Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Hey, It's Shark Eat Shark Out There! (VIDEO)

Folks were tweeting a Newsweek story about this --- Newsweek?

Who even reads that dinosaur outlet anymore?

But CNN's got the video, from a South Korean aquarium. Shark turf wars --- who knew?


Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Venomous Sea Snakes at Coronado Beach (VIDEO)

A lot of strange creatures have been washing up with the El Niño storms.

Watch, at ABC News 10 San Diego, "Unique sea snake washes to shore in Coronado: Marine biologists blame El Niño for the rare occurrence."

Friday, October 9, 2015

Monday, September 21, 2015

Tiger Kills Zookeeper in New Zealand

A woman zookeeper.

She had a good run, but then, I suppose one thinks they're soul mates with these animals, and after a while you put your guard down.

At London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: The 43-year-old woman zookeeper who was mauled to death by a tiger at a New Zealand zoo while cleaning the enclosure... who listed 'interacting with animals' as her great love."

And at the Sydney Australian, "Oz the Sumatran tiger kills zookeeper in Hamilton, New Zealand."

Also at the New Zealand Herald, "Hamilton Zoo's tiger won't be put down."

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Tourists Disrupt Sea Turtle Nesting in Costa Rica

And those turtles are so adorable too.

But then, can't let a few hundred thousand nesting sea turtles ruin late-summer tropical party plans, right?

Be sensitive to nature and the environment? Pfft.

At the New York Times, "Tourists Thwart Turtles from Nesting in Costa Rica":
MEXICO CITY — The day-trippers swarmed onto the beach to watch one of nature’s most extraordinary sights, hundreds of thousands of olive ridley sea turtles crawling out of the ocean to lay their eggs in the sand.

The turtles did not want the company. Scared off by the thousands of tourists massed along Ostional Beach on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, snapping selfies and perching their children on the turtles’ backs, the ancient reptiles simply turned around and retreated into the sea.

“It was a mess,” said Yamileth Baltodano, a tour guide who was at the scene when the turtles were scared away two weeks ago.

What happened during the first weekend in September was a one-time event, when a confluence of factors allowed the utterly unexpected to take place. But it was a cautionary tale for the conservationists charged with protecting the turtles, which are classified as vulnerable, not to mention a social media sensation. Now Costa Rican officials are scrambling to make sure it does not happen again.

“We are reassessing the way we work and the way we tackle the issue,” Mauricio Méndez, deputy director of the Tempisque Conservation Area, which includes Ostional Beach, said in a telephone interview on Friday.

The olive ridley nesting season, from August through October, coincides with Costa Rica’s rainy season, which ordinarily provides a natural barrier that protects the turtles. During that time, the beach is all but cut off by the flood tide of the swollen Nosara River, which blocks access on bridges. Even in the dry season, the beach is accessible only by a four-wheel-drive vehicle driven by a local guide.

But this year, low rainfall caused by El Niño left the river all but dry, making passage to the beach easy.

Mr. Méndez said officials were working on changes before the next arrival, expected on Oct. 4. He said he hoped to double the number of police officers and security guards, and even to bring in the Coast Guard. Groups will only be allowed in with guides and will be limited to the edges of the nesting area...
 More.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Overgrown Sheep Seen Wandering Near Canberra

So, what would sheep do with without their human masters, heh?

At the BBC, "Australia urgent plea to shear overgrown sheep."

The poor sheep couldn't even see, the wool had literally grown over its eyes.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Hippo Kills an Impala That's Stuck in Mud

It's a jungle out there.

Or a hard-luck water hole, heh.



Saturday, August 22, 2015

Shark Sighting Closes Two Orange County Beaches

Marine biologists can't explain the increase in shark attacks and sightings near swimmers, although it could be that more people are getting closer to the sharks themselves, rather than the other way around. There's more people swimming in the oceans than ever before, apparently.

At ABC News 10 San Diego, "O.C. Shark Sighting: Lifeguard says shark bumped him on surfboard."

Also, at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Stretch of Beach Reopens Following Shark Sighting in the O.C."

Friday, August 14, 2015

Record-Breaking Snakehead Fish Caught with Bow and Arrow in Mattawoman Creek in Charles County, Maryland (VIDEO)

The Mattawoman Creek is a tributary to the Potomac River.

The fish set a new state record.

It's a big sucker.

Watch, at CBS News Baltimore, "Highly-Invasive Snakehead Fish Killed With Bow and Arrow in Charles County."

Thursday, August 13, 2015

P-32 Mountain Lion Killed Trying to Cross Interstate 5 Near Castaic

It's almost inevitable. The lions just aren't going to have enough living space when the come down by metropolitan Los Angeles. This P-32 guy is apparently the most-tracked Southern California puma ever. But he made one last crossing, and it was fatal.

I love these guys too. Sad.

At LAT, "Male puma known as P-32 is killed crossing 5 Freeway in Castaic":

The journey of a mountain lion that successfully crossed four highways came to an end early Monday when it was struck and killed by a vehicle as it tried to make another run across a major L.A. freeway.

The puma named P-32 is the only known male to venture out of the Santa Monica Mountains and wander north into other habitat areas, said Kate Kuykendall, a spokeswoman for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

P-32 was best known for dashing across the 101 Freeway near Thousand Oaks on April 3. He managed to cross Highway 23 near the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and settled into a natural area in the Simi Hills. He had also crossed highways 118 and 126.

But P-32’s journey, deemed to be “a textbook case of successful dispersal," was cut short. The 21-month-old puma headed east and tried to cross the 5 Freeway between 4 and 6 a.m. when he was hit in Castaic.

“This case illustrates the challenges that mountain lions in this region face, particularly males,” wildlife ecologist Seth Riley said in a statement.

“P-32 conquered all kinds of freeways and highways to reach the Los Padres," he continued, "but it was probably another dominant male that made him leave the area and attempt one last crossing, which obviously was not successful.”

P-32 is the first male to be studied that successfully fled the mountains.

He is the 12th mountain lion killed on a freeway or road since researchers began studying the mountain lion population in 2002 to determine how they survive in the city...

Rare White Humpback Whale Spotted Off Australia's Gold Coast (VIDEO)

He's a celebrity down there, it turns out.

At the Brisbane Times, "White whale spotted off Gold Coast may be Migaloo."



Wednesday, August 12, 2015

WATCH: New Video Released of 'Biggest Shark Ever Filmed'

It's from underwater photographer Mauricio Hoyos Padilla, on Facebook.

And at NBC.

Amazing:



Sunday, August 9, 2015

Hiker is Mauled to Death and Partially Eaten in Grizzly Bear Attack at Yellowstone (VIDEO)

At the Missoulian, Missoula, Montana, "Montana man found dead in Yellowstone attacked, partially consumed by grizzly bear"
BILLINGS – Evidence shows that a hiker found dead in Yellowstone National Park was attacked and partially consumed by a grizzly bear, according to a release from park officials.

Investigators found what appeared to be defensive wounds on the man's forearms, but haven't determined an exact cause of death. Tracks from a female grizzly and at least one cub were found at the scene.

Park officials did not release the hiker's name, but said he's a Montana resident who has worked and lived at Yellowstone for five years and was an experienced hiker.

A park ranger found the man's body on a popular off-trail area about half a mile from the Elephant Back Loop Trail. His body was cached, partially covered in dirt.

The trail and immediate area remain closed.

Officials set bear traps in the area Friday evening. If bears involved in the attack are captured, they will be euthanized...
Not sure if I support putting the bears down. They didn't do anything wrong.

Plus, watch at ABC News, "Hiker Likely Killed by Bear in Yellowstone National Park."

Friday, August 7, 2015

At Katmai National Park, With Thousands of Bears Near Campground Every Summer, Visitors Must Follow the Rules

Can't be too careful with those bears. Big bears. Hungry bears, heh.

Here's video, "The Bears are Back!"

And at the New York Times, "At Katmai National Park in Alaska, Bears Rule":
Katmai National Park sprawls over four million acres in southern Alaska. So why does its only established campground allow for just 60 people per night — a limit that leads to an online booking fray every January? The answer is also one of the park’s main draws, and its primary claim to national fame: bears. Lots of them — about 2,200 at the National Park Service’s last count, with 60 or so regulars that hang around Brooks Camp every summer. In theory, you can camp elsewhere in Katmai, but the campground has an electric fence and constant activity, making it an unlikely place to find a bear too close to your tent for sleeping comfort.

By last spring, just about a year into my life as a full-time Alaskan, I had designs on spending time at Brooks Camp, long considered one of the state’s premier bear-viewing spots. Campground spots for July — peak season for viewing brown bears fishing, establishing hierarchy and practicing their version of flirting (the boys can be such pests) — can be reserved as of Jan. 5 every year, and go quickly. So by early May, having missed my window, I had long given up on making it, figuring I would have to spend another season watching the bears via webcams.

Streaming since July 2012, Katmai’s webcams, set up by Explore.org, (there are four trained on brown bear fishing areas) have turned the local bears into social media celebrities and, for their most loyal followers, the biggest incentives to board a floatplane to Brooks, where dozens of bears return each summer to bulk up on salmon in the Brooks River. (Bulk is the operative word; by November, when the bears start turning in for their long winter’s naps, the males can weigh 1,000 pounds or more.)

My Facebook feed had been lighting up with bear news for weeks — friends across the country all playing a seasonal parlor game trying to figure out if bear 32, a.k.a. Chunk, had improved his fishing skills or if bear 814, a.k.a. Lurch, was going to calm down this year, or if he would continue to intimidate other bears out of their prized fishing spots. The live streams had interrupted more than a few of my own work hours, too.

While on a spring camping trip in Denali National Park, an acquaintance casually presented a near-miraculous offer: “I reserved a camping spot for two people at Brooks Camp in July but can’t use it. You want it? I think it was about $50.” I recruited my Anchorage-born friend Tara Stevens, an experienced angler, and we were off. The virtual experience, I hoped, would soon be real.

After an Alaska Airlines flight from Anchorage to the town of King Salmon, we collected our bags stuffed with layers of clothing, rain gear, camping and cooking gear, and food, and headed to the Katmai Air Service office for the flight to Brooks Camp, which sits at the confluence of Naknek Lake and the Brooks River. After weighing in for the flight — when traveling by floatplane in Alaska, you get used to people telling you to hop on a scale — we were soon climbing skyward in a blue and white 1962 de Havilland Otter, its single engine drowning out any conversation.

Thick clouds hung overhead and even the grassy areas below looked slightly gray. Color broke through now and again — bright green roofs on a small group of buildings below, a pale aqua river threading through the glum landscape.

Twenty minutes later, we descended onto Naknek Lake, the plane bumping along on its floats toward the driftwood-strewn beach and the Brooks Camp employees waiting there. (Brooks Camp also has cabins run by a park concessionaire, Katmailand; they’re spare and pricey but a good option for the camping-averse.) Everybody on the plane, which holds 10 passengers, was a bit giddy as we rolled toward the start of the summer adventure, like the first moments arriving at sleep-away camp.

We were directed to the visitors’ center for the “Brooks Camp School of Bear Etiquette,” meant to keep visitors and the bears coexisting peacefully. Orientation started with a 10-minute film. The clothing and hairstyles were delightfully out of date, but the how-to’s still applied: Keep 50 yards from any bear; 100 yards from a bear with cubs. Move back as a bear moves closer. When hiking, stay alert and make sounds — talking and clapping — so bears know you’re there. If a bear gets too close, don’t run — it may think you’re prey. Speak to the bear in a firm but calm voice. Then start to walk back slowly. Give the bear the right of way.

After the film, a ranger rehashed some of the key points, gave us lapel pins that indicated we had been through bear school, and sent us on our way.

We loaded our gear onto a wheeled cart and headed down the trail toward the campground. Though it was about a third of a mile from the visitors’ center, that first walk seemed quite a bit longer. Thick woods were on the left and, on our right, a thinnish strip of trees blocking our view of the beach, where, it had been made clear, bears loved to wander.

“How has nobody been mauled here?” Tara asked. We kept a slightly-louder-than-normal rambling conversation going. There might have been singing.

Soon enough we rolled the cart through the campground’s electric fence, which didn’t look as if it could keep out a kitten. It was tempting to touch the fence, but I decided to trust the park service and stayed shock free.

The tent up, we headed back down the trail to grab dinner at the lodge.

But before long: “Bear in camp! Bear in camp!”

A ranger’s shout went up outside the lodge, warning people to stay or get inside. The dining room tables emptied as people ran to the windows. Two brown bears, their long claws in clear view, loped through the camp, did a few circles just feet from the lodge porch, and ran back off. I had spent plenty of time in bear country before, but the pair’s romp made it so much clearer that we were playing in the bears’ world. I got ever that much giddier about spending two nights exploring the area...
A great story.

Keep reading.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Dog-Walker Attacked by One-Eyed Wild Boar

Right out of "Game of Thrones.

Gnarly.

Her wounds required 10 stitches on her legs.

At the Sydney Morning Herald, "Canberra woman attacked by wild pig in Jerrabomberra."

Friday, July 3, 2015

Shark Flips Over Fisherman Kayaking in Middle of the Ocean (VIDEO)

Lolz.

This is pretty good. That fisherman was doing the Mark Spitz boogie back to the main boat, heh.

Watch: "Watch shark flip over kayaker in middle of ocean."

Giant Lizard-Eating Centipede in Texas

Wild.