The X Games are all about thrills and spills, and on Friday RallyCross driver Toomas Heikinnen found out the hard way what happens when rally car meets steel support beams.
The Finnish driver undershot a 50-foot jump that features metal takeoff and landing areas. He was transported to a nearby hospital and determined to have suffered a left ankle fracture. A CT scan reveal no further injuries, an X Games spokesman said Friday night.
Viewers of the video will see the front end of Heikkinen's car collapsing upon impact at the downtown Los Angeles venue. The video does not show that Heikkinen managed to crawl from the car after the crash.
The accident occurred during RallyCross practice. The event final is Sunday, the fourth and final day of X Games competition, and you can bet that competitors will be hard on the pedal as they attempt to negotiate the same jump.
Heikkinen is not expected to compete in the final.
Anyone who has even mild affection for animals will be disturbed by new footage released by Four Paws, showing a female bear cub being snatched from her mother and cruelly stuffed into a tiny transport crate. The incident occurred at Lutsk Zoo in Ukraine. Four Paws, an animal welfare group, says Natsia was purchased to become a photo model for tourists.
Amir Khalil, head of the Four Paws project in Ukraine, stated in a news release: "These are the most shocking pictures I have seen in my long career in animal welfare. It is not just the outstanding brutality that was applied that demonstrates the inhumanity seen in this video.
"A baby bear in the wild usually stays with their mother for two years. When taken away from her too early, the cub remains traumatised and suffers from a lack of real socialisation."
Selling zoo animals to private buyers is illegal in the Ukraine and Four Paws is trying to persuade the government to confiscate the cub and reunite the animal with its mother.
In support of the California Department of Fish and Game and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:
Question: I have heard that the gray wolf that recently wandered into California has been "hanging out" with coyotes. I have also heard that wolves sometimes breed with coyotes and produce offspring that is half wolf and half coyote. Would such an offspring be protected under the endangered status of the wolf or open to hunting like a coyote? Either way, how would someone tell if the animal was 100 percent coyote or a hybrid? Thanks for any insight you can provide. (Jeff S.)
Answer: We have been getting a number of inquiries regarding wolf-coyote hybrids after we observed and photographed the wolf known as OR7 in the company of coyotes.
According to Department of Fish and Game Northern Region Wildlife Program Manager Karen Kovacs, genetic investigations have confirmed that wolves and coyotes have interbred elsewhere. In the Northeast, tests have confirmed that gray wolves and coyotes have interbred. However, there is no evidence to date that gray wolves reintroduced to the Rocky Mountain region have hybridized.
Also, wolves are known to kill and consume coyotes and several studies show that coyote populations decrease when wolves become reestablished in the same habitat. Remember, OR7 was documented near coyotes for only a short time. It would be speculation to suggest that OR7 was "hanging out" with them.
Coyotes in the Northeast that have wolf DNA are larger than average coyotes but clearly not as big as wolves. Coyotes on average weigh about 15-30 lbs; wolves 70-100 lbs. Coyotes are about 1.5 feet tall; wolves about 2.5 feet tall. Kovacs believes that a hunter is more likely to mistake a dog or wolf-dog hybrid for a wolf than confuse a wolf-coyote hybrid with a wolf.
Although gray wolves are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, a wolf-coyote hybrid produced by one of those wolves would not be protected under that law, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Neither is currently listed under California’s endangered species act.
If coyote hunting in California, don’t shoot if you are in doubt of your target. If the animal doesn’t look 100 percent coyote, it’s more likely to be a domestic dog than a wolf or coyote-wolf hybrid. See our webpage for differences between coyotes and wolves. The size difference is pretty dramatic. For all of the latest information on this lone gray wolf, please visit our website at www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/wolf/.
Q: What are the rules and regulations on the mantis shrimp? I accidentally snagged one with a hook and line and let it go because I knew nothing about it. I didn’t even know what it was until I got home and was able to research it. (Michael H.)
A kite surfer in Florida took what might be perceived as a life-or-death risk when he sailed over a pier in strong winds generated by Tropical Storm Debby. The event was videotaped by Jay Gartner, who maintains the footage is genuine.
"Not fake I'm the one who taped it," Gartner posted on the YouTube page. "He had done this once already and was circling for a better angle."
The footage shows the kite surfer backing off a couple of times, perhaps waiting for a strong enough gust, before launching up and over the pier.
Clearly, this was an expert at work. But imagine the consequence if the wind had suddenly stalled or shifted.
There have been stories about dolphins saving people and being friendly toward people. But in Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain, what's being described as a rogue bottlenose dolphin has developed a habit of biting people.
The male juvenile dolphin has been living in this wetlands region alongside New Orleans since swimming up from the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina.
Only recently, however, has the dolphin begun to bite swimmers and menace boaters. Nola.com is reporting that three swimmers have required hospital visits in the past year, because of dolphin bites.
The dolphin is believed to have entered the waterway with family, but is now by itself and increasingly aggressive.
Perhaps this is because people have come to regard the dolphin as a tourist attraction, and have been feeding and attempting to play with the mammal. Perhaps, also, the dolphin has reached the playful age and knows only one way to play.
Jesse Strahan, 19, was bitten recently while leaning over the railing of a boat to wash his hands. He described the incident to Nola.com: "Within two seconds of seeing the dolphin alongside the boat, I began to back up from the water. I was 4 or 5 feet off the water when he jumped up and attacked my hand.
"All of my fingers and half of my palm were in his mouth."
Durel Landry, manager of the Lakeshore Estates Homeowners Assn., told King.com: "He’s like a friendly neighborhood dog, but the dog will bite. If people would understand, he's a wild animal and you have to treat him like he's a wild animal and not jump on him, not go swimming with him. He's not Disney World."
Slidell's Lakeshore Estates residents, whose upscale homes are nearest the dolphin's territory, have become increasingly concerned and have begun to meet with officials from various agencies to discuss possible options.
Signs cautioning people to keep their distance and to avoid feeding the dolphin have been posted throughout the area (feeding and harassing a wild dolphin are illegal activities).
NOAA biologist Stacey Horstman is quoted as saying the dolphin probably would die if it were relocated back into the gulf, but this dolphin has been feeding on his own since being weaned.
"And even if he's moved, he's likely to return," Horstman said.
She also suggested that the dolphin may just have become a bit too comfortable in the company of people and is being overly playful.
Landry added: "We just try and encourage people -- you can come down the canal and lake and look at the dolphin, but don't get out and go swimming with him. Don't feed him."
If people would only comply, the problem may more or less resolve itself.
This is an exciting day for bird enthusiasts who have been watching a great blue heron family being raised outside of Ithaca, N.Y., via webcam. But it's an extraordinary day for three heron chicks that enjoyed first flights while thousands of human admirers watched via live feed.
The webcam was set up by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, outside its Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity, in Sapsucker Woods.
The accompanying video shows the first fledge, which occurs 39 seconds into the clip. Be sure to note the expressions of two siblings who stood and took notice.
Two other heron chicks then followed suit, leaping from a branch extending from a nest that sits atop a dead oak tree in the middle of the woods.
As of early Tuesday afternoon, the remaining two siblings had yet to fledge.
July is just around the corner and marine mammal enthusiasts are beginning to wonder whether blue whales will arrive off Southern California and put on a long-lasting show like they did the last two summers, beginning in June.
The Santa Barbara Channel remains the closest destination for Southland whale-watchers to have a reliable chance at seeing the planet's largest creatures.
But thank goodness for dolphins, which are found most days, and which are considerably more active and playful than blue whales.
I embarked on noon excursions Saturday and Sunday aboard the Ocean Adventure out of Dana Wharf Whale Watching in search of blue whales, which have shown only sporadically off Orange and Los Angeles counties during the past few weeks.
No whales. But the high-speed catamaran was visited by about 400 common dolphins not far from the harbor, and the crew later discovered a much smaller pod of much larger bottlenose dolphins. One bottlenose dolphin dazzled the crowd with an acrobatic display of the type that might be choreographed at a marine park (see video).
For several minutes these sleak mammals rode alongside the vessel and beneath its bow, and at no time during this encounter was anyobody inquiring about blue whales.
It was much of the same the next day -- common dolphins galore, this time in a feeding display that also featured pelicans diving after sardines chased to the surface by dolphins.
As for the blue whales, they could just be a little late, or they have found greener pastures -- much larger quantities of krill -- elsewhere off the West Coast.
At least one was spotted Monday evening off Dana Point. Hopefully it found lots of food and called for others to join the feast.
But if, like the others, it moves on, there will always be the dolphins.
Clearly, the pelican in the accompanying video had seen better days, and it's safe to assume that many people will find this raw scene to be disturbing. It was videotaped over the weekend by Phil Friedman, who had chartered the Toronado for a night of fishing outside Long Beach Harbor.
It shows a brown pelican that invaded the harbor's bait-receiver, only to become trapped beneath netting while the resident dog launched a prolonged assault from above.
Ultimately, the pelican scurried to an uncovered portion of the receiver, whereupon it was abruptly scooped up with a long bait net and flung into the harbor.
As strange and unsettling as it may be to watch this video, it reveals a slice of life in the harbor. The bait receiver is manned by a person whose dog keeps him company. The dog regards the dock as its territory, and the pelican as an invader.
Pelicans are considered pests by local bait operators. The birds know there are lots of fish in the receivers and wait for any opportunity to plunge in and devour fish that is otherwise sold as bait. The netting keeps the pelicans out, most times, but it's rolled back when the fishing boats arrive so bait can be scooped from the receivers into tanks on the boats.
In this case dozens of anglers watched as the pelican was ceaselessly harassed by the unleashed dog before the pelican was ultimately rescued, but hardly with great care.
For those who consider fishermen to be a little rough around the edges -- did anyone even try to call off the dog? -- this might reinforce that opinion.
The fate of a Montana grizzly bear responsible for the deaths of a remarkable 70 sheep during a two-week spree is in question, now that the sow and her cub have been trapped.
Wildlife officials described the spree, which involved 58 sheep at a single ranch, as unprecedented.
Kills occurred on three different ranches, with lambs being the favorite target. Both bears were trapped on Muddy Creek near Collins, according to the Great Falls Tribune.
The story clarifies that the mother bear didn't actually kill all 70 sheep. Some were severely injured in attacks and later died, while others were trampled to death by during attacks.
Experts with the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department and two federal agencies hoped to determine Monday afternoon whether to try to relocate the bears to more remote areas, far from livestock.
"She’s gotten this protein reward from domestic sheep so she’s looking for sheep," Mike Madel, a grizzly bear management specialist with FWP, told the Tribune. He explained that while the bear could not consume so much meat in so much time, it was still acting on predatory instinct, and not killing for sport.
In fact, the 4-year-old bear is unusually young for a mother and neither she nor her cub look particularly robust. Madel said the mother bear had no prior history of livestock predation.
Because the cub is only 6 months old and still dependent on its mother, it will be sent to a rehabilitation center if officials decide to euthanize the mother.
-- Image showing the grizzly sow roaming wild before the killing spree is courtesy of the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department
An immense and ominous-looking waterspout was videotaped Sunday evening and posted to Youtube by a user named Otis5220. The video was shared on Twitter by U.S. Tornadoes.
The waterspout was spawned from storms related to tropical storm Debby, whose squalls were affecting the coasts of the Florida Panhandle and west-central Florida.
As of Sunday evening, a tropical storm warning remained in effect for the Mississippi-Alabama border area east to the Suwannee River in Georgia and north Florida.
Debby had essentially stalled and it remains unclear where the storm, which as of 10 p.m. local time boasted maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, might come ashore. Extensive flooding is expected in southern Georgia and northern Florida.
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