"Pig that menaced children seen again
Police in the Maine town of Oakland said a pig that menaced two children walking through the woods has scared another passerby. They have now closed the walking trail near two schools where the pig has been seen. Police said the pig confronted the children walking along the trail last week and was ‘‘screaming at the kids and chasing them.’’ The Morning Sentinel reported that following that scare, a woman took refuge on the side rail of a wooden bridge Monday after seeing the 80-pound black-and-white pig. She was not attacked. Police searched for the pig but found only tracks."
Rehoboth boy attacked by animal believed to be fisher cat
Stone Zoo announces new furry residents
7 ducklings rescued from storm drain in Beverly
Loon chicks hatching on lakes, boaters cautioned
Leatherback turtle freed from fishing gear off Cape
Senator, fishermen discuss US aid
Whaling ship from 1841 docks in Charlestown
Pit bull owners: know your breed
As Lyme numbers rise, Vt. warns about ticks
It's the subject of a raging controversy.
Vermont moose hunting lottery drawing set for July 17
"Vermont bats in study seem healthier; Fungus did not affect population" by Wilson Ring | Associated Press July 07, 2014
MONTPELIER — Nearly all the little brown bats that hibernated in a Dorset cave last winter and were tagged with radio chips remained there until spring, an indication they weren’t affected by white nose syndrome, a disease that causes bats to wake from hibernation, fly into the frigid winter, and die.
Coupled with information from bat maternity colonies in the Champlain Valley that little brown bats appear to be reproducing at rates faster than they are dying, it’s a bit of good news in what has been a bleak decade for scientists studying the syndrome.
‘‘If we’ve seen that many bats pass through at the correct time, and behave what we would call normally, that’s really exciting,’’ said Alyssa Bennett, a biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife who helped conduct the study.
The bats studied in the Aeolus cave in Dorset were little brown bats, once one of the most common bat species in Vermont. During the early years after the arrival of white nose, up to 90 percent of the species would awaken during what should have been their winter hibernation, fly into the insectless landscape, and die. This year, scientists say, as many as 96 percent of them stayed until spring.
White nose syndrome, caused by a fungus, is named for the fuzzy spots it plants on victims’ muzzles, wings, and tails. It doesn’t affect people or other animals but repeatedly interrupts hibernation, sapping the bats’ energy and fat stores.
The disease has spread out of New York into Vermont and has since moved into other parts of the United States and Canada.
While the study shows good news for the little brown bats, the once-common northern long-eared bat, which saw 99 percent of its numbers killed by white nose, are now hard to find in Vermont.
There are at least two locations in New York that have seen similar results, but scientists haven’t noticed it in other states affected by white nose, said Jeremy Coleman, the white nose coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Studies are underway to try to determine why the bats are surviving.
Where is one area they will not go here? GMO products, introduced around the same time.
Bennett said separate summer studies underway now in the Champlain Valley have found little brown bat maternity colonies that are thriving, and the population is increasing faster than it is declining.
The Vermont cave tagged 442 bats with chips in the fall and then installed electric readers at a point in the Aeolus cave in Dorset where the bats’ passage would be recorded and the time noted.
The equipment recorded 192 bats leaving the cave, all but eight at the normal spring emergence time, said Bennett, who worked on the project with Antioch University New England graduate student Morgan Ingalls.
A hole in the study came because the tag reading equipment wasn’t turned on until after the bats went into hibernation. It’s possible some other bats died deep in the cave, but that’s not typical behavior of little brown bats, Bennett said.
And while the bats that were tagged were captured near the opening of the Aeolus cave, biologists believe many of those bats could have hibernated elsewhere and wouldn’t have been recorded by the equipment.
But even if all those bats died, which is considered unlikely, the low-end 43 percent survival rate is still an improvement over the early winter survival rates for little brown bats, Bennett said.
But, still, if, SIGH!
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At least the buzzing in my ear is gone:
"Mosquito spraying may have killed bees; Carcasses litter Wakefield school" by Yasmeen Abutaleb | Globe Correspondent July 09, 2014
WAKEFIELD — Dead bumblebees littered the sidewalk in front of Wakefield’s Saint Joseph School. Some were still dying, while others were found in clusters around trees and shrubs that decorated the front of the school.
One local homeowner reported seeing “hundreds if not thousands” of dead and dying bees over the weekend in an e-mail to the Pollinator Stewardship Council, a group that helps protect bees across the country.
While it is unclear what killed the insects, several beekeepers across the state have experienced similar losses — losing up to 10,000 bees at a time — which they have attributed to pesticide spraying.
That is the limited hangout. Pesticides have been around decades and no problem. These strange diseases seem to correlate with the introduction of GMOs.
At this time of year, communities often spray areas where mosquitoes breed to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses, such as West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis. The pesticides typically contain toxic ingredients that kill bees and other insects and animals.
So they killed all the bees just in case a handful of humans may die?
At least some chemical company made money.
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Beekeepers across the country have also reported dramatic losses to pesticide control, Dr. Alex Lu, associate professor of environmental exposure biology at the Harvard School of Public Health, said, adding that bees are needed to pollinate nutritious foods such as apples, blueberries, and strawberries. Bees have been dying off in alarming numbers over the past several years, leaving the nation with too few hives.
“There have been mass bee deaths that have been unexplained,” said Kimberly Klibansky, a beekeeper in Rowley.
Klibansky and her husband, also a beekeeper, both lost whole hives in 2012, about 100,000 bees. “Farmers are going out to their fields and the bees are just gone,” she said. “There’s no evidence of dead bees at their hives.”
Lauren Mangarelli, an 8-year-old student at Saint Joseph, said she noticed many dead bees in the parking lot and in front of the school over the past couple of days.
“It’s kind of weird because I see them everywhere,” Mangarelli said. “It’s freaking me out. They’re everywhere, and we’re barefoot a lot, and I don’t want to step in them.”
Bee activists said local pesticide groups can work with farmers and beekeepers to protect both public health and bee populations by spraying pesticides only late at night when it is completely dark. Local governing bodies and the state can also allow some beekeepers to opt out of having areas near their hives sprayed, they said.
“Bees are the canary in the coal mine,” said Michele Colopy, program director of Pollinator Stewardship Council. “We understand that the public health concerns and protections will always trump concerns for non-target species, and beekeepers realize that, but there are ways we can work together to protect bees from mosquito spray.”
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Well, it is up to you, readers. We can either go to the zoo or animal shelter today, your choice.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Hundreds of birds removed from Springfield home
