Animals
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Bizarro Earth

US: Grasshopper Invasion Feared This Summer

Matt Joyce
Associated Press
Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:13 UTC
Grasshopper
© Scott Schell/University of Wyoming
Some Western, Plains states could see worst outbreak in 30 years

Newcastle, Wyoming - Grasshopper infestations have taken on mythic tones here on the arid prairie of northeastern Wyoming - they blanket highways, eat T-shirts off clotheslines and devour nearly every scrap of vegetation on ranches and farms.

The myth may come closer to reality this summer than at any time in decades in several states in the West and the Plains.

A federal survey of farm areas taken last fall found high numbers of adult grasshoppers in parts of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Idaho. Each female lays hundreds of eggs so that high count could turn into costly grasshopper infestations this summer.

Well-timed cool and wet weather to stifle the young grasshoppers when they hatch around May and June.
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Question

Northern Ireland eels suffer mysterious decline

Denise Recalde
FIS
Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:07 UTC
Image
© Stock File / FISThe eel fisheries of Lough Neagh and Lough Erne are in a poor state.
There have been dire warnings about the future of Europe's largest eel fishery at Lough Neagh: numbers of elvers returning to Europe's rivers and lakes have been mysteriously dropping for years, but this season the decline has hit more fisheries than ever before.

Since 1983, Lough Neagh fishermen have been noticing the low numbers of glass eels returning from the Sargasso Sea spawning grounds.

With a view to the future, they took action, re-stocking their fishing grounds with glass eels bought from healthier fisheries such as the Severn estuary, and that has allowed them to continue meeting their quota of adult eels.

But last season the Severn estuary was the latest fishery to be hit by plummeting glass eel returns and prices for glass eels have shot up - posing a challenge for the Lough Neagh Eel Fishermen's Cooperative as they struggle to find ways to re-stock the lough, reports the Belfast Telegraph.
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Wolf

Wolves on the prowl again in Western Europe


Newcomer News
Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:25 UTC
wolf
© Unknown
Wolves are again howling through the woodlands of western Germany for the first time in 150 years, after spreading back into Western Germany now that most of their natural enemies have disappeared, conservationists say.

Wolf sightings have been common in Poland and eastern Germany for several years, but never in the heavily urbanised and industrial heartland of the Ruhr Valley and the Rhineland - until now.

Front-page tabloid headlines shocked city dwellers recently with reports that at least one wolf is on the prowl in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany's most populous state and a region which borders on France.
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Frog

The mysterious case of the frogs' legs

Jessica Griggs
New Scientist
Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:43 UTC
Image
© Brandon Ballengee
In 1995, a group of schoolchildren from Minnesota discovered that half of the frogs they found in a pond were deformed. Some had bent, truncated legs, some had extra legs, while others had none at all. Photos of the frogs caught the attention of journalists, who blamed chemical pollution.

Since then, American artist Brandon Ballengée has found similarly deformed frogs and toads all over the world when working with the biologist Stanley Sessions from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York state. Ballengée documents their field trips photographically. He also brings back dead specimens, which he uses to create artistic images like this one of an extra-limbed Pacific treefrog from Aptos, California.

Ballengée says he's attracted to the frogs because he finds them uncanny, almost other-worldly. To heighten this effect, he stains the frogs with dyes that turn cartilage blue, bones red and flesh translucent. He then scans them using a high-resolution scanner to produce a detailed, ghostly image. "I wanted to find a way to exhibit what I was finding without being scary or exploitative."
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Alarm Clock

US: Bat disease spreads


The Washington Post
Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:05 UTC
White-nose syndrome, a disease that has decimated bat populations across the East Coast, appears to have spread to bats in Maryland, state wildlife officials said Wednesday.

Officials said they found several dead bats in a cave in western Maryland's Allegany County on Friday, as well as more than 200 other bats that appeared "visibly affected" by the disease.

If the diagnosis is confirmed, the state said, this would be the first time white-nose syndrome has been found in Maryland.
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Bad Guys

Chinese zoo blamed for death of 11 Siberian tigers

Alexa Olesen
Associated Press
Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:25 UTC
Siberian Tigers
© Associated PressIn this Jan. 8, 2010 file photo, an endangered Siberian tiger runs away with a chicken tossed by tourists at the Harbin Tiger Park in Harbin.
Beijing - Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China's frigid northeast, state media said Friday.

A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.

Siberian tigers are one of the world's rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild.

Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, a local animal protection agency, was quoted by the China Daily as saying 11 of the zoo's tigers died of malnutrition in the last three months after subsisting on a meager diet of chicken bones.

Two others were shot dead by police in November after the hungry animals attacked a zookeeper, the report said.

The Liaoshen Evening Post, a local Shenyang newspaper, reported on its Web site that the company that owns the zoo was trying unsuccessfully to auction the zoo property, and many staffers complained they hadn't been paid in 18 months.
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Fish

Appearance of "Earthquake fish" spook Japanese


CBC News
Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:40 UTC
Rare, deep-sea oarfish have been washing ashore, and they've got ecologists and superstitious fishermen worried:


Oar fish live in the depths of the ocean, surfacing infrequently when they are sick or damaged. In Japan it is believed the appearance of oar fish means an earthquake is imminent. Since November, over 19 of the rare fish have washed up on the shores of Japan. The animal is thought to be the origin of ancient mariner myths of sea serpents.

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Bug

'Globetrotting' New Worms Discovered on Great Barrier Reef and Swedish Coast


ScienceDaily
Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00 UTC
Image
© Pierre De WitThe new species of Grania discovered off the Gullmarsfjord.
Between the grains of sand on the sea floor there is an unknown and unexplored world. Pierre De Wit at Gothenburg University knows this well, and has found new animal species on the Great Barrier Reef, in New Caledonia, and in the sea off the Gullmarsfjord in the Swedish county of Bohuslän.

The layer of sand on ocean floor is home to a large part of the vast diversity of marine species. Species representing almost all classes of marine animals live here. The genus Grania, which belongs to the class of annelid worms Clitellata, is one of them.

Grania the globetrotter

Grania is a worm around two centimetres in length and mostly white, which is encountered in marine sand throughout the world, from the tidal zone to deep down in the ocean. The researcher Pierre De Wit, at the Department of Zoology of the University of Gothenburg, is analysing exactly how many species of Grania there are and how they are related to other organisms.
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Blackbox

Mysterious ailment is killing foxes

Ashley Archibald
The Union Democrat
Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:11 UTC
Image
© NTAFoxes
An unidentified disease is making its way through the fox population of Tuolumne County, leading to an increase in sick foxes that have appeared in populated areas.

According to Jennifer Clarke, Tuolumne County Animal Control manager, agents responded to 12 to 14 cases of sick foxes in February alone.

"It's cyclical," she said. "Every seven or eight years a disease will make its way through a certain population of animals."

Animal Control only tests dead animals that have come into contact with humans and domestic pets. It also only tests for rabies.

Four foxes have met this criteria. One was touched by a person and the other three were attacked by pet dogs.
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Fish

UK: Mystery fish found on Isle of Mull beach


STV News
Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:42 UTC
Mull Dealfish
A couple discovered the strange looking fish - which was later identified as a Dealfish.
A mysterious fish washed ashore on the Isle of Mull sparked detective work by conservationists.

A couple on holiday from England reported the unusual specimen to the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust on the isle.

The Richardsons had found the fish washed ashore near the hamlet of Ulva Ferry on the west coast of Mull.
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