Animals
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Hardhat

Gorilla hits woman with rock at Swedish zoo


upi.com
Mon, 26 Aug 2013 13:20 UTC
Image
A woman in Sweden was injured when a gorilla threw a rock a rock at her head, officials at Kolmarden Wildlife Park said.

Marjorie Castro, head of the zoo, said one of the zoo's five gorillas threw a stone measuring about 2 inches in diameter Saturday and the rock struck a 38-year-old woman in the forehead, Swedish news agency TT reported Monday.

"At first everything seemed fine. She was bleeding a little from her forehead, but seemed to be in good health," Castro told the Aftonbladet newspaper. "But she was hit in the head and gorillas have enormous strength, so we called an ambulance. After a while, she felt weak and we had to lie her down."

Castro said the incident marked the first time the zoo's gorillas had thrown anything besides grass at visitors.

However, some zoo visitors said otherwise, including a mother who said a gorilla threw a rock at her 7-year-old son in July.
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Bizarro Earth

Swordfish catch in River Tyne 'very rare'


BBC News
Mon, 26 Aug 2013 00:26 UTC
Swordfish
© BBC NewsSwordfish are normally associated with warmer waters like the Mediterranean sea.
A swordfish usually found swimming in the clear, warm waters of the Mediterranean has been caught by a surprised fisherman in the River Tyne.

The fish, which measures about 1.2m (4ft) long from the tip of its sword to its tail, was caught in salmon nets close to South Tyneside.

It has now been taken to Latimer's Fishmongers in Whitburn to be filleted.

Owner Rob Latimer believes the fish had been "chasing" mackerel or salmon down the river when it got caught.

"It must have fancied a holiday in Whitburn I think - I can't blame it," Mr Latimer said.

Swordfish are normally associated with warmer waters like the Mediterranean sea.

Chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO), Barry Deas, said: "I have never heard of this before.

"They are definitely a warm water fish, this is very rare."
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Bug

A maelstrom of mayflies: Millions of insects create flying cacoons around cars as they rise from the River Danube in Hungary

Becky Evans
The Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 25 Aug 2013 15:02 UTC
  • One of only a handful of times mayflies have swarmed there in 40 years
  • Efforts to clean up the river have helped the insects return to the area
  • Spectacle become unlikely tourist attraction with scores watching
Millions of mayflies swarmed along the River Danube in Hungary this weekend as they hatched there for one of the first times in 40 years.

Passers-by were hit with blizzard-like conditions and the air was thick with the winged insects.

There were so many insects in the northern town of Tahitotfalu, about 18 miles from Budapest, that cyclists had to cover their faces and cars were barely visible, even with their headlights on.

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Blizzard: A car is barely visible as it travels through millions of swarming mayflies in Tahitotfalu, Hungary
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In the spotlight: The headlights illuminate the millions of insects that hatched along the River Danube
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Question

Bird deaths in Moscow spark 'zombie pigeon' scare

Daisy Sindelar
rferl.org
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:32 UTC
Image
In crowded, summertime Moscow, there are fears the "zombie pigeons" may pose a health risk to their human neighbors.
Pigeons, those hardy urban survivalists, rarely evoke much sympathy in humans.

But in the past week, many residents of the Russian capital, Moscow, have expressed alarm at the growing number of dead and dying pigeons on city streets.

What's most unnerving, say capital dwellers like Umid, is the way the normally spunky birds are behaving.

"When I walk to work, I usually see pigeons running and jumping around. But recently, they haven't been reacting to anything at all," he says. "When a person walks past them, they used to fly away. But now they just sit there in a kind of funk and don't even pay attention to you. They're just not normal. I've seen some pigeons behaving very strangely, turning around in circles."
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Pumpkin 2

Panicked Russians contact authorities to report eerie behavior of 'zombie pigeons'

John Hall
The Independent
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:23 UTC
zombie pigeons
Birds seem extremely lethargic and seemingly fearless

A number of panicked Russians have contacted the authorities to report concerns over the bizarre behaviour of pigeons in Moscow.

Locals have dubbed the birds "zombie pigeons" after a strange change in their behaviour swept the city - leaving the birds extremely lethargic and seemingly fearless.

Speaking to Europe Radio Liberty, a Moscow resident named Umid said: "When I walk to work I usually see pigeons running and jumping around. But recently they haven't been reacting to anything at all".

He added: "When a person walks past them, they used to fly away. But now they just sit there in a kind of funk and don't even pay attention to you. They're just not normal."
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Info

Rare sea turtle gets lost off British coast while swimming more than 3,000 miles across the Atlantic

Jennifer Smith
The Daily Mail,UK
Fri, 23 Aug 2013 14:08 UTC
  • The endangered loggerhead turtle was spotted by a sailor off Portland Bill, Dorset
  • It is believed the creature mistook the unusually warm British waters for the Canary Islands
  • Last known sighting of a loggerhead turtle in Dorset was in 1938
A rare, endangered sea turtle was spotted off the Dorset coast after it got lost on its way to the Mediterranean.

The 4ft loggerhead turtle was seen as it made its 3,000 mile journey across the Atlantic from the east coast of America.

It is thought the unusually warm UK waters fooled the creature into thinking it had arrived in the Canary Islands.

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The turtle was spotted by a sailor off the Dorset coast. It is believed the turtle mistook the warm waters of Britain for the Canary Islands where it usually migrates to at this time of the year
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Bizarro Earth

Tons of dead fish discovered in Rio lake


USA Today
Thu, 22 Aug 2013 23:59 UTC
Dead Fish
© Renata Brito/Associated Press
Rio De Janeiro - About 10 tons of dead fish have been discovered in a Rio de Janeiro lake that sits next to the city's future Olympic park.

Environmental officials are investigating the fish kill. Biologists say it was likely caused by raw sewage making its way into the water, as has happened before.

Rio has many problems with water pollution. Many of the waterways near where Olympic events are to be held have been found to be polluted.

Rio's Cedae sewage company says in a Thursday statement that all of its treatment plants are operating normally in the region where the dead fish were found. But it says it's sending out teams to see if any pipes are leaking.

Source: Associated Press
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Arrow Down

50,000 abandoned dogs roaming streets of Detroit in packs

Eric Pfeiffer
Yahoo! News
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 23:52 UTC
Stray Dogs
© Associated PressThousands of stray dogs, including the one in this image, are reportedly roaming the streets of Detroit.
Packs of wild, abandoned dogs are roaming the streets of Detroit, leaving city officials overwhelmed at the prospect of handing an issue that raises both animal rights and safety concerns.

"It was almost post-apocalyptic, where there are no businesses, nothing except people in houses and dogs running around," the Humane Society of the United States director Amanda Arrington told Bloomberg News about a recent visit to Detroit. "The suffering of animals goes hand in hand with the suffering of people."

Bloomberg reports that packs of the dogs have been spotted in groups as large as 20. In one case, Detroit police officer Lapez Moore said the city's animal-control unit recently found several of the dogs inside a flooded basement where thieves had torn out the building's water pipes.

"The dogs were having a pool party," Moore said. "We went in and fished them out."

But the reality of the situation is more dire than an impromptu animal pool party. Local shelters say they are forced to euthanize about 70 percent of the dogs that are brought it, and their facilities are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of abandoned and stray animals.
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Bizarro Earth

Deformed calf 'pretty unusual'

Helen Harvey
Stuff.co.nz
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 14:35 UTC
Deformed Calf
© Robert Charles/Fairfax NZALL MESSED UP: A deformed calf still-born on Neil Davy's Urenui farm had one head, four ears, 2 torsos and 8 legs.
A stillborn calf is not something that usually sparks much comment - unless it has one head, two bodies, four ears and eight legs.

When Urenui sharemilker Neil Davy went to help one of his cows having problems calving on Monday night, he quickly realised something was not quite right.

"All I could see was two feet, so I put my hand in and felt a short nose. Then I realised the head was the wrong size compared to the rest of the body."

He pulled out an extra leg, but thinking it was twins he tried to push it back in, he said.
"It was hard going. I was up to my elbows in lube and calf goo, sweat coming off my forehead. It's not nice to see a cow in distress."

If he hadn't been there, the cow would have died.
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Info

U.S. Dolphin deaths rise to 300; Cause still a mystery

Christine Dell'Amore
National Geographic
Wed, 21 Aug 2013 12:51 UTC
Image
© Dorothy EdwardsTrained responders examine a dead male dolphin on Ocean View Beach in Norfolk, Virginia, on August 1.
The spike in bottlenose dolphin deaths this summer is showing no signs of stopping: Nearly 300 of the marine mammals have died along the East Coast as of August 20, according to the federal government. (Related: "Why Are Dolphins Dying on East Coast? Experts Alarmed.")

The high death toll, covering an area that stretches from New York to Virginia, has been labeled an "unusual mortality event," and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has experts scrambling to figure out what's going on.

Based on the rapid increase in dead bodies washing ashore, and the broad geographic reach, "an infectious pathogen is at the top of the list of potential causes," according to NOAA's website.

"We realize that people are very concerned and anxious to learn what we know about the dolphin deaths that have been occurring along the mid-Atlantic coast over the past few weeks," Maggie Mooney-Seus, a spokesperson for NOAA Fisheries, told National Geographic by email.
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