Animals
S


Ladybug

Small Creatures Will Be Oil Spill's Biggest Victims

Stuart Fox
LiveScience
Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:16 UTC
Spartina grasses with snails
© UnknownSpartina grasses with snails
Over the last two months, the BP oil leak has unleashed all manner of havoc on the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. But while sad pictures of large-eyed, oil coated birds make these animals the most visible victims of the oil leak, smaller ocean creatures will bear the brunt of the damage, scientists say.

"The greatest threat is to the whole food chain, and the base of the food chain, said John Caruso, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at Tulane University. "People see the big impressive animals like pelicans and the other sea birds. It's a devastating sight, it tears you up when you see those poor birds covered in oil, but the real damage to our coastal ecosystem here will come from destruction of the cord grasses."

In particular, the cord and Spartina grasses that grow on the coast of Louisiana are crucial to the ecosystem and especially sensitive to the oil leak, Caruso said. These grasses form the foundation of the local food chain, and their root systems lessen the erosion of the small islands that protect inland Louisiana from hurricanes, Caruso said.
Read More...
Light Saber

Frustrated Locals Not Waiting for Official "OK" to Try to Stop Oil & Save Oiled Animals and Birds

Jamie Gumbrecht
CNN
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:24 UTC
woman holding oiled bird
Stephanie Neumann holds a Northern Gannet
Okaloosa Island, Florida - Vacationers were the first to notice the bird fumbling in the water near this popular tourist beach last week. He bobbed and swayed differently than other birds, and didn't react when humans came dangerously close. Once he was ashore, they could see why: a light sheen of oil covered his feathers.

Animal health technician Stephanie Neumann tried to rescue the Northern Gannet, but beach safety officers stopped her. Her coworkers at the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge already had stabilized birds and a sea turtle affected by the Gulf oil disaster, but officials wanted to know: Did she have a contract with BP? Could she - and the bird - wait while they verified her organization's status?

"They're trying to do their job," Neumann said as she crouched over the motionless bird, wrapped in a white sheet and barely hidden from the stares of kids and parents. "They have to make sure protocol is followed."
Read More...
Fish

BP Oil Spill Kills its Largest Victim Yet

Leslie Kaufman
New York Times
Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:14 UTC
sperm whale
© Greenpeace
On Tuesday, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship spotted the 25-foot animal due south of the Deepwater Horizon site. The water the whale was floating in was not oiled. The fate of the whales, which have frequently been spotted swimming in the oil by planes overhead, has been of intense concern to wildlife biologists.

Blair Mase, the Southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator for the oceanic agency, said that scientists were "very concerned" that oil was the cause of the whale's death, but that the whale's body was so decomposed and scavenged by sharks that it would be impossible to say for certain.

There are an estimated 1,700 sperm whales that live in gulf waters and they are known to congregate particularly at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a rich feeding ground. Unlike other whales, which travel long distances, these live full-time in the Gulf and do not usually mingle with sperm whale pods in the neighboring Caribbean and Sargasso Sea. Ms. Mase said that the dead whale was almost certainly a gulf whale.
Read More...
Hourglass

Suffering Dolphins in Barataria Bay

Georgianne Nienaber
12160.org
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:45 UTC
oil dolphin
© Jerry Moran Dorsal Fin Encrusted with Oil in Barataria Bay
Toxic poisons are stalking the dolphins in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, and no one is discussing or reporting the fact that the oiled mammals are struggling in the waters near Grand Terre Island. There are no published photos or videos that we have been able to find, and no stories that describe the oil-encrusted dorsal fins and odd behavior that suggest an under-reported or deliberately hidden environmental catastrophe.

We were on the water with New Orleans photographer Jerry Moran and Reel Screamers Guide Service on June 11, when we noticed two groups of dolphins. One group was swimming through a bubbling slick consisting of the dispersant COREXIT and oil, and the other was in the shallows and rooting in the mud. Dolphins will dig for flounder on the bottom, so it did not seem remarkable at the time, but we did note that they appeared unusually agitated. The group swimming in the oily dispersant near our boat was sluggish but there was nothing we could do to discourage them from swimming there. Oil was everywhere, above and below the surface, and there was no escape. We shrugged it off, snapped a few photos, and went on to photograph oiled pelicans on Cat Island and Queen Bess.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Stranded Danish Whale Dies


The Associated Press
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:19 UTC
Image
© Benny F. Nielsen/AP PhotoA fin whale is seen stranded in a shallow fjord on the western coast at Vejle on the western coast of Denmark Wednesday June 16, 2010.
A fin whale that was stranded in a Danish fjord for days has died and scientists were trying to pinpoint the cause, they said Monday.

A team of veterinarians, natural science experts and students have dissected most of the 58-foot (17.6-meter) whale, which died Sunday, Joachim Engel of Denmark's Natural History Museum said. Scientists will analyze its heart and other organs to establish the cause of death.

"That is what they will be trying to find out, whether it was sick. We don't know," biologist Anders Kofoed said.

The team dissected the animal on a pier in the Vejle Fjord, 135 miles (220 kilometers) west of Copenhagen, where the animal had been stranded since Wednesday.
Read More...
Binoculars

Why Chimpanzees Attack and Kill Each Other


PhysOrg
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:00 UTC
Image
© Thomas Lersch/WikipediaCommon chimpanzee in the Leipzig Zoo.
Bands of chimpanzees violently kill individuals from neighboring groups in order to expand their own territory, according to a 10-year study of a chimp community in Uganda that provides the first definitive evidence for this long-suspected function of this behavior.

University of Michigan primate behavioral ecologist John Mitani's findings are published in the June 22 issue of Current Biology.

During a decade of study, the researchers witnessed 18 fatal attacks and found signs of three others perpetrated by members of a large community of about 150 chimps at Ngogo, Kibale National Park.

Then in the summer of 2009, the Ngogo chimpanzees began to use the area where two-thirds of these events occurred, expanding their territory by 22 percent. They traveled, socialized and fed on their favorite fruits in the new region.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Pine Trees Losing Needles Still a Mystery

Jeff Meyers
Press Republican
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:04 UTC
Needle Losing Pine
© Alvin ReinerAmy Ivy examines a white pine branch that has dropped most of its older needles. Weather is thought to be the cause. The current year's needles seem fine.
Plattsburgh - White pines across the region have been mysteriously dropping their needles en masse.

Pines typically drop about 20 percent of their needles in the fall as the plants prepare for the long, dormant winter. However, white pines across the tri-county area seem to have shed up to 100 percent of their needles this spring.

Other Trees

"We've had a couple of incidents that seem to be weather related," said Department of Environmental Conservation Forester Bruce Barnard.

"It first showed up in sugar maples and cherry trees when there was a freeze following the warm weather we had earlier this spring.

"That froze the leaves as they were coming out, and the leaves shriveled and dropped off."

Those species seem to have rebounded as the leaves are now returning, he added.
Read More...
Wolf

Despicable Cruelty! BP "Burning Sea Turtles Alive"

Danile Tencer
Raw Story
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 15:16 UTC
Image
© AP PhotoA sea turtle caught up in the oil spill waits for treatment.
A rare and endangered species of sea turtle is being burned alive in BP's controlled burns of the oil swirling around the Gulf of Mexico, and a boat captain tasked with saving them says the company has blocked rescue efforts.

Mike Ellis, a boat captain involved in a three-week effort to rescue as many sea turtles from unfolding disaster as possible, says BP effectively shut down the operation by preventing boats from coming out to rescue the turtles.

"They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there," Ellis said in an interview with conservation biologist Catherine Craig.

Part of BP's efforts to contain the oil spill are controlled burns. Fire-resistant booms are used to corral an area of oil, then the area within the boom is lit on fire, burning off the oil and whatever marine life may have been inside.

"Once the turtles get in there they can't get out," Ellis said.
Read More...
Radar

Egypt oil spill threatens Red Sea marine life


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 14:54 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/file A sea turtle swims with scuba divers in the Ras Mohammed protection area near Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. …
Cairo - An oil spill off the Egyptian Red Sea coast of Hurghada threatening to damage marine life in the area has prompted environmental agencies to demand tighter regulation of offshore oil platforms.

Large quantities of oil have appeared in recent days around the resorts of Hurghada which draw millions of tourists who come to dive or snorkle, according to the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Agency.

"It started four or five days ago and the companies responsible didn't notify anyone. It is catastrophic," HEPCA Managing Director Amr Ali told AFP.

The spill was caused by leakage from an offshore oil platform north of Hurghada and has polluted protected areas and showed up on tourist beach resorts.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Sea creatures flee oil spill, gather near shore

John Flesher And Tamara Lush
Associated Press
Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:39 UTC
Image
© APA blue heron stands has a snack in the surf as oil cleanup crews make their morning patrol.

Gulf Sores Alabama - Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again.

Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange - and troubling - phenomena.

Fish and other wildlife are fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast. But that is not the hopeful sign it might appear to be, researchers say.
Read More...