Animals in photos and videos and biological and animal curiosities

[moinsdewatt]

In New York, the return of the whales

September 27, 2017

Absent for more than a century, the baleen cetaceans are returning to the shore of the Big Apple, the result of efforts to clean up the waters, which has enabled the re-emergence of an entire ecosystem. Reportage

Suddenly, she jumped out of the water, made a spectacular jump back, before falling back into a huge splash. On the boat, the excitement is at its peak. She had shown us a tip of her dorsal fin, then her tail, by dive and come back to the surface to swallow schools of fish. It was only after a good thirty minutes that she offered herself entirely to us, creating an effect of surprise. That day, in the beating sun in the middle of September, the hundred people on board the American Princess were treated to an incredible spectacle: five humpback whales observed in four hours. Without forgetting some dolphins.

The scene does not take place anywhere, but in New York. Off Long Island in the Queens district. It is from Breezy Point, on the Rockaway Peninsula, that Gotham Whale offers tours to go whale watching. It has been doing so since 2011, when humpback whales gradually began to return to the region, after more than a century of absence.



..................

https://www.letemps.ch/sciences/2017/09 ... r-baleines

[moinsdewatt]

for once, advantage the bull:



IT IS TAKEN… The bullfighter and model in his spare time Cayetano Rivera was seriously injured by the bull he faced during a bullfight in Zaragoza, October 11. He still continued the fight, before leaving the arena.

photo 24h Figaro

[sen-no-sen]

It is high time to put an end to this stupidity that is bullfighting.
And to say that at the same time certain prohibits the Ultimate Fighting championship in the hexagon, what debility ...

[oli 80]

Good evening, it is true that bullfighting is cruel but there are other disciplines with bulls
such as the bull jump https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lHPyKLXKyg

and there is another game which consists in hanging pompoms on the horns of the bull without being encored well of course
but I don't know what this game is called

[moinsdewatt]

Air traffic at an airport interrupted in Alaska due to a seal

By Anne-Sophie Tassart the 02.11.2017

Because of a bearded seal resting on an airstrip, Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport had to slow down.



...................

https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/animaux ... que_117971

[moinsdewatt]

Discovery of a third species of orangutan ... already very threatened


By Sciences et Avenir with AFP 03.11.2017

An international team has described the 7th species of great ape: the Tapanuli orangutans found in the north of Sumatra Island. Such a discovery had not taken place since 1929.

...............

The Tapanuli orangutans, like other species of the genus Pongo, are particularly threatened by hunting and very soon by a hydroelectric dam project which should lead to the flooding of a large part of their habitat. In addition, according to the researchers, even if the death rate of this population remains below 1% per year, that would be enough to drive these animals to extinction. "If 8 animals out of the 800 are killed per year or if they are removed from the population in some other way, the species is lost," warn the researchers.
................

https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/animaux ... tan_118000

[moinsdewatt]

24 hours photo from October 30, 2017
05/12
MINE CLEARANCE. The Belgian NGO APOPO has set up a system for training giant Gambian rats to make mine detectors of exceptional efficiency. With their owners, these animals nicknamed "HeroRAT" and endowed with an extraordinarily developed sense of smell crisscross the Cambodia countryside in search of mines still buried and unexploded, that is to say six to seven million devices. These explosives, disseminated throughout the country during the years of civil war, by American bombing and by the Khmer Rouge regime, have killed or injured at least 64000 people since the fall of the Khmer regime in 1979.

HeroRATs: Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/herorats2/

The pouched rats are perfect for the job; intelligent with a keen sense of smell, they are small enough not to trigger mines and large enough to be easily identifiable in the field. No rat has been killed in a minefield.

The rats can clear two hundred square meters in just 20 minutes. It would take humans with metal detectors five days to cover the same area.
......................
The rats live for up to eight years, but retire after six and live out their twilight years eating avocadoes, apples and bananas, and being regularly patted by their handlers.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/pro ... is/6481122

[moinsdewatt]

Sheep can recognize people, even in photos


By Anne-Sophie Tassart the 10.11.2017

British researchers from the famous University of Cambridge have studied the identification capabilities of sheep, demonstrating that they are incredible.



Sheep (Ovis aries) are social animals capable of recognizing their congeners but also humans, even if the latter are only presented to them in photos. Thus, they have no trouble identifying Barack Obama, the former president of the United States, although he never came to see them. This is the discovery made by researchers from the prestigious University of Cambridge (United Kingdom). They present it in an article published on November 8, 2017 in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
..........

https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr/animaux ... oto_118175

[Ahmed]

That sheep are capable of recognizing politicians is really not surprising, it is even the main objective of these latter to encourage sheepish behavior ...

[moinsdewatt]

A giant crab caught killing and eating a bird



A coconut crab was recently filmed tracking down, killing and devouring a seabird. It is the first time that these huge crustaceans have been observed actively hunting large animals, suggesting that they could dominate their island ecosystems.

The coconut crab (Birgus latro) is the largest terrestrial arthropod (some specimens can reach 4 kilos). You will find it in islands and islets of the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. From the hermit crab family - it is therefore not a crab in the strict sense - they are known for their ability to crack coconuts with their claws, to eat the contents. They sometimes eat meat but, until now, researchers have thought them opportunistic, reveling in corpses. One of these "crabs" was recently caught hunting, killing, and devouring a bird, however.
......................

http://sciencepost.fr/2017/11/crabe-gea ... er-oiseau/