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18 cattle attacked by crocodile at Hlane

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HLANE – A herd of 18 cattle have been left with gaping wounds after being allegedly bitten by a crocodile while drinking at Imbuluzana River.

About four of the cattle belong to Hlane Member of Parliament, Mduduzi Magagula.

However, residents and game rangers are mystified why the crocodile has not killed any of the cattle. During a visit to Hlane yesterday, this reporter was shown three cows which had wounds on various parts of their bodies.

Notably, one of them had a gaping wound on its side, close to the shoulder while another had a scar on the leg. The other had its udder (ummbele) ripped off.

Sizwe Mamba, who was herding the cattle on Sunday when they were attacked, led game rangers from Mkhaya Game Park, MP Magagula and a member of the Hlane Bucopho to the river.

Upon reaching the river, formerly known as the White Mbuluzi, which is approximately three kilometres from the MP’s homestead, Mamba pointed where he suspected the cattle might have been attacked.

“We only noticed the injured cattle when they returned from grazing across the river. They had scary injuries,” he said.

Mamba said they heard muffled sounds earlier before the cattle returned from grazing, but did not take note.

“However, I am adamant they were attacked by a crocodile because sometime last week, one of the residents reported that he saw his cow being attacked,” Mamba said.

He said the residents were now afraid of going close to the river because they might fall prey to the predator.

Meanwhile, MP Magagula confirmed that their cattle had been ‘terrorised’ by the crocodile during the past weeks.

He said the grazing fields were too close to the river, which made it easy for the reptile to prey on the cattle.

However, he was quick to say they would soon be moving the cattle to another grazing area because the current one has been earmarked for a sugarcane-growing project expected to commence soon.

Already about 80 homesteads have been relocated to give way to the project.

‘… we won’t take law into our own hands’

HLANE – Residents of the small rural community say they will not take matters into their own hands.

Even though their livestock has been left with serious wounds, residents believe they have to report the matter to the relevant authorities.

One of the residents, David Mpimbili, said he called people from Mkhaya Game Park to assist in catching the crocodile.

However, he was quick to say if he had a gun on the day his cow was attacked, he would not have hesitated to shoot the crocodile.

The area’s MP, Mduduzi Magagula, advised members of his constituency to report such cases to the relevant authorities because they might find themselves in trouble for taking matters into their own hands.

Stay away from rivers, warns expert

HLANE – People have been warned to stay away from rivers because this is the hunting season for crocodiles.

An expert from Mkhaya Game Park, who did not want to be identified, said crocodiles usually feed during summer.

He said the season started from October and will run until February.

“That is when they hunt for food in order to make fat in their bodies for the winter season,” he said.

He said crocodiles usually lay their eggs during the winter season.

Hermes Breeding Crocodiles to Meet Leather Bag Demand

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So here’s a fun one. Hermes, which is a company that makes leather goods worth more than your car, has a shortage of crocodiles to turn into handbags. So, obviously, the company is now breeding its own crocs to try and meet demand for the bags. Reports Reuters:

“It can take three to four crocodiles to make one of our bags so we are now breeding our own crocodiles on our own farms, mainly in Australia,” [Hermes chief executive] Patrick Thomas told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in Paris.

Hermes already faces a major challenge producing 3,000 crocodile bags a year, Thomas said, adding: “The world is not full of crocodiles, except the stock exchange!”

Har har. Stock exchange. Funny. How does it take three to four crocodiles to make one bag? I’m almost positve that crocodiles are bigger than purses. And what exactly is a Global Luxury Summit? Anyhow, PETA, of course, is not amped on this disclosure. Says senior vice president Dan Mathews,

The thought of purposely breeding and killing crocodiles for an outdated, overpriced handbag should make any fashionista’s skin crawl. If Hermes really wants to be a leader in the fashion industry, it should stop killing animals for cold-blooded vanity and use cruelty-free mock croc and fake snake instead.

These bags cost nearly $50,000 in some markets. What do you think about this–should we be angry with Hermes for breeding crocodiles specifically for slaughter to make bags, or is this simply responding to market demand? Feel free to let us know by leaving a comment.

Group Says San Francisco Golf Course Kills Threatened Frogs

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A golf course owned by the City of San Francisco has been killing threatened frog species, according to a lawsuit threatened by a coalition of environmental groups.

The course in question is called Sharp Park, and is located in Pacifica. The City allegedly destroyed a wetland in order to construct the park in the 1940s, and the lawsuit claims that the continued operation violates the Endangered Species Act. The federal government has claimed for years that the course interferes with amphibian reproduction.

The worst damage is caused by the draining of ponds around the course. Frogs and snakes lay eggs in and around the water, but they dry out and die when the City drains the ponds. Lawnmowers can also pose a deadly threat.

Two years ago, the groups proposed a similar lawsuit, and the City tried to come up with a solution. Since then they’ve proposed a restoration project around a nearby lagoon, which would cost in the neighborhood of $10 million while keeping the golf course intact. That’s not good enough, say environmentalists.

It is unclear why the City owns a golf course. According to some observers, the golf course loses tens of thousands of dollars every year.

The National Park Service has expressed interest in acquiring the land, but only if it can be converted from golfing to a public park.

Morriston man charged with stealing hunting blind

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A man suspected of stealing another man’s hunting blind told Levy County sheriff’s deputies he was looking for snakes when he took it.

Christopher Loren Eckblad, 25, of 21160 SE 65th St. in Morriston, was arrested at his home late Friday and charged with grand theft and criminal mischief, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff’s Investigator Jay Crooms and Deputy Scott Stancil said the theft was reported Friday by a man hunting off Lebanon Grade in the Gulf Hammock area. The victim told the deputies that his Primo brand hunting blind was stolen.

The victim said he noticed a red Ford Bronco leaving the property so he ran back to get his truck to chase the Bronco. According to the victim, the Bronco was driven through a metal gate in order to get off the property. The victim also told deputies that once the Bronco reached Lebanon Grade, it was stopped long enough for someone inside to throw out the blind before speeding away.

Crooms and Stancil said the victim was able to read the tag number on the Bronco, and Crooms and Stancil traced the license plate to Eckblad.

According to the deputies, Eckblad claimed he was looking for snakes when he noticed the hunting blind in the weeds and then admitted stealing the blind, a chair and a shovel, valued together at $370.

Eckblad was charged with grand theft and criminal mischief and was booked into the Levy County jail in Bronson.

Endangered Species Act Protection Finally Proposed for Dunes Sagebrush Lizard

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— More than eight years after the Center for Biological Diversity first petitioned to have the species protected under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today finally proposed protection for the dunes sagebrush lizard, a sand-dwelling lizard that only lives in small parts of New Mexico and Texas. The agency is proposing to list the lizard as endangered.

“The unique dunes sagebrush lizard is finally receiving the protection it needs to survive,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center. “Unfortunately, during eight years of delay, the lizard lost more of its habitat to oil and gas development, putting it at greater risk of extinction and making recovery harder.”

Also known as the sand dune lizard, the dunes sagebrush lizard has the second smallest range of any North American lizard, living only in southeast New Mexico and western Texas on sand dunes covered by shinnery oak. This unique plant is often only four or five inches tall, but can be thousands of years old and makes up the largest stand of oak in the country. The heart of the lizard’s range is the Mescalero Sands, a narrow, crescent-shaped area of beautiful, rolling dunes in southeast New Mexico.

“The dunes sagebrush lizard occurs in one of the most exceptional, but least protected, areas of New Mexico and Texas and remains under threat from livestock grazing and oil and gas development,” said Greenwald.

Because shinnery oak is toxic to cattle for a couple of months every year and competes with grasses preferred by livestock, many ranchers remove the plant using the herbicide Tebuthiuron, which devastates lizard populations.

“Continued destruction of the dunes sagebrush lizard’s native habitat is driving it to extinction,” said Greenwald. “Protecting this lizard as an endangered species is critical to its survival.”

The endangered species designation for the lizard will require limits on herbicide spraying and oil and gas drilling, additional funding for research, and development of a recovery plan. The dunes sagebrush lizard is a small, brown lizard that buries itself in sand to avoid predators and regulate its body temperature. It occurs in Chaves, Eddy, Lea and Roosevelt counties in New Mexico and Andrews, Crane, Gaines, Ward and Winkler counties in Texas.

Crocodiles 168 times more dangerous than sharks

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The fears connected with shark attacks are stronger in the world today than those related to much more dangerous predators – crocodiles. However, crocodiles pose a greater threat to humans than sharks do.

A crocodile snatched Hendrik Coetzee, a South African guide, 35, from his kayak while he led an American expedition into the heart of Congo last week. Two American tourists could only watch the scene in horror as the guide was killed and eaten by the predator. They paddled to safety unharmed. Coetzee’s body has not been recovered.

Stories about croc attacks are just as terrible as they are hopeless. Experts say that it is possible to stay to fight off a shark, but it is much more difficult or even impossible to rescue themselves from an attacking croc.

Sharks kill or mail up to 15 people every year. Hippos kill 200, elephants kill 250, bees – 1,250, whereas crocodiles kill 2,500 people every year. The stats make crocodiles 168 times more dangerous than sharks. The ultimate killer is the mosquito. They spread malaria – the disease that kills up to 2 million humans every year.

As for the crocs, here is just a short list of recent incidents.

A small African plane flying from Congo’s Kinshansa to Bandundu crashed in the African country at the end of August. Twenty people were killed in the crash, including the airline’s owner and pilot, 62-year-old Belgian Daniel Philemotte. The crash left only one survivor, who later unveiled the reason of the tragic incident. As it turned out, one of the passengers was carrying a crocodile in a duffle bag to sell the reptile afterwards. The crocodile escaped from the bag during the flight, and other passengers started panicking. The reptile scared the stewardess, and she ran towards the cockpit. Other passengers ran after her. As a result, the plane lost its balance and started falling. The aircraft crashed into a residential building, in which no one was staying at the moment of the tragedy.

In Ukraine, a croc attacked and mauled a three-year-old child in the theater of marine animals and dolphins Akvatoria, in Ukraine’s Yalta. The child was holidaying in the city with his parents; the family came to Ukraine from Brest, Belarus. The child suffered numerous injuries and lost several fingers in the attack.
Lauren Failla, a 25-year-old US citizen, disappeared when snorkeling at an Indian resort in May 2010. Her disfigured remains were recovered two days later. Local authorities confirmed that the young woman had been killed in a croc attack.

A salt-water crocodile mauled a 36-year-old man in Australia in July 2010. The man was drunk when he climbed into the reptile’s enclosure and attempted to ride the predator. The huge 16ft-long crocodile bit the man’s leg, tearing chunks of flesh from him. The man survived the attack.

A crocodile attacked an American tourist in Mexico’s Cancun in September 2009 as he was urinating into a lagoon. The young man was hospitalized with multiple bite wounds of his leg and neck. The man was also left with a head injury after the reptile knocked him down to the ground.

In Angola, at least nine children were killed by crocodiles within just several days in the spring of 2009. According to Angola’s national radio, the victims were aged from ten to sixteen. They were killed as they approached the river Keve to collect water.

BHSU professor works to save rare snake

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A Black Hills State University professor is helping to save one of the rarest snakes in the world from extinction.

Brian Smith has been working since 1999 to save the Antiguan racer, which was thought to be extinct in the 1930s. The snake, however, was rediscovered on Great Bird Island near Antigua where an estimated 100 of them are now living.

Smith said the small snakes, which are harmless to humans, have no fear of people.

“You can walk right up to the animals and pick them up,” he said. “They don’t recognize you as a threat, so the lizards will just walk right up your leg. It’s the weirdest thing.”

Smith, who is an associate professor at BHSU, said he has been working with Fauna and Flora International, an organization that is based in England and has been working to save the snakes since 1995.

Rats, which are flourishing on the island, prey on the snakes, Smith said. As a result, efforts are being made to eradicate the rats and that causes other problems.

“You know everyone says, ‘Oh, you’re going to work in the Caribbean that must be nice.’ But you go out there and it smells like dead rats,” he said. “And I’ve never experienced that kind of heat.”

Smith said the humidity is high and temperatures average around 95 degrees in Antigua, which is near Costa Rica.

Part of Smith’s mission was to establish an internship program, which gave BHSU students a chance to study abroad. That program, however, has now been taken over by Antigua. Smith, who also has done field work in Guam, Costa Rica and Guatemala, said he now wants to expand his research efforts in Antigua.

“We want to ratchet back up the Antiguan research,” he said. “There’s a lot of research still to do down there. It’s a natural experiment. There’s lot of little projects to do down there. It’s an easy place to do ecological research.”