TOP STORIES
Four SoCal Birds Test Positive for West Nile Virus
Four birds have tested positive for West Nile Virus after being found dead in Cerritos and the San Gabriel Valley, reports the Daily News.
Two of the four birds were discovered in Cerritos, one in Baldwin Park and one in Covina. A fifth bird's test is still pending.
... According to the California West Nile Virus website, no humans have been infected so far this year. However, 23 birds have been found to have the disease throughout the state, as far north as Sacramento County and as far south as Orange and Riverside Counties. The birds found in Cerritos were the first reported to be infected this year in Los Angeles County.
24 Jun 2011
JP Ogilvie
Photo courtesy lasit
Location: Cerritios - Map It
, Baldwin Park - Map It , Covina - Map It , California, USA]More West Nile Virus News
SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS: Mites blamed for squirrel die-offA stubborn skin disease is killing the iconic, bushy-tailed gray tree squirrels in the San Bernardino Mountains, a state biologist says.
For more than a year, state game officials have received calls from people who have found dead or dying Western gray squirrels in Big Bear Lake and other mountain communities.
Squirrels retrieved by game officials were either dead or so sick they died within hours, said Jeff Villepique, a wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. Recent tests on at least six dead squirrels at a state laboratory in San Bernardino found they had been infected by the same type of mite, called Notoedres centrifera, he said.
24 Jun 2011
D Danelski
Photo courtesy of Press Enterprise
Location: San Bernardino Mountains, California, USA - Map It
>>> FULL ARTICLE
Wildlife surviving conflict in Afghanistan
A new survey conducted by WCS scientists, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), reveals that large mammals, including Asiatic black bears, gray wolves, markhor goats, and leopard cats are surviving in parts of Afghanistan after years of conflict.
The field team used camera-trap surveys, transect surveys, and DNA identification of scat samples in the first wildlife update in the conflict-plagued eastern province of Nuristan since 1977. The surveys, conducted between 2006 and 2009 covering an area of 1,100 square kilometers, confirmed the presence of several important species in the region's montane deciduous and coniferous forests, including the first documented sighting of the common palm civet in Afghanistan. The results mirror studies in other parts of Afghanistan indicating that wildlife continues to survive despite deforestation, habitat degradation, and decades with the absence of rule of law.
EurekAlert - www.eurekalert.com
27 Jun 2011
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
- Marine mammal information centre opens in Churchill
- Scientists make advance in keeping Tasmanian devils alive [cited journal article]
- Utah research team studys [sic] Zion National Park frogs
- The melting of Arctic alters the migration of seabirds [Translation disclaimer]
- More than 50 000 tons of dead fish has caused the "red tide" [Translation disclaimer][Los Cabos, Mexico - Map It ]
- A rare dolphin stranded on the coast of Brittany [Oleron, France - Map It ]
