Archive for the ‘In Oceania’ Category

Amazing Delivery! Shark Bites Pregnant Shark - Babies Emerge

Shark

Visitors at Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World sure got their money’s worth recently!  Visitors at the New Zealand aquarium witnessed a shark perform an unplanned and unconventional “cesarean section” on another shark!

Acting as midwife, the smart shark apparently knew what the Auckland aquarium’s staff did not – another shark in the aquarium was pregnant.  Although it is common for sharks to nip at one another, this particular shark took a great big bite out of the pregnant shark’s side. Read the rest of this entry »

An Albatross Dies Every Five Minutes

Once cursed with killing dolphins, tuna fishing is now being blamed for a shocking reduction in albatross numbers.

Long line fishing is being blamed for a startling drop in the number of albatrosses around the world.  Fish, squid and other bait are trailed on hooks behind a trawler to catch tuna and swordfish.

However, because the hooks for these fish are set just below the surface it attracts albatrosses who think they’ve spotted a nice free meal and dive into the water to get it.

Instead they get hooked and tangled in the line, dragged under the water, and drowned.  In many cases the bait has been dislodged meaning that hook will now catch nothing. Read the rest of this entry »

Australia’s Northern Territory: Is Slaughter The Solution, Or Should Man Just Leave?

Did you hear the one about the man who didn’t like his blue pumps? So disgusted was he with the color that he cut off his legs and bled to death.

I know, as a joke it’s either sick or bad or both. However it’s not too bad an analogy for the conclusions the chaps at the Charles Darwin University School for Environmental Research (SER) are reaching.

[Darwin, for those not familiar with Australian geography, is the capital of the Northern Territory in Australia, the harshest region in the country]. Read the rest of this entry »

Two Endangered Blue Whales Struck by Ships

Blue Whale

Earlier this week, an ocean survey vessel reported feeling a “shudder underneath the ship” in the waters of northern California.  Soon after, a whale was spotted “bleeding profusely.”   A few hours later, an endangered blue whale washed ashore in a rocky cove in California.  According to reports, the apparent strike probably occurred about 7 miles from shore. 

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Children Find Dead Pregnant Beluga Whale During Field Trip

Beluga Whale

A class of young school children from Alaska found a dead beluga whale on the beach during a weekly field trip. The Winterberry Elementary School second graders came across the whale along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.   According to their teacher, Meg Eggleston, the children saw the whale moving its tail and were convinced the whale will be fine.   But the whale, dead for hours, had already begun to decompose.  Read the rest of this entry »

Drink Wine to Save Endangered Hector’s and Maui’s Dolphins

A donation of three tons of grapes has been converted, via wine, into funds for the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) project to save endangered dolphins endemic to New Zealand.

Hector Dolphin

A Hector’s Dolphin showing the characteristic round dorsal fin.

The Wine

It started with Gemma McGrath who had moved from a job on Whale Watch boats to a barmaid in the small Otago village of Bannockburn which is about as far away from the sea as one can get in New Zealand.

Missing the dolphins and concerned by the steady decrease in their numbers, she spoke of them so passionately and persistently that she eventually got a farmer in the area to donate 3 tons of Pinot Gris grapes. Read the rest of this entry »

Kakapo - World’s Rarest Parrot - Gets It On With Photographer’s Head: Video!

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Sirocco, a male Kakapo, is grinning from ear-to-ear as he makes a play for a very unusual partner.

While filming the BBC’s “Last Chance to See” series, filmmaker Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine have a surprising encounter with an amorous Kakapo named Sirocco.

Sirocco, one of just 124 of his kind, appears eager to increase the population of his species - whether or not there’s another Kakapo around.

In the meantime, however, a human head will do just fine.

Read the rest of this entry »

850 New Species Found Underground

In the Australian outbacks, 18 scientists have just discovered over 850 new species living underground.

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Koalas Threatened with AIDS-like Epidemic: Extinction Looms

Koala image for article about koala retrovirus, AIDS epidemic threatening extinction

Wildlife experts fear that the spread of an AIDS-like virus could force already threatened koalas into extinction.

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations are in serious decline - victims of habitat loss, domestic dog predation, vehicular deaths, and bushfires.

Sadly, a new and deadly danger is facing the iconic koala: The koala retrovirus.

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Vicious Tongue-Eating, Blood-Sucking Parasite Found

Fish Tongue

Cat got your tongue?  Well, not in this case!  According to the BBC, a strange-looking parasite was recently discovered inside the mouth of a weaver fish off the Minquiers.  Attracted to fish, the parasite, an isopod, eats the fish’s tongue then takes up residence inside its mouth! Read the rest of this entry »