National Trust rangers brace for second year of mass deaths on islands off Northumberland coast
A group of islands that make up one of the UK’s most important bird sanctuaries are to remain closed after new cases of avian flu were detected.
The disease devastated the seabird population of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, last year and National Trust rangers expect thousands more deaths this year.
Continue reading...Tributes pour in for Freeway, who was named after his rescue from a busy freeway last year
Freeway, the beloved Californian rescue sea lion that would roam around San Diego, has died, SeaWorld San Diego has announced.
“It is with heavy hearts that we share ‘Freeway’, the rescued sea lion, passed away yesterday – surrounded with love from his devoted care and rescue teams. His adventurous spirit won the hearts of all San Diegans and he will be remembered for that and so much more,” the park said in a Facebook post on Friday.
Continue reading...Emergency veterinarians in Philadelphia save dog’s life after suspected accidental drug overdose
A poodle in Pennsylvania called Toodles was successfully revived with Narcan after an apparent accidental drug overdose, local animal welfare experts said.
The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said they received a call last week from Blue Pearl Emergency Animal Hospital in Philadelphia saying a dog was brought to them showing symptoms of an overdose.
Continue reading...South Carolina retirement community’s failure to ‘ensure against natural hazards’ led to death of Nancy Becker, 88, suit claims
The family of an 88-year-old South Carolina woman killed by an alligator in a lagoon near her home sued the owners and managers of her retirement community, alleging “manmade ponds and ponding basins” drew the animal to the area.
The lawsuit says Nancy Becker “endured excruciating pain and suffering, including severed limbs”, the Washington Post reported.
Continue reading...Marine mammals typically sleep in 10-minute bursts during deep, 30-minute dives to avoid predators, scientists believe
Seals dozing on the beach may appear to be enjoying the ultimate life of leisure. However, groundbreaking research has revealed that for most of their lives elephant seals sleep just two hours daily in a series of short naps while performing deep dives.
The findings, revealed in the first study to record brain activity in a free-ranging, wild marine mammal, show that during the months they spend at sea, elephant seals rival the record for the least sleep among all mammals, currently held by African elephants. The seals were found to typically sleep in 10-minute bursts during deep, 30-minute dives, often spiralling downwards while dreaming, and occasionally lying down for a nap on the seafloor.
Continue reading...Griffith University researcher captures video of five whales doing ‘bizarre rolls’ on the sea floor as they exfoliate and socialise
Whales have been caught on camera enjoying a marine version of a day spa, returning to their favourite spot off the Gold Coast to scratch off itchy skin and parasites, and catch up with their cetacean buddies.
Griffith University whale researcher Dr Olaf Meynecke and his colleagues were trying to shed light on the behaviour of competing pods of humpbacks that use Gold Coast waters to rest, breed and socialise.
Continue reading...Officials announce 45-day ban on harvesting elvers in provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
Canada has temporarily shut down its baby eel fishery following a string of attacks on harvesters, as well as mounting concerns over widespread poaching of the threatened fish.
Officials from the department of fisheries and oceans on Saturday announced a 45-day ban on harvesting the young eels, called elvers, in the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, shuttering the lucrative C$50m (£30m) market.
Continue reading...Boy sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries when set upon by the dingo on Friday night at a campground in Karijini national park
A mother has been praised for her bravery after she fought off a dingo that attacked her two-year-old son at a remote Western Australia national park.
The boy sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries when set upon by the dingo about 7pm on Friday at Dales Campground in Karijini national park.
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Continue reading...Animal rights group Animal Aid says change needed after ‘brutal horrors’ at Aintree as three horses die during festival
Animal rights campaigners have called for jump racing to be banned and “much more stringent” safety measures put in place for the sport after three horses died at the 175th annual Grand National festival.
The third fatality, Hill Sixteen, is said to have suffered a broken neck at the first fence at the Aintree racecourse in Liverpool before being put down.
Continue reading...Animal rights groups appealing against decision to kill bear after death of Andrea Papi
A court in the north Italian province of Trentino has suspended an order to put down a 17-year-old female bear that killed a man while he was jogging in the woods.
Andrea Papi, who died on 7 April and whose funeral was held on Wednesday, was the first person in Italy in modern times to be killed in a bear attack.
Continue reading...Number of house sparrows spotted has dropped by nearly 60% since 1979, according to RSPB annual survey
House sparrows are the most spotted bird in UK gardens for the 20th year in a row, according to new data. This comes despite the decline of the bird’s population, with nearly 22 million house sparrows lost from the country since 1966.
Roughly 1.5 million house sparrows were spotted in gardens between 27 and 29 January this year, according to people who took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, the garden wildlife survey conducted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
Continue reading...Firefighters rescued one employee from the fire at South Fork Dairy family farm near Dimmitt
More than 18,000 cows died after an explosion and fire at a family dairy farm in west Texas, marking the deadliest such barn blaze on record in the United States.
Firefighters rescued one employee from the South Fork Dairy near Dimmitt on Monday as flames raced through a building and into holding pens, according to images and statements from the Castro county sheriff’s office.
Continue reading...Nanuq, a one-year-old Australian shepherd, disappeared from a family trip and went on an adventure across the Bering Sea
A one-year-old Australian shepherd took an epic trek across 150 miles (241km) of frozen Bering Sea ice that included being bitten by a seal or polar bear before he was safely returned to his home in Alaska.
Mandy Iworrigan, Nanuq’s owner who lives in Gambell, Alaska, and her family were visiting Savoonga, another St Lawrence Island community in the Bering strait, last month when Nanuq disappeared with their other family dog, Starlight, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Continue reading...Dead creature was one of 150 descendants of four hippos imported by drug baron Pablo Escobar in 1980s
Colombia has logged its first hippopotamus-caused road traffic accident after a car crashed into one of the animals at high speed, leaving the vehicle mangled and the two-tonne mammal lying lifeless and bloodied across a highway.
The hippo was declared dead soon after the crash on Tuesday night in the municipality of Doradal on a highway connecting the cities of Bogotá and Medellín, local environmental authorities said.
Continue reading...Pearl is shorter than the standard television remote and about as long as a dollar bill, Guinness World Records says
What do you call a chihuahua dog that’s shorter than a popsicle stick and can fit in your pocket? The planet’s shortest living dog, Guinness World Records has announced.
Pearl qualified for the title after a veterinarian at the Crystal Creek animal hospital in Orlando, Florida, where she was born, used a special dog-measuring wicket to determine she was just under 3.6in (9.14cm) tall and 5in (12.7cm) long. Those dimensions mean she is shorter than the standard television remote and about as long as a dollar bill, Guinness said in a statement.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘Everyone told me it would never work’, says professor of nanomedicine, but science needs alternatives to experimenting on animals
Professor of nanomedicine Wojciech Chrzanowski finds it “heartbreaking” to recall some of his early scientific work, where research involving animal testing was inevitable.
“The moment you start working in a lab, and have to start squeezing and cutting animals, you feel sorry for them,” Chrzanowski said.
Continue reading...Two dogs seized by council from a Woodridge property after the child sustained significant abdominal, chest and shoulder injuries
A six-year-old girl is in a serious condition in hospital after being mauled by a dog south of Brisbane over the Easter long weekend.
Police and paramedics were called to a house in Woodridge just after 4.30pm on Monday after reports a girl had sustained multiple bites from a large dog.
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Continue reading...Eight-week-old beige pup with one blue and one brown eye tossed out of moving vehicle in designer bag ‘miraculously’ OK
A puppy that was thrown out of a moving pickup truck in Los Angeles during a high-speed police chase “miraculously” survived, according to authorities.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Los Angeles police department announced that on 7 April, at about 12.10pm in a south-east part of the city, officers started a car chase in pursuit of a suspect who was wanted in connection to an attempted murder and carjacking which occurred on 26 March.
Continue reading...Distressed mammal was reported at lunchtime on Friday, but marine rescue service arrived too late to save it
A sperm whale is feared to have died after it washed up on the Lincolnshire coast.
British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) was called at about 12.15pm on Good Friday to help with a “large stranded whale” on the beach at Cleethorpes. The charity said the whale had been spotted “upright in the water” at about midday, but by the time it reached the beach, it was stranded on its side.
Continue reading...New rules require Britain’s rare canaries to be tested for five diseases before they can travel between UK and EU
Cute fluffy yellow plumes may be synonymous with Easter, but bird hobbyists have warned that a rare canary species bred for centuries in Britain may become a thing of the past because of Brexit.
Access to the birds, particularly in the Netherlands and Belgium where canary and budgie breeding is also popular, has been lethally impeded by new rules. Each bird now has to be tested and certified for five diseases before it can travel between the UK and the EU.
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