Quarantine keeps crime in check––for now ROME, CASTEL VOLTURNO, Italy––The deadly global COVID-19 pandemic, killing nearly 32,500 Italians to date, might if anything have made Castel Volturno, the unlikely spay/neuter hub of the nation, just a little bit safer. Certainly stay-at-home orders seem to have at least temporarily reduced the mob violence for which […]
“Asian murder hornet”: surrogate for COVID-19 terror
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 […]
Are Bronx Zoo tigers with COVID-19 sentinels for brown bats?
Team researches whether humans can transmit COVID-19 back to bats NEW YORK, N.Y.––A four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia, kept at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, and now four other times and three lions sharing the same facilities, may be evidence of asymptomatic human-to-animal transmission of COVID-19. Alternatively, the tiger and lion illnesses […]
People who buy meat from glass cases have little room to throw stones
“Wet markets” in China & U.S. slaughterhouses both kill people as well as animals SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota––Underscoring that people who buy meat from glass cases have little room to throw stones at the “wet markets” of China and the developing world, which sell live animals, the Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods pig slaughterhouse in Sioux Falls, […]
COVID-19 hot tip for coffee growers: don’t go bat-@#$% nuts!
COVID-19 shows “Eat @#$% & die!” is a warning, not a metaphor KUNMING, China; LONDON, U.K.; SEATTLE––One might imagine that the midst of a global pandemic of COVID-19, a disease apparently originating in bats, would not be the best time for selling bat-processed coffee. At this writing, COVID-19 has infected nearly 175,000 people, worldwide, killing […]
Helping animals through the Australian firestorm
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 […]
Death of Florida 6-year-old reminds that bat rabies can strike anywhere
Humans & bats evolved to live in frequent proximity, yet rarely meet. That keeps us both safe. ORLANDO, Florida––The January 14, 2018 death of Ryker Roque, 6, at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, just 20 minutes from Disney World and half an hour from Walt Disney’s Wild Animal Kingdom, came as […]
Naming Nature: The clash between instinct & science
by Carol Kaesuk Yoon W.W. Norton & Co. (500 5th Ave., New York, NY 10110), 2009. 344 pages, hardcover. $27.95. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Though you may never have heard of either “taxonomy” or “cladistics,” the two central concepts in Carol Kaesuk Yoon’s 2009 opus Naming Nature, it remains a fascinating read for […]
Hurricane Harvey hits hunters & fishers harder than wildlife
Shrimp, sea turtles, “sport fish,” teal & doves all get a break HOUSTON, Texas––As hard as Hurricane Harvey hit humans, pets, livestock, and some of the most vulnerable wildlife along the Gulf Coast of Texas and adjacent part of Louisiana, especially big birds who could not escape from the wind, early damage assessments indicate that […]
Tropical Storm Harvey: helping animals caught in harm’s way
Harvey the Wallbanger busts some animals out of confinement, traps others in need of rescue (See also Hurricane Harvey: who is doing what for animals?, Brian Davies puts $49,562 toward Harvey animal rescue, challenges others to match it and Which Hurricane Harvey animal relief charity took the Labor Day weekend off? More updates will follow as quickly as possible.) […]