Animals
S


Nuke

Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany

Charles Hawley
Spiegel Online
Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:55 UTC
boar
© DPA
As Germany's wild boar population has skyrocketed in recent years, so too has the number of animals contaminated by radioactivity left over from the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. Government payments compensating hunters for lost income due to radioactive boar have quadrupled since 2007.

It's no secret that Germany has a wild boar problem. Stories of marauding pigs hit the headlines with startling regularity: Ten days ago, a wild boar attacked a wheelchair-bound man in a park in Berlin; in early July, a pack of almost two dozen of the animals repeatedly marched into the eastern German town of Eisenach, frightening residents and keeping police busy; and on Friday morning, a German highway was closed for hours after 10 wild boar broke through a fence and waltzed onto the road.

Even worse, though, almost a quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, a good chunk of Germany's wild boar population remains slightly radioactive -- and the phenomenon has been costing the German government an increasing amount of money in recent years.

According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption. That total is more than four times higher than compensation payments made in 2007.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Dead Fish Wash Ashore In Thousands, Lack Of Oxygen In Warm Waters To Blame


Huffingtonpost.com
Tue, 10 Aug 2010 04:14 UTC
On Monday, vacationing beach residents awoke to a foul smell when thousands of dead fish washed ashore on a small island on the east side of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, CNN reports.


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Magnify

"Fearless" Aphids Ignore Warnings, Get Eaten by Ladybugs


ScienceDaily
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Georg JanderAn aphid that is attacked by a ladybug releases an alarm pheromone that causes nearby aphids to flee from danger.
If your building has 10 false fire alarms one morning, it is human nature to ignore it when it goes off for the 11th time.

Similarly, when aphids are raised on plants genetically engineered to emit a compound that warns surrounding aphids of a predator, they become accustomed to the chemical and no longer respond to it -- even when a predator is present, according to Cornell and Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) researchers reporting Aug. 3 in an online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Under normal circumstances, when a ladybug captures and bites into an aphid, the victim releases an alarm pheromone called beta-farnesene, which prompts nearby aphids to walk away or drop off the plant. Researchers are interested in protecting plants from aphids through genetically engineered crops that produce beta-farnesene or through traditional breeding methods that cross crops with plants -- such as some wild and cultivated potatoes and peppermint -- that naturally produce the pheromone.

The findings have implications for controlling aphids in crops, which could be engineered to make aphids unresponsive to warnings of ladybugs and other predators, making them easy prey.
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Bizarro Earth

Dead zone as big as Massachusetts along coast of Louisiana and Texas, scientists say

Mark Schleifstein
NOLA
Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:36 UTC
dead zone map
Louisiana Universities Marine ConsortiumCurrent extent of 'dead zone' as determined from July 24 to Aug. 2

The annual summertime dead zone caused by low oxygen levels in water along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline this year is twice as big as last year's, stretching 7,722 square miles across Louisiana's coast well into Texan waters, scientists with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium announced Monday.

But there's no evidence the larger expanse of low-oxygen water -- which covers an area as big as Massachusetts, and is linked to nutrients carried to the Gulf by the Mississippi River -- was made bigger by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists said.

Last year, the area affected by low oxygen was limited by lower springtime water levels in the Mississippi River, which meant less nutrients reached coastal waters. Also, persistent winds from the west and southwest last year may have driven low-oxygen water out of the easternmost Louisiana waters where last year's mapping was done.
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Fish

US: Dead Sea Turtles Wash Ashore in Mississippi

Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 03 May 2010 10:03 UTC
dead turtle
© AP Photo
The carcasses of 23 sea turtles have been found along Mississippi's 70 miles of coastline, and have been retrieved for examination by the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, said Moby Solangi, the group's president and executive director.

The carcasses were placed in garbage bags that were stacking up in the institute's necropsy lab refrigerator unit.

Although this is the time of year when dead turtles are often found on the beach, scientists say the number is more than double what they would expect. Necropsies will be conducted Monday afternoon by a team of four veterinarians. It's unclear whether the deaths are related to the oil spill, which is still offshore.
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Fish

Mississippi, US: Thousands of Dead Fish Floating in Biloxi Waters


WLOX 13
Tue, 03 Aug 2010 19:08 UTC
dead fish
© WLOX
If you saw tens of thousands of dead fish floating in Biloxi waters Tuesday, the deaths are not related to the oil spill.

Phone calls began coming into WLOX Tuesday afternoon from people who'd been at Beau Rivage reporting hundreds of dead fish floating in the water and washing up along the boom south of the casino resort. Witnesses said the smell was terrible.

Officials from the Department of Environmental Quality said a company that catches the small, silver Menhaden, or pogey fish, lost its catch when a net was torn.

The dead fish were floating Tuesday night near the shore at the Biloxi Lighthouse on Porter Avenue, all the way to the waters behind the Hard Rock and Beau Rivage casinos.
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Fish

Mississippi, US: Fish Kill Covers Shore in Gulfport Near Jones Park

Steve Phillips
WLOX 13
Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:46 UTC
dead fish
© WLOX
Something besides oil washed ashore along a section of beach in Gulfport. Construction workers at Jones Park called WLOX Monday morning with news about a fish kill.

You could smell the problem before seeing it. Dead menhaden, or pogeys, washed ashore along the beach.

The large fish kill created quite a mess. Piles of the small, silvery fish cover much of the shoreline just east of Jones Park from 15th Avenue to Moses Pier.

While many laid baking in the late morning sun, others were pushed ashore by the gentle surf.
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Fish

Marine Pied Piper Leads Nemo astray


PhysOrg
Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:22 UTC
Image
© Steve SimpsonA damselfish swims around a coral reef.
The growing amount of human noise pollution in the ocean could lead fish away from good habitat and off to their death, according to new research from a UK-led team working on the Great Barrier Reef.

After developing for weeks at sea, baby tropical fish rely on natural noises to find the coral reefs where they can survive and thrive. However, the researchers found that short exposure to artificial noise makes fish become attracted to inappropriate sounds.

In earlier research, Dr Steve Simpson, Senior Researcher in the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences discovered that baby reef fish use sounds made by fish, shrimps and sea urchins as a cue to find coral reefs. With human noise pollution from ships, wind farms and oil prospecting on the increase, he is now concerned that this crucial behaviour is coming under threat.

He said: "When only a few weeks old, baby reef fish face a monumental challenge in locating and choosing suitable habitat. Reef noise gives them vital information, but if they can learn, remember and become attracted towards the wrong sounds, we might be leading them in all the wrong directions."
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Info

Grizzly cubs from deadly mauling were malnourished

Matthew Brown
Associated Press
Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:30 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks DepartmentThis image provided by the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department on Friday July 30, 2010, shows a captured grizzly sow believed to be responsible for the mauling death of one camper and injuring two others near Yellowstone National Park in Montana. The fate of the bear will be determined after DNA tests confirm whether it was responsible for the attacks.
Three grizzly bear cubs whose mother killed one person and mauled two others in a late-night attack at a Montana campground were malnourished and still in their winter coats.

The cubs have arrived at their new home at ZooMontana in Billings. Zoo executive director Jackie Worstell said Sunday the two female cubs and one male cub were underweight, possibly explaining their mother's unusually aggressive behavior.

"It may be an indication of what happened," Worstell said. "There's obvious signs of stress and malnourishment. Maybe (the sow) was desperate."

The year-old cubs each weighed only between 60 and 70 pounds, versus a normal range of 80 to 130 pounds. Wildlife officials are investigating what caused the cubs to be malnourished. Grizzlies are omnivores and eat everything from berries and ants to fish and elk.

Kevin Kammer, 48, of Grand Rapids, Mich., was killed and two people were seriously injured when the adult bear ripped into several tents Wednesday at the Soda Creek Campground near Cooke City, an old mining town just outside Yellowstone National Park.
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Arrow Down

China: Zoo Accidentally Gasses Giant Panda to Death

Malcolm Moore
The Telegraph
Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:52 UTC
Image
© Getty ImagesWorkers had been disinfecting an air raid shelter inside the zoo when the gases leaked through the ventilation system into the panda house.
A Chinese zoo accidentally killed one of its giant pandas after a faulty ventilation system pumped toxic gas into its enclosure.

Quan Quan, a 21-year-old panda at Jinan Zoo in Shandong province, in eastern China, died after inhaling a mixture of chlorine, chlorine hydride and carbon monoxide, according to a spokesman.

The panda, which had given birth to seven cubs, arrived on loan at the zoo in 2007 from the Wolong panda reserve in Sichuan province. Quan Quan was one of the zoo's star attractions, helping to boost visitor numbers to around 30,000 a day.

Workers had been disinfecting an air raid shelter inside the zoo when the gases leaked through the ventilation system into the panda house.

"The ventilation system was built in 1995," said a spokesman. "It was used to keep the panda house cool, but it fed large amounts of smoke into the panda enclosure."
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