Woman was taking dog out when she was ‘charged by an adult female black bear’ and sustained non-life threatening injuries
A woman in Washington state survived a bear attack on Saturday after she punched the animal in the nose, an official said.
The woman, who has not been named, was taking her dog out in the town of Leavenworth, in the middle of the state, when she was “charged by an adult female black bear”, the Washington department of fish and wildlife said.
Continue reading...Video posted by Rebecca Clark shows her point of view as she tries to gingerly walk past bison during hike in Caprock Canyons park
A woman in Texas who recorded a cellphone video of herself surviving getting gored by a bison has admonished fellow hikers about the perils of too closely encountering such an immense animal.
Rebecca Clark was on a solo hike in Caprock Canyons park, home of Texas’s state bison herd, when she came across a group of the massive bovines grazing a few feet away from the trail.
Continue reading...Mountain lion sauntered up to Damon Ross and Cylin Busby’s driveway and had a lie in front of their home over the weekend
No matter how famous the mountain lion known as P-22 is in the Los Angeles area that is home to him, few people have gotten to see the big cat from a yard away.
But Los Feliz couple Damon Ross and Cylin Busby can now make that claim after the mountain lion sauntered up to their driveway and had a lie in front of their home over the weekend.
Continue reading...An assessment released Friday shows the population is down 38% from its peak in 2015 and 2016
US researchers say the number of gray whales off western North America has continued to dwindle during the last two years, a decline that resembles previous population swings over the past several decades but is still generating worry.
According to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries assessment released Friday, the most recent count put the population at 16,650 whales – down 38% from its peak during the 2015-16 period. The whales also produced the fewest calves since scientists began counting the births in 1994.
Continue reading...Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s new standards put pressure on the UK to extend its animal welfare laws to fisheries
One of the world’s leading organisations for farmed seafood is to introduce new welfare rules after accepting fish can feel “pain, stress and anxiety”.
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), which oversees a global certification scheme for farmed fish, is consulting on new draft welfare standards, including more humane slaughter practices. The ASC provides certification labelling for British supermarket fish, from sea bass to smoked salmon.
Continue reading...New Yorker accused of hiding large Burmese pythons in trousers while crossing from Canada in July could face 20-year sentence
A New York City man faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to smuggle three large snakes across the US-Canada border – in his pants.
Queens resident Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of hiding three Burmese pythons while on a bus crossing into the US at the Champlain port of entry in New York state on 15 July 2018, the Associated Press reported.
Continue reading...Scientists say behaviour, filmed in South Africa, has never been seen in detail before – and never from the air
Scientists have published findings confirming that orcas hunt great white sharks, after the marine mammal was captured on camera killing one of the world’s largest sea predators.
A pod of killer whales is seen chasing sharks during an hour-long pursuit off Mossel Bay, a port town in the southern Western Cape province, in helicopter and drone footage that informed a scientific study released this week.
Continue reading...Its enzymes degrade polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could ‘revolutionise’ recycling
Enzymes that rapidly break down plastic bags have been discovered in the saliva of wax worms, which are moth larvae that infest beehives.
The enzymes are the first reported to break down polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could lead to cost-effective ways of recycling the plastic.
Continue reading...British women beat 6,000 applicants to spend five months counting penguins and running post office on Goudier Island
It was one of the strangest of job alerts: a call to run the world’s most remote, coldest post office – on an island with no permanent residents – and count penguins in almost continuous daylight.
But bizarre or not, it struck a chord: 6,000 people applied for the four jobs on Goudier Island in Port Lockroy, and now the winners have been announced: a newlywed, who will leave her husband behind for what she is calling a “solo honeymoon” and three other British women, who are equally thrilled by the adventure ahead.
Continue reading...Poultry farmers from Arctic to Portugal reported 2,500 outbreaks in past year, with migrating birds taking avian flu to North America
The UK and continental Europe have been hit by an “unprecedented” number of cases of avian flu this summer, with 47.7m birds having been culled since last autumn, according to new figures.
Poultry producers from as far north as Norway’s Svalbard islands to southern Portugal have together reported almost 2,500 outbreaks of the disease since last year.
Continue reading...Burgundy insect farm ramps up production to offer a meat-free future
In a box-like building on an out-of-town industrial estate in Burgundy, trays of Alphitobius diaperinus – otherwise known as the lesser mealworm – are being fattened up by robots then cooked, dried and turned into protein-rich powder and oil.
This is the headquarters of Ÿnsect a French company that is building the world’s largest insect farm, to open at the end of the year in preparation for what the French company believes will be a large increase in demand for a healthy alternative to meat.
Continue reading...Man films fish ‘flopping around’ in neighbour’s garden but experts are split over identification
Photos and videos of sharks and other marine life swimming in suburban floodwaters make for popular hoaxes during heavy storms. But a mobile phone video filmed during Hurricane Ian’s assault on south-west Florida isn’t just another fishy story.
The video, which showed a large, dark fish with distinct dorsal fins thrashing around an inundated Fort Myers back yard, racked up more than 12m views on Twitter within a day, as users responded with disbelief and comparisons to the “Sharknado” film series.
Continue reading...Dozens arrested in operation as officials warn of resurgence in trafficking of endangered elvers
Spanish police have arrested 29 people after seizing 180kg of critically endangered young European eels with a value on the hidden market of €270,000 (£237,000).
The Guardia Civil said the operation, in collaboration with Europol, had also led to 20 arrests elsewhere in Europe.
Continue reading...Zoologists say they have never seen this low a number, after unprecedented hot weather
As dewy dawns break across the UK’s pumpkin patches and allotments, gardeners across the land are waking up to the absence of at least one slippery pest. Slug numbers appear to have shrivelled as a result of the ongoing drought.
“I went to survey a woodland site last week and it took me over 30 minutes to locate a slug. Usually, I would expect to find them under almost every log in that habitat,” said Jake Stone, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge. “I thought that there would be fewer around, but I’ve never seen this low a number. But I suppose that’s to be expected, because it’s rarely been this hot and dry.”
Continue reading...EU financial watchdog blames small fines and feeble controls in some states for amount of illegal seafood
Illegally fished seafood continues to end up on the plates of EU citizens due to weak controls and insignificant fines in some member states, auditors have found.
The European Union, the world’s largest importer of fishery products, requires member states to take action against fishing vessels and EU nationals engaged in illegal fishing activities anywhere in the world.
Continue reading...Ian Gowrie-Smith says he was frustrated the Australian government did not respond to urgent funding request for turtle conservation
The owner of 21 tropical islands off the coast of Papua New Guinea says he never threatened to sell them to China and his main aim is to save the turtles that nest there.
Ian Gowrie-Smith, an Australian businessman and investor, bought the Conflict Islands, which lie less than 1,000km from the Australian coast, almost two decades ago.
Continue reading...Researchers think they may have solved enduring mystery of where Typhloesus wellsi sits on tree of life
The mystery of a bizarre creature dubbed the “alien goldfish”, which has baffled fossil experts for decades, may have been solved, according to scientists who say the animal appears to have been some sort of mollusc.
Typhloesus wellsi lived about 330m years ago and was discovered in the Bear Gulch Limestone fossil site in Montana in the late 1960s, with the remains of other species subsequently identified.
Continue reading...Scientists used satellite images and more than 300,000 volunteers to count Weddell seals, a key Southern Ocean indicator species
Researchers believe they have accurately estimated Antarctica’s Weddell seal population for the first time – using images from space and the eyes of hundreds of thousands of citizen scientists.
Weddell seals are a key indicator species in the Southern Ocean, for both sea ice fluctuations and shifts in the food web. They can live up to 30 years in the harsh conditions of the coastal sea ice of Antarctica, but until recently, counting them has been risky and cost-prohibitive.
Continue reading...With stealth followed by speedy acrobatics, Euryopis umbilicata can successfully catch banded sugar ants twice its size
A mid-air cartwheel, the judicious use of sticky silk and a quick rappel down a tree, all in the blink of an eye: researchers have identified how the Australian ant-slayer spider captures prey twice its size.
The acrobatic behaviour of the Australian ant-slayer spider, Euryopis umbilicata, as it hunts and eats banded sugar ants has been documented by scientists for the first time.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Strict no-take policies urged by scientists, who note there is less protection in 59% of marine protected areas than outside MPAs
The waters of the EU are in a “dismal” state, with only a third of fish populations studied in the north-east Atlantic considered to be in good condition, according to more than 200 scientists and conservationists.
The analysis, issued on Monday, follows a scathing report from the European court of auditors two years ago, which warned that the EU had failed to halt marine biodiversity loss in Europe’s waters and to restore fishing to sustainable levels.
Continue reading...