White Wallaby -- No Worries

An all-white wallaby stands out in a crowd for sure.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

"A rare albino swamp wallaby has been found living on the edge of Kosciuszko National Park in NSW, a stone's throw from Perisher ski resort. National park field officers spotted the cute, fully-grown marsupial, thought to be between one and two years of age, while maintaining tracks just outside the national park boundary last week. Kosciuszko National Park ranger Andrew Miller said the well camouflaged 90cm tall animal had been spotted twice eating grass in the sub-alpine region. "It's the first time any of us around here have seen one around Kosciuszko,' he told AAP." See full article.

1941 Zoology Science Test: Some Things Change and Some Remain the Same.

A 1941 science test found tucked away in an old science text tells us a few things about the evolving theory of evolution, what things were like before DNA information was in the picture and more.

Dan Vergano of USA Today reports:

Some of us might rather forget our old science exams. But sometimes they still have lessons to offer. For example, take a 1941 exam unearthed by one anatomy professor. The test is a relic of a simpler time that tells us a lot about the evolution of studying evolution.

What makes the 1941 test a fossil in its own right is that it doesn't mention DNA, or molecular biology, in its questions about evolution. ... As we all recall, tests work up to hard questions, and the 11th one on the 1941 exam asks whether whole new classes of back-boned species arise from unique, fairly recent ancestors or from early, more primitive life. "That's still a really big question today," See full article.

Young Eagle Sees Dog as Prey

A Jack Russell Terrier recently had a run in with a young bald eagle and got the worst of the encounter.

Hometown Annapolis.com reports:

"Trubee and Jurchison (dog's owners) suspect the eaglet spotted Moby as a potential meal and tried to fly off with him. They reason that Moby, who is mostly white, was a visible target against the green grass. Perhaps the eaglet didn't realize just how heavy the dog was.

'Who would have thought a raptor would swoop down and try to take your dog?' Trubee said. Moby suffered puncture wounds all over his body, which are now healing with the help of an antibiotic and painkillers from the veterinarian. see full article.

Seafaring Florida Reptiles Draw Interest

Two reptiles have been spotted in the sea off Brevard County Florida. Two differnt species and both a bit out of place. (Photo by: S. Harp, Florida Today)

J.D. Gallop at Florida Today reports:

"Experts say ... mystery tracks left behind [on the beach] ... likely belonged to a 5- to 6-foot-long alligator. The rare beachside tracks also were the latest incident in which alligators -- along with a crocodile caught during the weekend in waist-deep waters beneath the Cocoa Beach Pier -- made their presence known in the ocean waves off Brevard County. Typically, alligators shy away from salt water -- the habitat of sharks, sea turtles and other species more familiar to beachgoers -- while crocodiles, which thrive in saltwater environments, stick to the coastal areas farther south of Brevard. 'It is unusual,' Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist Lindsey Hord said, referring to the sightings. 'With the crocodiles, we're on the northern periphery of its habitat range. But animals are always pushing, trying to get into new areas.'"

Rare Look at a Giant Sunfish on New Zealand Beach

A ocean-going tropical sunfish is really quite something to see. They average about 2,000 pounds and look alot like a giant fish head with a tail. They have a reputation for being surface sunners but usually they feed (mostly on jellyfish) at great depths as much as 2,000 feet.

One recently washed up on a New Zealand beach and provided a close look.

Vanessa Phillips for the Nelson Mail reports:

Tourists being guided along Farewell Spit were mesmerised by more than just the area's natural beauty yesterday. A large sunfish, about 2 metres long, and 2m wide from fintip to fintip, was spotted as Farewell Spit Eco Tours driver John Stevens was heading towards the spit with a busload of tourists. The dead sunfish was on the intertidal plain of the spit, about one kilometre on the Collingwood side of Puponga township." See full article.

Cops Uncover 5,000 Stolen Bird Eggs in One Home

Scottish law enforcement agents learned just how serious a problem bird egg thiefs (called "eggers") can be to species survival.

The Edinbugh Evening News reports"

"Investigatore say it will take a painstakingly long time to sift through a huge haul of more than 5000 birds' eggs discovered at a Lothians home. Wildlife crime officers from two forces and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) were involved in the operation to uncover the eggs, which has been described as one of the biggest finds yet in the Lothians. ... Rare breeding species particularly vulnerable to egg collectors include Slavonian and black-necked grebes, ospreys, white-tailed eagles, red kites, and red-necked phalaropes." See full article.

First Study of Rare Egg-laying Mammal

An elusive nocturnal mammal has finally been studied.

Science Daily reports:

"A Wildlife Conservation Society research intern working in the wilds of Papua New Guinea has successfully completed what many other field biologists considered "mission impossible"—the first study of a rare egg-laying mammal called the long-beaked echidna.

The long-beaked echidna is found only in New Guinea and is a member of the monotremes, a primitive order of mammals that forced zoologists to change their very definitions of what a mammal is. Unlike all other mammals, monotremes like the echidna (also called the spiny anteater) and the better known platypus lay eggs." See full article.

Roseate Spoonbill In Indiana

A bird that lives in Florida seems to ahve ventured into the Hoosier State. (Photo: St. Louis Zoo)

The Greene County Daily World reports:

"On June 2, Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area became the first location in the state to record the sighting of a Roseate Spoonbill. .... the June 2 sighting is the only confirmed sighting of a Roseate Spoonbill ever in Indiana. The excitement of the occasion had birdwatchers from all across Indiana and a few from Illinois traveling to Goose Pond to get their view of the unique bird." See full article.

Rare Sea Turtle Lays Eggs in Florida

A group of campers saw an unusual site in a Florida state park. (Photo by: Katie Dickey/Special to the Democrat)

Tallahassee.com reports:

"During a visit to the Franklin County park earlier this month, educator Elizabeth Franklin Waller and some middle-school campers spotted a Kemp's Ridley sea turtle on the beach. Of the seven species of sea turtles, the Kemp's Ridleys are considered the most endangered, according to The Sea Turtle Restoration Project. Katie Dickey, 15, a soon-to-be sophomore at Godby High School, was one of several students who captured photos and footage of the sea turtle, as it began to lay eggs." See full article.

Falcons Rebound in Vermont

The return of Peregrine Falcons to New England offers promise. Photo by: Peter Larsen

The Burlington Free Press reports:

"Thirty years ago, 60 Vermont cliffs and quarries had emptied of the falcons that once nested there. The birds had been wiped out by DDT, the now-banned pesticide that accumulated in animal tissue and thinned the shells of bird eggs.

Peregrines, small but aggressive hunters, sit at the top of the avian food chain and thus accumulated high concentrations of DDT from their prey. Nest after nest went silent in the 1940s and ’50s, until the birds were gone.Today, many bird species are in steep decline, but peregrines — along with loons, osprey and bald eagles — offer rare good news.Falcons were reintroduced in New England in the 1980s and have thrived. Thirty-eight pairs nested in Vermont this year and have produced at least 50 chicks." See full article.

First Wolverine in Ninety Years Ventures Into Colorado

Wolverines are known for being wideranging loners with somewhat bad tempers. One has ventured into Colorado after a long absense.

The DenverPost reports:

"A solo wolverine, perhaps in search of a mate, has traveled more than 500 miles to northern Colorado, the first confirmed sighting of the species here since 1919.

Bob Inman, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Yellowstone Wolverine Program, said the animal, tagged M56 and fitted with a radio collar in December, went on the move in April.
He traveled from Grand Teton National Park, crossing busy Interstate 80 in southern Wyoming, to reach timberline in the mountains of northern Colorado. 'It is great news that this animal has ventured into Colorado, where it hasn't been documented in 90 years, but it also underscores the need to manage this species at a multi-state scale,'" Inman said. See full article.

Rare Warbler Returns After 139 Year Absence

It is so wonderful to get some good news about nature. A bird that was thought gone shows up again 14 decades later. Photo: Philip Round/The Wetland Trust.

Science Daily Reports:

"The Large-billed Reed-warbler is the world’s least known bird. A single bird was collected in the Sutlej Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, in 1867, but many had questioned whether it was indeed represented a true species and wasn’t just an aberrant individual of a common species.
But on 27 March 2006, ornithologist Philip Round, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, Mahidol University, was bird ringing (banding) at a wastewater treatment centre (the royally initiated Laem Phak Bia Environmental Research and Development Project) near Bangkok, Thailand." See full article.

Utah is the Place to See California Condors

The Califonia Condor is a rarity in nature but there is a place in Utah where they can usually be seen.

The Spectrum.com reports:

“'Condor activity in Utah has increased dramatically over the past five years,' says Keith Day, regional sensitive species biologist for the DWR. 'It’s not unusual to see 24 birds in Utah in the summer months, but 54 condors were here one day last August. That’s very exciting when you consider how rare this bird is,' Day says. Of the 320 California condors in the world, just over half are free-flying, and only half of those are found in Utah and Arizona. That means on any given day, you have the potential of seeing one-sixth of the world’s wild population of California condors right here in Southern Utah."'

"To reach the viewing site, take state Route 9 to Virgin. Turn off at the Kolob Reservoir turnoff in Virgin and travel north through Zion National Park. The viewing site is 21½ miles from Virgin near Kolob Reservoir. After you’ve traveled 21½ miles, look for a parking area on the south side of the road." See full article.

The Four Most Unusual Fish on Earth

There are fish and there are FISH!

markuses at Science Ray.com lists the "four most unusual on Earth" including the Whale Shark (some reported as large as 50 to 70 feet in length), the Stone Fish and others. See the list.

Rarest of Cockatoos Rediscovered

A U.S. all-volunteeer non-profit organization in Indonesia has rediscovered a lost bird.

City Parrots.org reports:

"The world’s rarest cockatoo has been found in Indonesia. A research team on behalf of the Indonesian Parrot Project rediscovered the Yellow-crested Abbott’s cockatoo this summer in the Masalembu Archipelago. This archipelago is in the remote Java Sea... Parrots are the most endangered bird family. A number of the parrots threatened with extinction are found only in Indonesia. Four of the five cockatoo species listed on the highest category of protection by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species are found in Indonesia. Of these, the Yellow-crested cockatoos (Cacatua sulphurea) are the most imperiled." See full article.

Whooping Crane "Retired" to Zoo After Becoming Too Tame

When a wild animal gets too attached to humans it may mean it is no longer wild.

Barbara Behrendt at the The St. Petersburg Times reports:

"The whooping crane known as 710 symbolizes what goes wrong when people feed wildlife. The rare crane spent the winter in Spring Hill. But instead of foraging for food in the wild, he was nourished on bird feeders kept by nearby residents. When 710 returned to Wisconsin in early spring, the bird again turned to humans. He began to visit the ethanol plant five miles away from the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, where truckloads of corn are delivered daily. Too tame to live in the wild, the crane was returned to Florida this week, to live his life among humans, as an educational exhibit at Lowry Park Zoo." See full article.

Dramatic Trout Evacuation In New Mexico

This time when horsmen came to the rescue, it was to relocate trout.

Associated Press reports:

"As a lightning-sparked fire charred thousands of acres in southwestern New Mexico, biologists and firefighters used helicopters and trucks for an unusual evacuation. They captured 250 Gila trout — a threatened species — from a creek in southwestern New Mexico and are moving them to a hatchery in the opposite corner of the state. Biologists rode to the creek on horseback, then used electroshocking devices to temporarily stun the trout so they could quickly scoop them into a net. See full article.

Yellow Color Saves Rare Lobster -- From the Chef

In the wild, a color mutation can make a creature easier prey. But in a Boston restaurant kitchen the arrival of a rare, one in 30 million, "yellow" lobster may have saved it from the chef's pot. Photo by Julia Cumes AP

USA Today reports:

"Specialists tell The Boston Globe it's called a "yellow lobster" and it's one in 30 million. The lobster now named Fiona was recently caught off Canada. It was given by a friend to Nathan Nickerson, the owner of Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, on Cape Cod. New England Aquarium director of research Michael Tlusty says a rare genetic mutation produces yellow lobsters." See full article.

Rare White Seal Found

Albinism is frequent condition in nature but leucism is a different matter. Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin. A one-of-a-kind white southern elelphant seal was spotted and tagged on a sub Antarctic beach and was confirmed as leucistis. (Note dark eyes).

BBC Earth News reports:

"The white seal, a young female, is leucistic, rather than albinistic. Albino animals lack pigment in just their eyes, or in their eyes, skin and hair, and they inherit the condition. Leucistic animals have little pigment and appear white all over, but with dark coloured eyes. The white seal has a uniformly creamy white coat of fur, with normal dark brown eyes and nose. Its whiskers, eyebrows and fingernails on its flippers are also light coloured compared to the species' usual dark colour. 'To our knowledge, we're the first to provided detailed evidence of such an animal anywhere,' says Ryan Reisinger of the University of Pretoria in South Africa" See full article

A Thousand-Pound Sea Turtle Loses its Compass

A six-foot long Leatherback Turtle recently ended up swimming inland rather than out to sea in Florida.

First Coast News reports:

"Some wildlife experts gave up their Memorial Day morning to get him back on track. A Leatherback Sea Turtle wandered over old A1A (highway) in St. Johns County into the Summer Haven River. The turtle was nearly 1,000 pounds and 6-feet in length. It took 8 rescuers to move the creature." See article and slides of the rescue.

Florida Panther Shot

An award has been offered to help find whoever recently shot a rare Florida Panther. Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlfie Service.

Wildlife Extra.com reports:

"A reward of up to $15,200 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and/or a conviction in the shooting death of a Florida panther. The dead panther was found in April 2009 near the Hendry Correctional Institute on private property bordering the Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) special agents and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) investigators are jointly investigating the case. There are only about 100 Florida panthers left in the world. The Florida panther is protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973." See full article.

Rare Video of Basking Shark in Wild

The Basking Shark is second only to the Whale Shark in size. One of these plankton-feeding fishing fish was measured 40 feet in length. Photo: Dan Burton.

BBC News reports:

2009 -- "The first basking sharks of the summer have been spotted off the Cornish coast.

As part of their annual migration they are now arriving in the hundreds. But do not be fooled - actually catching more than a fleeting glimpse of these elusive creatures is far harder than you imagine." One videographer caught the fish at (under) sea. See the article and the clip. Be patient -- the clip is proceeded by a 30 second ad.

Prince of Wales Declares War -- On Squirrels

The Princes of Wales has called for all out war and eliminiation of grey squirrels in England.

Times OnLine reports:

"The Prince of Wales has asked landowners to wipe out grey squirrels from the countryside to protect red squirrels and to save native woodlands.
He told the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) that it was 'absolutely crucial to eliminate the greys'. The species was introduced to Britain from the US in the 19th century and has a population estimated at 3.3 million, compared with 160,000 reds.
In a letter to Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, the CLA president, the Prince blamed grey squirrels for the “immense and increasing damage” to woods and wildlife across the country.

The Prince, who is patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, said: 'I do pray you can help me with this task as it would make all the difference not only to the survival of an iconic native species, but also to the success of all our efforts to restore and enhance our native hardwoods.'" See full article.

Goats Enlisted to Protect Endangered Turtles

That's right -- goats! When mowing practices were found dangerously harmful to bog turtles in Maryland a differrent (more ancient) mowing technique was employed.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

"The State Highway Administration has come up with a creative solution to the question of how to cut the grass in the vicinity of its Hampstead Bypass project without imperiling the already-threatened bog turtle (above) and its Carroll County habitat: goats.

The agency is using a local farmer's herd of 40 goats to act as four-legged lawnmowers in the construction zone. It said traditional mechanical lawnmowers posed a danger to both the boggy wetlands and the reptiles themselves. According to the SHA, it considered using cattle but decided they were too big to interact safely with the 4-inch bog turtle." See full article.

Western Canada's Spirit Bear

The legendary spirit bear recently came into lens-eye view of photographer Steve Kozlowski.

The Daily Mail reports:

"Once thought to exist only in Native American mythology, the Spirit Bear, or Kermode Bear, is now recognised as an off-shoot of the American Black Bear population that lives in the lush coastal forests of British Columbia. Amongst wildlife photographers it is considered rare if not virtually impossible to photograph one of these blonde, or white black bears, due to their scarcity.

One such photographer was Steve Kozlowski, who travelled along Canada's wild Pacific coast to catch a glimpse of these legendary beasts. 'I set out to travel to the last area where a small population of Spirit Bears is known to exist near Princess Royal Island on the British Columbia coastline,' says Steve, 39, who has been photographing wildlife for the past 18 years." See article.

A Change in Shipping Lanes Will Help Save Rare Right Whales

The federal government is re-routing shipping lanes in Boston Harbor to help out endangered whales.

The New York Times Reports:

"The harbor is a busy area for both shipping and whales. More than half of the world's North Atlantic right whales congregate in the area each spring. And the port hosts about 3,500 trips each year by ships carrying everything from merchandise to natural gas.

Under the changes by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard, large ships more than 300 gross tons will be required from April through July to avoid an area where the whales feed. And ships coming from the south will be required to enter Boston Harbor from a slightly different path. The shipping lane will give a wider berth of protection for the whales." See full article.

Ancient Marsupial Lion Caught in Painting!

In the Land Down Under, marsupial mammals are predominant. An ancient and formidabl creature, that had only been known through its fossils, turns out to have posed for a portrait!

Live Science.com reports:

"until about 30,000 years ago, the continent was ruled by Thylacoleo carnifex, the marsupial 'lion.' Several well-preserved skeletons of the leopard-size beast have been found. Now, a newly discovered cave painting offers a glimpse of the animal's external appearance.In June 2008, Tim Willing, a naturalist and tour guide, photographed an ancient painting on a rockshelter wall near the shore of northwestern Australia. Kim Akerman, an independent anthropologist based in Tasmania, says the painting unmistakably depicts a marsupial lion." See full article.

The Everglades Python Problem

Invasive species are a problem in any state. But, south Florida is having a particular problem with Burmese Pythons.

The Herald Tribune reports:

"Meg Lowman, a biologist based in Sarasota County, reported that about 200 pythons were captured in or near the Everglades National Park from 2002 to 2005. By 2006, the number was 418. By last year, the python population in the Glades was out of control and biologists estimated there were at least 30,000 of them." See full article.

The World's Ten Rarest Animals

Green Expander.com -- has researched and developed a list of the ten rarest animals in the world -- all on the brink of extinction. Includes turtles, bats, cats, marmots, wombats and more.

GreenExpander reports:

"Endangered, hunted, smuggled and now some would say abandoned, these animals have the smallest chances of recovery out off all the Earth’s creatures. Last year, studies shown that there are at least 35 different animals with world populations of under 1000. But which are the rarest, the animals on the brink of extinction? We have rounded up a list of 10 of the rarest animals in the wild. See the list.