Animals
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Attention

One dog killed after another muskox attack in Nome, Alaska

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© Jenn Ruckel/KNOMMitch Erickson’s dog pen was smashed by a muskox this weekend, and his dog Onslo was mauled.
Yet another muskox attack over the weekend has left dog owners aggravated, while Nome residents and wildlife officials dispute who is responsible for coming up with a solution to the problem.

This time, the victim was Mitch Erickson's dog Onslo, who was tethered to a dog box at the lot Erickson shares with Diana Adams. Last week, Adams was cited for killing a muskox in Icy View.

Erickson explained how he found his dog lot. "You could see the pen was thrashed and the two dogs that were in it were loose. And I realized one was missing," said Erickson. "He was found about an hour later and we had to put him down cause he was all torn up."

This isn't the first time muskox have threatened Erickson and Adams's lot. Last year, two separate incidents left their dogs injured or worse.

"So we're two dead and one wounded," said Erickson.

Question

Strange animal behaviour: Muskox repeatedly charged dog despite warning shots in Wales, Alaska - other similar incidents reported

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© Helena Oxereok Helena Oxereok said her mother collected tufts of the musk ox's underfur -- the highly-prized qiviut -- and her father has plans for the bull’s horns.The meat was shared out.
Another close encounter with a musk ox -- this time in the Northwest Alaska community of Wales -- involved an angry bull charging a tethered dog several times before the musk ox was killed.

The attack comes amid a summer of similar threats to dogs -- and people -- in and around Nome, some of which have left dogs dead and resulted in musk ox shot "in defense of life or property," or DLP.

Helena Oxereok was using a four-wheeler to haul water with her sister's boyfriend on Aug. 16 when she saw the shaggy bull come from behind her house in Wales, about 110 miles northwest of Nome. Despite neighbors and family members yelling and revving their four-wheelers to scare the animal away, she said, the bull ignored them until it saw her dog Sam.

"And then it started chasing my dog around its house -- maybe six times my dog had to run away," Oxereok said Thursday in a phone interview.

"At one point, it got to where my dog was being pushed but not really hurt, pushed by the musk ox's head, and I'm glad the chain didn't get caught on his horns, otherwise he would have been in big trouble."


Oxereok said her brother Randy grabbed his SKS rifle and shot several warning shots in the air, but the musk ox was unfazed.

Black Cat

Leopard changing its spots? Big cat attack on human, scooter and 4 by 4 vehicle in India

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With the sighting of a leopard roaming in the limits of Shree Mahalingeshwara temple at Atrady, near Manipal over the past three days and a confirmed leopard attack on a man, the local residents are fear-stricken by the predator in their territory and refuse to venture out of their houses after dark.

A person named Dinesh Poojary suffered injuries from the leopard attack that took place three days ago.

On the night of Wednesday, the leopard is said to have attempted to catch some fowl roosting on a tree in the backyard of the house belonging to Dinesh Poojary at around 12 a.m. Later the same night, the leopard made another attempt and made off with two chickens.

Comment: See also: Eight separate leopard attacks on humans across India within 2 months: Leopard attacks 5 people, beaten to death in Assam, India

Leopard attacks teacher in Doon locality, India (Two reports.)

Leopard attacks 8-year-old girl in Amreli, India

Indian woman kills leopard with sickle after half-hour battle

Leopard attacks and mauls six villagers in West Bengal, India

2 farm workers attacked by leopard in India

Man-eating leopard preys on drunk villagers in the Didihat region, Himalayas


Binoculars

Rare Arctic Sabine's gull turns up in Pymatuning State Park, Ohio

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© Shawn CollingsSabine's Gull at Pymatuning.
Visitors to Pymatuning State Park have been greeted in recent weeks by a very rare guest, Sabine's gull. Other rare guests may soon follow.

"Sabine's gull has been attracting birders from all over the area," said Meadville photographer Shawn Collins. "The gull is normally only found out west, Alaska and northern Canada. I was able to capture some photographs near the spillway area."

Collins says he has been a birder for most of his life and in recent years began to learn the skills of a photographer.

"It was just great to be able to photograph this bird right here at Pymatuning."

The Audubon Society in Meadville is aware of the rare bird at Pymatuning.

"It's just a beautiful bird," said Sarah Sargent, of the Audubon Society. "It's a good looking bird in its breeding plumage."

Attention

Humpback whale washes up dead at Kalbarri beach, Western Australia

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© Picture: Kerby BrownImogen Caldwell and the beached dead whale at Red Bluff, Kalbarri.
A 12m humpback whale washed up on a popular Kalbarri beach on Wednesday night, bringing with it a school of sharks and a steady stream of onlookers.

The whale was barely breathing and had horrific injuries, including shark bites, when it washed up on Red Bluff beach about 9pm.

It died soon after it reached the sand, leaving the Shire of Northampton with the mammoth task of trying to remove it.

Contractors, who were called in from Geraldton, yesterday spent hours trying to lift the whale on to a truck so it could be disposed of inland.

Attention

Alaska man shoots 9-foot grizzly bear that tried to enter his home

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© Jim LandessJim Landess with the grizzly bear that he killed after it tried to enter his home in Sterling, Alaska
Jim Landess woke up to loud banging at his home in Sterling, Alaska in the middle of the night, only to find a giant grizzly bear outside the dining room window. He ran outside and fired a few shots to scare the animal away, but it returned three hours later. This time, Landess fired seven rounds into the animal, killing it.

A sleepy Alaskan man had to twice battle an angry bear that attacked his house.

On the second go-round, Jim Landess fired seven rounds from his .45-caliber handgun, killing the rampaging animal.

The ruckus started about 3:30 a.m. on July 7 when Landess was woken up by loud banging on a window and a wall at his Sterling home, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.

Downstairs, his 17-year-old son was looking at the face of a 9-foot grizzly bear peering at him outside the dining room window.

Black Cat

Wildlife officers shoot and kill cougar in south Calgary, Canada

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© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mike Ridewood Calgary Police block the entrance to the South Calgary Health Campus as they search for cougars on Thursday, Sept 18, 2014 in Calgary. Police and wildlife officers are watching two cougars that have wandered into south Calgary. One of the cats is near a hospital and the other is at a nearby construction site.
Wildlife officers shot and killed a cougar Thursday that wandered near a hospital in south Calgary.

Brendan Cox, an Alberta government spokesman, said there were reports of another big cat in the area, but they turned out to be false.

"One cougar has been destroyed by officers," he said.

Cox said the wildlife officers had hoped to tranquilize and trap the cougar that was laying in tall grass.

He said after watching the animal they determined the adult male cat was too riled up.

Cox said cougars can become agitated when they get hit with a tranquilizer dart. He said the cat could have run off into a more populated area, putting people at risk.

Attention

Bear attacks - fourth fatality this year in North America: Bear kills hunter near Norman Wells, Canada

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A hunter was killed by a bear near Norman Wells, N.W.T., Wednesday.

Norman Wells RCMP received a call around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday that a hunter had been attacked by a bear southwest of the community, near the Yukon border.

Efforts to reach the area were hampered by weather, said police.

Representatives of the RCMP, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Office of the Chief Coroner reached the scene Thursday morning and confirmed a hunter had died as a result of a bear attack.

There is no word yet on what type of bear attacked the hunter. Grizzly bears are found in the Mackenzie Mountains area near the Yukon/N.W.T. border, where the incident took place.

RCMP say the incident is not considered suspicious and the matter has been turned over to the N.W.T. coroner's office

Comment: The other deaths caused by bears in 2014 in north America -

Bear attacks and kills 31-year-old man in Wyoming

Rick Cross, missing Kananaskis hunter, killed in bear attack, Alberta

Woman killed by a black bear in Fort McMurray, Alberta

By way of comparison the number of deaths in the recent past (years 2000 - 2013) seem to average out to about just two a year, going by this wikipedia list -

List of fatal bear attacks in North America

A number of fatalities has also occurred recently in Russia -

Bear attacks kill at least three people with many others injured in Siberia and far-east Russia


Wolf

Dozens of pets killed by coyotes in College Park, Florida

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Residents in College Park have been dealing with wild coyotes terrorizing their neighborhood and killing their pets over the last few months.

Three to four dozen animals, mostly cats, have been attacked over that time and residents have been left to fend for themselves.

Some ask if it will take a person being attacked by a coyote before anything is done by officials.

"It was just horrible. I hardly even slept last night," said Marcia Kazmi, whose cat was killed by a coyote. "It would have been better for me if my cat had been run over by a car."

Kazmi was devastated by the death of her prized Blue Point Himalayan, named Max, who was found dead in a neighbor's backyard Monday afternoon.

Attention

Fourth elephant attack within four weeks in Sri Lanka

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Elephant breaking a branch after a charge.
Journalist cum farmer, I. L. Siraj from Palamunai, in the Ampara District had a brush with death, when a lone elephant attacked him.

The journalist was heading to his paddy field on his motorcycle, early in the morning, when the elephant rushed out of the jungle at Palamunai and attacked him with his trunk.

He lay on the paddy field without movement as the elephant came closer to him. According to Siraj the elephant stood there for a couple of minutes and then moved slowly into the nearby jungle without causing him further harm.

It was after the elephant disappeared from the scene that the people from the surroundings approached and rushed the journalist to the hospital. Siraj suffered a fracture of his right arm.

Meanwhile, according to the paddy cultivators from the Palamunai area, the elephant involved in the attack has been roaming around the Palamunai area for the past several weeks.

Comment: See also these reports of recent attacks: Two killed in a wild elephant attack in Maankulam, Sri Lanka

One person killed in wild elephant attack in Sri Lanka

Three tourists escaped with only minor injuries after elephant overturns car in Kruger Park, South Africa

Eight elephants attack town; one person reported dead in Ghana

2 killed in separate wild elephant attacks in India

Wild elephant attacks kills two in Sri Lanka