Animals 24-7

News on dogs, cats, horses, wildlife, zoonoses, & nature

Rare Aussie animals save themselves, no thanks to Compound 1080

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Brush-tailed rock wallabies & long-nosed potoroos need habitat,  poison drops CANBERRA,  ADELAIDE,  MELBOURNE,  Australia––Investigators are finding,  in the wake of bushfires that ravaged protected habitat right around the forested coastal perimeter of Australia,  that many rare Australian animals apparently know how to save themselves,  with or without human help. More than a billion animals are […]

Three recent deaths of people who cared about animals in very different ways

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Conservation theorist Michael E. Soulé, 84;  activist Linda Ann DeStefano, 76;  Bill Jenkins, 53             Michael E. Soulé,  84,  widely identified as the “father of conservation biology,”  but an enthusiastic advocate of “compassionate conservation” by the end of his life and career,  died on June 17,  2020. “Conservation is engaged in the protection of the integrity […]

“Asian murder hornet”: surrogate for COVID-19 terror

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Or,  how two “great sparrow bees” incited a national hunt for alleged Chinese alien invaders             BLAINE, Washington––How did the Asian giant hornet,  known for centuries in Japan as the “great sparrow bee,”  generally regarded as beneficial to farmers for killing insect pests,  suddenly become feared in the U.S. as the so-called “murder hornet”? After […]

“Invasive” grey squirrels, feral pigs, & rats: leave ’em alone, say scientists

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Studies suggest grey squirrel, feral pig,  & rat control are barking up the wrong tree BELFAST;  GUAM;  VANCOUVER––“Invasive” grey squirrels are allegedly extirpating red squirrels in the British Isles by transmitting squirrel pox. Feral pigs allegedly run amok to the detriment of rare native plants on Guam,  a remote Pacific island. Rats present a perennial […]

Noted in passing: Bryant, Paulsen, Carothers, Domingues, & Weingartner

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Activist legends in U.K., New Mexico,  Texas,  Louisiana,  & California Recently deceased longtime animal advocates John Bryant of Dorset,  U.K.,  Judy Paulsen of Corrales,  New Mexico,  Randy Carothers of Rockwell,  Texas,  Rae Nell Domingues of Lafayette,  Louisiana,  and Susan Weingartner of southern California most likely never crossed paths in person,  and may never even have […]

Poisoning Australia in the name of wildlife recovery after bushfire losses

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And kangaroos shot,  koala trees bulldozed             MELBOURNE,  CANBERRA, SYDNEY,  BRISBANE––Six months of bushfires ravaging Australian coastal forests and grasslands stretching into parts of the Outback are reportedly almost at an end. The last two dozen fires in New South Wales and a comparable number left in Victoria state are smoldering on at the lowest […]

Helping animals through the Australian firestorm

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Reports from 25 of the hundreds of animal aid charities working in the hot zones CANBERRA,  Australian Capital Territories––More than 100 wildfires raging in Australian coastal forests and wooded parts of the Australian interior in September 2019 exploded beyond immediate hope of control and burst into global consciousness during the first days of 2020,  splitting […]

Mountain goat massacre begins in Grand Tetons

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Shaky science may doom mountain goats in their own habitat             JACKSON,  Wyoming––The northern and western slopes of the Cathedral Mountains in Grand Teton National Park were on January 5,  2020 closed to the public to allow air gunners flown by Baker Aircraft of Baker City,  Oregon,  to massacre as many as 100 mountain goats […]

Is Down Under biological warfare killing bunnies across the Pacific?

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Spreading disease by air is much easier than containing it by any method             LANGLEY, Washington––About sixty feral Belgian hares, long beloved village pets in Langley,  Washington,  may be the latest casualties of deliberate releases of the rabbit hemorrhagic disease RHD-1 in Australia and New Zealand,  8,000 and 7,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean,  respectively. […]

Who killed 2.9 billion birds since 1970? Not cats, says a look through the glass!

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Who killed cock robin?  Clues are transparent.             CORNELL, N.Y.––The Southern Tier city of Corning,  New York,  noted for glassmaking since 1868,  may hold one of the key clues to the loss of 2.9 billion birds from U.S. and Canadian habitat in just under 50 years. Corning lies at one end of the Finger Lakes,  […]