Elephant dies after 1,000-mile journey from India to Bangladesh

Conservation officials’ attempt to transport animal to safari park after it was separated from herd in floods in Assam fails

Agence France-Presse in Dhaka

Tuesday 16 August 201608.54 BST

Last modified on Tuesday 16 August 201609.07 BST

An elephant thought to have travelled at least 1,000 miles (1,600km) from India into Bangladesh after floods separated it from the herd has died, despite efforts to save it.

The distressed animal was tranquillised three times during repeated attempts to transport it to a safari park in Bangladesh, after the elephant crossed the border in late June.

It was eventually given large amounts of saline and chained in a paddy field to help it recover, but the animal was “too weak and tired” from the ordeal, officials said.

“It breathed its last at about 7am (0100 GMT),” the government’s chief wildlife conservator, Ashit Ranjan Paul, said.

“We have given our highest effort to save the animal. At least 10 forest rangers, vets and police officers have constantly followed it for the last 48 days. But our luck is bad.”

Paul said the animal is believed to have travelled more than 1,060 miles from Assam in north-east India after being separated from its herd in severe flooding.

The animal ran amok and charged into a pond after Bangladeshi forest officials hit it with a tranquilliser dart on Thursday. Local villagers jumped into the pond to prevent the four-tonne animal from drowning by stopping it toppling into the water.

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Beavers at work ... Devon dwellers reveal their flair for fighting floods

After a 400-year absence, the industrious rodents are back. On a river near Okehampton their reintroduction has led to biodiversity and cleaner water

Dan Glaister

Sunday 14 February 2016 00.04 GMTLast modified on Monday 15 February 201611.05 GMT

“Look at these teeth marks!” Professor Richard Brazier pauses, mud oozing over his Wellington boots, to admire the work of a pair of beavers who have been introduced into a patch of Devon woodland. “Just look at the size of them!” He runs his fingers along the incisions left in the exposed trunk of a recently toppled tree, before turning to survey the devastation around him.

The devastation is part of a scheme that backers hope will provide a template for a more balanced approach to flood prevention. The government is spending £3.2bn on flood management in the course of this parliament. As flood events such as those seen in Cumbria at the end of last year become more common, so attention has turned to flood management, with a call for resources to be allocated not to building flood defences to deal with the water when it arrives downstream but prevent it getting there at all.

The beavers resident on the three hectares of woodland near Okehampton in Devon could be part of the solution. In the five years since they moved there, they have toppled trees, gnawed bark, dug channels, constructed dams and made a rather impressive home for themselves.

“Prior to working with beavers we’d never really come across animals that would disrupt your work so much,” says Brazier, a hydrologist at the University of Exeter, as he surveys the tangle of branches and tree trunks.

But there is hope, too. New shoots are sprouting from the felled willows and a closer inspection reveals that beneath the devastation lies further evidence of new life promoted by the beavers’ work. “They are a keystone species who are obviously engineering the environment to their own benefit,” says Brazier. “But what’s interesting is all the other benefits.”

Continued ...

Native and non-native reptiles feeling the stress of Colorado floods – via Herp Digest

by Claire Martin Denver Post 9/28/13

As executive director of the Colorado Reptile Humane Society, Ann-Elizabeth Nash hears some odd stories, but the post-flood call that began "I've got this black and yellow lizard in our window well" topped most of them.

"I knew she was talking about a tiger salamander that was probably trying to get to higher ground and dropped into what was, for a tiger salamander, a pitfall trap," Nash said.

"We told her to leave it there, that it'd be fine. She said, 'Well, it's not just the one.' So she had four window wells, and one had 10 tiger salamanders, and the next one had eight plus a couple of toads. I was imagining tiger salamanders tromping up to her backyard: 'Please, give us dry land!' 

The call was one of dozens that Nash has received since the September floods began along the Front Range, a volume that more than doubled the normal monthly traffic to Nash's Colorado Reptile Humane Society.

Some calls were from people who didn't know what to do about the strange snake or turtle that showed up in their yard, or on nearby roads. Others were from people begging her to take the exotic pet reptiles that weren't allowed in shelters or temporary housing.

Since flooding began, Nash has taken in 11 wild reptiles and amphibians native to Colorado, including common snapping turtles, Western painted turtles, tiger salamanders, a red-eared slider and a couple of bull snakes.

She's also welcomed 15 reptile flood evacuee pets, exotic species from residents' homes, including leopard geckos, box turtles.

And she's fielded calls about dozens more.

The floodwaters washed native reptiles from their winter hibernation sites, said Tina Jackson, species conservation coordinator for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

"We do see reptile and amphibian migrations. Both groups hibernate, and they may have to move between summer habitats and winter/hibernation sites," Jackson said. Floods can interfere with migration patterns.

And Jackson was unsurprised by the report of tiger salamanders in window wells, where they often take refuge in times of stress.

Though turbulent waters washed both reptiles and amphibians away from their home ranges, aquatic creatures "probably appreciate the extra water," Jackson said. She expects that native wildlife will either find a new appropriate habitat or make their way back upstream.

"A box turtle lives in the same place, an area the size of five to 10 football fields, for its entire life. They just don't move successfully. They walk to find something familiar, and get hit by cars," she said. "If you pick up a box turtle you find in Nebraska and move it to Colorado, it's highly likely to die."

The red-eared slider, another rescue that's not a Colorado native, may have washed out of a backyard pond or tank. If nobody claims the red-eared slider, it will be put up for adoption, like other non-native reptiles that arrive at Colorado Reptile Humane Society.

"We've already released the snapping turtles, because we have lakes and ponds we can legally put them into, thanks to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, now that the water is down far enough to get to a release site," Nash said.

"The flood delayed some of our other releases, so we really had some wildlife backed up," Nash said. "We can take in reptiles that are flood evacuees, but we won't be able to take in more surrendered reptiles until sometime next month."

Snakes on a floodplain

Colorado Reptile Humane Society is taking in reptiles whose owners have been evacuated due to flooding, along with displaced wild reptiles

Crocodiles Infest Floods In Acapulco, Mexico

Devastating storms have left 80 people dead across Mexico, with residents in Acapulco facing looters and crocodile-infested floodwaters.

Hundreds of thousands of residents in the port city have begun returning to their homes, with many forced to wade through waist-high water.

Pictures showed residents battling with a crocodile, which was spotted thrashing its tail in floodwater in the city centre.

An official from Mexico's transport authority said it would take until Friday to clear the two key roads that connect the city with Mexico City.

Footage also showed widespread looting in the city.

Roads and bridges were destroyed outside Acapulco after tropical storm Manuel hit the Pacific coast of Mexico over the weekend, while Hurricane Ingrid battered the Gulf coast on Monday.

Manuel strengthened to a hurricane on Thursday as it moved northwards along the coastline, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.

It warned heavy rain from the storm will trigger further flash-flooding and mudslides in the states of Sinaloa, Nayarit and southern Baja in California.

Mexico's federal Civil Protection Co-ordinator Luis Felipe Puente said 35,000 homes had been damaged or destroyed.

Officials said there were at least 58 people missing after a landslide in mountains north of Acapulco late on Wednesday night.

Some 5,300 people were flown out of Acapulco on 49 flights on Wednesday, but an estimated 55,000 tourists remain stranded.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/crocodiles-infest-floods-acapulco-mexico-005410014.html#cPb3dMM

Salmon cross flooded road much to dog’s delight

In Mason County, Wash., the salmon aren't just swimming upstream—they're also swimming across the street. Due to heavy rains, local rivers are flooding and the confused fish are winding up in some strange places.

And that's just fine with at least one local dog. The pooch, who must be thinking that Christmas came early, wanders into the road, snags a salmon like he's at a lunch buffet and trots off down the road. No work necessary.

Of course, this sort of thing has happened before. Last year, KOMO, a Seattle news site, posted a clip of salmon struggling to cross a flooded road. Fortunately, those fish didn't have to deal with hungry dogs.

Video at:  http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/salmon-cross-flooded-road-much-dog-delight-174532713.html;_ylt=AgMkOtCv9Zt8J1QixSU8Llt4hMgF;_ylu=X3oDMTRhYTBpY2NqBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBTY2llbmNlU0YgQW5pbWFsUGV0c1NTRgRwa2cDZTYzMTc4OTUtOWJlMy0zYTVhLThkZjItOGFiZThlZWU0MDhhBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzM1MjM1NjU0LTI0NTMtMTFlMi1iOWZlLThmZGRlYWNhMTI3Yw--;_ylg=X3oDMTI0MmNvNGRoBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANzY2llbmNlfGFuaW1hbHNhbmRwZXRzBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

14 rhinos amongst hundreds of animals drowned in floods in India

More than 500 large mammals have drown in Kaziranga 
July 2012. Incessant rains are causing water levels on India's Bramhaputra River and her tributaries to rise and flood forests, farmlands and villages across northern India. Waters here have reached dangerous levels in Kaziranga National Park, which is home to tigers, elephants, one-horned rhinos and many other species.

As the water levels in Kaziranga rise, many animals are leaving the safety of Kaziranga, located in the floodplains, and move to safer higher ground. However to reach the higher ground, they have to cross a major road, and once there they are vulnerable to poaching. 

Many of the animals that have drowned are the young and the old, those that could not make the journey to the safety of the higher ground. 

Carcasses found
The carcasses found so far include; 14 were one-horned rhinos, an elephant, more than 500 deer, 30+ wild boars and 2 hog badgers.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/kaziranga-floods.html

Australian rescued after three-day croc ordeal

An Australian man has been rescued after a three-day ordeal trapped at a remote flooded fishing hut where he was stalked by four-metre crocodiles, a report said Friday.

Terry Donovan, 65, was at the Staaten River Fishing and Wilderness Lodge in crocodile-infested northern Queensland when he became isolated this week, the Cairns Post said.

He told the newspaper he saw huge saltwater crocs lurking in the waters, with one lunging at a wallaby sheltering on the hut's back deck.

Donovan said he was afraid that if the water rose much higher, one of the beasts could swim in and attack him.

"The first one I saw was sitting out the back on the veranda in about a foot of water, maybe a bit more," he said.

"I thought to myself, 'Well, there's a warning, there's a crocodile there. Where there's one, there's probably two or three or more'."

Donovan said a second crocodile placed itself underneath the house, after he spotted it through a window.

The report said he positioned himself in the highest place he could find, taking refuge on a billiard table which he packed with supplies.

"(The water) just kept going up and up and up, and it was just an inch or so above the nets where the balls are collected by the billiard table," he said.

"And I thought, 'Well, the next step is the roof, I'm out of here'."

Donovan was eventually spotted by a passing helicopter which had gone to check on him after he failed to answer his satellite phone. Officials then alerted a local fishermen who rescued him.

Saltwater crocodiles are a common feature of Australia's tropical north and kill an average of two people a year.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/australian-rescued-three-day-croc-ordeal-030037862.html