Animals
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Bizarro Earth

India: Mystery Deaths at Sepahijala Zoo


The Times of India
Sat, 05 Mar 2011 12:19 UTC
Agartala: The mysterious deaths of two leopards and some birds sent the Sepahijala zoo authorities into a tizzy. In the last four days, two leopards and as many as 11 birds of various species including night herons, pond herons, eagles, owls, kites, small cranes and white and black-necked storks have died in the zoo.

Besides the two leopards, another wild cat was found dead in the zoo area. A vulture was also found sick and immediately shifted to the intensive care unit. Vultures are now considered an extremely endangered species.

The wildlife conservator and director of Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary, Ajit Bhowmik, confirmed the deaths of the birds and the cats.

"Today, we found one black-necked stork dead," he said, adding that the cause of the deaths could not be ascertained as yet.

Nevertheless, the zoo administration has already quarantined the aviary and other animal enclosures, putting a complete restriction on visitors.
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Bizarro Earth

100 Mexican Navy Men Save Beached Whale in Manzanillo


Hispanically Speaking News
Sat, 05 Mar 2011 13:00 UTC
Stranded Whale
© Hispanically Speaking NewsStranded Mexican Whale

After almost 24 hours of work, personnel from the Mexican Navy floated a humpback whale about a year old, 9.40 meters long and weighing six tons, which was stranded on the beach Eden , south of Punta Campos, in Manzanillo.

Over 100 men were involved in the rescue along with two bulldozers belonging to the company DRAGAMEX, which made pools on the beach to provide buoyancy.

Within eight days Mexico's Department of the Navy has made the rescue of two whales stranded on the coasts of Colima. Biologists report that this situation occurs due to changing sea temperatures when the whales look for warmer water near shore.


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Cow Skull

Hanoi's legendary giant turtle, last of its species, dying from city pollution


The Guardian
Fri, 04 Mar 2011 14:51 UTC
Image
© APThe giant soft-shelled turtle in Hoan Kiem lake, showing an open wound on its neck.
Revered by the Vietnamese, the creature has been made ill by pollution, but Hanoians are now struggling to clean its lake

Hundreds of people are working round the clock to clean up a lake in the heart of Vietnam's capital in hopes of saving a rare, ailing giant turtle that is considered sacred.

Experts say pollution in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem lake is killing the giant freshwater turtle, which has a soft shell the size of a desk. It is one of the world's most endangered species: it is believed that there are only four in the world.

Teams of people are cleaning debris, pumping fresh water into the lake and building an artificial island to serve as a "turtle hospital". The rescuers may try to net it for the first time as part of the effort.

The Hoan Kiem turtle is rooted in Vietnamese folklore, and some believe the creature that lives in the lake today is the same mythical turtle that helped a Vietnamese king fend off the Chinese nearly six centuries ago.
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Bizarro Earth

Florida, US: Dead Dolphins Hit Panhandle Shores

Kimberly Blair
Pensacola News Journal
Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00 UTC
A premature bottlenose dolphin was found dead on the beach at Perdido Key State Park this week, the third young dolphin found on local beaches since Jan. 1.

dead dolphin
© Pensacola News JournalStephanie Kadletz, animal care specialist with Bayside Hospital for Animals in Fort Walton Beach, examines a baby bottlenose dolphin that was found on Perdido Key earlier this week.
Scientists are trying to figure out what killed 83 bottlenose dolphins - 44 of them babies - found so far this year from the Panhandle to Louisiana, said Kim Amendola, a spokeswomen for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in St. Petersburg.

The number of deaths has peaked three times in the past 13 months for all dolphins and whales along the northern Gulf Coast. Normally, one to two dolphins wash up in each state in January and February.

"We don't know what the cause is," Amendola said. "Everything has an equal playing field, from a virus, weather to the oil spill."

Steve Shippee, Marine Mammal Stranding team coordinator, offered another possibility. He said the increase could be because more people have been monitoring beaches since April 20 spill.
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Question

Dolphin, Manatee Deaths Baffle Scientists


Agence France-Presse
Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:37 UTC
Manatee
© CorbisLow temperatures can lead to "cold stress" in manatees, which can weaken and eventually kill the aquatic mammals.

Near-record numbers of manatees have died in Florida waters in early 2011, the second straight year of above-average deaths, alarming officials who are also puzzled by a surge in dolphin fatalities along the Gulf Coast.

Of the 163 manatee deaths recorded from Jan. to Feb. 25, 91 of them have been blamed on cold water temperatures off the southern state, where normally temperate weather draws the protected sea creatures during winter months, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Manatees live near the coastline, and when weather turns cold they often shelter near springs or in warmer discharge canals at power plants to avoid the condition known as "cold stress," which can weaken and eventually kill the aquatic mammals.

A record 185 manatees died in Florida during the same period last year, according to the commission.

Authorities at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are also investigating the huge increase in baby dolphins found washed up dead along the US Gulf Coast, in the first birthing season since the BP oil spill disaster.

Eighty-three bottle-nosed dolphins, more than half of them newborns, were found dead in January and February along the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, where millions of barrels of oil from a leaking undersea well poured into the Gulf of Mexico over three months.
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Health

India: A mysterious bug wrecks havoc in a village in Ukhrul


The Morung Express
Wed, 02 Mar 2011 11:06 UTC
Imphal: An idyllic and nondescript New Wahong village located some 80 km north of Ukhrul district headquarters under Chingai assembly constituency has been overwhelmed by a mysterious disease claiming the lives of 4 children with many more needing emergency medical attention.

The inscrutable disease has claimed the lives of 4 children between the age of 6 months and 1 year in the last 2 months. At least 8 other children have been transferred and are now being treated in Ukhrul district hospital.

The symptom of the disease resembles that of dysentery with excessive vomiting, said a source.

Despite the fact that the mysterious disease has claimed predominantly young suckling, an old woman has reportedly died showing similar symptom.

People from the village lamented that far from getting emergency medical attention the suffering of the people has been multiplied with many children already affected and many more potentially in danger of contacting the disease.
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Info

Mysterious Florida panther deaths have officials concerned

Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:05 UTC
Image
© Allen Cheuvront 1994Endangered Florida Panther
Is it open season on Florida panthers?

In the past two years, three of the endangered panthers have been killed under mysterious circumstances, prompting federal investigations that so far have not yielded an arrest. The most recent one was discovered a week ago.

At least one of the three panthers was shot. Federal officials won't say what killed the others.
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Info

Swooping assassin: Pictured for the first time in Britain, a soaring golden eagle clutches a bloodied lamb in its razor-sharp talons

David Boffey and Jane Simpson
Mail Online
Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:56 UTC
Image
Death from above: The golden eagle snatched the lamb on the Isle of Mull. This dramatic picture provides evidence that the powerful birds of prey have been snatching live-stock from farmers
Swooping low over a mountainside, this magnificent but deadly golden eagle clutches a bloodied lamb in its talons.

This dramatic picture provides the first photographic evidence that the powerful birds of prey have been snatching livestock from British farmers' flocks.

It was taken on the Isle of Mull, off the West coast of Scotland, where shepherds have long campaigned against the reintroduction of eagles which they see as a threat to their livelihoods.
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Bizarro Earth

Ascension Island: High Numbers of Dead Fish Washing Up Onto The Beaches


The Islander
Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:56 UTC
Ascension Island
© Iyobi / Wikipedia
Over the last few weeks we have been recording high numbers of dead fish washing up onto the beaches around the Island.

The same thing happened, at the same time of year, in 2008. A report was published recently, called 'Reef fish mass mortality event in an isolated island off Brazil, with notes on recent similar events at Ascension, St Helena and Maldives' by Hudson Pinheiro, Joao Gasparini and Jean-Christophe Joyeux. The report states that 'it is possible that blooms of toxic algae, under certain conditions, caused cascading intoxication along the trophic web. Toxic algae occur in other Atlantic oceanic islands and there are reports of algal blooms occurring in remote areas that suffer low human impact. A second hypothesis is that seasonal upwelling events of anoxic or hypoxic waters may be involved (the low oxygen content would be due to the re-suspension of sediment and organic matter deposited at geological scales) often heavily loaded with hydrogen sulphide. Oxygen-poor waters of the Benguela upwelling have been reported to affect the southeastern Atlantic continental shelf and these waters, in years of strong Benguela upwelling, can even reach the Mid-Atlantic Ridge island of St Helena.' The full report is available to download from our website.

We are currently consulting with contacts in the UK and Falklands. I have sent them as much information as I have, including species affected, numbers, symptoms and photographs. They will be able to offer advice on the best course of action. I have also been in touch with one of the authors of 2010 report, this was his response:
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X

UK: Twelve swans on Marine Lake die from mystery illness


BBC
Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:13 UTC
Image
© UnknownAt least 12 swans have died and another 30 have been left critically ill
Twelve swans have died from a mystery infection at a lake in Merseyside.

The RSPCA has rescued another 30 critically ill swans from Marine Lake in Southport over the past couple of weeks.

They have been taken to the Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre near Nantwich, in Cheshire.

RSPCA animal welfare officer Derek Hampson said the illnesses might have been caused by bacteria in the lake but further tests were being carried out.

"We are very concerned," Mr Hampson said.
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