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All in Animal Welfare
The US Defense Department is funding experiments on ferrets to determine if exposure to radio frequency waves could be the cause of “Havana Syndrome,” a mysterious suite of symptoms that affected hundreds of government personnel in recent years.
An African serval cat tested positive for cocaine after escaping a traffic stop in Hamilton County, Ohio, and is now recuperating at the Cincinnati Zoo. The big cat bolted after its owner was pulled over by police in January; it leapt into a tree, where he was rescued by Cincinnati Animal CARE.
The Endangered Species Act turns fifty this year and it has had a pretty good run. Thank Richard Nixon who launched the ESA (along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act).
There’s a class of chemicals used to manufacture all kinds of consumer products that, in humans, are linked to cancers, reduced immune function, and other ailments. A new study reveals that the nasty pollutants are causing problems in nonhumans as well, and they’re everywhere.
The Daurian redstart, a migratory songbird living throughout much of Asia, has learned to avoid its cheeky nemesis, the cuckoo, by moving closer to human developments. The cuckoo, a notorious “brood parasite,” lays its eggs in other birds’ nests so that it doesn’t have to expend resources on raising its young.
The Prague Zoo has announced the arrival of a brand new Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), the first birth of the critically endangered species in captivity in Europe. The newborn had a rough start but is doing well, according to the zoo.
Last week, officials said they believed that the chemicals let loose in the Ohio train derailment had killed 3,500 aquatic animals. This week, they say the number of dead was more than 43,700 animals, all within a 5-mile area of the disaster.
This week the Central Park Zoo suspended its attempts to capture Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl that had been sprung from his confines at the zoo by vandals earlier this month.
Good news for the wood stork. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed to remove the big bird from the federal list of endangered and threatened species. Forty years ago the wood stork population was down to fewer than 5000 nesting pairs, most of them in south Florida’s Everglades and Big Cypress ecosystems. Today there are twice that number, and the birds have spread to the coastal plains of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
On February 3 a freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, necessitating the evacuation of many of the small town’s 4700 residents. Following a “controlled burn” of toxic fumes to neutralize the burning cargo that fouled local air and water, there were no reported casualties, yet.
For the first time in over 40 years a Peruvian Diving-petrel chick has hatched on Chile’s Chañaral Island. The rare seabird once thrived here but was pushed out by invasive species. Now a concerted effort by environmental groups and the Chilean government to make the island habitable again have paid off.
Hunting whales for meat has been losing its mojo in Japan for years, but a Japanese whaling firm is looking to revive the industry. Last month Kyodo Senpaku introduced three whale-meat vending machines in Yokohama aimed at re-whetting the nation’s appetite.
Even in this nation’s snakepit of politics, George Santos stands out as a major creep and prodigious liar. The recently elected GOP congressman from Long Island has embellished or outright lied about his work history, financial status, criminal record, ethnicity, and religion (we would say “allegedly” here but he’s admitted to many of these and other prevarications).
First, the sad: The pigeon that was dyed pink for gender-reveal idiocy didn’t make it. “We are deeply sad to report that Flamingo, our sweet pink pigeon, has passed away,” tweeted New York City’s wildlife rescue Wild Bird Fund. “Despite our best efforts to reduce the fumes coming off the dye, while keeping him calm and stable, he died in the night. We believe his death was caused by inhaling the toxins.”
Rice's whale, found only in the Gulf of Mexico and described in 2021, is already critically endangered. Marine biologists are wondering what can be done to save the whales, if anything.
A startup company in the UK is making dog food with a novel ingredient: larvae of the black soldier fly. Tuggs is the brainchild of Harry Bremner, whose 2021 master’s dissertation-cum-business proposal on dog food was so good, his advisor offered to fund it.
Birders in New York City are out in force in Central Park, braving the coldest temperatures of the winter for the chance to spot Flaco, a Eurasian eagle owl that had escaped from the Central Park Zoo. The majestic bird had been sprung from his enclosure on Thursday night, apparently by vandals with cable-cutters.
It probably sounded like a cute idea – what if we paint a pigeon pink for our gender reveal party? But when the idea was realized, the outcome was very bad for the pigeon. Adding stupidity to ignorance, the bird was released somewhere near New York city’s Madison Square Park, where a good Samaritan found the disoriented creature and brought it to the Wild Bird Fund, the city’s go-to for wildlife rescue.
Authorities in the city of Chilpancingo say the local zoo has been selling, trading, and eating some of its animals on the orders of the zoo director, José Rubén Nava Noriega. Nava was replaced last month, following the death of a deer.
A new study tracks the movements of Australia’s endangered northern quoll, a small carnivorous marsupial. Researchers found that the males are losing so much sleep looking for mates that it’s killing them.
