Animals
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Eye 2

Farmer finds two-headed snake in Giresun, Turkey


BBC
Mon, 01 Sep 2014 21:37 UTC
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A rare two-headed snake has been found by a farmer in north-eastern Turkey, it's been reported.

It was discovered in the Black Sea province of Giresun and is currently being kept under quarantine at a reptile house in the city of Antalya on Turkey's south-western coast, Turkish daily Radikal reports. Ozgur Ereldi, in charge of caring for the snake, says it needs to be constantly monitored because of its size and shape. "Since the snake has two heads, its neck is thinner than normal," he says. "Snakes swallow their prey in full and then digest it. If you feed the snake a big portion it might choke. Hence we feed this snake in small portions."
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Fish

Flood of dead fish along coast at Qatif, Saudi Arabia

Sultan Al-Sughair
arabnews.com
Fri, 12 Sep 2014 13:58 UTC
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© AN photoMYSTERY: The dead fish along the coast of Qatif.
Thousands of dead fish have appeared along the coast of Qatif amid hide tides, prompting authorities to launch an investigation into the bizarre incident.

"The Presidency of Metrology and Environment (PME) and the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAF) were immediately tasked with investigating the first-of-its-kind situation," said Al-Arqoubi.

"Qatif's municipality sent a team of specialists to find out why the fish had died. The team took samples from the dead fish and the water for examination. Preliminary results from the fish autopsy have not indicated contamination," he added.
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Attention

Seven sperm whales strand on Italian beach - three die


thelocal.it
Fri, 12 Sep 2014 22:13 UTC
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Three sperm whales died on Friday while four were saved after washing up on a beach in central Italy, according to media reports.

The seven sperm whales were found stranded on a beach in the Punta Aderci nature reserve at around 7.00am by surfers in the seaside town of Vasto, Tgcom24 reported.

Three of the whales have died and the other four have now been safely assisted back into the sea by rescuers.
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Attention

Black bear that attacked Virginia man eludes capture

Greta Kreuz
wjla.com
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 20:19 UTC
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© AP Steven Krichbaum holds a bloody rock that he used to strike a bear that attacked him while he was out walking with his dog in the George Washington National Forest last week .
A bear that attacked a Virginia man in the George Washington National Forest in West Virginia has eluded attempts to capture it.

Steven Krichbaum, 59, of Staunton, Va., and his dog, Henry, encountered the female bear and her two cubs while walking in the forest in Hardy County, West Virginia. The mother bear attacked Krichbaum after the dog went after the cubs, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries said in a statement.

"She charges down the bank and bites my thigh and she has my leg in her mouth chewing on me, and I'm on my back screaming," said Krichbaum.
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Attention

Woman injured by sixth grizzly bear attack this summer in Alaska

Laurel Andrews
Alaska Dispatch News
Wed, 13 Aug 2014 16:51 UTC
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Hungry: Thea Thomas was attacked by the brown bear hiking on Heney Ridge Trail (file picture)
Thea Thomas tried to step off the trail as a brown bear sprinted toward her, chasing a friend's dog that she had brought along for a hike in Cordova on Tuesday afternoon. Yet in an instant, Thomas was flat on the ground, face-to-face with an angry bear that bit her repeatedly during the mauling on Heney Ridge Trail.

"By the end, I was thinking, 'I could die here," Thomas said from an Anchorage hospital Wednesday, where she was medevaced after the attack.

Thomas, a 57-year-old commercial fisherman, has lived in the Southcentral Alaska community of Cordova for 32 years, she said. "I hike those trails all the time."

Heney Ridge Trail is a 4.1-mile trail that follows Hartney Bay before climbing up through spruce-hemlock forest, salmon-spawning streams and a mile of steep incline up above the treeline, according to the U.S. Forest Service website.

The trail "is probably the most common place over the 30 years I've lived there that I've seen bears," she said.
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Bizarro Earth

Dead giant squid found by fisherman off Texas coast


Discovery News
Thu, 11 Sep 2014 15:30 UTC
Dead Giant Squid
© KTRK/ABC13A fisherman caught a 200-pound giant squid off Matagorda, Texas.
About 100 miles off the Texas Gulf Coast city of Matagorda, a young fisherman named Michael Belvin and his friends came upon what they thought was an oversized white plastic trash bag floating in the water.

It turned out that Belvin and pals found not garbage remnants but a giant squid -- a rare sight anywhere, let alone in Gulf Coast waters. The squid measured about 10 feet long and weighed 200 pounds.
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Black Cat

Cougar killing of dog prompts warning in Nanaimo, Canada

Chris Bush
Nanaimo News
Tue, 09 Sep 2014 20:37 UTC
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© CHRIS BUSH/The News BulletinRegional parks staff posted warnings at the Witchcraft Lake Trail head after a cougar made off with a Nanaimo woman’s dog while she was hiking in Mount Benson Regional Park Wednesday. Conservation officers are warning people cougars normally inhabit the park and hikers should keep dogs leashed or avoid taking their pets into the woods altogether.
A Nanaimo woman is reeling from seeing her dog taken and killed by a cougar.

Serra Stewart was returning from a hike with her father and three dogs on Witchcraft Lake Trail, in Mount Benson Regional Park, Wednesday at about 11 a.m. On a steep section of the trail, about 20 minutes from the parking lot on Wilkinson Road, a cougar appeared, eyed up the dogs that were off-leash and about seven metres away and snatched Charlie, Stewart's eight-year-old female dog.

"It was just there. The dogs didn't bark or anything," Stewart said in a text message. "It looked at all three and grabbed my girl. She screamed, only for about five to 10 seconds, and it was done. I lost it, threw my backpack and ran down the mountain after it. Of course, what's the point? She was gone and no way I can catch a cougar."

Sgt. Ben York, mid-Island region conservation officer supervisor, said in this case the cougar exhibited natural behaviour, given the circumstances.
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Wolf

Wolf attacks on sheep increasing in the Mercantour National Park, France

Dominic Thurlow-Wood
The Riviera Times
Tue, 09 Sep 2014 20:15 UTC
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Provence & Côte d'Azur: Total number of sheep killed in 2014 rises to 1,700
Further attacks by wolves in the Mercantour National Park this week have left dozens of sheep dead and shepherds feeling threatened. The increase in attacks has led to calls from the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, for controls on the wolf population.

According to France3, since the turn of the year there have been 450 wolf attacks in the Mercantour National Park, which have left 1,700 sheep dead. An increased number of recent attacks have been during daylight hours which is a worrying trend for breeders. In July, shepherds told Metronews that their flocks with constantly being "harassed" by the wolves.
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Health

Fourth grizzly bear attack on humans near Anchorage this summer, fifth in Alaska

Tegan Hanlon
Alaska Dispatch News
Thu, 24 Jul 2014 19:55 UTC
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An Eagle River man shot and killed a brown bear sow Thursday after the animal mauled him near his home, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The man, who has not been identified, said he was walking with his unleashed dogs on a dirt road off of Hiland Road, an area biologists described as well-known bear territory. His dogs wandered away and when they ran back toward the man, they were trailed by a brown bear sow, said Dave Battle, an assistant area wildlife biologist with Fish and Game.

"This is not in an Anchorage subdivision," Battle said. "This is out in the big woods."
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Health

Woman suffers serious injuries after bear attack near Anchorage

Craig Medred and Suzanna Caldwell
Alaska Dispatch News
Mon, 07 Jul 2014 19:41 UTC
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© Craig Medred A sign hangs at the Bird Valley trailhead along Alaska's Turnagain Arm on July 7, 2014, warning people of a recent bear mauling in the area.
The second grizzly bear mauling in less than two months on the outskirts of Alaska's largest city has sent another runner to the hospital with serious injuries. The attack this time came in Bird Valley, just south of Anchorage. It follows on an attack at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in mid-May.

Both attacks involved people surprising grizzly sows with cubs. The JBER attack involved a sow with small cubs of the year. The latest attack was launched by a sow with two nearly grown cubs, probably 2-year-olds.
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