Wildlife

Owls Dying Near Marijuana Farms - California

New research reveals that several species, including the northern spotted owl, are succumbing to rat poison from thousands of "unpermitted private marijuana grow sites" in the northwestern California counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte.

Sea Turtles Under Threat as Warmer Climate Turns Most Babies Female

Climate change is causing some troubling new phenomena in the animal kingdom, and is most likely the culprit behind a new study discovering that as much as 99 percent of baby green sea turtles in warm equatorial regions are being born female. The study took a look at turtle populations at nesting sites at Raine Island and Moulter Cay in the northern Great Barrier Reef, an area plagued with unprecedented levels of coral bleaching from high temperatures. The researchers compared these populations with sea turtles living at sites in the cooler south. The study found that while 65 -69 percent of the turtles from the southern region were female, between 86.8 and 99.8 of turtles tested in the northern region were female, depending on age.

The sex of green sea turtles, along with some other species of turtles, crocodiles, and alligators, is not regulated by the introduction of sex chromosomes at key points during early development, as seen in humans and other mammals. Their sex is actually influenced by the temperature at which the eggs are incubated, with warmer temperatures more likely to lead to females. The difference between predominately male and predominately female hatchlings is only a few degrees, such as that formerly found between the cool, damp bottom of a sandy sea turtle nest and the sun-warmed top.

Flea Infestation

Fleas from domestic pets now infest wildlife and feral animals on all continents except Antarctica.

A University of Queensland-led global study showed that so-called cat fleas — the main flea species found on domestic dogs and cats — are carried by more than 130 wildlife species around the world, representing nearly 20 percent of all the mammal species sampled. Dog fleas are less widespread and were reported on only 31 mammal species.

The study warns that the fleas have the potential to transmit harmful bacteria back to pets and humans, including those that cause bubonic plague and typhus.