Animals
S


Question

Mystery of why 22 long-finned whales washed up to their deaths on Spanish beach

Hayley O'keeffe
The Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 07 Oct 2013 07:47 UTC
  • Whales washed up and died at Manon Beach in Spain
  • Authorities and conservationists battled to save long-finned pilot whales
  • The whales are sociable creatures and often interact with dolphins
Image
22 long-finned pilot whales have died after coming ashore on the Manon beach, north of La Coruna, Galicia today. Conservationists and authorities battled to save the animals, and now a mystery surrounds why they beached in the first place
A natural mystery is unfolding in Spain after 22 long-finned pilot whales came ashore at Manon Beach.

The picture shows six of the 22 long-finned pilot whale that beached on the shore, north of La Coruna, Galicia, Spain today (Monday).

Sadly 11 of the whales died on arrival to the beach and the others died later despite the efforts of the Spanish Civil Protection, environmentalists and Galicia Coordination mammalian studies.

Long-finned pilot whales or globicephala melas are very sociable and family-orientated animals and are even known to socialise with bottle nosed-dolphins
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Bizarro Earth

Moo times two: Calf born with two heads


KCEN TV
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 12:36 UTC
Two Headed Calf
© Courtesy WPTZ Vermont
A newly born two-headed calf is calling a Whiting, Vermont dairy farm home.

"It just was something different for us today," said dairy owner Kirstin Quesnel. "Just like with humans we have some abnormalities with animals and animal births and this just happened to be one of them."

The condition, called polycephaly, is extremely rare. The calf was supposed to be a twin, but the egg inside the mother failed to split.

"We had a vet take a look at her earlier today to check all of her signs, and she seems to be doing very well," Quesnel said.

The calf spent much of Wednesday sleeping and getting her photo taken. She is also trying to walk, but her neck is not strong enough to carry the weight of two heads.

Otherwise, she's perfectly healthy, but without a name.

"Call it a miracle or call it unique, call it whatever you will, we were just blessed with this and we'll see where it goes from here."
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Bizarro Earth

The swallows are dying: 'This type of mortality event is unprecedented'


KATU.com
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 15:38 UTC
Swallow
© Wikimedia CommonsFile photo of a Violet-green Swallow.
Salem, Oregon - The stormy weather we had recently didn't just knock down some trees and power lines, it also took a toll on one of the state's bird populations.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) has received a number of calls about dead and dying Barn and Violet-green Swallows, with reports coming in from the Port of Saint Helens to as far south as Junction City.

It's estimated that thousands of the birds have died this past week. Groups of 10 to 200 have been reported dead in barns and other structures and, according to ODFW, the deaths appear to be in greater numbers near rivers and standing water.

"This type of mortality event is unprecedented and considered a rare and unusual event," said Colin Gillin, ODFW State Wildlife Veterinarian. "The effect on bird populations is unknown."

What happened to the birds? Experts are blaming the recent heavy rains and high winds, which they believe prevented the swallows from getting food. When the birds were examined by a lab at Oregon State University, the swallows were thin and it was obvious they had not eaten recently.

Swallows feed on insects and when the weather gets bad, it has an effect on the young and weaker birds because they suddenly become unable to take in enough food to meet their energy requirements.

Sick or dead wildlife can be reported to the ODFW Health Lab at (866) 968-2600. Keep in mind that only licensed wildlife rehabilitators may treat sick or injured wildlife.
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Bug

Diesel fumes confuse honeybees when foraging

Nick Collins
The Telegraph,UK
Thu, 03 Oct 2013 14:19 UTC
Exhaust fumes from diesel could be changing the scent of flowers and making it harder for honeybees to collect pollen and nectar, according to a new study.

Image
© Tracey Newman, Guy Poppy and Robbie GirlingA bee lands on a oilseed rape flower
Pollutants found in diesel exhaust alter levels of chemicals released by flowers which honeybees use to locate and identify varieties with the largest amounts of pollen and nectar, researchers found.

Tests in a laboratory designed to mimic the effect of exhaust fumes on the smell of oilseed rape showed that the bees' ability to recognise the odour was reduced by about two thirds.

Although exhaust fumes are unlikely to be the main cause of the sharp decline in Britain's bee populations, they could be exacerbating the problem, researchers said.

Fumes which prevent honeybees recognising the smell of flowers could "have serious detrimental effects on the number of honeybee colonies" as well as reducing the pollination of vital crops and lowering honey yields, they claimed.
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Bizarro Earth

Mutant skate named Elvis caught by Portsmouth fishermen


The Natural History Museum
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:40 UTC
Skate
© National Museum HistoryElvis the Thornback skate, with an extra fin resembling a quiff, will live in an open top tank in the Blue Reef Aquarium in Portsmouth.
A museum fish curator has identified a skate's unusual appendage as an extra pelvic fin, rather than a genetic throwback to its shark relative.

An unusual skate has been caught by fishermen in the Solent with an extra fin.

It was taken to the Portsmouth Blue Reef Aquarium for identification, where it is now being held for safekeeping.

Aquarium staff have nicknamed it Elvis because the fin resembles a quiff.

Skate or shark?

Aquarium staff originally thought the extra appendage was a dorsal fin from a genetic throwback to a shark. Skate are distantly related to sharks.

On closer inspection, however, they realised it was more likely a bizarre mutation.

Natural History Museum fish curator James Maclaine, who was brought in to identify the fin, realised it was something entirely new.

'Mutated skates do turn up from time to time, sometimes with fin anomalies that make them heart-shaped, but we still have never seen anything quite like this one before,' Maclaine said.

'The general consensus is that it's a mutation, and probably more likely an out of place extra pelvic fin rather than a new dorsal fin," he said.
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Bizarro Earth

Elusive giant squid washes up on Spanish beach

Jeanna Bryner
LIveScience
Fri, 04 Oct 2013 08:05 UTC
Giant Squid_1
© El Diario Montanes, Video ScreengrabLike other giant squid, the one that washed ashore in Cantabria on Oct. 1, 2013, sported enormous eyes.
A giant squid, whose oversized eyes and gargantuan blob of a body make it look more mythical than real beast, washed ashore Tuesday (Oct. 1) at La Arena beach in the Spanish community of Cantabria.

The beast measures some 30 feet (9 meters) in length and weighs a whopping 400 pounds (180 kilograms); and according to news reports, it is a specimen of Architeuthis dux, the largest invertebrate (animals without backbones) on Earth.

The giant squid is currently at the Maritime Museum of Cantabria, according to El Diario Montanes.

Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Science Museum in Tokyo, and his colleagues, captured the first live footage of an Architeuthis giant squid in its natural habitat in 2012. The video revealed the elusive creature off the Ogasawara Islands, about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo at a depth of around 2,066 feet (630 m); the three-man crew aboard a submersible followed the giant squid down to 2,950 feet (900 m).
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Cow

Argentina - 2,200 cattle die in snowstorm

Robert Felix
iceagenow.info
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 10:27 UTC
Image
Cows, calves and bulls dead after the snowstorm.

In Bernasconi, General Acha, Ataliva Rock, Quehué, Colonia Santa Maria and Unanue appeared cows, calves and bulls dead after the snowstorm.

The mayor of Bernasconi, Jorge Riera, said about 200 animals were killed in department Hucal while in Utracán department, two thousand cattle were killed. (Journal Textual)

"This came from several months of poor nutrition due to lack of pasture and the cold and snow gave the coup de grace. Government aid was little, almost nothing," said producers.

Includes photo of dead cattle:
http://www.maracodigital.net/?PAG=Vernota&idcontenido=61269

Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for this link
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Eye 2

SOTT Focus: Snakes alive! Countless reports of snakes turning up in weird places

Julian Friese
Sott.net
Thu, 03 Oct 2013 06:06 UTC
Image
As a SOTT editor, I like to keep an eye on what's going on in the animal kingdom. The big news in recent years on that score has, of course, been the high number of mass animal deaths. But has anyone else noticed the extraordinary number of stories about snakes in the news lately? I first noticed a spate of snake stories at the beginning of the summer, and over the last couple of months snakes have been turning up in close proximity to people, and in some highly unusual settings, at an alarming rate. There have also been some particularly horrifying reports of attacks and resulting fatalities by escaped pet pythons - on both children and domesticated animals alike.

It seems appropriate that 2013, according to the Chinese zodiac tradition, is the Year of the Snake!

The following is a quick run-down of some incidents worth highlighting, starting in May, which initially show a slow build-up of such stories, leading fairly rapidly to 'spikes' in reports, some of which we've carried on SOTT.
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Cloud Precipitation

Die-off of thousands of Oregon swallows blamed on weather


kgw.com
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 13:25 UTC
Image
© Flickr: K Schneider
Oregon scientists say thousands of swallows died during recent Willamette Valley rains, likely of starvation because the birds feed on insects while flying and they couldn't get out in the weather to feed.

Veterinarians said four days of steady rain and wind helped make September the wettest on record in the Valley. They came at a time when birds would have been feeding in preparation for winter migration to Central and South America.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife says it got calls about dead and dying birds from residents ranging from the Port of Saint Helens on the Columbia River to Junction City north of Eugene.

Groups of 10 to 200 barn and violet-green swallows were reported dead or dying in barns and other structures where they perch.

Source: Associated Press
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Info

Jellyfish 'invasion' causes Swedish nuclear shutdown


france24.com
Wed, 02 Oct 2013 10:47 UTC
Image
File picture for illustration shows mauve stinger jellyfishes in a bucket on an Oceanological Observatory boat in the southeastern French city of Villefranche-sur-Mer, on July 6, 2012
A Swedish nuclear reactor was restarted on Wednesday following a three-day closure caused by a build-up of jellyfish in a cooling system, according to the operators.

The incident occurred in reactor 3 at Oskarshamn power station on the Baltic Sea coast, which is run by OKG, a subsidiary of the German electricity company EON.

"It was a larger amount than we had ever seen. Every autumn we have to get rid of jellyfish, but not that many," OKG spokeswoman Emmy Davidsson told AFP.

The company announced on Sunday that the reactor -- Sweden's largest with a 1400 MW output and the world's largest boiling water reactor -- was "manually shut down due to a large amount of jellyfish present at the cooling water intake".
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