Animals
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Bizarro Earth

Two-headed calf born in Oregon


KBOI2
Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:00 UTC
Two Headed Calf
© Heidi Kirschbaum
Jamieson -- Heidi Kirschbaum didn't believe the details of the phone call were real.

Or, maybe it was a joke.

But Heidi's sister-in-law, Charlan, who was down at the family farm, wasn't joking.

"It wasn't alive when we saw it," Kirschbaum said. "But it had one neck, two ears and four eyes."

Kirscbhaum told KBOI 2News that a two-headed calf was born on the family farm in Jamieson, Ore., in Malheur County on Monday. When Heidi and the rest of the family arrived in the field, the calf was already dead. The calf's mother is doing fine.

"You do a double-take and say, wait a minute, whoa," she said.

Word has spread throughout the farming community about the two-headed calf -- especially after kindergarten class. Heidi's daughter, Holly, asked if she could share the calf for show and tell.

"We brought pictures to her class -- the kids and the teacher really enjoyed it," she said.

The family isn't sure what it plans to do with the head. It's now ice cold in a freezer at the family farm.

"We know it doesn't happen very often, but it happened to us," she said.
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Info

Baby elephant in China can't stop crying after being stomped by mom

Deborah Hastings
New York Daily News
Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:54 UTC
Newborn elephant cried for five hours after mom tried to kill him. Chinese zookeepers forced to keep him away from momma.

Image
Despondent baby elephant weeps for hours after mom gives birth, then attacks him at game preserve in China.
Poor baby.

Little Zhuangzhuang, a newborn elephant at a wildlife refuge in China, was inconsolable after his mother rejected him and then tried to stomp him to death.

Tears streamed down his gray trunk for five hours as zookeepers struggled to comfort the baby elephant.

They initially thought it was an accident when the mom stepped on him after giving birth, according to the Central European News agency.

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Question

Another blackbuck dies, toll touches 18 in Lucknow zoo, India


The Times of India
Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:29 UTC
Image
© Chinmayisk, Wikimedia CommonsA blackbuck adult stag.
Lucknow zoo authorities are yet to control the reasons taking a toll on the lives of blackbucks. On Tuesday, another of the specie died in the zoo taking the total toll to 18.

The female blackbuck was under supervision as it was not keeping well for the past two days. According to zoo authorities, its condition deteriorated on Monday night and it had to be put on oxygen. The animal died at 7.45 am on Tuesday.

Till Saturday, 17 blackbucks had died due to a mysterious ailment.

Zoo minister SP Yadav visited the zoo and warned authorities of action if laxity was found on their part. On the complaints that the animals caught infection through the feed and fodder, Yadav said, the government is now thinking of making another arrangements for the fodder at Kukrail forest.
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Bizarro Earth

'Poison-proof' rats discovered in Sweden


The Local, Sweden
Wed, 18 Sep 2013 01:14 UTC
Rat
© Reg McKenna/Flickr
Sewer rats and mice that are resistant to common rat poisons have been found in four locations across Sweden, confirming long-held suspicions about why common anti-rodent agents seemed ineffective.

Pest control experts have theorized that rats and mice in various parts of Sweden had developed some sort of immunity to commonly deployed rat poisons. Now their suspicions have been confirmed.

The results of 80 random tests performed across the country by Swedish extermination company Anticemex revealed poison-proof rats and mice in four locations: Kristianstad in the south; Linköping and Växjö in south central Sweden; and Uppsala in eastern Sweden.

Pest control expert Håkan Kjellberg with Anticemex said chemicals are likely to blame for the rodents having developed immunity to rat poison.

"It may have been rat poison, but also chemicals in their immediate environment that have caused the genetic makeup in their body to change," he told Sveriges Radio (SR).

According to SR, rats that are resistant to poisons have been found in many other countries, including Denmark, but this Anticemex study is the first to confirm the phenomena in Sweden.

The company said it may now be forced to resort to more potent poisons in more cases in order to keep Sweden's rodent population in check.
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Question

Mysterious sickness killing Kansas dogs

Lauren Seabrook
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Tue, 17 Sep 2013 21:16 UTC
Emporia - A disease is killing dogs across Lyon County and veterinarians do not know what it is. Vets at Kansas State University are working with the Emporia Animal Shelter to find out.

Dozens of dogs that seemed to be healthy quickly became deathly ill at the shelter. "We're in the process now of hoping it's not some virus that we're not aware of ... some new form of distemper or this new circle virus that's been reported around the country," said Emporia veterinarian Floyd Dorsey.

Dorsey thinks it started with dogs found wandering out in the country that were picked up and brought to the shelter. "We've been trying to contain it since then and each time we think it's contained, it seems to break out again," said Dorsey.
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Fish

5,000 dead fish foul Carlsbad lake, New Mexico

Emily Younger
KRQE
Fri, 06 Sep 2013 17:10 UTC
Another mass die-off of New Mexico wildlife has been reported, this time in the Pecos River.


But unlike the mysterious kills of an elk herd in northeastern New Mexico and dozens of catfish at Ute Lake, investigators with the New Mexico Department Game and Fish believe they know what killed the nearly 5,000 bass.
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Question

Terror grips Bhaktapur folk as birds drop dead in Nepal

Ishworkaji Khaiju
The Himalayan Times
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:50 UTC
No need to conduct avian flu tests: Official

Bird flu fear has gripped Bhaktapur people, again. The ominous signs started haunting the locals after crows and pigeons on flight dropped dead at Chnwaga Ganesh of Bhaktapur Municipality-17.

The Bhaktapur Bird Flu Control Section has asked locals to bury dead pigeons and crows well, without bothering to conduct avian influenza tests on the samples.

Who will be responsible if they catch 'bird flu' after burying the birds? This is the question local people like Tulasha Shrestha are asking.

Shrestha says the section's instruction to locals - to bury the birds on their own - has terrified the locals further. According to Shrestha, a crow dropped dead in front of her house yesterday evening. She says pigeons have died in her neighbour Indrabhakta Rajlabat's house.
Locals fear that bird flu will make inroads into Bhaktapur, again.
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Eye 2

Pet snakes becoming a danger to humans and wildlife in USA


wildlifeextra.com
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:37 UTC
Born Free USA calls for national crackdown; reports growing numbers of pet snake incidents and inconsistent regulation on ownership, seriously endangering public and environment
Image
Apart from being a danger to humans, snakes have become a major threat to native wildlife. In Florida, Burmese pythons (like this one, one of the largest caught) that were released have been breeding and are now considered a pest.

Incidents involving "pet" snakes in the USA causing injury or death to humans, or escaping and putting communities and the environment in danger, are on the rise, according to Born Free USA, a leader in animal welfare and wildlife conservation. On the heels of the latest incident reported this week in Florida where a 60 pound family dog was killed by a 10 foot long snake - the 58th snake incident tracked by Born Free USA this year - the organization is calling for a nationwide crackdown on keeping of snakes as pets.

Born Free USA's exotic animal incidents database (www.bornfreeusa.org/database) has tracked more than 600 incidents involving reptiles in less than a decade and an astounding number of them, nearly 75%, involved snakes. The organization has been monitoring incidents involving exotic and wild animal escapes and attacks including reptiles, big cats, and primates and sees a steady rise in snake ownership - particularly deadly boa constrictors and pythons.
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Bizarro Earth

Study: Rare condors harmed by DDT


The Associated Press
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 00:25 UTC
In the coastal redwoods of central California, scientists trying to unravel the mystery surrounding the reproductive problems of dozens of endangered condors think they have uncovered the culprit: the long-banned pesticide DDT.

Kelly Sorenson, executive director of Ventana Wildlife Society and a co-author of a new study on Big Sur-area condors, says researchers who spent six years studying their reproductive problems have "established a strong link" to DDT in the birds' food: dead sea lions.

The peer-reviewed paper is being published this month in the University of California journal The Condor.

The soaring scavengers were reintroduced to Big Sur in 1997 after a century-long absence and quickly started eating dead marine mammals, whose blubber often has high levels of DDT, a pesticide banned in 1972.
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Bizarro Earth

Bacterial outbreak roils Massachusetts oyster industry

Jay Lindsay
Associated Press
Mon, 16 Sep 2013 00:37 UTC
Oysters
© AP Photo/Stephan Savoia
Boston - A mystery of sorts threatens to stunt Massachusetts' small but growing oyster industry after illnesses linked to bacterial contamination forced the state to shut down beds for the first time ever.

The culprit is the Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacterium, which has occurred in state waters since the 1960s. Theories abound about the recent increase in illnesses linked to Massachusetts - but those are only theories.

"Honestly, I'm confused by the whole thing," said Don Merry, an oyster grower from Duxbury, where oyster beds have been closed.

Average monthly daytime water temperatures in the region rarely approach the 81 degrees believed to be the threshold that triggers dangerous Vibrio growth. Rising average water temperatures locally, while not reaching that threshold, could be causing environmental changes that cause strains of Vibrio to thrive, said Suzanne Condon, associate commissioner of the Department of Health.

In addition, virulent Vibrio strains that aren't as temperature-sensitive may have been carried from overseas in ships' ballast water in the past decade, said the state's chief shellfish biologist, Michael Hickey.

Meanwhile, it has been only six years since states were required to federally report Vibrio illnesses. So testing for it is relatively slow and underdeveloped and can't yet predict, for instance, if outbreaks are coming, Hickey said.

The bacterium causes gastrointestinal problems, including vomiting and cramping, but the illness is generally severe only in people with weakened immune systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the U.S. has about 4,500 cases of Vibrio infection annually.
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