I'm no raging environmentalist, but ...

uwe · February 11, 2019, 11:27:53 AM

... something is definitely wrong here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/11/russian-islands-emergency-mass-invasion-polar-bears-novaya-zemlya

Pilgrim · February 11, 2019, 11:45:25 AM

Quote from: uwe on February 11, 2019, 11:27:53 AM
... something is definitely wrong here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/11/russian-islands-emergency-mass-invasion-polar-bears-novaya-zemlya

Fairly predictable, given the news stories in recent year about that part of the world.

uwe · February 11, 2019, 11:49:10 AM

They must all be working for the State Department. Another Yankee-imperialist aggression!

Alanko · February 11, 2019, 12:13:38 PM

There was a theory that there was a nutter in London killing cats in Croydon and surrounding areas. The closest to an answer is that it was simply urban foxes in the area. The foxes have become more brazen over time, to the point that they have lost their fear of humans and will happily kill and eat cats.

Animals change over time, and it isn't necessarily because of climate. Create a dense urban environment with plentiful food, and its own weather system and climate, and watch animals change!

uwe · February 11, 2019, 01:23:42 PM

Don't you think it's a bit late for polar bears to become domesticated all of a sudden?

And a Siberian garbage dump isn't exactly seal tenderloin, they must be desperate.

That is not to say that it hasn't happened before, wolves scavenge at night through Romania's capital city suburban fringes - they feed on garbage, gutter cats and dogs and aren't hunted/chased away because they are seen as harbingers of luck and fortune in Romanian folklore and mythology. But wolves are a notoriously adaptable species (they even tamed down to become our dogs!), polar bears are specialized niche carnivores (though they have mated in recent years with brown bears more often).

Granny Gremlin · February 11, 2019, 01:55:26 PM

Yes, we know that polar bears are stressed for habitat and resources.

The fox thing is also (potentially - not familiar with that case specifically, but we have similar issues here with coyotes, including wolf-coyote-dog hybrids appearing) related to human consumption of their environment ( urban sprawl). They are not taking advantage of a new opportunity so much as adapting to survive as their habitat is Urbanised.

... interesting though how both habitat depletion/ climate change and direct human intervention (breeding program) can produce a similar result. Foxes have been systematically domesticated by the Russion Genetics Institute. Tjey were trying to reproduce the process that turned wolves into dogs. They have actually identified genes related to domestication ( loosing fear of humans and decreased aggression mostly).

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/08/these-docile-foxes-may-hold-some-genetic-keys-domestication?r3f_986=https://www.google.ca/

This is the vid i watched about itthe other week: https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/11/17842410/pet-tame-foxes-domestication-dogs-genetics

uwe · February 11, 2019, 02:14:16 PM

That is interesting! Foxes are prevalent in Germany (similar to racoons in the US, not that we don't have those as well!) and they are all around our house (we live in suburbia, but the forest starts right across our street), but they're very careful/shy. That said, a boy in grade school I knew (who also lived very close to the forest or more exactly pretty much in it) once saved a fox cub from gassing (in Germany in the 60ies and 70ies, foxes were habitually gassed in their holes because they were perceived as arch-carriers of rabies - today, it's a scientific fact that the rabies infection percentage of them was vastly inflated by hunters fearing competiton, gassing is meanwhile outlawed, it was also harmful for the badger population) and raised it in captivity. It didn't become exactly "dog tame" (wouldn't walk on a leash), but you could pat it on the head and it lost its fear of humans. Smelly little character it was!

(It lived outside in a large kennel, they always wanted to put it back into nature, so not domesticate it too much.) Eventually, they put it back into its natural habitat (in a place where there was no gassing), but it was an adult fox by then.

Highlander · February 11, 2019, 02:38:53 PM

We lived in Surrey for over 25 years, over 20 in the same house... Croydon is not far from where we lived... we actively worked with wildlife and have plenty of factual evidence we can point to where a fox will just stay clear of cats, who are the much more successful predator...
There WAS someone doing unspeakable things to cats in the area... we were also aware of horses that were being SLASHED by some undesireable during the same period in the same area...
There are some VERY SICK PEOPLE out there...
We regularly had foxes and cats in the garden... one of the regular foxes we had coming into the house... she went missing, as most wild animals did... and best not mention the amount of squirrels we had coming and going...
The cat is the greatest predator man has released into the wild in the UK by a massive stroke...
Just as an FYI... cats are mostly bigger than vixen-foxes with some bigger than dog-foxes... a cat will do more damage to a fox than the reverse... cats are far more agile than foxes and out-compete them... in urban areas where there are foxes, how many of you see RTA dead cats exceed the amount of RTA dead foxes...
Oh yes... and a cat will just as merrily rip open and spill rubbish in a badly place bag as a fox will...

wellREDman · February 23, 2019, 04:49:22 PM

following the same story, there seems to be a spate of cat abuse around the area and the fox hypothesis doesn't hold much water, fox will eat what it kills not just cut its throat and leave it (yes i know a fox in a hen house will kill every one, but it eats its fill before leaving the rest)
unfortunately there also seems to be copycat(ouch) killings going on in different places too. there is a spate in my manor at the moment. some good friends recently had their cat vanish, distressing enough, but then the next door neighbors cat was also found on the doorstep with its throat cut, lots more reports of this going on, there are some very sick people

Dave W · February 24, 2019, 11:25:30 PM

More and more states here have made animal abuse a felony.

Granny Gremlin · February 25, 2019, 08:02:40 AM

We had a cat mutilation thing a few years back, but the people were caught. Somethng about art ( I kid you not) so they werent serial and stopped when they finished the 'project.'

What we do have is a intermittent ( like def not same person, happens a few times then stops again; moves around geographically) problem with spiked dog treats ( mechanically or chemically) being set up around dog parks.

uwe · February 25, 2019, 11:59:38 AM

Yes, creeps like that crop up here in Germany off and on too.

Highlander · February 25, 2019, 12:03:59 PM

Death's too good for them...

Pilgrim · February 25, 2019, 03:38:35 PM

If someone will do that to an animal, they'll do it to a human. All they need is time to get around to it.

nofi · February 28, 2019, 11:25:47 AM

i recently read that for a ten year period in the early 1900's, a bengal tiger in india managed to kill and eat 436 people. finally the brits sent in a hunter to stop it. easy choice for the cat. chase prey in the scorching heat or grab a villager without breaking a sweat.