Increasing numbers of dead fish are floating to the surface of the water in the Nile's Rosetta branch near the coastal city of Desouk, which indicates a potentially serious environmental disaster could be underway.

Fishermen reported a foul stench, thinking at first it was coming from the sewage or the industrial waste of the factories.

The governor has formed a committee to take samples of the fish and send them to the central laboratories of Kafr al-Sheikh to analyze and determine the causes.

The residents of the city complain that it has been three days and the numbers of dead fish are still growing, changing the color of the water.

Hani al-Mahlawy of the Preventive Security Administration claims the fish are dying due to the winter blockage of the Nile water that takes place around this time every year, which reduces the amount of oxygen in the water.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

A young family holidaying in Port Douglas had the shock of a lifetime when they discovered a night snake sleeping beneath their two-year-old daughter's feet in her stroller.

Lauren Bailey, from NSW, was enjoying a walk with her children Max, 4, and Isla, 2.

They were staying in an apartment and the stroller had been parked in the stairwell overnight when the snake apparently decided to curl up for a rest.

Ms Bailey said the family had been out walking on Macrossan St for about half an hour and checking out the local stores when they stopped for ice cream.

"The snake was hidden underneath a clear rain cover for the stroller, and my daughter had her feet on top of that," she said.

"I had also taken the pump out of the bottom of the stroller, so I had my hand right next to it and sat down next to it to pump up the tyres.

"We stopped to buy an ice cream, I took the kids out of the stroller and the sky started to sprinkle so I took out the rain cover and saw the snake sitting right there.

Up to 500 flying foxes died at Yarra Bend Park yesterday after the extreme heat decimated the colony.

Animal rescuers are tending the animals on both the Boroondara and Darebin sides of the river, with rescuers describing the sight as "horrific".

The South Oakleigh Wildlife Shelter's Michele Phillips said the extreme heat had caused the creatures to literally "drop out of the trees".

"It's a nightmare. We lost so many yesterday," Ms Phillips said.

Rescuers are rallying at the Kew park with water spray and rehydrating fluid, trying to save thousands of remaining flying foxes.

"When they drop to the ground we are trying to rehydrate them, and we are spraying the ones still in the trees," Ms Phillips said.

Victorian Advocate of Animals spokesman Lawrence Pope said rescuers were finding many dead animals, and others barely alive.

Heaven and Earth / A collection of amateur and media video reports from December 5, 2013 to January 15, 2014

Fireballs, strange lights in the sky, massive sinkholes, new islands, erupting volcanoes, powerful tidal surges and storms, the jet stream going haywire, mass animal deaths... in terms of Earth Changes and other strange phenomena, it looks like 2014 is picking up where 2013 left off!


This new series replaces "20** IS STRANGE". It's pretty much the same thing - cataloguing unusual natural events and other strange phenomena. The biggest change is the title ;)

This is an educational/teaching and research purposes only video. This application is not commercial and is free to use.

Jake Thomas thought there would be no risk of a bite from a red-bellied black snake 45 minutes after cutting it in half.

He was wrong.

The "dead" snake turned on the 66-year-old and bit him twice on the hand.

Mr Thomas, a volunteer who mows the local cemetery at Werris Creek where his daughter Kim is buried, came across the snake during his usual clean-up. It was in a vase on a headstone.

Fearful about other people's safety, Mr Thomas cut the snake in half. Like most people would, he had thought the strike had killed the snake, so he left to finish off the rest of the cemetery maintenance.

Specimens of several different species, including sea turtles and dolphins, have been found near Sechura, in Piura.

A mysterious and morbid phenomenon has overtaken a beach near Sechura, in the Peruvian region of Piura. A substantial number of semi-decomposed sea animals have washed up along the coast, and no one knows why or what killed them.

According to RPP Noticias, 22 dolphins, 17 sea lions, and 23 sea turtles have been found along a stretch of 20 kilometers.

RPP reports that specialists are awaiting results from tests performed on tissue samples collected from the deceased specimens. The samples were sent to the laboratories of the Ocean Institute of Peru (Imarpe) in Lambayeque for research and investigation.

Silvia Rumiche, environmental specialist in Piura, told RPP that the animals' "state of decomposition [indicates] that these species have been dead for two weeks. However, other remains in a skeletal state have been verified as well, and according to the biologists, this prevents them from being able to take samples in order to determine the causes of death."

RPP reports that no solid hypotheses about the animals' causes of death can be formed until laboratory results from tissue samples are available. At this time, it is not believed that the animals were killed by humans.

A large winter fish kill at Clinton Lake near DeWitt has been attributed to recent fluctuations in water temperatures.

A wide selection of species, including walleye, bass, crappie and channel catfish, was among more than 5,300 fish located Tuesday by a fisheries biologist from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

The fish were found between the Illinois 48 and DeWitt bridges, near the hot water channel for the Clinton Power Station, said IDNR spokesman Tim Schweizer.

"Abrupt changes in water temperatures are not uncommon at a power plant lake" and likely caused the fish kill, said Schweizer.

Lake fishing should not be negatively impacted, said Schweizer.

Snake Fungal Disease could send some species spiraling into an "extinction vortex," said one expert.

Somewhere in the back of our minds, we all worry about the sort of nightmare pandemic envisioned in films like Contagion or The Hot Zone, with some horrific new disease sweeping across the continents and mowing down human victims like so much hay. But wildlife biologists worry more than most, because they've already seen emerging diseases devastate two major animal groups.

Now it seems to be happening yet again, while the two other wildlife pandemics are still raging unresolved: Over the past two decades, the chytrid fungus has contributed to the extinction of perhaps 100 amphibian species - including some of the most colorful, charismatic frogs in the world - with many more extinctions now being predicted. White nose syndrome, another fungal disease, first discovered in 2006, has already killed off 6 to 7 million North American bats and now threatens some species with extinction. No reliable remedy is known for either disease.

The victims of what seems to be a new epidemic are snakes, and they may prove even harder to save, because they are widely unpopular and because populations in many areas tend to be small and scattered. Wildlife biologists first noticed the new pathogen in 2006, among New Hampshire's only surviving population of the timber rattlesnake.

The first victim turned up dead in early June, from a severe fungal infection in the mouth. Other victims displayed skin lesions around the head and, in one case, a severely swollen eye. Within a year, half the population was dead.

Poachers killing animals at record rate, sparking fear of demise of entire population within 20 years

More than 1,000 rhinos were killed in South Africa last year at a record-breaking rate that could wipe out the country's entire population of white and black rhinos in a little over two decades.

The environment ministry said 1,004 animals were killed in 2013, mostly in poaching hotspot Kruger national park, as the poaching crisis escalated. The number is a big increase on the 668 killed in 2012, which was in itself a record year, up from just 13 in 2007.

Appetite for rhino horn from Asia, in particular Vietnam, has driven the killing in South Africa, which ministers have warned in turn threatens the country's tourism sector. Demand is so high that a kilogramme of rhino horn is now worth more than gold or cocaine.

The UK prime minister, David Cameron, is hosting a summit in London next month in a bid to tackle the trade which has also seen tens of thousands of elephants killed in Africa annually in recent years.

A day after 22 spotted deer died at the Kanan Pendari Zoo Park in Chhattisgarh, investigations have revealed that the deaths were caused due to Anthrax bacterial infection.

"Spotted deer died due Anthrax infection. Analysis of symptoms confirms that the animals were infected by bacteria called Bacillus anthracis", Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Ram Prakash told reporters at the zoo, located about 12 kilometres away from Bilaspur town.

"The dead herbivorous animals showed symptoms of Anthrax Bacteria as blood came out through mouth and anus. The stomach swelled like a balloon because of infection", he pointed out adding that there were 53 spotted deer, including 18 males and 35 females, in the cage.

He said Antharax is a communicable bacterium that spreads very fast through air. "Hence, we have buried all the dead animals instead of consigning them to flames. One of the apparent reasons for the outbreak of Anthrax bacteria is high moisture content in the air due to continuous rainfall in the region. "Even two days ago, it rained heavily in Bilaspur region and there is still moisture in the air", he added.

Asked how only female animals died due to infection, Ram Prakash explained that male deer have a better immune system than female deer. However, he said the state forest department was started a detailed investigation into all aspects of Anthrax infection in animals in the zoo.

Stating that a three member committee, comprising DFO Bilaspur Hemant Pandey, Achanakmar Tiger reserve Deputy Director C L Agrawal and veterinary surgeon P K Chandan, has been constituted to further probe the matter, the PCCF said a team of experts from Veterinary college at Anjora has also confirmed that the deaths were caused due to Anthrax infection.

With this incident, Kanan Pendari zoo will remain closed for general public for the next ten days as a team of doctors have begun vaccination of the animals in the zoo to prevent infection.

As the animals started dying under mysterious circumstances on Wednesday, initially wildlife officials suspected that the herbivorous animals were poisoned by someone.