While coyotes are occasionally spotted in San Francisco's parks, the shelter-in-place mandate has seemingly made the beautiful animals more comfortable wandering around the mostly empty city. From SFGATE:
There has been an increase in coyotes in the city over recent years. In February KQED reported that they were thought to be recolonizing the places they used to inhabit abundantly after being nearly wiped out through poisoning and hunting from the '40s onwards. After years of zero sightings in San Francisco, a coyote was seen in the Presidio in 2002, thought to have been brought over from a trapper in the North Bay or possibly even making its way alone over the Golden Gate Bridge. Since then numbers have continued to rise.
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“Say hello to Meeko,” says IMGURian @Lifeisfull12.
“Yeah. He's got jammies...” Read the rest
The large black bear in this video was observed ambling around a Monrovia, California neighborhood last Friday morning. The bear walked through residential lawns, driveways and rested in a nearby alley. Read the rest
'Colobus monkeys live in families with several females sharing in the care of newborns, a behavior called allomothering'
Three female mountain gorillas -- one pregnant -- and one male infant were killed by lightning in Uganda's Mgahinga National Park. With just 1,000 or so left in the world, their deaths is a "big loss for the species," according to the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration that works to conserve wildlife in the region. From the
BBC News:
The four that died were part of a 17-member group, which has been called the Hirwa family by the authorities.
"The potential of the three females for their contribution to the population was immense," (GVTC executive secretary Andrew) Seguya said.
He added that the 13 surviving members of the Hirwa family have been found and are feeding well.
image: "Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), 10 month old baby, Titus Group, Rwanda" by Charles J Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Sam Rowley's fantastic image of mice brawling over crumbs on a London Underground platform won the London Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year LUMIX People's Choice award.
"With the majority of the world living in urban areas and cities now, you have to tell the story about how people relate to wildlife," Rowley told CNN.
Over the course of a week, Rowley staked out multiple train stations each night to find the shot.
Sir Michael Dixon, Director of the Natural History Museum, Sir Michael Dixon said that the image "provides a fascinating glimpse into how wildlife functions in a human-dominated environment."
The mice's behaviour is sculpted by our daily routine, the transport we use and the food we discard. This image reminds us that while we may wander past it every day, humans are inherently intertwined with the nature that is on our doorstep – I hope it inspires people to think about and value this relationship more."
Image: Sam Rowley/Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.
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After a video of a woman luring deer into her home went viral, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is reminding humans -- yet again -- to please, please, just leave deer and all other wildlife alone.
Do not feed the animals.
Do not post videos of yourself feeding wild animals in your home. Read the rest
“I mean, just see the flash of him rolling over me and in a straight line, and he was gone,” the deer-trampled gentleman told WSOC-TV. Read the rest
In Vermont, a moose got stuck on an active railroad bridge, and state fish and wildlife officials managed to remove the moose and relocate it to the wilderness with minimal injuries. Read the rest
An Alaska family's home surveillance camera recorded a most remarkable video of a moose trapping a man inside the family shed. Read the rest
This is some pretty amazing and highly rare video -- seldom do you get footage of five, count 'em FIVE, California mountain lions all hanging out together. The big cats were captured on home surveillance video, in a rare gathering of the typically solitary critters. Read the rest
In Russia, some idiot spraypainted this polar bear with "T-34," the model of a Soviet tank. The video was shared by World Wildlife Fund employee Sergey Kavry who lives in the remote region of Chutkotka. From CNN:
In the comments (on Facebook where Kavry posted the video, he) said he obtained the video via WhatsApp from indigenous minorities in Chukotka, in Russia's far east, though it is not clear from the video where it was filmed...
Anatoly Kochnev, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that, while the black paint is likely to wash off, the polar bear might find it difficult in the meantime to use its coat as camouflage while hunting.
It's not known why the animal was painted. Kochnev said it was probably the work of "pranksters."
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A man from Worcester, Massachusetts was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday with allegedly smuggling salamanders and turtles into the United States. Read the rest
Scientists in Queensland, Australia have pieced together the most complete pterosaur fossil collection yet—a big-headed reptile with a 12-foot wingspan they've named Ferrodraco lentoni, or "Butch's Iron Dragon."
"It’s kind of scary when you think their heads are disproportionately large, it would have had a skull maybe 60cm," Adele Pentland from Swinburne University, the lead author on the study, told The Guardian. "To see it walking around on the ground it would have walked on four legs and looked really different to any kind of animal we have today." You can check out an artist's rendering of the derpy-looking lizard-bird here.
The field of dinosaur research is in a bit of a renaissance period, with some three dozen new species discovered this year alone. More importantly: of course a flying mini-T-Rex was found in Australia of all places. After all, this is the land of such natural wonders as mutant eel-sharks, birds that weaponize fire, projectile bull semen, human-sized jellyfish, and more strange spiders than anyone ever wants to hear about, except for that guy who was bit on the penis not once but twice (and still hasn't gained any spider-penis super powers).
In that context, it's frankly surprising that a flying T-Rex hadn't been discovered there until now.
(Image via Luis Rey/Wikimedia Commons) Read the rest
Nature's li'l hackers break into security contractor's van
The mortally injured cat was later euthanized.
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