January 4, 2015 - EARTH - The following constitutes the latest reports of unusual and symbolic animal behavior, mass die-offs, beaching and stranding of mammals, and the appearance of rare creatures.
Dead blue whale found dead on coast of India
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| The whale that was found washed ashore at Valai island off Periapattinam. |
A giant Blue Whale was found washed ashore on Valai island, one of the 21 islands in the Gulf of Mannar region.
Wildlife Warden, Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, Deepak Bilgi said
the marine mammal was found dead near the shore of the island two days
back and initial studies revealed that it had died long back.
As the whale was found away from the shore, post-mortem could not be
conducted immediately, he said, adding the whale was expected to hit the
shore on Friday. A veterinary surgeon would be taken to the island,
situated six km off Devipattinam near here, for conducting the
post-mortem, he said.
The whale, measuring about 50 feet
length, could weigh about six tonnes. The cause of the death would be
known only after the post-mortem, he added.
Fishermen from
Vedalai alerted the forest officials on Tuesday about 'some giant black
object' floating near Valai island. Anti-poaching watchers swam close to
the "object" and found it to be a whale, sources in the forest
department said.
The carcass was found stuck in sand, the
sources said. Anti-poaching watchers and guards were posted at the
island for security.
They were constantly sending reports about the 'movement' of the dead whale to the higher officials, the sources added. -
The Hindu.
2 women trampled to death by elephants in India
Two
women died in separate incidents after they were attacked by elephants
in interior Thithimathi and Palibetta villages here on Monday.
The victims have been identified as Puttichanda Poovamma (70), a
resident of Kavadi village near Ammatthi, and Lakshmi (35), a resident
of Thithimati village.
According to the police, Poovamma was walking outside her daughter's house in Palibetta at around 7.30 am, when
an elephant strayed into the front yard and trampled her to death.
She was severely injured and died on the spot, they said. Her body was sent to Gonikoppal for an autopsy, the police added.
In another incident, Lakshmi, a resident of Vinayaka Nagar in
Thithimathi, was headed towards the forest at around 9.30 am, when a
wild elephant attacked her. She died on the spot, the police said.
Assistant Conservator of Forest Sripathi, Matthigod Wildlife Division
Range Forest Officer Kiran and Thithimati Division RFO Gopal visited the
Hunsur wildlife division.
Bandh
Gonikoppal traders' association called for a bandh from 3 pm to 4 pm on
Monday, demanding compensation to the victims' families.
They have also demanded strict measures to be taken to stop the attacks by wild animals.
Association chief Sunil Madappa urged the government to ensure such incidents do not repeat in the future. -
Coastal Digest.
Elderly man killed by rhino in Nepal
An elderly man attacked by rhino in Chitwan district has died on Saturday night.
According to the District Police Office, Chitwan, Sadabahar Community
Forest member Chaudhari was attacked by a rhinoceros while inspecting
the forest.
64 year old Nathuram from Megauli-5 died while receiving treatment.
He had suffered severe injuries on the leg, chest and head. -
Arko.
Rare northern hawk owl seen south of Eau Claire, Wisconsin
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| A northern hawk owl like this one has been spotted south of Eau Claire. © Anne Geraghty |
Since
early December, a rare visitor - a northern hawk owl - has been hanging
out just south of Eau Claire, to the delight of local bird-watchers.
"Usually, the crows will help you find it. There's four or five crows
who like to harass it," said David Lund of rural Eleva, who has seen the
bird several times in recent weeks.
The owl is only about 14
inches tall and is unusual among owls because it is just as happy
hunting in the daytime as at night, which also has made the bird popular
with local birders.
One owl watcher reported seeing the little
owl catch three mice within a span of about 20 minutes, so he is an owl
with an appetite.
The owl has often been found near Lars Road,
west of Down to Earth Gardening and Landscaping along Highway 93 south
of Eau Claire. Some local birders have nicknamed to bird Lars, Lund
said.
Ryan Brady, bird monitoring coordinator for the Wisconsin
Bird Conservation Initiative, said bird-watchers have been driving from
three or four hours away to see the Eau Claire owl.
"It's not every year that there's one of these birds in the state that people can go and find," he said.
There have been a couple of other sightings of hawk owls in the state
earlier in the winter, but those were one-time events, Brady said. -
Leader Telegram.
147 turtles, 48 dolphins found dead in Mississippi Sound in 2014
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Alicia Carron and Brittney Goodwin bag a dead dolphin found on the beach in Pass Christian. IMMS director Moby Solangi said 48 dolphins
were found dead in 2014 in South Mississippi. Tim Isbell, Sun Herald. |
Before
the 2010 BP oil spill, the Institute of Marine and Mammal Studies in
Gulfport saw, on average, about 10 to 15 sea turtle deaths per year. In
2014, IMMS director Moby Solangi said the institute documented 147 dead
turtles.
Before 2010, the average dolphin deaths recorded across the Coast could vary between 20 and 30. In 2014, IMMS tagged 48 dead dolphins.
"The number of dolphins has stabilized," Solangi said. "We have had twice those numbers in years past. We have a lot of dolphins that have died over the last four years."
Solangi, who declined to comment as to what specifically has caused the dramatic increase in marine deaths in the Mississippi Sound, said IMMS studies the environment of the animals and mammals who have died in order to study changes in the aquatic ecosystem structure.
"There's a variety of causes, but there's certainly a number of environmental issues," Solangi said. "It's very difficult to pinpoint complex causes of agents."
The Sun Herald reported on Friday that two manatees have washed ashore in South Mississippi in 2014, which Solangi said is alarming because the animals are not common to the area during the winter season.
"These marine mammals and turtles and manatees at the top of food chain need to be looked at closely ... it gives you the idea of what's going on the environment. These animals are the barometer of the environment," Solangi said.
Another instance that is possible, the director said, is that sick animals travel back to South Mississippi where they eventually die.
"That can not be ruled out," Solangi said.
Solangi said IMMS performs autopsies on deceased marine life and sends the information to agencies within the federal government. The government, Solangi said, should release more information about the cause of the death increases within the Mississippi Sound.
"It needs to be looked at very quickly," he said. "If the top predators are doing well, you can generally say the environment is doing well. If there's a void in the habitat, you see there may be a problem."
Over 300 rescued marine life animals were rehabilitated and released through IMMS this year.
"On average, we would get a call of three or four per year," Solangi said. "The live incidental take has been extremely high."
Humans should be most concerned with dolphin deaths, Solangi noted."They (dolphins) are the top predator in the water. We are the top predator on land ... they swim in the same water we swim in. They eat the same fish we eat. We rely on their medical environment for our livelihood. There should be focuses and effort to seriously study these top predators." -
Sun Herald.
Rare golden eagle arrives in South Delta, Vancouver and dominates resident bald eagles
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| A juvenile golden eagle is making a rare appearance in the Boundary Bay area in South Delta. © John Gordon |
A juvenile golden eagle is making a rare appearance in the Boundary Bay area in South Delta.
A golden eagle - a rare visitor to a region known for its bald eagles -
had birders all aflutter on New Year's Day in south Delta.
"I
have been here a couple of days for this guy," said Vancouver's Michelle
Lamberson, taking her place in a line of photographers along 72nd
Street near Boundary Bay. "I've got some decent shots."
The
juvenile bird sat like an ornament atop a large poplar tree on the edge
of a golf course about 75 metres from the roadside.
Lamberson,
who is director of flexible learning special projects at the University
of B.C. and a birder for eight years, added: "I've not seen one in the
Lower Mainland before.
Bald eagles don't like them."
Mark Wynja, a birder for more than 40 years who works in a bird-supply shop in Vancouver, said
the golden eagle rules the roost along the Boundary Bay foreshore. He watched as the raptor flew into a stand of red alders and scattered four bald eagles from their perches, although they later returned.
"He tends to be the dominant bird," he said.
"He's tougher than a bald eagle, which is a glorified scavenger."
John Gordon, a professional photographer from Langley, said the golden
eagle showed up about two weeks ago and is dining on the vast flocks of
waterfowl attracted to the bay and bordering farm fields. "It is one of
those birds that we birders rarely see in the Lower Mainland," he
confirmed.
According to the B.C. Conservation Data Centre,
golden eagles measure 76 to 102 centimetres in length, with a wingspan
of 203 to 224 centimetres - on par with a bald eagle.
The
golden eagle is distinguished by mostly brown plumage, a golden wash on
the back of the head and neck, and a faintly banded tail, the centre
reports. Unlike bald eagles, the lower legs of golden eagles are covered
with feathers all the way to the base of their feet.
Immature
individuals have white at the base of their primary feathers and a white
tail with a dark terminal band. They can easily be mistaken for
juvenile bald eagles, which do not develop their distinctive black and
white feathers until about age five.
Golden eagles generally
inhabit open and semi-open country such as prairies, sagebrush, arctic
and alpine tundra, savannah or sparse woodland, and barren areas,
especially in hilly or mountainous regions, the centre explains.
The diet consists primarily of small mammals such as rabbits, marmots,
and ground squirrels, but can also include large insects, snakes, birds,
and carrion. In areas such as Yukon, they are known to carry off the
lambs of Dall mountain sheep from cliff faces.
The Committee on
the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada says the golden eagle is
"relatively rare, particularly in eastern North America," but there is
no "clear evidence" to show a decline in the species over the last
several decades. -
Vancouver Sun.
Rare goose from northern Asia turns up in Suffolk, UK
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| Lesser white-fronted goose. © Wikimedia Commons. |
An extremely rare bird is reported to have roosted in a Suffolk nature reserve.
The lesser white fronted goose was reported to have crossed the North
Sea on Tuesday night and taken up residence at RSPB Minsmere on the
county's coastline.
Publicity officer Ian Barthorpe said the bird was a rapidly declining species that
usually winters in the Black Sea and is very rarely spotted in Britain.
The goose is likely to be one of the most sought-after species for
spotters taking part in tomorrow's winter wildlife walks at the reserve.
-
EADT.
Herd of 6 elephants storms village and kills one person in Bangladesh
A man was killed in an elephant attack at Kamarkhali village in Durgapur upazila of the district on Sunday morning.
The deceased was identified as Chand Miah, 55, a resident of the area.
Police said a herd of 6 elephants came down the hills of Meghalaya State, India and stormed the village.
The elephants attacked Chand around 5:30am while he was going to mosque for saying Fajr prayers, leaving him dead on the spot.
On Information, police rushed to spot and frightened elephants away to the border hills with the help of local people. -
UNB.
100s of fish turn up dead at Nevada lake, a year after die-off claims all 100K of its fish
Hundreds of fish have turned up dead in an urban Nevada lake, a year after a die-off claimed all of its estimated 100,000 fish.
Roughly 500 trout have died since last Saturday in the Sparks Marina along Interstate 80 east of Reno, Sparks city spokesman Adam Mayberry said.
Experts said they think both die-offs have been caused by a sharp drop in dissolved oxygen levels because of cold weather, and they continue to monitor the water quality of the popular 77-acre lake.
Though the number of deaths has remained steady the last couple of days, the extent of the die-off is not yet known, Mayberry said. Not all dead fish wash up on shore or float to the surface where they can be counted.
"We're certainly concerned ... But it's premature to come to come to any hard conclusions about any outcomes," Mayberry said.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife has restocked the lake with 50,000 trout beginning in April after the previous die-off killed all of its trout, catfish and bass, spokesman Chris Healy said.
The marina won't have a die-off on the scale of a year ago because it now holds fewer than 20,000 trout due to anglers and birds, Healy said. But tough decisions will have to be made if the current die-off proves devastating to the lake's fishery, he added.
State wildlife officials plan to meet with city officials to discuss solutions, including the installation of an aeration system to provide oxygen to the lake.
"We don't want to be alarmist, but we'll have to reevaluate stocking fish in the lake if this gets really bad again," Healy said.
"Why has this happened in the last two years and it didn't happen over the previous 12 or 13 years? It's kind of a mystery to us. It's a question we're going to have to answer," he added.
Aeration systems are expensive to install, but the city is willing to discuss solutions with state wildlife officials, Mayberry said.
He emphasizes the low oxygen levels are dangerous to fish only, and there are no public health or safety concerns at the marina. The water continues to be safe for dogs and people.
The man-made lake is replenished daily from groundwater, and the city pumps on average of 2.5 million gallons of water from the lake on a daily basis.
"I think the worst thing that would happen is we would lose the fishery," Mayberry said. "But no one should presuppose any outcomes at this point."
The Sparks Marina opened in 2000, with a 2-mile walking and bike trail, beaches, playgrounds, picnic areas and a fishing pier.The former aggregate pit operated by Helms Construction Co. had been found to be contaminated in 1988 by pollutants leaking from an adjacent tank farm, but state environmental officials said all the pollution had been cleaned up before a 1997 New Year's Day flood sent Truckee River waters into the pit. -
Green Field Reporter.
Thousands of dead birds washing ashore along the coast between California and Washington, United States
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| Biologist Russ Bradley holds a Cassin's auklet chick in 2006. (Ben Margot / Associated Press) |
Thousands of dead birds washing ashore along the coast between California and Washington.
Scientists along the Pacific Coast have been trying to determine what is causing the large die-off of the birds this winter.
The
University of Washington's Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team
has seen more than 1,200 bodies wash ashore since fall began.
Executive
Director Julia Parrish thinks that is only a small fraction of the
total number of dead birds. It is probably in the tens of thousands, she
said.
Parrish, a professor of marine sciences at the University of Washington, said the die-off was largely a mystery to experts.
The
birds have been found mostly starved to death, so the deaths are not a
result of an oil spill or a toxic reaction to food, said Lindsay Adrean,
a wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
One
explanation is that the birds are starving as a consequence of an
unusually successful breeding session last year in British Columbia.
Almost
every breeding pair laid an egg, and as the young birds fly south for
the winter they may not all be finding the small fish and shrimp they
normally feed on, Parrish said.
The Pacific has also been a few
degrees warmer this winter, which could touch off subtle changes in the
food chain that make it harder for the small birds to find sustenance,
Adrean said.
But other birds along the coast are not dying at unusual rates, Parrish said.
"If
the bottom had fallen out of the ecosystem, you would be seeing
everybody dying, but we are not," she said. "There is a little bit of a
mystery to it."
It is possible that more bodies are simply being
found because the birds are flying closer to the shore to find food,
Parrish said. Normally, the birds find food far out at sea.
Typically,
spotters see one or two dead birds along a kilometer of beach. Oregon
spotters in November saw up to 30 per kilometer and then up to 115 per
kilometer in December, Parrish said.
Robert Ollikainen, a
volunteer carcass spotter in Cape Meares, Ore., said he walked onto a
low sand bar between Tillamook Bay and the Pacific the day after
Christmas and came across 126 of the fist-sized birds.
He had never seen so many before. "My God, there were so many of them," Ollikainen said. -
LA Times.
