Animals
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Health

Woman says she played dead in Alaska bear attack


usatoday.com
Thu, 29 May 2014 20:12 UTC
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© APIn this video frame grab provided by the U.S. Army, Jessica Gamboa is interviewed at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage on Tuesday, May 27, 2014.
Bear knocked woman down, threw her down and pummeled her with its paws.

jessica Gamboa grew up hearing you should play dead during a bear attack, and she put that knowledge to the ultimate test when she ran into a brown bear on the grounds of a military base.

The bear knocked Gamboa down, then picked her up and threw her to the ground. The bear went on to pummel Gamboa several times more with her powerful paws.

Throughout the May 18 attack, Gamboa lay in a fetal position and remained silent.

That action likely saved her life.

"I actually can't even believe this actually really happened," the 25-year-old woman said in a videotaped interview released by the Army on Thursday. "It seems still surreal, just for the fact that I'm still alive - seems unreal. "

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Question

Mass of spider crab shells wash up on Tasmania's east coast


au.news.yahoo.com
Tue, 27 May 2014 06:37 UTC
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© ABCSpider crabs shells
Scientists are not concerned about a large number of spider crab shells washed up on Tasmania's east coast.

Local residents have reported the orange crabs, around the size of a human hand, have washed up on Raspins Beach at Orford in recent days.

Recreational Fishing Tasmania's Don Paton says he would like to get to the bottom of the event.

"Whether there's some viral infection that might have caught in the ocean or whether it's a natural phenomenon they actually do at certain times of the year," he said.

"It's amazing to me to think that over the last 30 or 40 years, or longer, that I've been around looking at the beaches up here most of my life, I've never seen a phenomenon like it."

Comment: Just two weeks ago, from the same region of the world, came this report: Tens of thousands of fish wash up on the east coast of Tasmania

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Eye 2

Woman bitten by snake while on toilet in Naron, Spain

David Harding
New York Daily News
Sat, 24 May 2014 10:08 UTC
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© Getty Images/iStockphotoThe snake is still in the area, causing panic among neighbors, afraid that they, too, might be bitten on the bottom.
A Spanish woman went to hospital after being bitten on her bottom by a snake as she sat on the toilet.

Iris Castroverde, a mother-of-two, was bitten on the left buttock.

Frightened neighbors are "psychotic" because the bright yellow and green snake is still on the loose, said one resident of the town of Naron, northern Spain, where the reptile struck.

After biting 30-year-old Castroverde, the snake disappeared down the drain after she flushed, reported The Local.
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Eye 2

Deputies remove snake from car on I-44 in Springfield, Missouri


Springfield News-Leader
Wed, 28 May 2014 09:50 UTC
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© Greene County Sheriff’s OfficeThis black snake was found around a passenger’s feet in a car traveling down Interstate 44 Tuesday.
A family driving down Interstate 44 on Tuesday had an unwelcome visitor in their car.

According to the Greene County Sheriff's Office, a woman was driving down the interstate when a passenger noticed a 4-to-5-foot-long black snake wrapped around his or her feet.

The driver pulled over, removed all the family members and called 911 for assistance.

Deputies responded, removed the snake and released it.
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Eye 2

Snake found slithering around cash register in Spokane store

Hayley Guenthner
nwcn.com
Wed, 28 May 2014 09:31 UTC
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Shoppers at Shopko said a snake was found slithering around a cash register at the store on Spokane's South Hill in May but that SCRAPS refused to come get it.

Based on the description of the snake from witnesses, some experts said they believed the snake was a python or a boa constrictor. A different expert said they thought the snake was a bull snake and therefore harmless.

Staff at Shopko said SCRAPS would not come retrieve the snake. They said SCRAPS told them to call Crime Check. SCRAPS said they would not respond to the snake because it was possibly a native snake. Shopko employees said they eventually guided the snake to a nearby field.

A woman told staff that she found a large snake dead nearby the Shopko a few days later. Reptile experts responded to the area to make sure it was the same snake. It was unknown on Tuesday whether it was the same snake.

The picture of the snake attached to this story was taken by a witness as the snake was guided to a field.
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Attention

Pygmy sperm whale found dead on Delaware beach

Molly Murray
The News Journal
Tue, 27 May 2014 07:03 UTC
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© MERR Institute A dead pygmy sperm whale washed onto the beach at Delaware Seashore State Park on Sunday.
A dying 10-foot long, 800-pound pygmy sperm whale washed up at Delaware Seashore State Park on Sunday and no one is sure, just yet, why the animal died.

"He appeared to be a fairly robust animal with what looked like what might have been a previous entanglement around his tail," said Suzanne Thurman, executive director of the Marine Education Research and Rehabilitation Institute.

"He did have a fairly heavy parasite load in his GI tract, which is indicative of poor health."

But it's unknown whether additional testing on the animal to determine the cause will be done. Thurman said they collected samples and preserved them, but they have no money to send them off for testing.

They reported the stranding to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has been tracking a large scale dolphin die-off along the Atlantic Coast over the last year.
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Fish

Fish deaths a mystery at Lake Mendocino

Glenda Anderson
The Press Democrat
Tue, 27 May 2014 18:26 UTC
Dead Carp_1
© Glenda Anderson/The Press DemocratHundreds of dead carp are lining the shores of Lake Mendocino, but officials aren't sure why.
Hundreds of dead carp, mouths agape, are lining the shores of Lake Mendocino, but the cause of the die-off remained a mystery on Tuesday.

"Right now, we're just in limbo," said Ryan McClymont, a spokesman with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages Lake Mendocino.

The fish were first reported washing ashore on Sunday, McClymont said. State Fish and Wildlife biologists have been asked to investigate the deaths, he said.
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Fish

Thousands of dead fish found on shoreline near Kemah, Texas

Karla Barguiarena
abc13.com
Mon, 26 May 2014 12:07 UTC
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If you're passing though Kemah this Memorial Day weekend, you might notice a big stench due to hundreds of thousands of dead fish that have washed ashore.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says the dead fish began showing up last weekend. Now, the fish litter the shoreline, and the stench fills the air.

"It just stinks really bad," said Yesenia Compean. "You had to cover your nose when you walk by there."

Edward Hinojosa and his family spend almost every other weekend in the Kemah area.

"Never seen nothing like that in my life," said Hinojosa.

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Fish

Rare prehistoric-looking Sawfish caught in Bonyton Beach Inlet, Florida

Oulimata Ba
hngn.com
Mon, 26 May 2014 04:20 UTC
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© TwitterA Florida man and his friends caught a rare sawfish while fishing off Bonyton Beach Inlet in south Florida.
A Florida man was fishing with his buddies early Sunday morning when they caught a rare, 500-pound sawfish.

Dustin Richter and his friends had been fishing for nearly an hour off Bonyton Beach Inlet with no bites when one of the lines suddenly began to pull, WSVN-TV reported.

"All that adrenaline was pumping while we're pull him up," Richter told the station.

The group wrestled with the line for two hours while it was still dark out, finally reeling in a nearly 12-foot long sawfish.

"I kinda got to the light and we saw the fish, realized it was a sawfish," Richter told the station.

"We were amazed, because it was 11 feet long and the bill was 4 feet long and it was just a crazy find," Richter said.
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Eye 2

Clarion call? Lost snake species rediscovered on Clarion island, Mexico


BBC
Tue, 20 May 2014 04:03 UTC
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© Daniel MulcahyThe Clarion Nightsnake has a distinctive pattern of spots
A lost species of snake that eluded scientists for nearly 80 years has been rediscovered in Mexico, a US museum says.

The Clarion Nightsnake was found on the Pacific island of Clarion in Mexico by a researcher from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

The snake was first discovered in 1936 by naturalist William Beebe.

Although never declared extinct, it was struck from the record after scientists were unable to rediscover it.

The museum said that researcher Daniel Mulcahy, working with an expert from a Mexican institute, carried out an expedition to Clarion Island where their team identified 11 snakes matching Beebe's description.
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