30 Japanese hornets kill 30,000 European honeybees; video
By Gavin Allen Updated: 16:54 GMT, 13 January 2012 Tens of thousands are dead, hundreds more of the dying lie writhing on the battlefield, powerless to protect their children. These horrifying and yet fascinating scenes are the highlights of a three-hour battle between just 30 giant Japanese hornets and 30,000 European honeybees. The video, from a National Geographic documentary called Hornets From Hell, shows a full-scale attack on the honeybees' comb in order that the hornets can get at their larvae. See the video below... Fight! Slaughter: Thousands of honeybee corpses litter the ground beneath the hive as the hornets hover over the entrance to the hive to continue the killing The mass slaughter is possible because the European honeybees did not grow up around the Japanese Hornets and thus have no defence against them. Vespa velutina - the hornet's Latin name - is believed to have hit Europe in 2004 after hitching a ride to France on some pot plants transported from China.
CU researchers propose rewilding
Carl Buell for Cornell University/Nature Could this be the Great Plains in 100 years? Artist Carl Buell provided this fanciful depiction of a rewilding scene. If Cornell University researchers and their colleagues have their way, cheetahs, lions, elephants, camels and other large wild animals may soon roam parts of North America. "If we only have 10 minutes to present this idea, people think we're nuts," said Harry Greene, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell. "But if people hear the one-hour version, they realize they haven't thought about this as much as we have. Greene and a number of other highly eminent ecologists and conservationists have authored a paper, published in the latest issue of Nature (Vol. 436, No. 7053), advocating the establishment of vast ecological history parks with large mammals, mostly from Africa, that are close relatives or counterparts to extinct Pleistocene-period animals that once roamed the Great Plains." Keiji Iwai Photography
The World's Smallest and Deadliest Animals
Smallest And Deadliest Animals: Poison Dart Frog The sprightly and brightly colored frog may look enchanting, but it can produce enough poison to kill 10 humans. Thriving in humid, tropical environments of Central and Latin America, the poison dart frog oozes black slime from its back, which is actually a neurotoxin used to ward off predators. Australian Box Jellyfish Found across the northern half of Australia – particularly in Queensland – the box jellyfish washes up on the shores after heavy rain and high tide. If stung, the venom contained in their tentacles attacks a human’s cardiac and nervous system – even when the tentacles aren’t attached to the jellyfish’s body.
Parasitic fly could account for disappearing honeybees - life - 03 January 2012
Parasitic flies that turn honeybees into night-flying zombies could provide another clue to cracking the mystery of colony collapse disorder. Since 2007, thousands of hives in the US have been decimated as bees inexplicably go missing overnight. The best explanation so far is that multiple stresses, perhaps parasitic mites, viruses or pesticides, combine to tip the bees over the edge. John Hafernik of San Francisco State University in California and colleagues discovered that hosting Apocephalus borealis, a parasitic fly found throughout North America, makes bees fly around in a disoriented way at night, when they normally roost in the hive, before killing them. Although unlikely to be the sole cause of colony collapse disorder, Hafernik thinks the parasitic fly discovery may help explain why bees quit their hives. Since the discovery, the parasitic flies have been found at 77 per cent of sites in San Francisco Bay, and in hives in South Dakota. Journal reference: PLoS One, in press
Deer Avoid Drowning by Boarding Charter Boat
I just learned about this odd and extraordinary wildlife rescue that happened in October in Alaska. It's such an amazing story, I don't know why I didn't hear about it earlier. According to the report in the Juneau Empire, Tom Satre, his sister Sharon Kelly and a few other family members were heading across Taku Inlet near Juneau on Tom's charter boat for a picnic at the State Marine Park. About a mile offshore, Sharon, a birder, spotted something odd in the water coming towards the boat through her binoculars. Four distressed Sitka deer swim desperately towards the Alaska Quest Charter Boat. Even though Sitka deer are known for their swimming ability and often cross large bodies of water between islands, these four where in obvious distress in the frigid water and whipping winds that had stirred up two to three foot swells in the inlet. Unable to propel themselves out of the water in their exhaustion, they had to be hauled out onto the deck, where they collapsed. Photos by Sharon Kelly.
