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Peeved pachyderms: Forest worker killed by elephant in Bandipur tiger reserve, India


The Times of India
Sat, 10 May 2014 10:11 UTC
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© Moorthy Gounder/ Wikimedia CommonsPrime elephant habitat consists of forested areas
A forest staff has been killed by wild elephant inside the Bandipur tiger reserve on Friday night.

Lokesh (38), a resident of Mukti Colony in Gundulpet in Chamarajnagar district, was patrolling the forest area deep inside the tiger sanctuary when he was attacked. He died on the spot, Bandipur tiger reserve director H C Kantharaju said.

The forest department is planning to extend Rs 5 lakh compensation to the family of the deceased like for others who are killed by the wild animals.

Lokesh, a guard with eight years experience, was patrolling in Kamapura area along with another ground staff. He excused himself to attend nature's call at around 7 pm when his colleagues went ahead. When he didn't join them after a lapse of some 20 minutes, they came back to search him and found him dead. The injuries on him and the movement of the wild elephants established that he was killed by the pachyderms. Kantharaju told The Sunday Times of India that Lokesh was found dead at the spot. He was a permanent employee and has three daughters, the eldest studying in SSLC.
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Alarm Clock

How perilous is bird life? The numbers are huge and a warning to humanity

Dave Golowenski
The Columbus Dispatch
Sun, 11 May 2014 09:38 UTC
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© Gerald Herbert | ASSOCIATED PRESSA U.S. Fish and Wildlife officer picks up dead birds on North Breton Island, La., on May 20, 2010, about a month after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico. The latest estimate of birds killed from the spill: 800,000.
Birds have a more intimate and enduring relationship with humans than the one that occurs around a fried chicken bucket.

As most know, the act of carrying a caged canary into a coal mine used to be a method for the carrier to save his comrades in the event of deadly gas buildup in a dark, leaky shaft. Enlightened miners took a canary's dropping dead as a strong suggestion that prolonging their own lives depended on a quick flight to fresh air.

The first requirement of such an alarm system is to pay attention. The second is to accept that the physical world is ruled by cause and effect rather than magic. The third consists of the willingness to rationally assess a situation - hastily, if need be - and only then to act.

May is generally accepted as the month when the spring migration peaks. The return of birds, their singing and their good-natured showiness contribute a fair measure of what makes May merry.

Humans have a connection with birds that works at multiple levels, including the inspiration for flight.
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Info

Three of a family trampled to death by an elephant in Nagaon, India


The Times of India
Mon, 12 May 2014 13:23 UTC
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The mother of the children also sustained critical injuries in the attack and is under treatment at Nagaon civil hospital.
Three members of a family, including two children, were trampled to death by a wild elephant at Kaliabor in Nagaon district early on Sunday. The mother of the children also sustained critical injuries in the attack and is under treatment at Nagaon civil hospital.

In another incident, an adult male leopard was beaten to death by villagers at Kakojan area in Jorhat district on Sunday. Forest staff reached the spot after the incident and brought the carcass for autopsy.

The incident of the killing of a father and his two children by the elephant occurred at Hargaon village in Sakmuthia tea garden around 1am on Sunday. A wild elephant came out from the nearby Karbi hills around midnight in search of food and entered Hargaon village inside the tea garden. The pachyderm damaged a house of the village and attacked the family members while they were asleep. Three of them died on the spot.
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Wolf

Grey wolf seen in Iowa for first time in 89 years - shot dead

Jeremy Hance
The Guardian
Mon, 12 May 2014 13:08 UTC
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© APGrey wolves have been confirmed as far west as California and Oregon and as far east as Michigan
DNA testing has confirmed that an animal shot in February in Iowa's Buchanan County was in fact a wolf, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. This is the first confirmed grey wolf (Canis lupus) in the US state since 1925.

Experts believe the wolf likely travelled south from Wisconsin or Minnesota, the latter of which has the largest wolf population in the lower 48.

The Iowa wolf, which was a 65-70 pound healthy female, was shot and killed in February of this year by a hunter who mistook it for a coyote. Although wolves remain a protected species in Iowa, the hunter was not cited, because he believed the animal to be a coyote and has cooperated with authorities, including bringing the wolf to them in the first place.

"I was surprised but not that surprised," DNA specialist Vince Evelsizer told the Gazette. "Large animals can cover great distances, and state lines mean nothing to them."

After being nearly exterminated across the continental US, grey wolves have returned to many states in the last two decades, both due to reintroductions and populations migrating from Canada. Grey wolves have been confirmed as far west as California and Oregon and as far east as Michigan.
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Binoculars

Birds attack people near store in Channelview, Texas

Marcelino Benito
khou.com
Wed, 07 May 2014 07:18 UTC
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Two bird attacks in two days in Channelview have people who frequent the Chrome Shop wondering what's going on. Both incidents were caught on camera.

"We got some kamikaze birds," said Lonny Sieger.

A trucker named Benny Hines was just walking back to his rig when the first incident happened.

"If you watch the video you can see the bird swoop down," said Sieger.

"I took off my cap and started waving them away," said Hines over the phone. "All of a sudden it was more than one bird."

First one bird, then in seconds, three others.

"He was running, and I mean running," said Sieger.

"Running for fear of his life," added Michelle Bradley.

And the birds were close behind.

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Info

Silent Spring: Songbirds are disappearing across the planet reveals new documentary film


cbc.ca
Sun, 11 May 2014 06:55 UTC
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Purple Martin
We depend on songbirds to keep the Earth's plant life flourishing. Like the bees, it is the birds who pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds. They keep insects under control, protecting leaves and seeds and human crops.

But according to the world's leading bird scientists, songbirds are disappearing.

"By some estimates, we may have lost almost half the songbirds that filled the skies almost forty years ago" says respected ornithologist Bridget Stutchbury. Scientists around the globe are in a race against time to discover why this is happening, and what it means.

One species they're studying is the purple martin, whose numbers have dropped by an alarming 78% since 1970, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey which has been keeping population records for more than fifty years.

The purple martin is a migratory bird that follows the food supply from temperate North America south down to the Amazonian Basin. To learn more about their dramatic downhill slide, Stutchbury and her team band the birds with tiny light-level logging geolocators.

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Arrow Down

Bizarre 'octogoat' with eight legs born in Croatia

Lee Moran
New York Daily News
Thu, 08 May 2014 08:54 UTC
According to vets, the animal - born in Kutjevo and owned by Zoran Paparic - likely fused with an underdeveloped twin, resulting in the eight legs, as well as both male and female sex organs. But they aren't sure the kid will live longer than three years, though Paparic hopes to keep it as a pet.


An "octogoat' with eight legs has been born on a Croatian ranch.

The spider-like kid, welcomed into the world earlier this week, also has both male and female sex organs.

Zoran Paparic said he was stunned to see the freak creature after delivering it from mom Sarka on his Kutjevo farm.
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Fish

19 Basking sharks arrive off the coast of Cornwall, UK

Paul Gallagher
The Independent, UK
Fri, 09 May 2014 13:52 UTC
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So many basking sharks have already been spotted in British waters that experts are declaring this the best start to shark season in living memory.

A wildlife tour group reported sighting 19 basking sharks up to 25 feet in length last weekend as the eight-tonne travellers begin to arrive off the south west coast.

The animals, which travel to temperate waters and can stay in British regions until October, have been growing in numbers year on year according to The Shark Trust. A total of 266 Basking Shark sightings were reported to the Trust last year as it hopes for an even higher number in 2014.

"To see so many this early has been an absolute honour and it is exciting to consider what the rest of the season may hold for us," said Captain Keith Leeves, a veteran skipper with AK Wildlife Cruises, told the Western Morning News.
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Eye 2

Snakes invade Regent's Canal district in London

Jack Simpson
The Independent, UK
Sat, 10 May 2014 08:04 UTC
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There has been an increase in sightings of the Aesculupian around the canal in the last couple of months

A band of foreign snakes that are said to be capable of crushing small children to death are on the loose in North London.

Over the last few weeks, 30 Aesculupian snakes, which can grow up to two metres in length, have been spotted up trees, rooftops and climbing up the drains of houses around the Regent's Canal area.

The snakes that are thought to originate from Yugoslavia have been known to attack small dogs and their numbers now seem to be growing in the capital.

Tales of snakes being spotted around the Regent's Canal area began in the 90s, but it was not until the head keeper of reptiles at London Zoo spotted one that they were confirmed as the Aesculupian.

Since then there have been a number of sightings across and these have increased in frequency over the last couple of months.
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Evil Rays

Birds are losing all sense of direction

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post
Wed, 07 May 2014 08:25 UTC
bird
© 2.bp.blogspot.com
What's happening? They are losing their inner-compass...

The migratory pattern of birds - even if it is a dry subject and the aim of comedic cracks - for some odd reason, has always held the high fascination of biologists.

Never more so than now...

That's because the classic experiments were so predictable. Such as a cage with some kind of monitors to catch which direction the bird wanted to travel at night.

That is, until it started going tragically wrong in the mid-2000s.

German researchers discovered in 2004 that the regular experiment became an erratic mystery while observing the European Robin.

They would not orient themselves in a single direction. They would not hop in a direction. They were shut down. They were completely lost. Changing variables like food, light, cages...lots of things - didn't do a thing according to biologist Henrik Mouritsen. For three years they tried to solve the mystery.
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