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ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 27-02-2013 23:02 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Burmese pythons prove elusive prey in Florida challenge
February 27th, 2013 in Biology / Ecology
Strapped to Billy Bullard's hip was a machete he'd bought at a yard sale. In his fist were 4-foot-long metal snake tongs. Attached to the tongs was a high-resolution waterproof camera he called a "snake-cam."
All he had to do now was find a Burmese python.
Bullard had been invited, along with just about anyone else willing to pay a $25 fee, to plunge into swampland and kill the fat, generally docile snakes that have been threatening the Everglades' ecosystem. The Python Challenge, sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, offered cash prizes: $1,000 for the longest Burmese python and $1,500 for the most pythons captured and killed.
Alas, estimates of the Burmese python population of South Florida range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. The point of the first-time contest was not to kill every last python but to raise public awareness of the need to eliminate them. They are an invasive, fast-breeding species that crushes and eats all manner of native birds and other animals, including alligators, bobcats, deer, raccoons and possums.
Most of the tan-and-brown-mottled Burmese pythons have been released into the wild since the 1980s by owners weary of caring for pets that can grow up to 26 feet long and as thick as a small tree. Other pythons escaped when Hurricane Andrew destroyed pet-breeding facilities in 1992. The snakes kill by constriction and are usually not a threat to humans.
Bullard, 40, knows Burmese pythons. He's caught more than 30 of them in the two years he's run an animal removal service - the biggest one 13 feet. He doesn't kill the ones he removes; he bags them and donates them to reptile centers. His business motto, "Saving wildlife and people," is printed on his pickup along with an alligator logo and a "Got Ammo?" bumper sticker.
During the contest's second weekend last month, Bullard bagged two pythons in the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area. They were small - about 3 feet long.
"I didn't find them. They found me," he said. They had slithered toward him on a dirt path.
Bullard held them down with his tongs and, with two quick thwacks of his machete, hacked off their heads.
(The contest website recommends a gun or a captive bolt, the sinister cow-killing weapon brandished by the psycho killer in "No Country for Old Men." Decapitation is OK too, according to the rules, as long as it "results in immediate loss of consciousness and destruction of the brain.")
Bullard recorded the GPS position of his python kills and photographed them, as required. He delivered the heads and bodies to an approved drop-off station. He declined the contest's offer to return the python hides to him. Too small to bother with, he said.
On the challenge's final weekend, he set off to find something more substantial. It was late afternoon on a warm, steamy day when Bullard drove back to the Taylor reserve.
There, Bullard ran into competition - four men who had been combing the reserve for two days, hunting knives at the ready, sleeping in their cars and surviving on sandwiches and cereal. They offered a dismal status report: They hadn't seen a single python.
"We've seen gators and birds and all kinds of snakes, but no pythons," said Paul Hobbs, 27.
Even so, they intended to keep hunting for another day or two, until Hobbs' dad, Tom Hobbs, 61, had to drive back home to Tennessee.
Why were they so determined to catch a python? "We've been catching snakes all our lives, but never a python," said Paul's brother-in-law, Austin Park, 22.
Bullard listened impassively, but brightened when Park mentioned that they'd walked past a huge, white alligator skull. Bullard loves animals - alive or dead - and collects all kinds of critter stuff.
Awhile back, he retrieved a 4-foot savannah monitor lizard as a pet for his 8-year-old son, Tyler, who named the creature Max. But Max got loose and fell in the pool and drowned while Bullard was away on his first Python Challenge hunt. He and Tyler buried Max in the backyard.
"My son cried for a week," he said.
After hearing about the apparent dearth of Burmese pythons in the Taylor reserve, Bullard decided to drive to nearby Big Cypress National Preserve. The area was off-limits to most competitors in the challenge, but Bullard could hunt there because he has a year-round Florida python harvesting license.
There were no python hunters - or anyone else - in sight when Bullard started hiking down a dirt track in Big Cypress. It was ideal python-hunting time, late in the afternoon, when the constrictors roll onto the sun-baked roadways to warm themselves.
Bullard walked for mile after mile, searching through roadside brush, looking for the flattened spots in the dirt or grass left by a python on the move. He waded into marshes, poking behind cypress trees.
Nothing.
In the evening gloom, Bullard switched on a battery-powered searchlight he'd just bought at Wal-Mart. The beam cut through the heavy brush and high grasses as he plunged through the muck, hauling his machete, tongs and snake-cam.
He got on his knees in the moist dirt to inspect every culvert he passed. Pythons sometimes crawl into the pipes. He shone his light into one culvert and yelped in surprise. Three sets of eyes glared back at him. Then he laughed. It was three frogs.
Inside another culvert, the searchlight revealed a mass of brown - a 6-foot alligator that had crammed itself inside. "Hah, now you're going to have to haul your fat butt out of there backwards," Bullard yelled at the gator.
He hiked on. He bent down to look inside the next culvert, then jumped back up to the road bank. He leaped impressively high for a man who stands 6 foot 1 and weighs 250 pounds. "Water moccasins!" he hollered.
Coiled outside the culvert were two plump, poisonous vipers several feet long. Bullard leaned over and extended his tongs. He plucked one water moccasin out of the dirt and raised it high. His snake-cam was whirring - he enjoys making wild animal videos - capturing a close-up of the snake as its fangs snapped at the moist air.
Bullard lowered the snake to the road, and it sprayed him with foul-smelling musk. He released the tongs, and the moccasin slithered back into the culvert.
Night was falling - and still no sign of pythons. The muscular snakes camouflage themselves well and hide in tall grass, burrows, water and even trees, says Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida professor who helped organize the challenge.
Bullard had hiked about four miles. He turned around for the march back to his truck; he continued to poke through the roadside brush for pythons.
His odds of finding his quarry were rapidly diminishing, but Bullard didn't mind. He was happy just being in the wild, watching white herons flushed from the swamp by a big black vulture, and inspecting big spiders wandering in the high grass.
He spun around and shone his light when he heard the heavy grunting of a feral hog somewhere in the forest. He wished he hadn't left his .22-caliber pellet gun in his truck. He likes to hunt the hogs and roast their meat.
Feral hogs are the only pests he doesn't charge to remove in his business; he gives them to friends to roast. He's never been stiffed for payment after removing other animals. "I just tell them: Pay me - or I'll bring it back."
The mosquitoes were biting now, and Bullard remembered he'd left his bug repellent in the truck. His searchlight battery was dying, the hog was getting closer and he was dirty and sweaty. There were four urgent animal removal requests - jobs that pay - on his cellphone. It was time for Bullard to end the python hunt, though he was empty-handed.
He wasn't the only one. During the monthlong challenge that ended Feb. 10, nearly 1,600 contestants captured just 68 Burmese pythons - the longest one 14 feet.
By now, Bullard had come to regret finishing off the two little pythons, no matter how invasive or voracious. "Just didn't feel right," he said.
His livelihood involved capturing animals, not killing them. He decided that this would be his first and final Python Challenge.
(c)2013 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by MCT Information Services
"Burmese pythons prove elusive prey in Florida challenge." February 27th, 2013. http://phys.org/news/2013-02-burmese-pythons-elusive-prey-florida.html |
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| Zilch5 Vogon Poet
Great Old One Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Total posts: 1527 Location: Western Sydney, Australia Gender: Male |
| Posted: 05-03-2013 08:36 Post subject: |
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I couldn't think of another thread to put this in - but if some of the mods can think of a better one...
PS: Bad pun alert applies
| Quote: | Woolworths customer hopping mad after frog allegedly found in bag of salad
They call themselves the "fresh food people" - so fresh in this case that a frog was allegedly still nestled in the salad.
Sydneysider Ben Mulligan has branded Woolworths' claim that the salad he bought was "washed and ready to eat" as all "LIES!!!" after he says he found an amphibian friend alive in the bottom of the bag.
Mr Mulligan took photographs of the frog inside the pre-packaged Aussie salad and posted them on the supermarket chain's Facebook page on Monday night.
"It appears that you forgot to list FROG on the ingredients of your pre-packaged salads, Woolworths," Mr Mulligan wrote to Woolworths.
Advertisement
"This is disgusting. I ate some of this salad. I could DIE! This poor frog. Wait until PETA hear about this.
"I feel disgusted... disgusted, and still hungry, Woolworths. I bought the salad for me to eat. Not for a FROG to eat. The frog didn't pay for this salad."
Within a day of being posted online, the photographs had been shared more than 650 times on Facebook and had attracted nearly 2000 comments.
"Good thing you didn't eat that, you might of croaked it," wrote Harry Fennessy.
"Would you say that you're ...........hopping mad?" quipped Timmy Polson.
Ben Prior wrote: "Obviously a french salad. Free frogs."
Another alleged that Woolworths had "kermitted a crime".
According to social media posts, the frog was still alive in the bag, but died soon after it was removed.
When contacted, Mr Mulligan said he was discussing the matter with Woolworths and couldn't comment immediately.
Woolworths has been contacted for comment.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/woolworths-customer-hopping-mad-after-frog-allegedly-found-in-bag-of-salad-20130305-2fil4.html#ixzz2MeHJxjAF |
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rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 21363 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 12-03-2013 23:43 Post subject: |
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Herne Bay seal brings seafront to standstill
Traffic was brought to a standstill on a Kent seafront when a seal left the water, crossed a pub car park and lay in the road.
The young animal settled down outside The Neptune pub in Herne Bay while the RSCPA and coastguard mobilised.
John Brooks of British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said: "They quite often come out and sit on the beaches, particularly on rough days.
"But to actually cross a busy car park and busy road is very strange really."
Traffic had to be diverted while the seal was checked over and carried away.
"When we arrived we found one of the local coastguard, who is also a marine mammal medic, was sitting astride the seal in the middle of the road," said Mr Brooks.
"It had some minor cuts and bruises so we picked it up and moved it down to Hampton Pier where there was a little bit of shelter and a little bit of lee from the wind.
"We released it back into the sea and she swam off quite happily.
"It brought Herne Bay seafront to an absolute standstill for about 45 minutes."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-21763779 |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 22-03-2013 16:00 Post subject: |
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Maybe this should be in Climate Change?
| Quote: | Cold-tolerant wasp spiders spread to northern Europe
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21877948
By Ella Davies
Reporter, BBC Nature
Wasp spiders are becoming a more familiar sight in northern Europe
Temperature tolerance is key to the spread of wasp spiders into northern Europe, according to scientists.
Since the 1930s the distinctive spiders have expanded their range from the Mediterranean coast to Norway.
Researchers in Germany traced the population boom to breeding between the native European spiders and an isolated colony living near the Black Sea.
Molecular Ecology reports the genetic mixing resulted in generations rapidly adapting to living in colder climates.
Wasp spiders (Argiope bruennichi) are commonly named for their bright, striped abdomens and were recently recorded by the Woodland Trust in Usk, south Wales for the first time.
The first official records of this conspicuous species in the UK were made in the 1920s.
Henrik Krehenwinkel from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany, analysed the DNA of spiders caught across their current range, and museum specimens to understand more about their evolutionary history.
Continue reading the main story
Invading species
Meet the killer shrimp of Cardiff Bay
See why grey squirrels outcompete reds
What are the alien mammals invading Europe?
Piecing together the genetic puzzle, he found that the spiders diverged after the last ice age: part of the population stayed on the Mediterranean while a colony headed east to Central Asia.
While these eastern populations adapted to live in climates as diverse as the tropical south of Japan and cold south-eastern Siberia, the spiders in the Mediterranean remained limited to warm areas.
But, according to the research, rising temperatures across the continent in the last century allowed the Mediterranean spiders to join up and breed with a previously isolated Black Sea population.
"This possibly restored genetic variation within a few generations and allowed for rapid adaptation," said Mr Krehenwinkel.
He theorised that the novel combination of genes resulted in new physical characteristics that helped spiders to survive in different environments.
Out in the cold
To test the whether these more northerly spiders adapted a different temperature tolerance than Mediterranean populations, the PhD student analysed how they reacted when moved into one another's habitats.
Southern spiders could not survive the freezing temperatures in the north, and their counterparts suffered from heat stress in the south.
Mr Krehenwinkel explained that the eastern population had adapted to cooler temperatures and this was passed on to European spiders in the population boom.
Wasp spiders weave ornate webs
The result was the rapid adaptation of hardier offspring that could settle further north than their predecessors.
The spiders found in northern Europe have smaller bodies and are not seen in the coldest months of the year.
Scientists attribute both traits to seasonal changes which do not affect southern species. Spiders found in northern Europe "overwinter", meaning their young are buried during the coldest months; emerging in spring.
The spiders then have limited warm months in which they can mature, which restricts how large they can grow before they reproduce in the autumn and the cycle begins again.
Mr Krehenwinkel described the hatchlings as "highly dispersive", commenting that they can cover huge distances via a method known as "ballooning": riding the breeze on a special parachute made of gossamer silk threads.
"By aerial dispersal, little spiders can cover distances of several hundred kilometres," he told BBC Nature.
"Members of different genetic lineages can thus quickly track warming climate, which increases the likelihood of contact."
Join BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.
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| escargot1 Joined: 24 Aug 2001 Total posts: 17895 Location: Farkham Hall Age: 4 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 26-03-2013 09:31 Post subject: |
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Mystery of 'escaped ape' photographed on the loose in playing field
| Quote: | How it got to the park is a monkey puzzle, but this snap shows what appears to be an escaped ape on the loose.
Terri Leigh Cox, 17, grabbed her phone and took the shot when she spotted the creature bounding around the playing fields on all fours.
But with no primate playmates to hang about with, the furry animal clambered up a tree and out of sight.
Stunned Terri said: “It was such a shock – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing at first. It looked about the size of a small gorilla.
"It was walking like one as well, using its arms and feet.
“It was definitely a monkey because you could tell by its hunched back and the way it scampered across a field and up a tree. It wasn’t a black dog.” |
etc
The full article includes the photo. It does look like a chimp or gorilla and if it did climb up a tree then it's not a dog.
Or it's a hoax, of course.  |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 21363 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 26-03-2013 09:45 Post subject: |
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The photo also seems to include an out-of-place Smiley (Lower left) - what's that all about? |
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| Urvogel Yeti Joined: 24 Dec 2012 Total posts: 87 Location: England Age: 28 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 26-03-2013 14:31 Post subject: |
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That looks just like one of the aliens from Attack The Block  |
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| PaulTaylor Yeti Joined: 27 Jan 2013 Total posts: 79 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 26-03-2013 18:51 Post subject: |
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| Urvogel wrote: | | That looks just like one of the aliens from Attack The Block |
Well spotted! There isn't a sequel due for release that needs publicity, is there? No, regrettably not!
Perhaps it's another of these! |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 15-04-2013 21:06 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Giant snails on advance in Florida
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22155219
It ain't easy being green: The snails will feed on more than 500 plant species
South Florida is battling a growing infestation of the giant African land snail.
The snail is considered one of the most destructive invasive species, feeding voraciously on more than 500 plant species.
They can also eat through plaster walls, which provides the calcium content they need for their shells.
Experts recently gathered at a science meeting in Gainesville to seek the best way of eradicating the snails.
According to Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, more than 1,000 of the snails are being caught each week in Miami-Dade county and 117,000 in total since the first snail was spotted by a homeowner in September 2011.
Residents could soon begin encountering them more often, crunching them underfoot as the snails emerge from underground hibernation at the start of the state's rainy season in seven weeks, Ms Feiber told the Reuters news agency.
She added that the snails attack "pretty much anything that's in their path and green".
In some Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, which are overrun with the creatures, the snails' shells blow out car tyres and turn into projectiles when they encounter lawnmower blades.
In addition, their slime and excrement coat walls and pavement.
State of slime
A typical snail can produce about 1,200 eggs a year. They have been known to carry a parasitic rat lungworm that can cause illness in humans, including a form of meningitis, Ms Feiber explained, though no such cases have yet been identified in the US.
Jon Ablett, curator of Mollusca at the Natural History Museum, says there is "no clear answer" on how to stop African land snails
Among the solutions discussed by experts at the Giant African Land Snail Science Symposium last week, was the use of a stronger bait approved recently by the federal government.
Ms Feiber said many people viewed the snails as cute pets.
"They're huge, they move around, they look like they're looking at you ... communicating with you, and people enjoy them for that," she said.
"But they don't realize the devastation they can create if they are released into the environment where they don't have any natural enemies and they thrive."
Many invasive species now live in Florida's sub-tropical climate, including the Burmese python, which has been linked to a sharp decline in mammal populations in the Everglades region. |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 21363 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-04-2013 07:35 Post subject: |
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Rare sighting of sperm whales in Firth of Forth
The largest group of whales thought to have been seen travelling together in or near the Firth of Forth has been recorded from the air.
The pod of 14 sperm whales was seen on Thursday heading from the island of Fidra to the Lamb, just a mile offshore at North Berwick in East Lothian.
The whales then changed direction, heading towards Crail in Fife.
They were reported to the Scottish Seabird Centre by microlight pilots who saw them from a height of 500ft.
The whales were also spotted by Scottish Natural Heritage staff and other researchers on the Isle of May who were able to identify the whales' tail flukes, dorsal fins and plumes of spray.
Erich Hoyt, North Berwick-based marine conservationist and author, said: "Sperm whales are rarely seen in the Firth of Forth, and to see 14 of them travelling together is very special.
"The previous close sighting of sperm whales in North Berwick was exactly 10 years ago this month when a large sperm whale landed on the beach at Canty Bay, but this is certainly the largest group of living whales we've seen travelling together in or near the Firth of Forth.
"Sperm whales are usually residents of deeper waters off the north and west of Scotland where they hunt squid."
He added: "The images confirm that they are sperm whales, including a few that are either immature males or females.
"Sperm whales in groups are usually either all males or females with juveniles and calves, so given the absence of calves and the location this is most probably a group of young males.
"The one tail that is visible is consistent with a sperm whale tail fluke."
David Pickett, Scottish Natural Heritage's National Nature Reserve Manager on the Isle of May, said: "This was a thrilling experience. We were able to get distant views of two pods of sperm whales, distinguished by the flattened dorsal fin, the way the plume of spray went forward rather than up, and their enormous size."
Tom Brock, CEO of the Scottish Seabird Centre, said: "This sighting is truly wonderful news and helps to highlight some of the amazing wildlife that can be spotted right here on our doorstep.
"It's thrilling that such a large pod of whales were seen so close to the Seabird Centre."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22342041 |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-04-2013 12:46 Post subject: |
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| A Sign! When the Whales come FREEDOM follows. |
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| rynner2 What a Cad!
Great Old One Joined: 13 Dec 2008 Total posts: 21363 Location: Under the moon Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-04-2013 12:57 Post subject: |
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| ramonmercado wrote: | | A Sign! When the Whales come FREEDOM follows. |
Free Wullie, you mean? |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-04-2013 13:00 Post subject: |
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| rynner2 wrote: | | ramonmercado wrote: | | A Sign! When the Whales come FREEDOM follows. |
Free Wullie, you mean? |
Excellent! |
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| Kondoru Unfeathered Biped Joined: 05 Dec 2003 Total posts: 5788 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 30-04-2013 18:44 Post subject: |
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Yes, cheap biofuel.
When sperm whales are seen in the north sea, its generaly of a dying individual. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 12-05-2013 01:11 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | 'Incredibly aggressive' terrapin grabs diver in Looe estuary
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-22485003
Aquarium curator Paul Strachan said the terrapin was "becoming quite a character"
A diver found a "very aggressive" turtle native to America attached to his upper leg when he was coming out of a Cornish estuary, an aquarium says.
The man had been diving in the Looe estuary last week when he found the red-eared terrapin on his limb.
It was later offered a permanent home at Newquay's Blue Reed Aquarium.
The aquarium said the freshwater creature - thought to be a dumped unwanted pet - was "doing well".
Ninja Turtles obsession
Blue Reef curator Paul Strachan said the diver initially contacted the town's Clifton Villas veterinary surgery, which cared for it before it came to the aquarium.
He believed it had been dumped in the water a few days previously.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
He was trying to bite my fingers”
Paul Strachan
Blue Reef Aquarium
He said: "It is pretty uncommon for a terrapin to approach someone in the water and grab hold of them, but this one was very lucky he did.
"They are incredibly aggressive, and this little guy had become very aggressive as he had been mistreated.
"When I arrived to pick him up from the vets, he was trying to bite my fingers. The diver didn't realise it was attached to his upper leg.
"The terrapin had an infection from going from a warm tank to the cold but is now doing well. He is becoming quite a character."
The omnivorous creatures can live for more than 50 years, feeding on fish, insects and water plants.
Although native to north America, it is thought many were bought for children in Britain obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series in the 1980s and 90s.
Mr Strachan said people often bought the "cute little creatures", not realising they would grow.
He said: "Red-eared terrapins begin life as these incredibly miniature reptiles which are about the size of a box of matches.
"Within a few short years, however, they can reach 30cms (1ft) or more, and that's when people start abandoning them.
"Many of the country's waterways have become dumping grounds for terrapins.
"That is posing a potential threat to native species of wildlife, which simply can't cope with sharing their habitat with these aggressive invaders." |
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