The Agonist - Animal World

Chimp Attack Victim Unveils Destroyed Face on Oprah

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:23:41 -0800

ABC News - The Connecticut woman who was attacked by her friend's chimpanzee in February, revealed the mangled remains of her face on the Oprah Winfrey show today for the first time, publicly showing the remnants of her missing eyes, nose and lips.

Charla Nash reveals her face publicly after being mauled by a pet chimp.Charla Nash, who wakes up every day in a hospital room at the Cleveland clinic where doctors change her bandages daily, told Winfrey she rarely touches her face so as not to learn the full extent of her injuries.

"I don't ask a whole lot about my injuries. I know that I have my forehead," she told Winfrey.

Nash, 56, must drink all of her meals with a straw though a small hole where her mouth used to be, She said she longs for the day when she might be able to eat "a hot dog or piece of pizza."

My Gawd! The video is horrifying and makes me think no wild animals should be allowed as pets.

BBC 'bear man' documentary explodes honey myth

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:07:30 -0700

Suzanne Goldenberg | Oct 28

The Guardian - Bearwalker of the Northwoods reveals how US wildlife biologist Lynn Rogers' extraordinary relationship with wild black bears has enabled him to explode numerous myths about the animals - and discover surprising new behaviour

The wildlife biologist Lynn Rogers had logged thousands of hours studying North America's black bears. He had shot them with tranquilisers before fitting them with ear tags or radio collars. He had drawn their blood and mapped their DNA. And he had tracked their movements with pins on maps.

But none of that had allowed him to really know the creatures. When he did get close to a bear in the wild the animal was usually terrified, caught in a live trap in the woods.

Rogers eventually realised he couldn't hope to know bears unless he won their trust. And so he abandoned scientific detachment and took the daring and controversial step of forming relationships with his study animals, using food to gain acceptance among an extended bear family inMinnesota.

Gaining the trust of the bears has given him a close-up insight into their behaviour and social organisation as well as allowing Rogers to explode myths about them. Contrary to popular belief, for example, he contends that the bears are not violent and do not like honey. PICTURES

AA Gill shot baboon 'to see what it would be like to kill someone'

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:23:56 -0700

Robert Booth | Oct 27

The Guardian - • Restaurant critic says he felt urge to be a primate killer
• Animal campaigners attack 'indefensible' action

Animal welfare groups voiced outrage today after the restaurant critic AA Gill said he shot a baboon on safari "to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone".

In a Sunday Times column, Gill recounted in detail how he shot the creature from 250 yards while hunting in "a truck full of guns and other blokes" in Tanzania. He said he felt the urge to be "a recreational primate killer" before shooting the animal through the lung.

"This is morally completely indefensible," said Steve Taylor, a spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports. "If he wants to know what it like to shoot a human, he should take aim at his own leg. When man interacts with animals he owes a duty of care. If you are killing to eat, that is a different matter. This is killing for fun".

Gill wrote: "I took him just below the armpit. He slumped and slid sideways. I'm told they can be tricky to shoot: they run up trees, hang on for grim life. They die hard, baboons. But not this one. A soft-nosed .357 blew his lungs out."

Claire Bass, wildlife manager at the World Society for the Protection of Animals: "It's hard to say what's sadder – the unnecessary death of a healthy baboon or that he has so little regard for the life of another creature. The vast majority of visitors to the Serengeti have a fantastic time shooting with cameras, not guns. We condemn the killing and the crude portrayal of it as 'entertainment' in Gill's column."

What an ass!

Epic humpback whale battle filmed

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:08:35 -0700

It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera.

A BBC natural history crew has filmed the "humpback whale heat run", where 15m long, 40 tonne male whales fight it out to mate with even larger females.

During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access.

The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

Must see video

YaY! I got penguins

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:31:11 -0700

Some of the German Antarctic Receiving Station (GARS) O’Higgins webcams are up and penguins have arrived. :)

The site link is here, scroll down to see which cameras are active. Their gallery is a treat too. Good thing I didn't rely on SP for penguins...

Kool for kats: The creatures that conquered the world

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:11:39 -0700

Oct 15

The Independent -

There has never been a better time to be a foot-tall, slender-tailed, pointy-nosed mongoose with an elevated outlook on life.

Britain has gone mad for these upstanding citizens of the Kalahari desert. Meerkats have burrowed into the public consciousness, colonising our billboards, cinemas and television screens. Their adorable faces, quizzical disposition and trademark posture make them seriously cute (and seriously attractive to marketing men) but the diminutive diggers' biggest fans say meerkat mania is about more than charm and charisma. They are the little guys with big hearts whose struggle for survival and fierce sense of family loyalty not only fascinates scientists and seduces film-makers, but also offers a model of duty and fortitude for us all. The mammals' greatest champions go further. They believe – and read on if this sounds crazy – that, in gloomy times, meerkats have a unique power to make us happy. In Germany, they call them erdmännchen, or "little earth people".

When did this madness begin? The meerkats' star has reached new heights but the animals first peered into our lives more than 20 years ago when David Attenborough introduced us to the curious creatures in the BBC documentary, Meerkats United. The film captivated a generation and has been voted the most popular nature documentary of all time.

You can watch David Attenborough's Meerkats United here

163 new species found in Asia

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:20:57 -0700

Andrew Buncombe | Sept 25

The Independent - A Cat Ba leopard gecko - AFP/Getty Images

A gecko with spots like a leopard and a fanged frog that preys on birds are among more than 160 new species that have been discovered along the Mekong River but which face the threat of extinction as a result of climate change.

Scientists in south-east Asia said that in 2008 they discovered 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region that spreads over Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand Laos and southern China.

Yet almost before they are fully documented, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) believes these new species could disappear because of the increased incidence of extreme weather linked to climate change. Floods, droughts and rising sea levels are all threats.

Axolotl verges on wild extinction

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:27:46 -0700

Aug 26

BBC -
(A captive albino axolotl displays its larval gills)

The amphibian that never grew up is on the verge of going extinct in the wild.

New survey work suggests that fewer than 1,200 Mexican axolotls remain in its last stronghold, the Xochimilco area of central Mexico.

The axolotl is a type of salamander that uniquely spends its whole life in its larval form.

Its odd lifestyle, features and ability to regenerate body parts make it a popular animal kept in labs, schools and as pets.

But in the wild, the future is bleak for this "Peter Pan" of animals.

Recent surveys suggest that between 700 and 1,200 axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) survive in six reduced and scattered areas within the Xochimilco area of the Mexican Central Valley.

One of these surveys found just a single axolotl in the whole study region.

Bee-eating Chinese hornets spread through France

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:32:53 -0700

Paris | Aug 18

Reuters -

France is facing an invasion of bee-eating Chinese hornets which could hasten the mysterious decline in the honey-bee population and threaten bee-keepers' livelihoods, researchers said on Tuesday.

Colonies of Asian hornets, or Vespa velutina, have spread rapidly in southwestern France, a region popular with tourists, and are likely to reach other European countries soon.

"More and more of them are coming and they're colonising France," Quentin Rome, a researcher at the National History Museum in Paris, told Reuters.

The three centimetre-long insects, recognisable by their orange heads and yellow feet, probably arrived in France on a boat carrying ceramic goods from China, researchers believe.

The first hornets were observed in France in 2004, and the most recent study recorded 1,100 nests across the country. The hornet is now firmly established near Bordeaux and has advanced as far north as parts of Brittany in northwestern France. (pic - Ouest France/AFP)

Aesop's fable? This one turns out to be true

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:24:10 -0700

Steve Connor | Aug 6

The Independent - Scientists re-enact tale of crow that managed to drink from half-full pitcher of water

One of Aesop's fables describing a thirsty crow which was able to drink from a half-full pitcher after raising the water level by adding pebbles may have had a basis in real life.

Scientists have found that rooks – a member of the crow family – were able to figure out how to raise the water level in a laboratory container by dropping stones inside to retrieve a tasty worm floating on the surface.

Four different rooks, called Cook, Fry, Connelly and Monroe, quickly discovered that they could raise the water level in a transparent container by adding stones, just like the mythical crow in the fable, which illustrates the virtue of ingenuity and how necessity is the mother of invention.

"We have performed a large number of studies on both corvids [members of the crow family] and apes, and have found that the crow's performance is on a par or often superior to apes. However, it is not particularly useful to say that one species is more or less intelligent than another because often the playing fields aren't even," said Nathan Emery of Queen Mary, University of London, who carried out the work with Christopher Bird at Cambridge.

"This [study] suggests that they can not only think through complex problems requiring the use of tools, but imagine the consequences of their actions without trial-and-error learning, and create novel solutions to these problems that have never been encountered before," Dr Emery said.

Rangers v rebels: fight to save rare gorillas

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:13:24 -0700

Daniel Howden | Aug 6

The Independent - A bloody battle is raging in Eastern Congo over the illegal charcoal trade that is killing the region's great apes

For the past week a remarkable battle has been raging in the mountain forests of Eastern Congo. Park rangers entrusted with protecting some of the world's most endangered gorillas have launched an offensive against the rebel armies in the area and the charcoal industry that helps to support them.

Specially trained wildlife officers, backed by UN troops, have attacked and destroyed hundreds of illegal charcoal kilns deep in the forests of Virunga National Park, in a bid to disrupt the environmentally devastating industry.

The $30m (£17.7m) trade helps fund the myriad armed groups who destabilise this region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and its perpetrators are unlikely to accept the counterattack. Speaking from his mountain base in Rumangabo, the park's director, Emmanuel de Merode, said his men were "braced for a violent reaction" to their strike.

Virunga, Africa's oldest national park, lies across the mountain chain that straddles the border between DRC, Rwanda and Uganda. It is home to the most important remaining population of mountain gorillas.

But the 7,800 sq km reserve is also surrounded by as many as one million people, who have been displaced by the nearly continual civil war that has ravaged North Kivu in the last two decades. The tremendous local demand for cheap fuel for heating and cooking has been exploited by armed groups, and in many cases rogue elements from the Congolese national army, who have profited from a protection racket that has shielded illegal loggers and charcoal kilns from the law.

The lucrative trade has pitted armed rebels against the 200 gorillas and their protectors in a battle for the forest, with often murderous consequences. In June and July of 2007, seven gorillas were slaughtered and the shocking pictures of a dead 500-pound silverback, named Senkwekwe, being carried on poles by grieving villagers sparked a global outcry.

Previous threads here

The killings were traced back to the corrupt circle protecting the charcoal trade, which produces 120,000 sacks of charred forest wood every month. Investigators found that rangers and their associates in the armed militias murdered the animals as a warning to their protectors not to interfere.

In addition to the great ape killings, more than 150 rangers have been murdered in the last 10 years in the five parks of Eastern DRC. The park authorities had been expelled from much of their own reserve for 18 months by one rebel army, the CNDP, until November last year.

Mr de Merode, a former anthropologist, said that it shouldn't be up to park authorities to fight armed militia but the destructive threat of the charcoal trade had left them with little choice. "It's not our job to fight the rebels, that's the army's job," he said. "Our job is to protect the park, but they are in the park and they are destroying it."

Whale saves drowning diver

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:02:43 -0700

Linda Stewart | July 30

Belfast Telegraph -

At first glance it looks like a vicious attack as a diver finds her leg clamped in the jaws of a beluga whale.

In fact, the animal was rescuing diver Yang Yun (26) as she floundered during a free diving competition in a tank more than 20ft deep at Polar Land in Harbin, North East China.

The diver made the plunge without diving equipment among the whales in a tank that had been chilled to Arctic temperatures but found her legs crippled by cramp from the freezing cold.

At this point Mila the beluga surged to the rescue, pushing the striken diver back to the surface.

Officials said the diver owed her life to Mila, who works closely with humans.

“We suddenly saw the girl being pushed to the top of the pool with her leg in Mila’s mouth,” one official said.

continued ...

Australia gets the hump – and reaches for the gun to settle its camel question

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:30:10 -0700

Roger Maynard | Sydney | July 27

The Independent -

Brought to the country as beasts of burden in 1840, today there are one million camels eating the outback

There are more than a million of them and they pose one of the greatest social and environmental challenges to Australia's outback.

They munch their way through desert vegetation, further denuding this arid nation's heartland and threatening its sensitive ecosystem. They damage Aboriginal communities in their search for water, fracturing pipes and knocking air conditioning units off walls. And their population is more than doubling every eight to nine years.

The camel – which was introduced to Australia in 1840 to help transport heavy goods to the remote interior of the country – has now become one of its greatest pests. Dealing with the alarming population growth of one-humped Camelus dromedarius has been vexing governments, conservation bodies and scientists for years.

Now the federal government is to set aside nearly £10m to address the problem, which will almost certainly be solved at the barrel of a gun.

One option being considered is a mass aerial shoot – which experts regard as the most effective and humane method of culling the animals.

Mystery of toucan's beak solved

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:06:18 -0700

Steve Connor | July 24

The Guardian -

Charles Darwin thought the toucan's oversized beak was a sexual lure for attracting potential mates, while some modern-day biologists suggested it was either for peeling fruit or to warn off territorial rivals. A new study has found, though, that the outrageously big structure helps to keep the bird cool in the heat of the tropical day.

The beak of the toco toucan – the largest member of the toucan family – accounts for about one-third of the bird's body length, which is larger than the beak of any other bird for its size. When the 18th-century French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc, the Compte de Buffon, first described the toucan he labelled its bill, "grossly monstrous".

Although no one has been able to come up with a satisfactory explanation of how the toucan acquired its beak, a team of scientists has been able to show that whatever purposes it may have originally served, it now helps to keep the bird cool, just like the oversized ears of the African elephant. BBC - Infrared Video

Watching Whales Watching Us

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:40:28 -0700

Charles Siebert | NYT

The suspicion of a causal relationship between whale strandings and either seismic tests or the use of new high-tech sonar tracking devices in military-training exercises had been mounting for some time. Similar coincidences had been noted off the coasts of Brazil, the Bahamas, the Galápagos Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Japan, as well as in the waters off Italy and Greece. Necropsies performed on a number of the whales revealed lesions about their brains and ears. The results of the examinations performed on the Canary Islands whales, however, added a whole other, darker dimension to the whale-stranding mystery. In addition to bleeding around the whales’ brains and ears, scientists found lesions in their livers, lungs and kidneys, as well as nitrogen bubbles in their organs and tissue, all classic symptoms of a sickness that scientists had naturally assumed whales would be immune to: the bends.