Animals
S


Wolf

Colorado man fights off 3 coyotes using flashlight as weapon


gma.yahoo.com
Thu, 17 Oct 2013 04:26 UTC
Image
© CBSAndrew Dickehage
A Colorado man is nursing too many bites and scratches to count after he survived a brutal attack from three coyotes using only a flashlight as weapon to defend himself.

Andrew Dickehage was having car troubles when he decided to walk from his Longmont, Colo., home early Monday morning when the teeth-baring trio came charging out of the darkness.

"You feel the initial impact and soon as you felt it you could then react, and go to shove," Dickehage told TV station KCNC Wednesday.

Dickehage was initially using his flashlight to navigate the dark roads when he decided that it was probably his best bet to fight off the coyotes.

"I took my flashlight and I hit it over the side of the head to get it to let go," he told KCNC. "As soon as I got it to let go, then another went to lunge at me and all I could think to do was swing to get it not to lunge at me."
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Bizarro Earth

Rare whale found dead in Southern California


Big Story
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 23:23 UTC
Dead Rare Dolphin
© AP Photo/Nick FlashThis image provided by Heal the Bay shows Heather Doyle, director of the Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium pointing out shark bites found on a beached Stejneger's Beaked Whale that washed ashore Tuesday in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles, Wednesday Oct. 16, 2013. Heal the Bay plans to study the whale.
Los Angeles - A rare whale that has a dolphin-shaped head and saber-like teeth has been found dead on Los Angeles' Venice Beach, even though it prefers frigid subarctic waters.

The roughly 15-foot-long female Stejneger's beaked whale washed ashore Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Times reported. A truck hauled away the mammal, which was being examined at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum to determine how it died.
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Bizarro Earth

Are dolphins reaching a breaking point?

Zak Smith
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Wed, 16 Oct 2013 09:25 UTC
Something bad is happening in the ocean. No one's certain what's causing it, but in the past three months more than 550 bottlenose dolphins have stranded along the Atlantic Coast and there's no indication that the strandings are letting up. While researches rush to catalog data on the dolphins' deaths, larger questions loom - is the Atlantic coastal ecosystem broken, and are humans the cause?

Yes, dolphins strand all the time, but not like this. As shown below in the figure from the National Marine Fisheries Service, strandings have skyrocketed this year, especially in Virginia and fanning out north and south, with large numbers in Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina.
Dolphin
© NOAAFigure from NOAA Fisheries' landing page regarding "2013 Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event in the Mid-Atlantic."
It would be easy to finger the morbillivirus, which has ravaged bottlenose dolphin populations in the past and is showing up in the necropsies conducted on these dolphins.
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Bizarro Earth

South Dakota's cattle cataclysm: Why isn't this horror news?

Carrie Mess
The Guardian, UK
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 15:41 UTC
Dead Cattle
© Lacey WeissA dead cow is lifted from flooding in the aftermath of winter storm Atlas in South Dakota.
If you aren't in the ag world, you most likely haven't heard about the devastating loss that ranchers in western South Dakota are struggling with after being hit by winter storm Atlas.

For some reason the news stations aren't covering this story. I don't understand why they wouldn't. This story has heartbreak, tragedy and even a convenient tie into the current government shutdown. Isn't that what the news is all about these days?

But the news isn't covering this story. Instead, it is spreading around on social media, and bloggers are writing from their ranches in South Dakota. Bloggers are trying to explain how the horrible happened. And now I am going to join them to tell you the part of the story that I know, and I am going to ask you to help these people, because if you are here reading this, I know you give a crap about these people.

Last weekend western South Dakota and parts of the surrounding states got their butts handed to them by Mother Nature. A blizzard isn't unusual in South Dakota, the cattle are tough and can handle some snow. They have for hundreds of years.

Unlike on our dairy farm in Wisconsin, beef cattle don't live in climate controlled barns. Beef cows and calves spend the majority of their lives out on pasture. They graze the grass in the spring, summer and fall and eat baled hay in the winter.
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Question

18-foot oarfish caught by Catalina marine science instructor in California

Nadra Nittle
Press-Telegram
Mon, 14 Oct 2013 13:35 UTC
Image
In the late afternoon of Sunday October 13th, 2013, Catalina Island Marine Institute instructors returned home to find an 18-foot-long oarfish in the crystal waters of Toyon Bay
A marine science instructor has made what's being called the discovery of a lifetime: She found an 18-foot-long oarfish Sunday in Toyon Bay on Catalina Island.

Image
The head of the 18-foot-long oarfish found by Catalina Island Marine Institute instructors in Toyon Bay in the late afternoon of Sunday October 13th, 2013.
While snorkeling, Jasmine Santana of the Catalina Island Marine Institute discovered the obscure fish, which had evidently died of natural causes. When she reached the bottom of the bay, she spotted a silver creature with eyes the size of half-dollars.

Santana's colleagues saw her struggling to move the dead animal and came to her aid, ultimately discovering that it would take 15 people to move the animal to the beach.

Mark Johnson, a longtime CIMI staffer, said in a statement that he'd yet to witness such a sight during his tenure at the institute.

"In 32 years here, I have never seen anything like this," he said.

Because oarfish dive more than 3,000 feet deep, sightings of the creatures are rare, according to CIMI. Oarfish have the distinction of being the longest bony fish species, CIMI reports.

Officials from the institute sent tissue samples and footage of the oarfish to an expert at UC Santa Barbara, where the species of the creature will be determined.

Comment: See also.

Something amiss deep down? Bizarre-looking oarfish washes ashore on Cabo San Lucas beach

Appearance of "Earthquake fish" spook Japanese

Rare "King of Herrings" Found off Swedish Coast

England: Monster of deep washes up on beach

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Binoculars

Best of the Web: Signs of change in the last week of September 2013

HawkkeyDavis Channel
YouTube
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 15:00 UTC
Image
The events around the world have been unprecedented over the last few weeks. Some of the most dramatic and unbelievable footage I've ever seen from events that took place in the past week or so. Please use these videos for awareness to these ongoing extremes that seem to be getting worse each week. Prepare for disasters in your area! You're no different than others that are already dealing with them and most were not ready...

In just a couple of weeks we saw a devastating typhoon hit Japan and China, a 'one-in-one-thousand-years' flood hit Colorado, record rainfall in Mexico, the Pacific Northwest, Brazil, and India, fireballs turning night into day over Canada and the US, a powerful tornado in Sao Paulo, a 7.7 earthquake in Pakistan that formed a new island in the ocean, followed just 4 days later by 7.2 in the same region, a 7.0 earthquake in Peru, a daytime fireball in Alabama...these are just some of the highlights from the last week of another crazy month on planet Earth!

Thanks for watching here and stay safe!

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Einstein

Are humans inadvertently helping make animals more intelligent?

Rod Bastanmehr
AlterNet
Thu, 10 Oct 2013 02:06 UTC
intelligent animals
An increase in brain size was also detected in two species of shrews and bats
A new study shows that changes in the environment caused by people are helping animals to evolve bigger brains.

Well, chalk one up for homo-sapiens, sort of. While we've known for some time that humans have been affecting the enviroment on a global scale, one aspect of our evolutionary impact on other species might not be all bad.

In a recent study, University of Minnesota biologist Emilie C. Snell-Rood found evidence suggesting that our direct changes to the natural habitats of animals (through technologies advances, antibiotics and revised food pyramids) have caused some animals to evolve with bigger brains.

Dr. Snell-Rood studied dozens of individual animal skulls, some as old as a century, from ten different species including bats, gophers and mice. In two of the species, the white-footed mouse and the meadow role, the brains of the animals plucked from metropolitan areas or suburbs were about 6% bigger than those of the animals taken from farms or other rural areas. Dr. Snell-Rood's hypothesis after assessing the first wave of results was that brains become significantly bigger when they move to cities or bustling towns, where the animals must learn to find food in places that they're not biologically trained to encounter or expect.
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Arrow Down

Mysterious duck decapitations force Irish locals to remove wildfowl

Eoin MacConnell
The Irish Times
Thu, 10 Oct 2013 20:44 UTC
Decapitations
© Irish TimesThe ducks had be introduced to brighten up Edenderry Harbour.
Locals have been forced to remove ducks from a harbour in Co Offaly following a mysterious spate of duck decapitations in recent days.

Members of Edenderry's tidy towns committee were horrified to discover the heads of mallard and donated farmyard ducks at the harbour this week.

Independent Cllr Noel Cribbin said the ducks had be introduced to brighten up the area and provide a focal point for young and old to congregate.

According to Cllr Cribbin, who first introduced the ducks with the help of Frank Carroll, 22 of the 40 ducks are gone and a number of heads have been found around the harbour in recent days.

"Since the ducks were introduced to the harbour some years ago they have brought nothing only happiness and contentment from the dozens of kids, parents and grandparents who have come to feed them over the years," Cllr Cribbin remarked.

He is convinced the birds were decapitated with a sharp implement as there was no sign of any animal marks on the heads and the remainder of the ducks were missing. Cllr Cribbin said the animals are very tame, "the farmyard duck cant fly, so he is a sitting duck- literally," he remarked.
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Arrow Down

Madagascar bubonic plague warning


BBC News
Thu, 10 Oct 2013 13:14 UTC

Madagascar faces a bubonic plague epidemic unless it slows the spread of the disease, experts have warned.

The Red Cross and Pasteur Institute say inmates in the island's rat-infested jails are particularly at risk.

The number of cases rises each October as hot humid weather attracts fleas, which transmit the disease from rats and other animals to humans.

Madagascar had 256 plague cases and 60 deaths last year, the world's highest recorded number.

Bubonic plague, known as the Black Death when it killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe during the Middle Ages, is now rare.
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Eagle

Bald eagle attacks pets in Michigan neighborhood


upi.com
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 11:03 UTC
Image
© Walter Siegmund, Wikimedia Commons.Bald Eagle, first year juvenile

A Michigan woman said a young bald eagle took up residence in her neighborhood and has been terrorizing her dogs.

Tami Bieri of Sebewaing said the bird, which her young daughter dubbed Derrick, has become a "nuisance bird" that poses a threat to her small dogs, WNEM-TV, Saginaw, reported Wednesday.

"I left my two dogs outside and my smaller dog was attacked by an eagle. And then as the eagle was taking off with the dog, my Jack Russell attacked the eagle and both dogs got away," Bieri said.

Bieri said local and state officials told her there is nothing they can do about the bird because bald eagles are federally protected.

"I've called the [Department of Natural Resources], the Sebewaing police, and they pretty much say there's nothing they can do because the eagle's not injured," Bieri said.

Karen Cleveland, a bird expert with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said residents can use non-violent methods to let the eagle know he is not welcome in the neighborhood.

"Clap your hands and yell at the bird when you see the bird around, bang on a pot when you see the bird around, go out there with an umbrella, flap the umbrella opened and closed to try and spook the bird off just so it doesn't feel settled around people," Cleveland said.
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