TOP STORIES
Tottori Prefectural Government experts found 23 dead birds Sunday in the city of Yonago during field studies conducted to look for abnormalities after a strain of the highly pathogenic avian flu virus was found in a dead swan.
The experts said they will send the birds to Tottori University in an effort to determine if they were infected with the deadly bird flu virus.
About 20 animal specialists from Tottori patrolled roads, stretches of coastline and other areas within a 10-km radius of a house in the city of Yonago where an infected swan was found, and within a 10 km radius of a poultry farm hit earlier by bird flu in the neighboring city of Yasugi in Shimane Prefecture, officials said.
Japan Times Online - search.japantimes.co.jp
20 Dec 2010
Photo credit: Kyodo Photo
More Pelicans Wash Up On Beaches
Another day, another group of pelicans are found dead on local beaches. A wildlife volunteer made a gruesome find Friday night.
Deborah Woody a volunteer for Possumwood Wildlife Sanctuary walked North Topsail beach for hours Friday night.
She discovered nine more pelican bodies. These nine add to the 120 birds that are believed to have died of unnatural causes in the last month.
WCTI Channel 12 News - www.wcti12.com
18 Dec 2010
S Ratliff
Location: North Topsail Beach, Hubert, North Carolina, USA - Map It 
Government scientists are grappling with unchecked elk herds infected with a mysterious disease.
So as a third round of culling begins to try to reduce the size of the herd, National Park Service chief veterinarian Margaret Wild is taking the lead.
The dart gun she fires from a federal truck finds an easy target — a female foraging in a snow-dusted meadow in the park west of Estes Park, which hosts the densest elk population in the Rocky Mountain region.
Denver Post - www.denverpost.com
18 Dec 2010
B Finley
Photo credit: RJ Sangosti
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA
Scientists and conservation groups are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to immediately protect what was the most common bat species in the Northeast only five years ago.
The little brown bat is being ravaged by White Nose Syndrome, a fast-moving deadly illness named for a powdery white fungus that appears on bats nose, face and wings.
The disease has already killed more than a million bats in the U.S. and scientists say it could mean the extinction of little brown bats in the Northeast within 20 years.
Boston Globe - www.boston.com
20 Dec 2010
B Daley
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
- Probable outbreak among raccoons - Clatsop County, Oregon, USA - Map It
- Bryde's whale beaching a mystery - Perth, Western Australia - Map It
- Vehicle hits, kills Florida panther in S.W. Fla. - Hendry County, Florida, USA - Map It
- Loss of Arctic Ice May Promote Hybrid Marine Mammals
Primates
Photo credit: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty
- Wild chimps make their own 'dolls'
- Why Humans Are More Sensitive to Certain Viruses: Primate Immune System Differences Identified
- Park targets TB in its deer, elk herds [Canada]
- $30m a year for bovine Tb work [New Zealand]
- Elk restoration plan causes concern [Missouri]
- Texas Desert Bighorn Sheep Restoration Hits New Milestone
- Oregon bighorn sheep release to boost state herd
