been found dead, within about 10 days of their arrival, according to refuge spokeswoman Monica Harris.

The first goose is believed to have been killed last week by a bobcat, Harris said. The second was found dead Monday morning, though the cause is not yet known.
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Snowflake Cold

30 Kemp's ridley sea turtles suffering from hypothermia taken from Cape Cod to the Florida Keys


EyesOnNews.com
Thu, 27 Nov 2014 16:44 UTC
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© Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/HOBette Zirkelbach checks a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle’s heart rate Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014, at the Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Fla.
The Florida Keys-based Turtle Hospital is caring and warming up 30 Kemp's ridley sea turtles suffering from hypothermia just days after they were rescued from a frigid beach on Cape Cod Bay, Mass. On Wednesday, each cold-stunned turtle had a full physical examination, X-rays, a swimming test and was administered intravenous fluids and Vitamin D, according to Bette Zirkelbach, the hospital's manager

"We're trying to slowly raise their body temperatures," Zirkelbach said. "We're hoping they will get healthy enough so they can be released."Zirkelbach said some of the turtles have secondary issues including head trauma and pneumonia.

The 30 are a portion of 193 flown to Orlando in banana boxes by the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday evening with the balance going to four other Florida-based marine animal rehabilitation centers.

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Attention

20ft-long minke whale found dead on Cornish beach, UK

Julian Robinson
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 29 Nov 2014 16:19 UTC
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The decomposed carcass of a whale was found at the popular holiday destination of Pentewan Sands near Mevagissey in Cornwall
This was the scene at a Cornish beauty spot this morning after walkers discovered a 20ft long whale washed up on a beach. The decomposed carcass of the huge mammal was found at the popular holiday destination of Pentewan Sands near Mevagissey in Cornwall.

Stunned dog walkers could be seen stopping to take pictures of what is believed to be a dead juvenile Minke whale.
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Attention

Texas releases over 50 sea turtles treated for cold-stunning

Amanda Orr
news.yahoo.com
Fri, 28 Nov 2014 16:05 UTC
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More than 50 green sea turtles were released into the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast on Friday after recovering from cold-stunning, or hypothermia, brought on by a drastic drop in water temperature.

The release has taken place in phases, with Friday being the last major release for sea turtles rescued after a mid-November cold snap in Texas sent temperatures below freezing in large parts of the state.
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Better Earth

Soil, the most diverse place on Earth


Terradaily.com
Fri, 28 Nov 2014 14:40 UTC
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© Valerie Behan-PelletierSoil fauna from a soil in Alabama, USA.
A new study has pulled together research into the most diverse place on earth to demonstrate how the organisms below-ground could hold the key to understanding how the worlds ecosystems function and how they are responding to climate change.

Published in Nature, the paper by Professor Richard Bardgett from The University of Manchester and Professor Wim van der Putten of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, brings together new knowledge on this previously neglected area.

The paper not only highlights the sheer diversity of life that lives below-ground, but also how rapid responses of soil organisms to climate change could have far reaching impacts on future ecosystems. The paper also explores how the below-ground world can be utilised for sustainable land management.

Professor Bardgett explains: "The soil beneath our feet arguably represents the most diverse place on Earth. Soil communities are extremely complex with literally millions of species and billions of individual organisms within a single grassland or forest, ranging from microscopic bacteria and fungi through to larger organisms such as earthworms, ants and moles.

"Despite this plethora of life the underground world had been largely neglected by research, it certainly used to be a case of out of sight out of mind, although over the last decade we have seen a significant increase in work in this area."

The increase in research on below-ground organisms has helped to explain how they interact with each other and crucially how they influence the above-ground flora and fauna.

Comment: What the authors fails to mention is the effect agriculture has had on the soil. Agriculture is the single most destructive thing on earth. It destroys entire ecosystems and kills millions of plants, animals and microorganisms every year. Agriculture is just another form of genocide (and mass extinction) courtesy of greedy psychopaths.
  • Original 'Fall of Eden'? Agriculture is a "profoundly unnatural activity" and the "worst mistake in human history"
  • Agriculture: The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race


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Black Cat 2

Wildlife officials search for tiger in Russia following rare attack on hunter


The Moscow Times
Mon, 24 Nov 2014 16:11 UTC
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© WikicommonsHuman attacks by Amur tigers are extremely rare, according to the statement.
Wildlife officials in the Russian Far East are on a mission to track down a tiger believed to have mauled a 75-year-old hunter to death.

Pavel Fomenko, the coordinator of the Amur branch of the World Wildlife Fund, said in an online statement Monday that tracks near the man's body indicated that he had been killed by a tiger.

"What exactly served as the basis for the wild animal's behavior, whether it had gunshot or other wounds - this is not yet clear," Fomenko said in the statement.

Local hunters have said there are at least two other tigers in the region, a factor that Fomenko said will complicate efforts to find the animal behind the recent attack.

Human attacks by Amur tigers are extremely rare, according to the statement, which says that 90 percent of tiger attacks are somehow provoked by the human.
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