Animals
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Attention

Dolphin virus outbreak in Atlantic is deadliest ever


The Times of India
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:42 UTC
Image
© AFPA mother and juvenile bottlenose dolphin.
The deadliest known outbreak of a measles-like virus in bottlenose dolphins has killed a record number of the animals along the US Atlantic coast since July, officials said Friday.

A total of 753 bottlenose dolphins have washed up from New York to Florida from July 1 until November 3, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

That is more than 10 times the number of dolphins that would typically turn up dead along East Coast beaches, said Teri Rowles, program coordinator of the NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program.

"Historic averages for this same time frame, same geographic area is only 74, so you get an idea of the scope," she told reporters.

The death toll is also higher than the more than 740 strandings in the last major Atlantic morbillivirus outbreak in 1987-1988.

And they have come in a much shorter time period, leading officials to anticipate this event could get much worse.

"It is expected that the confirmed mortalities will be higher," said Rowles.
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Info

Sea turtle deaths alarming Central America

Carlos Mario Marquez
newsdaily.com
Sun, 10 Nov 2013 13:29 UTC
Image
© Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia CommonsOlive ridley sea turtle
Hundreds of sea turtles are washing up dead on the beaches of Central America and scientists don't know why.

One hypothesis is that the killer is a potent neurotoxin that can be produced by algae during red tides, which are large accumulations of algae that turn sea water red or brown.

The puzzling thing, though, is that red tides have come and gone before without taking such a deadly toll on turtles.

Making things worse, some of the turtles dying are from endangered species.

In El Salvador, for instance, from late September to the middle of October, 114 sea turtles were discovered dead on Pacific coast beaches, according to the environment ministry.
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Bizarro Earth

Pet deer partially blinds owner during attack


CBS Atlanta
Fri, 08 Nov 2013 21:31 UTC
Image
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
An Alabama man was charged with illegally keeping seven deer as pets, including a buck that mauled and partially blinded him, wildlife officials said Friday.

On Oct. 30, Julius Dunsmore entered a fenced pen on his property in Marshall County in the northern part of the state and was attacked by a nine-point buck. Dunsmore said the deer lifted him up on its antlers and carried him 30 feet. One antler punctured his face and severed the optic nerve to an eye. He also suffered puncture wounds in his rib cage, hips and legs.

Dunsmore said he will never again keep deer as pets. His injuries will require several surgeries.

"People need to know that these things are dangerous," he said. "You never know when they are going to turn."
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Attention

Piles of dead oysters at Khairan beach, Kuwait


Kuwait Times
Fri, 08 Nov 2013 03:18 UTC
Image
The rate at which oysters are dying at the Khairan beach has doubled since the incident was first reported last Wednesday, an environmental organization warned in a statement yesterday in which they demanded extensive investigation to find the reasons behind this phenomenon. "The Kuwait Dive Team found piles of dead oysters in numbers that vastly exceed those first reported on Wednesday", team leader and President of the Environment Voluntary Foundation Waleed Al-Fadhel said yesterday. He further indicated that other marine species such as crabs were found dead at the same site.

This comes as a government body rejected concern about a potential environmental phenomenon behind the massive number of dead oysters reported recently at the Khairan beach. "The dead oysters were likely disposed by people who caught them for consumption or to look for pearl", said Dr Muna Husain, head of the biodiversity protection department at the Environment Public Authority. She further added in a statement Thursday that "dead oysters naturally do not float to the surface, but remain attached to the seafloor or rocks near the beach".
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Attention

'Wreck' of short-tailed shearwater as 200 birds found dead in New Zealand


tvnz.co.nz
Thu, 07 Nov 2013 05:24 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia CommonsThe short-tailed shearwater
Nearly 200 seabirds have been found dead along Waikato's west coast beaches.

A total of 184 short-tailed shearwater, a migratory bird that typically breeds on the islands between Tasmania and Victoria, have been washed ashore between Waikorea beach and Taharoa, south of Kawhia.

It is not known when the birds died and were washed ashore, but numbers are said to be "unusually large" by one expert.

Hugh Clifford, who organised the beach patrol on behalf of the Waikato branch of the Ornithological Society, said the number of short-tailed shearwater found this year was much higher than normal.

"There would be millions of them passing down through the Tasman Sea on the southern migration.

"Some of them were pushed closer to New Zealand and the food conditions may have been unfavourable, causing them to perish."

Each year during the southern hemisphere winter, the short-tailed shearwater migrate about 15,000 km to the Northern Pacific, before making their way back towards southern Australia to breed around October.
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Question

Reward money grows in sheep mutilation mystery

Craig Hlavaty
Chron
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 20:33 UTC
Mutilated Sheep
© Chron
The Humane Society of the United States is now offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information regarding a series of brutal sheep mutilations in Port Lavaca.

The Calhoun County Sheriff's Department has also been offering up to $2,500 from a private donor for any information regarding the sheep mutilations.

Wayne and Karen Daggs, of Port Lavaca, have lost 21 of their prized Barbado sheep since July. Calhoun County sheriffs had been involved since the beginning of Daggs' sheep killings. Even a local UFO investigator has weighed in on the incidents, adding an extra bit of weirdness to the story.

The last reported mutilations occurred at the beginning of October.

"The mutilation and torture of so many defenseless sheep is a real life horror story and a shocking act of violence within this community, said Katie Jarl, the HSUS state director in a press release. "We are hopeful that this reward will bring forward anyone with information about this heinous crime." Daggs put the cost of the animals he's lost at around $1,250.

Bobbie Vickery, with Calhoun County, says the Daggses lost a sheep on October 17 to a bobcat. The sheep was found with wounds not like the wounds found on the other mutilated sheep.

The HSUS hopes that the money will lead to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the killings. They see a connection between animal cruelty and human violence, pointing to studies showing a correlation between animal cruelty and all manner of other crimes.

The HSUS recently doubled its standard cruelty reward from $2,500 to $5,000, with the money coming from a donation by a HSUS board member.
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Attention

Deer farmer, 75, dies five days after being gored by stag in rutting season in Wales

Luke Salkeld and Chris Pleasance
The Daily Mail, UK
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 05:49 UTC
  • Kenneth Price was gored by a deer last Wednesday
  • Air ambulance crew carried out emergency surgery at the scene
  • He was flown to hospital in Swansea where he received more surgery
  • Mr Price passed away yesterday leaving his wife Doreen, 73
A deer farmer has died after being attacked by a stag.

Kenneth Price, 75, was left with serious injuries after the animal gored him with its antlers.

Paramedics operated at the scene before he was airlifted to hospital. Despite further surgery, Mr Price died five days later.

Image
Mr Price died after being gored by a male deer during rutting season on Mountain Hall farm near Saron in Wales
The lifelong sheep farmer had diversified into breeding deer for venison more than five years ago, it is believed.

His widow Doreen, 73, was yesterday being comforted by friends and relatives.

Mr Price was a leading sheep judge who was a regular at the Royal Welsh Show. David Pittendreigh, regional chairman of the National Sheep Association, said: 'Kenneth was a super, super man. It's a real tragedy.
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Blue Planet

Jellyfish taking over oceans, experts warn

Karla Cripps
CNN
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:30 UTC
Jellyfish
© Funny-Potato.com

It's a beautiful afternoon on the beach.

The sun is shining, you're rolling in the waves, showing off the toned torso you worked on at the gym all winter.

Suddenly a sharp, burning sensation hits your skin.

You've just been stung by a jellyfish.

If experts' warnings are true, swimmers around the world can expect to experience these unwanted love taps in greater numbers than ever before.

"Jellyfish and tourism are not happy bedfellows," says Dr. Lisa-Ann Gershwin, author of the recently published book, Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean.

Gershwin says popular beach resorts around the world are seeing huge increases in jellyfish "bloom" activity, a result of overfishing and changing water temperatures.
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Question

5 Endangered whales found dead on Russia's east coast


en.ria.ru
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 04:33 UTC
Image
© Vasily Tatatai /WWF5 Endangered Whales Found Dead on Russia’s East Coast
The remains of five endangered gray whales have been found washed ashore in Russia's most northeasterly region, a nongovernmental marine life organization said Tuesday.

"The remains belong to gray whales of the Chukotka-California population, which have been put on Russia's Red List of threatened species," Marine Mammal Council deputy head Andrei Boltunov said.

"We need to register all the cases of these animals' death and investigate the reasons of the incident," he said.

In September, a team of Russian scientists found the remains of ten gray whales washed up on the 800-kilometer (500-mile) stretch of the Chukotka coast during an aerial survey. No cause of death has been determined.

Large numbers of polar bears have been attracted to the sites where the carcasses were found, prompting scientists to warn local residents of the danger from the animals.

"Close attention should be paid to the crowds of polar bears near the remains of whales and walruses washed ashore," said Viktor Nikiforov, head of the World Wildlife Fund's Polar Bear Patrol program.
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Arrow Down

Rise of the mutant rats: More and more rodents immune to regular poison in the UK

Daniel Binns
Metro, UK
Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:28 UTC
Rat
© GettyResistant: Rats are becoming immune to poison.

Mutant 'super rats' which cannot be killed by regular poisons are spreading across Britain, experts are warning.

The creatures, which look like normal rodents but eat toxic pellets 'like feed', have been discovered in Kent, the west country and now in Sussex.

The British Pest Control Association's Richard Moseley told Metro: 'Normal rats are being killed off by poison, so these resistant species are taking their place - it's only natural that their numbers are expanding.

'But they're being found further afield than previously anticipated.

'They eat poison like feed; you might as well be leaving out grain for them'.

There are an estimated 10.5million rats in Britain and they breed rapidly.

The gestation period is just 21 days and a female can have up to 14 pups at a time. Some breeding pairs can have 800 young in just two years.

Poison-resistant rats have been around for 50 years but researchers warn they are spreading rapidly. Mutants have been found in Sussex for the first time by researchers from the University of Huddersfield.
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