Animals
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Eye 2

Snake causes power disruption, Malaysia


The Star, Malaysia
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:41 UTC
A snake is blamed for a one-hour power failure affecting 2,163 consumers in the Kinarut area, about 30km from here.
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The snake was believed to have crawled between the wires and had apparently caused an electrical trip in the 33KV power supply line from Papar to Kinarut.

The snake had apparently caused an electrical trip in the 33KV power supply line from Papar to Kinarut after it was believed to have crawled between the wires at about 9.25am on Sunday.

Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd senior general manager Ahmad Fuad Kasim said a team found the dead snake hanging between the power lines.

They removed the carcass and restored power by 10.30am.

Among the areas affected were Kinarut town, Kampung Gusi, Taman Sungai Wang, Taman Rose Garden and Taman Kinarut Selatan.
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Attention

100 Pilot whales beach in West Iceland


whalesandmarinefauna.wordpress.com
Mon, 09 Sep 2013 12:46 UTC
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September 9th, 2013. Up to 100 pilot whales swam into the harbor at Rif in Snæfellsnes, West Iceland, on Saturday. Attempts were made by local residents to direct the whales back out to sea but around ten whales died.

Around 200 people - both locals and tourists - gathered on the beach yesterday afternoon to view the dead whales, with some people cutting the meat from the carcasses to take home, ruv.is reports.

However, Róbert Arnar Stefánsson, biologist at the West Iceland Institute of Natural History, says that proper procedures were not followed when the whales drifted into the harbor.

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Question

Badgers in shock attack on walker and dog in North Wootton, United Kingdom


Wells Journal
Thu, 12 Sep 2013 11:13 UTC
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One man and his dog had a nasty surprise when badgers attacked them during an evening walk.

John Harvey, of North Wootton, was walking Dolly near his home when he was charged by one badger while another bit Dolly's tail.

Mr Harvey said: "It was quite scary at the time. It was just after dark. I regularly walk the dog at that time and I see badgers often. Usually they are 10 to 20 yards away and they are passive.

"But this time when we passed a storm drain a badger came out of it and charged straight towards us.

"It charged into me and I put the torch on it and gave it a kick. It ran between my legs.

"Then another badger came from the other side of the road and went for the dog. It bit her tail and she span round and growled at it.
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Eye 2

Warden finds 6ft snake on roadside, Colchester, UK


The Daily Gazette, UK
Mon, 09 Sep 2013 06:45 UTC
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Casey Harrison, Peter Ferguson, Steve Switzer and Chris Halls were called to an escaped snake.
Chris Halls was left rattled when he adder deal with a snake on the loose.

Mr Halls, a Colchester Council zone team operator, was called to Northern Approach after receiving reports of a snake found by the roadside.

When the team arrived at the scene early on Friday morning near to Straight Road, it wasn't clear if the 6ft snake was alive or dead.

But quick-thinking Chris, who is terrified of snakes, managed to put the reptile in a garden waste bag and tied it using a black bin bag and took it to Colchester Zoo.

There, experts identified it as a North American Pine constrictor snake, a common pet.
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Eye 2

Disco the snake handed into nightclub after being found in street in Dumfries, Scotland


news.stv.tv
Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:33 UTC
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© Scottish SPCADisco: The corn snake was found in Dumfries on Tuesday night.
A snake was handed into a nightclub after being found slithering along a street.

The animal, which has been nicknamed Disco by Scottish SPCA workers, was found in Friars Vennel in Dumfries.

A man who discovered the cornsnake alerted bar staff at Chancers in nearby Munches Street on Tuesday night.

Staff at the club contained the snake in a jug before taking him to a nearby police station in the early hours of Wednesday.
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Eye 2

Snake preserved in wine bites woman, China

Lucy Shaw
The Drinks Business
Wed, 11 Sep 2013 10:07 UTC
A woman in northern China has had to receive hospital treatment after a snake preserved in rice wine jumped out of the bottle and bit her hand.

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According to the Global Times, the surprise attack happened when the woman, surnamed Liu, from Shuangcheng went to top up the bottle with more wine.

Remarkably, the snake, which had been pickling for three months, was still alive.

Liu, who received treatment at a local hospital for inflammation, had bought the snake wine to try and cure her rheumatism.

It is a widely held belief in China that such wines boast medicinal properties

This is not the first incident of a pickled snake seemingly coming back to life.

One Mr Zhang of Hubei Province was bitten by a snake in 2009 that had been preserved in a bottle of rice wine for two months.

While in 2001, a villager from Guangxi Zhuang died a day after being bitten from a pickled snake.
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Bizarro Earth

City investigates fish kill in southeast Austin, Texas


KTBC, Fox7
Tue, 10 Sep 2013 14:40 UTC

    • Something strange is going on in a southeast Austin neighborhood. Hundreds of fish went belly up in a local pond. Tuesday, the city and a local business are trying to figure out what happened.

    The city of Austin says more than 200 fish were found dead in a pond near the Onion Creek Golf Club. They're running tests to see what happened. In the meantime, residents there are frustrated by what they see and smell.

    When Jean Tarcz walked outside to the retention pond behind her home near Onion Creek Golf Course Monday she couldn't believe her eyes.

    "I saw all these huge fish out there floating...dead." Tarcz said.

    She says she feels the owner of the retention pond, onion creek club, neglected to care for the pond.

    "If you keep the water this low, the aerators cannot work and they just become clogged," Tarcz said.
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    Question

    Mystery disease killing Ohio dogs

    Marc Lallanilla
    LiveScience
    Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:29 UTC
    New Virus
    © Ljiljana Jankovic | ShutterstockSeveral dogs in Ohio have been sickened, and four have died, from a disease that may be caused by a newly discovered virus.
    Veterinarians, health officials and dog owners are alarmed by the mysterious recent deaths of four dogs in Ohio. Some experts suspect that the dogs may have died a few days after exposure to a virus that's normally found in pigs.

    Three dogs in the Cincinnati area and a fourth dog near Akron died in August after exhibiting symptoms that included vomiting, bloody diarrhea, weight loss and lethargy, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

    "We feel obligated to make sure pet owners are aware this is happening," Erica Hawkins, communications director for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, told the Dispatch. "Supportive therapies can be helpful if started early enough."

    The three dogs from Cincinnati died last month after staying in the same kennel. The Akron dog that died was one of several in the Akron-Canton area that showed the same symptoms. A stool sample from the Akron dog tested positive for canine circovirus, a recently isolated virus.
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    Question

    Massive starfish die-off baffles scientists in British Columbia, Canada

    Carrie Arnold
    National Geographic
    Mon, 09 Sep 2013 13:50 UTC
    The waters off British Columbia, Canada, are littered with dead starfish, and researchers have no idea what's causing the deaths.

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    © Jonathan MartinA decomposing P. helianthoides starfish still clinging to a rock.
    At the end of August, marine biologist and scuba enthusiast Jonathan Martin was out on his usual Saturday dive with some friends when he noticed something unusual.

    "We just started noticing dead starfish that looked like they had their arms chopped off," Martin said.

    They were sunflower starfish (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a major marine predator in the area that feeds mostly on sea urchins and snails. Like most starfish, the sunflower starfish can regenerate lost limbs - it can have up to 20 - and can grow to be up to three feet (a meter) across. (Related pictures: "5 Animals That Regrow Body Parts.")

    Since Martin was diving in an area frequented by crabbers, at first he thought the sunflower starfish had gotten caught in some of the crab traps and had lost limbs escaping. But Martin kept seeing large numbers of dead starfish as he and his friends swam to a marine park where such crab fishing is illegal. Martin knew then it wasn't the traps that were causing the starfish deaths.

    After returning from the dive, he visited friends at a local dive shop who were active in marine conservation. Without any definitive answer, he shared photos on Flickr and videos on YouTube - taken at Lion's Bay and Whytecliff Park in Vancouver - to try to get ideas from others about what was going on.

    "It really struck a chord in other divers who were seeing it on Facebook and social media, both locally and as far away as California, who had been seeing similar things," Martin said.
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    Question

    Mysterious elk deaths plague New Mexico

    Benjamin Radford
    LIveScience
    Tue, 10 Sep 2013 13:35 UTC
    Elk
    © LiveScience
    Officials with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish are puzzling over the mysterious deaths of more than 100 elk, apparently all within a 24-hour period, in rural New Mexico.

    The elk were found Aug. 27 on a 75,000-acre ranch north of the city of Las Vegas.

    Livestock deaths, by themselves, are not unusual - there are many things that can fell large animals, including predators, poachers, a natural or man-made toxin, disease, drought, heat, starvation, and even lightning.

    But so far wildlife officials have seemingly ruled out most of these possibilities: The elk weren't shot (nor taken from the area), so it was not poachers.

    Tests have come back negative for anthrax, a bacteria that exists naturally in the region and can kill large animals. There seems to be no evidence of any heavy pesticide use in the area that might have played a role in the die-off.

    Though lightning strikes are not uncommon in the Southwest and in New Mexico specifically, killing over 100 animals at one time would be an incredibly rare event. It might be an as-yet unidentified disease, though killing so many at once - and so quickly - would be very unusual. Another possibility is some sort of contamination of the well or water tanks, but so far no toxins have been identified.
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