Happy Monday News Viewers; welcome to Free Range, our Monday Free Chat with an environmental bent. This week is “Animals in the News” which happens to be a regular feature in The Atlantic (but I had to add a few extras from air, sea and land.)
This is a Free Chat so let’s talk about it, whatever IT is; the environment includes about every topic under the sun, so let us know what’s going on with you this Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. Here in my neck of the woods, the deer have some kind of wasting disease, the raccoons have turned vicious, vets are testing animals for COVID, and animal shelters are pandemically overrun. . . .
Regardless, it’s not all bad news, right? We’re here for another day, we’re here with another chance to make life and planet sustaining choices and put it all in perspective with the requisite wit and smarts typical of our NV community…..SO glad you’re here, whatcha got folks?
Fed up otters: “We’re not gonna take it anymore. . . .”
This pattern of otters on the attack around Anchorage began in early September when a nine-year-old boy was bitten several times at an East Anchorage duck pond. As Samantha Davenport reported for the Daily News at the time, the boy was taking video of the otters when one peeled off from the group and came straight for the boy and his older brother. As the brothers fled, the nine-year-old stumbled and when he fell, the otter delivered bites that punctured his legs and foot, per the Daily News.
Victims of the Huntington Beach Oil Spill
A staff of California Department Fish & Wildlife examines a contaminated Sanderling from the oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
Asher helps Bubba celebrate his win. . . .
TALLADEGA, ALABAMA – OCTOBER 04: Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald’s Toyota, celebrates in victory lane with his dog Asher after winning the rain-shortened NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on October 04, 2021 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
The Winner is. . . .
ANKARA, TURKEY – OCTOBER 03: A bird is seen on the 11th Ankara Ataturk Cup Cage & Aviary Birds Contest at Altinpark in Ankara, Turkey on October 03, 2021. (Photo by Ercin Erturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Peaceable Kingdom. . . .
Hoglets snuggle up to Yasha the cat in the house of its owner Ksenia Krasilnikova in the village of Okhotnikovo outside Yevpatoriya, Crimea June 14, 2021. Krasilnikova has found seven abandoned baby hedgehogs in her yard and feeds them, while her male cats Yasha and Murchik comfort hoglets and keep them warm. Picture taken June 14, 2021. REUTERS/Alexey Pavlishak
The Loneliest Whale
It is a tale of sound: the song of a solitary whale that vocalizes at a unique frequency of 52 hertz, which no other whale—as the story goes—can seemingly understand. The whale, who is of unknown species and nicknamed “52,” was originally discovered in 1989 and has been intermittently tracked by scientists ever since. Its solitary nature baffled marine researchers. And its very existence captured the attention and hearts of millions of people. But as 52 roams the ocean’s depths, a lot about its nature is still up in the air. No one has ever seen it in the flesh.
Somebody left me hanging. . . .
A cow is transported by a helicopter after its summer sojourn in the high Swiss Alpine meadows near the Klausenpass, Switzerland August 27, 2021. REUTERS/Arnd WiegmannT
Singing bird or hummingbird?
A Violet Bellied hummingbird (Damophila julie) flyes at Rio Blanco viewpoint, in Choco Andino Biosphere reserve in Pichincha, Ecuador, on September 25, 2021. (Photo by Cristina Vega RHOR / AFP) (Photo by CRISTINA VEGA RHOR/AFP via Getty Images)
Once more with feeling. . .
Which animals sing other than birds? Many primates are capable of singing. Some species of gibbons are even capable of singing duets. (Image credit: sylviebonnotte via Getty Images)
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