Animals
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Question

African Pelicans migrate in wrong direction and end up in Siberia.

Lost Pelicans
© AllvoicesZoo officials holding pink pelicans at an aviary in Barnaul in the Altai region. The birds were migrating to Africa.

A small flock of African pink pelicans apparently bamboozled by the warm weather in Siberia flew north from Kazakhstan instead of south as any properly functioning pelican GPS system should have told them. Vladimir Pyagin from the village of Suslovo said:"I left home early in the morning and what a sight!" "When I got closer, I immediately realized they were pelicans. ... Everybody in the village started trying to catch them to save the exhausted birds from the dogs""

Residents captured four of the exotic pelicans. They were moved to a zoo in the regional capital Barnaul. The other three birds in the flock were able to fly off.

Members of the Bird Conservation Union said the pelicans were flying back to their native Africa from Kazakhstan but obviously lost their way. The head of the Union said: "This is a unique case. Some reports suggest pelicans last flew here over 100 years ago,"

X

San Francisco, US: Thousands of dead jellyfish on Ocean Beach, but move along, nothing to see here or be alarmed about, folks

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© Brant Ward / The ChronicleJellyfish that washed up on the south side of Ocean Beach on Friday dry up in the sun.
Ocean Beach shimmered more than usual this weekend.

Not from the natural beauty of sand, surf and sea, but from a great slick of dead jellyfish that mysteriously washed ashore near Pacheco Street.

More than 10,000 of the gooey invertebrates, each about the size of a dinner plate, drifted onto the beach Friday evening. By Sunday, they had attracted hordes of the curious, the repulsed and the fascinated.

Kids stomped them. Dogs rolled in them. Surfers tossed them at each other. Some people tiptoed fearfully around them, while others pressed in with cameras for close-ups.

"I first saw it and thought, am I hallucinating?" said Nan Madden of San Francisco as she walked her yellow Labrador through the slimy swath Sunday morning. "I've never seen anything like it. I sent pictures to my grandkids."

Bad Guys

Kiwifruit Virus Could Affect 18 New Zealand Orchards

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© unknown
A vine disease threatening New Zealand's NZ$1.4 billion ($1.1 billion) kiwifruit industry may have affected as many as 18 orchards, the government said, confirming that a second North Island orchard has the infection.

The government has placed entry restrictions on four orchards in the Bay of Plenty area, two of which have been infected with Pseudomonas syringae pv actinidiae, said Annie Wright, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in an interview. The region produces 77 percent of New Zealand's kiwifruit crop, according to Zespri Group Ltd., the world's largest marketer of the fruit.

The ministry is studying images from 18 New Zealand kiwifruit orchards suspected to be showing symptoms, Wright said. The ministry put a "restricted place notice" on another orchard today, placing precautions on entering and leaving the property, she said.

"We have four restricted places notices and two confirmed as having PSA," said Wright.

Alarm Clock

Montana, US: Efforts Fail to Halt Pneumonia Outbreak in Bighorn Sheep

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© Frantisek Staud
Helena - Wildlife officials will let a pneumonia outbreak run its course through a herd of bighorn sheep west of Anaconda after killing dozens of sick animals failed to keep the disease in check.

There are no known vaccines to prevent pneumonia in bighorn sheep, which is usually fatal for the animals, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials said Tuesday. Instead, wildlife officials kill sick sheep to prevent other animals from being exposed.

The agency has killed 44 bighorn sheep in the herd of about 300 animals west of Anaconda since confirming the pneumonia outbreak in August. But FWP officials say the outbreak has now spread beyond management control.

The whole population appears to be exposed and there is nothing to gain by killing more sheep, FWP Regional Wildlife Manager Mike Thompson said in a statement. Instead, the focus is now on trying to keep alive every animal that has a chance of surviving the outbreak.

Bizarro Earth

Birds with Deformed Beaks Appearing in Alaska, Northwest, and Canada at Record-Breaking Rate

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© U.S. Geological Survey and British Columbia Health MinistryU.S. officials believe an increasing number birds, including the ones in these photos are deformed, but don't know what's causing the problem
With the federal government about to make a decision on whether to permit oil drilling in the fragile Beaufort Sea, it seems a good time to ask if Alaska can take any more. Since the 1890s, the vast hinterland has been a haven for gold rushers, fishermen, whalers, and oil and natural gas barons.

As for the birds, they were observers in the background. Now they may be paying a price for all that human activity in Alaska and along the Pacific Northwest.

A study released by the U.S. Geological Survey on Monday documents that scientists have discovered an unusually high rate of bird beak abnormalities. Actually, the highest rate ever. And while researchers have no idea why, some are already pointing the finger at the activities of mankind.

"The prevalence of these strange deformities is more than ten times what is normally expected in a wild bird population," said Colleen Handel of the USGS in an article published in The Auk, a quarterly journal of ornithology.

Binoculars

Pink River Dolphins At Risk from Drought

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© Kevin Schafer/Barcroft USA
An endangered species of pink dolphin has suffered devastating declines in its population due to a drought in the Amazon.

Numbers of the rare pink river dolphin, or Bufeo as it is known to indigenous people, have almost halved over the past year, according to a survey by conservation experts.

They say severe drought that has been moving down the Amazon basin from the upper reaches of the river in Peru have caused fish populations to plummet.

This has left the Amazon river dolphins, which can grow to more than 9 feet in length, struggling to find enough food. Surveys conducted in the Peruvian Amazon have revealed a 47 per cent drop in numbers.

Dr Richard Bodmer, an ecologist from the University of Kent and the Wildlife Conservation Society who has been working with environmental charity Earthwatch to monitor changes in the area, said extremely low water levels in tributaries to the Amazon River had dramatically impacted on dolphin numbers.

Binoculars

UK: Churches Suffering from Bats

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© CorbisThe number of bats roosting in churches has grown as woodland has been destroyed and it has become increasingly popular to convert barns into homes
Bats in the belfry are an age-old phenomenon - but they are increasingly moving into the aisles and naves, presenting a growing threat to thousands of churches.

Now, the Church of England is to hold its first summit to examine how to save its buildings from bats, which are estimated to nest in more than a third of all parish churches.

Experts will meet next week at Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to develop a national strategy to tackle a problem costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The number of bats roosting in churches has grown as woodland has been destroyed and it has become increasingly popular to convert barns into homes.

Some rural churches are struggling to stay open as the problem is particularly acute in the countryside, where the congregations tend to be much smaller.

Bizarro Earth

Whales found dead on Donegal beach

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© RTE
Thirty-five whales have beached and died on an island off Burtonport in Co Donegal. The whales were discovered this afternoon on a beach on Rutland Island and are understood to be pilot whales, mostly mothers and calves.

The whales had been seen feeding in the area around Aranmore Island since Tuesday. Pilot whales have a tendency to beach themselves in large numbers and a similar incident occurred in Co Mayo some years ago.

Hourglass

French may bid adieu to oysters

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The herpes virus is devastating oyster populations

French oyster farmers are sounding the alarm that their business is on the verge of collapse. The much-loved mollusc is at risk of disappearing from plates due to a virus that is wiping out populations.

Over the past three years, the "huitres creuses" or cupped oysters Laurence Maheo produces have been struck by the herpes virus, which has been killing vast numbers of baby oysters throughout France and the rest of Europe.

"It's very possible that in three or four years there won't be anymore oyster farmers in France," she said last week at the Salone del Gusto, a five-day event organized by Slow Food, an international movement for the protection of biodiversity and traditional food production.

Binoculars

Starving Bears Resort to Digging Up Coffins and Eating Human Bodies in Russia

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© AP PhotoScavengers: Desperate brown bears in Russia have resorted to digging up human bodies in cemeteries and eating them
Starving bears in northern Russia have resorted to digging up graves in cemeteries and eating bodies.

A scorching summer has destroyed the bears' natural food sources of forest berries and mushrooms, forcing them to look elsewhere.

Russian officials in the republic of Komi, which straddles the Arctic Circle, said that brown bears on several occasions had dug up coffins in rural cemeteries in a desperate search for food.

Two women in Vezhnya Tchova reported spotting the a figure they thought was wearing a fur coat leaning over a grave.

But when they approached, they realized it was a bear eating a human body and discovered the victims' clothes thrown across other graves.