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Australia: Plague of Ravenous Mice Eat Farmer John Gregory's Pigs

Sarah Mennie
Adelaide Now: Sunday Mail
Sat, 28 May 2011 10:00 UTC
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© Sunday MailSaving his bacon: John Gregory covers his pigs in engine oil to protect them from mice.
When South Australian farmer John Gregory entered his piggery he could not believe what he saw - mice attacking his pigs.

Since he first saw them dining out on his prized stock he has been at his wit's end about how to get rid of them.

Now, as a desperate last resort, he is covering his pigs at a farm property in Wynarka, 130km east of Adelaide, in engine oil to protect them from the mice, with the rodents apparently turned off by the taste.

"The mouse problem got really bad in April," Mr Gregory said.

"We went away in the school holidays and when we came back we drove up the driveway and it looked like the ground was moving - there were hundreds of thousands of them."

Mr Gregory, 50, said he put engine oil on his 15 pigs to protect them from the sun about once a month.
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Magnify

Indonesia: Weather Blamed for Caterpillar Plague

Fidelis E. Satriastanti & Elisabeth Oktofani
Jakarta Globe
Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:00 UTC
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© JG Photo/Safir MakkiA boy eyeing a caterpillar in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, where thousands of the prickly insects have infested pine trees.
Unpredictable weather coupled with a decline in natural predators is responsible for a recent plague of caterpillars in parts of the country.

Though the phenomenon is centered largely in Probolinggo, East Java, smaller reported outbreaks in Central Java, West Java, Bali and, most recently, Jakarta have prompted fears of a widespread infestation.

But Aunu Rauf, an entomologist at the Bogor Institute of Agricultural (IPB), says there is no connection between the outbreaks in Probolinggo and those in the other areas.

"There are at least 120,000 types of caterpillars in the world, so those found in Bekasi [West Java] and Probolinggo would be different from each other," he told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday.

"I'm sure the ones in Tanjung Duren [West Jakarta], where people have claimed to have been 'attacked' by caterpillars, are also a different type."

Since March, millions of hairy caterpillars have cropped up in at least five subdistricts in Probolinggo, invading fields and homes. They have also caused itchy rashes among residents.
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Fish

More Than 800 Tons of Fish Die and Rot on Fish Farms South of Philippine Capital

Bullit Marquez
The Associated Press
Sun, 29 May 2011 04:56 UTC
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© The Associated Press / Bullit MarquezA fish pond worker scoops up dead milkfish locally known as Bangus after thousands of them were found floating on Taal Lake in Batangas province, south of Manila, Philippines, Sunday May 29, 2011. The Government Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources are still investigating the cause of the fish kill. The damage of the fish, the most in-demand fishes in the country, is estimated at least 50 tons.
More than 800 tons of fish have died and rotted on fish farms in a lake near Taal volcano south of Manila, with authorities blaming it on a sudden temperature drop.

The massive fish deaths started late last week but have eased. Officials have banned the sale of the rotting fish, which are being buried by the truckload in Talisay and four other towns in Batangas province, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources official Rose del Mundo said Sunday.

The deaths are unrelated to recent signs of restiveness in Taal volcano, which is surrounded by the lake where many villagers have grown milkfish and tilapia - staple food for many Filipinos, officials said. The volcano and lake are a popular tourist draw.

Talisay agricultural officer Zenaida Mendoza said an initial investigation showed the deaths may have been caused by the temperature change as the rainy season set in last week after a scorching summer, which also depleted the lake's oxygen levels.
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Butterfly

Strange He-She Birds Present Gender-Bending Mystery

Wynne Parry
Livescience
Thu, 26 May 2011 22:29 UTC
The unusual cardinal
© Larry P. Ammann, RemoteSensingArt.comThe unusual cardinal that appeared at Larry Ammann's backyard feeder.

A strange bird showed up in Larry Ammann's backyard on Jan. 14. Clearly a cardinal, it had the bright red plumage of a male on its left side and gray, female feathers on its right.

"I had no clue how on Earth something like that could happen," said Ammann, a professor of statistics and a wildlife photographer who lives in a suburb of Dallas. "It was a learning experience."

Ammann and the biologists he consulted concluded the bird was most likely part female, part male. Creatures with this condition are called gynandromorphs. They are genetic anomalies: Some cells in their bodies carry the genetic instructions for a male, some for a female. While this gender-bending also occurs among insects, spiders and crustaceans, birds like this cardinal have raised questions about how sex identity is determined among some animals.

As the breeding season began, other cardinals became more territorial, and the bird disappeared before it could be trapped and its feathers collected for genetic testing.
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Bizarro Earth

420 Whale Sharks Swarm Mexican Coastline

Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
Wed, 25 May 2011 18:43 UTC
Whale Sharks
© Oscar ReyesWhale shark aggregation off the coast of Mexico.

Up to 420 whale sharks gathered off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, forming the world's largest known assembly of this species, according to a press release issued by the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.

The discovery counters the widely held belief that whale sharks, which can weigh more than 79,000 pounds, are solitary filter feeders that prefer to be alone in the open ocean. The impressive shark assembly proves they will gather for the right reasons. Food now appears to be the draw.

"Whale sharks are the largest species of fish in the world, yet they mostly feed on the smallest organisms in the ocean, such as zooplankton," Mike Maslanka, biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and head of the Department of Nutrition Sciences, says in the press release. "Our research revealed that in this case, the hundreds of whale sharks had gathered to feed on dense patches of fish eggs."

Maslanka and his team identified the whale shark assembly using both surface and aerial surveys. Considering these sharks can grow to more than 40 feet long, the surface-level surveying must have been extraordinary.
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Fish

U.S.: Thousands of Fish Wash up Dead in Ogeechee River

Maura Kennedy
The Coastal Source
Mon, 23 May 2011 08:51 UTC
Thousands of fish wash up on Ogeechee River banks, and now people are being warned not to eat from or fish the popular river in five different counties.


"I just ride down here, and I sit and look. I've been doing that for years anyway. I just look at the rivers. Just something to see for me," Nelson Hales said.

Nelson Hales has a sentimental attachment to the Ogeechee River. He's been fishing on the river since he was a little boy and was baptized in the water.
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Better Earth

Scotland: Pilot whales leave Loch Carnan following death


BBC
Sun, 22 May 2011 21:11 UTC
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A pod of more than 60 pilot whales, at risk of beaching, has again left a Hebridean loch after one of them died.

The animals had left the shallow waters of Loch Carnan in South Uist on Saturday, however returned during the night when the beaching took place.

A post-mortem examination suggested the young female died from a disease, not because it was stranded on rocks.

Comment: Scotland: Fear For Mass Stranding of Whales on South Uist

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Heart - Black

Dead dolphins wrecked on the Romanian seashore

de A.C.
HotNews
Fri, 20 May 2011 18:36 UTC
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Another two dolphins were found dead on the beaches in Mamaia and Vama Veche, South East Romania in the last two days, news agency Agerpres reports. According to the executive director of the eco NGO Oceanic Club in Constanta, in the last two weeks the number of dead dolphins was over 15.

According to the director, just last week his organization was signalled regarding the presence of another 7 dead dolphins on the sea shore.
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Bizarro Earth

Scotland: Fear For Mass Stranding of Whales on South Uist


BBC
Fri, 20 May 2011 12:14 UTC
Pilot Whales
© BBCRescue team leader Alasdair Jack says some of the whales have serious head injuries.

Marine animal experts are preparing for a potential mass stranding by up to 100 pilot whales in South Uist in the Western Isles.

The whales were spotted in Loch Carnan on Thursday afternoon and about 20 were said to have had cuts to their heads.

It is thought the injuries may have been caused by the whales' attempts to strand themselves on the rocky foreshore of the sea loch.

Sick and injured whales are known to beach themselves to die.

However, at times, dying whales have been followed to shore by healthy animals.

Conservationists have also suggested the whales may have got lost, or entered the loch following prey.

Rescuers said inflatable pontoons for refloating whales were on the way.

The pod had been moving back and forth from the shore and rescuers said the animals were "very vocal", which may be a sign of distress.

The whales, a deep water species, have since moved from the loch back to a nearby bay, where they were seen earlier on Thursday.

Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) fear the whales could die in a massive beaching - which could be Scotland's largest stranding.

BDMLR Scottish organiser Alasdair Jack said preventing the mammals from stranding would cause unnecessary suffering and the animals would only move on to another shoreline.
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Cow Skull

More Than 1 Million Feral Camels are taking Over the Australian Outback

Michael Graham Richard
Treehugger
Thu, 19 May 2011 10:29 UTC
Image
© Obliot, Flickr, CC
Not Your Typical Invasive Species

Single-humped dromedary camels were brought to Australia mainly from India in the 19th century. They transported people and equipment in the outback, but when rail and roads came, the camels were let loose, "creating the world's only population of wild camels". It is now estimated that more than 1 million camels are spread over 3.3 million square kilometers (±1.3 million square miles), and they are causing a lot of damage to the local ecosystems.
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