Beetles & Dinosaurs

Modern Beetles Predate Dinosaurs

Wait, don't squash that beetle! Its lineage predates dinosaurs.

New research hints that modern-day versions of the insects are far older than any tyrannosaur that trod the Earth.

Today's plethora of beetle species were thought to have blossomed 140 million years ago, during the rise of flowering plants. But the new study of beetle DNA and fossils, published in the Dec. 21 issue of the journal Science, pushes their appearance back to 300 million years ago.

That beats the arrival of dinosaurs by about 70 million years.

"Unlike the dinosaurs which dwindled to extinction, beetles survived because of their ecological diversity and adaptability," said the study's lead scientist Alfried Vogler, an entomologist at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum in London.

Today, 350,000 species of beetles dot collections around the world, and millions more are estimated to exist but haven't been discovered — which means they make up more than one-fourth of all known species of life forms. The reason for this tremendous diversity has been debated by scientists for many years but never resolved.

Vogler thinks beetles' head start on our planet with its ever-changing environments was the secret to their success.

"The large number of beetle species existing today could very well be a direct result of this early evolution," Vogler said, "and the fact that there has been a very high rate of survival and continuous diversification of many lineages since then."

To reach this conclusion, Vogler and his team teased out evolutionary data from the DNA of 1,880 modern beetle species, then compared it to fossil records dating back 265 million years to build detailed evolutionary trees. The new genetic maps suggest that a common ancestor to beetles crept up well before its descendants showed up in the fossil record.

"With beetles forming such a large proportion of all known species, learning about their relationships and evolution gives us important new insights into the origin of biodiversity and how beetles have triumphed over the course of nearly 300 million years," Vogler said.

See, the bugs/insects got it going on. Size doesn't really matter now does it?

Animalz & insects Rule,

Bobby Sharpe Dragon, Book of Shang www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Japan And Their Barbaric Whaling Industry

Japan Suspends Humpback Whale Hunt

TOKYO (Dec. 21) - Japan has suspended its first humpback whale hunt in seas off Antarctica since the 1960s, the government said Friday, backing down in an escalating international battle over the expansion of its hunt.

Japan dropped the planned taking of 50 humpbacks - which have been off-limits to commercial hunting since 1966 - at the behest of the United States, the chair of the International Whaling Commission, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura.

"The government has decided to suspend hunts of humpback whales while talks to normalize IWC is taking place," Machimura said, adding the suspension would last a year or two. "But there will be no changes to our stance on our research whaling itself."

Japan dispatched its whaling fleet last month to the southern Pacific in the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s, generating widespread criticism. Japanese whaling officials said Friday they had not harpooned any humpbacks yet.

The move defuses for now a high-profile row with Australia, though Japanese officials deny they were influenced by Canberra's anti-whaling position. Australia announced Wednesday it would dispatch surveillance planes and a ship to gather evidence for a possible international legal challenge to the hunt.

It was unlikely, however, to quell the increasingly bold high-seas protests against Japan's scientific whaling research program, under which it kills a total of 1,000 whales - mostly minkes - a year in the Pacific.

Japan has wrestled with the IWC for years to overturn its 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, and recently has called for a "normalization" of the group to return to its original mission of managing sea resources, rather than banning whaling.

The decision followed talks between Japan and the U.S. over state of the IWC, said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the Fisheries Agency's whaling division. The State Department had warned Japan that some anti-whaling nations could boycott IWC meetings, he said.

"That goes against the intentions of Japan, which have sought a normalized IWC," said Moronuki, who has been an energetic and outspoken proponent of Japan's whaling program.

Commercial hunts of humpbacks - which were nearly harpooned to extinction in the 20th century - were banned in the Southern Pacific in 1963, and that ban was extended worldwide in 1966.

The American Cetacean Society estimates the humpback population has recovered to about 30,000-40,000 - about a third of the number before modern whaling. The species is listed as "vulnerable" by the World Conservation Union.

The decision was cheered by anti-whaling nations - with reservations.

"While this is a welcome move, the Australian government strongly believes that there is no credible justification for the hunting of any whales," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said, adding it would continue with its surveillance plans.

Smith also conveyed a similar message to his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura, during their telephone talks later Friday, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Smith said the problem is not just humpback hunts, while Komura justified Japan's research whaling.

Karli Thomas, who is leading a Greenpeace expedition heading to the southern Pacific, also lauded the development.

"This is good news indeed, but it must be the first step towards ending all whaling in the Southern Ocean, not just one species for one season," Thomas said in a statement from on board the group's ship, Esperanza.

Coastal communities in Japan have hunted whales for centuries, but whale meat was not eaten widely here until the U.S. occupation officials encouraged it in the poverty stricken years after World War II.

Despite the commercial hunting ban, Japan is permitted under the IWC rules to kill whales for scientific research. The meat is sold under the program and often ends up as pricey items in specialty restaurants, though its popularity as a staple has plummeted with the availability of beef and other meats.

Despite the suspension of the humpback hunt, Japan still plans to take as many as 935 minke whales and up to 50 fin whales in the Antarctic in what the Fisheries Agency says is its largest-ever scientific whale hunt.

Japan also takes more minkes in the northern Pacific later in the year.

Critics, however, say the scientific program is a ruse for Japan to keep its whaling industry alive until it can overturn the commercial ban. Protesters in boats earlier this year dogged the Japanese fleet, which eventually had to cut the hunt short when a fire damaged one of its ships.

It seems to me that, in this day and age, Japan should be able to find something a little more constructive, productive and animal friendly than going out and hunting these magnificent creatures. Hell, they made everything else, "make some artificial whale meat"! If this kind of behavior keeps up, we may have to try to summon Godzilla, or, as they call him, Gojira, to put something on their cities as Toho Studios did in their movies.

Oh, in closing, "don't give me that crap about killing cows and chickens and goats and turkeys etc for food". TWO wrongs do not make a right!

Whales and Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe Dragon, Book of Shang

Another NEW Dinosaur Discovered

New Dinosaur Discovered in Antarctica

(Dec. 11) - A hefty, long-necked dinosaur that lumbered across the Antarctic before meeting its demise 190 million years ago has been identified and named, more than a decade after intrepid paleontologists sawed and chiseled the remains of the primitive plant-eater from its icy grave.

A team led by William Hammer of Augustana College had unearthed the dino fossils in the early 1990s. They found a partial foot, leg and ankle bones on Mt. Kirkpatrick near the Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet (nearly 4,000 meters). It wasn't until recently, though, that researchers examined the fossils.

"The fossils were painstakingly removed from the ice and rock using jackhammers, rock saws and chisels under extremely difficult conditions over the course of two field seasons," said Nathan Smith, a graduate student at The Field Museum in Chicago, who along with a colleague describes the dinosaur in the Dec. 5 issue of the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

Extreme Dinos

The Antarctic dinosaur was about 20 to 25 feet long (six to about 8 meters) and weighed in at 4 to 6 tons. Smith and co-author Diego Pol, a paleontologist at the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio in Argentina, determined the remains belong to a new genus and species of dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period.

Dubbed Glacialisaurus hammeri, the beast was a type of sauropodomorph, a dino group that includes the largest animals ever to walk the earth. Their sister group is the theropods, which include Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor and primitive birds. The sauropodomorphs were long-necked herbivores and included the "true sauropods" Diplodocus and Apatosaurus (sauropods are a subset of sauropodomorphs).

While researchers don't know how G. hammeri used its tail, some of its relatives are thought to have wielded their tails as weapons, cracking the tail at supersonic speeds to produce a ground-shaking boom.

Dinosaur Sprawl

The new results suggest sauropodomorphs were widely distributed in the Early Jurassic—not only in China, South Africa, South America and North America, but also in Antarctica.

"This was probably due to the fact that major connections between the continents still existed at that time, and because climates were more equitable across latitudes than they are today," Smith said.

Back then, most of the landmasses in today's southern hemisphere (including Antarctica, South America, Africa and Australia) formed the supercontinent Gondwana. The landmass started to break up in the mid-Jurassic, about 167 million years ago.

The Glacialisaurus discovery, along with that of a possible sauropod at roughly the same location in Antarctica, lends additional support to a theory that the earliest sauropods coexisted with their more primitive sauropodomorph cousins for an extended period, the researchers conclude.

"They are important because they help to establish that primitive sauropodomorph dinosaurs were more broadly distributed than previously thought, and that they coexisted with their cousins, the true sauropods," Smith said.

Other animal remains that have been collected in the neighborhood of G. hammeri include a nearly complete skeleton of a theropod dinosaur called Cryolophosaurus ellioti; pelvic bones from a possible sauropod dinosaur; a pterosaur humerus bone; and the tooth of a large tritylodont (a type of extinct mammal relatives).

I am not exactly sure what is going on these days, but, it seems like for the last couple of years now, a new species of animal or new dinosaur is being discovered almost every few weeks or so. I have my theories, but, can't prove a thing and they are only speculation as of now.

As I have told many of YOU before, "it is just a matter of time before they find Godzilla or, at least a once alive close relative". Yes, and they will eventually prove that dragons are not just some "fantasy" creature.

Animalz Rule(Dinosaurs),

Bobby Sharpe Dragon, Book of Shang www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

9 Foot Spitting Cobra, Excuse Me?

Record-Size Spitting Cobra Discovered

NAIROBI (Dec. 7) - A giant spitting cobra, measuring nearly nine feet and carrying enough venom to kill at least 15 people, has been discovered in Kenya, a conservation group said on Friday.

WildlifeDirect said the snake it described as the world's largest had been recognized as a new species and named the Naja Ashei after James Ashe, who founded a snake farm on Kenya's coast where the massive serpents are found.

"A new species of giant spitting cobra is exciting and reinforces the obvious -- that there have to be many other unreported species but hundreds are being lost as their habitats disappear under the continued mismanagement of our planet," said the group's chairman, Kenyan environmentalist Richard Leakey.

Spitting cobras, able to launch poison over a distance of several meters, are common to Kenya's lowland climates.

WildlifeDirect said the discovery would help find an anti-venom for the bite. "Lives can be saved," it added.

Ashe, now deceased, was the first to catch a larger-than-normal spitting cobra in the 1960s, and suggest it belonged to a different species.

The animal kingdom is unbelievable. New and different species are being discovered all the time. However, I don't need to see one of these bad boys in person. I do wish them no harm and hope they continue to thrive. If YOU would like to see more pictures, go to the story on aol at http://news.aol.com/story/_a/record-size-spitting-cobra-discovered/20071207161

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe Dragon, Book of Shang www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Willie Nelson, Dog Fighting Legislation & Georgia

Dog's Best Friend: Willie Nelson

ATLANTA (AP) - Willie Nelson is looking to become dog's best friend. The country music star has filmed a television spot supporting an anti-dogfighting bill that is moving through the Georgia Legislature.

In the ad, Nelson looks into the camera while "Georgia on My Mind" plays in the background.

"Dogfighting is against the law in Georgia, but the laws are so weak, the beautiful state of Georgia has become a haven for dogfighters from around the country," he says.

The bill would make it a felony for anyone to sell, trade or transport dogs for the purpose of dogfighting.

Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, a national animal welfare organization, produced the piece and asked Nelson to participate.

State Sen. Chip Rogers, the bill's author, hopes to get the spot on TV and radio around the time of the Dec. 10 sentencing for suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who pleaded guilty to a federal dogfighting conspiracy charge.

The bill has passed the state Senate and will go before a House committee in January.

Hopefully, the House will follow suit. Three cheers for Willie Nelson for being on the bandwagon with this. People that are participating in this despicable form of whatever they want to call it, are lucky. If I were calling the shots, anyone caught doing this would be executed immediately.

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe Dragon, Book of Shang

Gator Kills Burglar

'Aggressive' Gator Kills Burglary Suspect

MICCOSUKEE TRIBE INDIAN RESERVATION, Fla. (Nov. 13) - A man who jumped into a lake to flee police was killed by an alligator more than 9-feet long, officials said Tuesday.

The man, whose name has not been released, was allegedly burglarizing a vehicle in the parking lot of the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center on Thursday. He ran when police arrived at the scene, said Dexter Lehtinen, one of the tribe's police legal advisors.

Tribal police divers searched for the man that night, then again Friday morning and afternoon. During the third dive, the body was recovered. It bore alligator teeth marks on the upper torso.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department said the cause of death was an alligator attack.

An accomplice in the alleged burglary has been arrested. The Miccosukee tribe, which is not obligated to follow Florida's open records laws, declined to release his name. Without a name, the Miami-Dade state attorney's office was unable to comment on whether the man has been charged.

The alligator believed to be responsible for the death has been killed. A coroner was scheduled to examine the 9-foot-3 reptile Wednesday for human hair or skin, said Brian Wood, owner of All American Gator Products, which is storing the gator in a cooler for now. It will then be incinerated or buried, he said.

A sign at the lake warns people: "Danger Live Alligators." Wood said in other alligator habitats, signs also warn people not to feed the creatures.

"They become too comfortable being around humans and they equate humans to food," Wood said. "Generally if a gator sees a person, he goes the other way, he goes down, he hides. This gator was aggressive, not afraid of people."

I have said it before and I will say it again, "why did they euthanize(kill) the gator"? The gator lives in the pond/lake. It's his home! Doesn't he have the right to protect that as we have the right to protect our home? Plus, he got rid of a "dirtbag" for us.

One of these days, when everything in the universe is properly lined up and in synch, the animals will have their day. The ego and ignorance of mankind is ruining this planet.

Peace and Dragons and Animalz,

Bobby Sharpe Dragon, Book of Shang Bobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz"

Another Animal Needs Our Help

World's Smallest Bear Faces Extinction

GENEVA (Nov. 13) - The world's smallest bear species faces extinction because of deforestation and poaching in its Southeast Asian home, a conservation group said Monday.

The sun bear, whose habitat stretches from India to Indonesia, has been classified as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.

"We estimate that sun bears have declined by at least 30 percent over the past 30 years and continue to decline at this rate," said Rob Steinmetz, a bear expert with the Geneva-based group, known under its acronym IUCN.

The group estimates there are little more than 10,000 sun bears left, said Dave Garshelis, co-chair of the IUCN bear specialist group.

The bear, which weighs between 90 and 130 pounds, is hunted for its bitter, green bile, which has long been used by Chinese traditional medicine practitioners to treat eye, liver and other ailments. Bear paws are also consumed as a delicacy.

Another threat comes from loggers, who are destroying the sun bear's habitat, Steinmetz said.

Thailand is the only country to have effectively banned logging and enforced laws against poaching, allowing the sun bear population to remain stable there, Garshelis said.

IUCN said six of the eight bear species in the world are now threatened with extinction.

Other vulnerable bear species are the Asiatic black bear, the sloth bear on the Indian subcontinent, the Andean bear in South America and the polar bear. The brown bear and the American black bear are in a lesser category of threat, IUCN said.

"The American black bear is actually doing quite well," said Garshelis, adding that its population is increasing in most parts of Canada, the United States and Mexico.

There are an estimated 900,000 American black bears in the three countries, more than double the number of all the other bear species combined, according to IUCN.

The brown bear is well protected in North America and Europe and therefore able to expand in certain areas, he said. But in some countries of South Asia, including Pakistan, India and Nepal, there are only tiny numbers of brown bears left, he added.

The giant panda, of which fewer than 3,000 are estimated to survive, remains in the category of endangered species despite huge Chinese efforts to conserve it, Garshelis said.

"It would be unwise to assume that in less than 10 years under the new habitat improvement policies in China (the) panda population could have dramatically increased," he said.

Australia's koala bear, which despite its name is not a bear but a marsupial, is considered "near threatened.

"The reassessment of the sun bear's situation will be reflected in IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, a comprehensive inventory of some 41,000 species and subspecies compiled by a network of experts around the globe.

Another one of those "break your heart" stories about what is going on with our fellow Earth inhabitants. Just wanted to make YOU aware of the Sun Bears plight. Please, do whatever YOU can to help our animal souls.

Thanks, Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe Dragon, Book of Shang www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

"Heroes" Star Panettiere Protests Dolphin Hunt

Panettiere Protests Japan Dolphin Hunt

TOKYO (AP) - Hayden Panettiere and some fellow animal rights activists drew angry shouts and some shoving from fishermen in Japan when they tried to interfere with a dolphin hunt, according to video footage shot by the protesters.

The six activists from the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd paddled out on surfboards to a cove in the town of Taiji in southwestern Japan on Tuesday to interfere with the annual hunt.

Fishermen on a boat approached the activists and ordered them to leave, shoving some of them with a long pole. An angry fisherman later shouted in the face of one of the protesters on the road above the cove. There did not appear to be any injuries.

"This baby stuck its head out and kind of looked as us, and the thought that the baby is no longer with us is very difficult," Panettiere, who stars in the NBC show "Heroes," said after coming ashore.

The local fishermen and their supporters say hunting dolphins - in this case, pilot whales - is a Japanese custom that outsiders have no business interfering with.

"Whales and dolphins are traditionally being used (as resources) in Japan," said Hideki Moronuki, chief of the whaling section at the Japanese Fisheries Agency. "In this light, we cannot accept an argument simply based on emotional causes."

About 14,000 dolphins are killed for food in Japan every year.

Coastal dolphin hunts usually involve herding groups of the animals into a cove using sonar equipment, or by banging metal rods in the water, creating a sort of acoustic barrier. The mammals are then trapped using nets and divers are sent in to kill them.

You know, I really think this sucks. Being the animal lover I am. However, in all respect to intelligent thinking, how can I come down on the Japanese when we, as Americans, do the same thing pretty much, to 4 legged and 2 legged animals. Anyway, that's my take on this disturbing story.

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe reggae8@aol.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Iragi Sharks 160 Miles Inland

Iraqi fisherman nets shark 160 miles from sea

NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - A two-meter shark has been caught in a river in southern Iraq more than 200 km (160 miles) from the sea.

Karim Hasan Thamir said he was fishing with his sons last week when they spotted a large fish thrashing about in his net. "I recognized the fish as a shark because I have seen one on a television program," he told Reuters.

The shark was pulled from the mouth of an irrigation canal that joins the Euphrates River. The Euphrates joins the Tigris River further east to form the Shatt al-Arab waterway which flows south past Basra into the Gulf.

Dr. Mohamed Ajah, assistant dean of the college of science at Thi Qar University in Nassiriya, said barriers in river estuaries usually prevented sharks swimming upstream.

"In this case, I think this animal was there for a long time but no one had managed to see it," he said.

Locals blamed the U.S. military for the shark's presence.

Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a "75 percent chance" Americans had put the shark in the water.

"This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I believe that America is behind this matter," said fisherman Hatim Karim.

See, this is why YOU don't need to go to war in another country. YOU get blamed for crap like this. This is also why certain people in certain cultures on this planet will NEVER get it right. And, if, by some chance, Americans did put the shark there, that is totally whacked. I mean, what military person would call that shot?

"Hey man, I got a great idea dude". "Let's go down to the ocean, 160 miles away, catch a big badass shark, and bring it back and put it in the river up here", said the Sarge.

"Sounds like a really cool idea, let's do it", the grunt said.

I'm sure that's how that went. Give me a break!!!!!!!!!!!

"What YOU think about and thank about,

Is what YOU bring about"

Bobby Sharpe Orlando Sentinel - Community Winter Park Blog -www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Primates Endangered to the Tune of 33%

A Third of All Primates Face Extinction
By MICHAEL CASEY

BANGKOK, Thailand (Oct. 26) - Almost a third of all apes, monkeys and other primates are in danger of extinction because of rampant habitat destruction, the commercial sale of their meat and the trade in illegal wildlife, a report released Friday said.

Of the world's 394 primate species, 114 are classified as threatened with extinction by the World Conservation Union.

The report by Conservation International and the International Primatological Society in Hainan, China, focuses on the plight of the 25 most endangered primates, including China's Hainan gibbon, of which only 17 remain.

"You could fit all the surviving members of the 25 species in a single football stadium; that's how few of them remain on Earth today," said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.

"The situation is worst in Asia, where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk," said Mittermeier, who is also chairman of the World Conservation Union's Primate Specialist Group, which prepared the report with the International Primatological Society.

The 25 most endangered primates include 11 from Asia, 11 from Africa and three from South and Central America. The list includes well-known primates like the Sumatran orangutan of Indonesia and the Cross River gorilla of Cameroon and Nigeria, as well as lesser known species, such as the greater bamboo lemur from Madagascar.

Six species are in the report for the first time, including a recently discovered Indonesian tarsier that has yet to be formally named and the kipunji from Tanzania, which was discovered in 2003.

"Some of the new species we discover are endangered from the get go," Mittermeier said. "If you find a new species and it's living in an area heavily impacted by habitat destruction and hunting, you recognize it's in trouble.

"Habitat loss due to the clearing of tropical forests for agriculture, logging and fuel wood continues to be the major factor in the declining number of primates, according to the report.

In addition, climate change is altering the habitats of many species, leaving those with small habitat ranges even more vulnerable to extinction, it says.

Hunting for subsistence and commercial purposes is another major threat to primates, especially in Africa and Asia. Capture of live animals for the pet trade also poses a serious threat, particularly in Asia, the report found.

Four primates on the list from Vietnam have been decimated by hunting for their meat and bones, according to Barney Long, a conservation biologist based in Vietnam for the WWF Greater Mekong Program.

"All four species are close to extinction," Long said of the Delacour's langur, golden-headed langur, grey-shanked douc and Tonkin snub-nosed monkey. "The key populations have been stabilized. But there needs to be a lot more law enforcement and work to persuade local communities to support conservation for those numbers to increase.

"The news is not all bad.

Nine primates from the last report in 2004 were taken off the list, mostly because of bolstered conservation efforts to save their populations. Among them are the eastern gorilla from Africa, the black-faced lion tamarin and the buffy-headed tufted capuchin from Brazil and the Perrier's sifaka from Madagascar.

"If you invest in a species in a proper way and do the conservation measures needed, you can reduce risk of extinction," Mittermeier said. "If we had resources, we would be able to take every one of the species off the list in the next five or 10 years."

Once again, our fellow animal souls need our help. Maybe this will motivate some of YOU to try and help our planet and it's life forms.

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Rare Leopard Captured & Released

Rare Amur Leopard Captured

A rare Amur leopard that is one of about only 30 left in the wild was captured, medically examined and released by experts, according to a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) release.

Such medical exams of the critically endangered leopard could help understand how inbreeding undermines its tiny population in eastern Europe, ultimately helping create plans for their survival, the WCS and other organizations said.

Officials from the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Biology and Soils, the WCS and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) tranquilized the female leopard and medically examined it. Initial findings show it has a heart murmur, which could indicate genetic defects from inbreeding. The team was able to use a portable sonogram device to capture video footage of the leopard's heart, which heart specialists are currently reviewing.

The Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List and is only found in eastern Russia near the Chinese border, an area threatened by human activities. In April 2007, conservationists found a dead Amur leopard, which was shot in the back near Vladivostok, Russia.

Conservationists estimate that there are between 25 and 34 such leopards left in the wild, while European and Russian zoos hold about 130 of the big cats. Male leopards can weigh up to 100 pounds while females weigh as little as 77 pounds.

Please take care of our endangered animal friends. They depend on us.

Animalz Rule,

Bobby Sharpe reggae8@aol.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Boston Turkey's

Wild Turkeys Take Boston, Surrounding Suburbs a Month Before Thanksgiving

Wild turkeys are running amok in the Boston area, startling, amusing and even chasing residents who have had close encounters with them on the street.

Previously alien to these parts, after having been wiped out long ago, the gobbling fowl are suddenly back and bigger than ever, descending with gusto upon suburbia, according to The Boston Globe.

The brazen little creatures have been so rampant that local police now get up to a dozen calls about them a day.

One woman jumped — and gasped — when she came face-to-face with a turkey right after she parked her car at a meter in Brookline, the Globe reported. But the showdown didn't stop there. The turkey ran after the woman after they locked eyes, gobbling and pecking at her bottom during the chase.
Click here to read the entire story in The Boston Globe.

This is really cool! Especially since turkey's always get the bad end of the story. Click the link above and read the whole story about how they have made this incredible come back in Massachusetts.

Animalz Rule(even Turkey's),

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe Bobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz"

Deputy Mayor Killed By Monkeys?!

Monkeys kill Delhi deputy mayor

Delhi has long struggled to cope with the marauding monkeysThe deputy mayor of the Indian capital Delhi died on Sunday after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys.

SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to fight off the monkeys.

The city has long struggled to counter its plague of monkeys, which invade government complexes and temples, snatch food and scare passers-by.

The High Court demanded the city find an answer to the problem last year.

Solution elusive

One approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.

The city has also employed monkey catchers to round them up so they can be moved to forests.

But the problem has persisted.

Culling is seen as unacceptable to devout Hindus, who revere the monkeys as a manifestation of the monkey god Hanuman, and often feed them bananas and peanuts.

Urban development around the city has also been blamed for destroying the monkeys' natural habitat.

Mr Bajwa, a member of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is survived by his wife and a son, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

Sorry this had to happen to this gentleman. I really don't have an answer or recommendation. No one, yet everyone, is to blame for these sort of events. In this time and space, "this is the way it is".

Animalz Rule(even when bad things happen),

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe reggae8@aol.com

Irish "Jurassic River Dragon" Discovered

River reveals 'Jurassic dragon'

The fossil of a prehistoric sea monster that lived more than 144 million years ago has been found in a river on the edge of west Belfast.

Colin Glen could become known as Northern Ireland's Jurassic Park after the backbone of a plesiosaur was uncovered.

Such a find was a chance in a million said Paul Bennett, the educational ranger at the park.

"The 7cm section of vertebrae was found at Colin River. It would have belonged to a creature known as a 'sea dragon' which was here in the Jurassic period when Ireland would have been down where the Sudan is and covered by seas," Mr Bennett said.

The plesiosaur had a round short body, four flippers, a short tail and a very long neck and small head.

Mr Bennett said the Colin River was rich in fossils and was of great geological interest.

He has found sharks' teeth and the fossil of an extinct marine reptile, an ichthyosaur at the site, in the past.

They had sharp teeth and snapping jaws, which set a deadly trap for small aquatic animals.

"When I found this, I hoped it would be the plesiosaur because that is like finding the Loch Ness monster," he said.

"I've been told the reptile could have been about 20 metres long.

"This is very exciting, not just for me but for the people and the park."

Dr Michael Simms, a curator of palaeontology at the Ulster Museum, has examined the fossil and believes it could be 190 million years old.

"Pleiosaurs are very rare fossils and it is very lucky to find a single bone," he said.

Plesiosaurs were thought to have caught their prey by lashing out with their long necks and then snatching at victims with sharp teeth.

They were thought to be hunters of fish, squid and other free-swimming prey; but recent research has also indicated they would feed on bottom-dwelling animals such as clams and snails, too.

I keep telling everybody, we are getting closer and closer to unearthing Godzilla, dragons, and, things we might not even know about yet. All the uninformed keep talking that garbage about "oh, it's only a myth, that isn't real, they didn't really exist". However, those of us that are in tune, we know better. Keep digging and searching. Here are a couple links to other dinosaur related stories. BBC NEWS Science/Nature Ancient reptile tracks unearthed 'Truly Gigantic' Dinosaur Skeleton Found - AOL News

Dragons(wherever they are)Rule,

Bobby Sharpe reggae8@aol.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Save These Shelter Dogs Lives, Please

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Those are the words of Mahatma Gandhi. That is also a fitting philosophy to start this post.

Seeking to Save Shelter Dogs From Death
By VERENA DOBNIK

NEW YORK (AP) - Sweet William, a young black Labrador retriever in Illinois, has two days to live.

Sandy, a golden female Jindo in New York, also has just two days left. Kate Hepburn, a tan female boxer in California, has 18 days to live.

On Saturday, these were some of the dogs in shelters across the country slated for death - their fate posted on a Web site that aims to save their lives by offering them for adoption.

Each is tagged with a death date set by a shelter - and a countdown clock showing the days, or hours, until the animal is destroyed.

Dogsindanger.com works with more than 120 shelters nationwide that destroy dogs. How much time the dogs get before death varies from state to state. In New York City, a stray dog must be kept a minimum of three days, while a shelter has the legal right to immediately destroy an animal that is abandoned there by its owner.

About 4 million dogs are put to death each year in the United States, by injection or gas.

In the three weeks since the site has been up, dozens of dogs have found new homes. Their photos are posted on a section of the site marked "Success Stories." The images of dogs that didn't make it adorn the site's "In Memoriam" wall.

"It's not the fault of the shelters," said Alex Aliksanyan, a pet adoption advocate who made money in the Internet travel business. "They don't like doing this, but they have to abide by the law, which requires a shelter to control its animal population."

Aliksanyan spent a half-million of his own dollars to start The Buddy Fund Inc., a nonprofit organization that operates the site and is named after his miniature American Eskimo dog.

"I've done well, and it was time to give something back," said the 50-year-old Turkish-born entrepreneur of Armenian heritage. "So I thought, let's bring the story of these animals dying quietly in these shelters to the public and say, 'Can you do something?"

He hired a half-dozen staffers to manage and market the site. Shelters post information about each dog directly, with daily updates and information on how each shelter can be contacted. Aliksanyan ships out free digital cameras and software for the task.

A shelter can sometimes delay a dog's death date - if it has room in its kennel and few new strays coming in. A death date can get moved up, too, if the shelter becomes overcrowded.

The adoption service is free both for shelters and people looking for pets, allowing users to search by location, breed or time until death.

The in-your-face site, Aliksanyan said, "is not a place to sit with your 6-year-old and say, 'This one's going to die, that one is going to die."

He said he is driven by the philosophy of the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, whose words are posted over the "In Memoriam" page: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Please check out the website and see if maybe YOU can help.

Dogs In Danger: http://www.dogsindanger.com

Thank YOU, Animalz Rule

Bobby Sharpe Bobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz" www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

New "Super" Dinosaur Discovered In Utah

'Schwarzenegger' of Dinosaurs Discovered

(Oct. 3) - A toothy, big-boned dinosaur uncovered in Utah is helping scientists recreate what ancient North America looked like 75 million years ago.

Dubbed Gryposaurus monumentensis , the new species was a member of the so-called duckbilled dinosaurs, so named because their flat, bony snouts resembled duck beaks. Unlike ducks, however, duckbilled dinosaurs, also called hadrosaurs, had teeth, which they used to munch on tough, fibrous plants.

Similar to a shark, a duckbilled dinosaur essentially had a conveyer belt of teeth in its mouth, a seemingly endless supply. G. monumentensis, for example, had more than 300 teeth available in its mouth to slice up plants. And stacked below in columns hidden within the jawbone were many more replacement teeth, so a duckbill might have sported more than 800 teeth at any moment.

"It was capable of eating most any plant it wanted to," said Terry Gates, a paleontologist at the Utah Museum of Natural History and the University of Utah who was involved in the discovery. "With its robust jaws, no plant stood a chance."

Jaws weren't the only robust thing about G. monumentensis. All of its bones were likewise massive. Scott Sampson, another Utah Museum paleontologist who was involved in the study, called the animal the "Arnold Schwarzenegger of duckbilled dinosaurs."

"It was like a dinosaur on steroids," Sampson added. "The bones were thick, not just in the skull, but in the limbs as well."

The researchers think G. monumentensis was a key player in the ecosystem of ancient North America. "Duckbilled dinosaurs are the most common fossil that we find in the rock that we do our prospecting," Gates said. "From that we know they were probably one of the most common dinosaurs within this ecology 75 million years ago."

The new species is detailed in the Oct. 3 issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Big problem

Most of what is known about G. monumentensis comes from a massive well-preserved skull and jawbone unearthed by the researchers in the Kaiparowits Formation in Utah in 2003. The team later found enough bones in other areas of the site to assemble a nearly complete skeleton. From these bones, paleontologists estimate the creature's head would have been just under three feet (one meter) in length, with an adult G. monumentensis measuring up to 30 feet (9 meters) in length.

The heftiness of G. monumentensis poses several problems for paleontologists trying to envision what North America looked like 75 million years ago. How the massive duckbill could survive alongside other giants, and why it didn't mingle even with its own relatives, are two head-scratchers.

At that time, southern Utah was very different from the arid desert and red-rock country there today. During much of the Late Cretaceous, a shallow sea split North America into eastern and western landmasses.

The western landmass, where G. monumentensis lived, was only about one-fifth the size of North America. Yet crammed on this relatively small island were several large plant-eating dinosaur species.

While G. monumentensis chomped greens in Utah, other species of duckbilled dinosaurs were grazing farther north in places such as Montana and Alberta, Canada.

Very interesting. I keep telling everyone, "it is just a matter of time before they can verify that Godzilla existed, or, still does. Same thing for "dragons". Come on, they keep finding all this other stuff, why not?

Dinosaurs Rule(ed),

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe Orlando Sentinel - Community Winter Park Blog -

Huge Alligator 1 Man Minus 1

Huge Alligator Tears Snorkeler's Arm Off
AP

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (Sept. 17) - A 59-year-old man's arm was bitten off by an alligator as he snorkeled in a South Carolina lake, but doctors were unable to reattach it.

Bill Hedden, of Summerville, was bitten by an 11-foot, 10-inch alligator on Sunday afternoon in Lake Moultrie.

Hedden was taken to the Medical University of South Carolina, which declined Monday to release any information on his condition or treatment, citing the family's request for privacy. He was listed in critical condition Sunday.

The (Charleston) Post and Courier reported that a family member said doctors were unable to reattach the arm, but that Hedden was nevertheless in good spirits.

"The first order of Bill's care has been to stop the bleeding and save his life. His surgeons and health care team are determining the next steps in his care at this time," the family said in a statement Monday. "We are in good spirits and thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers."

Authorities say Hedden, a retired master chief with the U.S. Navy, was snorkeling at the Short Stay Navy Outdoor Recreation Area when the 550-pound alligator tore his arm from his shoulder.

Hedden stumbled into a party of picnickers with his arm missing and blood gushing from his wound. Five nurses were among those at the gathering and put ice on his wound and kept him awake until paramedics could arrive.

His arm was retrieved from the alligator's belly after wildlife officers shot the animal. The limb was then rushed to the hospital in an ice cooler with a police escort.

There have been no confirmed deaths in South Carolina involving an alligator attack, state wildlife officials said.

What can I say, "they live in that water, YOU, are an uninvited guess"! Sorry it happened. It sucks for the gator. It was put down for protecting it's home and territory. Life is so fair isn't it?

Animalz Rule(even Gators),

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe Orlando Sentinel - Community Winter Park Blog -

Hungry Colorado Bears Searching For Food

Black Bears Need To Eat Too

DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado wildlife officers have killed dozens of black bears this summer after catching the marauding bruins rummaging through campsites, foraging in neighborhood trash cans and breaking into homes for food.

Weather conditions decimated the natural food supply this year for the roughly 10,000 black bears in Colorado.

"It has been a bad summer for human and bear interaction," said Tyler Baskfield, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

From small mountain resorts to eastern Colorado's highly populated urban corridor, 35 bears have been killed under the state's two-strike policy so far this year.

Once a bear has been caught feeding near humans, the animal is tranquilized, tagged and returned to the backcountry. If a tagged bear is caught again, it is killed.

"The problem is not with the bears -- they're just opportunistic feeders -- but with the way humans behave," Baskfield said, adding that unsealed garbage containers, bird feeders, pet food left outside and even the smell from a barbecue grill will attract bears.

Once the bears lose their fear of humans and associate people with food, the animals must be destroyed, Baskfield said.

Other Western states battling drought conditions have also reported an increase in the number of bear problems.

In New Mexico, two campers were bitten -- not seriously -- while inside their tents, and the Lake Tahoe, California and Reno, Nevada areas have reported a higher than usual number of bears invading cabins and homes.

LACK OF FOOD

A number of factors have contributed to the problem of the nuisance bears forays into populated areas, Baskfield said. A late spring freeze killed off the mountain wild berry crop that the omnivorous animals normally rely on.

In addition, a hot and arid July dried out other high-country vegetation, forcing the bears to look for other food sources at lower elevations.

There have been no bear attacks on humans reported in Colorado, Baskfield added, but authorities want to avoid a tragedy that could happen such as the June mauling death of an 11-year-old boy by a black bear in the neighboring state of Utah.

The Colorado bear population has remained fairly constant over the three decades that the numbers have been tracked.

In late summer and early fall, black bears forage voraciously for the 20,000 calories per day they need to consume before winter hibernation. Baskfield said sows teach their cubs where to find food including from human sources, a trait they will then pass on to their offspring, creating future generations of bears accustomed to feeding near people.

Until more study is done, Baskfield is hesitant to blame climate change for the situation. The western United States has been in the grips of a decade-long drought, but in 2006 just nine bears in Colorado had to be destroyed, he noted.

Sharon Baruch-Mordo, a doctoral candidate in ecology at Colorado State University, is studying the possible effects of climate change on bears and has found several making unexpected journeys in springtime, earlier in the year than thought.

Until wide-ranging scientific studies are completed, educating people to minimize activities that will lure the bears closer to civilization is the goal of wildlife managers, according to Baskfield.

"We have a saying that a human-fed bear is a dead bear," he said.

This sounds almost like what we have here in Florida with the gators. Listen, I know there is a line here, we have to protect people from these "wild animals", BUT, these animals have a right to try to fend for themselves and their families also. It is not their fault that their natural food resources are not at hand.

What is the answer? I don't know. I do know that indiscriminatly killing these intelligent creatures out of fear and ignorance is NOT THE ANSWER!

Animalz Rule(even hungry Black Bears)

Bobby SharpeBobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz" www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Free The Minks Finland

Minks freed from cages, farmers give chase
Fri Aug 31, 2007

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Farmers and other locals were chasing thousands of minks let out of their cages at a fur farm in western Finland early on Friday by suspected animal rights activists.

About half the 2,500 minks released from unlocked cages in Mustasaari, 400 km (250 miles) northwest of Helsinki, had been recaptured by 1000 GMT, but it could take several days to round up the others, police said.

"We have no firm suspects at the moment. But the letters EVR were spray-painted on a feed silo at the farm. In this connection it usually means Animal Liberation Front in Finnish," Chief Inspector Mika Jylha told Reuters, but added: "Of course, anyone could write that."

Being the animal person that I am, I got quite a kick out of this story. However, these type places should not even exist. Though mink are some pretty nasty critters in general, they should not be subjected to this kind of life so some "rich, pretentious, nose in the air" disgrace can have a mink coat or whatever else made from mink fur.

Animalz Rule(even minks)

Bobby SharpeBobby Sharpe's " Opyn Mindz": "Goat Sucker" Chupacabra, Real Or Not www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Shark (Jaws) Attacks Surfer

Shark Attacks Surfer in California
By JORDAN ROBERTSON

SAN JOSE, Calif. (Aug. 28) - A surfer was attacked by a shark in Monterey Bay early Tuesday and airlifted to a hospital with bite wounds to his torso and thigh, according to hospital and state park officials.

The 24-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was surfing with a half dozen other people at Marina State Beach when the shark attacked him from behind around 11 a.m., according to Loren Rex, a California State Parks spokesman.

The victim screamed and started punching the shark while trying to flee, Rex said.

"Then the shark took him down under the water," he said. "Witnesses saw a lot of thrashing and some blood coming up. Other witnesses saw the shark let him up before biting him one more time."

One witness said the shark was a great white shark measuring at least 20 feet long, which rescuers weren't able to immediately confirm, Rex said.

Surfers pulled the victim to shore and administered first aid, using a surf leash and a blanket as tourniquets to stop the bleeding until rescuers could arrive, Rex said.

The victim was conscious and breathing when he was taken away by ambulance. He was then airlifted to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where he was in fair and stable condition Tuesday afternoon with lacerations to his torso and thigh, according to hospital spokeswoman Joy Alexiou.

The victim was going into surgery and was expected to survive, Alexiou said.

The Monterey County beach, located about 35 miles south of Santa Cruz, is well known for its sand dunes, hang gliding and rugged surf with very strong rip currents. The area where the surfer was attacked is considered an advanced surfing spot suitable only for skilled surfers.

Because of the attack, state officials closed all the beaches from Monterey State Beach to Moss Landing, a 15-mile stretch where people were forbidden from entering the water Tuesday.

Rex said this was the first recorded shark attack at Marina State Beach, but added that some divers have been attacked in Monterey Bay.

Here we go again. Another shark attack in waters that are known to have sharks. Listen, YOU play with fire, YOU get burned! YOU swim with sharks, YOU run the risk of getting hit if YOU are lucky. Getting dead, if YOU are not lucky. As long as YOU go in knowing this, then it is on YOU! Remember, "the sharks live there, YOU, are just visiting"!

Animalz Rule (even Great Whites),

Bobby Sharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

College Student Mauled By Shark

Florida student mauled by shark

A college student has been bitten by a shark in Florida, leaving her needing more than 100 stitches to 17 wounds.

Andrea Lynch, 20, told how she was attacked as she floated in the sea during a boat trip off Sarasota Bay.

Doctors said the shark's teeth got close to her lungs during the attack, on Wednesday night, but missed all major organs.

Ms Lynch said local shark experts told her the animal that bit her was likely to be a 6ft (2m) bull shark.

"I got on the boat and my friend was like, 'Do I need to call 911?'", she told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune newspaper.

"I reached back with my hand and felt all these gashes on me, and there was blood running down my body and pooling in the boat," she added.

The newspaper reported that it was only the seventh reported unprovoked shark bite in Sarasota County since 1882 - but the second one this year.

When the shark attack victim is YOU, it doesn't matter what number it is or, over what period of time it occurred! The best way to avoid "shark attacks", is to "stay out of the occupied water". Especially at NIGHT!

Animalz Rule, (even sharks)

Bobby Sharpe www.myspace.com/akuasharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com

Cobra's Carry On, Check The Crocs

Crocodiles, cobras found in luggage
Mon Aug 13, 2007

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Saudi passenger tried to smuggle a large number of reptiles, including cobra snakes and infant Nile crocodiles, out of Egypt in his luggage, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Sunday.

The discovery of the reptiles in the passenger's bags triggered a brief panic among security personnel at the Cairo International Airport, witnesses said.

The 22-year-old passenger, identified only as Anas, said he needed the reptiles, which also included chameleons, for scientific research at his university in Saudi Arabia.

His collection will be handed over to Egypt's main zoo in Cairo.

Hey, what can I say, "YOU do what YOU gotta do"! Can You imagine the security personnel? I would have quit on the spot!

Animalz Rule, (even snakes and crocodiles)

Bobby Sharpe BobbySharpe.blogspot.com www.myspace.com/akuasharpe

Goodbye Friend, Extinction Sucks!

Dolphin Species Driven to Extinction
By Charles Q. Choi

(Aug. 8) - The Yangtze River dolphin is now almost certainly extinct, making it the first dolphin that humans drove to extinction, scientists have now concluded after an intense search for the endangered species.

The loss also represents the first global extinction of megafauna—any creature larger than about 200 pounds (100 kilograms)—for more than 50 years, since the disappearance of the Caribbean monk seal (Monachus tropicalis).

The Yangtze River dolphin or baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) of China has long been recognized as one of the world's most rare and threatened mammal species.

"It's a relic species, more than 20 million years old, that persisted through the most amazing kinds of changes in the planet," said marine biologist Barbara Taylor at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service. "It's been here longer than the Andes Mountains have been on Earth."

In 1999, the surviving baiji population was estimated to be as low as just 13 dolphins, compared to 400 known baiji in 1981. The last confirmed glimpse of a baiji was documented by a photo taken in 2002, although unverified sightings were reported as recently as 2006.

An international team of scientists conducted an intense six-week search for the dolphin in two research vessels during November and December 2006, covering the entire known range of the baiji in the 1,037-mile (1,669-kilometer) main channel of the Yangtze River. The researchers and their instruments failed to see or hear any evidence that the dolphin survives.

"It was a surprise to everyone on the expedition that we didn't have any sightings at all, that the extinction just happened so quickly," Taylor recalled.

This would make the baiji the first cetacean—that is, dolphin, porpoise or whale—to go extinct because of humans.

The species was probably driven to extinction by harmful fishing practices that were not even devised to harm the dolphins, such as the use of gill nets, rolling hooks or electrical stunning. The findings are detailed Aug. 7 in the journal Biology Letters.

"In the past, you had this out-of-control whaling that still didn't result in any extinctions, but these accidental deaths, which are much less visible to people, are much more insidious," Taylor said.

Even if any baiji exist that scientists did not find, the continued deterioration of the Yangtze region's ecosystem—home to roughly 10 percent of the world's human population—means the species has no hope of even short-term survival as a viable population, the researchers added.

"To help save the endangered Yangtze finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis) that also live in the river, we'll likely have to keep them in lake preserves or raise them in captivity, because the situation in that river doesn't look like it can be controlled at this point," Taylor explained.

With the loss of the Yangtze River dolphin, the world's most critically endangered cetacean species now is the vaquita or Gulf of California porpoise (Phocoena sinus), of which 250 survive. The vaquita and other coastal dolphins around the world now face the same peril that claimed the baiji—accidental deaths from fishing.

"We have to find a way to let small-time fishermen put food on their tables that doesn't involve putting gill nets in the water that decimate these species," Taylor said. "Unless we figure out a way to deal with this problem, the baiji may be the first in quite a long line of animals to face extinction."

You know, this just really breaks my heart. Here, these unique creatures have been around for millions of years, and, get wiped out by humanity unintentionally and by accident. It is so sad that man, with his infinite wisdom, can't feed himself without destroying another species. Just shows the real short comings of humans.

Let's DO something so that this does not happen to anymore species!

Animalz rule,

Bobby Sharpe Bobby Sharpe's "Indigo Spiritz" www.myspace.com/akuasharpe