Huge 4.33-metre crocodile captured after taking livestock from NT cattle station

Northern Territory police use a cage, rope and gaffer tape to trap the reptile amid fears that it could pose a danger to people

Thursday 1 September 2016 02.45 BSTLast modified on Thursday 1 September 201604.22 BST

A huge crocodile has been captured after taking livestock from a cattle station in the Northern Territory.

Locals in the Douglas Daly region south of Darwin reported that the 4.33-metre reptile had been preying on animals and police acted amid fears that it could pose a danger to people.

 “It was causing a ruckus and was a danger to people in the area,” Matt Phillips from the NT police told the ABC.

Video released by NT police show officers assisted by the territory’s veteran crocodile catcher Tommy Nichols trapping the animal in a waterhole and then snaring its jaws with a rope.

They then haul it out of the trap and on to the land and use gaffer tape to keep the jaws closed before tying it down on the back of a trailer. It was later taken to a breeding farm in Darwin.

“It was a bit of an unorthodox extraction from the cage due the situation where it was in a water hole with limited access,” said Remote Sergeant Mark Berry. “He got a little bit away from us, but we ended up getting hold of him.”

Police said the trap would remain in the waterhole because another crocodile was still believed to be lurking in the waters. The owners of the property told police they believed it was even larger than the captured crocodile.

Source 

Geckos resistant to antibiotics, may pose risk to pet owners, study finds

Date:

May 14, 2015

Source:

University of Georgia

Summary:

Tokay geckos harbor bacteria that are resistant to a number of antibiotics, making them a health concern for pet owners, according to a study on geckos imported from Indonesia. The research focused on how the geckos respond to antibiotics; the study found that the bacteria from the geckos' intestines--known as enteric bacteria--were resistant to the antibiotics.

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Avian influenza virus isolated in harbor seals poses a threat to humans

Date:

September 4, 2014

Source:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Summary:

The avian influenza A H3N8 virus that killed harbor seals along the New England coast can spread through respiratory droplets and poses a threat to humans, scientists have found. The findings reinforce the need for continued surveillance of flu viruses circulating in wild and domestic animals to understand the risk the viruses pose to humans, said the study's first author.

Continued ...

Jellyfish surge in Mediterranean threatens environment – and tourists

A project is tracking the phenomenon as global warming and overfishing boost numbers of the venomous sea creature

Scientists across the Mediterranean say a surge in the number of jellyfish this year threatens not just the biodiversity of one of the world's most overfished seas but also the health of tens of thousands of summer tourists.

"I flew along a 300km stretch of coastline on 21 April and saw millions of jellyfish," said Professor Stefano Piraino of Salento University in southern Italy. Piraino is the head of a Mediterranean-wide project to track the rise in the number of jellyfish as global warming and overfishing clear the way for them to prosper.

"Citizen scientists" armed with smartphones and a special app are now tracking them along thousands of miles of Mediterranean coastline. Population growth has continued over the four years of the project, and appears to be part of a global phenomenon, with most coastal areas studied around the world also reporting a rise in numbers.

"There are now beaches on the island of Lampedusa, which receives 300,000 tourists a year, where people can only swim for a week in the summer," said Piraino.

Josep María Gili, a veteran jellyfish researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, said: "It is a growing problem in the Mediterranean, as it is in the rest of the world. But the problem is at its greatest in the open sea."

The institute has detected a surge this spring in one of the most poisonous species, the mauve stinger or Pelagia noctiluca, along the coast of Catalonia and Valencia. "We have seen banks several kilometres long and with a density of 30 to 40 jellyfish per square metre," the institute's Verónica Fuentes told Spain's ABC newspaper. "The ones we have found this spring are particularly big."

Gili said this was mostly surprising because the mauve stingers were close to beaches. "Normally, that size of jellyfish does not reach the coast because of the temperature of the water," he said.

Other badly hit coastlines include Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and the eastern Mediterranean beaches of Israel and the Lebanon.

Piraino said at least 150,000 people were treated for jellyfish stings around the Mediterranean each summer.

Continued

The sea as a rubbish tip – Microplastic being absorbed by marine life

Biologists prepare guidelines for a more precise investigation into marine pollution from microplastic particles

April 2012. Large quantities of globally produced plastics end up in the oceans where they represent a growing risk. Above all very small objects, so-called microplastic particles, are endangering the lives of the many sea creatures. An estimate of how greatly the oceans are polluted with microplastic particles has so far failed in the absence of globally comparable methods of investigation and data. Together with British and Chilean colleagues, scientists of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association have now analysed all published studies on this topic and have proposed standardised guidelines for the recording and characterisation of microplastic particles in the sea.

Tiny pieces of plastic
Plastic bottles washed on to the beach are as much a part of the coast as the sound of seagulls. What the eye does not see are the innumerable ultra-small plastic objects which float in the water, are washed on to the beach or settle on the sea bed. Scientists refer to these plastic particles as "microplastic particles", understanding these to mean plastic objects whose diameter is less than five millimetres - whereby the majority of microplastic particles are smaller than a grain of sand or the tip of a needle.

It is this property that also makes them so dangerous to the sea dwellers. "Microplastic particles are swallowed by organisms and absorbed via the digestive tract. It has been possible, for example, to detect them in the tissue of mussels or other animals", says Dr. Lars Gutow, biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association. Toxic substances also attach to the small particles in the sea which then enter the food chain in this way and may therefore ultimately be dangerous to humans.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/ocean-plastic.html

Killer stray dogs put Bulgaria on edge

Sprawling in the sun or barking and chasing cars, stray dogs have become part of urban life in Bulgaria but after a pack mauled a US university professor to death, the mood of tolerance is over.

The 87-year-old man, who chose to spend his retirement in his native Bulgaria, was attacked in a Sofia street late last month by some 25 dogs who knocked him to the ground, tore at his face and bit his legs and arms to the bone.

He died in intensive care 10 days later, prompting the government to suggest a large-scale euthanasia programme for aggressive animals and construction of emergency shelters to remove other strays from the street.

Rights groups struck back, accusing authorities of weak control over pet owners who do not register their animals and often abandon them or their litters on the streets.

"This spring there are about 1,000 more stray dogs than last year," said Aksinia Bosneva of the "Care For the Stray Dogs" non-governmental animal rights group.

She also blamed corrupt practices when it comes to castrating dogs.

"Some dogs are only partially neutered so that castration squads can return and get double money. Dogs already neutered are captured twice and workers get paid for something already done," Bosneva charged.

For Lolita Radeva, head of the Sofia municipal council's environmental committee, the economic crisis has made things worse.

"The current economic crisis has forced people to increasingly abandon their pets. Many dogs were also let go from abandoned construction yards they used to guard," Radeva said.

She put the total number of stray dogs roaming the capital, which counts two million people, at about 9,500.

A new city hall programme aims to halve this number within two years and get rid of all the animals by 2016.

Current legislation only allows authorities to put down sick and aggressive animals, while others must be neutered and returned to the streets.

Continued:  http://news.yahoo.com/killer-stray-dogs-put-bulgaria-edge-113920376.html;_ylt=AnNoKSPIFpHb5VNFA4SGx3B4hMgF;_ylu=X3oDMTRhYWlzYTYyBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBTY2llbmNlU0YgQW5pbWFsUGV0c1NTRgRwa2cDZWRmZmI5NjUtNTgwMC0zYmI4LThhMzItNWRiODBkOWZkZGJiBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyA2E3NWZmZTIwLTg2MmEtMTFlMS1iZGY5LWI4NmM2OGY3NDM4ZA--;_ylg=X3oDMTFrM25vcXFyBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnMEdGVzdAM-;_ylv=3