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What's Killing The Animals? The Mysteries Of Mass Deaths

No mystery here, sadly:

New Forest road safety campaign donkey killed by car

A donkey foal which was used to educate young motorists to drive more safely in the New Forest has been killed by a car on a road.
The six-month-old female, called Jo-Jo, died on the B3055 Sway Road in Brockenhurst.
The white foal had been used to educate Brockenhurst College students as part of its Drive Safe road safety awareness initiative.

A petition has been set up calling for a reduction in the speed limit.
Ponies, donkeys, cattle and pigs, owned by commoners, have roamed free in the forest for centuries.
In 2013, there were 182 collisions involving livestock in the national park, resulting in 72 animal deaths.

Aide Callaghan and Fiona MacDuff, from Sway, set up the petition following the death of Jo-Jo on 26 November.
They are calling on Desmond Swayne, Conservative MP for New Forest West, to help reduce the local speed limit from 40mph (64km/h) to 30mph (48km/h).

They said Jo-Jo was well-known locally because of her "snow-white" colouring, and had been taken into the college to help raise awareness of animals at risk on New Forest roads.
Miss MacDuff said the foal's mother, Doll, was still mourning the loss and "had to be chased away" from the scene where she died.

Miss Callaghan, whose dog was hit and killed by a car on a New Forest track last year, said local roads were "not being policed enough".
"Animals might not come so high on some people's agendas, but it's not going to be long before it's a child," she added.

Hampshire county councillor Sean Woodward said the authority investigated all reported crashes in the New Forest and considered "implementing measures where they are likely to be effective".
He said grazing animals were a "feature of the area" and urged motorists to take extra care.

Since October, a Hampshire Constabulary speed enforcement officer has been assigned to help cut the number of animals killed on the roads of the New Forest.
The Verderers of the New Forest, Commoners' Defence Association and the police have also recently funded a speed camera van for the area.

A Hampshire Constabulary spokeswoman described Jo-Jo as a "local celebrity".
She said the foal's death had been a "tragic accident", which was reported to the police but added its investigations found no offence had been committed.
The force said it was working with with partnership agencies "in supporting animal accident reduction initiatives".

Mr Swayne has yet to respond to requests for comment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-30342578
 
New Forest road safety donkey death prompts reflector trial

The owner of a donkey foal killed by a car on a New Forest road is putting reflective stickers on her animals in an attempt to slow motorists down.

Jo-Jo, a six-month-old white female, had been used to educate Brockenhurst College students as part of its Drive Safe road safety awareness initiative.
The foal died on the B3055 Sway Road in Brockenhurst in November.

Owner Genette Byford is trialling reflective stickers after another of her donkeys was hit by a car.
New Forest National Park Authority said this animal "ran off" following Sunday's collision on the Sway Road and has not been seen since.

Jo-Jo was one of 16 donkeys owned by commoner Mrs Byford, along with ponies, cattle, sheep and pigs, which roam free across the New Forest.
In 2013, there were 182 collisions involving livestock in the national park, resulting in 72 animal deaths.

Mrs Byford said: "I've had a number of donkeys and ponies run over and it is heart-breaking.
"People just don't think about the animals being there."

The park authority said special glue was being used to attach the stickers to the hair of the animals, but added more research was needed to find a reflective material that would remain in place longer.

More than 3,000 people have signed a petition calling for a reduction in the speed limit across the New Forest from 40mph (64km/h) to 30mph (48km/h).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-30388374

For anyone with similar problems, chandlers sell self-adhesive reflective tape. It's intended for a marine environment, but I can't tell how long it would last on a donkey! Similar tape is sold for cars and motor-bikes.
 
The RSPCA has described as "sickening" the discovery of five dead ponies "dumped like rubbish" in a Nottinghamshire village.

A member of the public alerted the police after finding the animals on a bridleway on Rempstone Road, East Leake, on Tuesday.

Inspector Clint Davies believes the ponies were neglected before they died.

An investigation has been launched and the RSPCA wants to hear from anyone who saw anything suspicious.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-30594635
 
DOZENS OF DEAD whales have been washing ashore in Alaska, and nobody knows why. In the past four months, more than thirty dead cetaceans have been found along the state’s southwestern coast. The ordeal has everyone freaked out. Except bears, who appear to be having an awesome time.

NOAA has declared the string of strandings an “unusual mortality event.” And while “horrific environmental mystery” seems like a much more appropriate label, this is actually a bureaucratic term that allows the agency to begin formal investigation, convening with state, federal, and tribal partners to figure out what is causing the whales’ deaths.

Right now, the death toll is 11 fin whales (like the one pictured above), 14 humpbacks, and one gray whale. This is in addition to four other unidentifiable cetacean carcasses. The agency will post updates to its unusual mortality event website.

http://www.wired.com/2015/08/dozens-dead-whales-washing-ashore-alaska/?mbid=social_twitter
 
Two whales killed by sole fish stuck in their blowholes

They were just two regular flatfish caught up in extraordinary events – with each killing a pilot whale 1000 times its size.

Pilot whales and common soles normally live separate lives. But when one tried to eat the other it led to a fight to the death, with the whale asphyxiated when the fish became trapped in its blowhole trying to wriggle its way out of the animal.

This “Jonah-meets-David-and-Goliath” tale is the first record of a pilot whale suffocating on a fish since 1581, say scientists. Even more strangely, it happened twice in the space of a few weeks.

The events took place in November 2014, when a pod of 30-40 long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) – normally found in the North Atlantic, in deep offshore waters and along the edge of continental shelves – was spotted just a few hundred metres off the coasts of Belgium and the eastern UK.

They soon vanished, but a badly decomposed pilot whale washed up on the Dutch coast six weeks later.

Lonneke IJsseldijk, a post-mortem researcher in the faculty of veterinary medicine at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, examined the whale and found, to her astonishment, a common sole (Solea solea) stuck partly in the blowhole through which the whale breathes.

Three weeks later, another dead whale appeared: “When I got to the beach the second time, I saw this tail sticking out of the blowhole and I thought: ‘no way!’.”

https://www.newscientist.com/articl..._source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot
 
There's a sole in my blowhole, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There's a sole in the blowhole, dear Liza, a sole.

Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Oh mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, my dear.

With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, with what?

Stick an eel in, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Stick an eel in, dear Henry, dear Henry, your hole.

But the eel is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The eel is too long, dear Liza, too long.

Cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it.

With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?

Henry had suffocated by then but Liza went on to have a big hit with "Come to the Manta Ray, old chum!" :p
 
Around 100 dead hippos in Namibian National Park

Thought to be Anthrax.

PAY-Unexplained-hippo-deaths.jpg
 
Hundreds of cows have died mysteriously over a period of time in France:
Dead cows news

The farmers who have lost livestock are looking for someone to sue, because they believe the cows have been killed by electric fields generated by pylons etc. Is it possible to kill anything with an electric field? How powerful are pylons in France, anyway?
 
Hundreds of cows have died mysteriously over a period of time in France:
Dead cows news

The farmers who have lost livestock are looking for someone to sue, because they believe the cows have been killed by electric fields generated by pylons etc. Is it possible to kill anything with an electric field? How powerful are pylons in France, anyway?

Cattle may well have died from neglect. Just some chancers looking for a pay day.
 
Hundreds of elephants found dead in Botswana

Mystery surrounds the "completely unprecedented" deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana over the last two months.

Dr Niall McCann said colleagues in the southern African country had spotted more than 350 elephant carcasses in the Okavango Delta since the start of May.

No one knows why the animals are dying, with lab results on samples still weeks away, according to the government.

Botswana is home to a third of Africa's declining elephant population.

"They spotted 169 in a three-hour flight," he said. "To be able to see and count that many in a three-hour flight was extraordinary.

"A month later, further investigations identified many more carcasses, bringing the total to over 350."

"This is totally unprecedented in terms of numbers of elephants dying in a single event unrelated to drought," he added.

Back in May, Botswana's government ruled out poaching as a reason - noting the tusks had not been removed, according to Phys.org.
Dr McCann has also tentatively ruled out natural anthrax poisoning, which killed at least 100 elephants in Bostwana last year.

But they have been unable to rule out either poisoning or disease. The way the animals appear to be dying - many dropping on their faces - and sightings of other elephants walking in circles points to something potentially attacking their neurological systems, Dr McCann said.

Either way, without knowing the source, it is impossible to rule out the possibility of a disease crossing into the human population - especially if the cause is in either the water sources or the soil. Dr McCann points to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is believed to have started in animals.

"Yes, it is a conservation disaster - but it also has the potential to be a public health crisis," he said.
 
Hundreds of elephants found dead in Botswana

Mystery surrounds the "completely unprecedented" deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana over the last two months.

Dr Niall McCann said colleagues in the southern African country had spotted more than 350 elephant carcasses in the Okavango Delta since the start of May.

I saw this on the news earlier this evening. Tragic on a massive scale on so many levels. Let's hope they find the cause ( and solution ) as soon as possible.
 
This time it's the seals.

An estimated 7,000 Cape fur seals have been discovered dead at a breeding colony in central Namibia, scientists said on Saturday.

Conservationist Naude Dreyer of the charity Ocean Conservation Namibia began noticing dead seals littering the sandy beaches of the Pelican Point colony near Walvis Bay city in September. Then in the first two weeks of October he found large numbers of seal foetuses at the colony, Dr. Tess Gridley from the Namibian Dolphin Project told AFP by phone. Fur seals normally give birth between mid-November and mid-December. Gridley estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 female seals had miscarried young with more still being found. ...


https://phys.org/news/2020-10-thousands-dead-namibia.html
 
Pretty nasty.

Bolivia has sent a group of experts to the southern province of Tarija to investigate after 35 condors were found dead in recent days.

Officials say they fear the animals - 17 males and 18 females - may have died from poisoning.

The Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) is one of the largest flying birds with a wingspan of up to 3.2m (10.5ft). In December, it had its threat level raised to "vulnerable" from "near threatened". The International Union for Conservation of Nature updated the Andean condor's status in its annual update to its Red List, which assesses the survival prospects of animals, fungi and plant.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55980986
 
Thousands of expensive fish suddenly die outside several homes

COCONUT GROVE, Fla. – A real fishy mystery in Coconut Grove after thousands of pricy koi fish have turned up dead over the past couple weeks in several homes.

1620201854614.jpeg
1620201854614.jpeg


The impacted homeowners are devastated, and heart broken.

We’re not talking about a couple of fish or even hundreds of fish, we’re talking about thousands of fish that, all of a sudden, have turned up dead.

The scary thing is that the issue has been repeating itself at different homes here Coconut Grove over the past several weeks, and everyone wants to know why.

Jen Wheeler is the owner of Pond Doctors. She services fish ponds all over South Florida.

In the past two weeks she’s responded to five homes, four in this same Coconut Grove neighborhood, that have all experienced similar devastating fish kills.

Thousands of fish have turned up dead from one day to the next, all in the same area.

“To have them suddenly pass away for some unknown reason is really scary because you also start to think what else is this affecting,” Wheeler said. “Other than the fish that we are in love with.”

It’s more than fish, too. Birds, plants and even mammals have been turning up dead; at least two wild racoons have also died, all in the same neighborhood.

“It came up right up the driveway and turned on its side,” Marks said. “It looked like it might be playful, but it was convulsing and just died.”

Wheeler said the oxygen levels in all the ponds she serviced was normal.

Dead fish also turned up at the pond at Miami’s Simpson Park.

The common denominator is that all the ponds source their water from wells connected to the aquifer.

https://www.local10.com/news/local/...sive-fish-suddenly-die-outside-several-homes/

maximus otter
 
Probably fish farmers did it.

An investigation is under way after dead crabs, lobsters and fish were washed up along part of the North East coast.

Such wash-ups have been reported at Bran Sands at Redcar, Seaton Carew and Saltburn in the past few weeks. A dead porpoise was also photographed at South Gare, near the mouth of the River Tees, at the weekend.

An expert said it was "very concerning" and "quite odd" it appeared to be localised around the Tees.

Fishermen in the area have told the North Eastern Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authority (NEIFCA) they are not fishing close to the shore because there is no catch.

NEIFCA senior environmental and scientific officer Tim Smith said tests were being carried out.

"Everyone is trying to track down who's responsible, we've had divers who've seen dead crabs on the seabed which has been washed up and fishermen who've reported very little going into their lobster pots," he said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-59037044
 
Dead and injured sheep in Vlijmen, probably by wolf
At a sheep farm in Vlijmen in Brabant, fifteen sheep were bitten to death last night, probably by a wolf. Fifteen other sheep were injured.

The municipality of Heusden advises livestock farmers in the area to bring their animals inside at night or to surround them with grids with electricity. The wolf has not yet been seen by humans.

It is not the first time that a wolf bites sheep to death in the vicinity of Heusden. Last year, eleven sheep from a farmer from Bokhoven were bitten to death. "I got a call yesterday that another wolf had struck. I immediately picked up some of my sheep in a cattle truck," says farmer Jos Verhulst to the regional broadcaster.

According to him, placing nets is not a realistic solution to the threat. "With such a large surface area and so many sheep, you can continue to stretch nets. The sheep eat away all the leftover grass, so you always have to move them. And the wolves can sometimes jump over the nets."

Farmers whose animals have become victims of a wolf can make a report and submit a claim for damages to Bij12, an organization that supports provinces in the implementation of nature policy.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2406131-dode-en-gewonde-schapen-in-vlijmen-waarschijnlijk-door-wolf
 
Dead and injured sheep in Vlijmen, probably by wolf
At a sheep farm in Vlijmen in Brabant, fifteen sheep were bitten to death last night, probably by a wolf. Fifteen other sheep were injured.

Last year, eleven sheep from a farmer from Bokhoven were bitten to death.

- But let’s “rewild” the UK.

:rolleyes:

maximus otter
 
Would a wolf kill sheep without eating them?
Foxes will slaughter a whole pen full of chickens. I don't know if wolves do the same. And anyway, in the real wild, wolves operate in packs - a single wolf is an abnormality.
 
Dead and injured sheep in Vlijmen, probably by wolf
At a sheep farm in Vlijmen in Brabant, fifteen sheep were bitten to death last night, probably by a wolf. Fifteen other sheep were injured.

The municipality of Heusden advises livestock farmers in the area to bring their animals inside at night or to surround them with grids with electricity. The wolf has not yet been seen by humans.

It is not the first time that a wolf bites sheep to death in the vicinity of Heusden. Last year, eleven sheep from a farmer from Bokhoven were bitten to death. "I got a call yesterday that another wolf had struck. I immediately picked up some of my sheep in a cattle truck," says farmer Jos Verhulst to the regional broadcaster.

According to him, placing nets is not a realistic solution to the threat. "With such a large surface area and so many sheep, you can continue to stretch nets. The sheep eat away all the leftover grass, so you always have to move them. And the wolves can sometimes jump over the nets."

Farmers whose animals have become victims of a wolf can make a report and submit a claim for damages to Bij12, an organization that supports provinces in the implementation of nature policy.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2406131-dode-en-gewonde-schapen-in-vlijmen-waarschijnlijk-door-wolf
Suggest it might not be the work of the Wolf - they are known to hunt alone at certain times of each season. More chance that it might be the work of a Lynx ~ as this report from Wales expresses!
https://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/news/12129/escaped-lynx-kills-seven-sheep-a-stark-warning/
 

Seals are dying in droves along South Africa’s coast. What’s killing them remains a mystery.


The tourist, in her sandals, flower-print shirt and floppy sun hat, was concentrating on keeping a sure footing. The boulders on this desolately beautiful stretch of coastline were jagged and slippery.
Then, she looked up.

imrs.php


Before her was a breathtakingly grisly scene: six dead seals lined up in a row, one splayed open to reveal its inner workings, bright red blood collecting in pools and trickling down to the crashing waves below. A motley crew of younger women huddled over the carcasses. But the tourist didn’t seem fazed.
“What a shame,” she said. “Pardon me for being nosy, but do you know what’s killing them?”

Tess Gridley, a scientist who doesn’t study seals normally but has taken it upon herself to find out what’s been killing thousands of the animals along southern Africa’s Atlantic coast over the past six months, looked between the tourist and dead seals in front of her. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Gridley said. “Seals are just gone from whole areas of coast, and no one has batted an eye,” she said. “I’m filling a gap because it seems nobody else will.”

Gridley’s leading theory for what’s killing the seals is also a toxin that in high concentrations can pose a threat to humans and their food. Domoic acid, released in some algae blooms, is ingested by plankton and then moves up the food chain through shellfish and anchovies and so on. In humans, it can cause what is called amnesic shellfish poisoning, which, as the name suggests, primarily affects memory, but also balance, and can be fatal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/10/south-africa-seals-dying/

maximus otter
 
Thousands of dead anchovies and sardines wash up on a beach in Chile.

Photographs taken on Sunday showed the beach turned silver by the vast number of dead fish on the shoreline.

A clean-up operation to remove the dead fish is now under way.
Environmental officials are now investigating what caused the rare phenomenon & are understood to be looking into the water quality in the region reported by local media on Saturday.

It’s reportedly not the first time shoals of dead fish have washed up on beaches in this part of Chile.

Similar incidents reported last year were explained by a ‘low amount of oxygen in the water, which ends up pushing the species towards the sand’.
1645462623857.png
 
Something is picking on penguins.

Scientists have been left stumped as to why dozens of headless penguins are washing up on beaches in Australia.

They have now launched a full investigation into who, or what, is behind the gruesome deaths.It is estimated that around 20 have been washed ashore this month alone on beaches surrounding South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula. Remarkably the total in April alone is more than the total number of penguin deaths in the area in the whole of 2021.

Now in South Australia, Stephen Hedges is collecting all of the dead animals. This is so they can be studied by scientists as they look into finding out how or why the heads are being removed. Stephen is a volunteer at The Flinders University and has said that he and others are finding both the penguin bodies and the severed heads.

However direct human intervention has already been ruled out as a cause as the deaths are happening at sea.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/mystery-dozens-beheaded-penguins-wash-26819090
 
Oh, no! I wonder if it's pollution, something getting trapped around the penguins' necks, like the Robin Williams penguin character in that cartoon Happy Feet?
 
Something is picking on penguins.

Scientists have been left stumped as to why dozens of headless penguins are washing up on beaches in Australia.

They have now launched a full investigation into who, or what, is behind the gruesome deaths.It is estimated that around 20 have been washed ashore this month alone on beaches surrounding South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula. Remarkably the total in April alone is more than the total number of penguin deaths in the area in the whole of 2021.

Now in South Australia, Stephen Hedges is collecting all of the dead animals. This is so they can be studied by scientists as they look into finding out how or why the heads are being removed. Stephen is a volunteer at The Flinders University and has said that he and others are finding both the penguin bodies and the severed heads.

However direct human intervention has already been ruled out as a cause as the deaths are happening at sea.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/mystery-dozens-beheaded-penguins-wash-26819090

Why do we need to look further than:

False_Bay_Shark_Diving_2014_009.jpg


maximus otter
 
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