Up to 7 million bats have been wiped out in the U.S. over the last five years by a deadly disease that is rapidly spreading across the country.
Animals
© Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images
The Pennsylvania beekeeper Dave Hackenberg was one of the first to draw attention to the problem of Colony Collapse Disorder, or C.C.D., and, as a result, he became a celebrity, at least in apian circles. I interviewed Hackenberg in the spring of 2007, and he told me he didn't believe that the culprit was a virus or a fungus or stress. Instead, he blamed a new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. Now it looks like Hackenberg was onto something.
© Screengrab from Far East Russia Orca Project
The scientists decided to hold back on releasing photographs of Iceberg until they were able to study him further.
The scientists decided to hold back on releasing photographs of Iceberg until they were able to study him further.
A team of Russian scientists say they will embark on a quest next week to observe the only all-white, adult killer whale ever spotted -- a majestic and elusive bull they have named Iceberg.
The researchers from the universities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg first spotted the orca's towering, two-metre (about six feet) dorsal fin break the surface near the Commander Islands in the North Pacific in August 2010.
Living in a pod with 12 other family members, Iceberg was deemed to be at least 16 years old, given the size of his dorsal fin, said Erich Hoyt, co-director of the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP).
"This is the first time we have ever seen an all-white, mature male orca," Hoyt told AFP. "It is a breathtakingly beautiful animal."
The scientists decided to hold back on releasing photographs of Iceberg until they were able to study him further, "but we have been looking for him ever since," said Hoyt.
Orcas can travel thousands of miles.
The scientists would like to establish whether Iceberg is albino -- a genetic condition that leaves animals unable to produce melanin, a dark pigment of skin, hair and the eye's retina and iris.
© Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera
Eyeless shrimp, from a catch of 400 pounds of eyeless shrimp, said to be caught September 22, 2011, in Barataria Bay, Louisiana.
Eyeless shrimp, from a catch of 400 pounds of eyeless shrimp, said to be caught September 22, 2011, in Barataria Bay, Louisiana.
"The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."
Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.
Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants.
Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster.
Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.
© Alex Wild / alexanderwild.com
A honeybee forager visits fall asters in Urbana, Illinois.
A honeybee forager visits fall asters in Urbana, Illinois.
It can be found in public company reports hosted on mainstream media that Monsanto scooped up the Beeologics firm back in September 2011. During this time the correlation between Monsanto's GM crops and the bee decline was not explored in the mainstream, and in fact it was hardly touched upon until Polish officials addressed the serious concern amid the monumental ban. Owning a major organization that focuses heavily on the bee collapse and is recognized by the USDA for their mission statement of "restoring bee health and protecting the future of insect pollination" could be very advantageous for Monsanto.
Mutant creatures showing up after BP spill, says Al Jazeera English
Shrimp missing their eyeballs (and even eye sockets), fish covered in lesions, deformed crabs, and other mutated sea creatures are showing up in unsettling numbers in the Gulf of Mexico two years after the giant BP oil spill, according to an investigation by Al Jazeera English. "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," says one scientist at Louisiana State University. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this, either."
The sentiment is echoed by several others interviewed in the article, both fishermen and scientists. The BP disaster released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the water, and the company then poured in 1.9 million gallons of chemical dispersants to sink the oil. Biologists are pointing to the toxins in the dispersants as the catalysts behind the abnormalities. Despite the signs, both the state and BP says the local seafood is rigorously tested and safe to eat.
Shrimp missing their eyeballs (and even eye sockets), fish covered in lesions, deformed crabs, and other mutated sea creatures are showing up in unsettling numbers in the Gulf of Mexico two years after the giant BP oil spill, according to an investigation by Al Jazeera English. "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," says one scientist at Louisiana State University. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this, either."
The sentiment is echoed by several others interviewed in the article, both fishermen and scientists. The BP disaster released 4.9 million barrels of oil into the water, and the company then poured in 1.9 million gallons of chemical dispersants to sink the oil. Biologists are pointing to the toxins in the dispersants as the catalysts behind the abnormalities. Despite the signs, both the state and BP says the local seafood is rigorously tested and safe to eat.
© Xu Dianbo/China Daily
Volunteers from Yueyang, Hunan province, carry the corpse of a finless porpoise from Dongting Lake on Saturday.
Volunteers from Yueyang, Hunan province, carry the corpse of a finless porpoise from Dongting Lake on Saturday.
It has triggered worries from experts about the rare species possibly becoming extinct.
Scientists said finless porpoises, which have lived in the Yangtze River and adjacent lakes for more than 20 million years, will become extinct within 15 years. The porpoises are also called "river pigs".
"Apparently the prolonged drought and low water level due to climate change and increasing offshore human activities are reducing the living space for finless porpoises, accelerating its extinction," Wang Kexiong, an expert of the Institute of Hydrobiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told China Daily.
It is the first time he has heard of so many dead porpoises found within such a short period.
Xu Yaping, a journalist from Hunan's Yueyang city who is campaigning to ensure the survival of the species, said when most of the corpses were dissected no food was found in their digestion systems.
Xie Yongjun, an associate professor of animal husbandry at Yueyang Vocational and Technical College, told China Daily the porpoises may have died due to starvation, poisoning or infectious disease.
There were no obvious injuries in the three corpses he dissected, Xie added.
The deaths of thousands of dolphins washed up on beaches in Peru may have been caused by acoustic testing offshore by oil companies, conservationists have warned.
Nearly 3,000 of the mammals are thought to have died this year so far, with 615 counted by conservationists along a 90-mile stretch of beaches near the city of Lambayeque on Wednesday.
Scientists in Peru are exploring the possibility the deaths were caused by sonar blasts used by firms to find oil under the sea. The method can damage dolphins' ears and cause disorientation and internal bleeding, experts warn.
Orca Peru expert, veterinarian Carlos Yaipen Llanos said that while 'we have no definitive evidence', he suspects the cause of death is a 'marine bubble', which occurs during mining exploration.
The bubbles are not visible to the naked eye but they can have an effect on dolphins, sea lions, and whales.
Nearly 3,000 of the mammals are thought to have died this year so far, with 615 counted by conservationists along a 90-mile stretch of beaches near the city of Lambayeque on Wednesday.
Scientists in Peru are exploring the possibility the deaths were caused by sonar blasts used by firms to find oil under the sea. The method can damage dolphins' ears and cause disorientation and internal bleeding, experts warn.
© BlueVoice.org
Concerned: Conservationists in Peru counted 615 dead dolphins along a 90-mile stretch of beaches on Wednesday.
Concerned: Conservationists in Peru counted 615 dead dolphins along a 90-mile stretch of beaches on Wednesday.
Orca Peru expert, veterinarian Carlos Yaipen Llanos said that while 'we have no definitive evidence', he suspects the cause of death is a 'marine bubble', which occurs during mining exploration.
The bubbles are not visible to the naked eye but they can have an effect on dolphins, sea lions, and whales.
A Motel 6 in Port Allen, Louisiana had an unusual guest on Thursday, a 5-foot-plus alligator that wandered up to the building from a nearby canal. It was first spotted by a hotel employee, but it was a guest who attempted to subdue the animal before police and animal control personnel arrived on the scene. The man was bitten and later admitted to a nearby hospital.
Animal control personnel managed to trap the alligator and release it back into the wild. Spring is when alligators mate and seek out places for safe nesting. Reuters quotes parish animal control director Richard Summers as saying that sometimes alligators wander away from their normal habitats and "just get lost."
Animal control personnel managed to trap the alligator and release it back into the wild. Spring is when alligators mate and seek out places for safe nesting. Reuters quotes parish animal control director Richard Summers as saying that sometimes alligators wander away from their normal habitats and "just get lost."
© USGS
This polar bear, captured and immobilized by USGS scientists, shows hair loss and oozing sores on the left side of its neck. The cause of the alopecia and lesions is still unknown.
This polar bear, captured and immobilized by USGS scientists, shows hair loss and oozing sores on the left side of its neck. The cause of the alopecia and lesions is still unknown.
Over the past two weeks, nine polar bears have shown up in the southern Beaufort Sea region near Barrow, Alaska, with patches of fur missing and skin lesions, say scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey who are perplexed by the cause of the odd symptoms.
The animals were otherwise healthy in appearance and behavior, according to the USGS, whose scientists first noticed the patchy polar bears during their annual monitoring of the animals in the Beaufort Sea region; this polar bear population stretches from Barrow, Alaska, east to the Tuktoyuktuk region of Canada.
The skin symptoms can be tricky to see unless the bear is observed up close, USGS scientists said. But in the polar bears they have observed to date, the most common areas affected include the muzzle and face, eyes, ears and neck.
The researchers aren't sure whether there is a link between the polar bears' skin symptoms - fur loss called alopecia, and other skin lesions - and those reported in other animals in the region.
