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Posted: 14-04-2013 22:49 Post subject:

Deer alert as plane tries to land

A Ryanair passenger jet was instructed to pull out of its landing at Glasgow Prestwick airport because a deer had been spotted on the airfield.
A spokesman for the Ayrshire airport said the crew of the plane, which had flown from Faro in Portugal, were ordered to perform "a go-around".
He said the aircraft landed safely shortly after the incident at 11:00.
The spokesman said the airport was investigating how the deer had got in to the "vicinity of the airfield".

Sandra Bell, from Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, told BBC Scotland: "We were almost down. We were coming over the last farm when we pulled back up again.
"I am not a good flyer and I found it quite shocking.
"Everybody was looking at one another, wondering what was going on."
She said it was only when they came around to land again that the passengers were informed of what had happened.

The flight landed safely and there were no injuries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22144243

Posted: 14-04-2013 23:57 Post subject:

Ryanair informed passangers that the extra deer would cost them only a £10 surcharge. Confused

Posted: 15-04-2013 00:34 Post subject:

With hindsight I reckon they could have organised a stage party. Doe deer hart probably wasn't in it.

Posted: 15-04-2013 07:50 Post subject:

Nesting falcon hits Vodafone customers in Southampton

A mobile phone transmitter in Southampton has been switched off because a peregrine falcon is nesting there.
Vodafone switched off their transmitter on 9 April, leaving many customers without a signal, after the female bird was discovered there.
The phone company said it could not legally access the mast until any chicks had fledged, possibly in June.
Peregrine falcons are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
The nest's location cannot be revealed.

Mobile phone users left without signal have criticised the speed of Vodafone's response.
Elizabeth Corbett said: "I understand the nesting birds are out of their control but their reaction to it has been extremely slow."

A Vodafone spokesman said the company was being "very careful" in dealing with the protected species.
"We're already looking at alternative contingency plans and we'll inform our customers as soon as we can.
"While this is inconvenient for our customers, it is great news that the falcons are nesting in the city."

There are about 1,400 breeding pairs of the birds in the UK. They normally favour rocky cliff tops to make their nests.
Michelle Hawkins of Natural England said: "If anybody disturbs them during their breeding season, therefore threatening to stop their natural breeding, it is an offence which could lead to a prison sentence."
She added that in "exceptional circumstances" a licence could be applied for to disturb a bird.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-22144488

Posted: 18-04-2013 07:52 Post subject:

Lost sheep 'survive 23 days trapped in heavy snow' in NI
By Mark Simpson, BBC Ireland Correspondent

Two sheep trapped in snow in Northern Ireland since the spring blizzard over three weeks ago have been found alive.
They survived in an air pocket in a ditch covered in 6ft (1.8m) of snow. They spent 23 days without food in freezing conditions in the north Antrim hills.
Farmer Sam Wallace said it was a "miracle" they were still alive.

As the thaw began, the Blackface rams had access to water and there are signs they started to eat each other's wool.
The rams, each worth more than £1,000, were trapped in a ditch beside a stone wall in hills near Slemish mountain. Another ram was with them but died.

The Wallace family farm was one of 790 farms caught up in the snow blizzard that led to the deaths of more than 20,000 sheep last month.
Mr Wallace and his son, Graham, presumed their rams were among the dead until a neighbour, Richard Jolly, spotted them earlier this week while out walking his dog.

Graham said: "I couldn't believe it. When we got to them they weren't in great condition, understandably.
"It was hard to know what to do. They had faced starvation for three weeks. We let nature take its course and just let them roam.
"If we had pampered them they would have died - they couldn't have handled a big meal."

At first, Graham did not believe the sheep could have survived in the snow for so long.
"I had to see it to believe it," he said.
"It was great to see them alive. It gives you a bit of hope when something lives, given what farmers have been through in this area."

His father, Sam, said the stone wall created air pockets below the snow that helped the rams to survive.
But he added: "At the end of the day it was a miracle. You hear in the scriptures about miracles.
"There are still miracles today - and this was definitely one of them. It was amazing to see them still alive."

It will take the sheep some time to fully recover but they are back in the field with the rest of the flock, and gradually regaining weight.
They may no longer have the same spring in their step, but in the words of one local farmer, the once-lost sheep have a whole new fleece of life. Cool

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-22191343

Posted: 20-04-2013 23:15 Post subject:

Posted: 04-06-2013 09:37 Post subject:

Nature red in tooth and claw...

Original male Cornish chough killed by love rival
7:14pm Monday 3rd June 2013 in News .

One of the original pair of Cornish choughs that are responsible for helping repopulate the county with the iconic birds has died after being seen 'locked in combat' with a suspected love rival.
He was part of a pair that raised 44 chicks at the Lizard since 2001.

In 2001 choughs returned to Cornwall after a long absence. They were not re-introduced, but wild birds from southern Ireland looking for a new home. Three birds settled on the Lizard, a pair bred and since then the chough population has gone from strength to strength - in 2012 five pairs fledged 18 young, a record year.

The Cornish Choughs said: "We are very sad to have to report the loss of our wonderful male chough from Southerly Point on the Lizard. Just over a week ago a volunteer witnessed two choughs locked in combat for the most part of the day, and it appears that a younger bird has ousted and probably killed the older male.

"We always joke "they will live forever’" when people ask how long the pair at Southerly Point will be around, but sadly choughs are not invincible and nature in all its rawness has won the day. An end of an era, and the loss of a very special bird.

"What a legacy that chough and his mate have left Cornwall with though. Since they returned in 2001 they have brought so much joy to those lucky enough to spend time with them and a real sense of Cornish pride enveloped them. The pair together raised 44 chicks and many of those birds have gone on to breed themselves, securing a future for choughs in Cornwall.

The Cornish Chough project said the new male, a bird often seen in the company of the Lizard pair, has adopted the old male’s chicks.
As normally a bird would try to kill any chicks that were not his, this is new "extraordinary" behaviour has possibly not previously [been] recorded for choughs.

The project staff say that the female, having invested so much time and energy in her new brood has accepted this new male and together they are feeding her two chicks, which are around two weeks old.

The project has already seen chough fledglings this summer, with five youngsters already taking to the skies. The crazy weather has affected the breeding season with six weeks between first and last broods and the last chicks not set to fledge until early July.

The total number of young for this season is 16, two broods of five, and three broods of two. There are a further three pairs of choughs that have shown signs of breeding but they are too young this year.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/10460587.Original_male_Cornish_chough_killed_by_love_rival/?ref=mr

Posted: 05-06-2013 23:28 Post subject:

Dog Treads Water for 24 Hours After Plunging Down Mineshaft
Posted 4:15pm 4th June 2013.

A dog has been forced to tread water for 24 hours after plunging down an old Cornish mineshaft.
Maddie the Rottweiler disappeared during a walk at Carnkie near Redruth.
She had plunged into the flooded eighty foot hole, disguised by scrub and bushes.

Despite a frantic search, owner Nick Lake was forced to go home and spend a sleepless night worrying.
He returned to the site the following day and heard Maddie's faint whimpering. Nick said: "Everytime I shouted down I got a response but it wasn't the noise of a dog. It was moaning and splashing about."

A team of nineteen firefighters managed to rescue her by lowering a cargo net down the hole to winch up the 45kg dog.
Nick told Pirate FM: "She just looked totally out of it - comatose. We were all round her giving her warmth because every limb was like a block of ice.
"When she got up she was like a newborn lamb. She was all wobbly and all over the place.
"People find it hard to believe - but she had no choice. The pit was flooded and she had to swim."

Maddie was taken home to the pub which Nick runs to warm up in front of the fire. Nick added: "She made it to the bar to get her chew."

Now he is warning other dog owners to beware of open mineshafts when they are walking their pets.

http://www.piratefm.co.uk/news/latest-news/987417/dog-treads-water-for-24-hours-after-plunging-down-mineshaft/

Posted: 12-06-2013 07:53 Post subject:

Gannets respect their neighbour's fishing grounds thanks to 'cultural differences' Exeter University research reveals
Monday, June 10, 2013 Western Morning News

Colonies of gannets maintain vast exclusive fishing ranges despite doing nothing to defend their territory from rival colonies, scientists have discovered.

A team of researchers led by the University of Exeter and the University of Leeds observed that northern gannets, which can fly hundreds of kilometres on a single fishing trip, avoided visiting the fishing grounds of gannets from neighbouring colonies.

The findings, published in the journal Science, could transform our understanding of animals' foraging patterns because individual gannets do nothing to enforce this territory or communicate its boundaries when out at sea. A bird entering from a neighbouring colony would be free to fly and fish unhindered.

Researchers from more than 14 institutions in the UK, Ireland and France tracked the flights of nearly 200 northern gannets flying from 12 colonies around the British Isles.

Rather than seeing criss-crossing flight paths as the birds headed out from their colonies, they found themselves plotting a strictly segregated map. The most striking example was seen off the west coast of Ireland where gannets from two colonies, Bull Rock and Little Skellig, are within sight of each other yet head off in different directions.

The explanation has nothing to do with territorial behaviour, but instead seems to be a matter of mathematics reinforced by the culture of colonies.

Dr Thomas Bodey, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter and joint-lead author of the study, said: "Gannets get their chance when shoals of fish are forced to the surface, often by predatory whales and dolphins, but when the gannets start plunging into the water and feeding on a shoal, the fish start diving. You have to be one of the first gannets to get there and that is where the maths comes in: if you go into an area that is being used by birds from a closer colony, there is a higher chance that individuals from that colony will be there first.

The same applies when waste is being thrown off the backs off trawlers, another key feeding opportunity for gannets. Cultural transmission within the colonies then seems to reinforce the geographical calculus.

"Gannets readily follow each other when at sea. Finding such separation between colonies, even when visible from each other, indicates that competition for food cannot be the only explanation and suggests cultural differences between colonies may be important. As with humans, birds have favoured routes to travel, and if new arrivals at a colony follow experienced old hands then these patterns can quickly become fixed, even if other opportunities potentially exist," Dr Bodey said.

The northern gannet is Europe's largest seabird, with a wingspan of around 2m, and nests on steep cliffs and rocky islands. Attaching the matchbox-sized satellite transmitters and GPS loggers used to track the birds was sometimes a major challenge. At the biggest mainland UK colony at Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire, a military abseiling team from the Joint Services Mountain Training Wing was called in to help.

Professor Stuart Bearhop, Professor of Animal Ecology at the University of Exeter, said: "We understand an awful lot about what these seabirds do on land, but until recently we knew shockingly little about what they do at sea. The technology is now allowing us to leave the coast with them and we are discovering more and more of these amazing and unexpected patterns."

The UK supports between 60 -70 per cent of the world's northern gannets and the discovery that colonies depend on particular sea areas has implications for the location of marine protected areas and offshore energy development. The research also has wide ranging implications for our understanding of animal behaviour.

Co-author Dr Keith Hamer, Reader in Animal Ecology in the University of Leeds' Faculty of Biological Sciences, said: "How many other species that we assumed would not show segregation actually do? There is no reason to believe that gannets are unique."

Read more: http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Gannets-respect-neighbour-s-fishing-grounds/story-19239803-detail/story.html#ixzz2VyxQNmzH

Posted: 14-06-2013 10:21 Post subject:

Horizon: The Secret Life of the Cat, BBC Two, review
Sarah Rainey reviews The Secret Life of the Cat, an investigation by BBC Two's Horizon strand into what cats get up to when they are away from their owners.
By Sarah Rainey
10:05PM BST 13 Jun 2013

Ever wondered what your pet gets up to outside the cat flap? Horizon: The Secret Life of the Cat (BBC Two) had all the answers. Fifty felines in the Surrey village of Shamley Green were tagged with GPS trackers and “cat cams” to monitor what they did when their owners were asleep. The results were unsurprising – hunting, fighting, eating and a lot of sleeping – but this cleverly crafted project elevated the humble pet into a wildcat worthy of a wildlife documentary.

Filmed like Big Brother, it featured night-vision cameras and a “Day One” style voiceover. The cosy chats with the cats’ owners, over mugs of tea with cutesy kids in the background, were clearly staged, but helped draw us into this friendly, cat-obsessed community.

John Bradshaw and Sarah Ellis, the “cat scientists”, added gravitas, as did Professor Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College, who analysed everything from the animals’ night-time jaunts to the pitch of their purrs. We learnt that cats first became pets 9,000 years ago, when they worked as rat-catchers on farms, and that even now they are only ever partially tame – a chilling thought for those who snuggle up next to Tiddles in bed each night.

The cats were very much the focus of the programme: we didn’t learn their owners’ names. Instead, we met Ginger, who repeatedly snuck into his neighbour’s garden at 4am to fight the resident cat. Phoebe and Kato worked out a “timeshare” of their territory so they were never patrolling at the same time. There was Claude, who crept into a stranger’s house each night to steal food; and Molly, who travelled two hours from home to hunt from a birds’ nest in a wood.

I can’t help but wonder how long the crew spent crouched in alleyways and on doorsteps to get the necessary shots, but the resulting footage was worth it – fluffy, fabulous felines prowling around their ’hood. The programme combined a serious scientific study (data about the cats’ eating habits, territorial instincts and maps of their nocturnal adventures) with poking fun at our pompous pets.

Confession time: I don’t own a cat. In fact, I don’t even like them. But I loved this, even if it did make me feel somewhat unsettled. “Owners are often left with the uncomfortable feeling their cat is in charge,” we were told. Looking at the participants, their huge yellow eyes staring nonchalantly out of my TV screen, I couldn’t shift the sinister suspicion that they were the ones watching us – not the other way around. You’ll never look at Kitty the same way again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10119630/Horizon-The-Secret-Life-of-the-Cat-BBC-Two-review.html

It's on iPlayer:

Horizon - 2012-2013 - 12. The Secret Life of the Cat

Horizon discovers what your cat really gets up to when it leaves the cat flap.

In a groundbreaking experiment, 50 cats from a village in Surrey are tagged with GPS collars and their every movement is recorded, day and night, as they hunt in our backyards and patrol the garden fences and hedgerows.

Cats are fitted with specially developed cat-cams which reveal their unique view of our world. You may think you understand your pet, but their secret life is more surprising than we thought

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b02xcvhw/Horizon_20122013_The_Secret_Life_of_the_Cat/

Available until
9:59PM Wed, 17 Jul 2013

Posted: 14-06-2013 21:55 Post subject:

This is an interesting project, IMO. I agree with the statement about cats being in charge. I just wish mine would contribute to the household expenses but I'm not holding my breath. Wink

Posted: 15-06-2013 10:45 Post subject:

There was another episode on last night, "Little Cat Diaries".

One of them just eats rabbits. Three or four a day the owner reckons! On the plus side, she doesn't have to buy it any food.

Posted: 20-06-2013 17:24 Post subject:

Now for big cats: if you've been watching

Operation Snow Tiger - Episode 2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p019gc4x/Operation_Snow_Tiger_Episode_2/

you'll be glad to see this news:

Banham Zoo Siberian tiger births

A pair of Siberian tiger cubs have been born at a zoo in Norfolk.
Zoo keepers at Banham watched on CCTV as the endangered cats, also known as Amur tigers, entered the world on Friday.
Mike Woolham, animal manager at Banham Zoo, said there were fewer than 400 of the tigers left in the wild, which is "critically low".

The cubs' father Kuzma is ranked as one of the most important males in the international breeding programme.
It was thought important to breed Kuzma, born at the zoo in 2008, as his genes are rare in the captive population.

Mr Woolham said: "There are now thought to be more in-captivity in-breeding programmes than there are in the wild, which is a real tragedy."
The cubs are the first successful litter bred from the male and his mate Sveta, which arrived from Lisbon Zoo in Portugal two years ago.

Kuzma is the son of a tigress who drowned in a natural pool at the zoo in 2010 while pregnant.
Mr Woolham said the death was "dreadful" but the cubs' birth now "puts a lid on it".

Tigers are pregnant for around 100 days but Banham staff had to wait an extra six days for Sveta's cubs to arrive.
The mother and her babies, born with fur and striped markings, are being monitored via tiger-proof cameras as keepers do not enter the enclosures.
The cubs will be left to come out into the open enclosure of their own accord but probably will not be spotted for the next six weeks.

"We've got the CCTV cameras so we can see absolutely everything that is going on," said Mr Woolham.
"We have a monitor screen up outside the enclosure so Sveta and the cubs keep their complete privacy but the keepers and people coming to the zoo can see what's going on inside the cubbing box."

It will be six weeks before staff can get close enough to the cubs to tell their sex and name them.
The animals will be taken to another zoo when they reach 18 months to be paired with a mate as part of the Siberian tigers' international and European conservation programme.

Most of the wild population is found in the Russian Far East, roaming around the Amur River.
The tigers are under threat from hunters and the loss of natural habitat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-22988124

Posted: 24-06-2013 18:29 Post subject:

Breaking News has a link to a story in the Sun from two and a half years ago:

Moscow's Feral Doggies Use the Tube

Very cute!

It all sounds quite plausible until you view the video of one of the pooches using an escalator. It is labelled, "Clever Animal Rides the Subway." But the silly thing is going up the down escalator and risks being trodden underfoot!

rofl

Posted: 27-06-2013 15:35 Post subject: