Animals
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Frog

New Gecko Species Identified in West African Rain Forests


PhysOrg
Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:00 UTC
Image
© Charles LinkemThe West African forest gecko, Hemidactylus fasciatus, is secretive but common in the tropical rain forest patches stretching nearly 3,000 miles from the coast of Sierra Leone to the Congo.
The West African forest gecko, a secretive but widely distributed species in forest patches from Ghana to Congo, is actually four distinct species that appear to have evolved over the past 100,000 years due to the fragmentation of a belt of tropical rain forest , according to a report in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The discovery by former University of California, Berkeley, students Adam D. Leaché and Matthew K. Fujita demonstrates the wealth of biodiversity still surviving in the islands of tropical rain forest in West Africa, and the ability of new DNA analysis techniques to distinguish different species, even when they look alike.

"We tended to find this gecko, Hemidactylus fasciatus, throughout our travels in West Africa," said Leaché, a herpetologist with UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. "Despite the fact that it is recognized as one species, using new methods we have established a high probability that it is composed of at least four species."
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Cell Phone

Losing the Buzz?

Anand Holla and Virat A Singh
Pune Mirror
Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:14 UTC
Image
© Pune MirrorThe effects of cellphone radiation being observed in an artificial hive as part of the Punjab University experiment
A recent study reiterates the effects of cellphone tower radiation on honey bees. Mumbai, with its 1,000-plus towers, has cause for serious concern

Humans will not be the lone beneficiaries of a study recently sought by the chief minister on the ill-effects of radiation from cellphones and Mumbai's 1,000-plus cellphone towers.

The initiative may just come to the timely rescue of the city's endangered honeybee population. And if you think that the bee is too small a concern to hit your radar, consider what Einstein said: "If the bee disappears from the surface of the Earth, man would have no more than four years to live."

A recent experiment conducted by the Punjab University at Chandigarh reiterates the finding that honeybees are disappearing from their colonies because of the electro-pollution in the environment.
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Attention

Sickening New Images of the Helpless Wildlife Dying in the Muck of the BP Spill


The Daily Mail
Sun, 06 Jun 2010 05:20 UTC
Image
© AP PhotoA brown pelican is seen on the beach at East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast
The bird struggles out of the sludge, fighting for air, oil dripping from its wings.

It could be an image from a grisly sci-fi movie. But it is not. This bird is a shocking illustration of the catastrophic impact of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on local wildlife.

The pelican - the official bird of Louisiana - was one of a number that were saved off the coast of the state.

They were barely able to walk or get out of the sea near East Grand Terre island, where officials found around 35 of the birds.

They were treated with detergents to wash off the oil. Many more animals have not been so lucky. More than 400 dead birds have so far been recovered.

Images such as this will only fuel anger towards BP as the spill enters its 46th day and the company struggles to stem the flow of oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well.

Previously, photographs of wildlife coated in an oily sheen were as bad as it got. But now the animals are drowning in the muck, as thick and sticky as treacle, and much, much harder to clean up.
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Bizarro Earth

Gulf oil spill's threat to wildlife turns real

Holbrook Mohr and John Flesher
Associated Press
Sat, 05 Jun 2010 16:18 UTC
P.J. Hahn lifts an oil-covered pelican
© AP Photo/Gerald HerbertPlaquemines Parish coastal zone director P.J. Hahn lifts an oil-covered pelican which was stuck in oil at Queen Bess Island in Barataria Bay, just off the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish, La., Saturday, June 5, 2010.

On Barataria Bay, Louisiana - The wildlife apocalypse along the Gulf Coast that everyone has feared for weeks is fast becoming a terrible reality.

Pelicans struggle to free themselves from oil, thick as tar, that gathers in hip-deep pools, while others stretch out useless wings, feathers dripping with crude. Dead birds and dolphins wash ashore, coated in the sludge. Seashells that once glinted pearly white under the hot June sun are stained crimson.

Scenes like this played out along miles of shoreline Saturday, nearly seven weeks after a BP rig exploded and the wellhead a mile below the surface began belching millions of gallon of oil.
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Fish

Contractor: BP Is Trying To Hide Dead Animals, Since The Ocean Will Eventually Wash Away The Evidence

Amanda Terkel
Think Progress
Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:51 UTC
Dead Dolphin

In recent weeks, reporters and photographers for major news organizations around the country have been speaking out about the attempts by BP to prevent them from getting a first-hand look at the Gulf Coast oil spill. A CBS News crew was threatened with arrest when it tried to photograph the spill, and a BP representative in Louisiana told a Mother Jones reporter that she couldn't visit the Elmer's Island Wildlife Refuge without a BP escort.

On Monday, journalists from the New York Daily News were also "escorted away from a public beach on Elmer's Island bycops who said they were taking orders from BP." However, they managed to get a covert tour of the Queen Bess barrier island from a BP contractor who is fed up with the oil company's attempt to cover up the disaster:
"There is a lot of coverup for BP. They specifically informed us that they don't want these pictures of the dead animals. They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence. It's important to me that people know the truth about what's going on here," the contractor said.

"The things I've seen: They just aren't right. All the life out here is just full of oil. I'm going to show you what BP never showed the President." [...]

The grasses by the shore were littered with tarred marine life, some dead and others struggling under a thick coating of crude.

"When you see some of the things I've seen, it would make you sick," the contractor said. "No living creature should endure that kind of suffering."
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Bizarro Earth

UK: Cemetery Invaded by Web-Spinning Caterpillars


The Daily Mail
Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:54 UTC
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© Peter Lawson/Eastnews Press Agency LtdPlague: The bench and ground is covered in a silk-like web cocooning caterpillars at Southend Cemetery
Visitors to graveyard have been spooked by a plague of web-spinning caterpillars.

The scene at Southend Cemetery in Essex is straight out of a horror film with silken threads draped over trees, plants and gravestones.

It has been caused by an invasion of thousands of bird cherry ermine moth caterpillars who have created a vast web-like nest.

Nova Bickmore, 69, could not believe the sight when she visited her father's grave.

She said: 'There were thousand upon thousand of caterpillars and a silk web all over the trees, which had no leaves left.

'Some of the caterpillars were hanging down from the trees and others were all over the floor.

'It was a really ghostly scene.' In their caterpillar stage, the bugs, known as web worms, weave leaves of trees together and eat them from their nests.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Redfish Deaths in Florida Worrying Sportsmen, Scientists

Steve Patterson
The Florida Times-Union
Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:05 UTC
North Florida residents report finding carcasses.

A rash of fish kills centered on the St. Johns River - several involving redfish - is puzzling fishermen, outdoorsmen and state scientists looking for a cause.

Six people told a state agency Tuesday they found dead or dying fish in Duval, Clay and St. Johns counties, with death tolls ranging from eight fish to as many as 100.

More accounts continued Wednesday.

Five people said they found dead redfish, a relatively large and hearty fish, although some counted other dead species as well.

"They're just everywhere," said Tom Williams of Orange Park. "We have other fish here on our dock. Little guys, and mullets and some other fish. None of them have died, just the reds."
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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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