Animals
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Bizarro Earth

Heatwave fuels massive algae bloom in Baltic Sea


The Local
Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:50 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A blue-green algae bloom the size of Germany has formed in the Baltic Sea, threatening marine life and even posing a danger to humans, authorities warned this week.

The prolonged heat and lack of wind or storms has given the cyanobacteria the chance to form the largest carpet since 2005, covering about 377,000 square kilometres of the sea's surface - roughly Germany's entire land area.

The Office for Environment, Nature and Geology in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania dispatched an observation ship on Thursday to take water measurements. The results were expected to be released Friday.

But early indications were that the algae consisted of the types Anabaena and Nodularia.

"The types are potentially toxic and can cause skin inflammtion," said Karin Stein, head of the environmental analysis departments.
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Heart - Black

Poachers Kill Last Female Rhino in South African Park for Prized Horn

Alex Duval Smith
The Observer
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:00 UTC
The last rhinoceros
© ReutersThe last rhinoceros cow in Krugersdorp park, South Africa, bled to death on Wednesday after poachers hacked off her horn.
Record levels of poaching are endangering survival of rhinoceros in South Africa

South African wildlife experts are calling for urgent action against poachers after the last female rhinoceros in a popular game reserve near Johannesburg bled to death after having its horn hacked off.

Wildlife officials say poaching for the prized horns has now reached an all-time high. "Last year, 129 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa. This year, we have already had 136 deaths," said Japie Mostert, chief game ranger at the 1,500-hectare Krugersdorp game reserve.

The gang used tranquilliser guns and a helicopter to bring down the nine-year-old rhino cow. Her distraught calf was moved to a nearby estate where it was introduced to two other orphaned white rhinos.
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Igloo

Baby boomer marmots fatten up with climate change

Wendy Zukerman
New Scientist
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:41 UTC
Image
© Inklein/CC 3.0Life sure is good
The good times have been rolling for Colorado's baby-boomer marmots. They've been getting fatter and their population has been swelling - but the news is not all good. The changes seem to be caused by the warming climate.

A team led by Daniel Blumstein of the University of California, Los Angeles, have been monitoring the yellow-bellied marmots of Colorado's Upper East river for over three decades. Blumstein recently realised the population had exploded. "It's boom time in this region," he says.

Looking at records with Arpat Ozgul of Imperial College London, he saw that marmot numbers had been fairly stable since the mid-1970s, but in 2001 they suddenly began growing by an average of 14.2 marmots per year. Between 1976 and 2001 the population had gained an average of 0.56 marmots per year.

When the team analysed the body mass figures of 1190 marmots collected between 1976 and 2008, they found another trend. Again, weights were relatively stable up until around 2000, and rose sharply after that. "They're getting fatter," says Blumstein.

Comment: Perhaps the marmots read this article by Laura Knight-Jadczyk: Fire and Ice - The Day After Tomorrow

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Cow Skull

US: Kansas heat wave has killed 2,000 cattle

Bob Burgdorfer
Reuters
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:38 UTC
cow
© Reuters/Vasily FedosenkoA cow looks out of its stall during an agricultural exhibition near the village of Liavonavichi, some 10 km (6 miles) north of the capital Minsk, June 10, 2010.

Chicago - The intense heat and humidity that blanketed central Kansas since late last week have killed more than 2,000 cattle and one state official called the heat-related losses the worst in his 17 years on the job.

However, conditions for the cattle improved somewhat on Tuesday as the humidity has decreased and the wind has picked up, state and feedlot sources said.

Kansas is the third largest cattle state with more than 2 million cattle in feedlots.
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Fish

Hundreds of dead penguins wash up on Brazil shores


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:16 UTC
Magellanic penguins
© AFP/File/Mauricio LimaMagellanic penguins swim off the coast of Santos, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Hundreds of dead penguins and other sea animals have washed up on Sao Paulo state's shores and scientists are investigating the causes, according to environment officials.
Hundreds of dead penguins and other sea animals have washed up on Sao Paulo state's shores and scientists are investigating the causes, environment officials told Folha Online news agency.

The Institute of Environment and Natural Resources said 530 penguins, numerous other sea birds, five dolphins and three giant sea turtles have been found in the coastal towns of Peruibe, Praia Grande and Itanhaem, with more likely on other nearby beaches.

Sao Paulo University biologists and a wildlife research center are looking into the possible reasons for the animal deaths, the institute said.

Praia Grande authorities have ruled out pollution, saying preliminary investigations point to starvation as the cause.

The most likely scenario for the penguin deaths is exhaustion and hunger during their long migration from the waters off Argentina's southern Patagonia region, said Andrea Maranho, a veterinarian for the Sea Animal Rehabilitation Center in Praia Grande.
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Arrow Down

Mystery of Britain's Vanishing Kestrels as Population Drops 20% Since the 1990s

David Derbyshire
The Daily Mail
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:30 UTC
Image
© AlamySad: There has been a 36 per cent fall in numbers of Kestrel last year
One of the country's most familiar birds of prey is vanishing at an alarming rate, experts warned yesterday.

They say numbers of kestrels, which are often seen hovering over the verges of major roads, fell by more than a third last year.

The mysterious disappearance of thousands of birds in one year follows a steady decline - the kestrel population has dropped by around 20 per cent since the mid-1990s.

Bird experts are baffled by the recent fall, but suspect the hard winter combined with their vanishing rural habitat has taken its toll.
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Attention

Coral Reefs Suffer Mass Bleaching From Heating Oceans

Richard Gray
The Telegraph
Sun, 18 Jul 2010 04:30 UTC
Image
© AlamyCoral bleaching in Maldives, Indian Ocean
Coral reefs are suffering widespread damage in what is set to be one of the worst years ever for the delicate and beautiful habitats.

The phenomenon, known as coral bleaching because the reefs turn bone white when the colourful algae that give the coral its colour and food is lost, has been reported throughout south east Asia, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

Divers and scientists have described huge areas of previously pristine reef being turned into barren white undersea landscapes off the coast of Thailand and Indonesia.

The popular island tourist destination the Maldives have also suffered severe bleaching. Reefs in the Caribbean could also be under threat.

High ocean temperatures this year are being blamed for the bleaching, which experts fear could be worse than a similar event in 1998 which saw an estimated 16 per cent of the world's reefs being destroyed.
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Binoculars

UK: Swarm of 30,000 Bees That "Turned the Sky Black"

Laura Roberts
The Telegraph
Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:30 UTC
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© MasonsAfter an hour the bees clumped together into a 2ft long 'grape' on a nearby 10ft high conifer tree before flying away
A swarm of 30,000 bees surrounded a home in Lincolnshire "turning the sky black".

Phil Sanderson, 34, said the sound of the insects was the equivalent to "a crowd of people blowing vuvuzelas".

The swarm initially swirled around the father of three's home so loudly that he couldn't hear his partner Serena Reed, 34, talking.

After an hour the bees clumped together into a 2ft long 'grape' on a nearby 10ft high conifer tree before flying away.

Mr Sanderson, a mail order catalogue worker who photographed the bees at home in Pinchbeck, near Spalding, Lincs., said the noise sounded "exactly like being at a World Cup game".
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Fish

Scientists Discover Bizarre Prehistoric Creatures Under Great Barrier Reef


The Telegraph
Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:13 UTC
Image
© BarcroftA deep-sea anglerfish
Australian scientists have discovered bizarre prehistoric sea life thousands of feet below the Great Barrier Reef, in an unprecedented mission to document species under threat from ocean warming.

Ancient sharks, giant oil fish, swarms of crustaceans and a primitive shell-dwelling squid species called the Nautilus were among the astonishing life captured by remote controlled cameras at Osprey Reef.

Justin Marshall, the lead researcher, said his team had also found several unidentified fish species, including "prehistoric six-gilled sharks" using special lowlight sensitive cameras which were custom designed to trawl the ocean floor, 4,593ft (1,400m) below sea level.

"Some of the creatures that we've seen we were sort of expecting, some of them we weren't expecting, and some of them we haven't identified yet," said Mr Marshall, from the University of Queensland, Australia.
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Bizarro Earth

Thousands of Fish Try to "Commit Suicide" Near Xiamen Binhai Park


What's On Xiamen
Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:51 UTC
Suicidal Fish
© What's On XiamenTens of thousands of small fish kept jumping out the sea near Xiamen Binhai Park
for 15 minutes Wednesday afternoon.
Tens of thousands of fish kept jumping out of the sea near Xiamen Binhai Park Wednesday afternoon for 15 minutes due to unknown reasons, reports the Strait Herald.

"That was too weird, it seems they were trying to kill themselves", said Mr. Wu, a nearby resident, who felt quite concerned about these fish.

At about 1:30 pm on 14th July, Mr. Wu was walking around Xiamen Haibin Park when he saw this strange phenomenon.

At the very beginning, only some fish appeared near the surface. After a while, tens of thousands of fish gathered together and moved towards the seashore. All of a sudden, all these silvery small fish jumped up together to almost one metre high.
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