Mind Mastery

11/11/2023

One-horned rhinoceros families graze in the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary in Assam, India. Their ‘armoured’ skin may look tough, but in fact it is sensitive to sunburn and insect bites, which is why they like to cover themselves in an overcoat of mud and dust.

11/11/2023

Appropriately for the Halloween season, researchers looking for an endangered turtle have discovered an ultra-rare white platypus swimming in New South Wales, Australia. The ghostly apparition is not an albino, since it does have some pigmentation on its bill, feet and tail, so it has been labelled a leucistic platypus – the first ever recorded.

11/11/2023

Harvest mice on the hunt for a snack in Burnley, Lancashire. At less than 3in long (excluding tail), they are Europe’s smallest rodent, a fact reflected in the species’

11/11/2023

The week in wildlife – in pictures: sparring horses, seal pups and an ultra-rare platypus

11/11/2023

Food, soil, water: how the extinction of insects would transform our planet Environment

Cut an apple in half, and the white flesh reveals a cluster of black pips arranged in the shape of a star. It is a tiny constellation of seeds hidden in the fruit bowl. But it reveals an interlinked universe of pollination and nature’s abundance – a delicate system, and one that can easily be thrown off course.

When the apple blossoms are pollinated, seeds pump out hormones telling the plant to produce the right vitamins, minerals and rate of growth. They help formulate crunchiness, size and shape. Lose those pollinators, however, and this fragile system becomes unbalanced. If only three or four of the seeds get pollinated, our apple may grow lopsided. The nutritional value might decrease, as could the shelf-life of the fruit, turning it brown and wrinkled before its time.

The story of the apple is one being retold over and over across the world. A new report warns that two million species are at risk of extinction, twice as many as in previous estimates by the UN. This increase is down to better data on insect populations, which have been less understood than other groups.

Often, it is animals such as insects – the species we tend to care the least about – which provide the greatest services to human populations: pollinating crops, helping provide healthy soils and controlling pests.

Despite ongoing uncertainties about invertebrates, the alarming loss of wildlife globally is well documented. In the past 50 years, wildlife populations have decreased by 70% on average – and their loss is already affecting how human societies operate and sustain themselves.

What’s happening to pollination?
The latest study estimates that 24% of invertebrates are at risk of extinction – they are the ones that do the most pollination.

Crops that provide most of our vitamins and minerals, such as fruits, vegetables and nuts, depend on pollinators and organisms in the soil that keep it fertile. An estimated 75% of food crops rely on pollinators to some degree and 95% of food comes directly or indirectly from the soil.

Prof Simon Potts, from Reading University, says: “If you get less pollination, you’re going to get less production. But not only less yield or tonnage, the quality of that produce is going to go down … your strawberries will be misshapen and they won’t be so packed full of sugars.”

“We call this ‘pollination deficit’,” he says.

11/10/2023

Arizona woman dies after attack by elk she was suspected of feeding

An Arizona woman has died after being attacked by an elk she is suspected of feeding, becoming the first person to be killed by the species in the state’s history, local wildlife officials have said.

The attack happened at the end of October but the woman died this week after succumbing to her injuries in the hospital, CNN reported.

The tragedy unfolded when the unnamed woman’s husband arrived at their home in Pine Lake in the Hualapai Mountains to find her “on the ground in the backyard with injuries consistent with being trampled by an elk”, the Arizona game and fish department (AGFD) said in a statement.

The man also noticed a spilled bucket of corn nearby, the department added.

In response to the attack, local officials have been putting up warning signs about not feeding elk in local communities. Five elk attacks have been reported in Arizona in the last five years, according to the department, but this is believed to be the first fatality.

Elk are rarely a threat to humans but are large, heavy mammals and can become dangerous when scared or otherwise distressed.

“Feeding puts at risk the person doing the feeding, their neighbors, and the wildlife itself. Please do not feed wildlife,” the AGFD statement said.

11/10/2023

Woman trampled to death by an elk in Arizona, prompting officials to warn against feeding animals
www.nbcnews.com
An Arizona woman has died more than a week after she was trampled by an elk outside her home, wildlife officials said Tuesday.

The woman, who has not been named, died eight days after she was attacked by an animal on her property in the remote Pine Lake community in the Hualapai Mountains, 15 miles southeast of Kingman.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department said it was believed to be the first fatal elk attack in the state’s history. Five attacks have been recorded in the last five years, it said.

It said in a statement that the woman's husband found her on the ground in the couple's back yard at 6 p.m. Oct. 26 "with injuries consistent with being trampled by an elk."

Nearby was a bucket of spilled corn, the department said, prompting it to repeat long-made warnings that the public should not feed elk or other large animals.

The woman was taken to a hospital in Las Vegas and placed in a medically induced coma. She died Thursday. The Clark County medical examiner’s office determined the death to be an accident.

The Game and Fish Department visited the property Oct. 28 to hand out signs warning people not to feed or approach any elk.

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The department said that when they are fed, wildlife can become accustomed to being around humans — which can lead to attacks and injuries. In 2015, two children received minor injuries after elk circled a picnic table in the Hualapai Mountains. In 2021, a woman received serious head injuries from an elk that had become habituated to humans in Pine.

"The public is urged to help keep wildlife wild. Wildlife that are fed by people, or that get food sources from items such as unsecured garbage or pet food, lose their natural fear of humans and become dependent on unnatural food sources," the department said in its statement.

"Feeding puts at risk the person doing the feeding, their neighbors, and the wildlife itself. Please do not feed wildlife."

11/08/2023

The South China tiger is a population of the Panthera tigris tigris subspecies that is native to southern China. The population mainly inhabited the Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the China's Red List of Vertebrates and is possibly extinct in the wild since no wild individual has been recorded since the late 1980s. In the late 1990s, continued survival was considered unlikely because of low prey density, widespread habitat degradation and fragmentation, and other environmental issues in China. In the fur trade, it used to be called Amoy tiger.

11/08/2023

Eagles are large, powerfully-built birds of prey, with heavy heads and beaks. Even the smallest eagles, such as the booted eagle (Aquila pennata), which is comparable in size to a common buzzard (Buteo buteo) or red-tailed hawk (B. jamaicensis), have relatively longer and more evenly broad wings, and more direct, faster flight – despite the reduced size of aerodynamic feathers. Most eagles are larger than any other raptors apart from some vultures. The smallest species of eagle is the South Nicobar serpent eagle (Spilornis klossi), at 450 g (1 lb) and 40 cm (16 in). The largest species are discussed below. Like all birds of prey, eagles have very large hooked beaks for ripping flesh from their prey, strong, muscular legs, and powerful talons.

11/08/2023

An opossum crashed a college football game in Texas and became a viral star

A surprise guest at a college football game in Texas on Thursday became a viral celebrity overnight.

An opossum, whose name is unknown, ran across the field during Texas Tech University’s home game against Texas Christian University and quickly captivated the internet.

“Rodents of unusual size are showing up in Lubbock,” a commentator on the Fox broadcast said, referring to a clip of the opossum.

“He was not happy about being escorted out of the stadium,” another commentator said.

The opossum was wrangled by stadium authorities before reaching the 20-yard line, but that didn’t stop it from becoming the talk of X.

The animal, which appeared to be intensely displeased about its ejection from the game, is already establishing itself as a meme, just 12 hours after its television debut.

"FREE HIM," one user said in a post. "HE DID NOTHING WRONG."

"My dog when I drag her away from a cigarette butt she wanted to eat off the road," one user joked in response to the footage of the opossum being dragged off the field.

“There’s not a chance TCU wins this game now,” another user wrote in a post.

10/28/2023

Bobi, the world's oldest known dog ever, dies at 31
Bobi, who broke the Guinness World Record for being the oldest known dog, passed away Friday in Portugal.

Bobi, the world's oldest known dog ever, passed away last week at an animal hospital in Portugal, Guinness World Records announced Monday.

"Bobi lived to be 31 years 165 days old and spent his entire life with his loving owner Leonel Costa and his family in the Portuguese village of Conqueiros," the record-keeping company said in a news release.

Bobi was recognized as the oldest dog ever known in February, just two weeks after a 23-year-old Chihuahua named Spike tried to claim the title. His death leaves Ohio-born Spike as the oldest known living dog.

In dog years, Bobi was roughly 86 years old. He was a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a Portuguese breed of farm and guardian dog with a life expectancy of 12 to 14 years.

His age was confirmed by his 1992 registration with a veterinary medical service in Leiria, Portugal, and with a Portuguese government-owned pet database, Guinness said.

Bobi was born in a litter of four puppies; the three others were put down by owner Leonel Costa's parents because the farm already had too many animals.

"At that time it was considered normal by older people ... to bury the animals in a hole so that they would not survive,” Leonel said in an interview with Guinness.

10/20/2023

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10/20/2023

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10/12/2023

10/12/2023

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