Research in the US has found that something is attacking the local bees' immune system, rendering the bees vulnerable to any contagion. Australian bees have been coming to the rescue, trying to make up the numbers to pollinate many of America's crops.
But now the new arrivals are also dying, as North America Correspondent Kim Landers reports.
Animals
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When the killer whales of Washington State's Puget Sound began vanishing, a biologist had to get an earful from the U.S. Navy to pick up clues to the mystery (Washington map).
Using supersensitive microphones, Ken Balcomb has been eavesdropping on the region's resident killer whales, also known as orcas. Unlike their transient brethren, these animals spend their entire lives in the sound.
But Balcomb's years of research unveiled a disturbing trend: Mature orcas were disappearing in the prime of their lives, and no one knew why.
When the killer whales of Washington State's Puget Sound began vanishing, a biologist had to get an earful from the U.S. Navy to pick up clues to the mystery (Washington map).
Using supersensitive microphones, Ken Balcomb has been eavesdropping on the region's resident killer whales, also known as orcas. Unlike their transient brethren, these animals spend their entire lives in the sound.
But Balcomb's years of research unveiled a disturbing trend: Mature orcas were disappearing in the prime of their lives, and no one knew why.
Experts are trying to capture a bearded seal that strayed into Florida's Intracoastal Waterway, hundreds of miles from its Arctic home.
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| ©JOE RIMKUS JR/MIAMI HERALD STAFF |
| An emaciated bearded Artic seal in the Tarpon River in Ft. Lauderdale off Rose Drive tries to look over the seawall at an ice bed put down to entice it to stay in the area. |
CROP POLLINATION: Experts struggle to explain why numbers down.
At least five elephants were killed by lightning in a West Bengal wildlife reserve, officials said Friday.
The animals died Thursday in a tea estate under the Buxa Tiger Reserve area in the state's northern region.
Their carcasses were found by tea garden workers on the bank of a river near the New Lands Tea Estate in Alipurduar area of Jalpaigur district, 700 km north of Kolkata.
'We suspect that the elephants died of lightning when they came to drink river water. There were no external injuries or evidence that the elephants were poisoned or electrocuted by poachers,' Buxa reserve official Subhankar Sengupta told IANS.
However, he added that the exact cause of death could only be ascertained after the post-mortem reports were available.
The animals died Thursday in a tea estate under the Buxa Tiger Reserve area in the state's northern region.
Their carcasses were found by tea garden workers on the bank of a river near the New Lands Tea Estate in Alipurduar area of Jalpaigur district, 700 km north of Kolkata.
'We suspect that the elephants died of lightning when they came to drink river water. There were no external injuries or evidence that the elephants were poisoned or electrocuted by poachers,' Buxa reserve official Subhankar Sengupta told IANS.
However, he added that the exact cause of death could only be ascertained after the post-mortem reports were available.
Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet.
A national recording scheme that aims to catalogue what species of moths in the UK face an uncertain future is being launched by conservationists.
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| Scientists are unable to pinpoint the reason for the moths' rapid decline |
A deadly Ebola-like virus is killing fish of all types in the Great Lakes, a development some scientists fear could trigger disaster for the USA's freshwater fish.
Grey whales in the eastern Pacific appear to be in some trouble, with the cause far from clear, scientists say.
Researchers with the conservation group Earthwatch found that whales are arriving in their breeding grounds off the Mexican coast malnourished.
The same thing happened just after the 1997/8 El Nino event, which warmed the waters and depleted food stocks.
Researchers with the conservation group Earthwatch found that whales are arriving in their breeding grounds off the Mexican coast malnourished.
The same thing happened just after the 1997/8 El Nino event, which warmed the waters and depleted food stocks.
Today we're living through the sixth great extinction, sometimes known as the Holocene extinction event. We carried its seeds with us 50,000 years ago as we migrated beyond Africa with Stone Age blades, darts, and harpoons, entering pristine Ice Age ecosystems and changing them forever by wiping out at least some of the unique megafauna of the times, including, perhaps, the sabre-toothed cats and woolly mammoths. When the ice retreated, we terminated the long and biologically rich epoch sometimes called the Edenic period with assaults from our newest weapons: hoes, scythes, cattle, goats, and pigs.
Comment: The figure of 15 billion dollars that the bees add to the food supply as quoted above is slightly misleading as $15 billion is not that much in comparison to war budgets etc. That figure is however based on current food supply levels that works based on supply/demand. When supply drops, demand increases and prices go up.
So when you are faced with eating just bread and water, you will see how misleading a monetary amount can be. The alarm bells should be ringing.
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