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Thousands of 'cold-stunned' sea turtles rescued off coast of Texas

Thousands of sea turtles unused to the plunge in temperatures have been washing up on the beaches of South Padre Island, off the southern coast of Texas. Volunteers have brought some 4,700 of them to a convention centre, where they are being kept in tubs and enclosures before they can be released when the water is warmer.

"It's an unprecedented event," said Wendy Knight, executive director of research and conservation centre Sea Turtle Inc, which has been helming the effort. Knight said normally only 100-500 turtles wash up on the beaches in south Texas each winter.

Millions of Texans have been left without heat due to energy blackouts in the state triggered by a cold spell in which both air and water temperatures have dropped well below typical levels.

Video shot by Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, shows volunteers carefully placing the animals on a trolley, and then the convention centre floor covered in turtles of all shapes and sizes.

Caum refers to the turtles as being "cold-stunned" - a condition where cold-blooded animals suddenly exhibit hypothermic reactions such as lethargy and an inability to move when the temperature in the environment around them drops.

"We've brought them to the convention centre to get their core temperatures back up," said Caum, narrating one of the videos.

In the latest video posted on Facebook on Wednesday, Caum related how the centre's power and water supplies were restored overnight.

"We've expanded down both wings. The heat is coming back up in the corridor," Caum says as the video shows a passageway filled with turtles lying end-to-end on blue canvas.

"We've collected a lot, now, we'll try to save them," Caum said.

(Reporting by Njuwa Maina; Writing by Karishma Singh; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) Reference: Reuters.

Border collie becomes world’s most expensive sheepdog with £27,000 pricetag

A border collie has become the world’s most expensive sheepdog after selling for £27,000, as her owner said the animal’s "red tinged fur" drove up bidding.

The price paid for Kim, who is twelve months old and described as “extremely intelligent”, beat the previous record by over £7,000 when she went up for online auction on Feb 3.

Dewi Jenkins, the Welsh farmer who raised and trained Kim, said he was not surprised by the figure because alongside being a “fast learner”, red-furred dogs are currently “in fashion”.

He said: "Everything I trained her to do, she knew by the second time. She was a very fast learner.”

"She was doing everything - she worked cattle and sheep, she was ready for any trials or farm work for anybody.

"To top it off, she's a red colour and they are in fashion at the moment."

Mr Jenkins, from Talybont, added that Kim had also turned heads in a half hour video the farmer put together, showing off her abilities as she corralled stubborn rams and cattle.

The border collie was sold at an online auction by Farmers Marts of Dolgellau a few days before her first birthday.

The world record sale beat the previous record holder, four-year-old border collie Henna, who sold in October 2020 for £20,000.

And it is significantly higher than the average price for a working dog of around £2,000.

At the same auction the Evans family also set a world record for a Border Collie puppy, after 11-week-old Bet sold for £6,100.

Mr Evans said that the coronavirus is having an impact on prices for dogs, which could be behind the sharp increases.

He added: "Prices for pet dogs have gone up during lockdown and this has had a knock-on for sheepdogs too.

"We now do online auctions rather than travel - so people can see what is being offered. That has raised a lot of interest and pushed up prices." 

Rare ‘one in 30 million’ yellow lobster called ‘Banana’ discovered in Maine

An extremely rare yellow lobster has been discovered off the coast of Maine – home of the self-declared lobster capital of the world.

Only one in 30 million lobsters are thought to have yellow-coloured shells, according to the New England Aquarium.

This suggests that Tenants Harbor lobsterman Marly Babb was three times as likely to have been struck by lightning than to make his extraordinary catch in the Gulf of Maine this week.

Babb donated his catch to the University of New England’s (UNE) Marine Science Centre, where the crustacean was named "Banana".

The Gulf of Maine is no stranger to rare lobsters.

While blue lobsters are caught every so often, shortly before Halloween last year, a fisherman in Stonington – the harbour town at the heart of Maine's "lobstocracy" – pulled up a translucent "ghost" lobster.

He wrote on Facebook that he had "notched" the lobster's tail to warn other lobstermen to put her back in the sea to allow if caught again in the future.

And in 2018, a rare calico lobster was nicknamed "Friendly Kreuger" for its Halloween-esque colouration. Calicos are equally as rare as yellow lobsters.

The latest discovery comes as scientists carry out an urgent investigation into the impact that global heating is having upon lobster larvae in Maine.

With the Gulf of Maine warming faster than 99 per cent of the world's oceans over the past three decades, climate breakdown has already had a noticeable impact on populations of lobster – which are a significant pillar of the local economy.

Initially, these warmer conditions have provided a huge boost to the species' population.

“It’s actually been really positive for us. We’ve seen probably the most favourable environmental conditions for lobsters ever,” executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, Patrice McCarron, told The Guardian in 2018.

But scientists fear that – as has already happened further down the coastline in Massachusetts and New Jersey – the changing climate could lead to an eventual decline in the long-term.

Let's hope Babb stays lucky.

Reference: Indy 100: Andy Gregory  8 hrs ago

Tiny chameleon a contender for title of world’s smallest reptile

Scientists from Madagascar and Germany say a newly discovered species of chameleon is a contender for the title of the world’s smallest reptile.

Frank Glaw, who was part of the international team of researchers that classified the new species and named it Brookesia nana, said the body of the male specimen appeared to be just 13.5mm long.

That is at least 1.5mm smaller than the previous record holder, another member of the Brookesia family.

Mr Glaw, a reptile expert at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich, said the tiny male and a slightly larger female – small enough to fit on a human fingertip – were spotted on a mountainside by a local guide during a 2012 expedition.

“You really have to get down on your knees to find them,” he told the Associated Press. “They are obviously camouflaged and they move very slowly.”

Mr Glaw and his colleagues performed a CT scan of the female and discovered that it harboured two eggs, confirming it was an adult.

For the male, the researchers took a close look at its “well-developed” genitals, which in chameleons come in pairs known as hemipenes.

They found that the genitals of the Brookesia nana were almost a fifth of its body size, possibly to allow it to mate with the larger female.

“I have few doubts it’s an adult male,” Mr Glaw said. “If we had a pair mating it would obviously be better proof.”

Confirming Brookesia nana as the smallest reptile species will require finding more of them, which might take several years, he said.

The team’s research was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Chameleons are threatened by deforestation on Madagascar, which is home to numerous species.

Reference: By Associated Press Reporters  5 hrs ago