Wildlife Gone Viral

 

Japanese Wolf Robots on the Prowl

"Super Monster Wolf" in Kisarazu, Chiba prefecture

A Japanese company making ferocious-looking robot wolves is being swamped by orders after record numbers of fatal bear attacks on humans last year.  "Monster Wolf" is an animatoronic scarecrow with flashing red eyes that howls and growls menacingly to scare away wild animals.

Ohta Seiki, the Hokkaido-based firm that makes the devices, has already received around 50 orders this year, more than the usual volume for an entire year.  "We make them by hand. We cannot make them fast enough now. We are asking our customers to wait two to three months," company president Yuji Ohta told AFP.  "Awareness of bear safety and measures against wildlife damage (on farm products) improved. There was also a growing recognition that our product is effective in dealing with bears," Ohta said.

Orders come mostly from farmers, operators of golf courses and people working outside in rural areas such as in construction.  Bears killed 13 people across Japan in 2025-2026, more than twice the previous high.  More than 50,000 bear sightings were recorded nationwide, more than double the previous record set two years before.  The animals were seen entering homes, roaming near schools and rampaging through supermarkets and hot spring resorts on an almost daily basis.

The number of bears captured and then culled nearly tripled from a year earlier to 14,601, also marking an all-time high.  Last month, some northern regions also reported more than four times as many sightings as last year as the animals emerge from hibernation, local media said.

"Monster Wolf" features artificial fur draped over an assembled pipe frame, attached to speakers, topped with a menacing, open-mouthed face.  For prices starting from around $4,000 or higher, the system comes with a battery, solar panels, sensors, speakers and other apparatus.  It broadcasts more than 50 kinds of recorded sounds, including human voices and electronic noises, audible up to one kilometer away.  The device turns its head from side to side, flashes red LED eyes, while its tail is equipped with blue LEDs.

Ohta introduced the product in 2016 to prevent damage to agricultural products by deer, boars and bears, and it was initially derided as a gimmick.  The company is now upgrading the device by putting it on wheels to chase animals or patrol specific paths.  Ohta also plans to develop a hand-held version for hikers, anglers and schoolchildren, while also exploring artificial intelligence cameras for future models.   "We wanted to apply our manufacturing to do our part to deal with bears," he said.

 

Dozens of Sloths Die at Shady Roadside Zoo Operation

On a busy tourist strip in Orlando, behind noisy bars and souvenir shops, 21 sloths in crates arrived at a warehouse at the end of a grueling international trip.  Soon, they would all be dead.

The new home of the tree-dwelling mammals was the off-site facility of a new roadside attraction called “Sloth World,” a $49 animal encounter marketed as a conservation-focused center scheduled to open soon.   Nothing could have prepared the sloths for this. Until recently, they lived wild in the forest canopies of Guyana.  The animals' new home wasn't ready to receive them.  There was no running water. No electricity. The space heaters meant to keep them warm were plugged in with extension cords running from another building, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission incident report that Inside Climate News obtained through an open-records request. But the heaters repeatedly tripped the fuse and shut off. At least one night in December 2024, the agency said, the sloths were left alone in the cold warehouse without heat.   One by one, they died. 

Don't Be April Fooled: Jonathan the Tortoise is Still Alive

Reports of the death of the world’s oldest living land animal — a nearly 200-year-old tortoise — were greatly exaggerated.  Jonathan (believed to be 193) is still kicking — albeit slowly — on the island of St. Helena.

“It was a hoax,” Anne Dillon, head of communications on the island, said.  “I don’t have all those details, I can just assure you that he is very much alive.”

News of the tortoise’s demise spread rapidly on social media on April Fool’s Day.  A social media  account, falsely claiming to be that of Joe Hollins, a veterinarian who had worked with the reptile on the island west of Africa in the south Atlantic Ocean, said he was heartbroken to announce the death of the “gentle giant” that “outlived empires, wars, and generations of humans.”  The post quickly accumulated over a million views, mostly an outpouring of condolences.  But Hollins later said on Facebook that he didn't have an X account and something more sinister was afoot.  “This  is a hoax — The hoaxer is asking for crypto donations. It’s a con,” Hollins wrote.

Guinness World Records lists Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise, as the oldest living land animal and oldest tortoise ever. He was believed to be about 50 years old when he was brought to St. Helena in 1882.  Dillon said the tortoise was still roaming the grounds of the governor’s residence, which was the place Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to following his defeat by the British at Waterloo in 1815.   Bonaparte died there in 1821, about a decade before Jonathan is believed to have taken the first steps in what would become a very long life.

Sign of Doom Appears Over Tel Aviv

The skies over Tel Aviv were flooded with a sea of crows on Tuesday, in what many people are saying is a 'harbinger of doom' warning.  Thousands of crows were filmed circling high-rise buildings, including the iconic Azrieli Towers, in dramatic footage that quickly went viral online. 

 Many viewers linked the eerie scene to Israel's ongoing conflict with Iran, claiming the spectacle signaled a looming disaster.  'This is considered by many to be a 'harbinger of doom' as it is often followed by total catastrophe,' one user shared on social media, while others linked it to a biblical prophecy.  They cited the Book of Revelation 19:17, which describes an angel standing in the sun, shouting to birds flying in midair to gather for 'the great supper of God.'

The swirling flock created dark, shifting clouds over the skyline, leaving residents and viewers stunned by the sheer scale of the migration.  While scientists said the dramatic sighting was a routine migration event, many social media users insisted there was something more sinister behind the massive flock. 'This is the worst possible omen at a civilizational level,' one user shared.  'It's still taken seriously back home in England, and the Romans would stop entire wars over this sign.'

In ancient Rome, priests known as augurs closely watched the skies, interpreting the flight patterns and calls of birds as messages from the gods that could influence decisions about war, leadership and major public events.  Large or unusual gatherings of birds were often viewed as ominous warnings of trouble ahead.

More than 2,000 people have been killed across the Middle East as the war enters its fourth week.  Israeli and U.S. strikes inside Iran have left more than 1,200 people dead, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.  At least 1,000 deaths have been reported in Lebanon, while 17 people have been killed in Israel.  The conflict has also claimed the lives of 13 US service members, with two additional troops dying from noncombat causes. 

 

 

A Bear Crisis Has Seized Japan

A bear crisis has sparked national alarm in Japan-- at least 13 people have been killed and more than 200 wounded injured in bear encounters the past year alone. Videos of bears rummaging through supermarket aisles, roaming school grounds and plucking persimmons from suburban backyards have gone viral on Japanese social media. Some schools have also closed temporarily, while residents in parts of northern Japan avoid going out after dark. Japan’s defense minister has deployed the Self-Defense Forces to hard-hit regions, and lawmakers are scrambling to find long-term solutions. The US and UK embassies have also issued advisories to travelers in rural areas. 

For many, the crisis feels both frightening – and predictable.  “There are just too many bears now, it’s an emergency situation,” bear hunter Haruo Ikegami says.  Japan’s bear population has skyrocketed, while the number of licensed hunters has plummeted. With more than a third of Japan’s population now over 65, rural towns are shrinking. Few young residents remain, and even fewer are willing to take up hunting, Ikegami said, a dangerous job with low pay and little appeal compared to urban life in places like Tokyo. “If the government had taken this seriously earlier, it wouldn’t have gotten this bad,” Atsushi Kanno, a 37-year-old bear hunter, told CNN. “It’s nonsense that they’re responding now, only after things have escalated.” 

There are several factors driving the surge in encounters. One is simply numbers-- the population of the Hokkaido brown bear, one of two bear species in Japan, has more than doubled in the last 30 years, with nearly 12,000 of the animals now roaming the country’s northernmost prefecture.  Experts say climate change is another factor. Poor harvests of nuts and fruit are pushing bears to seek food elsewhere. 

“When it’s scarce, bears must find food. I believe bears are taking a step closer to human settlements,” Hiroo Tamatani, a bear conservationist said. Japan’s demographic shifts also compound the problem. Rural towns and farmland once formed a natural buffer between deep forest and populated centers. But as those areas empty out, bears are moving in, taking advantage of the new real estate.

Public opinion largely supports culling. Many in Japan now fear hiking or traveling to prefectures with recent attacks, and a growing number prefer visiting “no-bear prefectures,” areas with no known bear populations.  Japanese officials continue searching for solutions that protect human life while allowing wildlife to survive.  “Humans and animals have lived side by side for a long time. Sometimes we harmed each other, but we still must respect and acknowledge one another,” Tougen Yoshihara, a Buddhist monk who was attacked by a bear, told CNN.

 

Mutant "Blobs" in Waterways Sparking Fear and Panic

A wave of floating blobs has appeared throughout waterways in the U.S., leaving some swimmers and boaters fearful that these could be giant marine parasites. The gelatinous objects have been called "cursed gummy bears," "mutant brains," and even "sci-fi nightmares," as more and more people came across them in freshwater ponds, lakes, and rivers this summer. 

They've been spotted in places like the Pacific Northwest, including the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Washington, but they're common in many other areas, including the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and the Great Lakes region.  USFWS  recently shared a close-up picture of a large bryozoan discovered in Lake Huron near Michigan. 

Tiny Sea Slug Packs a Mighty Punch

A small venomous creature has caused the closure of tourist beaches in Spain for a second time in the past week after they were discovered in the water, local authorities announced.  The Glaucus atlanticus is colloquially named the “blue dragon sea slug” for its resemblance to the mythical dragon, and several more of them were found in the water off the beaches of Guardamar del Segura, in Alicante, Spain.

The Guardamar police prohibited beachgoers from swimming on Friday. In a post translated via Facebook, police wrote: “The red flag is raised again on our beaches due to the presence of [what’s] known as “blue dragon” (Glaucus atlanticus). It’s a small sea clam whose sting can cause intense pain, vomiting and adverse reactions.”

Scientists Discover Spiders with Big Dick Energy

A new genus of tarantula has been announced, whose males are so well-endowed that scientists essentially named them the 'genital king.'  The new genus, Satyrex, is named after Satyrs (male nature spirits from ancient Greek mythology known for their bawdy behavior and prominent packages) and Rex, which is Latin for "king."

Spiders don't really have penises, in the traditional sense. Instead, they use arm-like structures called palps to grab sperm from ducts in their abdomen, which is then inserted into the genital opening of a female. It doesn't sounds very romantic, but it gets the job done.  And given the fact that many females spiders attempt to kill (and eat) their male suitors after sex, it's quite understandable that the males would want to keep their distance.

Males of the newly described species boast the longest "penises" of all known tarantulas. The largest gets up to 2 inches long – almost as long as its legs, and nearly 4 times longer than its torso/carapace. By comparison, most tarantula species sport penises merely twice as long as their carapace. Finnish arachnologist Alireza Zamani explained that the reason the spiders are proudly packing might be a matter of self-preservation.  "We have tentatively suggested that the long palps might allow the male to keep a safer distance during mating and help him avoid being attacked and devoured by the highly aggressive female," says Zamani.

 

German Zoo Kills Baboons Due to Overcrowding and Feeds the Carcasses to the Lions

After shooting dead twelve Guinea baboons to alleviate overcrowding, Nuremberg Zoo faces fresh controversy as visitors were shocked to see the primates’ carcasses being fed to the lions.

Local media reported that the headless, limbless cadavers were served to the big cats in full view of the public. “They were presented like on a butcher’s bench, it was really awful,” one female visitor told the Nürnberger Nachrichten. The zoo’s management said the feeding times were clearly signposted and visitors could have avoided them. The heads had been removed so that the brains could be examined for research purposes.

More than 300 complaints have been lodged against the cull, which the zoo insisted was inevitable, after it had spent years trying and failing to find alternative accommodation for the primates and to control their population through contraception. 

The zoo said that the cull, in which the animals were anesthetized and then shot, was agreed after consulting veterinary and environmental authorities, as well as the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria.  The zoo insisted that the reduction in the size of the group was unavoidable because the 43 baboons had far exceeded the enclosure’s capacity of 25. The overcrowding had led to conflicts between inmates, leaving several injured. 

While other German zoos defended Nuremberg’s course of action, they said they had managed their primate population by sterilizing the animals, or finding alternative accommodation. The German Animal Welfare Association said the killing of supposedly surplus animals has become a common practice in zoos in recent years, but that the killing of primates due to overcrowding was a new development. Anna Ritzinger, an animal rights activist, said: “Primates are very similar to us, which is why it affects so many people.”

 

"Demon" Sea Lions Attack Surfer

California surfer RJ LaMendola said he was surfing recently, when he was attacked at Oxnard State Beach in Ventura County, California, by a "demonic" sea lion that bit him and dragged him off his board, he wrote on Facebook.  LaMendola described the sea lion as "feral" and "almost demonic." The surfer was struck that the mammal was "devoid of the curiosity or playfulness" he usually associates with sea lions. "This isn’t normal sea lion behavior -- it’s something darker, something dangerous," he wrote, saying he won't be surfing again "anytime soon."

Marine researchers are saying that sea lions on the California coast are displaying strange behavior, likely due to a harmful algae bloom impacting the region.  The sea lions are likely being poisoned by domoic acid, a neurotoxin within the algae blooms, which they ingest through the fish they eat, according to marine experts. Ingesting domoic acid can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans and marine mammals, according to the Marine Mammal Care Center.

There have been reports of the marine mammals acting aggressively in some cases, and in others, they appear lethargic, Jeni Smith, rescue supervisor at SeaWorld San Diego, told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV. Smith described one sea lion who appeared to be "star-gazing."  "Some animals seem very, very sleepy, maybe right after having a seizure," Smith said. "They may be abnormally aggressive."

Harmful algal blooms occur when colonies of algae grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful affects on people, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some blooms produce toxins that can kill fish, mammals and birds. In some cases, the algal blooms can cause illness or death in humans, according to NOAA. 

Researchers are now seeing multiple consecutive years of harmful algal blooms, Dave Bader, chief operations and education officer at the Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro, told KGTV.  The Marine Mammal Care Center has taken in nearly 150 sea lions since February, Bader said. There have been reports of dolphins and seabirds falling ill as well, and this event could be worse than the bloom that occurred in 2023, which killed 1,000 sea lions, according to the marine conservation group.

The Marine Mammal Care Center has taken in nearly 150 sea lions since February, Bader said. There have been reports of dolphins and seabirds falling ill as well, and this event could be worse than the bloom that occurred in 2023, which killed 1,000 sea lions, according to the marine conservation group.  

SeaWorld's Jeni Smith urged the public to do their part to create a better environment for marine life and prevent pollution.  "Throwing away their trash, not allowing anything toxic to go down the storm drain, because everything goes back to the ocean," Smith said.

 

Woman Dies Alone, Becomes Dog Chow

Anda and Sasha sizing up dinner prospects

A dog owner was eaten by her pet pugs after dying in her apartment and being left to rot for days.  The horrifying scene was discovered after Adriana Neagoe's family members raised the alarm when they had not heard from her in five days.

The 34-year-old, from Târgu Jiu, northwest of Bucharest, Romania, had not responded to any phone calls or messages and when concerned relatives visited the flat there was no response.

After alerting the police, officers and firefighters broke down the door to find Neagoe's lifeless half-eaten body on the floor. Her two beloved pugs were found beside their owner - who also went by the name of Anda and Sasha. The pugs had turned on their owner after her sudden death left them without food. According to police, they came across the shocking scene along with the person who had called them. 

Ambulance crews confirmed Neagoe's death, noting that there were no apparent signs of violence.  With no clear cause of death, an autopsy was performed on the body at the Gorj Forensic Medicine.  A police investigation is ongoing.

Meanwhile, her two pugs were removed by workers from the local council and police put a shelter order in place for both dogs.  Friends and family members were shocked and saddened by the news, adding their own thoughts and tributes in the comments.  Others said how they "could not believe" the news.

 

High-Flying Hamsters on the Rampage

A flight was grounded in the Azores after 130 hamsters escaped their cages during the flight from Portugal.  They were found roaming around the cargo area of the Airbus 320 after baggage handlers unloading luggage discovered their damaged cages.

Workers were desperately rounding up the power cable-eating rodents-- 16 critters were still missing after five days on the ground. The hamsters were part of a delivery for a pet shop on the island which also included ferrets and some birds. The mass break-out forced the flight to be grounded instead of continuing its journey back to Lisbon.

Sources told a local newspaper that the animals had been accepted on the flight after being turned away from an earlier one because the previous cages “didn’t meet accepted standards".  TAP Air Portugal, the airline operating the flight, has yet to make any official comment.

Hamsters like to munch on cables and wires which could potentially damage aircraft.  In 2016, hundreds of hamsters broke loose inside a Boeing jet that was forced out of service. The pilot of the Amsterdam-bound flight said at the time: "We came to the aircraft, and the mayhem just happened."

In 2006, a hamster secretly being carried by a passenger escaped and caused chaos on a plane to Austria. That flight, which originated in Mallorca, Spain was forced to make a stop in Innsbruck so officials could search for the hamster and make sure it didn’t cause any damage.

Guinea Residents Mob Research Center After Chimp Kills Baby

People living near a chimpanzee research center in Guinea attacked the facility after a woman said one of the animals had killed her infant, the center’s managers said. An angry crowd ransacked the building, destroying and setting fire to equipment including drones, computers and over 200 documents.

Eyewitnesses said the crowd was reacting to the news that the mutilated body of an infant had been found two miles from the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The child’s mother, Seny Zogba, said she was working in a cassava field when a chimpanzee came up from behind, bit her and pulled her baby into the forest.

Local ecologist Alidjiou Sylla said the dwindling supply of food in the reserve was pushing the animals to leave the protected area more frequently, increasingly the likelihood of attacks. The research center said it had recorded six chimpanzee attacks on humans within the reserve since the start of the year.

The forests of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa are home to the largest population of the critically endangered western chimpanzee, estimated to have declined by 80% between 1990 and 2014, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are just seven left in Guinea’s Bossou forest, which forms part of the Nimba Mountains Nature Reserve, and is close to subsistence farming communities of the Nzerekore Region.  Chimpanzees are respected in Guinea and traditionally given gifts in the form of food, prompting  some to venture out of the protected area and into human settlements, where they can sometimes attack.

Ahhh-- So That's Why Whales Have Blowholes

Sharks in Brazil are now testing positive for cocaine as the drugs are being dumped into the ocean waters.

Drug smugglers have been known to get creative when it comes to trying to evade law enforcement, using bananas and other produce to illicitly ship them across international borders.. Buoys have also been used to keep afloat three tonnes worth of cocaine bricks in the ocean.

But it seems that bricks of cocaine like these are breaking open somehow and are now having an effect on the animals that inhabit the sea-- 13 wild sharks off the coast of Brazil have been tested positive for having cocaine in their bodies.  Tons of cocaine have been found in the waters around Florida and South and Central America, leading researchers to fear that it could be polluting the environment and impacting wildlife in those areas.

Now, a worrying study conducted by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil has found this hypothesis to be correct.  Experts dissected 13 wild Brazilian sharp nose sharks obtained from coastal waters near Rio de Janeiro and tested their muscle and liver tissue for drugs.  Not only did all the sharks test positive for cocaine, but the concentrations were up to 100 times higher than had been previously reported in other aquatic life.

 

Snake for Supper?

Despite their scary reputation, pythons may be one of the most Earth-friendly meats to farm on the planet.  A group of researchers studied two large python species over 12 months on farms in Thailand and Vietnam — where snake meat is considered a delicacy — and found that they were more efficient to raise than other livestock.

Their research (published in the journal Scientific Reports) suggests that python farming could offer a solution to rising food insecurity around the globe, exacerbated by climate change.  The researchers, who studied more than 4,600 pythons, found that both Burmese and reticulated pythons grew rapidly in their first year of life, and they required less food (in terms of what’s known as feed conversion: the amount of feed to produce a pound of meat) than other farmed products, including chicken, beef, pork, salmon — and even crickets.

The snakes were fed a mix of locally sourced food, including wild-caught rodents, pork byproducts and fish pellets. They gained up to 1.6 ounces a day, with the females growing faster than their male counterparts. The snakes were never force-fed, and the researchers found that the reptiles could fast for long periods without losing much body mass, which meant they required less labor for feeding than traditional farmed animals.

“They need very little water. A python can live off the dew that forms on its scales. In the morning, it just drinks off its scales and that’s enough,” said Daniel Natusch, a herpetologist and biodiversity expert who was involved in the research. “Theoretically you could just stop feeding it for a year.”  In a world where scientists predict climate change will lead to more extreme weather and environmental shocks, a species that is heat-tolerant, resilient to food shortages and able to produce protein “far more efficiently than anything else studied to date” is “almost a dream come true,” Natusch said.

During his research, Natusch ate snake barbecued, sauteed on skewers, in curries and as jerky. He described the taste as similar to chicken, but a little more gamy. Because snakes don’t have limbs, very little is wasted in butchering, he said. And it is remarkably easy to fillet: “You just bring your knife along that backstrap and you get a four-meter-long piece of meat.”

A python’s needs are fairly basic. They’re sedentary by nature and coexist happily with other snakes, displaying “few of the complex animal welfare issues commonly seen in caged birds and mammals,” the researchers said.  Although some conservationists have expressed concerns that commercial snake farming could lead to the illegal harvesting of wild populations, Natusch — who chairs a group of snake specialists for the International Union for Conservation of Nature — argues that the opposite is true: It gives local communities a financial incentive to conserve wild populations and the habitats on which they depend.

Yet Another Bear Attack in a Russian Circus

In Russia, a roller skating circus bear mauled its trainer in front of shocked kids during a performance. The humiliated animal hit back at its cruel trainer as they performed beneath a big top as spectators screamed in terror.

Female bear Dzhema was being forced to do tricks for the "Happiness Show" at the Mash Circus in Obninsk, in the Kaluga region, on June 1.  Shocking audience video footage shows trainer Oleg Krasov forcing Dzhema to sit in a chair with a pair of roller skates tied to her rear paws. He then grabs her fur forcefully and pulls her up sharply on her hind legs in order to get her moving.

But as Krasov turns his back on Dzhem, she sees an opportunity to get her revenge.  Dropping to all fours, Dzhem charges at her trainer, flooring him.  The powerful bear lands a flurry of massive blows with her front paws as parents rush their screaming children from the arena.  The footage ends with Dzhema towering over her stricken keeper as circus workers try to stop her.  Astonishingly, local media reports said that Krasov survived without any serious injury.

Circus management later tried to pass off the attack as "normal".  They said in a statement: "She did not hurt him at all. She was actually playing with him.   These are her normal actions. She loves him."  Of course, everyone knows this is typical Russian bullshit!

Bears are kept in traveling circuses in many parts of the world, particularly in Russia, but mistreatment can often lead to them attacking and even killing their trainers or other circus performers.  In August 2022, a circus bear savaged a trainer in front of screaming children after living a life of agony with joint pain.  The crazed beast was seen going wild in the Russian circus ring, attacking the man as children and parents fled the tent.

Just a month before, a brown bear attacked a ringmaster after being forced to perform tricks at another cruel Russian circus.  The raging bear suddenly became agitated and lunged at the circus performer during a show packed with kids and their parents in the city of Blagoveshchensk.

 

Mysterious Orca Attacks Continue in the Strait of Gibraltar

An unknown number of orcas sunk a sailing yacht in Moroccan waters in the Strait of Gibraltar on Sunday, according to Spain’s maritime rescue service. While orcas are typically peaceful, this is the latest in a string of attacks that have hit the region in the past four years.

Reuters reports that a 49-foot-long vessel, named the Alboran Cognac, carried two people and encountered the high social apex predators at 9 am local time on Sunday. The passengers reported sudden blows to the hull and rudder before the water started seeping into the ship. A nearby oil tanker rescued the two onboard and transported them to Gibraltar. The yacht was left to sink into the ocean.

Experts believe the orcas involved to be a subpopulation of about 15 individuals given the name “Gladis.” This group of juvenile males has sunk several yachts in the Strait of Gibraltar over the last four years, but experts are somewhat baffled as to why. While typically peaceful animals, the Gladis pod has plagued the small strip of water separating Europe and Africa for years.

There have been nearly 700 interactions between orcas and ships in the Strait of Gibraltar region since May 2020. At the time, photos of the Gladis pod revealed several injuries on the orcas’ bodies, possibly indicating previous run-ins with fishing boats. In a 2023 interview with NPR, director of the Orca Behavior Institute Monika Wieland Shields said we don’t know the motivation, but this could be a defense behavior based on previous trauma. It’s possible the orcas had negative experiences with a fishing boat, so now they see all large boats as a threat.

 

Wally the "Emotional Support" Alligator

An emotional support alligator was taken by pranksters and then dumped in a swamp, his owner said. Known as WallyGator, this surprisingly cuddly creature has been helping Joie Henney relieve his depression for almost ten years.

Henney’s beloved knobbly reptile was taken while on vacation to Georgia by someone looking to play a prank.  In the aftermath Wally was picked up by local animal control and released into a swamp at a “remote location/”  Henney said that his cold-blooded pal was taken by someone who then dropped him into another person’s yard, probably to scare them.  When he was discovered, alarmed residents contacted Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources who sent a trapper, who caught and released Wally into a swamp with 20 other alligators.

Henney said the trapper rated his chances of finding Wally as “slim to none” but is planning to search the swamp for his companion regardless.  “We just pray with other alligators present that Wally is OK” he said on social media.

WallyGator and Henney first made headlines when the pair were denied entrance to watch the Philadelphia Phillies take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in Major League Baseball in September 2023.  Henney believes Wally has helped him out of a deep emotional depression over the years. "I've never met an alligator that will not bite you," Henney told CBS Evening News in 2022. "You fool around the head like this (Joe puts his hand in Wally's mouth), their instinct is to grab you [with their teeth] - but he does not do it.   "You can reach in and rub his tongue, he refuses to close his mouth, but we don't know why," added Henney.  Wally, who is about nine years old and 6ft (182cm) in length has an estimated bite of 3000 pounds per square inch.

 

The First American Victims of Zombie Deer Disease

Two Wyoming hunters have become the first Americans to die from "zombie deer disease" after eating infected venison.  

Experts have been warning for years that the nearly 100 percent fatal chronic wasting disease (CWD) - which leaves deer confused, drooling, and unafraid of humans - could jump from animals to people.  But a new study says that it has already happened - in two hunters who died in 2022 after eating contaminated venison.  One of the victims, a 72-year-old man, suffered 'rapid-onset confusion and aggression,' as well as seizures. He died within a month.

He was diagnosed after his death with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a brain-wasting condition similar to chronic wasting disease (CWD).  The hunter's friend also died from the disease but there were limited details about his condition in the research published last week in the journal Neurology.

 CWD is nicknamed "zombie deer disease'"because it causes parts of the brain to slowly degenerate to a spongy consistency and animals will drool and stare blankly before they die.  There are no treatments or vaccines, and the disease is 100 percent fatal.

The exact route of transmission is not fully understood, but it is thought that it is spread animal to animal by eating forage or water contaminated by infected feces or exposure to carcasses.  Direct contact, including saliva, blood, urine and even antler velvet during annual shedding may also contribute to the transmission of the pathogen. Any deer that dies on a farm must be tested for chronic wasting disease.  Because the disease is so contagious, if one animal test positive, the entire herd is considered infected.

Map of CWD-infected wild herds, based on March 2024 data from state wildlife agencies & the USGS

 The condition is thought to only infect animals like deer, elk, reindeer, caribou and moose.  Chronic wasting disease was initially discovered in 1967 in captive deer in Colorado.  It has now been found in animals in at least 32 states, four Canadian provinces and four other foreign countries, according to the CDC.   The three states with the largest distribution of CWD-infected deer are Kansas (49 counties), Nebraska (43 counties), and Wisconsin (43 counties).   The most recent case in deer was in Kentucky last fall, according to the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife.