Animals
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Binoculars

US: Young Sperm Whale Dies on North Carolina Beach


Daily Press
Wed, 02 Jun 2010 03:00 UTC
A young sperm whale has died after it was stranded on a North Carolina beach this week.

The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., reports the 15-foot whale was seen struggling in the ocean before it was stranded south of Avon Pier on Hatteras Island.

The animal died Monday afternoon.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission specialist Karen Clark says the whale appeared thinner than normal.

The animals are classified as endangered and commonly are seen swimming off the Outer Banks.

The whale was buried on the beach Tuesday.
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Sherlock

'Drunk' parrots baffle vets as they fall out of trees in Australia


Telegraph UK
Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:22 UTC
Image
© unkA lorikeet
Red collar lorikeets have been falling out of trees in Australia and then staggering around in an apparently inebriated state, alarming wildlife experts and veterinary surgeons.

Birds struck down by the as-yet-unidentified illness in Darwin show classic signs of human drunkenness, apparently losing all coordination before passing out. When they wake up, they cower in cages as they recover from their "hangovers".

The affliction is seasonal, with most lorikeets recovering within a few weeks, only to become ill again at the same time the following year.

"They definitely seem like they're drunk," said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin.
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Umbrella

Japan: Mystery of falling tadpoles returns


The Japan Times Online
Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:40 UTC
tadpoles
© Kyodo PhotoOut of their element: Tochigi resident Takao Nagano shows off tadpoles he claims fell from the sky Monday.
Utsunomuya, Tochigi Pref. (Kyodo) - The mystery of the raining tadpoles is back.

On Monday morning, a man working in a field in front of his house in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, reported that he found about 10 tadpoles, which he suspects fell from the sky.

Since last June, tadpoles falling from the sky have been reported in Ishikawa, Miyagi and Saitama prefectures. While some experts believe the tadpoles are dropped by birds, other lay the blame on tornadoes.

At around 8:30 a.m. Monday, Takao Nagano, 65, said he heard the sound of something dropping to the ground while he was planting melon seedlings in his field. He initially thought it was hail, but when he looked up the sky was clear, he said.

Then he found the tadpoles, each measuring about 2 cm, on the ground. Some were still moving, he said, noting they lying about 40 cm apart, almost in a straight line.

"Since the tadpoles had left a clear impression in the ground, they must have fallen from a great height," he said, adding that he didn't see any birds or airplanes flying over at the time.
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Frog

World's 'number one frog' faces extinction from New Zealand government

Jeremy Hance
MongaBay.com
Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:36 UTC
Image
© UnknownArchey's frog
Archey's frog is a survivor: virtually unchanged evolutionarily for 150 million years, the species has survived the comet that decimated the dinosaurs, the Ice Age, and the splitting of continents. Seventy million years ago New Zealand broke away from Australia, essentially isolating Archey's frog and its relatives from all predatory mammals. Yet, if the New Zealand government has its way this species may not survive the century, let alone the next few decades.

The New Zealand government has put forward a controversial proposal to begin opening three of the nation's protected areas to mining: Great Barrier Island, Paparoa National Park, and Coromandel Peninsula where the last populations of Archey's frogs live. According to critics, the government's proposal could push Archey's frog toward extinction, while negatively impacting a number of other endangered species, beloved wild lands, and a nation driven by tourism.
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Fish

Photos: Weird Fish with Transparent Head

Richard A. Lovett
National Geographic News
Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00 UTC
Image
© Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Transparent-Headed Fish

With a head like a fighter-plane cockpit, a Pacific barreleye fish shows off its highly sensitive, barrel-like eyes--topped by green, orblike lenses--in a picture released today but taken in 2004.

The fish, discovered alive in the deep water off California's central coast by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), is the first specimen of its kind to be found with its soft transparent dome intact.

The 6-inch (15-centimeter) barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) had been known since 1939--but only from mangled specimens dragged to the surface by nets.
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Frog

'Millions' of frogs shut down major Greek highway


Associated Press
Wed, 26 May 2010 23:23 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Aggelioforos, Pavlos Makridis
Greek officials say a horde of frogs has forced the closure of a key northern highway for two hours.

Thessaloniki traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou says "millions" of the amphibians covered the tarmac Wednesday near the town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki.

"There was a carpet of frogs," he said.

Authorities closed the highway after three car drivers skidded off the road trying to dodge the frogs. No human injuries were reported.
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Ambulance

Canada: Man Attacked by Bear

Brendan Kennedy
TheSpec
Tue, 25 May 2010 10:00 UTC
Image
© David Cooper/Torstar News ServiceBear attack victim Gerald Marois, 47, of Waubaushene, Ont., described the terror he endured as a giant black bear repeatedly tried to drag him out of a tree.
Mauled man tells of bear attack

Gerald Marois heard the bear before he saw it.

"I turned around and he was about 50 feet away - one of the biggest bears I had ever seen in my life. He looked at me and moved sideways a bit, I start backing up and he just charged me. He came full blast, man."

Marois, 47, a retired steelworker and experienced hunter from Waubaushene, was mauled by a large black bear Tuesday evening in a remote wooded area about 30 kilometres northwest of Orillia.

He was airlifted to Sunnybrook hospital, where he gave a reporter a terrifying account of his near-death encounter.

Marois was planting a food plot in a small clearing about 45 metres (150 feet) inside the bush line, where he planned to hunt deer in the fall - "My dad taught me that's where you get the big buck" - when the bear came up from behind him.
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Fish

Nine Fish With "Hands" Found To Be New Species

Carolyn Barry
National Geographic News
Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Karen Gowlett-Holmes
New, Pink, and Rare

Using its fins to walk, rather than swim, along the ocean floor in an undated picture, the pink handfish is one of nine newly named species described in a recent scientific review of the handfish family.

Only four specimens of the elusive four-inch (ten-centimeter) pink handfish have ever been found, and all of those were collected from areas around the city of Hobart, on the Australian island of Tasmania.

Though no one has spotted a living pink handfish since 1999, it's taken till now for scientists to formally identify it as a unique species.

All of the world's 14 known species of handfish are found only in shallow, coastal waters off southeastern Australia, say review authors Daniel Gledhill and Peter Last of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or CSIRO.

Even among the previously known species, the fish are poorly studied, the scientists add, and little is known about their biology or behavior.
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Question

Sri Lanka: Frogs Signalling Possible Earthquake?

Cassandra Mascarenhas
The Sunday Leader
Sat, 22 May 2010 20:03 UTC
Environmentalists are dismissing rumours of an impending earthquake in the country that were sparked off after thousands of small frogs swarmed residences in Moratuwa last week.

Residents of Indibeda, Moratuwa panicked when thousands of frogs converged in the area, entering the houses and roaming the streets. A similar phenomenon had occurred in China a couple of years back and was dismissed as a natural migration but just a few days later, the region was rocked by a 7.8 magnitude quake. This information resulted in several wild theories of an earthquake in Sri Lanka within the next couple of days.

Noted environmentalist Jagath Gunewardene dismissed these rumours and assured that investigations had been carried out into the phenomenon. Environmentalists have now come to the conclusion that it was the drastic climate change that was the cause for the incident.

"It is really a climate change that triggers this sort of thing - this sort of phenomenon has been recorded before in other countries where a large number of amphibians come out their habitats and go in search of new habitats in anticipation of a weather change. This occurred early in the morning and sure enough, torrential downpours in Colombo followed just a couple of hours later", Gunewardene explained.

There have been no reports of any more swarming occurring after the initial report last week.
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Frog

Scientists Discover Tiny Wallaby, Spiky Nosed Frog in Asia


Reuters
Mon, 17 May 2010 11:29 UTC
Image
© National Geographic/Tim LamanThe world's smallest known wallaby (Dorcopsulus sp. nov.).
Scientists exploring a remote Indonesian forest say they have uncovered a collection of new species, including a Pinocchio-nosed frog, the world's smallest known wallaby and a yellow-eyed gecko.

An international group of scientists found the species in the remote Foja Mountains on the island of New Guinea in late 2008 and released the details, including pictures, on Monday ahead of the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22.

Many of the species found during the survey are believed to be new to science, Conservation International and the National Geographic Society said, including several new mammals, a reptile, an amphibian, and a dozen insects.
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