Animals
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Attention

Elephant kills 3 villagers in Orissa, India


The Times of India
Mon, 09 Feb 2015 21:09 UTC
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© Satish Hanumantha RaoElephant Charging
A tusker killed three persons, including a couple, in Keonjhar district on Saturday night.

The deceased were identified as Laxmidhara Mohanta, 28, a resident of Chakulia village and Purna Chandra Mohanta, 65, and his wife Abanti Mohanta, 55, of Sitarampur village. Purna Chandra was a retired teacher.

Forest department sources said the tusker got separated from a herd at Similipal under Mayurbhanj forest division and entered Keonjhar from Patna range. It then wandered into Champua through Sadar forest range.

Around 10pm, the jumbo attacked Laxmidhara, a labourer, while he was working in a brick kiln near the village. Then it headed towards Sitarampur. Purna Chandra saw the tusker in his garden around 11pm and panicked. His wife rushed out hearing him scream. The elephant attacked and killed them, the sources added.
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Cow

Runaway cow charges at police officer near Jaromer, Czech Republic

Dominic Smith
Daily Mirror, UK
Mon, 09 Feb 2015 17:50 UTC
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Charge: The runaway cow on the move
This is the heart-stopping moment a runaway cow charged at a police officer and nearly trampled him.

Police were responding to a call about an escaped cow near the city of Jaromer, Czech Republic and this patrol car footage shows the moment an officer approached the angry animal.

What happened next is really scary, as the cow bows its head and runs at the officer.

The enormous animal even leaps on top of the patrol car and smashes the windscreen.

A time stamp on the video indicates that the attack happened on February 2nd at around 11am.

The officer was reportedly unharmed and the cow was returned to its owner with help of the local fire department.


Comment: Other cow attacks on people:

Farmer attacked and killed by cattle in Northern Ireland

Ranch hand hospitalized after cow attack in Cuyama Valley, California

Lincolnshire farm worker dies following cow attack

Cow kills farm worker in Cherryville, Canada

Cow rampages through town, tosses cop aside and tramples over cop car

France: Cow attack kills one, injures four

Australia: Cow headbutts, kills man

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Wolf

Dog attacks owners in Chula Vista, California

Lyndsay Winkley
San Diego Union-Tribune
Sun, 08 Feb 2015 16:31 UTC
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© Scripps MediaA father and his adult son were taken to the hospital after they were repeatedly bitten by a dog in Eastlake.
Police officers put down a dog after it was seriously injured in an attack against its owner and his son, who were bitten several times Sunday afternoon, Chula Vista police said.

A family was in the backyard of their La Costa Avenue home near Masters Ridge Road when, for unknown reasons, a boxer turned on its owner's adult son and began biting him, police Lt. Kenny Heinz said. The owner tried to pull the dog away, and it began attacking him as well. Both men repeatedly tried to pull the dog off each other and were bitten a number of times in the process. Someone at the home called police about 2 p.m.

Firefighters got their first and tried to restrain the dog with "emergency equipment," Heinz said. When police arrived, they found the dog badly injured. An officer shot the dog to end its suffering and to protect against any other attacks, Heinz said.

"The family was extremely upset," he said. "They are totally shocked the dog would do this. It's a really upsetting situation."

The two injured men were taken to a hospital for their injuries.
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Question

Hundreds of birds mysteriously dying in El Reno, Oklahoma

Kim Passoth
koco.com
Fri, 30 Jan 2015 23:20 UTC
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Birds are mysteriously dying in El Reno
Hundreds of dead birds were found in an El Reno parking lot.

El Reno citizen Janince Wodrings told Passoth she like to watch the birds fly around near the Walmart on Country Club Drive just off I-40.

"Have you ever seen a school of fish? They will swirl and swoop, well that's the way the starlings look," Woodring said.

In the evening, they cover every tree and telephone wire. Most fly away during the day. That is when it is obvious that something is wrong. Friday morning, there were hundreds of dead grackle and starlings.


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Attention

Thousands of starfish found dead or dying on South Padre Island, Texas

Heather Alexander
Houston Chronicle
Tue, 03 Feb 2015 20:44 UTC
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© Coastal and Marine Resources Texas Sea Grant Thousands of starfish on the beaches of South padre Island after rough weather conditions leave them stranded.
Thousands of starfish have been stranded on the beaches of South Padre Island after what investigators are calling a "perfect storm" for starfish.

It's thought that high winds and strong currents coincided exactly to wash up the creatures that had been close to shore feeding.

It's only the third time a case like this has ever been reported, the last being in 2009.

At first it was thought they were victims of the polar vortex, which swept the country during January but then investigators realised it was something else
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Wolf

Mom and two daughters attacked by family dog in McKinney, Texas

Monica Hernandez
wfaa.com
Fri, 06 Feb 2015 18:49 UTC
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© WFAAA dog attacked a mother and her two kids in McKinney.
A mother and her two daughters were taken to the hospital after being attacked by their own pit bull Thursday evening in McKinney.

The dog turned on the family just before 6 p.m. inside their home in the 3000 block of Kingsbury Drive, according to a McKinney police spokesperson.

One of the girls was attacked, but managed to escape the home with her sister.

One neighbor said she heard screams and saw the younger of the two girls bleeding in front of the home, with serious injuries to her lower legs.

Another neighbor was helping to apply pressure to her wounds.

The dog was still attacking the mother inside the home when officers arrived. Police said at least one officer shot and killed the dog to prevent further harm.

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Attention

Elephant kills three people in West Bengal, India


zeenews.india.com
Fri, 06 Feb 2015 18:06 UTC
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© Jagdeep RajputCharging Asian elephants.
Three people were killed and another injured Friday after they were attacked by an elephant in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district, a forest official said.

The incident happened when the tusker strayed into the Kathambari village under the under the Apalchand range of Baikunthapur forest division.

"The elephant had strayed into the village and attacked people killing three of them and injuring another. While one person was killed on the spot, two others succumbed to their injuries in a hospital," Divisional Forest Officer (Baikunthapur) P.R. Pradhan told IANS.

The victims have been identified as Rabin Orao, Surajit Katham and Benoy De Sarkar.

Forest officials later managed to push the animal back into the jungle.

Locals staged a demonstration outside the forest official office seeking compensation for the dead.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service
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Attention

Dead Humpback whale found on Corolla beach, North Carolina

Jeff Hampton
hamptonroads.com
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 20:25 UTC
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© Karen Clark | Outer Banks Center for Wildlife EducationA 29-foot female juvenile humpack whale was found near the Lighthouse Road beach access in Corolla, N.C.
Scientists today examined a dead female humpback whale that washed ashore Tuesday afternoon.

The juvenile was found near the Lighthouse Road beach access in Corolla with entanglement scars from fishing nets.

The whale, which was about 30 feet long and weighed 25,000 pounds, otherwise appeared healthy and had recently eaten menhaden, said William McLellan, the North Carolina State Stranding Coordinator.

Whale strandings -- especially this time of year -- are not uncommon and happen frequently on the Outer Banks, more so than anywhere else on the East Coast, he said. There have been 100 whale strandings in 15 years, he said.
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Attention

Mass die-off of hundreds of pigeons alarm biologists in California

Peter Fimrite
San Francisco Chronicle
Mon, 02 Feb 2015 16:29 UTC
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© Krysta RogersCalifornia's only native pigeon is the band-tailed pigeon, which spends springs and summer in the Bay Area and other parts of Northern California
An alarming increase in the number of dead and dying band-tailed pigeons along the California coast has prompted wildlife biologists to ask the public for help documenting the apparent decline of the only native pigeon left in the state.

At least 1,000 of the pigeons, which winter in Central and Southern California, have been found dead in Santa Clara and Santa Barbara counties since December, the apparent victims of a parasite spread by the common rock pigeon, said Krysta Rogers, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The sudden increase in mortality is disturbing, Rogers said, because the closest living relative to the extinct passenger pigeon has been struggling for decades to recover from rampant hunting, habitat loss and other environmental problems.
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Binoculars

Sea duck that is native to Northern Europe turns up off California coast

Candase Chambers
krcrtv.com
Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:03 UTC
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Common Scoter.
Bird watchers from across the country traveled to the Crescent City Harbor for the first North American sighting of the Common Scoter on Wednesday.

The Common Scoter is a sea duck that is native to Northern Europe. The rare North American Common Scoter sighting not only brought out local bird watchers, but bird watchers from North Carolina.

"This is very important for me; it's pretty much all I live for," Keith Camburn, a bird watcher who traveled from North Carolina, said.

Harbor Master, Charlie Helms of the Crescent City Harbor District, said the Common Scoter sighting brought a crowd he's never seen at the harbor.
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