February 17, 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.
Rare beaked whale found dead near Byron Bay, Australia
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| Rare beaked whale washes up dead |
A rare whale has been found washed up on the state's far north coast.
The Gray's Beaked whale was discovered on Seven Mile Beach, south of Byron Bay.
Lawrence Orel, from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, said whales which beach themselves are usually sick.
He said scientists will be keen to examine the skeleton.
"The beaked whales are quite rare," Mr Orel said.
"They're generally found in the deep ocean, so it's quite rare for them to be seen close to shore.
"But stranded beaked whales are of considerable interest to the science
community, and this is possibly a Gray's Beaked whale, which is one of
the more unusual species.
"The carcass will be buried and... all the organisms that live in the sand will proceed to do their thing.
"In about 18 months to two years time you end up with a nice clean
skeleton which becomes very interesting and valuable to science." -
Customs Today.
Dead sperm whale found near Glenburn, New Zealand
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| The 14m sperm whale carcass found on a South Wairarapa beach at Glenburn near Honeycomb Rock. |
Workers
from Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa iwi yesterday recovered the bones and
teeth of a 14m-long sperm whale found dead on a South Wairarapa coastal
beach.
Iwi authority chief executive PJ Devonshire said the
carcass of the whale - an adult male weighing about 48 tonnes - was
discovered washed up and lying between rocks on a beach south of
Glenburn near Honeycomb Rock a week ago Saturday.
A Department of Conservation ranger believed the animal had died of old age.
He said the DoC Honeycomb walkway extended along the stretch of coast
where the whale was found and a group from the iwi had travelled to the
location on Tuesday, securing and blessing the carcass in a ceremony
during which the whale was also named Te Pani o te Moana - orphan of the
ocean.
The name given to the whale also recalled the deaths
over past weeks of several Maori elders including Masterton kaumatua
Pani Himona, who died on January 25 this year, Ngati Porou leader
Apirana Mahuika, who was farewelled at a tangi last week, and Kahungunu
elder and Maori performing arts leader Tama Turanga Huata, who died on
Wednesday.
"Tradition says we should name the whale. The name
Pani describes an orphan and is also a word used for how you feel when
you lose someone," he said.
"We have lost two senior elders
nationally and Uncle Pani Himona here at home, and to have the whale
come to us this way as well, the name is a connection for us all. It is
symbolic of the passing of our elders."
Genburn Station owners
John and Helen McFadzean had been alerted to the whale after fielding a
call from a 77-year-old station guest who discovered the carcass a week
ago Saturday while cycling a coastal route to nearby Pahau, Mrs
McFadzean said.
The carcass was seen floating in waters off the
coast a day earlier, she said, and the naming and blessing ceremony
last week had drawn a small crowd of guests captivated by the spectacle.
Mr Devonshire said the recovery of taonga, or treasure, from
the carcass of the whale included waiata and karakia - songs and prayer -
and will precede meetings about the distribution and cultural uses of
the "resources" across marae throughout the region.
"We will
take the ribs and the jaw and try to process and utilise as much of the
whale as we can. We will take as much as we can to use as resources
among our people. Sperm whale teeth carry much prestige and the bones
can be used for carving taonga that can be shared across the marae of
the Wairarapa.
"We want to use this as a real learning
opportunity for our people. It will be about learning how to process and
work with the whale, and what cultural obligations do we have to the
whale. That's from the first karakia and naming it to when we start to
carve the bones, and remembering the stories of the whale from the past
that remain with us." -
NZ Herald.
Peculiar fish found dead on North Devon coast, UK
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| Peculiar fish found dead |
A strange fish has washed up on the North Devon coast.
It was discovered yesterday at Northam Burrows by Nick Porter, who was
walking his dogs when he spotted what he believes is a Parrot Fish.
He said: "Interestingly, the carcass was not apparently decaying as you would expect a fish to do.
"The skin was hard and leathery." -
North Devon Journal.
4,500 Birds killed due to avian flu in Bauchi State, Nigeria
The
Avian influenza,
also known as bird flu, has hit three local government areas of Bauchi
State, affecting 14,666 birds out of which about 4,508 have so far been
culled by government officials.
According to the Director,
Veterinary Services, in the state Ministry of Animal Resources and
Nomadic Resettlement, Dr Bala Lucshi, who disclosed this to journalists
on Sunday, five farms were affected in Bauchi, Katagum and Toro local
government areas of the state.
He explained that the birds culled
by officials from the ministry included chickens, turkeys and pigeons,
adding that the outbreak was first recorded in the state at Baraji Farms
in Magama Gumau town in Toro Local Government Area on January 28.
Two
farms at Inkil in Bauchi Local Government Area and Azare, the
headquarters of Katagum Local Government Area are also reported to have
the disease. Lucshi said the ministry had promptly moved in to ensure
that the disease was curtailed so as not to spread to other parts of the
state.
Samples taken from the affected farms had since been sent
to the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), Vom, Plateau
State, for laboratory confirmation of the disease in the state.
He
added that the earlier ban placed on movement of poultry products in
and out of the state was being enforced in order to ensure strict
compliance, saying that surveillance rate by officials of the ministry
had been heightened.
However, he advised people of the state to
ensure that they cook their poultry products very well before eating
them. And for the affected farmers, the director promised that the
Federal Ministry of Agriculture would compensate for each of the birds
culled. -
Information NG.
1 out of every 3 seal pups born last summer have already died in California, United States
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Sea lion pups recently brought to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach rest in their pen while being treated at the center. The number
of sea lions rescued on the coast is above average for the season.NICK AGRO, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER |
Low
weights among sea lion pups on remote Channel Island breeding grounds
and effects of a warmer ocean on adult females and yearlings could bring
record-high strandings to Southern California beaches.
Marine
mammal experts say the numbers could hit even higher levels than in
2013, which federal officials called an unusual mortality event.
Already
this year, staff at marine centers from Sea World in San Diego to the
Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito are doing nearly daily rescues.
The difference this year: Starving pups showed up as early as December. Sick females and juveniles are also being found.
In the first three weeks of the year, sea lion rescues were up almost 20 percent over 2013 at some of the marine rescue centers.
The
National Marine Fisheries stranding coordinator has asked centers to
provide their intakes. So far this month, Sea World in San Diego has 48
and Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach has 28. Fort MacArthur
in San Pedro has 73, the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute
has 10, and the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito has 35.
Dr.
Hendrik Nollens, a veterinarian at Sea World and a member of a task
force assembled by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to
study 2013 mass strandings, is not surprised.
Where there was no
advance warning for the 2013 strandings, experts had already predicted
El Niño impacts on lactating mothers and yearlings for 2015. Centers
were told to gear up.
El Niño brings warm ocean waters that push
down nutrient-dense upwellings that fuel ecosystem richness, forcing sea
lions to hunt longer distances and do deeper dives for their prey.
“This
year could be a perfect storm,” Nollens said. “An El Niño climate event
affecting the females and yearlings and something still unexplained
affecting the skinny pups.”
Peter Wallerstein, who owns a
nonprofit organization that helps rescue sea lions for Fort MacArthur,
has been out on the beaches between Pacific Palisades and Long Beach
nearly every day. When schoolchildren on a beach cleanup surrounded a
skinny pup, Wallerstein wrangled him in.
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SeaWorld San Diego veterinarian, Dr. Hendrik Nollens (R), along with animal care specialist, Mike Glenn, performs a physical examination on a
rescued harbor seal pup at the park's Animal Rescue Center. COURTESY OF SEA WORLD |
“Usually, a healthy sea
lion will run into the water away from people,” Wallerstein said.
“People do silly things. They want to get close, but sea lions have 10
times greater bite than a pit bull and they’re very quick on land,
unlike a seal, which drags its body.”
The pup was one of more
than 30 he’s taken to Marine Mammal Center at Fort MacArthur. The center
is already 20 percent ahead of January 2013 numbers, and there’s still a
week to go.
“The difference is we’re not just seeing little
pups,” said Lauren Palmer, a veterinarian there. “Females and yearlings
are coming in with respiratory issues and elevated abnormalities in
their blood work. It’s really hard to wrap our head around the story of
what’s happening.”
Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with the
National Marine Mammal Laboratory working with National Marine
Fisheries, has studied sea lion populations on San Miguel Island for
more than two decades, looking for factors influencing trends in
populations including El Niño, disease and competition for food.
She
works with National Marine Fisheries Service as part of a research
program established on San Miguel Island in 1968 bolstered with funds
from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, enacted in 1972.
Melin
travels to the island twice a year – once in September and once in
February – to study behavior, check for disease and weigh sample
newborns. She’s watched the sea lion population rise 5 percent each year
until 2000. Researchers estimate there are now more than 300,000 sea
lions colonizing the Channel Island rookeries.
Each June 100,000
sea lions come to the Navy-owned island. The breeding colony about 60
miles from Ventura Harbor is one of the largest in the world.
When
sea lions converged on the island in 2012, there was no sign of a
problem. A year later, nearly 70 percent of the newborns had died.
Many
were left for days waiting on the beaches starving and losing weight.
Marine mammal centers in 2013 took in more than 1,500 sea lion pups –
five times higher than in a normal year.
The mothers – to nourish
themselves and provide milk – swam as far as 120 miles north toward
Monterrey in search of sardines and anchovies.
In the El Niño
climate, some of these are scarce and they feed on less fatty fish
producing less nutrient-rich milk. The mothers generally spend three to
four days hunting. Diminished prey can make them stay out for six days.
In
their struggle to survive, pups followed other, older sea lions out
into the ocean too early. Those that made it littered Southern
California beaches. Thousands more died on the islands along the way.
Melin that year recorded pups at only half their previous weights.
Last
year, sea lions produced just half the number of pups following the
high death rate. But their weights were closer to the ideal – 37 pounds.
Stranding numbers were normal.
When Melin traveled to San Miguel
last September, the weights were down again. But sometimes the pups
rebound. She noticed that not all of them were skinny. In some cases it
seemed the mothers had figured it out and still had plump pups. She
reported her findings to National Marine Fisheries, who funded another
research trip out last month.
But the skinny pups had only gained
4 pounds. Melin put GPS tags on a dozen females to track their foraging
habits. The tags will likely stay attached until April. Melin will
compare that data with GPS tags put on sea lions after the 2013
strandings.
Later this month, she will go out again.
“We’ve told the centers to prepare for the worst,” she said. -
OC Register.
