Ranchers stunned as beaver herds 150 cattle

Curious heifers marched after beaver, rancher calls event a very Canadian moment

By David Shield, CBC News

Saskatchewan rancher Adrienne Ivey may have heard of a beaver, but until now, had never seen a beaver herd — cattle, that is.

On Friday, Ivey and her husband were surprised to see 150 of their heifers crowded together in one of their pastures.

Curious about the strange behaviour, they investigated further, to find the herd of cattle following a beaver that had wandered along.

"He was out and about, I think looking for a new place to build a beaver lodge, and they were following him," Ivey said. "There was about a three-foot space around him. They didn't want to get closer than that."

According to Ivey, heifers are more inquisitive than the average bovine, which may have led to them following the beaver.

 
"They're a curious bunch," she said. "They're kind of like teenagers. And I think they were following this thing around because they couldn't figure out what the heck it was."

Ivey thought the odd event was even more notable considering the beaver is Canada's national symbol.

"We just thought this was so funny and so Canadian," she said. "A Canadian beaver leading around a bunch of Canadian cattle just makes it even more funny."

Ivey said they have a number of sloughs and wetlands on the ranch, and often see beavers walking around.

The couple farms near Ituna, 135 kilometres northeast of Regina.

Massive Florida 'dinosaur' gator creates buzz

NEWS 6
LAKELAND, Fla. - And you thought dinosaurs were extinct.
Video of a massive alligator spotted in Lakeland was posted to Facebook on Sunday, raising the eyebrows of many.

Kim Joiner told News 6 that she captured the video at the Polk Nature Discovery Center. 

"It looks like a dinosaur," News 6 anchor Justin Warmoth said.

"Is that real?" News 6 anchor Kirstin O'Connor asked upon first viewing the video. 

"Yes, it's real," Joiner told News 6 social media producer Shannon McLellan.

Joiner estimated the gator to be at least 12 feet long. When asked about the beast's weight, Joiner said, "Huge!"

"It seems too big to be real. That's crazy," O'Connor said.

"Nature at its best," Joiner posted on Facebook.

Perhaps it should have said, "Nature is a beast."

Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Last year, a gigantic gator roaming a Lakeland golf course created headlines after a 10-year-old boy snapped photos of the creature.

Meet Freddy, the biggest dog in the world: 7ft 6in

Meet Freddy, the biggest dog in the world: 7ft 6in Great Dane loves chicken and peanut butter... but he's also munched his way through 23 sofas

By Nick Enoch for MailOnline

Take one look at Freddy the Great Dane and your reaction would have to be bow wow... wow!

That's because he's the World's Biggest Dog - who stands at 7ft 6in on his hind legs.

Freddy's owner, Claire Stoneman, from Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is utterly devoted to her Guinness World Record pet, and his sister Fleur.

Such is her affection for her pets that the 41-year-old has even made them a priority over her own love life.

Freddy the Great Dane is officially the world's biggest dog. He is pictured with his owner, Claire Stoneman, at their home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

Freddy, who is now four years old, weighs a whopping 14.5 stone and holds the Guinness World Record for biggest dog

'I've been single for the best part of four years. But I get cuddles off the dogs and I don't have to wash dirty underpants,' Miss Stoneman told the Daily Star Sunday.

'They are children to me... because I haven't had any kids. They need me and it's quite nice to be needed,' added the former glamour model, who shares her king-sized bed with Freddy. 

However, she now says she's ready to have a relationship, assuming she can find a man who doesn't mind sharing a house with a monster pooch.

Mountain Lion wakes homeowners, drags deer off Hillsborough porch

By Lilian Kim
HILLSBOROUGH, Calif. (KGO) --
A mountain lion was caught on camera dragging a deer off the porch of a Peninsula home. 

Hillsborough is buzzing over the video. Homeowners posted it on a community bulletin board and now everyone's talking about it. It happened at 3:30 a.m. off Tartan Trail Road.

Mary Mines and Peter Rauenbuehler were sleeping when they heard loud noises outside their bedroom window. Little did they know it was a mountain lion on their front porch.

"I didn't have my glasses on so when I looked through the peephole I thought it was a coyote," said Mines. "And I turned to Peter and I said, 'There's a coyote on our front porch,' because we have a lot here. I opened the door and I looked and I said, 'That's not a coyote, that's a much bigger animal.'"
She quickly shut the door. The couple then observed the mountain lion from their window. Their security camera captured video of the big cat dragging a deer it had just killed off their property.

They didn't see it, but they say they heard what they believe was the mountain lion slamming the deer onto their metal fence.

"He dragged the deer over the railing because there was deer hair over the top," said Rauenbuehler. "And the dogs didn't seem to intimidate the mountain lion at all. They were barking pretty crazy."

Mountain lions are not uncommon in Hillsborough, especially in the town's Lakeview District, which sits along a canyon, but this is the first time Mines and Rauenbuehler have seen one so close.

"We told the children to be careful when they're out and be aware," Mines told ABC7 News. "And to carry a stick or umbrella with them, to be big and loud if they see something."

This was a close encounter the couple will never forget.

Watch the video here:

<iframe width="476" height="267" src="http://abc7news.com/video/embed/?pid=1657178" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

South Florida family's missing dog found three years later -- in New Jersey

by Brett Clarkson
Bill Gerstein couldn't believe it. Words he never thought he'd read were right there on his phone: Bella has been found.

Nearly three years after disappearing outside Gerstein's law office in Fort Lauderdale, the family's Maltese-Pomeranian mix was in an animal shelter in Paterson, New Jersey — about 1,200 miles from home. The shelter, which had checked Bella's microchip, sent him pictures. She looked ratty, her coat was in rough shape, but it was her. Gerstein got on a plane that day.

"It was jubilant for us to finally get her back," Gerstein, 45, said Tuesday, as Bella scampered about the living room, still getting acquainted with the family's other two inseparable dogs, Maya and Lily, two Cavapoos who became new additions while Bella was still missing. Bella occasionally growls and bares her teeth at Maya, who tends to avoid eye contact with Bella.

"I didn't have any realistic hope of seeing her again," Gerstein said. "The possibilities were endless: She could've been killed, she could've wandered into a swamp near our office."

Fortunately, Bella didn't wander into a swamp, but how she got to New Jersey is a mystery. Gerstein, whose immigration law office is near Commercial Boulevard and NW 31st Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, regularly brought Bella to work, and that's where she was last seen.

"She was the office dog," said Gerstein's wife Dori, 46, also a lawyer.

On the day Bella went missing, Dec. 13, 2013, Gerstein was on a work call on his cellphone as the dog conducted her own business outside the law office. Gerstein said he was distracted and went back inside to do some more work. About an hour later, he wondered where Bella was and couldn't find her. An extensive search was mounted. Posters were put up, police were called, and a Facebook page was created. All to no avail.

Gerstein also watched surveillance video of the parking lot outside his office. There was a car parked across several spaces, and as it drove away, Gerstein noticed something white moving in the vehicle. 

He talked to police, who looked into it and determined the owner of the car didn't have the dog and that the white movement might have just been sunlight hitting the car's windows.

The Gersteins' four children, Michael, now 17, Sarah, 15, Sean, 13, and Emma, 6, took the news hard. 

Particularly Emma, who was 3 at the time. She would often talk about Bella, and would sometimes cry and say she missed Bella well after the dog was gone.

Gerstein missed Bella too. So when he got the email just after 10 a.m. on Nov. 22 from Petkey, the pet recovery service for the microchip implanted under Bella's skin, saying the dog was at Paterson Animal Control in Paterson, N.J., he was stunned.

Gerstein said Bella was shaking and wagging her tail when he first picked her up. "She definitely remembered me," Gerstein said.

The next day, they flew home for a happy reunion with the rest of the family, including Dori's sister Heather Bosch and her children Cole, 14, and Jenna, 9, who also live with the Gersteins at their home in West Delray Beach near U.S. 441 and West Atlantic Avenue.

"She wouldn't stop kissing me, and she's not a big kisser," Dori Gerstein said. They also took Bella to the veterinarian, who determined she was in good health.

Angel Rivera, an animal control officer at Paterson Animal Control, said a young woman had found Bella wandering on a busy thoroughfare in Paterson early last week and brought her to the shelter. 

Rivera checked the microchip and found it was registered through Petkey. He called Petkey, who sent the email to Gerstein, instructing him to call the animal shelter.

By sending a picture and confirming the microchip's ID number, Gerstein and Rivera were able to confirm that the dog was indeed Bella.

"I was shocked, he was shocked," said Rivera, 37.

Rivera said that had the shelter not found the owner within seven days, Bella would've been adopted out. He recommended that pet owners not only invest in a microchip but also register the microchip.

"In my 12 years here, I've never seen anything like this," Rivera said, barely able to believe that a dog missing for three years and from 1,200 miles away had been reunited with its owner.

Gerstein also said he's been in touch with another woman in Paterson who contacted him after Bella was found. She told him she discovered the Facebook page about Bella and told him that Bella — her family had named the dog Linda, coincidentally, the Spanish equivalent of Bella, meaning pretty or beautiful — had been living with her in Paterson.

She sent Gerstein pictures of the dog while it had been living with them. She explained that somebody had given her the dog in January, and that she and her family had grown to love her. But then Bella escaped under a fence and the woman never saw her again.

Bill Gerstein asked the woman who had given her the dog and tried to find out more in hopes of learning more about where Bella had been since December 2013, but he got murky answers and decided to let it go. After all, it didn't matter anymore. Bella was home. Dori Gerstein said they were grateful that the woman took care of her.

Both Bill and Dori accept that they'll probably never know how Bella got to New Jersey.

"If only she could talk," Bill Gerstein said.

brettclarkson@sun-sentinel.com or Twitter @BrettClarkson_

Copyright © 2016, Sun Sentinel

Dog stabs owner with knife in Hudson, family in disbelief

by Oscar Contreras
HUDSON, Colo. -- They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but a young dog in Hudson may have accidentally learned something new after stabbing her owner with a knife on Wednesday. 

No, you're not reading that wrong. 
 
Celinda Haynes, the owner of a one-and-a-half-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever dog named "Mia," was rushed to the hospital Wednesday morning after Mia reached over her and stabbed her left forearm with a paring knife.


"[Mia] likes to grab whatever she can to get people to play with her," explained Haynes' daughter, Chanda Stroup to Denver7. 

As it turns out, Mia is rather large for her age and was able to climb to the kitchen counter, where she found her new sharp toy.

Trying to get Mia to let go of the knife, Haynes reportedly put treats on the ground and in her excitement, Mia reached over her arm and stabbed the owner when she went for the treats. 

"I need to go to the hospital," Haynes told her daughter. "Mia just cut my arm with a knife!"

The wound -- a gash approximately 4-to-5-inches long and a quarter-of-an-inch-wide -- surprised medical staff at Platte Valley Medical Center, who did not believe the story at first. But they were not the only ones.

"I had to make sure I heard that right," said Brent Flot, the town Marshal. 

Deputies were dispatched to the hospital as well as Haynes' home to investigate a case of possible domestic violence. At the hospital, officials did not believe the story. Back at the family's home, Flot found blood everywhere, which prompted suspicion. 

Deputies contacted Haynes' husband to flesh out any suspicions of domestic violence, but he had been at the DMV renewing his license when the stabbing unfolded.  

By the end of the day, Haynes had several stitches on her arm and the family was laughing about the situation.

As for Mia? "She felt pretty bad," Stroup said.

'Great American Eclipse': Sky Show Will Dazzle U.S. in 2017

(@AstroSamantha) 

by Joe Rao, Space.com

Two years from now, on Aug. 21, 2017, North Americans will get an opportunity to observe nature's greatest sky show.

Picture this: The day starts off bright and sunny. Then, a bit later, you begin to notice that, although it is still sunny, the day doesn't seem quite so bright. And still a little while later, it almost seems like some big storm is brewing. Then, suddenly, and without any warning, the midsummer day turns strangely dark.

A few stars come out. Birds and animals become confused and quickly head home to sleep. Night insects begin to chirp. All around the horizon, there is a strange yellow-orange glow resembling a weird sunset. And meanwhile, up in the sky where the sun should be, there appears instead a jet-black disk surrounded by a softly glowing halo.

Then, just as suddenly, the sky brightens up. The stars disappear, birds and animals awaken, and the sun returns.

What you have just witnessed is a total eclipse of the sun.

This total solar eclipse of 2017 will be the first time in nearly four decades that such an event will be visible so close to home. "Close," of course, is a relative term. But for most Americans, this spectacular phenomenon will occur literally in their own backyards.

Contrary to popular belief, total solar eclipses are not particularly rare. Astronomers predict 68 to take place during the present century — one about every 17.6 months. On such occasions, the moon casts its dark, slender cone of shadow (called the umbra) upon the Earth's surface.

Bears frolic at wild pool party in NJ

 

WPVI-ROCKAWAY TWP., N.J. --

A North Jersey pool party got a little wild because the guest turned out to be a family of bears.

The Basso family who owns the pool in Rockaway Township, Morris County, filmed a mama bear and five of her cubs cooling off in their backyard earlier this week.

"I thought they would get a drink or just drink out of it for a minute and then move on, but they pretty much started climbing," said Tim Basso.

"My first thought was really, where is the dog and where are the kids?"

With everyone accounted for, the Bassos watched safely inside while Tim's wife started recording the video.

The cubs splashed around and checked out the playset.

"They came in, they experienced the pool, they got it, they seemed to enjoy themselves. They did a little bit of damage on the pool toys and floats and whatnot, but all in all I don't think it was a terrible experience," Tim said.

The family called 911, but there was little police could do.

The bears left on their own after an hour.

Australia: Rescue Attempt is Underway to Save 23 Long-Finned Pilot Whales

By Katrin Long

A rescue attempt is underway to save 23 long-finned pilot whales that are washed up against a breakwater wall in Western Australia.

The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPAW) sent out a team to the Bunbury harbour breakwater wall after the whales congregated against it this morning.

ABC reporter Katrin Long is at the breakwater and said seven whales had died while some calves were fighting for their lives.

She said the whales were jammed in at the groyne and it was almost impossible to free them.

"Every time it looks like one is away from rocks a waves smashes it back into the groyne. One [is] just a bub," she said.

Volunteers from the Dolphin Centre have moved into the water to help the whales.

One volunteer, Bob, said it was hard to get to the whales.

"There were 60 or more on a beach," he said.

"Here we've got a small number but it's on rocks and it's ... hard to get down there in amongst the rocks."

Desperate attempts to save a struggling calf failed, but it has been towed out in an attempt to try and coax its mother away from the rocks.

Another calf has been rescued while the DPAW team and volunteers continue with their attempts to save the other whales.

Earlier the DPAW team managed to tow a whale away from the rocks but, as they are pod animals, it is likely it will wait for the others to be freed so they can leave together.

A plane has been sent to monitor the area to find out if there are any more whales in the area.

 

Topics: mammals---whales, conservation, animals, bunbury-6230, wa

Glacier ice: The world’s new luxury ice cube?

An image of the Svartisen glacier taken from Svaice's website. Photo: Svaice

Imagine you’re lounging in a Dubai sky bar and you get served a vodka martini filtered through thousand-year-old ice mined from a glacier in the far north of Norway. This is the idea behind Norwegian start-up Svaice.

"Our product is 100 per cent natural, more than a thousand years old, and very luxurious," the company boasts on its website. "We guarantee goosebumps and a memorable moment for those who can find it." 

It’s not a long-term business plan, however, as within less than a hundred years the glacier is projected to have melted away. 

Svaice this week announced that it had won a 250,000 kroner grant from Nordland county council and a state forestry company to set up a pilot excavation operation on the Svartisen glacier. 

Geir L. Olsen, the company’s founder, has already travelled to Dubai to market the idea and claims to have received a positive response.

“Ice from the glacier is compact and thaws slowly,” Olsen told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. “Meanwhile, it’s very clean and has a good taste. This means that you do not noticeably dilute the drink.” 

Per Swensen, mayor of the nearby Meløy municipality, is a keen supporter, hoping that the project will bring much-needed jobs. 

“Imagine being able to drop a more than 1000-year-old ice cube into your glass. It undoubtedly sounds quite exclusive,” he told NRK. 

Svartisen is mainland Norway’s second largest glacier, spanning some 369 square kilometres. But its thickness has halved in many places since the millennium. 

Nina Jensen, Secretary General of WWF in Norway said she could not understand why such a project was getting public support. 

“It seems very strange that the government should provide support to mine Svartisen when we know that it is shrinking because of climate change,” she said. “I do not think it is right to create short-term jobs by eating up the last parts of a glacier which is about to disappear.” 

Svaice claims that it will only mine ice at a part of the glacier where it is soon to become melt water anyway, meaning will not be accelerating the glacier's disappearance.  Even at full production of 3,600 cubic metres a year, it claims, the amount of ice mined would, if melted, only provide 54 seconds of power at the hydroelectric plant fed by the glacier. 

"The amount of ice that we are going to take out is literally just a cup of water in the ocean," claims the company's website. 

Nordland County’s press release said Svaice envisaged marketing the ice to high-end bars and restaurants worldwide, as well as to the cruise industry. 

The company has already bought a set of buildings from a bankrupt Norwegian solar power company, which it aims to turn into a factory. 

More than 100,000 want to go to Mars

Prospective Martians apply for one-way trip to red planet

Author: By Jennifer Juarez CNNMexico.com

More than 100,000 people are eager to make themselves at home on another planet. They've applied for a one-way trip to Mars, hoping to be chosen to spend the rest of their lives on uncharted territory, according to an organization planning the manned missions.

The Mars One project wants to colonize the red planet, beginning in 2022. There are financial and practical questions about this venture that haven't been clarified. Will there be enough money? Will people really be able to survive on Mars? But these haven't stopped some 30,000 Americans from signing up.

You can see some of the candidates on the project's website, but they're not the only ones who have applied, said Bas Lansdorp, Mars One CEO and co-founder.

"There is also a very large number of people who are still working on their profile, so either they have decided not to pay the application fee, or they are still making their video or they're still filling out the questionnaire or their resume. So the people that you can see online are only the ones that have finished and who have set their profiles as public," Lansdorp said.

The entrepreneur did not specify how many have paid the fees, completed their profiles and configured them as private.

The application process

Anyone 18 or older may apply, but the fee depends on a user's nationality. For Americans, it's $38.

The company said it sets the price based on the gross domestic product per capita of each nation. "We wanted it to be high enough for people to have to really think about it and low enough for anyone to be able to afford it," Lansdorp said.

For the first crew, the Mars One mission will cost $6 billion, Lansdorp said. The idea is for it to be funded by sponsors and media that will pay for broadcasting rights of shows and movies documenting everything from the astronauts' training on Earth to their deployment and colonization of Mars.

Out of the applicants, Mars One said it will select a multicontinental group of 40 astronauts this year. Four of them -- two men and two women -- are set to leave for Mars in September 2022, landing in April 2023.

Another multicontinental group of four will be deployed two years later, according to the Mars One plan. None of them will return to Earth.

The astronauts will undergo a required eight-year training in a secluded location. According to the project site, they will learn how to repair habitat structures, grow vegetables in confined spaces and address "both routine and serious medical issues such as dental upkeep, muscle tears and bone fractures."

"What we want to do is tell the story to the world," Lansdorp said, "when humans go to Mars, when they settle on Mars and build a new Earth, a new planet. This is one of the most exciting things that ever happened, and we want to share the story with the entire world."

How will Mars be colonized?

Each lander that Mars One sends will be able to carry about 5,511 pounds of "useful load" to Mars, he said. After eight missions, more than 44,000 pounds of supplies and people are expected to have arrived. The capsules themselves, whose weight is not included in that number, will become part of the habitat.

Food and solar panels will go in the capsules. Earth won't be sending much water or oxygen though -- those will be manufactured on Mars, Lansdorp said.

Astronauts will filter Martian water from the Martian soil. "We will evaporate it and condense it back into its liquid state," he said.

"From the water we can make hydrogen and oxygen, and we will use the oxygen for a breathing atmosphere inside the habitat. This will be prepared by the rovers autonomously before the humans arrive."

It sounds like terraforming, a process in which the conditions of a planet are modified to make it habitable, but Lansdorp said it isn't.

"We will create an atmosphere that looks like the atmosphere on Earth, so you could say that we are terraforming the habitat. But to terraform the entire planet, that's a project that will take hundreds and hundreds of years," he added.

A dangerous mission

In spite of the risks of space travel, the Mars One founder said he is convinced of the viability of the project. However, some space travel experts have said the risks are far too high to carry out these manned missions to Mars, a distance that humans have never traveled.

Radiation is a big concern. NASA does not allow their astronauts to expose themselves to radiation levels that could increase their risk of developing cancer by more than 3%.

To maintain the radiation exposure standards that NASA requires, the maximum time an astronaut can spend in space "is anywhere from about 300 days to about 360 days for the solar minimum activity. For solar maximum, in ranges anywhere from about 275 days to 500 days," said Eddie Semones, NASA spaceflight radiation officer.

A round-trip journey to Mars could expose astronauts to the maximum amount of radiation allowed in a career under current NASA standards, according to a recent study by scientists at the space agency. Mars One is planning a one-way journey, which doesn't negate the problem, and being on Mars could expose astronauts to even more radiation, depending on how long they stay and what the shielding conditions are like.

Beagle survives 70-foot leap off of N.J. bridge with only a few bruises

Burlington-Bristol Bridge (Burlington County Bridge Comission)

(CBS/AP) BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A beagle who jumped 70 feet off a New Jersey bridge has survived with only minor bruises.

Seven-year-old Brandi got away from her owner, Robert Lorenz, during a walk along the Burlington Riverfront Promenade Friday night.

His wife, Alexis Lorenz, told The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill he returned one hour after he set out on the walk with their two beagles, panicking. The two began to scour the area by the riverfront by foot and car for hours unsuccessfully.

That's when bridge officer Rob Bittner saw Brandi walking up the Burlington-Bristol Bridge toward Pennsylvania.

Bittner tells The Courier-Post he turned on his emergency lights to slow traffic and followed the dog. Bittner says Brandi was doing fine until she got to the top of the span and her paws felt a steel grate.

The officer says Brandi jumped into the Delaware River as motorists tried to grab her.

"She went in," Bittner said. "We immediately started looking over into the water. She was swimming and made it to the shoreline.

The beagle's owner recovered her after a long night of searching and took her to a veterinarian. Brandi was bruised around the abdomen, but didn't have any broken bones. The owners added to that Brandi was a rescue dog who was skittish around people she didn't know because of her past experiences.

Alexis said the dog has a new nickname: Leaping Licker. She also has a brand new harness so she can't get lose again.

Alaska bear victim pleads for help in 911 call

Associated PressBy RACHEL D'ORO | Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A 30-year-old Alaska man mauled by a bear pleads for help in a recorded 911 call, telling the dispatcher he's up a tree and can hear the animal huffing below him.

In the recording released by Alaska State Troopers, Ben Radakovich tells the dispatcher to send an ambulance, saying he is "bleeding bad." At one point the two are disconnected and Radakovich calls back.

Radakovich climbed 30 feet up the tree after he was mauled Sunday morning by a female brown bear with a cub on the Penguin Creek Trail south of Anchorage.

"The damn thing was batting at me," Radakovich tells the dispatcher.

It took rescuers almost two hours to reach him. Troopers say a helicopter was unable to land nearby, so rescuers used an all-terrain vehicle to carry Radakovich on a wheeled stretcher to transport him to the chopper one and a half miles away.

He was flown to an Anchorage hospital, and was released Monday morning, according to Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.

Radakovich, who lives in the Anchorage suburb of Eagle River north of town, did not respond to phone messages left at a number listed under his name. He told ABC's Good Morning America: "I'm just grateful that I got through it and that I'm here to enjoy another day basically."

Several bear and moose attacks in recent weeks have raised concerns in the area; no one has died, but some of the animals have been killed.

Many calls are from people reporting bears raiding outdoor trash cans or crossing streets. Others are from people charged by moose with young offspring born in the spring calving season.

One problem: People getting too close to the animals with their cellphone cameras without the zoom power of regular cameras, said Dave Battle, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Such was the case of a young brown bear euthanized in late May after Fish and Game received numerous reports it was showing aggressive behavior like charging toward people near a popular trail south of Anchorage. In some cases, people were trying to get as close to it as they could with the camera phones.

Battle believes the rationale behind this behavior goes like this: "I want to get a picture, a close-up picture, so I can post it on Facebook and all my friends from all around the country can see what a neat place I live in."

This year, many of those moose calls are coming from mountain bikers encountering ornery moose along new, narrow trails that run through prime calving grounds at the city's expansive Kincaid Park.

Darcy Davis is among those to have a run in with a moose on the new trail system and has bruises on her arms and shoulders to show it. Davis — whose teenage daughter was badly mauled by a grizzly during a 24-hour bike race four years ago at another Anchorage park — was biking with two others last week when she encountered the moose and her calf as she rounded a corner.

"I just had time to get off my bike. I just crouched over, trying to get small. She kicked me," Davis said Tuesday, adding the moose and her calf soon left the area.

Camera phones had nothing to do with three other high-profile bear encounters, including the weekend mauling, another bear attack in Eagle River north of Anchorage in May and a case involving a bear that was killed last week after it was feeding off a moose calf in an Anchorage neighborhood.

Sunday's attack occurred where the trail is narrow and winding, hemmed in by dense foliage. Radakovich later told rescuers he called out to warn bears of his presence as he hiked, but said his voice might have been drowned out by the rushing creek waters nearby.

He encountered the bear as he rounded a curve three miles into his hike. The animal was surprised as well, said trooper Tim Lewis, who was among rescuers to hike in to the site.

It happened so quickly and violently, Radakovich didn't have time to use his bear-repellant spray, according to Lewis. He said none of Radakovich's injuries were life-threatening, but required "a lot of stitches."

Radakovich was still in the tree when the first responders arrived almost two hours after the attack, saying he heard the animal below him for another 20 or 30 minutes. Another trooper climbed up the thick pine tree and helped get the injured man down, Lewis said.

The victim was cold, bleeding and shivering.

"I can only imagine being mauled by a large brown bear would be very, very traumatic," Lewis said. "He was in shock."

Still, Radakovich was able to tell rescuers what happened. The bear sprung without warning, swatting at Radakovich and a ski pole the hiker was trying to use in self-defense. He figured the bear wasn't going to go away, so he curled up into a fetal position.

At that the bear backed up, giving Radakovich a brief chance to scramble up the tree and dig his phone out of a pocket. His backpack fell off during the struggle.

"The good thing is that he had his cellphone with him," Lewis said. "He didn't have it in his backpack, which really made a big difference."

Earth heated up in medieval times without human CO2 emissions, says new study

• Evidence was found in a rare mineral that records global temperatures
• Warming was global and NOT limited to Europe
• Throws doubt on orthodoxies around 'global warming'

By TED THORNHILL

PUBLISHED: 07:21 EST, 26 March 2012 | UPDATED: 07:55 EST, 26 March 2012

Current theories of the causes and impact of global warming have been thrown into question by a new study which shows that during medieval times the whole of the planet heated up.

It then cooled down naturally and there was even a 'mini ice age'. 

A team of scientists led by geochemist Zunli Lu from Syracuse University in New York state, has found that contrary to the ‘consensus’, the ‘Medieval Warm Period’ approximately 500 to 1,000 years ago wasn’t just confined to Europe.

In fact, it extended all the way down to Antarctica – which means that the Earth has already experience global warming without the aid of human CO2 emissions.

Cold facts: Antarctica actually warmed up during medieval times, contrary to what climate scientists believe

At present the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) argues that the Medieval Warm Period was confined to Europe – therefore that the warming we’re experiencing now is a man-made phenomenon.

However, Professor Lu has shown that this isn’t true – and the evidence lies with a rare mineral called ikaite, which forms in cold waters.

‘Ikaite is an icy version of limestone,’ said Lu. ‘The crystals are only stable under cold conditions and actually melt at room temperature.’

It turns out the water that holds the crystal structure together - called the hydration water - traps information about temperatures present when the crystals formed.

This finding by Lu's research team establishes, for the first time, ikaite as a reliable way to study past climate conditions.

Evidence that the Earth heated up over a 1,000 years ago was found in a rare mineral called ikaite

The scientists studied ikaite crystals from sediment cores drilled off the coast of Antarctica. The sediment layers were deposited over 2,000 years.

The scientists were particularly interested in crystals found in layers deposited during the ‘Little Ice Age,’ approximately 300 to 500 years ago, and during the Medieval Warm Period before it.

Both climate events have been documented in Northern Europe, but studies have been inconclusive as to whether the conditions in Northern Europe extended to Antarctica.

Lu’s team found that in fact, they did.

They were able to deduce this by studying the amount of heavy oxygen isotopes found in the crystals.

During cool periods there are lots, during warm periods there aren’t.

‘We showed that the Northern European climate events influenced climate conditions in Antarctica,’ Lu says. ‘More importantly, we are extremely happy to figure out how to get a climate signal out of this peculiar mineral. A new proxy is always welcome when studying past climate changes.’

The research was recently published online in the journal Earth And Planetary Science Letters and will appear in print on April 1. 

Dutch zoo fits elephant with contact lens

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

THE HAGUE - An elephant in Amsterdam's zoo has made history after being fitted with a jumbo-sized contact lens following an eye injury, a statement said Monday.

"Win Thida is the first elephant in Europe with a contact lens," the Artis zoo said on its website.

The 44-year-old Asian elephant accidently scratched its left cornea while playing and the eye was constantly watering. The procedure lasted about an hour, the statement said.

NASA finds a new Earth

Seth Borenstein

WASHINGTON - NASA has found a new planet outside Earth's solar system that is eerily similar to Earth in important aspects.

Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees (22 Celsius). Its star could almost be a twin of Earth's sun. It probably has water and land.

It was found in the middle of the habitable zone, making it the best potential target for life.

The discovery announced Monday was made by NASA's Kepler planet-hunting telescope. This is the first time Kepler confirmed a planet outside Earth's solar system in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold habitable zone.

Twice before astronomers have announced planets found in that zone, but neither was as promising. One was disputed; the other is on the hot edge of the zone.

For more information visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ 

Golden Eagle Attacks Cameraman!

by Shamil Zhumatov

OUCH! Sometimes being a cameraman is dangerous work!

Here a Golden Eagle attacks a cameraman during an annual hunting competition in Chengelsy Gorge, Kazakhstan.

When it snows on the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, hunters saddle up and gallop off with eagles on their arms in search of prey. Many in Kazakhstan see eagle hunting as a symbol of their nation’s nomadic past and a throwback to an oft-romanticised era before these steppes turned into a geopolitical battleground between competing regional powers Russia and China.

You can see the rest of the pictures from the Kazakhstan Eagle Hunt on Stuff.co.nz. Just to let you know, there are a few photos of the eagle capturing a rabbit.