Animals
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Haryana, India: Mysterious buffaloes deaths in Kaithal district


The Times of India
Sun, 17 Jul 2011 03:07 UTC
Image
© unknown
A mysterious disease in Khanpur village of Kaithal district led to sudden death of nearly 25 buffalos in past 24 hours, plunging the villagers into mourning.

A team of doctors rushed to the village after reports of the disease, which is killing one cattle almost every hour, since Friday evening, but have so far failed to identify the disease or the cause of so many deaths.

The disease was noticed on Friday evening after when buffaloes started falling to the ground following which villagers consulted a veterinary assistant in the village. But even after treatment there was no improvement and buffalos started dying by late night on Friday. Villagers informed that the buffalos stopped taking fodder or hay initially and then laid on the floor. Ram Pal Singh, a farmer, informed that he had brought his buffalo home from the village pond along with many other villagers. The symptoms started soon after returning home.
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Magic Wand

Is summer over already? Clement the cuckoo seems to think so (he's already in Africa for his winter break)


The Daily Mail
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:44 UTC
Image
© BTOTrying to tell us something? Clement the cuckoo has already migrated to Africa, where he spends each winter. The tracking device can be seen on his back
It seems the chances of a warm British summer are doomed if the migratory movements of a cuckoo are anything to go by.

So unimpressed with our mild climate is Clement the cuckoo that he has already flown to Africa, where he spends each winter.

He is one of five cuckoos that scientists are tracking on their southward migration, and the first to have left Europe altogether.

Three of the others are currently in Italy, while the last has remained in East Anglia, where all five were caught and tagged with fingernail-sized tracking devices in May.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is monitoring the birds in order to work out why their population has dramatically fallen over the last few years.

The adventurous Clement left Britain on June 3, a month before ornithologists had thought the cuckoos would begin their migration.

He then surprised researchers by taking a westward route, flying over France before heading west through Spain and then crossing the Mediterranean into Algeria.

Scientists had expected all the cuckoos to travel on an easterly route down the length of Italy.
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Binoculars

US: Bear Mauls Boy at Colorado Bowhunting Gathering

Keith Coffman
Reuters
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:05 UTC
A marauding black bear tore through a mountain campsite at a bowhunters gathering in west-central Colorado on Friday and mauled a teenage boy, wildlife officials said.

The bear entered the boy's campsite in Lake County before dawn and broke into a food cooler, feasting on eggs before it entered the boy's tent, Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife, said.

The bear grabbed the boy by the leg before other campers who heard his screams scared the animal off. The boy, who was not identified, sustained minor lacerations to his leg and was treated at a local hospital and released, Hampton said.

He said wildlife officers were tracking the bear with dogs and would destroy the animal if it is found.

"We like to have a thriving black bear population, but when they become aggressive toward people they must be put down," he said.
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Bizarro Earth

U.S.: Oil-covered birds spark oil spill search


UPI
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:04 UTC
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© UPI/A.J. SiscoOil-coated pelicans, like this one found after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, have been found on California beaches

Santa Barbara, California -- The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a possible oil spill after five brown pelicans were found covered with oil on California beaches, officials said.

The Coast Guard said a seabird rehabilitation worker found the first two birds near Santa Barbara Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Three more birds were discovered at another beach Wednesday, but two of them subsequently died.
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Info

Loss of World's Top Predators Is Pervasively Changing Ecosystems

Wynne Parry
Live Science
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:01 UTC
Coral Sharks
© Brian ZgliczynskiA healthy coral reef ecosystem with sharks off Jarvis Island, an uninhabited island located in the South Pacific Ocean. A loss of these large predators can alter the patterns of predation and herbivory, ultimately leading to an coral system where reef-building corals and coralline algae lose their competitive advantage.
The loss of top predators, such as lions, wolves and sharks, is causing unpredictable changes to food chains around the world, according to a review written by 24 scientists.

These animals, called apex predators, play a crucial role in ecosystems, and their disappearance - often due to hunting by humans and loss of habitat - can lead to changes in vegetation, wildfire frequency, infectious diseases, invasive species, water quality and nutrient cycles, according to the authors led by James Estes, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"The loss of apex consumers is arguably humankind's most pervasive influence on the natural world," the researchers conclude in a review published in the July 15 issue of the journal Science which examined findings from studies of ecosystems on land, in freshwater and in the ocean.
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Bug

US: Stinky Kudzu Bug Invades South

Wynne Parry
Live Science
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:41 UTC
Kudzu Bug
© D. Suiter / Univ. GeorgiaKudzu bugs, which feed on the infamous vine, showed up in Georgia in 2009.
As if kudzu, the invasive "vine that ate the South," weren't trouble enough, one of its little friends from Asia has joined it in the United States.

The kudzu bug, known formally as Megacopta cribraria, is a type of stinkbug that feeds the kudzu vine in its native Asia. While the invading vine is its favorite meal, the bug also attacks soybeans, and as it spreads from Georgia to neighboring states, there are fears it will broaden its palate and target other legume crops, including peanuts.

Kudzu was brought to the East Coast more than a century ago to control erosion. Its quick growth wreaked havoc on the ecosystem: It smothers and strangles other plants, uproots trees and breaks branches with its weight. The bug appears to have hitched a ride by accident much more recently. Just how remains a mystery.
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Fish

U.S. More Dead Fish in Oklahoma

Jalah Gray
KXll.com
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 09:49 UTC
Marshall County - Large numbers of dead fish continue to show up in waters all over Oklahoma. Today we talked with local fishermen in Marshall County about what they've been experiencing.

"I don't know whether they run out of oxygen or what it is they ought to be able to test the water and find out." said Jack Campbell.

Jack Campbell has been fishing Wilson Creek all his life. He says 3 weeks ago, small fish started dying and now large fish, many more than 40 and 50 pounds are dying as well.
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Butterfly

In U.S. Midwest, Butterflies May Be Far Fewer due to GMO and Herbicides

Andrew Pollack
The New York Times
Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:45 UTC
Monarch Butterfly
© Rich Beauchesne/Portsmouth HeraldThe use of a herbicide has taken away a home for monarchs.
As recently as a decade ago, farms in the Midwest were commonly marred - at least as a farmer would view it - by unruly patches of milkweed amid the neat rows of emerging corn or soybeans.

Not anymore. Fields are now planted with genetically modified corn and soybeans resistant to the herbicide Roundup, allowing farmers to spray the chemical to eradicate weeds, including milkweed.

And while that sounds like good news for the farmers, a growing number of scientists fear it is imperiling the monarch butterfly, whose spectacular migrations make it one of the most beloved of insects - "the Bambi of the insect world," as an entomologist once put it.

Monarchs lay their eggs on milkweed, and their larvae eat it. While the evidence is still preliminary and disputed, experts like Chip Taylor say the growing use of genetically modified crops is threatening the orange-and-black butterfly by depriving it of habitat.
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Attention

US: Russell Springs, Kansas - Unusually Harsh Weather Conditions Cause Exceptionally Rare Hibernation Period in Prairie Dogs

Mike Corn
Hays Daily News
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:16 UTC
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© Mike Corn • Hays Daily NewsA young prairie dog is pictured last Friday in Logan County. Prairie dog numbers appear to be down as a result of unusually harsh weather that sent the animals into a rare hibernation
The unusually harsh weather conditions that sent black-tailed prairie dogs underground for what is believed to be an exceptionally rare hibernation period continues to affect the health of the animals.

Population estimates over at the Smoky Valley Ranch owned by the Nature Conservancy, for example, are considered to be about half of normal.

"I suppose it's about that way here," said Larry Haverfield, whose ranch south of Russell Springs has the largest concentration of prairie dogs in the area, and, as a result, the largest population of the highly endangered black-footed ferrets.

Haverfield said the first prairie dog pups of the year were spotted May 25, perhaps as many as 20 days later than normal.

Even then, the number of young in a litter appear to be fewer than normal.
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Fish

Canada: Beached whale remains a mystery


CBC News
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:39 UTC
dead whale
© Fisheries and Oceans CanadaEric MacIntosh of the Department of fisheries and Oceans assesses the condition of the whale on June 28, the day it was first found beached in Shelburne Harbour.

A necropsy at Charlottetown's Atlantic Veterinary College has been unable to determine why a pygmy sperm whale beached itself and died in Nova Scotia last week.

The whale was found high and dry on a beach in Shelburne Harbour, on Nova Scotia's south shore. Pygmy sperms are amongst the smallest of whales, usually about three metres long fully grown. This was a particularly large one - almost four metres long and weighing more than 200 kilograms.

With the help of members of the Nova Scotia Marine Animal Response Society, fisheries officers rolled the whale back into the water half-a-dozen times. Eric MacIntosh of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said he was hopeful as he watched the whale gain strength swimming across the harbour.
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