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Python kills security guard in Bali
A python has killed a security guard near a luxury hotel in Bali, Indonesia.
A doctor told CNN that a man's corpse was brought to the RSUP Sanglah Denpasar Hospital in Bali on Friday. A large snake appears to have suffocated the man, said the doctor, who did not wish to be identified.
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SeaWorld takes out ads to defend itself against whale mistreatment accusations
Faced with a growing backlash from entertainers and others responding to a documentary film claiming mistreatment of whales, SeaWorld bought full-page ads in newspapers nationwide Friday to call the accounts inaccurate and paint its employees as "true animal advocates."
"The truth about SeaWorld is right here in our parks and people," the company said in the ad, which appeared in The New York Times and other papers.
SeaWorld has been battered in recent weeks since the television premiere of the documentary "Blackfish" on CNN.
FULL STORY7 people mauled by bears in recent days
Bears rarely attack humans unless they feel threatened or territorial. But a 12-year-old girl jogging in Michigan is among the latest victims in a spate of bear attacks that has left seven people mauled in five states since Thursday.
Wildlife officials are running tests on a bear they killed to see if it's the same one that mauled Abby Wetherell on Thursday evening. The girl from Cadillac, Michigan, was out on her nightly jog when she was ambushed by a black bear.
Authorities also reported attacks in Alaska, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho.
FULL STORYBus riders: Trip turned into roach-fest
Roaches crawling out of air vents. Roaches climbing up seats and windows. Roaches on people's coats and hats. Roaches everywhere.
It sounds like a scene from a horror movie - but is in fact what passengers say happened on a Greyhound bus journey from Atlantic City to New York on Friday.
"There's like a thousand roaches," passenger Dawn Alexander told CNN affiliate WABC. "And when I say infested, I mean infested. People were in the aisles literally brushing roaches off of them."
"We thought it was one. It turned out to be a whole house full of roaches," said a fellow passenger.
Cellphone footage shows the pests scurrying across the bus floor and steps.
Greyhound's Media Relations Director Maureen Richmond said the bus driver had acted swiftly when passengers alerted him to "bugs on the bus."
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Lion kills woman at California sanctuary
A 26-year-old female intern was killed Wednesday afternoon by an African lion inside a cage at an exotic cat sanctuary in California, authorities said.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family at this critical time," said Dale Anderson, founder of Project Survival Cat Haven in Dunlap.
The lion, a 5-year-old, 350-pound cat named Cous Cous, was shot and killed, officials said.
FULL STORYJapan minister sees no end to whaling
Japan will never stop its annual hunt for whales, a government minister has reportedly said, amid recent clashes on the high seas between environmental activists and Japanese whaling ships.
"I don't think there will be any kind of an end for whaling by Japan," Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Japanese minister for agriculture, forestry and fisheries, said in an interview with the French news service Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.
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Shark kills swimmer in New Zealand
A wimmer in New Zealand died Wednesday after he was attacked by a great white shark on the country's west coast, authorities said.
The man was found dead in the water on Wednesday afternoon at Muriwai beach, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Auckland, New Zealand police said. The shark was still biting the man's body when he was found, it added.
FULL STORYAnti-whaling group says Japan attacked ships
The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said ships from the Japanese whaling fleet attacked its vessels, ramming them and hurling concussion grenades.
"There's been the most outrageous attack on the Sea Shepherd Australia ships today," said Bob Brown, a member of the board of directors of Sea Shepherd Australia, describing it as the "worst incident" the group had experienced since one of its vessels sank two years ago.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Brown said that a large Japanese factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, had repeatedly rammed Sea Shepherd ships in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica where it was trying to refuel and that a Japanese government escort vessel had directed water cannon and lobbed concussion grenades at the activists.
FULL STORYFinal take in Florida hunt is 68 pythons
They can reach lengths of 18 feet and their numbers are estimated to be in the tens of thousands, but Burmese pythons, a nuisance in the Everglades, aren't easy to find.
"It's an amazing challenge to try to come out and hunt these big snakes," hunter Dennis Jordan told CNN Miami affiliate WSVN in the closing days of the 2013 Python Challenge sponsored by state officials.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Saturday that 68 Burmese pythons were taken during the January 12-February 10 competition that drew 1,600 registrants lured by prizes of up to $1,500.
Though the take was small, wildlife officials said their main aim was heightening public awareness of the invasive species.
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World's largest captive crocodile dies
"So long, Lolong."
That was the phrase echoing around social media on Monday after news emerged the night before that Lolong, the world's largest crocodile in captivity, had died in the southern Philippines.
The outpouring of online shock and grief over the demise of the heavyweight reptile, which was more than 6-meters (20-feet) long, could be considered a little surprising, given suspicions Lolong may have been involved in at least two lethal attacks on people before he was captured in 2011.
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'Gay' dog gets euthanasia reprieve
A dog whose rejection by his owner caused an Internet uproar has been adopted into a new, and presumably more tolerant, home.
The male pit bull mix, whose name no one seems to know, was left at the Madison County, Tennessee, Rabies Control animal shelter, CNN affiliate WBBJ reported.
According to the irreverent website Gawker, Facebook users had a hissy fit Wednesday when they found out the dog's owner got rid of the animal after he (the dog, not the owner) humped another male dog.
"His owner threw him away (because) he refuses to have a 'gay' dog!" a Facebook user named TN Euthanasia wrote.
The post went semi-viral, with 861 likes, 1,869 comments and 5,048 shares. After Gawker told the rest of the digital world about it, noting that the dog was in imminent danger of being put down, the shelter was swamped with calls offering to adopt the uncloseted canine.
By Thursday morning, shelter workers confirmed to WBBJ that the amorous animal had been adopted by a person associated with a rescue/shelter group.
What would you name this dog if you adopted him? Share your ideas in the comments below.
Secret Service dog falls to its death from roof of New Orleans parking deck
A Secret Service dog fell to its death Saturday night while doing a sweep of a multi-story parking deck near a hotel where Vice President Joe Biden was speaking.
The Belgian Malanois fell from the roof of the six-story deck adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans where Biden was speaking at a fundraiser for U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, reported CNN affiliate WWLTV.
Secret Service spokesman Max Milien told CNN the death was a "tragic accident."
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Rescuers: Dolphin stranded in polluted New York canal dies
A dolphin stranded in Brooklyn's highly polluted Gowanus Canal today has died, according to the Riverhead Foundation.
Emergency personnel gathered Friday alongside the canal, which borders Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood, in an effort to rescue the marine mammal, which inadvertently had become trapped in the channel's muck and mud.
The Common Dolphin passed away Friday evening, after being stuck in the murky low-tide waters for most of the day, said Joanne Biegert of the Riverhead Foundation.
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France's Brigitte Bardot might want Russian citizenship, too
First it was Gerard Depardieu. Now another famed French movie star, Brigitte Bardot, might be interested in Russian citizenship.
The 78-year-old Bardot, an animal rights campaigner, will request Russian nationality Friday if plans to euthanize two elephants at a zoo in the French city of Lyon go ahead, her foundation said.
She has asked French President Francois Hollande to intervene on behalf of the elephants, who are believed to have tuberculosis. She told French newspaper Le Parisien that the former circus elephants could be helped with the right veterinary care and that her foundation could help find them a more suitable place to live.
This comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave Russian citizenship to Depardieu, who was angry about French plans to raise taxes.
FULL STORYZoo: No time to save child mauled by African painted dogs
It happened in seconds. A 2-year-old boy slipped over a railing, bounced into a safety net, bounced again, and tumbled into an exhibit of African painted dogs, which mauled him to death.
The heartbreaking scenario came to light Monday as the Pittsburgh Zoo released details of the child's death Sunday.
African painted dogs kill young boy at Pittsburgh Zoo
A group of African painted dogs killed a boy who fell into their exhibit today at the Pittsburgh Zoo.
Barbara Baker, the zoo's president, said the child was around 3 years old.
He "fell off an observation deck that's about 14 feet above the exhibit," she said, "and was killed by the dogs."
Coyotes may soon be hanging out in your backyard
“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”
Those creatures had Dorothy worried on the yellow brick road in "The Wizard of Oz" - and now you may need to worry about seeing them and other large carnivores in your backyard, an Ohio State University researcher says.
OK, there shouldn’t be any tigers - they aren’t found in the wild in North America - but lions (mountain), bears, wolves and coyotes are finding urban areas to be just right for a comfortable existence, says Stan Gehrt, an associate professor of environment and natural resources.
Gehrt says coyotes are leading the urban invasion by formerly rural carnivores.
“The coyote is the test case for other animals. Raccoons, skunks, foxes – they’ve already been able to penetrate the urban landscape pretty well. The coyote is the most recent and largest,” Gehrt said in a university press release.
One pack of coyotes has established a territory and is thriving about five miles from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, the third busiest airport in the country, according to Budget Travel.
Scientists: To save Great Barrier Reef, kill starfish
Australia's Great Barrier Reef has lost 50% of its coral since the mid-1980s, much of that because of a ravenous species of starfish that can each consume some 12 square yards (10 square meters) of coral in a year, scientists reported Tuesday.
According to a study by the Australian government's Institute of Marine Sciences and the University of Wollongong, the coral cover on the world's largest coral reef ecosystem suffered damage from tropical cyclones (48%), the crown-of-thorns starfish (42%), and coral bleaching (10%).
If current trends continue, the reef will lose another 50% of its coral in the next 10 years, the scientists said.
Stopping the starfish infestation is the one thing humans can do that can save the reef, they said.
"We can't stop the storms, and ocean warming (the primary cause of coral bleaching) is one of the critical impacts of the global climate change," John Gunn, chief executive officer of the institute, said in a press release. "However, we can act to reduce the impact of crown of thorns."
"The study shows that in the absence of crown of thorns, coral cover would increase at 0.89% per year, so even with losses due to cyclones and bleaching there should be slow recovery," Gunn said in the release.
Reacting to the study, the World Wildlife Fund said Australia must reduce fertilizer runoff as a first step to controlling the crown-of-thorns starfish.
Farmer eaten by his own hogs
Authorities in Oregon are investigating how a hog farmer was eaten by his animals.
The remains of Terry Vance Garner, 70, were found in his hog enclosure Wednesday, according to local news reports Monday.
The farmer had gone to feed the hogs, some weighing as much as 700 pounds, about 7:30 a.m., according to a report from CNN affiliate KMTR. After Garner was not seen for several hours, a family member went to check on him and found his dentures in the hog pen. Other remains were found, but the hogs had eaten most of the farmer, according to the report.
The sheriff's department is looking into the death.
Giant panda at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo gives birth
A 14-year-old gave birth Sunday night, and Monday was on her way to becoming a reality TV star.
The teenager is Mei Xiang, the female giant panda at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. It was her second successful pregnancy with 15-year-old Tian Tian, the zoo's male giant panda, in seven years.
"We are thrilled that Mei Xiang had a successful pregnancy since 2005," said Dennis Kelly, the zoo's director. "I'm cautiously optimistic as we haven't seen the cub yet, but we know that Mei is a good mother. Like everyone else, I’m glued to the panda cam for my first glimpse of the cub!”
Kelly isn't the only one watching the "panda cam" that monitors the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat. So many people are trying to get a glimpse of the new cub that the streaming video online is getting jammed. You can try to access the view here or from the zoo's website. MTV and TLC, take notice.
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