Animals
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Blue Planet

Jellyfish taking over oceans, experts warn

Karla Cripps
CNN
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:30 UTC
Jellyfish
© Funny-Potato.com

It's a beautiful afternoon on the beach.

The sun is shining, you're rolling in the waves, showing off the toned torso you worked on at the gym all winter.

Suddenly a sharp, burning sensation hits your skin.

You've just been stung by a jellyfish.

If experts' warnings are true, swimmers around the world can expect to experience these unwanted love taps in greater numbers than ever before.

"Jellyfish and tourism are not happy bedfellows," says Dr. Lisa-Ann Gershwin, author of the recently published book, Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean.

Gershwin says popular beach resorts around the world are seeing huge increases in jellyfish "bloom" activity, a result of overfishing and changing water temperatures.
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Question

5 Endangered whales found dead on Russia's east coast


en.ria.ru
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 04:33 UTC
Image
© Vasily Tatatai /WWF5 Endangered Whales Found Dead on Russia’s East Coast
The remains of five endangered gray whales have been found washed ashore in Russia's most northeasterly region, a nongovernmental marine life organization said Tuesday.

"The remains belong to gray whales of the Chukotka-California population, which have been put on Russia's Red List of threatened species," Marine Mammal Council deputy head Andrei Boltunov said.

"We need to register all the cases of these animals' death and investigate the reasons of the incident," he said.

In September, a team of Russian scientists found the remains of ten gray whales washed up on the 800-kilometer (500-mile) stretch of the Chukotka coast during an aerial survey. No cause of death has been determined.

Large numbers of polar bears have been attracted to the sites where the carcasses were found, prompting scientists to warn local residents of the danger from the animals.

"Close attention should be paid to the crowds of polar bears near the remains of whales and walruses washed ashore," said Viktor Nikiforov, head of the World Wildlife Fund's Polar Bear Patrol program.
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Arrow Down

Rise of the mutant rats: More and more rodents immune to regular poison in the UK

Daniel Binns
Metro, UK
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:28 UTC
Rat
© GettyResistant: Rats are becoming immune to poison.

Mutant 'super rats' which cannot be killed by regular poisons are spreading across Britain, experts are warning.

The creatures, which look like normal rodents but eat toxic pellets 'like feed', have been discovered in Kent, the west country and now in Sussex.

The British Pest Control Association's Richard Moseley told Metro: 'Normal rats are being killed off by poison, so these resistant species are taking their place - it's only natural that their numbers are expanding.

'But they're being found further afield than previously anticipated.

'They eat poison like feed; you might as well be leaving out grain for them'.

There are an estimated 10.5million rats in Britain and they breed rapidly.

The gestation period is just 21 days and a female can have up to 14 pups at a time. Some breeding pairs can have 800 young in just two years.

Poison-resistant rats have been around for 50 years but researchers warn they are spreading rapidly. Mutants have been found in Sussex for the first time by researchers from the University of Huddersfield.
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Butterfly

Australia's bogong moth invasion turns even yawning into a potential health hazard

Kathy Marks
The Independent,UK
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 13:19 UTC
A week before Australian politicians reconvene after a lengthy spring break, Parliament House in Canberra has been invaded by a different kind of pest: swarms of large bogong moths, breaking their journey on their annual flight south.

The native moths, which have a wingspan of up to 5cm, have occupied both parliamentary chambers, carpeting ceilings, walls and windows. Political journalists, already installed in their offices, complain of the brown, furry insects crawling up their trouser legs and drowning in cups of tea. According to one report, "even an inadvertent morning yawn can become a health hazard".

Bogongs fly south in search of the cooler climes of New South Wales's Snowy Mountains and the Victorian Alps. On their way, they encounter the bright lights of Sydney and Canberra. And while they regularly gatecrash barbecues at this time of year, the moths have appeared earlier than usual, stoking fears of a bumper bogong year.
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The insects have flooded offices in the capital, Canberra
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Question

Mystery disease turns starfish to goo as 95% of the sea creatures are wiped out off parts of the West Coast

Wills Robinson
The Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:34 UTC
  • Condition makes sea creatures look like their limbs have been chopped off
  • White lesions develop and spread over their arms before they disintegrate
  • Has wiped out 95 per cent of the animals off parts of the West Coast
  • Scientists and researchers are not sure what is causing the mystery

A record number of starfish are dying as a result of a disease which wastes away their arms and turns them into 'goo'.

The sea creatures are falling victim to the mystery condition which causes white lesions to grow along their limbs, before they disintegrate.

It has wiped out 95 per cent of the animals in some tide pools along the West Coast of America and scientists are struggling to find a way to stop the spike in deaths, because they do not know what is causing the deadly epidemic.

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Wasting disease: The star fish's arms disintegrate after white lesions have spread over their limbs
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Arrow Down

Shrimp parasite causing mass die-off In Georgia, South Carolina as black gill disease spreads

Harriet McLeod
huffingtonpost.com
Sun, 03 Nov 2013 06:57 UTC
The size of wild shrimp hauls off the southern Atlantic coast have plunged in recent months as a parasite has made it harder for the creatures to breathe, according to state wildlife officials in Georgia and South Carolina.

Experts said they believe black gill disease, caused by a tiny parasite, contributed to a die-off of white shrimp between August and October, typically the prime catch season.

The disease does not kill shrimp directly but hurts their endurance and makes them more vulnerable to predators.

"It's like the shrimp are smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, and now they're having to go run a marathon," said Mel Bell, director of South Carolina's Office of Fisheries Management.

"Shrimpers are reporting to us that they dump the bag on the deck, and the shrimp are just dead."
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Black Cat 2

Beijing park investigates deaths of stray cats


BigStory
Sun, 03 Nov 2013 05:34 UTC
Stray Cats Deaths
© AP Photo/Ng Han GuanA protester holds up pictures showing cats killed at the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing, China, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. A dozen resident gathered outside the park to protest against animal cruelty after discovering dozens of stray cats mysteriously killed since Friday in the park. Chinese character on paper reads "Stop the killing, recall conscience".
Beijing - Officials at a famous Beijing park said Sunday that they were investigating the mysterious deaths of stray cats in recent weeks, as protesters accused park authorities of killing the animals.

The Temple of Heaven park has stepped up patrols in an effort to prevent more deaths and cat carcasses from being dumped inside, said a park spokesman.

The spokesman, who gave only his surname, Xing, said he didn't know how many dead cats had been found, and that it was unclear whether they had died inside or outside the park. He said dead stray cats had also been found in other areas close to the large park, a UNESCO heritage site where emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties offered sacrifices.

Protesters gathered Sunday morning outside the park's east gate.
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Info

Canadian man eats dog who saved him from bear attack

Tia Ghose
LiveScience
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 13:44 UTC
German Shepherd
© Eduard Kyslynskyy/Shutterstock

A Canadian man survived a bear attack and months in the wilderness thanks to his faithful companion, a dog. But at the end of the ordeal, the dog didn't make it out alive.

In July, a 44-year-old man, Marco Lavoie, set off on a two-month canoeing trip in Northwestern Quebec along the Nottaway River. But a bear attacked his campsite, eating all his food and destroying the canoe he needed to travel back home. His beloved German shepherd chased off the bear before the man could be harmed.

Without any food, Lavoie faced certain starvation. So a few days later, he hit his dog with a rock and ate him. When he was late returning from his trip in October, his family alerted police.

When Lavoie was finally rescued late last month, he couldn't speak or eat, had lost about 90 pounds, and was dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia.

"He survived because he made good decisions. Eating his dog was one of them," Andre Francois Bourbeau, author of a survival guide, told the Toronto Sun.
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Question

'Mystery' illness kills 'half' of Radipole Lake swans in UK


bbc.co.uk
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 13:14 UTC
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Two sick swans are being treated at West Hatch Animal Centre in Taunton
Fourteen mute swans have died of a "mystery" illness at a wetland reserve in Dorset, the RSPB has said.

The charity said "half the herd" at Radipole Lake in Weymouth had been affected since September.

Two sick swans are being treated at West Hatch Animal Centre in Somerset. No other bird species have been affected.

The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency is investigating the illness.

Tony Whitehead, from the RSPB, said: "The birds were showing signs of lethargy, so they were being unusually slow, and clearly seemed to be struggling in the water."

He described the deaths as "significant" and of "real concern".

Peter Venn, the manager at RSPCA West Hatch in Taunton, said inflammation of the intestine can "cause problems" for swans, but said this had not yet been proven to be the case at Radipole Lake.

The RSPB said the Environment Agency (EA) had tested the water for pollutants but the results are not yet known.
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Igloo

Polar bears defy concerns about their extinction: Poster boys of 'man-made global warming' are thriving

Caroline Graham
Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 28 Sep 2013 06:09 UTC
Image
Despite concerns about future extinction, polar bear populations appear to have stabilised, and many in fact are growing.
A bitter wind blows off the Arctic Ocean but the mother polar bear and her two cubs standing just 50ft in front of me are in their element.

For more than an hour I watch from a boat just offshore, transfixed and oblivious to the below-freezing temperatures, as the four-month-old twins gambol across the snow.

For years polar bears have been the poster boys of global warming - routinely reported to be threatened with extinction due to melting ice-packs and rising sea temperatures.

Indeed, when they were put on the US Endangered Species list in 2008, they were the first to be registered solely because of the perceived threat of global warming.

One prominent scientist said their numbers would be reduced by 70 per cent by 2050 while global warming proponents - including Al Gore and Sir David Attenborough - used emotive imagery to highlight their 'demise'.

Yet there is one small problem: many polar bear populations worldwide are now stable, if not increasing.
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