Animals
S


Question

Two-headed snapping turtle found crossing road in Hudson, Maine

Kacie Yearout
wlbz2.com
Thu, 25 Sep 2014 21:22 UTC
Image
© NEWS CENTERTwo headed turtle in Hudson. Kathleen Talbot rescue the snapping turtle near her home. Talbot calls one head Frank and other one Stein.
A woman found an unusual reptile near her home in Hudson this week - a two-headed baby snapping turtle.

Kathleen Talbot said she went to watch turtle hatchlings cross the road to make sure they each arrived at the other side safely. She noticed one of the turtles had been left behind.

"I thought he had two feet in the front. I thought he was deformed. I didn't realize it was two heads until I got him home and washed him. Then he came to life-- and was just starving," she said.

She has named the turtle Frank and Stein. Talbot said she doesn't plan to have the dynamic duo as a pet, but does want to make sure Frank and Stein survives.

Read More...
Attention

Methane venting victim? Deep sea dwelling Pygmy Sperm whale found dead near Hong Kong


hkmarinelife.hk
Sun, 28 Sep 2014 15:41 UTC
Image
A 3.3 m long, 386 kg whale was found by hikers on Friday (26th September 2014) on the rocky shoreline at Fung Hang village near Sha Tau Kok (NE New Territories). Due to the remote location of the site, AFCD staff decided to suspend the investigation, as night fell. Officers tied the dead whale with a rope to fix it on the beach and prevent it from drifting away during the rising tide. Experts joined the investigation the following day to identify the dead whale species and the cause of death.

Comment: See also: Creatures from the deep signal major Earth Changes: Is anyone paying attention?

Hundreds of methane plumes erupting along U.S. Atlantic coast

Casualties of seafloor methane gas release? Hundreds of thousands more fish found dead in Plymouth tidal pool, UK

Read More...
Attention

Black bear attacks man walking his dogs in Larkspur, Colorado

Kerry Leary
9news.com
Fri, 05 Sep 2014 21:11 UTC
Image
A man was attacked by a bear Wednesday evening while walking his dogs in a Larkspur neighborhood.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife says the man was walking his dogs when he suddenly saw a bear running at him from the side. The bear bit him in one arm and then the man began to fight back. He injured the other arm when defending himself. After the man began to defend himself, the bear ran away.

"Generally, black bears in Colorado are not aggressive, so this is kind of a strange case," Jennifer Churchill with the Colorado Division of Wildlife said. "We certainly think it's a cause for concern because in general, bears don't like to come near people with dogs."

The man was transported to a local hospital. He was admitted, treated and released last night. The dogs were not injured.

Read More...
Attention

Bear attacks hunter in Pine County, Minnesota


Argus Leader
Sun, 28 Sep 2014 19:55 UTC
Image
© APBlack Bear
Authorities are investigating a black bear attack on a hunter in the woods of east-central Minnesota.

Pine County Sheriff Robin Cole says in a statement that the hunter had been tracking a wounded bear early Saturday. The victim told deputies the bear charged out of the darkness and knocked him to the ground, clawing and biting him. He suffered severe lacerations and bites to his chest, arms and legs. He tried to fight off the attack by stabbing at the bear with his hunting knife.

The victim was flown to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, where he's listed in stable condition.

The bear fled and has not been found, but the sheriff's office says there's no risk to the general public.

The victim's name has not been released.
Read More...
Attention

Wasilla man shoots bear trying to enter home, Alaska

Tegan Hanlon
Alaska Dispatch News
Wed, 24 Sep 2014 19:33 UTC
Image
A 32-year-old man shot and injured a bear in Wasilla on Tuesday after the animal attempted to enter his home, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Around 10:20 p.m., Greg Kasachev called troopers and reported that he shot a bear that "made attempts to gain access to his residence," said a trooper dispatch posted online Wednesday.

Troopers responded to the home on Alan's Drive and found the injured bear near a tree in the backyard. Troopers killed the bear. It was released to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

A troopers spokesperson contacted Wednesday did not yet know whether it was a black bear or grizzly.
Read More...
Attention

Elephant tramples woman to death in India


The Times of India
Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:40 UTC
Image
© Satish Hanumantha RaoElephant Charging
A 40-year-old woman was trampled to death by an elephant near Madukkarai in Coimbatore district on Wednesday.

According to police, the woman, S Nagamani from Ayyarthottam area in Madukkarai, was in a grove near the village collecting herbs in the evening when the elephant attacked her.

"Nagamani did not notice the elephant approaching her until it was too late," said a police officer. She raised an alarm and tried to flee from there but was trampled by the elephant. Villagers, who rushed to the grove on hearing her cries, chased the elephant away. They admitted her at the hospital but doctors declared her brought dead.
Read More...
Attention

Man killed by bear in India


The Hindu
Wed, 17 Sep 2014 20:16 UTC
Image

A man was killed when a bear attacked him on Tuesday morning in Rolla mandal of Anantapur district. DFO P.S. Raghaviah said K. Govindappa had gone for a call of nature when he was attacked by a bear on the outskirts of Vannenahalli village.

A farmer Chennam Lakshminarayana Reddy was fatally attacked by a wild boar in his agricultural field at Kamanuru in Proddatur mandal on Tuesday. .
Read More...
Attention

Slovakia records 2 bear attacks on people during May and June


Prague Post
Sun, 29 Jun 2014 19:18 UTC
Image
© Andrew KellyBrown Bear, Slovakia
A bear attacked a man, aged 45, and wounded his head on a street of the Slovak mountain resort Tatranská Lomnica, east Slovakia, last night, the country's daily Čas writes today.

The rescuers drove the wounded man to the hospital in Poprad. He was treated there and then released to recuperate at home, the hospital spokeswoman said.

Experts estimate the number of bears in Slovakia at between 700 and 900. They mostly live in the mountains of central and eastern Slovakia.

This past May, a bear attacked a man in the same region, in the town of Ždiar, a few kilometers to the north. The man, 42, suffered multiple injuries and also had to be taken to the Poprad hospital.

Source: Czech News Agency
Read More...
Attention

Man killed and eaten by 'hungry' bear in Siberia


The Moscow Times
Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:30 UTC
Image
A married couple in the Tomsk region was attacked by a bear while walking their dog Sunday afternoon, and only the wife survived.

"The married couple went to the district near the airport to walk their dog, where a bear attacked them. The man died, and the woman was taken to a hospital in serious condition. The animal also tried to kill her, it bit her limbs," Viktor Ivanov, a local park ranger, was cited as saying by online news portal Tomsk.ru.

The bear was tracked down a couple of hours after the attack and shot dead, Ivanov was cited as saying.

"Now we are trying to determine whether or not any force had been used against it earlier, whether it was injured, or provoked in any way," Ivanov said. Most likely, he said, the bear had just been hungry.

"The bears haven't managed to store up enough fat in time for their hibernation, they're hungry, and they use any opportunity to find nourishment. That's why we recommend that people avoid going into the forest," Ivanov told Tomsk.ru.

This marks the first death from a bear attack in the Tomsk region this year.
Read More...
Butterfly

No big surprise: Butterflies feeding on leaves with Fukushima radiation dying sooner

Subodh Varma
The Times of India
Tue, 23 Sep 2014 17:02 UTC
Image
© J.M.Garg, Wikimedia CommonsPale Grass Blue Butterfly
Leaves collected one year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster from surrounding regions had sufficient radioactive toxins on them to cause butterflies to die earlier and have deformed offspring. This is the dire conclusion of a study conducted by scientists of the Universities of Rukyus (Okinawa) and Nagasaki. The study is published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.

Researchers fed groups of pale blue grass butterflies (Zizeeria maha) leaves from six different areas at varying distance from the disaster site. They found that even in comparatively low levels of radiation, there was an observable difference in the butterflies' lifespan, depending on the dose of caesium radiation in their food, which ranged from 0.2 to 161bq/kg. Leaves were collected from six locations situated 59 km to 1760 km from the nuclar disaster site.
Read More...