Animals
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Question

Canada: Mysterious disease killing Newfoundland moose

Jeff Ducharme
Telegraph-Journal
Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:30 UTC


Moose
©Warren Harris
Wildlife officials haven't been able to find a cause for a mysterious disease that is killing moose on Newfoundland's northern peninsula.

Saint John - A mysterious disease that has killed a number of moose on Newfoundland's northern peninsula has left provincial wildlife experts in that province scratching their heads. It's unclear how many moose have been lost due to the illness that causes the animals to literally waste away, become walking skeletons and then die.
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Coffee

US: Six Legged Deer - Mysterious Creations Of God

Sharon Supriya
One India
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:32 UTC
God's creations are beyond imagination. They make the mankind awe at its strange, unique and yet beautiful manifestation. On May 2008 a mysterious puppy, green in colour was born in New Orleans. Just after a month Italy was stirred by the birth of a unicorn similar to the fabled unicorn from the age old myths. And then we had the Christian Lion hugging and kissing his former caretakers in a heartwarming reunion, just like a child who meets his parents after many years of separation ( the story is decades old, but it got its major attention now). When we thought the mystery vibes may get stale after all this, yesterday a six legged fawn awestruck North Georgia.

Don't be surprised if you see any animal with wings or a human sized mermaid waggling its tail on the seashore in the coming days. Anything can happen. Its a mysterious world.

So, what is it with this unusual deer? Read on.
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Stop

Russia: Power plant causes mass sturgeon, carp deaths in Urals lake


RIA Novosti
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:38 UTC
Large numbers of sturgeon and carp weighing several metric tons died after a power station spilled boiling water into Iset Lake in Russia's Urals, the head of the affected fish farm said on Friday.

"The fish were boiled in the lake due to the release of hot water from the Mid-Urals Power Plant," Vyacheslav Karimov said.
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Magic Wand

Florida, US: 3 million bees found in Miami home


UPI
Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:59 UTC
A Miami beekeeper said he removed the second largest hive he has encountered in his 20-year career -- about 3 million bees -- from a home.

Beekeeper Adrian Valero said he was called to remove the hive after three people in the area were stung by the bees, which residents of the house said had been around for about a year, WSVN-TV, Miami, reported Wednesday.
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Fish

California, US: Harbor porpoises' deaths a mystery to wildlife experts

Julia Scott
Bay Area News Group
Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:56 UTC
A large number of dead harbor porpoises have been washing up on beaches in San Mateo County and elsewhere in the Bay Area this summer, and marine mammal experts are at a loss to explain what could be killing them.

A total of 24 harbor porpoises "12 males, 9 females, and three still in utero" have been discovered by beachcombers since early June, according to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. More carcasses are likely to show up in August.

"It's the tip of the iceberg. These are open ocean animals. For every one we find dead there are probably many others that are out there," said Mary Jane Schramm, spokeswoman for the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
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Attention

Orkney: Probe into mystery bird illness


BBC News
Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:12 UTC
An investigation is under way after dozens of dead and dying seabirds were found on Orkney.

The birds - greater black-backed gulls - seemed to be suffering from an illness which first made them lethargic and unable to fly, then killed them.
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Bizarro Earth

Colorado: Mountain lion snatches dog from owners' bedroom


KUSA
Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:02 UTC
JEFFERSON COUNTY - A family was stunned when a mountain lion entered their home early Monday morning, killed one of their dogs right beside their bed, and carried it off into the night. The dog was a 12-year-old yellow lab named 'Scout.'
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Fish

Ancient sea turtles jeopardized by poachers, fisheries

Reese Halter
The Calgary Herald
Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:29 UTC
Sea turtles are ancient, but not primitive. Having evolved on land some 200 million years ago, they spend their entire lives at sea except to lay eggs on rugged beaches around the globe.

Leatherback turtles are the largest of the seven seafaring species and they are truly remarkable, most worthy of admiration and in need of protection.

Leatherbacks are Earth's last warm-blooded reptiles and their weight can easily exceed one ton.
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Info

'Lost world' of gorillas discovered in the Congo

Priya Shetty
New Scientist
Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:57 UTC
The discovery of a critically endangered gorilla population in the vast forests of northern Congo is a mammoth 125,000 - double that of previous estimates - should make even the most pessimistic conservation biologist smile.

Western lowlands gorillas.
©WCS
Western lowlands gorillas.

The numbers of western lowland gorillas living across 47,000 square kilometres of dense forestland were thought to have plummeted from 100,000 to half that number since the 1980s.

Just last year, the threat from the deadly ebola virus and indiscriminate bushmeat hunters prompted the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to add the apes to their critically endangered list.

The results of the census by the Wildlife Conservation Society and local government researchers were announced today at a meeting of the International Primatological Society in Edinburgh, UK.
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Bizarro Earth

U.S. Long Beach Jellyfish Invasion


CBS News
Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:07 UTC
In the waters off Long Beach, N.Y., swimmers aren't the only ones enjoying the surf: Jellyfish are showing up in droves.

"We were here a few weeks ago and there were a lot of jellyfish. We didn't even go in the water. It was horrible," one teen told CBS News correspondent Susan Koeppen.
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