TOP STORIES

Deadly bat-fungus shows up in Nova Scotia

The brown bat population in Nova Scotia is at risk of being wiped out if a lethal fungus spreads throughout the province.

The Department of Natural Resources has reported its first case of white-nose syndrome, a fungus that can grow on the ears, nose and wings of hibernating bats.

Nova Scotia is now the fourth province to see signs of the devastating illness.

Global Saskatoon - www.globalsaskatoon.com
18 Apr 2011
N Logan
Photo Credit: Mike Groll, AP Photo
Location: Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada - Map It

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Potent New Rat Poisons Killing California Wildlife

Outside Palm Desert, a young bobcat dies mysteriously at a nature preserve. South of Nevada City, a farmer finds an owl dead near his decoy shed.

In San Rafael, a red-shouldered hawk bleeds heavily from its mouth and nose before succumbing at an animal care center.

Each of those incidents shares a link to a widely used toxin that is turning up at dangerous levels in wildlife across California: rat poison.

Sacramento Bee - www.sacbee.com
17 Apr 2011
T Knudson
Photo credit: Randall Benton

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Pacific salmon may be dying from leukemia-type virus

In Canada's Fraser River, a mysterious illness has killed millions of Pacific salmon, and scientists have a new hypothesis about why: The wild salmon are suffering from viral infections similar to those linked to some forms of leukemia and lymphoma.

For 60 years before the early 1990s, an average of nearly 8 million wild salmon returned from the Pacific Ocean to the Fraser River each year to spawn.

Now the salmon industry is in a state of collapse, with mortality rates ranging from 40 percent to 95 percent.

Miami Herald - www.miamiherald.com
17 Apr 2011
R Hotakainen

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New Pollutants: Flame Retardants Detected in Peregrine Falcon Eggs

Flame retardants are chemical compounds added to fabrics and plastics to keep them from burning easily, but these can be toxic.

Now a team of researchers from Spain and Canada has detected some of these emerging pollutants for the first time in peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) eggs in both countries.

"The presence of 'dechlorane plus' and other related, chlorinated compounds used as flame retardants have been detected for the first time in the European biota (flora and fauna of the region)," explains Ethel Eljarrat, co-author of the study and scientist at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Studies (IDAEA-CSIC, Spain).

ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com
18 Apr 2011
Location: Spain and Canada
Photo Credit: Mike Baird

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Cited Journal Article
>>>P. Guerra et al. Dechlorane Plus and Related Compounds in Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)Eggs from Canada and Spain. Environmental Science & Technology. 2011 Jan 11; 45 (4): 1284-1290.

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo Credit: Michael Cramer Madison

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• Federal practices hamper study of Gulf dolphin deaths
• Avian influenza outbreak in South Africa, 5,000 ostriches culled
• Education, packaging changes could save marine mammals