Animals
S


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.
Read More...
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.
Read More...
Butterfly

Rare Chicken-Guinea Fowl Hybrid has Four Wings


The Daily Mail
Sat, 15 May 2010 00:21 UTC
Image
© Sam Furlong/SWNSRare breed: Tulip the "guin" has two extra wings at the front but cannot fly.
What has four wings, pretty blue eyes and walks with a swagger?

No, it's not a joke - it's a real bird and it's called a guin.

The strange-looking fowl is a hybrid of a chicken and a guinea fowl.

The chick, named Tulip, hatched in Lyn Newman's coop.

Mrs Newman had brought in two guinea fowl to act as a warning system for foxes, but did not know they could breed with her hens.

Mrs Newman, 59, raises a number of fowl in Defford, Worcestershire, but she was astonished when one of her eggs hatched into an odd looking bird even she couldn't identify.

The tiny bird was covered in clumps of feathers and - most strangely of all - had four wings.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Rare "King of Herrings" Found off Swedish Coast


Associated Press
Wed, 12 May 2010 18:08 UTC
Oarfish
© AP/Roger JanssonIn this undated photo released by The House of the Sea aquarium in Lysekil, Sweden, a 12-foot Giant Oarfish found off Sweden's west coast is displayed and measured.
A maritime expert says a 12-foot Giant Oarfish - the world's largest bony fish - has been found in Swedish waters for the first time in 130 years.

Also known as the "King of Herrings," the dead fish was picked up by a west coast resident who found it floating near the shore over the weekend. It was handed over to The House of the Sea aquarium in the town of Lysekil, where expert Roger Jansson says it's being kept pending a decision on what to do with it.

Johansson said Wednesday the Giant Oarfish can grow up to 36 feet, and is believed to live in deep waters. He says the last recorded discovery in Sweden was in 1879.
Read More...
Newspaper

South Africa: Woman Kicked to Death by Giraffe as She Walked Her Dogs

Stewart MacLean
The Daily Mail
Wed, 12 May 2010 06:52 UTC
Image
© AlamyTragic: Merike Engelbrecht, 25, died instantly on Saturday after a giraffe kicked her near Musina in South Africa
A woman was kicked to death by a giraffe as she walked her dogs on a game farm in South Africa, police said today.

Merike Engelbrecht, 25, died instantly on Saturday after the animal lashed out at her near Musina in the country's Limpopo province.

Police spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Ronel Otto said the tragedy happened when one of Ms Engelbrecht's dogs ran towards and startled the giraffe.

It is believed the animal became agitated and violent in an attempt to protect its young calf, who had been walking nearby.

Colonel Otto said: 'It was a terrible incident. It appears the animal kicked out sharply as she walked close to it.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Dead dolphins wash up on coast; oil's role unclear

Janet McConnaughey and Brain Skoloff
Associated Press
Tue, 11 May 2010 16:48 UTC
Image
© (AP Photo/Alex BrandonA pod of Bottle Nose dolphins swim under the oily water of Chandeleur Sound, La., Thursday, May 6, 2010.
Ship Island, Mississippi - Federal wildlife officials are treating the deaths of six dolphins on the Gulf Coast as oil-related even though other factors may be to blame.

Blair Mase (MACE') of the National Marine Fisheries Service said Tuesday that the carcasses have all been found in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama since May 2. Samples have been sent for testing to see whether a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico helped kill the dolphins.

Mase and animal rescue coordinator Michele Kelley in Louisiana said none of the carcasses has obvious signs of oil. Mase also said it's common for dead dolphins to wash up this time of year when they are in shallow waters to calve.
Read More...
Better Earth

Stray grey whale navigates the North-West Passage

Fred Pearce
New Scientist
Tue, 11 May 2010 16:03 UTC
Image
© New Scientist
Conventional wisdom has it that grey whales have been extinct in the Atlantic Ocean for more than 200 years, and the species survives only in the north Pacific. That was the case until last weekend, when a 13-metre-long grey whale was spotted cruising off the coast of Israel.

"This is sensational," said Phillip Clapham of the US government's National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle after hearing the news from marine biologists in Israel. "The most plausible explanation is that it came across an ice-free North-West Passage from the Pacific Ocean, and is now wondering where the hell it is."

The North-West Passage, which runs through the Canadian Arctic, has been open in summer in recent years, partly because of rising global temperatures.

Although they are known for their long migrations, grey whales do not normally stray from their regular routes. "Were I to speculate wildly, I'd say it found Europe and remembered its mother telling it to keep the coast to its left going south, then it hit the strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean," said Clapham.

The Arctic route makes most sense, agrees Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, an expert on Mediterranean cetaceans who advises several international conservation bodies. He points to reports that grey whales have been seen getting farther north than usual into the Arctic, probably helped by the low-ice conditions.

Comment: "rising global temperatures" are the least of the grey whales problems: Freak Arctic Weather Precursor to the Coming Ice Age?

Read More...
Magic Wand

Baby Blue Becomes First Reindeer Born in England Since Ice Age


The Daily Mail
Tue, 11 May 2010 03:23 UTC
Image
© Adam Gerrard/SWNSBlue, weighing 8lb, is the son of mother Prancer and father Rudolph. The calf is the first reindeer to be born to a small herd located in a 750-acre Cornwall estate
Meet Blue, the baby son of proud parents Prancer and Rudolph and believed to the first reindeer born in England for 10,000 years.

The 8lb calf was born to a small herd located in a 750-acre Cornwall estate.

While reindeer existed in Britain during the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago they gradually retreated north and disappeared from these shores as the climate warmed up. Now they are only found in Scandinavia, Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland.

The five females and male in the grounds of the Trevarno Estate near Helston were brought over from Scandinavia two years ago as part of Christmas celebrations taking place in the grounds.

They have since acclimatised to their new surroundings and 8lb Blue - named after the estate's bluebell fields - was born on May 1.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Mercury high in Japanese town that hunts dolphins

Jay Alabaster
Associated Press
Sun, 09 May 2010 11:41 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Shizuo KambayashiDolphin sashimi, raw slices from the breast of a striped dolphin, is served during lunch at Moby Dick, a hotel run by the local government, in Taiji, southwestern Japan, Sunday, May 9, 2010.
Taiji - Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary The Cove have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.

The levels of mercury detected in Taiji residents were above the national average, but follow-up tests have found no ill effects, according to the National Institute for Minamata Disease. The tests were done on hair samples from 1,137 volunteers of the town's roughly 3,500 residents.

"The results suggest there is a connection between hair mercury levels and eating cetaceans," Director Koji Okamoto told reporters at town hall.

Mercury accumulates up the food chain, so large predators such as dolphins, tuna and swordfish tend to have the highest levels. The latest studies published by the Japanese government show that meat from bottlenose dolphins had about 1,000 times the mercury content of that from sardines.

Fetuses and small children are particularly vulnerable to mercury, which affects the development of the nervous system. The Health Ministry recommends that pregnant women eat at most 2.8 ounces (80 grams) of bottlenose dolphin per two months.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Many Endangered Turtles Dying on Texas Gulf Coast

Ramit Plushnick-Masti
The Associated Press
Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:37 UTC
Image
© Pat Sullivan/AP PhotoA rescued Kemp's ridley turtle is readied for release on the beach.
Flies buzz everywhere and the stench is overwhelming as biologist Lyndsey Howell stops to analyze the remains of yet another endangered sea turtle washed up from the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's been on the beach for a while," Howell says, flipping over the decomposing, dried-out shell.

More than 30 dead turtles have been found stranded on Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula south of Houston this month - an unusually high number that has puzzled researchers, in part because most are so decomposed that there are few clues left about why they died.

The number of strandings on these shores is double what scientists and volunteers normally see as the turtles begin nesting in April, says Howell, who patrols the beaches as part of her job with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Of the 35 turtles found, all but three were dead. Thirty-three were Kemp's ridleys, an endangered species researchers have spent decades trying to rehabilitate.
Read More...