DETROIT (AP) — An apparent increase in the number of people and pets being bitten by Michigan’s only venomous snake species is stoking fears among some residents in the state’s Lower Peninsula about the small, shy rattlesnake.

The Detroit News reports that the eastern massasauga rattlesnake has had an uncharacteristically busy year, delivering what appears to be more bites than usual.

“Just from my gut, it seems there are more bites than there have been in the past,” said Jeff Jundt, the curator for reptiles at the Detroit Zoo.

The zoo, which carries anti-venom, typically provides the medication once a year to hospitals for use in emergencies. But Jundt said so far this year he’s sent it three times.

State officials don’t track rattlesnake bites, although they are normally rare.

But this year, there’s been a string of them — in Orion Township, Highland Recreation Area and Flushing. At least seven times in the past five months, eastern massasaugas have bitten people or their pets, sending worried families to hospitals or veterinarian offices.

And Poison Control at Children’s Hospital of Michigan has this year received reports of at least four human bites.

None of those encounters has resulted in a death, but experts said the number of occurrences is out of the ordinary.

Logan Coleman’s family was sent into a panic in late August after the 7-year-old was bitten by an eastern massasauga in their yard in Spring Arbor Township, just west of Jackson.

“He came running back into the house yelling, ‘Mom, come out here and see what bit me — you’ve gotta see.’ He was screaming at the top of his lungs,” Kimberly Coleman, the boy’s mother, told The Detroit News.

Logan was bitten on his left index finger and the area was beginning to swell and harden.

A neighbor helped catch the snake in a bucket and the family raced to a nearby clinic where doctors identified the snake and transferred Logan to an Ann Arbor hospital that carried the anti-venom.

The youngster spent one night at the hospital, taking the anti-venom through an intravenous drip. Today, he bears no ill effects from the encounter, but his mother now occasionally patrols the yard when her son is outside.

The venom produced by the eastern massasauga is not a neurotoxin that causes paralysis, as in many snakes, but it damages tissues around the bite site. If untreated, it can be fatal in young or old people, as well as adults in poor health.

The apparent rise in rattlesnake encounters may be due to this year’s warm autumn — the snakes are most active spring to fall.

With warmer temperatures, the rattlesnakes are delaying their fall hibernation and enjoying extra time sunning themselves, said Chris Hoving, the endangered species coordinator with the state Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The eastern massasauga is Michigan’s only rattlesnake and is found all across the Lower Peninsula in areas that include wetlands. At its largest, it grows to just under 3 feet, making it one of the smallest rattlesnake species.

Hoving said the snake’s defensive rattle produces a higher-pitched sound than humans might expect from a rattler.

“It tends to sound like an insect buzzing,” he said.

Due to the loss of wetlands where the snakes make their homes, the eastern massasauga’s numbers have diminished significantly. It is now protected by law in Michigan and is under consideration for endangered species designation by the federal government.

via Mich. Seeing Apparent Rise in Rattlesnake Bites.

SEATTLE – The wife of a Bellevue city councilman who was mauled by a black bear near Lake Wenatchee Friday night is now talking about the attack.

John Chelminiak, 58, is recovering from puncture wounds and injuries to his head and upper body at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Chelminiak was spending the weekend with his wife at their vacation home. He was walking their dogs when he was attacked by the bear.

Chelminiak was able to yell a warning to his wife.

“I was in the house, again we were just finishing unpacking,” said Cheminiak’s wife, Lynn Semler. “I heard somebody calling out, and it didn’t sound like John.”

“I went out through the garage with my flashlight and as I opened the garage door what I thought was a large, um, dog lept in front of me,” recalled Semler.

That large dog was actually the bear.

While Semler comforted her husband, she called 911.

“I explained to them that my husband had been attacked by a bear.”

She warned her daughter to stay inside and lock the door. The bear was still just a few hundred yards away.

“It was pacing back and forth on the road. And I just kept my flashlight on that bear,” she said.

She stayed with her husband until paramedics arrived.

Agents later shot and killed the bear, which was described as old, very thin and in poor condition. They don’t know why the bear attacked Chelminiak, the bear did not have any cubs.

Chelminiak was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His father, his sister, and his wife haven’t left his side.

On Sunday Chelminiak was in serious but stable condition and is doing well. He had a special message for his wife.

“(He said) I love you. He wished me a happy anniversary this afternoon. So he remembered today was our 13th anniversary,” said Semler. “He’s made great progress. He just looks good to me. I love him!”

via Wife describes the bear attack on her husband | KING5.com | Seattle Area Local News.

A 57-year-old British Columbia man, who survived a bear attack near Port Alberni, was in good spirits on Wednesday, hospital officials said.

Jay Vinden was saved when his 47-year-old friend fought off the attack at a secluded campsite near Sproat Lake on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

“He has got some puncture wounds to his back and his side and his knee and he will be having some plastic surgery to his scalp,” said Anya Nimmon, spokeswoman for Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. “But otherwise his spirits are high and he’s in stable condition.”

RCMP Sgt. Kevin Murray said the two men were camping in an area known as Taylor Flats at the west end of Sproat Lake.

“The bear initially attacked the 57-year-old male who was sleeping in a lean-to type shelter,” said Murray. “His 47-year-old friend, sleeping nearby in a tent, was alerted to the attack and was able to fight off the bear.”

Both men, from the Victoria-area community of Sooke, suffered extensive claw wounds in the attack.

Murray said both men had been camping in the area for a number of days and had encountered the 68-kilogram bear around their camp on the first day.

RCMP and B.C. conservation officers are attempting to find the bear to determine if there is any reason it might attack again.

“Police and conservation want to remind people visiting the back country to be extra vigilant in protecting themselves and their camp from wildlife encounters,” said Murray.

via Camper recovering after B.C. bear attack.

Ever since Jaws, great whites have had a reputation as killing machines that has never seemed much point questioning.

However, that could all be about to change – after a study into the fearsome predators’ dining habits.

Scientists towed a 36ft Brydes whale carcass into a well-known hunting ground for the animals in an exercise aimed at documenting how they tackled the huge free lunch.

And these amazing pictures show how up to 30 of them stripped a single whale carcass – and gave an ‘extraordinary’ insight into how the much-feared predators behave.

But while many would have expected a feeding frenzy and potentially lethal fights between the razor-teethed gians, the behaviour observed was quite different.

The sharks appeared to select choice cuts of the dead whale and did not appear to be aggressive towards each other.

Free lunch: The 30 great white sharks were provided with a whale carcass so scientists could study their eating habits

Tasty findings: Alison Kock was the principal scientist at Save Our Seas Shark Centre and Shark Spotting Programme, at Cape Town in South Africa and was surprised by the sharks

Alison Kock, 33, the principal scientist at Save Our Seas Shark Centre and Shark Spotting Programme, at Cape Town South Africa, said: ‘Contrary to their reputation as mindless killers, the level of selectivity for which parts of the dead whale they ate was extraordinary.

‘They targeted the energy-rich blubber, often making repeated “test bites” where no flesh was removed, and removing flesh only once they had determined it was what they wanted. If they got a mouthful of muscle, they often spat it out.

‘They were very picky.’

It’s thought the huge whale was killed after being struck by a boat and was found floating towards Miller’s Point near Cape Town, South Africa, where the clean up operation for the local authorities would have been difficult as their huge bodies are harder to remove on land.

It was also feared the body – giving off oils that attract predators like sharks – may have drawn in great whites to an area frequented by swimmers.

Kock added: ‘Permission was granted by the authorities to have the dead whale towed to nearby Seal Island where the carcass was less of an issue and the sharks could help solve the clean-up problem.

‘In addition it provided an unparalleled opportunity to document white shark behaviour and record the number of sharks in the area.

‘Whale carcasses are believed to be a very important source of food for white sharks with some scientific evidence suggesting they follow whale migrations possibly to, opportunistically feed on dead or sick whales.’

Jaws: Alison Koch said: ‘Contrary to their reputation as mindless killers, the level of selectivity for which parts of the dead whale they ate was extraordinary’

Blubber: During the nine-day experiment Kock and her team made some shocking discoveries, including the fact that the sharks seemed to have a huge preference for soft blubber over tough muscle

During the nine-day experiment, which ended on Saturday, Kock and her team made some shocking discoveries, including the fact that the sharks seemed to have a huge preference for soft blubber over tough muscle.

‘In the case of the whale carcass the sharks knew exactly what they wanted,’ said Kock.

‘It provides evidence that when they bite into a surfboard, or kayak or person wearing a wetsuit they can immediately determine it’s not something they want to eat.

‘It’s very common in attacks on humans for white sharks to take a single bite and leave it at that. Our study provides more evidence that they are simply tasting and looking for meat that is nutritious. It shows that they are not just swimming around mindlessly eating everything they come across, as they are sometimes portrayed.’

She added: ‘I was surprised at the total number of white sharks that fed on the dead whale over the nine days we documented the event. We recorded over 30 different sharks in total. At one stage we had up to four white sharks feeding simultaneously on the carcass.

‘The first two days were the busiest with the most sharks, and the activity slowly decreased as the sharks had their fill. The last two days we recorded no sharks feeding on the carcass.

‘Many of the sharks I recognised as individuals hunting seals around the island from this shark season, as well as previous years. We used their unique dorsal fins to identify them, but there were also new sharks that I had never seen before.

‘The sharks showed very little aggression towards one another in the presence of such a large food source, often feeding side by side.

‘Some of the sharks we observed were gorging on the blubber and you could actually see their bellies getting fuller.

“Some would arrive quite skinny and by the end of their session they looked pregnant with their bellies bulging.’

During the study, the sharks reduced the carcass down to less than seven feet (two metres) of bone and muscle, having removed all the blubber.

Shark enthusiast Kock, added: ‘This is the ultimate example of the very important role sharks play in the ecosystem. That of recycling life, and of keeping our oceans healthy by removing dead and decaying animals like dead whales.’

via Shark attack: Incredible pictures of 30 great whites stripping a whale carcass provide ‘extraordinary’ insight into eating habits | Mail Online.

White Shark Sightings On The Rise On East Coast : NPR.

From NPR, I’m Ira Flatow.

Over the last few years, there have been more and more confirmed shark sightings at beaches on the East Coast, and this summer is no exception. Just last week, lifeguards closed part of Rockaway Beach, that’s here in Brooklyn, after surfers spotted a shark.

Further north, officials closed a remote beach in Cape Cod when a spotter of planes saw not one, not two but at least three great white sharks lurking near the shore a couple weeks ago. No one’s been allowed in the water since then.

And then just yesterday, Cape Cod’s Chatham Harbor was closed to swimming due to the sighting of a 14-foot great white shark. Scary, huh?

But before you call in Quint and his too-small shark boat in “Jaws,” to put this in perspective, there hasn’t been a fatal shark attack in New England since way back in 1936. So why are we spotting so many more great whites today?

Is their population growing, or are we just more paranoid and getting better at spotting them? Here to sort out some of the facts from fiction is my guest. Greg Skomal is a senior biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He joins us by phone. Welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY, Dr. Skomal.

Dr. GREG SKOMAL (Senior Biologist Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries): Thank you, Ira. It’s good to be here.

FLATOW: Good, thank you. Are there more sharks these days, or are we seeing more of them?

Dr. SKOMAL: I think it’s a function, it’s a number of variables we’re dealing with here, and it’s hard for us to really tell if there’s more sharks or just simply more effort.

Certainly, a lot of the sightings along the East Coast of the United States have to do with more people utilizing the shoreline, utilizing the water for various recreational activities and otherwise.

But in think in some areas, specifically off the coast of Chatham, Massachusetts and Monomoy Island, we are indeed seeing more white sharks. And I think what we’re seeing is a shift in distribution of the white shark in that particular area.

FLATOW: And what is attracting them to that area?

Dr. SKOMAL: Over the course of the last couple of decades, we’ve been seeing a steady increase in the number of gray seals and a growing gray seal, resident gray seal population in that area. I believe it’s drawing these sharks closer to shore.

FLATOW: And why would we be seeing more gray seals now?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, back in the early ’70s, we passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and it’s taken the last few decades for this population to actually recover to levels that pre-existed before we eradicated the species over the course of the last several decades. So we’ve got a growing population in response to protection by the U.S. and state governments.

FLATOW: So I guess what you’re saying is that we’re seeing a restoration of this coastal ecosystem to the way it used to be.

Dr. SKOMAL: Exactly, at least that’s the way we perceive it at this time. You know, we could be going back to what existed several hundred years ago, with a robust seal population being preyed upon by a robust white shark population.

FLATOW: 1-800-989-8255. We’re talking to Greg Skomal about the sightings of great white sharks along the East Coast. Maybe if you’ve seen one, you’d like to call in and talk about it. You can also Twitter us, send us a tweet @scifri, @-S-C-I-F-R-I. Or join the discussion on our website, on sciencefriday.com.

You, what do we you know, aside from watching “Jaws” and all the scary movies about sharks and Shark Week on cable channels everywhere, how much do we really know about white shark populations?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, there are certain parts of the world where you can predictably find white sharks. And these areas, which include, you know, the Pacific Coast, California, parts of South Africa and South Australia – these are areas where scientists have had the luxury, if you will, of going out and studying these animals at great levels.

And we’ve been able to garner quite a bit about their biology in those areas, I think. One of the spots that we know very little about the white shark is the Atlantic Ocean. And perhaps, this change in ecosystem that we’re going through up here in New England, may begin to provide us some access to these animals so we can start to tease away some aspects of their biology.

FLATOW: And you are involved in tagging sharks, are you not?

Dr. SKOMAL: Correct, correct. Yeah, last year we had a chance, for the first time, to put satellite-based technology tags on white sharks in this area, and we are already getting insights into their biology from those tags.

And already this year, we’ve placed four tags out, and we hope to be able to continue to do that over the course of the next month.

FLATOW: How do you get, you know, how do you know when it is time to reopen these beaches that have been closed?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you know, the local municipalities are in charge of those beaches, and all we can do at the Division of Marine Fisheries is provide information to those folks who are making these decisions.

You know, we’d like to provide real-time information on the presence of sharks as acquired through our research activities so they can make well-founded decisions on opening and closing beaches.

FLATOW: What are the odds of getting bitten by a shark?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you yourself indicated that the last fatal attack in Massachusetts was back in the 1930s. So that gives you a sense of what the probability is. That being said, I think it’s important to realize when you place people in close proximity to the prey of sharks, namely gray seals, you could potentially increase the risk modestly.

So I think it’s important for people to make wise decisions when getting in the water and choose areas that may be free of white shark prey.

FLATOW: Henry(ph) in Aurora, Illinois. Hi, welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY.

HENRY (Caller): Hello there. Being landlocked, I just have an idea that possibly, there’s less fish out there for the sharks to feed on because you could ask any fishermen why are they still in port. And the sharks will wander farther around, looking for food. That’s my idea. Thank you.

FLATOW: You’re welcome.

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, I’ll tell you, that’s an interesting point, and it points to fisheries management and population management and the importance of looking at bait species and to find relationships between sharks and their prey and whether or not we’re, you know, overexploiting their prey and forcing sharks to other areas to exploit other resources.

That being said, I think it’s well-defined, the behavior of the white shark, when it comes to feeding, these animals are clearly going through, clearly prefer larger prey, namely marine mammals and specifically seals and sea lions.

So I think what we have going on off the coast of New England is actually just a national predator-prey relationship and not anything exacerbated, perhaps, by humans.

FLATOW: Let’s go to Roy(ph) in Sumter, South Carolina. Hi, Roy.

ROY (Caller): Hi, thank you so much for taking the call and specifically on this topic. It’s always been an interest. I’ve been recreational fishing in the Atlantic for 30 years. And over the last three or four years, we’ve noticed a tremendous increase in the number of small sharks that we’re catching.

It used to be something, we may catch one shark every two or three trips, and now we probably catch 10 sharks every trip. These we refer to them as bonnetheads. I dont know if that’s an accurate terminology, about a three, three-and-a-half-foot long shark, always catch them on the bottom, never catch them trawling. And I’ll take my answer off the air, but again, thank you so much for this topic.

FLATOW: All right. Could there be many big sharks because there are a lot more little sharks now?

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you know, the bonnethead is indeed a species. It’s considered to be a healthy population off the Southeastern U.S., according to the fisheries’ statisticians. It’s not a fish that’s heavily exploited commercially, although it is sold in some numbers, and recreational fishermen like to catch it, as well.

You know, there are some folks who believe – some scientists who believe that with the removal of very, very large sharks that consume these smaller sharks, we’re seeing more species, you know, more smaller sharks out there. That may be the case, although it hasn’t been clearly demonstrated by scientists.

So it’s an area where there is quite a bit of work, but we have no real conclusions yet.

FLATOW: Have sharks been over hunted?

Dr. SKOMAL: In certain parts of the world with certain populations, absolutely. We have enough information on, for example, the dusky shark to indicate that that population off the Eastern U.S. has been overexploited and reduced dramatically.

The same is true for the sandbar shark. For other populations of sharks, they continue to be robust, and I think the bonnethead falls into that.

FLATOW: All right, let me go to Mark(ph) in New Britain, Connecticut. Hi, Mark.

MARK (Caller): Hi, thanks for taking my call. As you said, I’m in Connecticut, and I’ve noticed changes in the water temperature of Long Island Sound. It’s been creeping up, year over year, and I’m wondering if the climatic changes, increases in ocean temperature, are a possible source of increased activity.

FLATOW: Good question.

Dr. SKOMAL: Yes, an excellent question, one we anticipate a lot of research trying to answer over the course of the next decade. We know that with climate change and global warming, we’re going to see changes in the structure of fish populations in terms of the diversity of species, with a shift north of tropical species.

And it has been demonstrated for some, already. I imagine with warming water temperatures in Long Island Sound, you’re going to see a change in the fish diversity in that body of water, as well.

So, you know, it’s an area that we’re going into. We anticipate changes, and some of them have been documented. In terms of sharks, we haven’t seen any kind of dramatic shift as of yet, but some of the species that typically occur south of Cape Cod and not north, have indeed been starting to creep around the Cape. So we’re starting to see some indications that the fish populations, including sharks, are changing.

FLATOW: Steve(ph) in Cambridge, Mass. Hi, Steve.

STEVE (Caller): Hey, how are you doing? Thanks for taking the call. Great show. I think the shark thing is just a bunch of media hype, frankly. I mean, it just, you know, it makes people tune into the news shows, and I’m not sure there’s any more or less. I just think the sightings are more – maybe because there’s more fishermen out there.

But I was wondering if you might know why there’s a lot more jellyfish in the bay this year.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. SKOMAL: Well, you bring up a couple of excellent points, and a lot of the shark phenomenon, or shark frenzy, if you will, is driven by the media – and it’s something we have to deal with all the time.

I can tell you that some of the shark sightings data absolutely indicate a shift that’s going on over with white sharks, and some of it’s just generated by a media frenzy. Somebody sees a fin, it may not be a shark fin, but it gets reported as such, and that just compounds upon itself.

I wish I could be of more help with you with jellyfish. I’ve been hearing a lot of folks complain about jellyfish in the bay over the last several weeks, but unfortunately, I study things a lot bigger.

FLATOW: All right, we’ll have to take a look at that, with some jellyfish folks, on a future program. But I want to thank you for taking time to be with us today.

Dr. SKOMAL: Oh, my pleasure. It’s great to be here.

FLATOW: Have a good weekend.

Dr. SKOMAL: Yes, you, too.

FLATOW: Greg Skomal is a senior biologist in the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries in New Bedford, Mass., and he was joining us by phone from there.

When we come back, we’re going to switch to electric cars, plug-ins. Do you want a plug-in? How about a Chevy Volt or a Nissan Leaf? We’re going to compare the two. Maybe you could talk to us about what you’d like to see the perfect plug-in to be. What would you are these two cars the kind you might purchase? If not, what do you want to have?

Our number, 1-800-989-8255. You can tweet us @scifri, @-S-C-I-F-R-I, or go to our website at sciencefriday.com, where you can chat around with some folks that way.

So stay with us. We’ll be right back after the break.

(Soundbite of music)

FLATOW: I’m Ira Flatow. This is SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR.

A teenaged girl was attacked by a coyote while sleeping at a campground in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park early Monday, Parks Canada says.

Cape Breton RCMP said a 911 call was received around 4:30 a.m. and was attended to by Parks Canada.

The girl suffered two bite wounds to her scalp. She was treated at a nearby hospital and released later in the morning.

“It’s difficult for us to say exactly what happened. It doesn’t appear that the bite was provoked by anything the person did,” said Derek Quann, resource conservation manager with Parks Canada. “It’s important to mention that she was in a sleeping bag outside of her tent, close to the tent, when this occurred.”

Parks Canada considers this a “serious incident,” Quann said.

The agency is working to increase awareness among visitors about coyote behaviour and how to stay safe in the event of an attack. Efforts are also being made to attract the animals into an area where they can be safely and humanely trapped, Quann said.

The Department of Natural Resources said it has received a record number of calls from the public about coyotes since last fall, when Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old folk singer from Toronto, died after being attacked in the national park by two of the animals.

Mitchell’s death triggered warnings about coyote safety in the park. Parks Canada organized open houses to inform hikers about coyote behaviour to try to prevent future attacks.

This spring, the province announced that it would keep 15 trappers on call to deal with complaints about aggressive animals. Coyotes found near communities would be captured and killed, the province said.

The government also announced in May it would start paying trappers $20 per coyote pelt when the trapping season begins on Oct. 15.

There are an estimated 8,000 coyotes in Nova Scotia. Provincial officials say as many as 4,000 could be killed by next spring.

via CBC News – Nova Scotia – Coyote attacks girl in N.S. national park.

A teenaged girl was attacked by a coyote while sleeping at a campground in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park early Monday, Parks Canada says.

Cape Breton RCMP said a 911 call was received around 4:30 a.m. and was attended to by Parks Canada.

The girl suffered two bite wounds to her scalp. She was treated at a nearby hospital and released later in the morning.

“It’s difficult for us to say exactly what happened. It doesn’t appear that the bite was provoked by anything the person did,” said Derek Quann, resource conservation manager with Parks Canada. “It’s important to mention that she was in a sleeping bag outside of her tent, close to the tent, when this occurred.”

Parks Canada considers this a “serious incident,” Quann said.

The agency is working to increase awareness among visitors about coyote behaviour and how to stay safe in the event of an attack. Efforts are also being made to attract the animals into an area where they can be safely and humanely trapped, Quann said.

The Department of Natural Resources said it has received a record number of calls from the public about coyotes since last fall, when Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old folk singer from Toronto, died after being attacked in the national park by two of the animals.

Mitchell’s death triggered warnings about coyote safety in the park. Parks Canada organized open houses to inform hikers about coyote behaviour to try to prevent future attacks.

This spring, the province announced that it would keep 15 trappers on call to deal with complaints about aggressive animals. Coyotes found near communities would be captured and killed, the province said.

The government also announced in May it would start paying trappers $20 per coyote pelt when the trapping season begins on Oct. 15.

There are an estimated 8,000 coyotes in Nova Scotia. Provincial officials say as many as 4,000 could be killed by next spring.

via CBC News – Nova Scotia – Coyote attacks girl in N.S. national park.

A teenaged girl was attacked by a coyote while sleeping at a campground in Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park early Monday, Parks Canada says.

Cape Breton RCMP said a 911 call was received around 4:30 a.m. and was attended to by Parks Canada.

The girl suffered two bite wounds to her scalp. She was treated at a nearby hospital and released later in the morning.

“It’s difficult for us to say exactly what happened. It doesn’t appear that the bite was provoked by anything the person did,” said Derek Quann, resource conservation manager with Parks Canada. “It’s important to mention that she was in a sleeping bag outside of her tent, close to the tent, when this occurred.”

Parks Canada considers this a “serious incident,” Quann said.

The agency is working to increase awareness among visitors about coyote behaviour and how to stay safe in the event of an attack. Efforts are also being made to attract the animals into an area where they can be safely and humanely trapped, Quann said.

The Department of Natural Resources said it has received a record number of calls from the public about coyotes since last fall, when Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old folk singer from Toronto, died after being attacked in the national park by two of the animals.

Mitchell’s death triggered warnings about coyote safety in the park. Parks Canada organized open houses to inform hikers about coyote behaviour to try to prevent future attacks.

This spring, the province announced that it would keep 15 trappers on call to deal with complaints about aggressive animals. Coyotes found near communities would be captured and killed, the province said.

The government also announced in May it would start paying trappers $20 per coyote pelt when the trapping season begins on Oct. 15.

There are an estimated 8,000 coyotes in Nova Scotia. Provincial officials say as many as 4,000 could be killed by next spring.

via CBC News – Nova Scotia – Coyote attacks girl in N.S. national park.

A 12-year-old girl died Tuesday after falling into floodwaters near Flagstaff, Arizona, authorities said.

Shaelyn Wilson had gone to see runoff from a flash flood around 2 p.m., according to the Coconino Sheriff’s Department. A younger sister ran back to tell the father that Shaelyn had fallen into a wash.

The family searched the area near where the girl fell and several agencies also took part in the search, according to Kelli Most, administrative specialist with the sheriff’s department.

The girl was found about a third of a mile from where she went into the water, and her father performed CPR until paramedics arrived. She was pronounced dead at Flagstaff Medical Center.

A massive wildfire last month made the area susceptible to flooding, said Most. “There’s just no greenery there” to prevent runoff, she said. The blaze charred 15,000 acres.

Several small streams pushed over their banks, and flash floods were threatening homes, according to CNN affiliate KPHO.

via Arizona girl, 12, dies in flooding – CNN.com.

Depending on where you are in the Rockies this year, the annual summer bear season could mean black-bear sightings in your front yard or a near-death experience while looking through the jaws of a hungry bear.

Already, the list of bear attacks across the Rockies this summer is beginning to mount.

On Saturday morning, a bear attacked a homeless man sleeping in Durango near the Animas River. The man survived, but the bear didn’t after Colorado Division of Wildlife officials turned their guns on it after the attack. A necropsy of the bear’s carcass was completed at CSU.

Last Thursday, a bear broke into a home in Bailey, southwest of Denver, biting a man.

Other bears have been sighted plundering porches and backyards in Livermore and Rist Canyon.

In the past month, bears have turned outright hostile in New Mexico, where they’ve developed an affinity for tents and a taste for the people sleeping in them.

“They’re coming down and acting kind of aggressive right now,” said Dan Williams, spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.

New Mexico wildlife officials killed a bear at the end of June after it jumped on a tent and took a swipe at the man sleeping in it at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch, a 137,000-acre camping and backpacking ranch just south of the Colorado state line west of Raton.

There were two more incidents there: The same day, another bear was found with a goat in its mouth, and a Philmont staffer killed it. On Wednesday, a bear bit a 14-year-old Boy Scout through his tent, leaving a deep gash in his head.

“It kind of peeled back the scalp there,” Williams said.

Both campers who were attacked were carefully following strict bear-safety protocols in place at Philmont, he said.

Those incidents followed another in June when a bear swatted a man tent-camping in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque.

But all the ursine nastiness in some parts of the West doesn’t mean there’s anything unusual going on this year, particularly in Colorado and Wyoming.

Bear activity is quite normal throughout Colorado, DOW spokesman Tyler Baskfield said.

The bears’ habitat is normal and healthy, he said, and there is no sign of increased bear sightings or attacks in any localized area, he said.

“We haven’t noticed anything that is different than we’ve seen in years when there’s decent, natural food,” said Ken Wilson, a professor of wildlife and conservation biology at Colorado State University.

“A bear has been into some trash cans in Rist Canyon,” he said. “One bear can decide it’s going to get into something, (but) it’s not all of them.”

Few bears have been seen at all in southern Wyoming, where wildlife officials consider black-bear habitat and natural food supply excellent, said Al Langston, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Game and Fish.

In New Mexico, dry weather hurt the bears’ food supply and dried out the forbs and grass that usually get black bears through the spring.

The lack of food there is so dire that this year’s number of bear attacks hasn’t been seen in New Mexico for almost a decade, Williams said.

There are plenty of things homeowners and backcountry adventurers can do to keep bears away.

For people camping in the mountains, store food in bear-resistant containers away from your sleeping area, Wilson said.

The best way to keep plundering bears away from homes is to keep birdseed, trash and other potential food sources inside where bears can’t have easy access to them, Baskfield said.

“There’s no reason to feed birds this time of year” because natural bird food is plentiful, he said.

And, he warned city dwellers, just because you might live in Fort Collins doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your home bear resistant.

“We get bears who wander into Fort Collins on a regular basis,” he said.

via List of bear attacks this summer grows | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan.

Standing next to his young daughter in waist-deep water off Fripp Island on Friday afternoon, Craig Morris felt something softly nudge his leg.

Seconds later, something pulled 6-year-old Ella under the water.

That “something” was a shark, he said.

The 37-year-old father of three quickly pulled the child to the surface.

That’s when he saw the blood and the 9-inch gash on the little girl’s leg, said Heidi Morris, Craig’s wife and Ella’s mother.

“He threw the boogie board they had been using (away) and squeezed her leg together,” said Heidi Morris of the 1 p.m. incident near the Fripp Island Beach Club. “Then he carried her up the beach and booked it to the fire house. There was lots of blood. You could see her bone.”

A Beaufort County paramedic and Fripp Island Fire officers treated Ella until an ambulance arrived and took her to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

It took 22 stitches to close the bite. Ella was released later that day, Heidi Morrris said.

The family, including sons Jackson, 8, and Parker, 9, of Marietta, Ga., were enjoying the final day of a week-long vacation when the incident occurred, she said. It was their first time vacationing on Fripp.

“We just loved it,” she said. “Earlier in the day, I had even posted pictures and a comment on my Facebook page that we were so happy with our experience. Later that day, I had to tell people about the shark.”

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Emergency room doctors told the family the shark was probably small, between four and five feet long, Heidi Morris said.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, agreed.

Ella’s wound looked like four smaller bites in a row, probably from a small shark. Typically, a swimmer would see the dorsal fin of a larger animal before it struck, Bell said.

“What you have with sharks is a test bite, to see what it is,” he said. “Then they usually take off, because you’re not a desired food item.”

DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas said Tuesday there is no way to confirm whether the youngster’s wound was inflicted by a shark.

Because shark attacks are so rare, there is no protocol for reporting bites.

In South Carolina, the most recent shark attack that resulted in death was in 1883, Bell said.

“We’re still not sure what kind of shark it was,” he said.

In July 2006, an Ohio man said he was bitten by a shark at Hilton Head Island’s Singleton Beach. The wound required about a dozen stitches on his leg above his ankle. Authorities never confirmed the attack as the work of a shark, but the man said the teeth marks and puncture wounds were evidence enough for him.

In June of that year, a Missouri girl was bitten while playing in about two feet of water near the Breakers resort area of Coligny Beach.

Earlier in the month, a 14-year-old girl was bitten while swimming off Pawleys Island while a 21-year-old woman suffered a foot injury during a shark encounter off Kiawah Island.

Still, shark bites are relatively rare occurrences.

According to statistics compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Thomas said tracking the area shark population is not an exact science, but called the number robust.

“We always have a fairly large number of sharks in our waters,” Thomas said.

He attributed that to deep waters, healthy estuaries and plenty of fish to eat.

“Port Royal and St. Helena sounds are two deep areas for them to come into and spawn, and we have an abundance of fish,” Thomas said.

‘I’M NOT SCARED’

While the incident left her parents shaken, Ella was the picture of courage and composure.

Her mother was amazed at the child’s attitude in the emergency room.

“She was fine, acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong,” Heidi Morris said.

Since the encounter, the six-year-old has continued to be upbeat and chatty, her mother said.

“Yesterday (Monday) all day, she wore a shark T-shirt,” she said.

Her parents said they were happy there was no severe nerve or muscle damage. A doctor said Monday the youngster’s wound was healing well and she should be up and walking in a day or two, her mother said.

Minutes before the attack, Ella had been in the water alone, her mother said.

“We were lucky, because her dad came up and put his arms around her right before it happened,” she said. “I think she felt safe because her daddy was right there.”

“I’m not scared,” Ella told her mother after the attack.

She said something else, too.

“I’ll go back in the water.”

via Ga. girl ‘upbeat’ after being bitten by shark off Fripp Island | islandpacket.com.

Standing next to his young daughter in waist-deep water off Fripp Island on Friday afternoon, Craig Morris felt something softly nudge his leg.

Seconds later, something pulled 6-year-old Ella under the water.

That “something” was a shark, he said.

The 37-year-old father of three quickly pulled the child to the surface.

That’s when he saw the blood and the 9-inch gash on the little girl’s leg, said Heidi Morris, Craig’s wife and Ella’s mother.

“He threw the boogie board they had been using (away) and squeezed her leg together,” said Heidi Morris of the 1 p.m. incident near the Fripp Island Beach Club. “Then he carried her up the beach and booked it to the fire house. There was lots of blood. You could see her bone.”

A Beaufort County paramedic and Fripp Island Fire officers treated Ella until an ambulance arrived and took her to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

It took 22 stitches to close the bite. Ella was released later that day, Heidi Morrris said.

The family, including sons Jackson, 8, and Parker, 9, of Marietta, Ga., were enjoying the final day of a week-long vacation when the incident occurred, she said. It was their first time vacationing on Fripp.

“We just loved it,” she said. “Earlier in the day, I had even posted pictures and a comment on my Facebook page that we were so happy with our experience. Later that day, I had to tell people about the shark.”

A RARE OCCURRENCE

Emergency room doctors told the family the shark was probably small, between four and five feet long, Heidi Morris said.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, agreed.

Ella’s wound looked like four smaller bites in a row, probably from a small shark. Typically, a swimmer would see the dorsal fin of a larger animal before it struck, Bell said.

“What you have with sharks is a test bite, to see what it is,” he said. “Then they usually take off, because you’re not a desired food item.”

DNR Sgt. Michael Paul Thomas said Tuesday there is no way to confirm whether the youngster’s wound was inflicted by a shark.

Because shark attacks are so rare, there is no protocol for reporting bites.

In South Carolina, the most recent shark attack that resulted in death was in 1883, Bell said.

“We’re still not sure what kind of shark it was,” he said.

In July 2006, an Ohio man said he was bitten by a shark at Hilton Head Island’s Singleton Beach. The wound required about a dozen stitches on his leg above his ankle. Authorities never confirmed the attack as the work of a shark, but the man said the teeth marks and puncture wounds were evidence enough for him.

In June of that year, a Missouri girl was bitten while playing in about two feet of water near the Breakers resort area of Coligny Beach.

Earlier in the month, a 14-year-old girl was bitten while swimming off Pawleys Island while a 21-year-old woman suffered a foot injury during a shark encounter off Kiawah Island.

Still, shark bites are relatively rare occurrences.

According to statistics compiled by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File, people are 30 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

Thomas said tracking the area shark population is not an exact science, but called the number robust.

“We always have a fairly large number of sharks in our waters,” Thomas said.

He attributed that to deep waters, healthy estuaries and plenty of fish to eat.

“Port Royal and St. Helena sounds are two deep areas for them to come into and spawn, and we have an abundance of fish,” Thomas said.

‘I’M NOT SCARED’

While the incident left her parents shaken, Ella was the picture of courage and composure.

Her mother was amazed at the child’s attitude in the emergency room.

“She was fine, acted like there was absolutely nothing wrong,” Heidi Morris said.

Since the encounter, the six-year-old has continued to be upbeat and chatty, her mother said.

“Yesterday (Monday) all day, she wore a shark T-shirt,” she said.

Her parents said they were happy there was no severe nerve or muscle damage. A doctor said Monday the youngster’s wound was healing well and she should be up and walking in a day or two, her mother said.

Minutes before the attack, Ella had been in the water alone, her mother said.

“We were lucky, because her dad came up and put his arms around her right before it happened,” she said. “I think she felt safe because her daddy was right there.”

“I’m not scared,” Ella told her mother after the attack.

She said something else, too.

“I’ll go back in the water.”

via Ga. girl ‘upbeat’ after being bitten by shark off Fripp Island | islandpacket.com.

WEST ASHLEY, SC (WCSC) — What started out as an early morning dog walk turned in to a battle of life or death for William Belch of West Ashley.

Belch said he was walking his grandchildren’s German Sheppard, Dutchess, near a community pond in the Hamilton Grove subdivision around 7 a.m. Sunday.  Suddenly, according to Belch, a sharp movement in the water caught the attention of Dutchess who broke free from his grasp and headed directly toward the water.

“It was so quick!” recalled Belch.  “Like a snake striking out!”

Within seconds, what Belch described as an eight foot alligator had Dutchess in its jaws, dragging the 80-pound dog into the water.

“I knew it was my grandchildren’s dog and that I would have no way of explaining to them that [the dog] had been killed by a gator, so I just reacted on instinct.”

Which meant Belch was going to get in the water. He spent the next 30 seconds in a three-way tug of war; one hand pulling Dutchess, the other thrashing the alligator on the nose.

After a trip to a local veterinarian Dutchess will make a full recovery. The dog has some scarring on her legs and skull.  While animal safety is a top concern, admits Belch, it’s not his only worry.

“The neighborhood is lined with houses, all filled with small children,” Belch said.  “Something is going to happen. Something tragic. I just know it.”

Belch’s daughter, Joanna Robbs, said she has called her homeowners association as well as the Department of Natural Resources about alligator problems in the past.

“Usually they tell us [the alligators] are more afraid of humans and pets than anything else,” Robbs said. “Clearly, this isn’t the case.”

Robbs and Belch both say that, in their observation, the alligators that do inhabit the pond make their way from a heavily wooded swamp area that surrounds much of Hamilton Grove.  Robbs also said that the Department of Natural Resources has told her that due to the close proximity of the alligators natural habitat to the neighborhood, it is hard to do anything drastic about the situation.

“They expect us to live side by side, but that just isn’t safe,” Robbs said.  “An alligator can grab an 80-pound dog, it can grab a 50-pound child.”

Both Belch and Robbs agree killing the alligators is not the best method of control, however.

“Fences, barricades, something,” Belch said. “Something has to be done before it is too late.”

Follow up calls to the Department of Natural Resources and the local homeowners association will be made when offices resume business on Monday Robbs said.

via West Ashley alligator attack spikes safety concerns – CHARLESTON, SC NEWS – LIVE 5 WCSC Breaking News, Weather, Sports.

The wife and daughter of a Park Ridge man fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in Wyoming voiced anger today at a research team that snared and collared the bear involved in last week’s attack.

Countering authorities’ account of the mauling, the family of Erwin Evert says he knew little about what the research team was doing and did not go looking for the team’s trap site during the hike that ended with his death.

“He just knew they were doing some sort of research. He had no idea they were going to be baiting, trapping and collaring bears in our backyard,” said his daughter, Mara Evert Domingue of Louisiana.

“If he had known that, he never would have walked up that trail.”

The danger should have been more clearly marked, his family said.

For weeks before the attack, a yellow ribbon warned about a dangerous bear along the trail Evert walked, his family said. But there were no other warning signs, and Evert and his neighbors were never told specifically about the activities of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, a group of state and federal agencies that monitor the local bears, his family said.

Evert did not go past the warning ribbon before the day of the attack, said his widow, Yolanda Evert. She said she isn’t sure where her husband encountered the bear, but she said she doesn’t think he would have disregarded the warning and walked past the tape.

“He was curious about it, but he wouldn’t go beyond that. He stayed on the trail,” she said.

Authorities have said the research team collared a 430-pound male bear and left the area near Yellowstone National Park about two miles from Evert’s cabin around 1 p.m. June 17. Evert went for a walk just before 1 p.m. and was found dead hours later. A sharpshooter later killed the bear from a helicopter.

Scott Steward, the sheriff of Park County, Wyo., said Evert questioned the bear research team and was “very inquisitive about their work.” Evert told a friend he planned to look for the trap site, Steward said.

“We’re not dealing with a case where someone didn’t know (the trap site) was there,” the sheriff said Wednesday. “The victim definitely knew it was there.”

via Family: Botanist killed by bear not aware of full danger – Chicago Breaking News.

A B.C. man is recovering from shock after narrowly avoiding a grizzly bear attack in Robson Valley, southeast of Prince George.

Leon Lorenz, a wildlife filmmaker from Dunster, had been following grizzly bear tracks and filming the animals feeding in the forested area for the last six weeks. Last Monday afternoon, he spotted a mother bear with her back to him about 23 metres away. He immediately put his camera down and started recording.

Lorenz said he had moved his camera slightly to get a better view. That was when the 400-pound bear caught his scent.

She sniffed the air, then turned around and looked right at him, he said. She quickly wheeled around a spruce tree about four metres away, and reappeared with her cub behind her, roaring and charging at high speed toward Lorenz.

The critical events after that, said Lorenz, occurred in about 20 seconds.

He remembers instinctively throwing his camera into wide-angle mode so it would capture all the action, before whipping out his handgun to fire a warning shot.

“I was blinded because she was zigzagging in and out between the trees — I didn’t know if she was going to come at me from the right or the left,” he said. “I had no target.”

Lorenz aimed high and pulled the trigger — right when the bear came crashing through the branches several feet away. Spooked, she turned back around with her cub and ran off, said Lorenz.

“If I had waited a split-second later, she would have had me,” he said. “She was a blur, going by me, she was so fast. Even if I had hit her, her momentum would have carried her forward. She was running on so much adrenalin, she would have made sure I was dead before she died, and her cub probably would have attacked, too.”

He said he has filmed this particular grizzly twice before — once at 18 metres apart, another at 45 metres.

Both times, he was able to stay out of sight so that even when the bear could smell him, she had no way of locating him.

Lorenz, a father of two sons, said he has encountered many bears before in his 19 years of filmmaking in the wild, but he has never been attacked by them. This was the first time he has had to use his handgun to protect himself. “God’s hand was on that gun,” he said. “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect — she was out to kill me.”

via Filmmaker fends off grizzly attack with handgun.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – Montana wildlife officials say a Washington man was injured by a black bear that bit through his tent at a primitive campsite in the Lolo National Forest in western Montana.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks wardens say Rob Holmes of Ellensburg, Wash., was awakened at about 4:30 a.m. Monday when he felt an animal bite his ear lobe. It took 21 stitches to close the wound.

Warden Capt. Jeff Darrah says it appears the bear was drawn into the area by food and other attractants that were left at a nearby camp site.

The U.S. Forest Service campground southwest of St. Regis will be closed while officials try to capture the bear. FWP Regional Supervisor Mack Long says if they can find the bear they’ll euthanize it because it has become habituated to human food.

via Daily Record-News – Ellensburg man survives bear attack in Montana.

SNELVILLE, GA.– The Snelville, GA teen attacked by a shark on Jacksonville Beach is having a difficult recovery.

Monday she visited an Atlanta area doctor, after finding out Saturday her wound is infected. Foster had 29 stitches after the attack.

Foster was visiting her aunt’s house in Jacksonivlle Beach Thursday. She was boogie boarding with her boyfriend about 40 yards off our coast when a shark chomped down on her foot and leg.

Action News’ Kristen Cosby was the first reporter to interview Foster.

Monday, she shared her story on the CBS Early Show

“I could kind of feel all the teeth inside my skin,” said Foster. “Nothing short of freaking out. I was so scared.”

While Foster had swore off the ocean, her mom tells Action News she already has another beach trip planned in two weeks.

Doctors say it will be about six weeks before Foster is able to walk around again. Tuesday Foster is visiting a specialist to help heal her infection.

via Shark attack victim infected – Action News Jacksonville.

Food and garbage abandoned at a campsite in Mineral County likely attracted a black bear that bit a Washington man on the head early Monday, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Rob Holmes, of Ellensburg, Wash., required 21 stitches on his earlobe after the bear bit him through his tent around 4:30 a.m., as he and a friend slept up Little Joe Road just southwest of St. Regis.

Holmes’ injuries were not life-threatening, and he and his friend had left for home by Monday afternoon.

After the bear bit Holmes, the man screamed. He then grabbed a flashlight and tried to follow it before driving to a Missoula hospital.

“It reacted to people, which is good,” said Mack Long, FWP regional supervisor. “But the downside is that once it is habituated, it’s almost impossible to change.”

Holmes kept a clean camp, Long said, but other campers left behind food and other attractants at the U.S. Forest Service campground, which is “primitive” and not a sanctioned campground.

“He did everything right,” said Jeff Darrah, FWP warden captain in Missoula.

The FWP is currently attempting to track down the bear, which will be euthanized once it’s found. In the meantime, the camping area is closed until further notice.

FWP officials said the radius and patterns of the bite marks on Holmes and in his tent were identical to those found on cans of food and other items at the nearby abandoned campsite.

It is unknown how long that campsite had been abandoned, but the bear likely had visited the site for at least a couple of nights, said Long. It likely was a temporary campsite for transients, he said.

Long put all blame on the campers who abandoned their site and left food and other items behind. He said “attack” is not the correct word for the incident, which will unfortunately lead to a dead bear.

Long said he believes it is the only reported case of a human injury caused by a bear in western Montana this year.

The message is clear, he stressed: Don’t leave food and other attractants open at a campsite, and never leave food behind.

via Black bear bites through tent, into sleeping man’s ear near St. Regis.

Some of you might remember that I have said previously that every year in the Cody, WY area there is one or more human versus grizzly encounters. Here is the current one thanks to KULR 8 News television broadcasting from Billings, MT. This is my “backyard” and part of where I have hunted for the last 30 years.

(Story Updated: Jun 18, 2010 at 1:24 PM MDT )

Press Release from Park County Sheriff’s Department:

At approximately 6:48 PM on June 17th the Park County Sheriff’s Office was notified that a subject had possibly been mauled and killed by a grizzly bear in the Kitty Creek Drainage located in the Shoshone National Forest west of Cody.

The victim, 70 year old Erwin Frank Evert of Cody was reported missing by his wife to Chad Dickinson, a member of the USGS Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (IGBST) based out of Bozeman. Dickinson and his team were working within the Kitty Creek Drainage snaring grizzly bears for research. Dickinson rode back up Kitty Creek to an area where earlier they had caught a large adult male grizzly. Once at the capture sight, Dickinson found Evert dead as a result of fatal injuries caused by an encounter with the bear.

At approximately 8:30 PM Wardens of the Wyoming Game and Fish and a Park County Sheriff’s Deputy located Evert approximately 2 miles from the road in a remote rugged area. Park County Sheriff Search and Rescue was called in and Evert’s body was removed while Wardens provided armed security. The recovery was completed at approximately 12:18am on June 18th.

At this time it appears that members of IGBST had captured the bear and tranquilized the bear for research purposes, put a radio collar on the bear and then packed up their equipment and left the area. At some point Evert wandered into the capture area where he was fatally wounded. Evert was not armed nor was he carrying bear spray.

On June 18th The US Forest Service issued a closure order for the Kitty Creek Drainage. Game Wardens, US Fish and Wildlife Agents and USFS Law Enforcement Agents are diligently searching the area for the bear with the aid of an electronic tracking device. If located the fate of the bear will be determined by US Fish and Wildlife Agents.

via Bear attacks again | Field & Stream.

NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A 19-year-old man is listed in fair condition at Rhode Island Hospital after he was struck by lightning Sunday night in a treehouse at a North Providence home.

The victim, identified late Monday morning as Matt Leathers, suffered burns over much of his body during a fast and furious thunderstorm that rolled through the area Sunday afternoon.

Leathers had been sitting on the steps of the treehouse on Salem Drive.

His neighbor, Ariana Petrosinelli, said she heard a loud crack when the bolt struck. Leathers was knocked unconscious for a few minutes, she said. Petrosinelli’s mother called 911.

The strike was violent enough to propel pieces of the treehouse ladder 30 feet into a neighbor’s yard.

Around the same time, lightning struck a home on Fruit Hill Avenue, causing a fire that left the home unlivable.

via Teen in treehouse struck by lightning | WPRI.com.

A 70-year-old man was killed by lightning Sunday near Meeteetse, Wyo., officials said.

Robert Jesse Gurney of Torrington, Wyo., was fishing with his son at Upper Sunshine Reservoir when he was struck by lightning, said Park County Sheriff Scott Seward.

Emergency responders were dispatched at 1:18 p.m. Bystanders performed CPR on Gurney but were unable to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at an area hospital.

He and Richard Gurney of Lovell, Wyo., were leaving the reservoir because of lightning when the elder Gurney was hit, Seward said.

via Lightning strike kills man near Meeteetse.

A man hiking near Yellowstone National Park on Thursday was killed by a grizzly bear, the same animal that researchers had tranquilized, captured and released earlier in the day.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was reported missing by his wife, Yolanda, to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about seven miles east of Yellowstone.

The Everts own a cabin in the area, where Erwin, a botanist, often hiked to research the region’s plants and animals.

When her husband didn’t return from an afternoon hike, Yolanda went looking for him and met one of the bear researchers returning from the capture site. The study team member returned to the site, where Evert’s body was discovered.

According to the Park County, Wyo., sheriff’s office, which was called to the location, Evert was not armed or carrying bear spray.

Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the adult male grizzly was located Saturday morning by trackers following a signal from a radio collar that had been placed around the bear’s neck.

The animal was shot and killed from a helicopter, and died about 2 miles from where Evert’s body was found. A lab analysis confirmed that it was the same animal that mauled Evert.

Concern has been raised that area residents weren’t well informed of the possible risks, but according to the Billings Gazette, Evert was aware of the possible dangers. Family friend and professional colleague Chuck Neal said that he spoke with Evert before his death, having received a call from him last week about the signs posted in the area, and that his friend was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

“We try to do everything we can to minimize the risks. But we can’t protect ourselves against people that ignore every warning we give, and we can’t protect people against themselves,” Servheen said. “The whole thing is regrettable; just one tragedy followed by another.”

The incident is the first fatal mauling by a grizzly in the area in 25 years, and the first such fatal attack to take place at a site where researchers had recently trapped and released a bear.

via Grizzly bear kills hiker near Yellowstone | Outposts | Los Angeles Times.

The fox attack in England sensationalist reporting is getting to be a bit much. Other than the toddlers, these are very small encounters.

A toddler was recovering at home today after being attacked by fox at a playgroup in Brighton.

The three-year-old boy was either bitten or scratched on the arm as he played outside at a party at Dorothy Stringer pre-school playgroup in Brighton, East Sussex, on Saturday afternoon.

It is believed the child, who has not been named, stroked the tail of an animal that was sticking out from under a temporary building, when it turned on him. The playgroup was closed today. In a statement it said: “We can confirm that a child suffered injuries after being attacked by a fox at an event on our premises at the weekend.”

It said foxes had existed in the area for sometime, but the playgroup had not taken action because wildlife experts had advised that they were not a danger to people.

An RSPCA inspector who attended the scene was unable to find the animal.

Relatives took the boy to the Royal Sussex county hospital in Brighton where he was treated and released, according to Sussex police. He is now recovering at home, the playgroup said.

Its statement added: “We have been in touch with Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] and also with a local pest control company, which is due to visit this afternoon to give advice on the action we should take.”

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: “As far as we are aware it was a fox. People there told us they were aware of a fox who had made his den there and had been living there for a year or so.”

She added: “Attacks like this are extremely rare. Foxes will usually shy away from interaction with people. We offer our sincere condolences to the family concerned and we hope for a speedy recovery for the child.”

The spokeswoman explained that had a fox been found, it would not have been put down but taken away and re-released elsewhere. She had no information on the extent of the injuries.

A police spokeswoman said: “Police were called by South East Coast Ambulance Service at 12.30pm on Saturday 19 June after a report of a boy being bitten by a fox.”

She added: “The boy was taken to the Royal Sussex county hospital by family, where he was treated and released.”

A spokeswoman for South East Coast Ambulance Service said: “We were called to the scene but were then stood down. This would imply that the injuries were not that bad.”

Trevor Weeks, founder of the charity East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service, called for a proportionate response to the attack.

He said: “It has been known for years by the educational authorities that foxes live under makeshift buildings at schools, so it should come as no surprise there was a fox present.

“The fox did not attack the child – it was defending itself. There is a significant difference. Any wild animal is going to turn round and bite if you grab its tail.”

The incident comes a fortnight after nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis were attacked after a fox entered their upstairs bedroom in Hackney, east London.

It is thought to have got in through a door on the ground floor of the three-storey house, which was left open because of the hot weather, while the children’s parents watched Britain’s Got Talent on television.

Both girls have since been discharged from hospital. The twins’ four-year-old brother, Max, who was also sleeping upstairs, was not hurt in the attack.

via Toddler released from hospital after Brighton fox attack | World news | guardian.co.uk.

CODY — Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the fatal mauling by a grizzly bear Thursday of a Shoshone National Forest cabin owner. The incident occurred at a site where a bear had been captured and released earlier that day.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was reported missing to a member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team who had been conducting research in the Kitty Creek drainage, about seven miles east of Yellowstone National Park.

Researchers had earlier trapped and released an adult male grizzly in the area, according to information released by Park County Sheriff Scott Steward.

A longtime friend and professional colleague said Evert was aware that researchers had been trying for several days to trap a bear in the area, and that friends and family members were unsure why he had hiked into the capture site despite knowing the risks.

“None of us understand it and apparently never will,” said retired ecologist Chuck Neal, author of “Grizzlies in the Mist.”

Neal said he often hiked the woods around Yellowstone with Evert, a botanist, sharing a common interest in researching the region’s plants and animals.

Neal, a survivor of several close encounters with grizzlies, said Evert had called him last week asking about a sign posted at Kitty Creek warning about bear-trapping activities, and that Evert was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

Neal said bear researchers were returning from the capture site when they were told by Evert’s wife, Yolanda, that he was missing.

A study team member went back to the capture site and found Evert’s body. Wardens with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and a sheriff’s deputy responded at 8:30 p.m. to the remote location, about two miles from Highway 14-16-20.

Members of Park County Search and Rescue recovered Evert’s body around midnight, with assistance from Game and Fish workers, who provided armed security, Steward said in a written statement released Friday afternoon.

Steward said that Evert, who was not armed and was not carrying bear spray, apparently wandered into the capture site sometime after the bear had been released.

Neal said he did not know how researchers returning from the site failed to cross paths with Evert while he was hiking in, unless the botanist had left the trail at some point.

Bear not relocated

The bear had not been captured before Thursday, and had not been relocated from another area, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Researchers drew blood from the captured bear and fitted it with a radio collar before releasing it, Servheen said, but it has not yet been determined whether the previously captured bear was the same one that killed Evert.

Servheen said that wildlife officials will try to compare any DNA left by the attacking bear, most likely in its saliva, with blood drawn from the captured bear.

It is uncertain whether that difficult process of analysis will prove possible, he said.

Steward said that the U.S. Forest Service had issued a closure order for the Kitty Creek drainage and that federal wildlife and law enforcement agents are searching for the bear using electronic tracking equipment.

Servheen initially said Friday morning that wildlife officials would not try to trap the bear again. But he said later that efforts were being made to recapture it.

“If we get a chance to trap it, we will trap it,” he said.

He said that the investigation of the mauling is in its early stages, and that authorities will work to try and re-create what happened.

If it is determined that the bear trapped Thursday is the one that killed Evert, federal wildlife officials will decide the bear’s fate, he said.

“We’ll try to make a decision as to whether the actions of the bear were natural aggression,” Servheen said.

“We will try to make that decision based on what we know after we put all the facts together,” he said, adding that re-creating an attack without any witnesses can prove difficult.

Some cabin owners have said they were unaware of research work being done in the area, and questioned whether wildlife and land management agencies were communicating effectively with the public about such activities. The press is not routinely notified of study team field work.

Servheen said that interagency partners including the Wyoming Game and Fish and Shoshone National Forest personnel are aware of researchers’ work in the area, and that signs are posted in areas where bears are being captured.

He said he was unaware of what other public notifications, if any, were routinely made about bear capture efforts.

“The people doing this are highly trained professionals who follow very detailed protocols. One of the most important protocols is public safety,” he said.

“We want to make sure people don’t walk into these places, so they place signs lower down on the trail” warning people to avoid the area, he said.

Servheen said “it would be impossible to enter this area” without noticing warning signs

Close friends

Neal said Evert and his wife spent summers each year for the last three decades at their Kitty Creek cabin, and that they were close family friends.

“We walked many miles and spent many days together,” he said.

Evert was a research field botanist working for the Morton Arboretum in Chicago, and he also worked as a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming, Neal said.

Evert had just published “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area,” a book offering an exhaustive catalog of native plants, including a series of annotated maps, Neal said.

“It’s a magnificent book. It weighs about 5 pounds,” he said.

“It really was his life’s work, so it’s good, and I’m grateful that he got to see that published,” Neal said.

“He just turned 70 this spring, but he was still very active and very fit,” Neal said.

Neal described Evert as “a committed man who could focus like a laser beam on his goal.”

Persistent windy conditions around Cody over the last week made it a particularly dangerous time for hiking in grizzly country, Neal said.

Bears are unable to easily hear or smell people approaching under such blustery conditions, and are more likely to be surprised, eliciting a defensive response.

Although bear encounters around Yellowstone are not uncommon, including ones that result in serious injuries to people, fatal bear attacks are relatively rare.

Neal said the incident was the result of “incredible bad luck, and also bad judgment.”

“I’m thinking it had to be a close-range, surprise encounter,” he said.

via Grizzly kills botanist in attack near Yellowstone park.

Neal said bear spray or a gun “may not have done any good” in such an attack.

Thousands of scientists are protesting over a decision to prosecute italian seismologists for manslaughter – by failing to accurately predict the L'Aquila earthquake.

Six days before the magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit last April, there was a meeting of the Commissione Grandi Rischi – the Commission for High Risks – at which it was decided that there was not sufficient risk of a major quake to justify a serious alarm.

And because of this decision, two weeks ago the L’Aquila Prosecutor’s office decided to charge seven members of the Commission, other scientists and and civil protection officials with manslaughter through gross negligence.

Nearly four thousand scientists have now signed an open letter to Italian president Giorgio Napolitano protesting about the decision to prosecute.

“The allegations against the scientists are completely unfounded,” it reads. “Years of research worldwide have shown that there is currently no scientifically accepted method for short-term earthquake prediction that can reliably be used by Civil Protection authorities for rapid and effective emergency actions.”

Over 300 people were killed in the earthquake, and the case has been launched in response to claims that people would have fled the area if they'd been warned.

“Those involved were highly qualified individuals who should have provided the public with different answers,” L'Aquila's chief prosecutor, Alfredo Rossini, told La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno. “People died and we could not just ignore this line of investigation.”

Richard C Aster, president of the Seismological Society of America, says the decision to prosecute shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what science can and cannot do.

“There is currently no scientifically validated method for short term earthquake prediction, much less one that could reliably be used by government authorities for rapid and effective warnings in Italy or elsewhere,” he says.

“Pursuing legal action against members of the seismological community after an earthquake is unprecedented and reflects a misunderstanding of the science of earthquakes.”

via Seismologists charged with manslaughter – Death by earthquake | TechEye.

CODY — A lab analysis has confirmed that a bear shot dead early Saturday morning near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park is the one that fatally mauled a man Thursday afternoon in the same area.

The adult male grizzly bear had been snared and tranquilized by federal researchers Thursday morning and fitted with a radio collar before being released.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was found dead at the capture site Thursday after the bear was released. Evert ignored warning signs posted advising hikers to avoid the area because of the likelihood of a dangerous bear encounter.

Wildlife officials used a helicopter and radio tracking gear to locate and shoot the bear Saturday morning, after making unsuccessful attempts Friday to catch it.

Rapid DNA testing of genetic material from the bear that was left on the victim matched blood drawn from the bear when it was tranquilized Thursday, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Servheen said he decided late Friday to authorize killing the bear if it could not be captured, because experts could not definitively determine whether the animal’s actions were natural and defensive or aberrant and unusually aggressive.

“We regret the whole idea of having to remove a bear, but we just wanted to be sure. I stand by that decision to remove him,” Servheen said.

Servheen said the bear was initially near a road where it might have been captured, but it later began moving deeper into the wilderness, where it could later shed its radio collar and become exceptionally difficult to locate.

Servheen said he and other agency officials agreed that “the best thing to do for the safety of the public is to remove the bear.”

The U.S. Forest Service is now expected to reopen the Kitty Creek area, about seven miles east of Yellowstone, where the attack occurred. The area had been closed as a public safety precaution until it could be determined that the bear involved in the mauling was either not a threat or dead.

Friends and wildlife officials have said that Evert, a botanist who owned a cabin at Kitty Creek, was well aware of the risks of entering the capture area, but that he was curious about work being done there, and ignored verbal and posted warnings.

The incident is the first fatal mauling by a grizzly bear in the area in 25 years, and the first such fatal attack to take place at a site where researchers had recently trapped and released a bear.

Servheen said the U.S. Geological Survey crew from Bozeman that had been trapping bears in the area has left. The bear that killed Evert was the last one they had sought to capture.

Authorities will later complete a comprehensive incident report, but an initial review indicates that there were no obvious signs that researchers failed to follow standard trapping protocols, Servheen said.

“We try to do everything we can to minimize the risks. But we can’t protect ourselves against people that ignore every warning we give, and we can’t protect people against themselves,” he said.

“The whole thing is regrettable; just one tragedy followed by another,” Servheen said.

Evert was a research field botanist working for the Morton Arboretum in Chicago. He also worked as a research associate at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming.

He had just published “Vascular Plants of the Greater Yellowstone Area,” a book offering an exhaustive catalog of native plants, including a series of annotated maps.

Evert and his wife, Yolanda, had spent summers at their Kitty Creek cabin for the past 30 years, according to family friend and professional colleague Chuck Neal, a retired ecologist and author of “Grizzlies in the Mist.”

“It really was his life’s work, so it’s good, and I’m grateful that he got to see that published,” Neal said of the book.

Neal described Evert as “a committed man who could focus like a laser beam on his goal.”

Neal, a survivor of several close encounters with grizzlies, said Evert had called him last week asking about a sign posted near Kitty Creek warning about bear-trapping activities, and that Evert was “absolutely aware” of the risks of hiking in the area.

Evert called his daughter early Thursday and described to her the route he planned to take from his cabin to the capture site, and it “was kind of his favorite route for light hiking,” but it did not follow the main trail, Neal said.

Persistent windy conditions around Cody over the past week made it a particularly dangerous time for hiking in grizzly country, he said.

Bears are unable to easily hear or smell people approaching under such blustery conditions, and are more likely to be surprised, eliciting a defensive response.

Evert was not armed and was not carrying bear spray when he was attacked, according to information released by the Park County Sheriff’s Office.

“I’m thinking it had to be a close-range, surprise encounter,” Neal said.

He said bear spray or a gun “may not have done any good” in such an attack.

Neal said the incident was the result of “incredible bad luck, and also bad judgment.”

“He was an extraordinary man who made a very ordinary mistake,” Neal said.

via DNA tests match dead bear to mauling.

A fox that attacked a Cottonwood woman Wednesday tested positive for rabies Thursday.

It was the first reported rabid wildlife attack in Yavapai County this year, after several odd incidents in 2009.

The year 2009 saw a record 280 confirmed reports of rabid wildlife. About half were skunks, 69 were bats and 51 were foxes. Fifteen cases occurred in Yavapai County, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Last year's record was a 59 percent increase from the previous record of 176 set in 2008. So far this year, the state has recorded 61 rabies cases in wild animals, two-thirds were skunks.

While state agencies don't track rabid wildlife attacks, at least three occurred last year in the Prescott and Cottonwood areas.

In the latest incident Wednesday evening, a woman who lives along North Willard Streeet in Cottonwood said a fox attacked her and bit her hand.

She had just caught a javelina in a trap in her yard and when it was loaded into her vehicle, she went back into her yard.

Suddenly a grey fox jumped over a retaining wall and bit her hand, then ran away. She suffered minor lacerations and is undergoing rabies shots.

The woman's husband said the fox had been in the area for some time and thought it lived in an abandoned house next door. However, it had just started acting strangely in the last few days.

When the report came into the police, they suspected the fox was rabid because they had received two earlier reports of a fox trying unsuccessfully to attack people in the area, including a UPS driver who fended off the fox with a clipboard, according to state wildlife officials and Cottonwood Sgt. Gareth Braxton.

An officer spotted the fox in the vacant home next to the victim's home, Cottonwood police said. When the fox leaped onto the retaining wall about 15 feet away from the officers, one of the officers shot and killed it.

Arizona Game and Fish Department spokesperson Zen Mocarski warned people to stay away from wild animals and watch for unusual behavior indicative of rabies.

Signs of rabies include lethargy, lack of fear of humans, unusual aggression and activity during the heat of the day, especially from nocturnal animals.

The last reported rabid wildlife attack in Yavapai County took place in April 2009 when a rabid bobcat attacked a family walking along Lynx Creek in Prescott Valley.

In March 2009, a rabid bobcat attacked patrons in a Cottonwood bar, and the saloon's video camera captured the havoc.

And in February 2009 and November 2008, two separate rabid foxes attacked hikers at the Granite Mountain Recreation Area just west of Prescott.

via Rabid fox attacks Cottonwood woman – The Prescott Daily Courier – Prescott, Arizona.

The fatal grizzly bear attack on 70 year-old Erwin Evert near Yellowstone Park by a bear that may have been trapped, tranquilized, and radio-collared just hours before Evert's death raises perplexing questions. Why did Evert's wife notify Chad Dickinson of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team that her husband was missing? Normally, people would call the Wyoming Game and Fish Department or Shoshone National Forest officials.

Was the area where the bear was captured posted with warnings, or was it closed? U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator Chris Servheen told the Billings Gazette “it would have been impossible to enter this area” without noticing signs. What, exactly, did the signs say? If agency officials failed to close the area, could they be held liable for Mr. Evert's death?

In 1983, a grizzly bear that had been captured 20 times and drugged 12 times dragged Roger May out of his tent at a U.S. Forest Service campground near West Yellowstone, killed him,and partially consumed him. Even before the incident, there was speculation that after being trapped, drugged, and handled, bears became more aggressive and dangerous.

In the 1980s, bears were drugged with Sernylan, known on the streets as “Angel Dust.” New drugs are reputedly safer, but old concerns about the effects of drugging bears have never gone away.

If trapping and drugging bears isn't dangerous, why post warnings? If trapping and drugging bears is dangerous, why not close the area?

What was the purpose of the bear research that may have cost Evert his life?

State and federal agencies tell hunters and hikers in grizzly country to carry bear spray. The agencies claim bear spray provides better protection than a firearm. Why did Wyoming Game and Fish Department wardens provide “armed security” for the Park County Sheriff's Department search and rescue team that retrieved Evert's body? Why didn't the wardens use bear spray?

via More questions than answers in fatal bear attack near Yellowstone.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A grizzly bear killed a Wyoming man outside Yellowstone National Park, apparently just hours after researchers trapped and tranquilized the animal.

The attack happened Thursday in the same place where two researchers with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team had examined a large adult male grizzly earlier that day, Park County Sheriff Scott Steward said Friday.

The suspect bear was wearing a radio collar. Authorities didn't intend to venture into the woods to chase the animal, however.

They hoped to trap it — again — and do DNA testing to see if it was indeed responsible.

“Certainly there is a good chance it was the bear they were working on,” Steward said. “There's certainly the exception, where it's just another bear.”

Shoshone National Forest officials closed off the Kitty Creek area, about six miles outside the Yellowstone East Entrance, until further notice.

“There have been Forest Service people in the area talking to people who live in those cabins, and at the lodges around there, letting them know what's going on,” forest spokeswoman Susan Douglas said Friday.

The victim was Erwin Frank Evert, 70, who went hiking around 12:45 p.m. from his cabin in the Kitty Creek drainage.

When Evert didn't return, his wife went looking for him and met one of the bear researchers. The researchers had been getting ready to leave the area but one of them returned to the place where they had found the bear in a previously set trap, then tranquilized the animal for study.

The researcher found Evert's body where they had left the bear to wake up, about two miles from Evert's cabin.

“My heart goes out for the victim and the family involved in this. Nobody would want anything like this to happen,” Chuck Schwartz, head of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team based in Bozeman, Mont., said Friday.

The team is made up of federal and state biologists who monitor and study grizzlies in the Yellowstone ecosystem.

The researchers also had trapped and tranquilized another grizzly in the area Thursday.

Schwartz said there would be an investigation, including into whether required procedures were followed, such as posting warning signs about the grizzly research.

Schwartz said it wasn't certain whether the trapped grizzly had mauled Evert. But Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said it's unlikely that another grizzly would have been in the same area as the large adult male.

“There's a very, very high probability that it was this bear,” Servheen said.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department was working Friday to try to recapture the bear, agency spokesman Eric Keszler said.

Grizzly bears have been back on the federal list of threatened species since last year.

via The Associated Press: Grizzly kills man near Wyoming’s Yellowstone park.

Although a Trafford man was bit by a snake in Fayette County early Thursday morning, a local herpetologist said close encounters with reptiles are rare.

Chad Heasley, 39, was riding an all-terrain vehicle through the woods with friends when his vehicle got stuck in mud. State police said he went to get some rocks to help elevate his tires and a snake bit him. He was flown to Highlands Hospital and Health Center in Connellsville. A report on his condition was not immediately available.

Ken Stairs of Somerset, a field biologist, said trails go through scenic areas of high mountains where snakes live. Police had not confirmed what kind of snake bit Heasley, but there are copperheads and rattlesnakes in the woods near Connellsville, Stairs said.

“They are secretive and they like to go undetected and unmolested,” he said. “If you step on one or try to pick it up, you will get bit. The snake feels threatened.”

Snakes are often found around rocks or beside logs.

“Never be afraid to hike, but wear boots or sturdy shoes, not flip-flops,” he said. “Look carefully before sitting on the ground and don’t put your fingers on ledges without looking carefully. Step up on logs and look around the side before stepping over it. A snake may be lying on the ground near the log waiting for a chipmunk. Stay on the trail.”

It isn’t true that snakes travel in pairs. Adults that are hunting will be alone. Gestating females will be in groups — he once saw 46 together at a boulder. It isn’t true that snakes can strike a great distance. They can only strike about half of their body length or a little longer if they are on a rock. Their body length isn’t as long as people think, either.

“Snakes aren’t going to chase anybody,” he said. “They are looking for an escape route. Noise wakes them. If you hear a rattle, stop, look for the snake and sidestep around him.”

Ninety-five percent of snakes are nonpoisonous, Stairs said. Those bites are similar to scratches. Someone who is bitten by a poisonous snake can be treated in most hospitals and should be fine if he doesn’t have any underlying medical problems. It isn’t true that physicians need to know what type of snake bit you before starting treatment, he said. The medication is the same.

“Don’t take the snake to the hospital with you — it causes trauma in the ER,” Stairs said. “Thirty percent of bites are dry bites. Out in the southwest you may be further away from medical facilities and the snakes are bigger and have a higher toxicity. There a snake bite is more dangerous.”

Stairs was bitten by a snake once. He had wild-caught a western diamondback rattlesnake in Texas and brought it back with him. He was measuring the snake and it bit him on the thumb.

“It didn’t like being handled,” he said. “I spent seven days in the hospital.”

Venomous snake bites can cause tissue and nerve death. If you are bitten by a rattlesnake or copperhead snake, immobilize the limb at or above the heart if possible. If you are bit on the hand or arm, put your arm across your stomach and hold it there. If you have a cell phone with you, call 911.

“Remain calm — I know it’s hard, but keep your heart rate from going up,” Stairs said. “Get to the nearest medical facility as soon as you can, but don’t run. That raises the heart rate. If you are bit on the hand, remove any rings you’re wearing because your hand will swell. If you have a constricting band — not a tourniquet — put it above the bite. Don’t drink alcohol or take medications.”

The new antivenin serum is sheep blood based and has fewer side effects than the older one that was horse blood based.

About five years ago, he asked the state Health Department how many people in Pennsylvania died of bites from indigenous snakes. There were no deaths for 10 years prior to that.

Stairs and three other men are catching large male rattlesnakes and copperheads on a mountain in Bedford County where wind turbines are to be placed. Two-inch-long transmitters will be implanted in the snakes to track them to dens. The dens will be mapped so the wind turbines don’t break up the dens. The snakes will be caught again in the spring to remove the implants.

Dave Fox, Somerset County 911 coordinator, said people who hike on the trails or through woods need to be aware of where they are. They’ve had problems before with people having a medical emergency on the trail and because they are calling on an older cell phone or the tree canopy was interfering with reception, the 911 center couldn’t pinpoint their location.

“We asked one person where he parked his car so we’d have a starting point, and he replied ‘In a lot with a sign with a big P on it,’” he said. “You need to be aware of which trail you are on and where you went in. Try to know what direction you walked and about how far you walked. If you have a GPS that can be used while walking and a cell phone, take them along. Some people leave the main trail and are on footpaths. That causes problems. Never go alone. It’s like hunting season: You’re safer if you go in numbers. If you do go alone, tell somebody where you are going. People should also wear proper clothing in case they are stranded outside at night. Carry matches to start a fire. Take any survival gear you have.”

via Man bitten by snake in Fayette County woods – Johnstown’s Community Newspaper.

Seeing the funnel cloud barreling toward the small town of Mentor in northwestern Minnesota on Thursday, Wes Michaels yelled to his daughter working in the family-owned gas station.

“It's coming straight for us,” he shouted. “Get in the cooler.”

“In seconds, everything was on top of us,” said Michaels' daughter Heidi. She survived the storm, her father's body shielding her from the debris that killed him.

The tornadoes that ripped through northwestern and southern Minnesota on Thursday killed at least one other person, leveled a broad swath of Wadena and damaged numerous houses and farm buildings across the state.

An elderly woman from the small community of Almora in Otter Tail County died during the storm and her husband was taken to the hospital, said David Hauser, Otter Tail County attorney and spokesman. Brittney Schulke of Almora told the Daily Journal that her grandmother, Margie Schulke, was killed and that her grandfather, Norman Schulke, suffered two broken shoulders.

“We know that there are several other people who were injured,” Hauser said.

Heidi Michaels said her father had owned the Cenex gas and convenience store in Mentor for four years and wasn't supposed to have been working Thursday, his 58th birthday. He had come in only to check on her after hearing the storm warnings. When he saw the twister headed for the station, he ordered her and several customers into the cooler just before the store and four vehicles were destroyed.

“He saved me,” Heidi Michaels said.

The tornadoes that struck Mentor and Almora were the state's first fatal twisters in two years.

The storm that crashed into Almora also spawned a tornado that tore up about a 10-block residential area in nearby Wadena, ripping up old oak and elm trees, tearing off roofs and damaging buildings.

“It's a whole different horizon now,” said Randy Mohs, who drove through town after the storm.

The hours-long march of ferocious weather across the state also knocked out power in many locations, keeping utility and emergency crews busy as night fell.

The metro area was largely spared, with scattered reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds in the western suburbs, but no reports of serious damage. About 6,000 homes, mostly in the west metro area, lost power for a portion of the evening.

In Wright County, a tornado was on the ground north of Buffalo in a fairly rural area, but no injuries were reported, said Sgt. Peter Walker of the Sheriff’s Office. Damage was limited to downed trees and power lines, along with minor property damage, he said. A tornado was confirmed in McLeod County about 5:25 p.m., emergency management director Kevin Mathews said. “It was on the ground for a quarter to a half-mile, but it touched down in a field,” he said, adding that damage was limited to downed trees and grain wagons.

Multiple tornadoes and funnel clouds also raked Freeborn and Faribault counties in southern Minnesota. Buildings and other property near Kiester and Walters in Faribault County, along the Iowa border, were badly damaged. County Commissioner Tom Warmka said Kiester had been closed to traffic because live power lines were down in the streets. An 8-mile stretch of Hwy. 22 was also closed and many farms in the area were damaged, he said.

In Freeborn County, in the southern part of the state, multiple tornadoes hit, including one a half-mile wide, emergency management director Mark Roche said. Roche, who was out assessing the damage Thursday night, knew of multiple people taken to hospitals, but he didn’t have accounts of the seriousness of the injuries.

A shelter was opened at the National Guard Armory in Albert Lea for those in Freeborn County who lost housing in the storm, Roche said.

Travis Henderson, mayor of Conger, about 10 miles west of Albert Lea, said everyone had been accounted for “one way or another.” “Several farms are lost and houses are gone,” he said.

Fire departments from around the county were in Conger helping to round up pigs and cattle set loose in the storm, Henderson said, including one farm that had up to 3,000 pigs.

Wadena reeling

Wadena Mayor Wayne Wolden said the storm wiped out about a quarter of his town and left about 20 people injured. “Dozens and dozens of homes are flattened,” he said. “Part of the roof on the high school was ripped off and thrown across the street. The high school is damaged. The community center is gone.”

Luckily, the sirens in town alerted residents before the storm hit; otherwise there might have been more injuries. He and his daughter stayed in the basement as the sirens blared and the storm passed overhead. It took just three minutes, he said. “I heard a train just like they say,” Wolden said.

When the storm passed, he noticed his home lost only a few shingles. “But my neighbors lost their homes.”

The building that housed Leaf River Ag Service was leveled and an old two-story house that boarded students who attend the nearby vocational community college was destroyed, Mohs said.

“It’s cork-screwed across the street. It’s twisted like a candy wrapper,” Mohs said. “There are a lot of sirens, ambulances, police. There are helicopters flying. … It’s a mess.”

Joanne Ostlund, who works in the Wadena city offices, waited out the storm with co-workers. “There was a lot of damage,” she said. “My garage and shed are gone and one of our neighbors lost an entire farm site.”

Gov. Tim Pawlenty plans to inspect the damaged sections of the Wadena and other areas Friday.

In the nearby Deer Creek area, several farms were heavily damaged, said Deer Creek resident Kathy Hill.

“My brother’s farm is pretty much gone,” she said. “The barns are gone. The house is damaged.”

Hill and her husband tried to reach her brother’s farm, but roads were blocked. Then she tried to check on her sister in Wadena, but entrances to the town were blocked.

“The roads are filled with debris — 2-by-4s, metal from buildings, power lines,” she said. “We have no electricity. No telephone service. It was bad. It will be awhile before recovery happens.”

Hail up to 4 inches in diameter was reported elsewhere in Douglas County. Hail also dominated reports across southern Minnesota, with a report of 2 1/2-inch stones near Fairfax, about 100 miles southwest of the Twin Cities.

via 2 dead as tornadoes sweep across Minnesota.

With the storms over, benign weather is forecast to return to Minnesota on Friday and Saturday, with the Twin Cities expecting sun and highs of 86 Friday and 79 Saturday.

(NECN) – China's earthquake death toll has climbed to 60,000 and will likely get higher. China's premier now says the toll could rise to more than 80,000. Earlier Saturday, he met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to tour the disaster zone. Crews are now working to move survivors out of possible danger zones, including areas downstream from rivers dammed by landslides and near radiation sources that have been buried in the rubble.

via Death toll from earthquake in China climbs past 60,000.

In the aftermath of a bear attack in Far North Bicentennial Park, state wildlife biologists continued Wednesday urging city officials to close the Rover's Run trail to prevent more human-bear encounters.

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan said the city has no intention of doing that, arguing that people should use their own judgment rather than the city stepping in and declaring the trail off-limits.

“It really becomes a good common sense thing for the public to use their good common sense when an area has been identified … when there's potential danger there,” he said.

The city has closed Rover's Run the past two summers after two bear maulings in the summer of 2008 and continuing concerns over bear encounters there. Other government agencies that manage land in Alaska, including state and federal parks, regularly have closed trails or sections of parks because of bear danger.

Black bears and the occasional grizzly are seen from time to time on trails throughout Bicentennial Park, as well as other areas of the Hillside, but Rover's Run has been problematic the past three summers. Spawning salmon in the South Fork of Campbell Creek have long attracted bears, and the narrow, bumpy dirt trail, which winds alongside the creek, can make it easy for people to surprise the animals.

Rick Sinnott, the Anchorage area biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, thinks people should avoid Rover's Run, and said he's having trouble understanding the city's rationale for not posting signs making the trail off-limits.

“The city closes trails all the time,” he said.

Tuesday morning, a 45-year-old man riding his bike to work was attacked by a grizzly sow with a cub at the east end of the trail. The bicyclist suffered a torn ear and puncture wounds to his calf, but was able to ride to the Alaska Native Medical Center for treatment. Sinnott said the biker surprised the bear, and that Fish and Game has no plans to go after the animal because it wasn't acting aggressively.

Two people were mauled in separate incidents on Rover’s Run in the summer of 2008, including a 15-year-old mountain biker who was badly mauled by a grizzly near where this week’s attack occurred.

The 2008 attacks led the city to immediately close the trail. That decision carried over to last year when the trail was shut down again for the summer, Sinnott said.

This year, under Sullivan, who took office last summer, the city changed course. Sinnott said he was in talks with the city to again close Rovers’ Run starting June 10 but that didn’t happen.

Sullivan said in an interview Wednesday that he thinks a bright colored warning sign telling people of the recent encounter is adequate. He also says the city doesn’t have the ability to enforce a closure.

Sinnott said not closing the trail is confounding to him. “Ship Creek Trail is closed because of an erosion problem,” he said. Similarly, he said, a foot bridge across Campbell Creek near where this week’s attack occurred has had a sign saying it was closed until further notice, Sinnott said. It’s ironic, he said, that the city would close the bridge but now choose to leave Rover’s Run open.

“It seems like an ideological argument, ‘We’re not going to let the bears push us around,’ ” he said.

“Some people have the theory that if you cede territory to the bears, then the bears will get bolder, and they’ll take it over.

“There’s no reason to believe that,” he said. The bears are drawn to city streams because that’s where salmon are, he said. Putting people in their paths won’t necessarily make them go away, he said. Closing the trail won’t necessarily keep people off it, he noted. But it does send a strong message that there’s potential danger in the area, he said.

There is an idea to build a new trail 100 to 200 yards south of Rover’s Run so trail users can still cross the park and link up to its northwest corner, and Sinnott said he supports that.

A recent telephone survey conducted for Fish and Game found 63 percent of Anchorage residents say it is acceptable to have brown bears in Far North Bicentennial park. The survey found 89 percent said they support temporary closures of trails at times when the risk of encountering a brown bear in the area is high.

State and federal land managers in Alaska regularly close trails when there are potential dangers, spokespeople say.

Tom Harrison, superintendent of the Chugach State Park, said it’s a subjective call. “If we anticipate a high-risk situation we will probably err on the one side (of caution),” he said.

“However,” he said, “there are bears in the woods.”

This year, the park hasn’t closed any parts or trails because of bears, Harrison said. But last year, it closed an area of Bird Point because of reports of an aggressive bear. The Albert Loop near the Eagle River Nature Center has been permanently closed in the summer for years because of a history of maulings, he said.

Morgan Warthin, spokeswoman for the National Park Service in Alaska, said closing decisions are made by park superintendents. On Tuesday, a backcountry unit in Denali National Park was temporarily closed because a bear ripped a tent, she said.

Sullivan said city parks are not state or national parks.

“Do we want our urban parks to be brown bear sanctuaries or do we want them to be places where people can recreate? … I think (that) is what the purpose of these parks were when they were created, as well as the trails.”

Sullivan said the city needs to critically examine the state’s effort to reintroduce salmon into the city’s waterways. Those fish, he said, are bringing bears into the city.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/06/16/1327231/bear-conflicts-create-dispute.html#ixzz0r5f9CBo9

via Bear encounters create dispute over trail status: Bears in Alaska | adn.com.

“At what point do you say, this is not good policy? This is a city first. It’s not a wildlife viewing area. It’s not a sanctuary. It is first and foremost an urban environment,” he said.

Clearly God has a sense of humor.

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.

The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m. Monday, Monroe police dispatchers said.

The sculpture, about 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained Tuesday.

The nickname is the same used for a famous mural of the resurrected Jesus that overlooks the Notre Dame football stadium.

Video courtesy of WLWT. For more visit WLWT.com

The fire spread from the statue to an adjacent amphitheater but was confined to the attic area, and no one was injured, police Chief Mark Neu said.

Estimated damage from the fire was set at $700,000 — $300,000 for the statue and $400,000 for the amphitheater, Fire Capt. Richard Mascarella said Tuesday.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol was at the scene Tuesday to prevent traffic jams and potential accidents from motorists stopping along the highway to take photographs.

The patrol began issuing citations about 4 p.m. Tuesday to motorists for stopping on the side of the highway, dispatcher Adam Brown said. The number of gawkers coupled with construction had slowed I-75 traffic in the area to a crawl, the state Highway Patrol said.

Some people were scooping up pieces of the statue's foam from the nearby pond to take home with them, said church co-pastor Darlene Bishop.

“This meant a lot to a lot of people,” she said.

Keith Lewis, of nearby Middletown, arrived at the church around 7 a.m. Tuesday to photograph the remains for his wife. Lewis said he had viewed the statue as both an oddity and an inspiration.

Cassie Browning, a church member from Dayton, said she was driving home when she saw smoke and noticed the statue was missing.

Travelers on I-75 often were startled to come upon the huge statue by the roadside, but many said America needs more symbols like it. So many people stopped at the church campus that church officials had to build a walkway to accommodate them.

Bishop said the statue will be rebuilt.

“It will be back, but this time we are going to try for something fireproof,” she said.

The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by Bishop and her husband, former horse trader Lawrence Bishop.

Lawrence Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation.

via 6-story Jesus statue in Ohio struck by lightning – Yahoo! News.

VAIL — Justin Young was hoping he'd see a bear while working in the Vail Valley this summer, but he never wanted to see one as close as he did last Friday.

Young, 25, was working for his father's construction business at a home in the 1500 block of Spring Hill Lane in East Vail when he took a break and took a stroll behind the home around 9 a.m. The next thing he knew he was about 20 feet from a black bear that he said weighed about 400 pounds.

“I spooked him,” Young said. “He immediately charged at me.”

Young, who lives in Florida full-time, said he feels incredibly fortunate to have survived the encounter. The bear hit him on the side of his head and again on the left side of his body before Young fell down. The bear knocked him out, he said, and when he regained consciousness the bear was gone. He got up and ran back to the house and told his coworkers what happened.

Young doubts his coworkers would have believed him if it wasn't for the bear hair.

“They assumed I fell down the stairs and was full of it, until they saw I was covered in bear hair,” Young said.

He walked away with some cuts and bruises, and a nasty black eye, but that was it.

His parents, Chuck and Terry Young, of Eagle, saw pictures of their son's cuts and bruises from his cell phone camera that morning. Terry Young said she got a picture message that said her son had quite the story to tell her.

“Now he has a whole new respect for bears,” Terry Young said.

Justin Young said he's pretty sure he scared the bear because it was facing away from him as he approached it. The bear reacted and went on the defensive, he said.

“I'm very fortunate the bear was on the defensive and not the offensive,” Justin Young said.

After the bear hit him once near his left eye and temple, he put up his arm to protect himself. The bear got a pretty good scratch at his left arm, and that's when Justin Young thinks he was knocked out.

He said he thinks his lifeless body as he laid there unconscious was what saved him. If he continued to fight back and try to protect himself, he said the bear may have done even more damage.

“It's probably good he knocked me out,” Justin Young said. “I'm glad I wasn't conscious for it.”

Justin Young said he has a lot of bruises and scratches on his body, too, which makes him think the bear continued to smack him around a bit while he was unconscious. He said the Division of Wildlife officer who responded to the scene told him a bear that size could exert 1,000 pounds of force.

The Vail Police Department responded to the call along with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Justin Young said he refused an ambulance ride to the hospital because he felt fine and doesn't have health insurance.

“Now that it's done and over with, and I know that I'm not going to die from it, it's kind of a cool story,” Justin Young said.

Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Division of Wildlife, said the agency tracked the bear for more than 12 hours Friday and could see the bear a few times but couldn't catch him. They tracked him with hound dogs but lost the scent when the bear's trail led across asphalt, a surface much harder for dogs to smell.

“Any situation in Colorado where we deal with an aggressive animal injuring a person, the policy is typically that the animal is going to be put down,” Hampton said.

Hampton said that while it's not exactly common to hear of a bear attacking or charging at a person, it does happen several times a year in Colorado. There were three incidents last year in the Aspen-area alone where people were physically injured by bears, he said.

“That being said, it's more common to get attacked by your neighbor's dog than a bear,” Hampton said.

Hampton said he didn't have information on the size or sex of the bear that attacked Justin Young. He said 400 pounds sounds pretty large, though, for a black bear this time of year.

“What we find is that most often, because of their hair and how much hair they have it makes them appear much larger,” Hampton said. “Guessing the weight of a bear is extremely difficult.”

via Bear attacks man in East Vail | VailDaily.com.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTVA-CBS 11 News)

The bear attack on Rover's Run is a reminder of what happens when people encounter bears. But is our city being proactive in protecting us from bears on the trails?

Although officials are saying Tuesday's mauling at Far North Bicentennial Park was minor, they do admit that it could have ended a lot worse.

They say it's time to explore what other options are out there to keep residents safe from bear attacks.

“I had to use bear spray to get my way out of a sow with some cubs and called 911,” said Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, who had a dangerous encounter with bears before. 911 dispatchers told her they don't respond to bear attacks. “They said if the bears are threatening you and you are in dire straights we'll respond. I said with all due respect, at that point I am not going to be able to call you,” she said.

Millett says that flaw in the system is one of many in a city where so many people use trails that bring them face to face with bears that flock towards the salmon streams.

“We stock the streams and we get upset when bears come to feed,” said Millett. “We are creating our problems by stocking the streams. There is a whole group of people who love to fish and there is a whole bunch of people who love to view wildlife and there is a whole lot of people in Anchorage who like to use the trails.”

“Most of those encounter areas are places where people live or play everyday but there are also

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bears there,” said Rick Sinnott, a wildlife biologist, for the state Fish and Game.

In light of Tuesday's mauling, Fish and Game biologists strongly recommended closing down Rover's Run until they figured out the series of events that led to the attack.

“That's what we are hoping to avoid–situations where you've got a trail where we've had encounters before,” said Sinnott. “People have been mauled before. It seems like those situations for a few months in the summer time with all the other hundreds of miles of trails in town that those few miles of trails could be closed.”

But with the trails under the city's control, state officials say the municipality needs to work with them to come up with other options.

“Let's do a good job of marking our trails, and then when you go use the trails, file a trail plan,” said Millett.

“Relocate the real trail, the real Rover's Run, a little bit further away from the creek, so people have a safer place to exercise, run and stuff.”

A plan that could work two-fold for everyone's safety, to keep bears away from the trails while also keeping people away from the bears.

“Right now the bears are using it, they are fishing for salmon there, if you put a new trail in there you are kind of asking for these kind of maulings,” said Sinnott.

Sinnott says another idea is to make Rover's Run an winter-use only trail, when the bears are hibernating. Officials say this tactic has proved successful with the Albert's Loop Trail in Eagle River.

City officials say they're going to put up multiple signs around Rover's Run and encourage folks to check out their bear aware site.

via Protection Against Bear Attacks – KTVA.

JACKSONVILLE BEACH – A woman bitten on the leg in the ocean near 16th Avenue South has prompted the annual summer vigilance for potential shark activity.

The 18-year-old woman was bitten about 2 p.m. Thursday in waist-deep water a few feet from shore, said Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue Capt. Thomas Wright. She was treated at Baptist Medical Center-Beaches for the minor bite wound, which was described as an outline of a small mouth with teeth.

Wright said the woman was bitten by something, but officials aren't sure it was a shark. Barracudas, bluefish and stingrays can bite or sting, he said.

“Unless it's a missing limb or something, I wouldn't necessarily call it a shark attack,” said Wright. “It's likely there is a lot of life in the water right now. The water's warming up.”

He said sharks, such as black tips and spinners, are migrating to their nursing grounds as far north as North Carolina.

Lifeguards along Jacksonville's Beaches haven't spotted large numbers of sharks recently, he said.

The incident had little impact on beachgoers. Many people were still in the water near the site after it happened Thursday. Even more people were at the beach Friday, since that was the last day of classes for many schools.

Jacksonville Beach Mayor Fland Sharp said he doesn't want to downplay any attack. But beachgoers have acclimated to the ocean's realities.

“We've had a shark attack what seems like every two or three years,” Sharp said. “There were a couple things that looked like they were shark bites and a couple things looked like it was something else.”

Sharp, a former lifeguard, said people should keep shark threats in perspective.

“If I was coming down here and felt a little uncomfortable, just walk up to a lifeguard on a chair” and ask if there are any reported shark sightings, he said. “I think the odds are much greater of being struck by lightning.”

Sharp said there are some simple rules to follow.

“In the summertime, there are pods of bait fish that come close to shore,” he said. “You definitely don't want to go swimming around those because there are sharks and other kinds of fish that are feeding around those. There are sharks here and you just have to use some common sense about it.”

Wright said it has been about four years since a shark attack in the area and that was at the Jacksonville Beach Pier off Fourth Avenue North. The woman's injuries were minor then, too. He advised swimmers to remember the ocean is the shark's habitat.

“Just know that is their home and they are out there all the time,” said Wright. “Just because you don't see fins swimming by like the movie “Jaws” doesn't mean they're not there. If you're concerned about being bit or anything, you probably shouldn't go out there.”

via Attack on woman in Jacksonville Beach waters may have been shark, raises concern | jacksonville.com.

The now-world-famous Guatemala City sinkhole, which opened following a recent tropical storm, is estimated to be 66 feet wide, 100 feet deep, and perfectly cylindrical in shape. It must be seen to be believed. Here are five amazing facts about the sinkhole and, as a bonus at the bottom, three not-so-amazing “facts.”

Might Still Get Bigger Politics Daily's Carl Franzen warns the sinkhole may be “increasing in size and appetite.” He writes, “The phenomenon of rapidly growing sinkholes is well documented, but the Guatemala case stands out precisely because the sinkhole is so enormous and in such an inconvenient location, at a major intersection. The sinkhole's potential growth is also problematic for repair efforts, as no work can be begun safely until the sinkhole has reached an equilibrium and stops…well, sinking, which could take up to several more days.”

Could Be Caused by Sped-Up Geological Erosion Geologists David Bercovici and Mark Brandon tell Vanity Fair, “Sinkholes often appear in areas where the rock below the ground is limestone, carbonate rock, salt beds, or rocks that can be naturally dissolved by circulating ground water. As the sediment dissolves, caves and air pockets develop underneath the land surface. If there is not enough support for the land above the spaces, then the ground collapses and results in a sinkhole. Natural depressions that collect water and man-made structures such as houses and streets with poor drainage are especially vulnerable to sinkholes. Heavy rainfall, like that from Tropical Storm Agatha, only accelerates the process.”

Sewer System May Be to Blame The Christian Science Monitor's Sara Miller Llana reports, “The mayor Guatemala City, Álvaro Arzú, said there may be a relationship between the sinkhole and the city's 36-year old drainage system that runs 50-60 meters below the surface. He said, according to 21st Century, a Guatemala daily newspaper, that the country's disaster response agency, CONRED, is using an X-ray like machine to study the earth in the area of the sinkhole.” Other reports cite “sewer or municipal water lines [that] might have eroded the ground and led to the collapse.”

This Has Happened Before The Christian Science Monitor's Ezra Fieser recounts, “In 2007, three people were killed when a 100-foot deep sinkhole opened in another Guatemala City neighborhood. More than 1,000 people were evacuated from the area.” Carl Franzen adds, “Just last month, a sinkhole opened in Quebec swallowing an entire house and killing the family inside. In the U.S., they are most common in the southern states, particularly Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida, where hundreds of smaller sinkholes have already been reported this year alone.”

How We Can Fix It Politics Daily's Carl Franzen explains three options. (1) Excavate and Filter; (2) Remediate and Cap Grout; (3) Underpin. That last one comes from “Sinkhole attorneys Marshall Thomas Burnett, a firm specializing in filing claims for those whose properties are affected by the appearance of sinkholes.” Click through for descriptions of each process.

3 Not-So-Amazing Sinkhole 'Facts'

You Can Throw Stuff in It Death and Taxes blogger Matt Kiebus helpfully contributes “fun stuff to toss in” the sinkhole. His 12-item list includes such throwables as Miller Lite bottles and BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Sinkhole Has Biblical Precedent BeliefNet's Mark Herringshaw quotes Psalm 46:2: “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” To be fair, Herringshaw also urges prayer for the victims of the sinkhole as well as the tropical storm that caused it.

The Best Car to Jump a Sinkhole Car blog Jalopnik's Matt Hardigree asks, “Assuming you were airlifted in to the country with a vehicle of your choice — what would you take and what would your strategy be for avoiding death?” His answer: “Personally, I'd pick a Caterham R500 to traverse the dangerous streets of Guatemala City. The insane 2.0-liter Ford-powered roadster has classic Caterham agility to avoid sinkholes, 520 hp-per-ton power to speed away from an earth opening beneath your feet, a low 1,115-lb weight to help leap over any obstacles, and an open roof in case you can't do any of those things and need to bail in a hurry.”

via 5 Amazing Facts About the Guatemala City Sinkhole | The Atlantic Wire.

(CBS)  Hannah Foster was enjoying a day of boogie-boarding about 30-40 yards off Florida's Jacksonville Beach last week when she suddenly had a terrifying encounter with a shark.

It bit down on her lower left leg, and foot.

With the help of her boyfriend, Rick Hughes, also 18, Foster made it to shore.

It was the first shark attack in the area in 20 years.

Foster needed 29 stitches but told “Early Show” co-anchor Erica Hill she's “doing fine,” and that doctors say she didn't sustain any permanent damage.

Foster says she knew right away what was going on. “I didn't even consider anything else could have hurt that bad.” Foster told Hill. “I could kind of feel all the teeth inside my skin, so I knew.”

And, she was “nothing short of freaking out. I was so scared. I thought it was gonna smell the blood from where it had already bit me and come back. So, I'm just seaming at my boyfriend, yelling, 'It's coming back, it's coming back. I've been bit.' He didn't even know it was a shark. I couldn't even get that out.”

Hughes says he “just heard her screaming and it just scared me to death. But I turned around and just grabbed her as fast as I could and tried to just get her to shore.”

Was he concerned about another attack?

“I had no idea that it was a shark until we got closer to shore,” Hughes responded, “but I didn't really think about it. I just wanted to get her out. … It was just crazy. I don't even know how else to explain it.”

Foster says the water was so murky, “You could barely see at all. I could see the shape of (the shark) but I couldn't tell what kind of shark or anything.”

Once on shore, Foster says, “It was about 30 minutes before I got to the E-R and got any medicine in me. They spent time just bandaging it and making sure that I didn't hit an artery or anything. So, I spent a lot of time on the beach and in the ambulance.”

This wasn't Fosters first run of bad aquatic luck. When she was 9, she was bitten by a Portuguese man-of-war, which left scars on one of her arms for three years.

So now, says Foster, “I don't want to get back in at all. I know the odds, you know, are in my favor that I probably won't get bit again, but I obviously have pretty bad luck, so I'm sticking to pools.”

via Teen Survives Grisly Shark Attack Off Florida – The Early Show – CBS News.

“Hey Dad, I’m riding a turtle.”

My 13-year-old daughter, Abby, was helping clear some of the weeds from our pond and was calling out to me while standing neck deep in weedy water.

I glanced over at her smiling face from where I was lifting out clumps of weeds. The claim didn’t make much sense to me and I figured this was going to be some kind of joke: “Nah, you’re not riding a turtle.”

“Well I’m standing on its back and it’s moving.”

“It’s probably a rock.”

“How much will you give me if it’s a turtle?” she persisted.

“I’ll give you five bucks.” I was starting to think maybe she was really riding a turtle.

“If you’re really on a snapping turtle you’d probably better just swim away, those things have a bite.”

“I really want to catch him. Bring over a bucket so I can throw him in it when I get him.”

I waded over with a medium-sized bucket.

“That’s not big enough.”

I waded back with five gallon bucket. Abby paused. “What are you doing, Abby?”

“Praying.”

The next moment Abby went down under water while I stood with the bucket at the ready.

She came up with a huge snapping monster which she quickly pitched into the bucket.

We took this beast onto shore and surveyed him as he easily snapped off finger-thick sticks with lightning strikes from his powerful jaws.

I was picturing my daughter’s fingers.

“Abby, next time you’re riding a turtle just swim away. But, I have to say, I believe that’s a $10 turtle.”

Snapping turtles are just one of the dangerous creatures folks encounter in east Tennessee. However snappers almost never bother you unless you’re actively bothering them.

Let’s take a brief look at the other potentially dangerous creatures you might encounter around the woods, streams, ponds and backyards of our area.

Let’s start with snakes. There are four kinds of venomous snakes in Tennessee: northern and southern copperhead, timber rattlesnake, western cottonmouth and the western pigmy rattlesnake.

The copperhead is a relatively shy snake, but they account for the most reported bites each year in Tennessee.

Roughly 50 percent of their bites are dry bites; meaning that when they bite, no venom is injected.

Fatal bites are exceedingly rare in Tennessee. Although there are 50,000 deaths worldwide from venomous snakebites reported each year, only 12-15 are in the United States.

Within Tennessee, only four deaths from venomous snakebites have been reported since 1960.

If bitten, the best approach is to try to remain calm and get to a local emergency room. Remove all jewelry around or above the bite area, since there will probably be swelling. But do not apply a tourniquet, nor make cuts around the bite, nor try to suck out the venom. These are outdated approaches that can cause delay, tissue damage, and infection. Don’t try to capture the snake since anti venom is the same for all Tennessee snakes and trying to capture the snake only increases the chances of a second snakebite victim. On average, bites from copperheads result in a week of pain, eleven days of extremity swelling, and two weeks of missed work.

Moving to the smaller culprits, there are two spiders of concern: the black widow and the brown recluse. The black widow is black with a telltale yellow or red hourglass marking on its underside. They are often found in basements, woodpiles and rock walls. Symptoms of a bite may include profuse sweating, nausea, vomiting, headache, and muscle spasms.

The brown recluse hides out in unused shoes, attics, closets and boxes. Its venom destroys tissue. Pain may occur at the bite site six to eight hours afterwards. At 48 hours, there may be itching, redness, blisters, and then a dark crust may form at the bite site followed by sloughing off of some tissue. A visit to the doctor would be wise after a bite from either of these two venomous spiders.

Tennessee is also home to two species of scorpion, the southern unstriped scorpion and the introduced striped Scorpion. Rocky hillsides, rock or brick walls, crawl spaces, and log piles are favorite scorpion habitats. The sting of these scorpions is considered mild. The sensation is a sharp pain that usually lasts for 15 to 20 minutes.

What about fish? The dorsal and pectoral fins of many species of catfish, particularly the small mad toms, have venomous spines that can inflict painful wounds, though generally not life threatening.

Then, of course, there are the red and the black fire ants, bees, wasps, and hornets.

If you should get bitten or stung by any of these creatures, be sure to get immediate medical attention if any of the following occur: Difficulty breathing, swelling of the lips or throat, slurred speech, chest pain, faintness, rapid heart rate, nausea, cramping, vomiting, or a known venomous snakebite.

In spite of all these worrisome critters, the outdoors is still hard to beat here in east Tennessee. So enjoy it! But keep your eyes open.

via Dangerous creatures could ruin a summer.