Animals
S


Bizarro Earth

Australia: Giant Kangaroo Attacks 94-year-old Woman

Anissa Haddadi
International Business Times
Tue, 26 Jul 2011 13:45 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia Commons
Australia police used pepper spray to overpower an aggressive kangaroo after it attacked a 94-year-old woman in her backyard on Sunday.

"I thought it was going to kill me," Phyllis Johnson told the Courier-Mail newspaper from her hospital bed following the attack in the outback Queensland town of Charleville. The animal bowled her over as she was hanging out her laundry.

The elderly woman told reporters she thought she was going to die as the "red roo," which can jump more than nine meters in one leap, knocked her to the ground and kicked her several times.

She said she had walked out from the small flat where she lives in Charleville to hang up the washing, and as the violent attack took place, she said she kept thinking the animal would kill her. "It was taller than me and it just ploughed through the clothes on the washing line straight for me," she told the paper.

"I happened to have a broom nearby and I just started swinging at it. I bashed it on the head but it kept going for me. Not even the dog would help, it was too frightened."
Read More...
Sherlock

Scientists Find New Australian Frog


PhysOrg
Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:50 UTC
Image
© Paul DoughtyPilbara toadlet (Uperoleia saxatilis).
A new miniature frog species or 'toadlet' has been discovered in the resource-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia, an area previously thought to support very few of the amphibians.

Researchers from the Australian National University, the Western Australian Museum, and the University of Western Australia have used genetic techniques to show more species of frog are present in the Pilbara than previously thought.

Lead author and PhD student from the Research School of Biology at ANU, Renee Catullo said the findings included a species previously unknown to science.

"The deserts of Australia are often believed to be empty regions with few species. However genetic work on reptiles and amphibians has shown that there are large numbers of species in what looks like a barren landscape to most people," she said.
Read More...
Fish

U.S.: Thousands of fish turned up dead in Indiana lake

David Williams
WAVE
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:43 UTC
fish ,kill,indiana

Seymour, Indiana- Imagine thousands of fish literally turn up dead in a lake near your home. That's just what happened at a lake in Seymour, Indiana. So, our viewers called us asking us to get answers.

Neighbors say they've never seen anything like this before.

Stinking, dead fish giving off a foul odor and floating in the lake is what Corey Lanier and his neighbors came across this weekend
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Australia: Dugong deaths 'ecological disaster'


Daily Mercury
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:58 UTC
Image
© David Hannan

Environmentalists have again warned of an ecological disaster at the southern end of Queensland's Great Barrier Reef, following the discovery of a dead dugong.

It was found washed up on a beach in Gladstone Harbour, the fourth dugong, along with three dolphins and 40 turtles that have been found washed up around the harbour since May.

Friends of the Earth spokesman Drew Hutton said he had seen first-hand the destruction around the harbour since construction of the LNG facilities had started.
Read More...
Binoculars

US: Teens Mauled by Grizzly in Alaska

Rachel D'Oro
The Associated Press
Sun, 24 Jul 2011 21:43 UTC
Image
© Photodisc
The teenage outdoor education students, having progressed to the point of being on their own in the vast Alaska wilderness, were lined up single file for a river crossing when the grizzly burst with fury into the front of the line, badly mauling two in the group and injuring two more.

Those in the front screamed of the bear's presence. The bear was with her cub when she attacked, according to state troopers.

The teens were in a group of seven participating in a 30-day backcountry course conducted by the National Outdoor Leadership School when the attack occurred Saturday night in the Talkeetna Mountains north of Anchorage. They were rescued early Sunday after activating their emergency locator beacon and tending to their most seriously wounded.

Those in the back of the line heard the warning, with the two at the front of the line taking the brunt of the attack, trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

Another group of seven students and three instructors was waiting about six miles away for a helicopter hired by the Lander, Wyo.-based NOLS, said Bruce Palmer, a spokesman for the organization, which leads many such excursions in Alaska and elsewhere.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Australia: Another dugong death

David Sparks
The Observer
Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:50 UTC
dudong
© ContributedThis dead dugong was found on Witt Island by Clive Last, who is increasing worried by marine animal deaths in Gladstone Harbour

Another dead dugong has been found in Gladstone Harbour, and the man who found it wants some answers.

Clive Last, who in May discovered a dead dolphin on Turtle Island, was shocked on Friday afternoon when he found the body of a dead dugong on Witt Island.

Mr Last is wary of suggestions marine animal deaths this year can be attributed to boat strikes and net fishing. He said those explanations didn't match his observations on the harbour.
Read More...
Attention

15 Whales Dead in Northwest Scotland


PhysOrg
Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:00 UTC
Image
© Florida Keys News BureauTwo stranded pilot whales struggle in shallow waters.
Fifteen pilot whales have died in a mass stranding near the northwestern tip of Scotland, according to a rescue charity.

Rescuers have been trying to save a pod of around 60 long-finned pilot whales in the Kyle of Durness, a sea inlet near Cape Wrath.

Around 35 beached as the water receded at low tide and 20 were refloated using inflatable pontoons as the water level rose again.

However, the remainder perished, said the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) charity.

The rescue effort was stood down following nightfall Friday and was to resume after sunrise Saturday.

Mark Simmonds, head of science at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said the Kyle of Durness looked like a "whale trap".

"Something may have startled the group further out to sea and they panicked, came into this unusual situation and were unable to find their way out.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Rare Sei Whale Spotted in Scottish Waters


BBC
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:26 UTC
Sei Whale
© Danny KerrDanny Kerr captured a shot of the whale between Islay and Gigha.
Scientists believe a rare Sei whale has been sighted in Scottish waters - possibly only the ninth such sighting here in the past 50 years.

The mammal was photographed by Scots paramedic Danny Kerr off the west coast, between Islay and Gigha, as he was flying to pick up a patient.

He later sent the image to the marine charity Sea Watch, which enlisted the help of two American academics.

All three independently concluded that it was a Sei whale.

Adult Sei whales can weigh between 20 and 30 tonnes and grow up to 19.5m in length.
Read More...
Fish

US: Sick Fish, Fish Kill Reported in Gulf


The Ledger
Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:18 UTC
fish kill
© Lexey SwallAn unusual arrival of offshore fish, some of them dead, littered the shoreline Monday in North Naples. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is testing water samples and shark tissue to determine the cause of the dark water and fish kill. Scientists suspect low-dissolved oxygen, possibly as a result of a dying algae bloom, are killing the fish. The health department has not advised swimmers to stay out of the water.

Dead fish have been washing up on the beaches at Naples since Monday.

And commercial fishermen out of Madeira Beach and marine scientists have been conducting a survey of fish with sores and deformities in the Gulf of Mexico since the first week of July.

The exact cause of these problems hasn't been pinpointed yet, and the reports have been isolated dating to the winter.

But two possible reasons being mentioned are the Gulf oil spill last April and a "dead zone'' devoid of oxygen.

The St. Petersburg Times reported last week that three 10-day trips into the Gulf from Madeira Beach and Panama City that departed July 6, July 8 and July 18 were searching for fish that might have some sort of disease. They are catching and checking fish from the Keys across to Texas.

The Times report said red snapper and vermilion snapper caught by fishermen showed "wounds straight through their muscle tissue.''
Read More...
Fish

US: Louisiana Neighborhood lake full of dead fish


WAFB
Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:34 UTC
Prairieville, Louisiana- Hot weather is causing trouble for a Prairieville neighborhood. However, it's not just the heat causing trouble. People there are dealing with a lake, full of dead fish.


About 15 houses surround the lake in the Cypress Lake subdivision in Prairieville.
Read More...