Bear Killed After Biting 2 People at Colorado Campground

Bear Killed After Biting 2 People at Colorado Campground

People at a Colorado campsite fought off a bear that was later killed by authorities after it bit one man in the head and attacked another person, official said.

One camper stabbed the animal with a knife after it tried to enter his tent at the site near Durango, The Durango Herald reported Tuesday.

Authorities were trying to determine if the bear, which attacked Sunday and Monday, could be the same animal that charged two other people on May 26.

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The campers were bitten in an area that was strewn with trash and food, which authorities say likely drew the bear, The Durango Herald reported Tuesday.

The bear was shot and killed Monday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers. It was sent to Grand Junction for a necropsy and a DNA analysis to determine if it was the same animal in the earlier attack.

Campers say the bear was biting Joshua Barber, 21, in the head Sunday when they arrived to help him. He was hospitalized and in good condition at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango, according to hospital spokesman David Bruzzese.

Matt O'Brien told the newspaper the bear stepped back about 15 minutes as he ran downhill from another camp shouting. He said he stepped between Barber and the bear, waving a big stick and shining a flashlight at it, and eventually helped carry Barber away with another camper.

Robin Derendy, 33, told officers the bear attacked him through his tent early Monday, but he was able to fight back with his knife. He believes he stabbed the bear on the left side of its head or neck before it ran off.

The bear may have gotten too comfortable and become more brazen after finding easy access to food at the camp area near the Durango Tech Center, said Joe Lewandowski, a spokesman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The area, a couple of miles west of downtown, is known to be a spot for homeless campers.

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American Woman Killed by Lion in South Africa

American Woman Killed by Lion in South Africa

The heartbroken mother of Katherine Chappell, the woman mauled to death by a lion in South Africa on Monday, says "everyone who met her loved her." 

Mary Chappell, of Rye, New York, said of her spirited daughter: "She lived a life of adventure – she loved traveling, she was full of life.”

Katherine – known as Katie to her friends – lived an extraordinary life, her mother told The Westchester County, N.Y. Journal News. She taught herself Japanese and traveled the world with her Australian boyfriend, Grayson Hoare. Her mother added that she had a soft spot for animals and the family adopted many rescue dogs.

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Katherine also hoped to one day make a film about the dangers of the poaching crisis in Africa and the threat it poses to the country's wildlife.

Friends and family will gather at a wake tomorrow, ahead of a memorial service on Saturday at the Graham Funeral Home in Rye.

Katherine was set to begin a two-week stint volunteering on a wildlife preserve in South Africa when she was attacked by a lion. The New York native had arrived in the country a week early so she could sightsee, her mother said.

The visual effects editor was riding in the passenger seat of an SUV at Lion Park – a wildlife park located between Johannesburg and Pretoria that offers self-driven and guided tours. She was taking photos when the lion jumped through the open window and attacked her.

The lion that attacked Katherine had been mating and had cubs with her at the time of the attack.

"They had their windows all the way down, which is strictly against policy," Scott Simpson, assistant operations manager at Lion Park told the Associated Press. "The lion bit the lady through the window."

Park staff members were able to chase the lion away, while Katherine received treatment from emergency services.

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American Woman Fatally Mauled to Death by Lion in South Africa

American Woman Fatally Mauled to Death by Lion in South Africa

The American tourist killed by a lion in South Africa had reportedly worked on Game of Thrones.

Variety reports the tourist who was mauled to death was Katherine Chappell, a visual effects editor who previously worked on Game of Thrones. She was 29.

The lion leapt through an open car window and killed the woman, believed to be Chappell, at a privately-run game park just outside Johannesburg earlier this week.

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"There was a car driving to the lion camp and the lion did come through the window and bite the lady," the park's operations manager Scott Simpson said on radio.

"The ambulance arrived quite soon, but the lady had passed away."

A second tourist, a man, suffered serious injuries while trying to save the her.

Chappell died of her wounds before paramedics arrived, according to Variety.

She had been on a volunteer mission to protect African wildlife.

Chappell had also worked on Ron Howard's Into the Heart of the Sea, which opens later this year.

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Game of Thrones editor Katherine Chappell mauled to death at Lion Park

Game of Thrones editor Katherine Chappell mauled to death at Lion Park

The American tourist who was mauled to death by a lion on a South African safari has been identified as a 29-year-old film editor who worked on an Emmy winning episode of Game of Thrones – as the tour guide who tried to save her life relived the moment he suffered a heart attack during the horrifying incident.

Katherine Chappell, who was in Africa raising money for a charitable organization that protects animals from poachers, was killed by the lioness as she took pictures during a drive through the popular Lion Park, near Johannesburg, on Monday afternoon.
Her identity emerged as tour guide Pierre Potgieter, 66, told Daily Mail Online how he had suffered a heart attack as he tried to save Miss Chappell's life.

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Speaking to Daily Mail Online from his hospital bed, Mr Potgieter denied he had flouted rules at the safari park and put his client’s life in danger by driving with the windows open.
'That’s not right… not right at all,' the 66-year-old said in a phone call, 'if that’s what they're saying, that’s not the case. Not at all.'
Asked to describe the attack which killed his client, he replied, ‘It wasn’t good, dreadful. I’m still in a shock and daze about it.’
Corlien Potgieter, the guide’s wife, told Daily Mail Online the American’s death, ‘was the worst experience of his life’.
Speaking from her her home in Melville, the same suburb of Johannesburg where the dead woman was staying at a guest house, Mrs Potgieter said: ’It’s a terrible thing that has happened, truly unbelievable.
'Here we are in the city of Johannesburg and a lion kills someone - it is beyond belief. It is so very sad, our hearts go out to this woman.
'The cardiologist said my husband must have had a heart attack as he was fending off the lion, or just after. His wounds are clean and there doesn’t seem to be any problem with them, it is just his heart we are now concerned about.'
Mrs Potgieter has also spoken out to rubbish claims that both the front windows of the vehicle were open at the time of the attack.
In a statement released by her, on behalf of their business Kalabash Tours, said Miss Chappell had opened the window ‘of her own accord’, and at the last moment.

The statement also sheds more light on the tragic incident.
It reveals how, at about 2.30pm, Miss Chappell was taking pictures when the lioness attacked her through her open window - which was down despite advice to the contrary.
A statement released by Mrs Potgieter read: 'The tourist had a camera and, of her own accord, rolled down the passenger window in order to take photographs. A lion then attacked the tourist through the open window.
'Mr Potgieter tried to fend the lioness off and in the process sustained injuries to his arm. When the lion retreated, Mr Potgieter saw that the tourist had sustained extremely serious injuries.

We are broken-hearted to share this news with our friends and family: Yesterday morning, while on a volunteer mission to protect wildlife in South Africa, Kate Chappell was involved in a tragic and fatal accident.
Katie was a brilliant, kind, adventurous and high-spirited woman. Her energy and passion could not be contained by mere continents or oceans. She was very much loved and shared her love for life with those she met.
We cannot thank everyone enough for the kind words and support. It means the world to us during this difficult time.
                                           - Jennifer Chappell

'She was bleeding profusely from her neck. Under the circumstances Mr Potgieter tried his best to stop the bleeding and save her life.
'He applied constant pressure to stop the bleeding, while calling for help.'
The statement also accused Lion Park staff of not doing enough to try to save the stricken tourist who was bleeding heavily from the neck.
However, Mr Simpson said park staff rushed to pull the lioness off the young woman and carried out CPR.  Paramedics were called but could do nothing to save her.
'When the paramedics were treating the lady she unfortunately passed away,' he said.
However, Mr Potgieter and Kalabash Tours have given a slightly different account, describing the first employee on the scene as 'reluctant' to help him apply pressure to Miss Chappell's neck wound, leaving the tour guide to continue to battle to save her life.
The tour company's statement said the ambulance only 'arrived some time thereafter'.
'For Mr Potgieter this felt like a very long time,' it added.
The Lion Park said it was unable to comment on how the situation was handled until after it had conducted an investigation.
Daily Mail Online can now reveal that Katherine Chappell traveled to South Africa a week ago via London from Vancouver, Canada, where she had been living and working as a visual effects editor since 2013.
After working as an assistant for several production outfits around New York, in November 2013 Chappell was hired as a video effects editor at Scanline - an award-winning production company with offices in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Germany.
During her tenure at Scanline, Chappell helped create graphic effects for HBO's hit series Game of Thrones and feature films Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Divergence.
She also worked on the Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller and Noah, starring Oscar winner Russell Crowe.
Chappell also was part of the team that won a Primetime Emmy for the 2014 Game of Thrones episode The Children.
On the eve of the deadly lion attack, Chappell shared a photo of a receipt from a Johannesburg hotspot called Six Cocktail Bar. Under 'customer name' the bar staff typed 'American.'
'Also notice how cheap the drinks are...currency is in rand,' Chappell boasted to her friends in what has turned out to be her final Instagram post.
The US State Department confirmed the American tourist's death in Lion Park, Johannesburg, on June 1 in a statement released to Daily Mail Online Tuesday evening.
'We are providing all possible consular assistance,' Julia Straker, a State Department spokesperson, stated. 'We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victim of this terrible tragedy.'

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Game of Thrones Editor Fatally Mauled by Lion in South Africa

Game of Thrones Editor Fatally Mauled by Lion in South Africa

The American tourist who was fatally mauled by a lion in Johannesburg, South Africa this week has been identified as Katherine Chappell, a 29-year-old visual effects editor who worked on Game of Thrones and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

According to CNN, Chappell had traveled to South Africa on a volunteer mission aimed at protecting wildlife.
She was taking photos of a pride of lions while on safari Monday at Lion Park in Gauteng province and had rolled her window down to get a better shot, against the park's rules. As drivers in other vehicles nearby honked their horns to no avail, a lion approached Chappell's vehicle from the side, unseen by her and her driver, and leapt up to bite her through the window, CNN reports.

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Chappell's driver attempted to fight the lion off unsuccessfully, and may have suffered a heart attack while doing so, according to CNN. Chappell died at the scene from wounds to her neck.
Authorities are investigating the incident, but representatives from Lion Park have said that the lion will not be euthanized.

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Is Lion Hunting Helping to Save the Species?

Global pressure is building to end the importation of lion trophies from "canned" hunts in Africa. But those hunts are getting more popular.

When Australia banned the importation of lion trophies this year, it became the first country to take legislative action against the lucrative business of hunting captive lions, an increasingly popular activity in South Africa.

Greg Hunt, Australia’s environment minister, called the controversial sport “cruel” and “barbaric” and said he hopes Australia’s decision is “part of a significant movement to end ‘canned’ hunting forever.”

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Now the anti-captive hunting lobby—made up of conservationists and activists from around the world—is pushing for similar legislation to prevent lion trophy imports into the European Union.

Longer term, the opponents hope that a ban will be adopted by the United States, source of most of the hunters who go to Africa.

Hunters pay as much as $20,000 to bag a big male.

In South Africa, the hunts involve lions born and raised in cages. When they reach about four years old, they’re loosed into a fenced area of at least 2,500 acres to become targets for hunters using rifles or bows.

Demand for captive hunts has soared in recent years. South Africa (which recently released a Management Plan for lions) now has about 160 ranches with more than 6,000 lions, and 1,000 are shot each year. Hunters pay as much as $20,000 to bag a big male.

Meanwhile, populations of lions in the wild have plummeted in Africa, from an estimated 200,000 a century ago to some 30,000 that live in isolated pockets. Lions require large areas to roam, and outside national parks and reserves, they often clash with livestock farmers and local communities.

Advocates of the lion ranching industry say that by breeding lions for hunting, they’re helping conserve the species.

“For every captive-bred lion hunted, you’re saving animals in the wild,” said Pieter Potgieter, chairman of the South African Predator Association. If there were no captive hunts, he says, there would be more sport hunting and poaching of wild lions.

But a growing number of scientists and conservationists see little evidence to suggest that the captive hunting industry in South Africa has done anything to stem lion declines in the wild across the continent.

Chris Mercer, head of the Campaign Against Canned Hunting, a global organization, says the opposite is more likely.

“You have to decide what conservation is,” he said. “You can’t just look at numbers of animals. I would define real conservation as the preservation of natural functioning ecosystems.

“On ranches where farmers buy animals, put them on their land, bring the hunters on to shoot them, and then go back and buy more—that has nothing to do with conservation.”

In Mercer’s opinion, “Lion farming is actually contributing to the extinction of wild lions.”

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Great White Shark Mary Lee

The 3,456-pound top predator shot all the way from Maryland to New Jersey overnight.

It seems that Maryland and Virginia weren't enough of a draw for a certain great white shark named Mary Lee. The shark—whose travels have gone viral on the Internet—left those waters and was pinged off the southern tip of New Jersey at 8:15 a.m. Thursday.

Scientists first tagged Mary Lee off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in September 2012. The 16-foot-long (4.9-meter) animal was one of five great white sharks fitted with a satellite tag by researchers to track the predators' movements. All five sharks got names, and Mary Lee was named for the mother of one of the researchers.

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One of Mary Lee's compatriots—Lydia—made history last year when she was the first great white observed to have crossed the Atlantic Ocean. It's likely that other great whites are swimming across the Atlantic too, Greg Skomal, a senior fisheries scientist at Massachusetts Marine Fisheries, said at the time. Lydia just happened to be the first that people were able to track.

Mary Lee is no slouch either. "Lydia is broader scale in terms of movement north and east," Skomal said, "but Mary Lee's been all over the map as well." The predator has traveled a total of 19,474 miles (31,340 kilometers) since she was tagged more than two and a half years ago.

The shark's satellite tag is bolted to her dorsal fin and should last about four or five years. It's a real-time tracking device that sends location data to satellites every time the tag breaks the ocean's surface. The satellites send the data to researchers who can then track the animals.

Mary Lee has surfaced at least five times today while just south of Cape May, New Jersey. Her track from May 3 to May 5 is a jumble of zigzags just offshore of the Virginia-Maryland border. It's anyone's guess where she'll pop up next.

It's not unusual to see great white sharks close to shore, said George Burgess, director of the Florida program for shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. In fact, great whites "spend more of their time near shore because that's where they do most of their feeding," he explained.

Seals and sea lions are the preferred food for adult great whites, Burgess said, and those mammals need to haul themselves onto shore periodically to rest and warm up. So that's where the sharks go looking for them.

The shark biologist can't say for sure what Mary Lee was doing when she was nosing around Maryland and Virginia. But Burgess added that great whites on the U.S. East Coast do show some seasonality to their movements.

"The sharks are snowbirds, and they come down to northeast Florida in the wintertime," he said. "We think the timing is probably tied to the arrival of right whales off of Florida," as the whales gather in this area to give birth.

"No doubt the white [sharks] are following those groups looking for the old and the young and the stragglers, and will take advantage of any that don't make it," Burgess said.

Marine mammals of all ages may need to keep an eye out for more of these top predators. Recent research has shown that great whites are on the rebound off both the east and west coasts of the United States, thanks to federal and state protections put into place in the 1990s.

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Rhinos Released in Botswana

It's the first stage of the world’s largest rhino airlift, meant to protect a dwindling population of the animals.

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The animals were captured from an overpopulated park in South Africa and were moved to an undisclosed location in a sparsely populated reserve in Botswana last week that is better protected from poachers.

The relocation project, called Rhinos Without Borders, aims to move 100 rhinos by next year, the largest attempted airlift of rhinos in history.

The first ten were released on April 28, after touching down in the largest aircraft ever to land at Botswana's Maun International Airport, an Ilyushin 76, according to Dereck Joubert, one of the project's leaders.

“It was a great success and we are all feeling euphoric from the amazing experience,” Beverly Joubert, another project leader, said via email.

The Jouberts are National Geographic explorers-in-residence who are collaborating on the airlift with the tourism groups Great Plains Conservation and andBeyond. The husband and wife team work as wildlife filmmakers and conservationists based in Botswana's Okavango Delta.

Dereck Joubert says the bold project is necessary because rhinos reached a tipping point last year, with more killed by poachers than were born in the wild. An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 black rhinos and 20,000 white rhinos remain in Africa, with another one killed by poachers every seven and a half hours. Their horns are hacked off and sold in China and Vietnam on the black market for medical treatments that western scientists say don't work.

Getting the rhinos from the airport to deep into the Okavango Delta was no easy task. Already packed in crates, the rhinos were loaded onto trucks and escorted by 60 soldiers, to deter potential poachers.

Along the way, a wheel came off one of the trucks and the two-ton rhinos had to be moved into another truck via crane. The convoy had to cross several rivers, while a helicopter was sent ahead to scout for poachers. The heat was a relentless 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), which meant the team had to make sure the animals didn’t overheat.

By sundown, the rhinos were released into their new homes, less than 24 hours from the start of their journey from the staging area in an undisclosed part of South Africa. There, the rhinos had been monitored for disease for six weeks and fitted with microchips to monitor their locations. But under the watchful eye of the Botswana military, the rhinos “finally ran free,” says Dereck Joubert.

“One bull [male rhino] turned back and as a deep sign of appreciation charged the container he had been cooped up in, putting a massive dent in it,” says Joubert.

The relocation process is expensive, about $45,000 per rhino, but Rhinos Without Borders has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from supporters and will soon be moving more rhinos.

The ultimate goal is doubling Botswana’s wild rhino population, now estimated at 77 to 100 animals.

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Why Do Dogs Eat Poop?

Most snack on feces because it contains some undigested food—and thus vital nutrients—that would otherwise go to waste, experts say.

With so many nice things to eat in the world, why would any animal look at the menu and order a number two?

For Saturday's Weird Animal Question of the Week,  we're answering Manuela Castro, who asked via Facebook, "Why do animals eat their own feces?"

Coprophagia is the term for an animal eating excrement—both their own and that of others. Dung beetles, rabbits, chimps, and domestic dogs are among animals that are members of the dung diners' club. Most of them eat feces because it contains some undigested food—and thus vital nutrients—that would otherwise go to waste.

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"I think lagomorphs [the group that includes rabbits] are the most interesting feces eaters," Kevin Hunt, an anthropologist at Indiana University in Bloomington, says via email. 

The small guts of these high-metabolism animals don't break down everything the first time, "so they send it back a second time. They have two kinds of feces, the kind they eat and the kind they don't."

The kind they eat are called cecotropes—sometimes called "night feces"—nutrient-packed pellets that the rabbits eat fresh.

Chimpanzees don't regularly eat their poop, but like rabbits, the most likely reason is some of the seeds they eat "are only partly digested, and they eat them again to harvest those nutrients, said Hunt, who has studied coprophagy in chimpanzees.

Dung beetles also take advantage of raw materials in animal excrement, usually deposited by plant-eating mammals. Baby beetles, for instance, munch on solids, while adults have specialized mouthparts to slurp up the dung's liquidy parts, according to the San Diego Zoo.

Depending on the species, the dung doubles as housing or nursery—a place for the insects to lay their eggs.

Wild animals are one thing, but when a person sees their dog having a scat snack, you can hear the "OMGs!" from blocks away.

Not to worry: It's natural and not harmful at all, even if the poop belongs to another species, says Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist at Tufts University and chief scientific officer of the Center for Canine Behavior Studies. "Poop is poop," he says.

Dogs may be attracted to undigested extras in scat, but the behavior may also simply be a habit learned from their mothers.

Nursing females will lick their puppies in the area of the perineal region, under the tail, which stimulates small secretions of urine and feces. These are immediately cleaned up by the mother "the only way she knows how."

"She doesn't have opposable thumbs and tissues. She can't pick it up and throw it out, so she just licks it up and disposes of it that way," Dodman says. It doesn't make mom sick, he says, noting that puppy feces contains "friendly bacteria."

Puppies might mimic their mom's behavior for up to a year, and sometimes the habit persists into adulthood.

It's not a bad thing, Dodson says, but if they feel strongly, dog owners can take steps to curtail this behavior. These include changing the dog's diet, providing more opportunities for exercise, and scooping poop immediately.

Just hope they don't think it's a doggie bag.

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Diet Gives Giant Tortoises a Boost in Galapagos

Some of the rare reptiles are chowing down on plants brought accidentally to the islands—and may be healthier as a result, a new study says.

Some Galápagos giant tortoises are developing a taste for exotic cuisine—invasive plants that people have unwittingly brought to the volcanic islands off Ecuador, a new study says.

While invasive species are usually not good news, the discovery may be a boost for an aptly named subspecies called the indefatigable island tortoise (Chelonoidis porteri), which is considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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Fewer than 20,000 giant tortoises across 11 subspecies are thought to remain on the islands, having withstood centuries of hunting and habitat destruction from introduced animals such as pigs and goats.

Though the giant tortoise is one of the most well known animals living on the Galápagos Islands, many aspects of its life are still poorly understood.

That's why Stephen Blake, a biologist with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany and a National Geographic grantee, traveled to Santa Cruz Island (map) in 2009 to study the animal's diet and migration patterns.

The team GPS-tagged ten tortoises on Santa Cruz, home to several thousand of the rare reptiles. After four years of recording the diet and movements of these lumbering beasts, Blake and colleagues found a somewhat disturbing pattern—of the 64 species of plants consumed by the study tortoises, nearly 44 percent were non-native.

Additionally, the scientists found that as the tortoises migrated from the arid lowlands to the more lush highlands, their diet consisted of progressively more invasive species, according to the study, published in March in the journal Biotropica.

"This iconic species living in this iconic land already relies heavily on introduced and invasive species," says Blake, "and is going to continue to rely on them for the foreseeable future."

It's easy to see why tortoises would choose some invasive species over native ones, says Blake.

For instance, the native species of guava, Psidium galapageium, tends to produce small fruit that has thick skin, large seeds, and bitter pulp. Blake describes them as tasting "horrible."

On the other hand, the invasive species of guava, P. guajava, has been cultivated around the world. As a result, the tree produces dense clusters of large, juicy, thin-skinned fruits that the tortoises go nuts for.

"You and I prefer eating honeycrisp apples to crab apples," Blake says, "and it's just the same for tortoises."

David Steen, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn University in Alabama, said the study is strong, and shows that tortoises are clearly able to make use of introduced species. Why they do so, he says, is still up for debate.

"Do tortoises prefer to eat introduced species or do they simply not care what they eat and just consume what's in front of them?" wonders Steen, who was not part of the study team.

Steen is interested in another finding: That the tortoises' health increased with elevation. Blake and colleagues determined this by taking and analyzing blood samples and observing the reptiles' body condition.

Does this mean the invasive plants are actually more nutritious for the tortoises than their native food? This, too, remains to be proven.

Since the highlands are lusher, "perhaps they are just eating more of anything as they get higher in elevation," says Steen.

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Theme Park Dolphins Set Free

Two captive Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, called Taesan and Boksoon, are on track to be released into the wild—the latest in a string of theme park dolphins that have been set free in recent years.

The marine mammals are currently swimming in a sea-pen off the South Korean island of Jeju (map), as a prelude to being returned to the open ocean.

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They were transported there from the Seoul Grand Zoo late last week, and if the release (which is organized by the Cetacean Research Center and slated for late June) is successful, it will bring the number of freed dolphins in the past three years to seven.

"These efforts are demonstrating the feasibility of rehabilitating and releasing dolphins and whales who have been in captivity for several years," says Lori Marino, executive director of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy.

"They stand as a very real challenge to arguments from marine parks that wild-caught dolphins and whales cannot be released," Marino says.

"The idea of rehab and release, or sea-pen retirement sanctuaries, is gaining momentum. It is the next critical phase in advocacy for captive marine mammals."

Taesan, a male, and Boksoon, a female, have lived in captivity for some five years. They were among a number of bottlenose dolphins illegally captured in 2009 and 2010 and sold to Jeju's Pacific Land entertainment park.

In March 2013, South Korea's Supreme Court, following a protracted legal battle, ordered Pacific Land to give up four illegally caught dolphins (including Taesan and Boksoon). Two, Sampal and Chunsam, along with a third dolphin from the Seoul Grand Zoo called Jedol, were rehabilitated in pens off Jeju and released in July 2013.

Taesan and Boksoon were deemed too ill and lethargic for release at the time. But following two years of care at the Seoul Grand Zoo, they are now being given their chance to join Sampal, Chunsam, and Jedol in their native pod, a group of about 120 dolphins that spends most of its time in the waters off Jeju.

"You need to try and return them to the place they were taken, and the closer the better," says Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute, who was a consultant to the 2013 Korean dolphin release. "And ideally you would actually know their genetic population."

Before the gates on their sea-pen are opened, Taesan and Boksoon must be healthy and show that they have regained the ability to forage for live prey. They also must demonstrate at least some of the physical fitness dolphins in the wild need to stay on the move and make repeated dives.

Human contact will also be minimized, to reduce the association between humans and food, and reorient the dolphins toward their undersea world.

According to Rose, however, every dolphin is different, and Taesan's and Boksoon's poor condition in captivity might mean that it will be more difficult to successfully reintegrate them into the wild.

"Everything is case by case, and you should never prejudge the success of a second attempt based on the first," she notes. "If it looks like they are struggling, I hope they have a contingency plan to rescue them and care for them."

An estimated 2,900 dolphins live in captivity around the world, the majority of them born and captured in the wild.

Many would be candidates for rehabilitation and release, but apart from the high cost (which can easily run hundreds of thousands of dollars), Taesan and Boksoon could well be the last captive dolphins released for the foreseeable future.

"We cannot continue to do this work if the marine-park industry continues to hold onto the animals, and is reluctant to recognize that this is a viable option for dolphins," Rose says.

"This is not a trend until more good candidates are made available."

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Bison Attacks Tourist in Yellowstone National Park

It's not wise to approach the large animal, which is unpredictable and has a fear of being crowded, an expert says.

An American bison attacked a man in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday, the second such incident in a month and a reminder that the large, territorial animals are unpredictable, experts say.

The 62-year-old Australian man was taking pictures when he came within a few feet of the bison, which was lying on the grass near Old Faithful Lodge.

The animal got up and charged, tossing him in the air several times and causing serious but not non-life threatening injuries, according to a Yellowstone National Park press release.

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In May, a 16-year-old Taiwanese girl was gored—and survived—while posing for a picture with a bison near Yellowstone's Old Faithful geyser.

"Bison are unpredictable, wild animals that do not like their space encroached," Traci Weaver, a public affairs officer for the park, says by email. 

A male bison weighs about 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms), and females weigh about 1,100 (500 kilograms). The agile, aggressive creatures can run up to 30 miles (48 kilometers) an hour, she adds.

That can make for a dangerous situation when the annual hordes of summer tourists descend on national parks such as Yellowstone and get pushy in their quest for the perfect photo-op.

"Eyewitnesses reported that several people were harassing this bison, trying to get pictures with it," says Weaver.

"Bison are wild animals, and they do not like being crowded or harassed. They will do what they can to protect their space, or protect their young."
Respect Bison Boundaries

Despite the nearly 5,000 bison that call the park home, such incidents aren't common at Yellowstone—usually one or two a year, said Weaver.

Weaver says people should steer clear from bison when visiting the park, maintaining a distance of at least 75 feet (22 meters) from the animals and avoiding them on trails or boardwalks entirely.

It's basically straightforward: Be smart and respect the animals' limits.

"People need to understand that while bison may appear tame and docile, they are truly wild animals. While they may seem uninterested in people, they all have a tolerance limit."

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Will Japan Stop Dolphin Hunts?

Several Japanese zoos and aquariums voted last week to stop buying and selling dolphins taken during the notorious Taiji roundup, made infamous in the Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove. Yet animal advocates are dubious that it will stop the slaughter.

The Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums has banned the buying and selling of dolphins from the controversial Taiji hunt, made infamous by  the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, after years of pressure from animals rights groups.

The organization, which accredits 37 Japanese marine parks, voted for the measure last week under threat of expulsion from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The international group opposes drive hunts, in which wild dolphins are driven into a confined space and slaughtered.

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Each year, during a September through February hunting season, fishermen from the town of Taiji (map) on Japan's southeastern coast round up dolphins and herd them into a cove, where hundreds are killed for meat and dozens are selected for sale to marine parks.

The ban is "a big step because it's a statement from within the industry," says Courtney Vail, campaign and programs manager at the United Kingdom-based group Whale and Dolphin Conservation. But  Vail doubts that the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums step will put an end to the annual hunt.

"I do believe that the drive hunts will not end until the overall ethic towards whales and dolphins that permeates Japan's political and social culture evolves," she says.

The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums did not respond to a request for comment on the decision.

Still, the ban likely will affect the Taiji hunt, as well as Japan's dolphinariums, which have long relied on Taiji as a quick and easy source of the marine mammals.

According to a 2013 Elsa Nature Conservancy survey, about 600 dolphins live in 54 marine parks in Japan, 37 of which are members of the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums and are now precluded from buying (or selling) dolphins from Taiji.

The Japanese association's secretary-general, Naonori Okada, has said that the group's members keep upward of 250 dolphins, and that Japanese aquariums have purchased an average of 20 Taiji dolphins a year. Yet export data indicates Japanese marine parks have probably been more reliant on Taiji dolphins than that.

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Killer Fungus Killing Bats Met Its Match

A bacterium known to slow fruit ripening shows promise at slowing down white-nose syndrome—a disease that's wiping out bats.

White-nose syndrome has claimed millions of bats since the disease was first detected in New York state in 2006. The culprit—a fungus—eats its way into the wings of its victims, draining the life out of them. It has shown little sign of stopping in its westward trek across the United States and Canada, but a new treatment could change that.

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The treatment is based on a bacterium that inhibits fungal growth, and was originally studied to see if it could slow the ripening of fruits and vegetables. Researchers are in their second year of trials with little brown bats and Northern long-eared bats, and the results look promising, says Sybill Amelon, a wildlife biologist specializing in bats with the U.S. Forest Service in Columbia, Missouri.

Amelon and her team released about 15 treated bats back into the wild on May 19. The treatment helps all but the most heavily infected bats. 

If they're treated early enough, the bacteria can kill off the fungus before it gains a foothold in the animal. But even bats already showing signs of white-nose syndrome show lower levels of the fungus in their wings after being treated.

A cloud of chemicals given off by the bacteria—a strain of Rhodococcus rhodochrous—seems to be the key to killing or slowing the deadly fungus, Amelon says.

Chris Cornelison, an applied microbiologist at Georgia State University in Atlanta, first tested the bacterium against the white-nose fungus in 2011.

A former colleague had discovered that the bacterium reduced the amount of mold that formed on bananas and surmised that R. rhodochrous was an antifungal, he explains.

"I thought if Rhodococcus can prevent molds from growing on bananas, it may be able to stop a mold growing on a bat," says Cornelison.

The new treatment could be deployed in an entire cave of hibernating bats without having to handle them or leave chemicals in their environment. But Cornelison and colleagues haven't quite figured out how they could deliver the treatment.

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Black Rhinos Back in Africa After 25 Years

Black rhinos were killed off from Samburu country by poachers, but now the community is bringing them back.

Black rhinos are once again roaming the vast rangelands of the Samburu people in northern Kenya, thanks to relocation efforts by the community and conservationists.

The animals had once been a common sight in the semi-arid region, but the last ones were killed by poachers about 25 years ago. Now, a small population is being reestablished there from existing herds in Kenya’s Lewa, Nakuru, and Nairobi National Parks.

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Twenty rhinos are being rounded up, shipped in crates, and released within the newly established Sera Community Conservancy in Samburu territory. At least fourteen of the animals have been moved so far, and biologists hope the animals will reproduce and fan out across the dusty landscape.

“Most Kenyans have never seen a live rhino,” says National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale, who has been on the ground documenting the project.

“Some thought they would have spots and others thought their horn would be flexible, like an elephant’s trunk.”

Organizations behind the effort include the governmental Kenya Wildlife Service and nonprofits Northern Rangelands Trust and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.

The animals’ new home, Sera Community Conservancy, is locally owned and operated by Samburu people. To deter poachers, the rhinos will be watched over around the clock by the park’s new community rangers, who will receive support from the project’s other partners.

“This will be the first time in East Africa a local community will be responsible for the protection and management of the highly threatened black rhino, signaling a mind shift in Kenya’s conservation efforts,” the Northern Rangelands Trust writes on its website.

“Much needed attention has been focused on the plight of wildlife but very little has been said about the indigenous communities on the frontlines of the poaching wars,” Vitale adds.

There are about 4,000 to 5,000 black rhinos left in the world, down from 70,000 in the 1960s.

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Why Dont Dogs Recognize Us on Phones and Tablets?

Small screens, compressed signals, and canine nature may all affect whether a dog can identify its owner on the phone or in a video chat.

Dogs can recognize owners on a television screen, "but it's a very bizarre place for your face to pop up and the rest of you is not there," says Nicholas Dodman, a veterinary behaviorist at Tufts University and chief scientific officer for DogTV, a television network designed for dogs. "Sometimes dogs seeing images on television of their owner will go to the back of the TV and see if there's anyone on the other side of the screen," Dodman says.

Smaller screens, such as those found on cell phones or tablets, may make it "harder to recreate the world for the dogs because they're smaller and the quality is more compressed," says Ron Levi, chief content officer for DogTV.

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Systems like iCPooch, which allows an owner to give an onscreen "hello" and dispense a dog a treat remotely, show some dogs do respond to smaller devices, but "it depends on the dog," Levi says.

Some dogs seem less interested in images than other stimuli, Dodman says. With 220 million olfactory receptors in the canine nose--compared with a mere 5 million in a human--a dog may be far more intent on the scintillating scent of scat than a friendly face on a phone.

And scent hounds, such as a basset or beagle, which have been bred to hunt by smell rather than sight, may be even more easily distracted.

Tone of voice may also matter. A 2014 study in Current Biology found that dogs showed more brain activity in response to positive voice tones than negative ones.

But if you use your brightest voice and your dog doesn't react, don't feel bad. Some dogs just react more passively, or they may be confused because they can't see an owner's face.

"It's different strokes for different dogs," Dodman says, noting how elusive dog attention can be. His own dog once couldn't see a squirrel hanging on a window screen, "and it wasn't a squirrel on FaceTime. It was a real squirrel."

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Are Ticks Killing Moose?

Lee Kantar crouches over a dead moose calf and pulls a clump of hair from its straggly shoulder.

A few days earlier, the sickly ten-month-old animal had waded through deep snow to this sun-dappled stand of spruce trees in western Maine, laid down, and died.

"See how white those hairs are?" says Kantar, a moose biologist for the state.

It's a telltale sign that the calf was becoming a "ghost moose"—an animal so irritated by ticks that it rubs off most of its dark brown hair, exposing its pale undercoat and bare skin.

With their skinny necks, emaciated bodies, and big, hairless splotches, these moose look like the walking dead as they stumble through the forest.

And in recent years in New England, ghost moose sightings have become increasingly familiar.

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The reason is likely climate change, biologists say, which is ushering in shorter, warmer winters that are boosting the fortunes of winter ticks. The tiny creatures latch on to moose here in staggering numbers: One moose can house 75,000 ticks, which are helping to drive a troubling rise in moose deaths, especially among calves.

Mostly wiped out in New England by hunting in the 1800s, moose populations had begun rebounding in the late 1970s, thanks to a suddenly abundant food source—new spruce-fir forests that took root following a pest outbreak that wiped out much of the former forest.

By the late 1990s, about 7,500 moose were living in New Hampshire. But in 2013, the population there had dropped to 4,500. In vastly bigger Maine, which has about 60,000 moose—the densest population in the lower 48 states—there's a suspected decline, but there's less data.

It's unlikely that these leggy deer will disappear entirely from New England, but the surge in  moose deaths has made investigating the causes a top priority for the region's scientists.

Though winter tick is the main culprit, scientists are trying to unravel the bigger mystery of what else is contributing to the deaths. Moose are highly susceptible to several kinds of parasites, and it's likely that many factors are at play.

Bill Samuel, a retired biologist and ghost moose expert at the University of Alberta in Canada, says that pinpointing a single reason for the deaths is "wishful thinking."

Scientists aren't the only ones concerned. Government agencies are also worried that the die-off could harm the tourism industry. They're funding a multiyear project to research what's going on with the animal, which graces Maine's state flag.

Wildlife watching, including moose viewing, contributed nearly $800 million to Maine's economy in 2011—the latest figure available—an increase of 82 percent since 2001, according to a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Census Bureau. That's compared with $203 million spent on hunting in the same year.

In New Hampshire, hunters spent $61 million, while wildlife watchers spent $281 million.

"People come to Maine, they want to eat lobster," says Kantar, "but they want to see moose."

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Lion Kills Tourist in South Africa

The lioness was doing what it evolved to do best—being a top predator, a scientist says.

The lion that killed an American tourist at a South African park is a tragic example of what lions evolved to do best—being a top predator, a scientist says.

According to reports, the African lioness attacked the female tourist through the open window of a car in Lion Park, a wildlife attraction 19 miles (30 kilometers) north of Johannesburg. The tour operator who was driving the car sustained injuries on his arm trying to fight off the animal.

"Almost any organism around lions might be a potential prey item, and for people to think that they are an exception is folly," says Luke Dollar, program director for National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative.

"I would imagine that every other primate that co-exists with big cats is acutely aware of the position they hold relative to the top predators of the world."

Dollar says danger arises when we allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security in the presence of lions or other carnivores.

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"We don't have claws or big canines or size as an advantage," he says.
Respect the King of the Jungle

Dollar estimates that dozens, if not hundreds, of people are attacked by lions each year.

In the wild, old or sick lions may target people because they cannot catch their normal prey, and people are generally easier gets.

"If a person is standing next to an impala and a lion decides it's going to eat something, that impala is probably going to get away and that person is probably not."

That said, people should not be afraid to observe lions in the wild, Dollar said, but should know that they might be viewed as potential prey and to act accordingly.

For instance, the Lion Park's rules say that visitors keep their windows closed while driving through the grounds as a way to prevent such animal attacks.

"I hope that, as with any tragedy, some good can come from this," he says.

"We need to remember that we call these animals the kings of the jungle for a reason," says Dollar. "We need to respect what they are and their natural behaviors."

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Are Chimpanzees Smart Enough to Cook Food?

New research shows that our closest evolutionary relatives have all of the cognitive capacities required for cooking—except an understanding of how to control fire.

We’re too sophisticated nowadays to laugh at chimps riding tricycles or smoking pipes, right? Well, maybe not entirely, judging by the three million people who've watched a chimp riding a Segway scooter.

The humanlike antics are hilarious because chimps seem so uncannily like us, yet so different. But it keeps getting harder to say exactly how they’re different. Among many, many other chimp skills, primatologists have learned that our closest evolutionary cousins fashion spears to hunt for prey, trade food for sex, play with dolls and don’t take kindly to drones invading their space.

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The latest discovery: Chimps have all the cognitive abilities necessary for the uniquely human behavior of cooking. They don’t do it in the wild because they’ve never learned to control fire. But aside from that, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Academy B, chimps' brains are pretty much fully equipped to take the great culinary leap our direct human ancestors did in the dim past.

“I love it,” says Harvard evolutionary biologist Richard Wrangham, who has long argued that the transition to from raw to cooked food spurred a dramatic increase in the brain capacity of human ancestors nearly two million years ago, leading to the emergence of our ancestor, Homo erectus.

The idea is that cooked meat and vegetables are far easier to digest than the raw versions, thus providing more available calories for our energy-hungry grey matter.

The archaeological evidence for cooking, however, dates back only about a million years—long after the human brain's great leap forward—so this new study would be a boost for Wrangham's idea. If chimps had most of the mental equipment in place to make cooking possible, early humans presumably would have had it too.

The mental processes involved in cooking are far too complex to be tested in a single experiment, says Alexandra Rosati, a Harvard evolutionary biologist and co-author of the new study. “It requires patience, future-oriented cognition—it’s tied up in how animals make decisions about time and value,” she says. “We thought it was a really interesting and kind of wacky project to pursue.”

In the end, Rosati and co-author Felix Warneken, a Harvard psychologist, did nine separate experiments to assess different aspects of cooking-related thinking. For example, they confirmed that, offered the choice, chimps prefer cooked vegetables over raw, as earlier research had shown. They also showed that chimps comprehend that cooking is a process—that food is transformed into a tastier form when it goes into an oven for a few minutes. (In this case the 'oven' was a container with cooked food hidden in a secret compartment; researchers shook the container to signal to chimps that some process transformed  raw vegetables into cooked forms.)

Not all of the animals got it immediately. Rosita remembers a large adult male named Maya who liked cooked veggies well enough, but didn’t quite comprehend the “cooking” process. Finally, she says, the chimp cautiously put some raw food into the container, almost as if he was thinking "well, I'll just go for it." When Warneken started shaking the container, she says, “Maya got really excited. He started vocalizing and practically jumping up and down. You could practically see the light bulb turn on in his head with the insight that his food was now being ‘cooked.’”

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