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Eye 2

Security guard crushed to death by 15ft python in front of terrified crowd outside luxury Bali hotel

Simon Tomlinson
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 11:40 UTC
A security guard was strangled to death by a python in front of terrified onlookers today outside a luxury hotel on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.

Ambar Arianto Mulyo, 59, who worked at a nearby restaurant, had offered to help capture the 15ft-long snake which had been spotted several times near the hotel in Bali's Sanur area.

Mulyo managed to secure the snake's head and tail and put it on his shoulders, according to Agung Bawa, an assistant security manager at the hotel, which is closed for renovations until 2015.

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Strangled to death: A security was killed by a 15ft-long python like this one when he tried to capture it outside a luxury hotel on Indonesia's resort island of Bali
But the python wrapped itself around his body and strangled him to death, Bawa said.

People watching the incident were unable to help and called the police, who came but failed to save the man.

The python escaped into nearby bushes and police were still searching for it.

The incident happened at around 3am as the python was crossing a road near the Bali Hyatt hotel.

'It happened so fast,' Bawa said. 'We were sad because we could not do anything to help him.'
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Arrow Down

A new suspect in bee deaths: the U.S. government

Todd Woody
Quartz
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 16:30 UTC
Bees
© Lisi Niesner/ReutersIgnoring the evidence.
As scientists race to pinpoint the cause of the global collapse of honey bee populations that pollinate a third of the world's crops, environmental groups have indentified one culprit: US authorities who continue to approve pesticides implicated in the apian apocalypse.

Case in point: The US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) conditional approval in May of sulfoxaflor, a type of agricultural pesticide known as a neonicotinoid. The European Union has banned neonicotinoids for two years in response to scientific studies linking their use to the sudden death of entire beehives, a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Over the past six years, CCD has wiped out an estimated 10 million beehives worth $2 billion. Bee colonies in the US are so decimated that it takes 60% of the nation's bee population to pollinate a single crop, California almonds. And that's not just a local problem; California supplies 80% of the world's almonds.

Now environmental and food safety groups are seeking to overturn the EPA's green-lighting of neonicotinoids in a series of lawsuits that for the first time invoke the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) to protect the bees. "EPA inadequately considered, or ignored entirely, sulfoxaflor's harm to pollinators and the significant costs that harm will impose on the agricultural economy, food security, and natural ecosystems," attorneys for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety and other groups argued in a legal brief (PDF) filed in December in litigation aiming to revoke the approval of sulfoxaflor.
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Question

Mystery disease causes sea star die-off along U.S. West Coast

Susan Murphy
KPBS
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 11:47 UTC

Sea stars along the West Coast are being wiped out on a wide scale by a mysterious disease. There's no evidence of the die-off in San Diego yet, but some researchers say it seems inevitable.

Scientists are calling the epidemic sea star wasting syndrome. It was first reported off the Washington coast in June and has since spread south to Orange County, and 70 miles off the San Diego coast at San Clemente Island.

"The first thing to happen is lesions will form," said Keith Lombardo, chief of natural resources with the Cabrillo National Monument, where an abundance of tide pools offer a window into the intertidal Pacific Ocean.

"And then the lesions begin to actually dissolve the sea star, and when that begins to happen the sea star is no longer able to hold onto rock," Lombardo said.
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Eye 2

Snake crawls across woman's legs as she laid in bed in Humpty Doo, Australia

GeoBeats News
youtube.com
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 10:22 UTC

A 24-year-old woman in Humpty Doo, Australia, Hailee Skinner, got an unexpected and unwanted surprise while resting in her bed. Skinner got an up close and personal encounter with a snake.

There are certain things we don't want getting too close to us.

A 24-year-old woman in Humpty Doo, Australia, Hailee Skinner, got an unexpected and unwanted surprise while resting in her bed. Skinner got an up close and personal encounter with a snake.

The terrifying ordeal started when she returned home from a dinner and put a movie in before hopping in bed. That's when she felt something crawling across her legs.

At first, she suspected it was a gecko so she kicked her leg in an effort to fling it on the floor. Skinner was successful, but when she looked down, she realized the seductive creature was a snake.

Skinner screamed then called her family members for help. She stated "I've never been friendly with snakes. My biggest fear in the moment was that it would bite me then go off into the house and we wouldn't be able to find it."

Skinner's brother was responsible for containing the serpent. He believed it to be an olive snake, which measured approximately 23 and a half inches long.

The snake was released into a nearby swamp.

Source: Northern Territory News
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Attention

Best of the Web: Signs of Change in December 2013

HawkkeyDavis Channel
YouTube
Wed, 18 Dec 2013 08:06 UTC
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Rivers turning blood-red, whales beaching themselves in Florida, landslides, sinkholes and flooding in southern Italy, severe flooding in Malaysia, extreme storms bring hurricane-force wind and snow to the UK and northern Europe, ice-storms across the US, including the coldest average day than any day last winter, avalanches of ice falling off buildings as far south as Dallas, the coldest ever recorded temperature anywhere on Earth (in Antarctica), a 'rare winter storm of Biblical proportions' in Palestine, snow in Egypt, fireballs raining down from the sky, including one overhead explosion in Arizona whose shockwave shook buildings from Chandler to Flagstaff, two separate fireballs over Greece, heavy flooding in Rio de Janeiro washing away whole buildings, giant sinkholes swallowing cars and buildings the world over, including one in China that swallowed an entire hamlet of 11 buildings, hundreds of birds falling from the sky in Virginia, the strongest rainfall on record forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate southern China...

The following video is a sample of strange and extreme weather events that took place around the world in first two weeks of December 2013.

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Question

15 rare Indian bisons die in Thai wildlife park


Times of India
Wed, 25 Dec 2013 06:14 UTC
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© THE NATIONAL PARKS, WILDLIFE, AND PLANT CONSERVATION DEPARTMENTTheerapat Prayurasiddhi, deputy directorgeneral of the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, fourth from left, inspects a carcass of a gaur at Kui Buri National Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan. Thirteen gaurs have been found dead in the forest this month
At least 15 rare gaurs or Indian bisons have mysteriously died in Thailand's Kui Buri National Park in the past few days, leaving wildlife officials baffled.

Officials feel disease or food poisoning could be the probable causes behind the spate of deaths at the Park in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said.

DNP director-general Theerapat Prayurasiddhi said veterinarians and National Institute of Animal Health experts are looking into the issue and plan to collect soil specimens.

Theerapat said consumption of contaminated food was the most likely cause.

All the dead animals were found in the Kunshorn forest plantation project.

He said the forest plantation project zone used to be agricultural land before the department brought it under national park control about a decade ago and it was possible there were toxic pesticide residues in the soil.

Veterinarians are also looking into disease as a possible cause of the deaths.

Gaurs are among the largest living land animals. Only elephants, rhinos, the hippopotamus and the giraffe consistently grow heavier.

Source: Press Trust of India
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Attention

Update: Virus has now killed over 1,000 bottlenose dolphins along U.S. East coast in 2013


Times of India
Tue, 24 Dec 2013 06:01 UTC
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© Stuart Westmorland/CorbisA bottlenose dolphin.
More than 1,000 migratory bottlenose dolphins have died from a measles-like virus along the US Eastern Seaboard in 2013 and the epidemic shows no sign of abating, a marine biologist said on Monday.

The death toll exceeds the 740 dolphins killed during the last big outbreak of the then-unknown virus in 1987-88.

"It is having a significant impact and that is something we're monitoring closely," said Erin Fougeres, a marine mammal biologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

An estimated 39,206 bottlenose dolphins populated the eastern seaboard, to a depth of 25 feet, from New Jersey to Central Florida in 2010, according to the latest NOAA census.

Scientists are trying to determine why the morbillivirus resurged this year. The dolphins, which migrate south for the winter, have been stranded or found dead on beaches from New York to Florida since June, Fougeres said.

An unknown number of affected dolphins likely died offshore as well, she said.

A record number of manatees have also died in Florida waters this year, mostly from a toxic algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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Attention

The Top 10 massive animal die-off's of 2013


YouTube.com
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 14:00 UTC

10. Sunflower Starfish

9. Norwegian Salmon

8. Sheep

7. Manatees

6. Bottlenose Dolphins

5. Sea Turtles

4. Chinese River Crabs

3. Honey Bees

2. Livestock Cattle

1. Various Fish
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Question

Concerns raised over a number of dead birds in Bahrain


Daily Tribune (Bahrain)
Wed, 18 Dec 2013 13:14 UTC
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Bird lovers in the country are in a shock after hearing reports about increasing number of birds either lying dead or injured on roads, pavements and in parks. They complain that the authorities concerned did not take adequate steps despite seeing a legion of dead birds in many areas including Manama and Adliya. However, the reasons behind mass deaths are unknown.

Speaking to DT News, Bahrain Animal Lovers Society Founder Huda Muhammed urged the residents not to ignore injured birds on roads as timely treatment could save their lives. "I have seen dead birds many times in Adliya near Fuddruckers. The reasons for their death are many. But, mostly it happens out of accidents with birds hitting the windshields of the car," she pointed out.

"Generally, in Bahrain, people don't care for injured birds. I think we need to be more compassionate towards this poor living creatures," she added. Echoing a similar view, Sam Viegas, another bird lover said, "Birds lying dead on roads is a horrific scene to watch. People concerned should investigate the reasons and put an end to this."
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Info

Oil impact on dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon spill


wildlifeextra.com
Tue, 24 Dec 2013 12:50 UTC
In Louisiana's Barataria Bay Bottlenose dolphins are five times more likely to suffer from lung damage and adrenal hormone abnormalities than any other dolphin populations as a result of the Deepwater Horizon spill, scientists have discovered.

Twenty-nine of the total 32 dolphins sampled in Barataria Bay received comprehensive physical examinations, including ultrasound examinations to assess lung condition and researchers assigned almost half (48 percent) of the dolphins a guarded or worse prognosis. In fact, they classified 17 percent as being in poor or grave condition, meaning the dolphins were not expected to survive.
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The researchers also found that 25 percent of the Barataria Bay dolphins were significantly underweight and the population overall had very low levels of adrenal hormones, which are critical for responding to stress.

These findings are in contrast to dolphins sampled in Sarasota Bay, Florida, an area not oiled by the Deepwater Horizon spill. For Dr. Lori Schwacke, the study's lead author and veteran of a number of similar dolphin health studies across the southeast, the findings are troubling: "I've never seen such a high prevalence of very sick animals - and with unusual conditions such as the adrenal hormone abnormalities."

The study was conducted in August 2011 as part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) by a team of government, academic and non-governmental researchers and results were published were published December 2013 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
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