Katherine Donlevy New York Post Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00 UTC
Whale, they didn't see that coming.
A pair of fishermen were tossed into the chilly New Hampshire waters Tuesday when a "p***** off" humpback landed squarely on their boat.
The thrilling video shows the magnificent beast soar out from the surface just beyond the stern of the small vessel anchored a half-mile off the coast of Portsmouth.
Comment: Although the humpback whale expert said that this has nothing to do with aggression, it's natural that the public would assume this due to the recent killer whale attacks on ships:
Lee Bullen, Joe Smith Mirror Wed, 24 Jul 2024 14:22 UTC
The rare fish - known as the harbinger of doom - usually lives at depths of between 656 and 3,280 feet (200 and 1,000 metres) but on Wednesday (July 17) tourists spotted a rare healthy specimine
Shocked tourists were treated to a rare sighting of a giant oarfish swimming past their tour boat just one day before an earthquake struck.
The rare fish - known as the harbinger of doom - usually lives at depths of between 656 and 3,280 feet (200 and 1,000 metres).
The only times they are usually spotted are after they have been washed up on a beach following a storm or when they have suffered an injury. It is very rare to see one of the massive creatures swimming alive and well in shallow water.
When they do make an appearance it is typically considered bad luck by locals, who traditionally see it as a sign that disaster is about to strike.
So it was a mixed blessing when the astonished tourists encountered the live oarfish in shallow waters off the Mexican coast on Wednesday (July 17).
Jessica Murray Guardian Mon, 22 Jul 2024 11:51 UTC
A woman in her 30s has been killed by her pet dog in Coventry, the fourth fatal dog attack in England and Wales this year.
West Midlands police said they attended at house on Wexford Road in the city at about 12.15pm on Monday after 999 calls. The woman was treated by the ambulance service at the scene but died a short time later.
The dog has been seized and its breed has yet to be confirmed, but police said they did not believe it to be a banned breed. The family of the woman have been informed and the death has been reported to the coroner for further inquiries.
Ch Insp David Amos, from the local neighbourhood policing area, said: "We understand that this is a distressing and tragic incident and we would like to thank the local community for their support and to our emergency services colleagues who dealt with this incident. Our thoughts remain firmly with the family and loved ones of the woman who has sadly died.
A 19-year-old woman died in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains after being attacked by a bear, Romanian news agency Mediafax reported on Wednesday.
She was dragged away by the wild animal while hiking in the Bucegi massif south of Brașov on Tuesday evening, a witness reported who then made an emergency call.
Less than an hour later, mountain rescuers and police came and recovered the woman's body.
They shot the bear, as it had also tried to attack the rescue workers, the report said.
Comment: Agence France-Presse reported on July 15:
Romania's parliament has approved the culling of almost 500 bears this year in an effort to control the "overpopulation" of the protected species after a deadly attack on a hiker sparked nationwide outcry.
The country is home to 8,000 brown bears, according to the environment ministry, Europe's largest brown bear population outside Russia.
Bears have killed 26 people and severely injured 274 others over the past 20 years in Romania, the ministry said this year.
After a young hiker was mauled to death on a popular trail in Romania's Carpathian mountains last week, the prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, summoned lawmakers back from their summer recess to attend an emergency session of parliament.
As well as adopting legislation on Monday to control the brown bear population, the parliament held a moment of silence in the 19-year-old hiker's memory.
See also this small selection of similar reports from across the world in recent years indicating perhaps an increasing trend in such aggressive behavior:
Many more such records can be under the Topics-Animal heading located here. Reports of attacks by other species, such as dogs, elephants, sharks, alligators, bison, kangaroos, hyenas, leopards, cougars, tigers, pythons and sundry others (some non-fatal but atypical) have also been compiled - with the database going back to 2006.
Ram Kali, said to be over 108 years old, was mauled to death by a pack of stray dogs outside Friends Colony in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district during her morning walk around 4am on Wednesday, reports Harveer Dabas.
Neighbours found her body lying outside the colony and alerted her family, who rushed her to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared her dead.
Speaking to TOI, Lakshmi, a relative, said, "My grandmother-in-law was 108 years old.
She was mentally ill and often left the house without informing us. Dogs had scratched her entire body and even separated one leg from the body."
The family has not filed a police complaint regarding the incident and she was cremated on Wednesday afternoon. Speaking on the stray menace, Amroha Nagarpalika executive officer Brijesh Kumar said, "Efforts to capture the stray dogs are under way."
An alarming rise in stray dog attacks in Telangana has left the authorities concerned prompting to set up a toll-free helpline number to report such cases. Stray dog attack claimed life of an infant in Secunderabad while in Jagityala, a boy was injured and currently undergoing treatment at a hospital.
Two-year-old boy killed in Secunderabad:
A two-year-old boy was mauled to death by a stray dog in Jawaharnagar in Secunderabad, police said on Wednesday. Vidhan was playing outside his house when a dog attacked him. He sustained severe injuries and was taken to the Gandhi Hospital. However, his condition deteriorated and he died.
Locals complained that despite repeatedly alerting authorities about the growing menace of stray dogs in the area, nothing has been done to address the problem.
Missy Wilkinson nola.com Tue, 16 Jul 2024 11:18 UTC
A 9-year-old boy sustained a laceration and puncture wounds to his left leg in an alligator attack Sunday evening while swimming with family in Lake Pontchartrain, according to the New Orleans Fire Department.
Capt. Stefan Schmidt of Engine 13, who rendered aid along with personnel from New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, credited the boy's father for saving his life.
"I really feel he would have pulled him under, drowned the kid and killed him," Schmidt said of an alligator he estimated at 6 feet in length. "The dad jumped on the gator and was literally beating it, and it let go of his son."
The family was swimming at dusk near the mouth of Bayou St. John where it meets Lake Pontchartrain — a popular spot to cool off due to the nearby sandbar, according to the New Orleans Fire Department. Swimmers spotted the gator swimming toward the boy and yelled to warn him.
But the child thought people were joking. His injury was "pretty bad," said Schmidt, who along with EMS workers helped wrap the boy's leg before transporting him to a hospital.
Rangers inspect what is believed to be a rare spade-toothed whale on July 5, 2024, after it was found washed ashore on a beach near Otago, New Zealand
Spade-toothed whales are the world's rarest, with no live sightings ever recorded. No one knows how many there are, what they eat, or even where they live in the vast expanse of the southern Pacific Ocean. However, scientists in New Zealand may have finally caught a break.
The country's conservation agency said Monday a creature that washed up on a South Island beach this month is believed to be a spade-toothed whale. The five-meter-long creature, a type of beaked whale, was identified after it washed ashore on an Otago beach from its color patterns and the shape of its skull, beak and teeth.
"We know very little, practically nothing" about the creatures, Hannah Hendriks, marine technical adviser for the Department of Conservation, said. "This is going to lead to some amazing science and world-first information."
If the cetacean is confirmed to be the elusive spade-toothed whale, it would be the first specimen found in a state that would permit scientists to dissect it, allowing them to map the relationship of the whale to the few others of the species found, learn what it eats and perhaps lead to clues about where they live.
A Spanish tourist has been trampled to death by elephants after climbing out of his car to take photos of the herd at a game reserve in South Africa.
The unnamed 43-year-old man was visiting Pilanesberg National Park on Sunday morning with his fiancee and two other people when the attack happened, according to police.
The group had been driving around in their own vehicle before spotting three elephants with three calves, officers said.
Once the man got out of the car and walked towards the herd, the matriarch became "agitated" and charged at him, said Pieter Nel, a spokesman for the local tourism board.
Unable to escape, the man was then trampled on by the rest of the herd.
Local media report that the man was taken to hospital but died of his injuries, external.
Comment: Although the humpback whale expert said that this has nothing to do with aggression, it's natural that the public would assume this due to the recent killer whale attacks on ships:
- Orcas off coast of Scotland repeatedly ram yacht
- Terrifying moment pod of 7 orcas SINK a sailing yacht off Portugal
- Orcas attacked a Polish yacht for 45 minutes, sinking it off the coast of Morocco, tour company says
Last year in a similar incident, two kayakers were knocked out of their kayak by a humpback whale that was feeding: