Animals
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Hourglass

Wild Orangutans Declining More Sharply In Sumatra And Borneo Than Thought

Endangered wild orangutan (Pongo spp.) populations are declining more sharply in Sumatra and Borneo than previously estimated, according to new findings published this month by Great Ape Trust of Iowa scientist Dr. Serge Wich and other orangutan conservation experts in Oryx - The International Journal of Conservation.

Question

South Africa's Mystery Croc Die Off Continues

Something very strange is happening in a favorite crocodile haunt, the Olifants Gorge, in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Crocodiles are dying en masse, and a local television documentary has showed, recently, the many carcasses floating in the river or lying dead in the sun on the river bank.

In the month of June alone, 30 carcasses were counted in the Olifants River area alone. This figure has subsequently risen to 50.

Fish

Study Shows Rise In Cornwall's Dolphin, Whale, And Porpoise Deaths



Image
©University of Exeter
New research has revealed a disturbing rise in the number of whales, dolphins and porpoises found dead on Cornish beaches.

Four weeks since the shocking incident that led to the death of 26 dolphins near Falmouth, research sheds new light on the extent of the problems facing Cornwall's marine mammals.

A study by the University of Exeter and Cornwall Wildlife Trust, published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation (July 7, 2008) has revealed a disturbing rise in the number of whales, dolphins and porpoises found dead on Cornish beaches. The frequency of these mammals, collectively known as cetaceans, found stranded on beaches in Cornwall has increased with a sharp rise in the last eight years. After analysing nearly 100 years of data, the researchers believe this could, in part, be due to more intensive fishing.

Question

Mystery surrounds Eden Antarctic whale sighting

There has been further scientific interest in a pod of Antarctic killer whales that were sighted recently off the New South Wales far south coast.

An Eden couple took photographs of the mammals while on a pleasure cruise off Eden's Twofold Bay.

Researchers identified the pod as a species that exclusively inhabits the cold, southern waters.

David Donnelly from the Dolphin Research Centre says the sighting remains a mystery.


Magnify

US: On Plum Island, scientists track a tiny sparrow in hopes of saving the marshes

An elusive, palm-sized bird that spends its entire life in marshlands may help scientists unravel a mystery that, they say, could have profound implications for a lot of other creatures.

Alarm Clock

Focus on elk as disease persists near Yellowstone

BILLINGS, Montana - Federal officials are considering a tentative proposal that calls for capturing or killing infected elk in Yellowstone National Park to eliminate a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area.

Bizarro Earth

Animals suffer in California fires; condors may be lost



deer
©Robert Durell/Los Angeles Times
A young deer watches firefighters.

The fires burning in Big Sur and Goleta are forcing evacuations, destroying thousands of acres and threatening more damage. Among the victims of the wildfires are animals--both wild, like this deer in Big Sur, and domestic. Pets have had to be sheltered, animals have been forced from their habitat and some condor chicks may have been lost.

Ladybug

UK: Mass bee invasion closes school

A school has been forced to close after being infested by a swarm of bees.

Almost 300 pupils of Larkman Primary School in Norwich were sent home after thousands of the insects buzzed into the music department.

A spokeswoman for Norfolk County Council said no pupils had been stung and that pest controllers had sprayed a chemical to destroy the bees.

"The bees were found in a wall cavity of the school by pest control officers," the spokeswoman said.

Bizarro Earth

Penguins Setting Off Sirens Over Health Of World's Oceans

Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, penguins are sounding the alarm for potentially catastrophic changes in the world's oceans, and the culprit isn't only climate change, says a University of Washington conservation biologist.

Adélie penguin
©Dee Boersma
Rain has soaked this Adélie penguin chick in Antarctica before its feathers are capable of repelling water. Though the icy continent is in essence a desert, coastal rainfall is becoming more common with changing climate.

Oil pollution, depletion of fisheries and rampant coastline development that threatens breeding habitat for many penguin species, along with Earth's warming climate, are leading to rapid population declines among penguins, said Dee Boersma, a University of Washington biology professor and an authority on the flightless birds.

"Penguins are among those species that show us that we are making fundamental changes to our world," she said. "The fate of all species is to go extinct, but there are some species that go extinct before their time and we are facing that possibility with some penguins."

In a new paper published in the July-August edition of the journal BioScience, Boersma notes that there are 16 to 19 penguin species, and most penguins are at 43 geographical sites, virtually all in the Southern Hemisphere. But for most of these colonies, so little is known that even their population trends are a mystery. The result is that few people realized that many of them were experiencing sharp population declines.

Info

Foreigners threaten Afghan snow leopards

KABUL - Afghanistan's snow leopards have barely survived three decades of war. But now the few remaining mountain leopards left in Afghanistan face another threat -- foreigners involved in rebuilding the war-torn country.

Despite a complete hunting ban across Afghanistan since 2002, snow leopard furs regularly end up for sale on international military bases and at tourist bazaars in the capital. Foreigners have ready cash to buy the pelts as souvenirs and impoverished Afghans break poaching laws to supply them.

snow leopards
©REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri
A female snow leopard with its cub is seen inside its enclosure at a zoological park in Darjeeling, about 80 km (50 miles) north from the northeastern Indian city of Siliguri June 21, 2007.

Tucked between souvenir stores on Chicken Street, Kabul's main tourist trap, several shops sell fur coats and pelts taken from many of Afghanistan's threatened and endangered animals.

"This one is only $300," one shopkeeper told Reuters, producing a snow leopard pelt from the back of his shop.

"It was shot several times," he said pointing to the patches of fur sewn together. "The better ones are only shot once. The skin remains intact," he says as his assistant brings out a larger pelt, this time with no patches. "This one is $900."