Another week come to an end and another IST futile attempt to give you something of interest to think about over the weekend.
Biden is losing the fundraising sweepstakes….it is flipping hot….New England is underwater….and the power ball lottery has hit $1 billion….and won by someone in California (go figure)….
And now for the important stuff.
I recently wrote about orcas attacking sailboats and a sea otter stealing surfboard(who still has yet to be caught) but there are more animal vendettas…..
It appears that those loving frolicking dolphins have had enough of the Japanese…..
Over the course of one day on a central Japan beach, four people were attacked by dolphins. Early Sunday, a man in his 60s was attacked a few yards off the popular Suishohama Beach in the town of Mihama, Fukui prefecture; he was left with broken ribs and bites to his hands, the BBC reports. Also that morning, a man in his 40s was attacked at the same beach and suffered bites to his arm, MSN reports. Later that day, two more people were hurt in dolphin attacks. That brings the total number of dolphin attacks for the prefecture this year to six; similar attacks were also recorded last year.
Such attacks are unusual, but experts have warned that bottlenose dolphins are stressed out when they must swim near humans, and that having to do so disrupts their behavioral routines. “Dolphins are wild animals and may see humans as a potential threat to their territory or prey. In some cases, dolphins may also attack humans as a form of play or amusement, which can be dangerous due to their size and strength,” American Oceans explains. Signs at Suishohama Beach now warn swimmers not to touch or approach dolphins. “If you see them, don’t go into the water,” an official warns.
Maybe these dolphins are finally getting even for the mass slaughter of thousands of dolphins by the Japanese in years past.
Then there are the problems with a hawk and the mail…..in Texas….
Residents in one Texas neighborhood won’t be finding mail in their mailboxes for a few weeks, all because of an aggressive hawk who’s been harassing the locals. Axios Austin first reported on Friday that the US Postal Service has suspended mail delivery to the Travis Heights section of Austin after both residents and mail carriers were confronted by the hawk, which is apparently protecting its young during nesting season, per NPR. A USPS spokesperson says that residents in about 20 homes will have to head to a local post office for their mail until it’s been determined that the area is safe for mail carriers to return to.
Residents say their mail stopped coming around five weeks ago, and the USPS notes that it’s not clear when they’ll be able to start up delivery again. The hawk has set up shop in a tree in front of the home of Alfred Del Barrio, who notes it’s been challenging living under these conditions. “Imagine walking out of your house and knowing that you’re going to get punched in the back of the head by an animal with large talons,” he tells FOX 7. “It’s not ideal.” Construction workers have also had to contend with the swooping bird. “You just hear a thump on the hard hats,” Del Barrio says.
Mail delivery was stopped last year as well in Travis Heights due to the combative bird, and there have been other such recent hawk attacks in Austin and other parts of Central Texas (a KUT reporter found that out the hard way in May in Austin’s Highland neighborhood). Nicole Netherton, director of Travis Audubon, tells the Austin Monitor that trees damaged by winter weather may be leaving hawks’ nests more exposed, meaning they might feel more vulnerable. Hawks are also federally protected, so options are limited on how the situation can be handled. “It is illegal to destroy a nest that has eggs or chicks in it or if the fledglings are still dependent on the nest for survival,” a wildlife biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department tells Axios.
Maybe he is just pissed that he is stuck in Texas.
Next to Yellowstone and the magnificent bison….
A 47-year-old Arizona woman visiting Yellowstone National Park was walking with another person near cabins on the north shore of Lake Yellowstone in Wyoming on Monday when they came upon two bison. The tourists turned to leave when one of the animals charged, USA Today reports. The woman was gored, and suffered “significant injuries to her chest and abdomen,” the park says in a statement. She was taken to a hospital via helicopter and her current condition was not released. This is the park’s first reported bison goring since last year, when two people were attacked, one in May and one in June.
During bison mating season, which runs from mid-July to mid-August, the animals can be more easily agitated, officials say. Officials say to stay at least 25 yards away from the animals at all times, NBC News reports; they can run three times faster than people. “It is unknown how close the individuals were to the bison when it charged,” a press release from reads, per CNN. “This incident remains under investigation.”
Seriously? Under investigation?
While they investigate a second woman is gored…..
A second woman was gored by a bison inside of a week in one of America’s national parks, reports the New York Times. In the incident on Saturday, a Minnesota woman was visiting Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota when she was attacked by a bison on the Painted Canyon Trail. Park officials said she suffered “significant injuries to her abdomen and foot,” per CBS News. She was treated onsite before being taken to a hospital, where she was listed in serious but stable condition. The Times notes that Yellowstone National Park, the site of the previously reported goring of a woman on Monday, is home to thousands of bison; Theodore Roosevelt National Park is home to several hundred.
Intruders in their home and they took exception….case closed.
Keeping on with the animal meme on this Saturday….
Crows….anyone that has bothered to watch these birds will realize they are exceptionally intelligent….they even hold grudges…..but they maybe outsmarting us ‘superior’ humans….
Crows in particular have long demonstrated spooky levels of intelligence, but a new Dutch study shows they, along with magpies, have an ability to adapt to their urban environments that isn’t just clever but ironic as well. The Guardian reports that researchers with Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum and the Leiden Naturalis Biodiversity Center found crow and magpie nests in four European locations that were almost wholly made from the anti-bird spikes many property owners install to prevent them from roosting on their buildings. Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra with the Naturalis Biodiversity Center tells the Guardian, “Even for me as a nest researcher, these are the craziest bird nests I’ve ever seen.”
Hiemstra tells New Scientist that while this discovery “sounds like a joke, it’s kind of heart-warming that these birds are actually outsmarting us and using anti-bird material for their own benefits.” New Scientist notes that birds commonly opt to use thorny branches when building nests as a way to protect their young from predators, and even less comfortable materials than those have been used in the past: The study notes “the first report of a crow’s nest made of barbed wire dates back to 1933”; more recently, materials ranging from nails to drug syringes have been seen in nests.
And as The Conversation reports, a review of studies involving nests over the past century found evidence of 176 bird species that have incorporated human-made substances into nest-building, sometimes to dangerous effect. As Kees Moeliker, head of Rotterdam’s Natural History Museum, tells the Guardian, “These birds are very smart and they always find ways to cope with the harsh urban life.”
I do not eat shellfish….I cannot drop a living being into boiling water…..it seems just cruel to me….and apparently I am not as crazy as some think I am….
From the “Little Mermaid” character Sebastian to pet hermit crabs, people think crabs are wonderful — but some experts believe the way we treat crabs is downright barbaric.
Like many other decapods (the class that also includes lobsters, shrimp, crayfish and prawns), crabs are a popular food item. It is common to prepare them by dropping them while still alive into a boiling pot, then cracking open their shells to suck or scoop out their tasty inner flesh.
Of course, even if humans weren’t regularly sending crabs to a boiling death, we have so polluted the oceans that crabs are losing their sense of smell and failing to develop healthy shells. In other cases, literally billions of crabs have disappeared due to climate change. Overall, it seems that humans are much kinder in practice to fictional crabs than to real ones. But scientists supposedly tell us that crabs are nothing more than stupid sea bugs. Is that truly the case?
“I think we should separate the question of whether an animal is intelligent from whether they are sentient (i.e., can experience positive and negative feelings),” Dr. Andrew Crump, a lecturer in animal cognition and welfare at Royal Veterinary College, told Salon by email. “Intelligence isn’t, on its own, relevant to the question of whether we should care about animal welfare. But sentience is. The human case illustrates this point — we don’t think that people with lower IQs are less capable of suffering.”
Finally the water logged Northeast has another problem other than the water….snakes.
With floods tearing apart sections of Vermont and the Canadian wildfires continuing to send plumes of smoke into the U.S., it seems that those of us living in the continental United States can’t catch a break. And, while Florida may be the capital of terrifying reptiles, a new report via ScienceAlert is warning folks around the country that venomous snake bites are on the rise thanks to rising temperatures.
For anyone who’s lived in a warmer climate, or essentially anywhere with sunshine, you’ll know that snakes love to bathe themselves in the rays, soaking up plenty of Vitamin D, and, with the world hitting record-high temperatures, snakes are more likely to slither out and cross your path.
While the weather certainly plays a part in the increase of snake bite incidents, which is on average six percent, the researchers behind the study think that there’s more to it. One of those environmental scientists, Noah Scovronick of Emory University in Georgia, says that humans could also be to blame for snakes acting more aggressively.
Venomous Snakes Are Biting Even More People For Terrifying Reason
That my friends is all there is for this Saturday…..go out and be well and be safe….
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