If La Niña conditions develop in the Pacific for the third year in a row,as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts, cool ocean temperatures along the equator will once again crank up Earth’s air conditioner. And once again, climate change will overpower it and deliver yet another hot year.
Years ago, that forecast might have been more of a toss-up. It’s still possible — but less likely — that global temperatures dip a little before La Niña conditions switch back to normal. The cycle between La Niña, neutral (or normal), and El Niño conditions — where warm water dominates the equatorial Pacific — has historically…
The stream function at an altitude of 850 mb. Credit: Woosok Moon, Baek-Min Kim, Gun-Hwan Yang, and John Wettlaufer.
A quartet of researchers, two with the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics and two with Pukyong National University, has created a group of simulations of changes to the jet stream under global warming. In their paper published inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes using math theory to describe wind motion under given circumstances to create their simulations.
Over the past several years, the jet stream has become wavier than it used to be. Both peaks and valleys have become more extreme. This has led to changes inweather patterns—some places have grown wetter and some drier, and there have also been more extended hot and cold spells around the globe. In this new effort, the researchers suspected that…
Cheetah Conservation Fund founder and executive director, Laurie Marker, and staff prepare the cheetahs for their journey in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, on September 12. Photo credit: Carolina Torres/Cheetah Conservation FundCheetah Conservation FundCNN—
After going extinct in India over 70 years ago, cheetahs are finally making a comeback in the country with a new reintroduction program.
Eight cheetahs from Namibia arrived in India on Saturday, according toa tweet from the Cheetah Conservation Fund(CCF). The big cats were released into India’s Kuno National Park in the state of Madya Pradesh.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was there to welcome the cheetahs to their new home. “A long wait is over,” Modiwrote on Twitteralongside pictures of the cats in their new environment.
Georgia DNR Law Enforcement Offices seized a black bear they say was illegally killed in White County. They charged the hunter with killing the bear over bait. (GA DNR Law Enforcement Division /Facebook)
A hunter accused of illegally killing a bear in White County faces a stiff fine and possible jail time.
Acting on a tip, Georgia Department of Natural Resources law enforcement officers investigated the incident over the weekend. They inspected the kill site and determined John Wesley Dowdy lured the bear with bait.
State laws forbid the use of bait to lure bears to a specific location “which gives or might give a hunter an unnatural advantage when hunting bear,” according toGeorgia State Code.
The spread of the virus is demonstrated both the risks posed to wildlife and provides a new opportunity for the virus to mutate and adapt, experts said.
In a first, a case of H5N1 avian influenza virus, more commonly known as bird flu, has been detected in a bottlenose dolphin in Florida and a porpoise in Sweden. This version of the virus has affected an unusually broad array of species across the world. However, these are the first ever documented cases of avian influenza in cetaceans, a group of marine mammals that includes dolphins, porpoises, and whales.
Americans are paying more than ever for turkey as a contagious virus leads to the destruction ofmillions of birds.
The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus is helping drive the price of turkey — specifically white boneless breast meat — to record highs, even as the hottest inflation in 40 years hascooled some in recent months. That may make the Thanksgiving meal even pricier this year.
“We’ve seen record prices for turkeys in recent days, and the spotlight is on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and its effect on the market,” American Farm Bureau economist Bernt Nelson told CBS MoneyWatch.
Seven years after the last U.S. outbreak, HPAI has been hitting U.S. commercial poultry flocks all year, with the latest wave particularly disruptive to turkey suppliers.
British bases police netted a poacher for illegal bird trapping in the Pyla range of Xylophagou and he is now due to appear in court on September 19.
The Greek Cypriot was arrested on September 4 after the bases’ specialised unit – the community action team – spotted him retrieving ambelopoulia (black caps) from mists nets, which he allegedly set up.
Police officers scoured the area and further uncovered a bird imitating device, two iron poles, and nine recently killed black caps, among other items.
Pertev Karagozlou, acting superintendent who oversees the CAT, said this was an early warning to would-be trappers.
Speaking this week, he explained that: “The SBA police in Dhekelia has deployed the CAT for many years now [to] tackle any illegal activities related to hunting, especially bird trapping.
After trying a number of hazing strategies, officials will begin trapping and removing about 10 bears from the Jasper townsite in Jasper National Park.
For several weeks now, at least 10 black bears have been – as Jasper National Parks officials put it – “making use” of Jasper and the abundant fruit in the town’s greenspaces and yards. The number includes two mothers with cubs.
The animals have proven “reluctant” to leave and come back “almost immediately” after being moved out of the townsite, the park said in a statement on Thursday.
“The continuous presence of bears in the townsite, often in residential yards just metres from people, is an unacceptable safety risk for visitors and residents.”
Over the next few days, Parks Canada staff will be setting up live traps and traps borrowed from Banff National Park that are meant to trap mothers and cubs together.
“Bears will be humanely caught using live traps and will be taken to remote areas of the park,” the park said, stressing that the strategy isn’t guaranteed to work.
“Trapping and moving bears is not always successful. In some instances, bears will return for these easy, reliable food sources. If this occurs, Parks Canada staff may be forced to destroy ‘problem bears’ that continue to inhabit the townsite.
“Parks Canada needs the help of residents and visitors to try and avoid this situation.”
A poor berry season is enticing the bears to find easy food sources in town, according to a park resource conservation officer.
Since late August, Parks Canada has been asking residents to reduce the amount of garbage that is accessible to animals, remove fruit-bearing plants from their yards, or remove the fruit from the plants.
Jasper National Park renewed that call on Thursday, and asked residents to keep their distance from any bear traps they may come across in their neighbourhood. Locations that have a trap will be marked.
Bear sightings should be reported to 780-852-6155.
Non-residents are currently discouraged from visiting Jasper National Park because a 5,500-hectare wildfire nearby destroyed some of the town’s power lines. Jasper has been relying on generator power since the weekend. On Thursday, some residents had been without power for more than 80 hours.
When a bottlenose dolphin was found dead in Florida’s Dixie County earlier this year, a marine animal rescue team from the University of Florida (UF) did not immediately suspect anything out of the ordinary when they performed a routine necropsy.
Tests for common causes of death turned up negative in this young male dolphin found at Horseshoe Beach.
“However, this dolphin had inflammation of the brain and also the tissues surrounding the brain, known as the meninges,” said Robert Ossiboff, D.V.M., Ph.D., an associate professor of veterinary anatomical pathology at UF, in a press release on September 7, 2022.
“This finding was unusual.”
Andrew Allison, Ph.D., an assistant professor of veterinary virology at UF, added, “Although avian flu infection had never been documented in a dolphin, the high incidence of the virus in wild birds in the spring — specifically aquatic bird species such as ducks, gulls, terns, and herons — suggested that encounters between dolphins and dying or dead birds near the shoreline was not out of the realm of possibility.”
Wild birds that succumb to the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) often have neurologic signs with the virus found in their brains since the dolphin had inflammation of the brain and meninges that a virus could have caused.
Based on these initial suspicions, the UF researchers sent dolphin brain and lung samples to the state’s Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Kissimmee, Florida.
There, suspicions were confirmed, as the samples tested positive for HAPIV.
The case was the first time the HAPIV (bird flu) had been identified in a cetacean in North America.
The virus recovered from the dolphin belonged to clade 2.3.4.4b of the Eurasian H5 viral lineage.
Wild birds have spread H5 clade 2.3.4.4b HPAIV throughout the USA in 2022.
As of September 7, 2022, the USDA reported that 39 states had confirmed the loss of over 43 million birds due to HAPIV infections this year.
“While obviously, the presence of HPAIV is a concern, the key takeaway for us is that additional caution should be taken by those handling or encountering wild dolphins during rescue events or while performing necropsies,” said Mike Walsh, D.V.M., a clinical associate professor with UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine who performed the dolphin’s necropsy with others.
HAPIV infections have become common in birds; however, fatal infections have also been reported in red foxes, raccoons, striped skunks, and harbor seals in 2022. HAPIV was also found as the cause of death of a black bear.
The U.S. CDC says avian influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by various zoonotic (animal) viruses.
The H5N1 bird flu virus emerged in southern China in 1996, later causing large poultry outbreaks in 1997, resulting in 18 human infections.
The H5N1 bird flu viruses were not eradicated and re-surfaced in 2003, spreading throughout Asia and later in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
Since 2003, 19 countries have reported more than 860 human infections with H5N1 bird flu viruses, with about 53% of those cases resulting in fatalities.
In contrast to previous ‘bird flu outbreaks, only two non-fatal human cases with current H5N1 bird flu viruses have been reported.
One infection occurred in December 2021 in a person in the U.K. who raised birds.
A second human case was reported in Colorado in April 2022 in a person who was culling H5N1 virus-infected poultry.
Since annual flu shots do not protect people from bird flu infections, the U.S. government has approved a vaccine and could distribute it if a person-to-person bird flu outbreak occurs.
The U.S. FDA authorized CSL Seqirus’ Audenz monovalent cell-based vaccine in 2020.
The good news from the U.S. CDC is…. that the public health risk associated with these avian influenza detections in birds remains low as of September 8, 2022.
Note: Sarah Carey, Public Relations Director, UF College of Veterinary Medicine, wrote the original article, which was manually curated for mobile readership.
The government is investigating those deaths as part of its wild bird surveillance programme.
Martin Cade, manager of Portland Bird Observatory, said he had seen “several dozen on the Chesil Beach and on pavements and in fields”.
“These are normally powerful seabirds that spend their life at sea. They only come ashore because they’re sickly. You can see them sitting looking forlorn,” he said.
Exposing the Big Game 