Steer Clear!

"Occasionally, floating ant masses are encountered even indoors in flooded structures."
"Cuffed gloves, rain gear, and rubber boots help prevent the ants from reaching the skin. If they do, they will bite and sting. Remove them imme­diately by rubbing them off. If submerged, ants will cling to the skin and even a high-pressure water spray may not dislodge them. However, a spray made of diluted biodegradable dish­washing liquid may help immobilize and drown them."
Texas A&M Agrilife Extension specialist Paul Nester

Al Key/The Denton Record-Chronicle via AP

"If the water rises, they kind of all grab a hold of each other, and they can do this for several days, until they reach higher ground."
"If one of those rafts comes in contact with you, or you try to break it apart, it will likely disperse and crawl up you."
Clemson University entomologist, Tim Davis

Waiting out the water. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

"They spread out and hook their legs and feet together so they can form a tangled mass."
The fire ant rafts in the Houston area do pose “a definite threat [to anyone in the water],”
"If you’re walking around water and one of these rafts bumps onto you, chances are [the ants] are going to crawl up on you. You’re drier than they are."
"They’re just really unpleasant creatures."
Justin Schmidt, entomologist, University of Arizona

"You protect yourself by avoiding them, not by messing with them. They don't come to attack you. They're just passively floating along. It's a matter of being just intelligent and evasive."
"You won't feel anything for a minute. What they are doing is mustering."
"You might feel tickling, and then suddenly they are latching on so they can drag that stinger in."
"Once one of them stings it lets off a pheromone, and that makes everybody sting at once. It is like you are stepping into fire."
Larry Gilbert, professor, integrated biology, University of Texas,Austin

Houston residents had more to put up with than just the severe flooding that resulted when Hurricane Harvey struck and transformed highways into rivers, flooded homes and commercial buildings and generally made life pretty miserable. The city, originally built on a floodplain, has suffered an ongoing series of floods and will continue to, partly because nature's balance in the creation of absorptive wetlands have been paved over and partly because its proximity to the ocean invites these floods during times of natural stressors like hurricanes.

Not only were fish swimming about where they normally are never seen, including in people's homes, but alligators too made their presence known along the newly-created 'rivers' of floodwaters. On the other hand, strange mounds and floating rafts were also to be seen in the floodwaters, a deep rust-coloured mass, and curious to behold, comprised of thousands of fire ants, clinging together in a bid for self-preservation that overtakes the little beasts when threatening conditions arise and their primitive collective memory kicks in.

Once their underground tunnel infrastructure became flooded, they gathered and linked claws, clinging in massive rafts and balls, floating, spinning in the current of floodwaters. Nature has bestowed a waterproofed armor on their bodies to repel water and as they drifted in their teeming clumps they helped, as The Houston Chronicle wrote, create a "river full of nightmares", as in: if the alligators won't get you, the fireants might. "Those bites itch for days", wrote a medical writer for The Chronicle, of his experience of stepping on a mass of fire ants that "tore my left ankle/foot up".

Originating in South America, the fireants adapted in the wetlands of Brazil to survival in wetland floodplains there. Once they moved into the United States they adapted there too, in the southeastern region. First aid, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, takes the use of an epinephrine pen or antihistamines, since those who are allergic to insect bites stand the risk of lethal reactions. Disturbed, the ants are aggressive, attaching by their jaws to humans then injecting a venom that burns and develops fluid-filled pustules.

Subjected to long periods of disturbance such as the floods in Houston, an ant cluster reacts in fluid movements; if a small object is dropped into a mound of the insects the group simply reforms around the object, carrying it along with them. Their consistency can be wobbly resembling jelly, or it can flow like thick syrup. Connecting with the legs they create a springy network, repelling liquid. "They weave into a waterproof fabric", described David Hu, whose specialty is the study of fireants at Georgia Tech.

The Humpback Posse

"[They (Humpback whales) were] taking shots essentially, taking swings at these transient orcas."
"[Those watching heard the humpbacks] trumpeting like we have never heard [sounding like ferocious wild elephants]."
"This was a heavyweight division going against a lightweight and the heavy-weights won."
"We've got all of these whales recolonizing the Salish Sea after a half-century not being here and we've got record numbers of transient killer whales. So we've got two species that are recolonizing an area, and this might be a turf war."
Michael Harris, executive director, Pacific Whale Watch Association, Victoria, British Columbia

"This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this [two oceanic species in physical conflict at close range]."
"I explained to the guests how rare this kind of interaction is. [The humpbacks'] predator is the orca and they didn't run away. They actually came to the aid of another mammal."
"So they all went to their neutral corners, if you will."
Captain Russ Nicks, B.C. Whale Tours, Victoria, British Columbia

"I probably wouldn't have believed the story if I wasn't there."
Captain Shane Aggergaard, Port Angeles Whale Watch Co., Olympia, Washington

Image: Pacific Whale Watch Association

An unusual drama took place recently off the coast of southwestern British Columbia, that doubtless takes place on many an occasion out at sea where there are no human witnesses to marvel at the phenomenon of two species of large ocean-dwelling mammals coming head-to-head over territorial aggression and hunting for prey. In this instance the conflict had a surprising other source, when humpback whales came across a scenario that offended their sense of -- what? fair play?

Whale-watching operators in the Salish Sea on September 11 witnessed four humpbacks form a protective cordon around a Stellar sea lion, that was being attacked by orcas. The humpbacks were observed slapping their pectoral fins and flukes in a warning of counter-assault should the orcas persist. Captain Nicks collected his passengers, explaining to them as they watched the drama, what was occurring before their eyes.

What was happening was that the humpbacks, one after another, dove and slashed at the orcas. This was a repetitive assault that continued for forty minutes. Finally the orcas retreated. The humpbacks have no sharp teeth, but they do have the advantage of size, weighing between 40 and 50 tons. Once the orcas had retreated, and the sea lion was no longer threatened by the predators, the animal was given a personal escort by the humpbacks to safety.

A study published in the Journal of Marine Mammal Science established that humpback whales will defend other marine species from orca attacks. Seals, sea lions and grey whale calves have all been beneficiaries of the protective auspices of the humpbacks, seemingly obeying some altruistic instinct to be of aid in rescuing creatures they share the ocean with from certain death by carnivorous predators.

Two researchers from Cascadia Research Collective from Olympia, Washington just happened to be in the close vicinity on a boat belonging to the Port Angeles Whale Watch Co. and they were witness to the unfolding scenario. The whale-watch operators had previous familiarity with two of the humpbacks. Waters off British Columbia and Washington state are now known as the "humpback comeback" for the amazing resurgence of  the once-threatened species.

Marine mammal scientists now have been presented with the opportunity to study the species which fifty years ago were on the verge of extinction. When whale hunting was banned in 1966 there were about 1,600 of the creatures in the eastern North Pacific. At the present time, over 21,000 humpbacks roam the ocean. An immense grouping of 60 humpbacks was reported off Sooke, British Columbia in mid-September.

A clash between a pod of transient killer whales and two adult humpback whales and a calf was reported near Jordan River, British Columbia, in August. According to the Pacific Whale Watch Association, "an epic tussle never seen before by most whale-watchers in this region", occurred and was witnessed and recorded.

Orcas take on humpbacks in battle of B.C. whales 

Surprise Wolf Attacks

"The whole incident is unusual, very unusual."
"If, in fact, it was a wolf attack, it's way outside what we understand and [what] we know."
"Wolves rewrite the book on how they behave all the time. We don't really know everything about them."
Paul Paquet, mammalian biologist, Raincoast Conservation Foundation

"If a person gets attacked, it is likely that it is being tested by the wolf, to see if it might serve as prey."
"I am convinced that the animal would have attacked the kid if we hadn't intervened [in Yellowstone Park when a 'habituated' coyote stalked a five-year-old before being chased away]."
Dennis Murray, conservation biologist, Trent University

"Workers are encouraged to report all wildlife sightings to the site safety or environment departments at our operations."
"Scare cannons [ are used in instances of persistent wolves; Saskatchewan law permits] lethal means [to be used, as a last resort]."
Gord Struthers, Cameco representative

Mike Drew/Postmedia News     A young wolf near a picnic area on the Banff Parkway. In the past 12 years there have been three suspected wolf attacks on adult men near Saskatchewan’s Cigar Lake, site of a large uranium mine.

Recalling an incident that occurred at the Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan on August 29, a mine representative explained: "A single wolf basically pounced on him". A security guard that night happened to hear what sounded like a scuffle at midnight that she took to be two men working at the uranium mine having an argument. When she got into her vehicle with the intention of intervening, her headlights identified a wolf, its jaws on the neck of a 26-year-old kitchen worker.

Her arrival frightened the wolf away, enabling her to render first aid.

Wolves around the Cigar Lake area have a reputation for following hikers, unafraid of being "visible" to people, where wolves normally make an effort to shield their presence from human eyes. Workers at the mine claim that wolves have made it a habit to follow work crews, watching their activities from the space of distant ridges. "They are absolutely huge ... they have no fear of man and come into the job sites often at night", said S.J. Rowe, formerly a worker at the mine.

And it seems that this particular mine is not unique in this way. There appears to be a discernible pattern evident across the region of northern Saskatchewan, home to countless mines as one of the world's most copious natural resources of uranium. Three suspected wolf attacks on adult men taking place within 100 kilometres of one another, within the range of a single wolf pack, are reputed to have occurred in the past twelve years.

Facebook/Chad Glyn Baggott   A 2015 photo of a wolf at the Cigar Lake mine site. This particular animal is said to have "jumped" a worker, but was fended away by a blow from a backpack.

Cameco mine worker Fred Desjarlais was walking home on New Year's Eve of 2005 when a wolf suddenly lunged out of a ditch. The man reacted by grabbing the animal around its neck, holding tight until other workers came to help him. Kenton Carnegie, 22, a university student at a mining exploration camp was killed, at age 22, by what a coroner's jury determined to have been a wolf attack. Halfway between those two attacks is the location of the Cigar Lake mine.

Once wolves -- and bears -- lose their fear of the presence of humans as a threat to their existence, and begin to view them as a source of food linked to discarded food ending up as garbage, they are said to have become 'habituated' to the presence of people linking their presence with the easy availability of food. From there they become accustomed to roaming about nearby, without making an effort to hide their presence.

A natural outcome of that scenario is one that biologists speak of as the potential of an "exploratory attack", to determine if they can succeed in taking down a human as they would another large mammal, for food.

There is nothing new in this adaptation of wild animals to the presence of people. In the 15th century, Parisians were aware of the threats associated with wolf pack urban invasions "accustomed to eating human flesh", according to contemporary accounts. Banff and Jasper national parks are under continual pressure when wolves regard unattended campsites as their personal picnic grounds, leading Parks Canada to maintain a vigil at all hours to ensure that wolves do not venture where they should not.

Parks Canada A grey wolf in Banff National Park.

Pit-Bull Ownership

"We hopped the fence and found her in the balcony being severely mauled by this pit bull. She had significant blood loss and flesh loss as well. It was doing a number on her."
"He [the dog] paused long enough for us to get [the woman] out of the doorway and let the door shut [after repeatedly bashing it with a stout piece of wood]."
"In the time I went from [getting on] the balcony to hitting the dog, he’d bit chunks of her three or four times right in front of me, while I was hitting."
"I’d like to see (Rideau-Vanier ward Coun.) Mathieu Fleury and bylaw [services] do something. There’s a lot of pit-bulls in Vanier and there aren’t enough people who are educated about how they can be."
Michael Holmes, neighbour

"I tried to grab anything clean I could put on the wounds because they were horrific gashes [Lindsay, professional first-aid instructor]. You could see down to the fatty tissue and the tendons on her arm."
"When the paramedics came they put tourniquets on her arm and leg so she was bleeding quite a bit."
Lindsey Holmes, neighbour

Lindsay Holmes and Michael Holmes stand in their backyard. Behind them is the fence they jumped to save their neighbour being mauled by a pit bull.

"[It was a] freak accident. I train pit bulls. I train Rottweillers. All dogs that have teeth bite! If the owners are stupid, they have stupid dogs."
"It's like a two-year-old kid. If you train them properly not to be an assh---, then they won't be."
Garfield, Vanier neighbour

 The unidentified woman fortunate enough to have had neighbours come to her rescue while she was being mauled, lives in the house behind that of Lindsay and Michael Holmes, on the street backing on their own, in the Vanier area of Ottawa. Michael Holmes, interviewed in the aftermath of the incident where he and his wife saved the life of a stranger, spoke of his frustration at the presence of pit-bull type dogs in his community, plenty of them, despite that they're outlawed in Ontario.

The woman who had been mauled lives upstairs in the house she shares with her daughter, who lives in the downstairs portion of the house. Both mother and daughter each owned their own pit-bull-type dogs. The mother had gone downstairs in her daughter's absence to feed her dog, when it turned on her and began viciously mauling her. Fortunately for her the Holmes couple heard her frantic calls for help and they responded with alacrity.

Afterward, the daughter's husband said there was no history of aggression with the dog, they're unable to account for the attack, since his mother-in-law was familiar with the dog and often looked after it in their absence. "We're just devastated", he said, both presumably that his mother-in-law might have lost her life, and the very pertinent fact that his dog is now scheduled to lose its, even while the Ottawa Humane Society has been its temporary custodian, post-attack.

The ban on pit-bulls was brought into law in 2005. Any existing pit-bulls were exempt, but the dogs had to be sterilized and muzzled in public, as well as being kept on leash. That same law prohibits the ownership and presence of pit-bull terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers, American pit-bull terriers; in fact any dog which "has an appearance and physical characteristics substantially similar to any of those dogs".





Obviously, there has been little-to-no enforcment of the general ban, something the neighbours of the 50-year-old woman whose arm doctors were uncertain they would be able to save from amputation, were quite exercised about. The dogs owned by this very woman and her daughter were no more than three or four years old, their ownership in direct defiance of the law. "They're everywhere in Vanier. I almost lost my eye", said Guy Cloutier, of an episode where a neighbour's pit-bull attacked him.

"He [the pit-bull owner] didn't want to give me the money [he owed], so he sent his dog after me instead", he said, adding that the man was placed in jail and his dog taken into custody. "Lots of young men have them", said his friend Diane Monette with whom he had been strolling down the street when they were interviewed. "Crack dealers have them. It's really too bad." Another neighbour, Pierre, spoke of his own "weird guy" of a neighbour who allows his pit-bill to wander about without a leash or muzzle.



And then there was the man who divulged his first name only as Garfield, who said he has pit-bulls himself. And as he and the interviewer approached a nearby house the door opened and as it did two heavily-muscled dogs bearing the tell-tale square heads bounded out onto the street. At which point, Garfield, who was so effusive about the unnecessary fear of pit-bulls screamed out "Don't look at the dogs! Look at me!"



A month earlier, a 55-year-old woman was attacked by a pit-bull in her own backyard. Her funeral followed shortly afterward. Her neighbour's dog had gone into hers through a hole in their shared fence. "There's a need, and a want, to take some action on this, from all the neighbours I spoke to", said Michael Holmes. "Nobody wants this to happen a second time. Who's next? A child?"
 

Christiane Vadnais, left, died June 9 after she was attacked by what police described as a pit bull. (Facebook)

Good Intentions Gone Awry

"There are thousands upon thousands of dogs that come into Canada every year, and it's a completely unregulated process."
"Animals aren't supposed to make it into the country if they're sick, but we see it all the time."
"Why is a sick dog that has not been vaccinated against rabies and which can barely hold itself up ... allowed into the country?"
Scott Weese, Canada research chair, zoonotic [animal-to-human] diseases, Ontario Veterinary College

"The new reality is that translocation of animals, whether wild or domesticated, can drastically change an area's local rabies risk picture from one day to the next. Fresh approaches are needed."
Catherine Filejski, public health veterinarian, Ontario Health Ministry

"We're pushing the limits now, without any regulation, without anything, in effect, to slow this down."
"I don't know how bad it can get but I don't want to wait to find out."
Linda Rohdin, founder, Air Angels rescue group

Andrej Isakcovic/AFP/Getty Images   A photo taken on Jan. 28, 2014, shows stray dogs, among 450 that had found shelter and food in an improvised facility run by volunteers in Nis, 200 km south of Belgrade.

One of her volunteers, said Linda Rohdin, doing research on long-distance adoption, sifted through Facebook postings and by that expedient counted no fewer than 600 dogs that had been brought into the country in the space of one week. Duane Landais of Edmonton, former president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association adds: "There's probably tens of thousands of dogs coming into Canada every year, from areas where we don't know the disease status."

And it isn't just rabies. A whole spectrum of diseases have come into Alberta with the popular advent of foreign rescue dogs. Parasites rarely encountered in Canada, for one thing, and instances of Brucella canis, a virulent bacterium capable of infecting humans. Rescue dogs, according to Dr. Weese, have brought distemper, fatally infecting local dogs. Migrant dogs have also brought in leishmaniasis, a tropical disease capable of affecting both people and animals.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images   A stray dog is seen in January 2015 in Athens, where homeless canines are a common sight.

It's not as though there are no rules and regulations in place. The Canada Food Inspection Agency does have strict rules for the importaton of young dogs for commercial purposes. These regulations, however, are geared toward puppy mills, and rescue dogs present a whole other story, arriving with travellers who on entry to Canada claim them as their own, and presenting rabies certification which can be falsified.

The Public Health Agency of Canada's Communicable Disease Report points out another practise, that of adopting dogs from Canada's far north, from isolated First Nations communities. Dogs brought in from those venues bring with them allied problems. Puppies flown in from northern Quebec to Montreal and from Nunavut to Alberta and Saskatchewan between 2012 and 2014 appeared healthy.

They later developed rabies and the upshot was that some among them were euthanized while dozens of people were then treated for rabies.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images    Stray dogs use a pedestrian crossing on a busy street in the centre of Athens on Jan. 27, 2015.

This is a humanitarian trend, to rescue dogs from areas or geographic places where their lives are threatened, or where they have no lives to speak of. Well-meaning people become involved with the intention of doing good, hardly realizing the complications that can, and do result. A federal government journal recently documented three instances of stray puppies taken from Nunavut or northern Quebec where rabies is endemic among Arctic foxes ... leading to the situation where their new owners discovered the pups were rabid.

Dogs have been arriving in Canada from the Caribbean, Latin America, east Asia and the Middle East. Bogus rabies-vaccination certificates are used to expedite the dogs into Canada. Dr. Weese pointed out a crowd-sourcing campaign for a puppy that a Canadian tourist had happened to come across wandering about in Ecuador, "very sick". The dog was brought to Ottawa, and a veterinarian diagnosed parvovirus.

Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP   A stray dog and its puppy sit behind the railings in the middle of a highway outside Sochi, Russia, on Nov. 28, 2013. A cull was ordered on stray dogs prior to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, resulting in some dogs being rescued by Westerners.

Now, the council of all provincial chief veterinary officers is involved in preparing a statement that calls for greater regulation. Concomitantly, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association has also determined that action should be taken and they are in the process of drafting their own position. "Trans-boundary" shipments of dogs should include mandatory registration and a quarantine period, according to both veterinarians and dog advocates.

The plight of homeless and stray dogs around the world is heart-breaking; you bet it is. It is nothing short of devastating to many people to see these creatures in need, and not to respond to help them. If people who do respond in a manner they feel will be of estimable aid to a homeless animal because of their concern wonder why it is that the animal is in that situation to begin with, it is obviously because their feelings of empathy are not universally shared.

Those living in the area where the dogs roam, learning to look after their own needs to survive if they can as feral animals, obviously feel no overall societal responsibility to involve themselves to ensure that they are cared for. What the solution is within a society that shuns such responsibility is anyone's guess. But then, as human beings we're not so great at looking after the welfare and basic human rights of other human beings either.

Rising to the Occasion of Survival

"I knew it wasn't Joey [companion dog]. He [wolf] was baring his teeth and snarling, and ready to pounce. I was just kicking myself. I never go into the bush without my gun."
"Joey has had quite a bit of experience with charging bears. Usually, they take right off. The wolf didn't back down."
"He [the wolf] started pacing and crossing my path. He started directing me, basically. He kept forcing me to go further away from the road."
"Nobody in their right mind would walk through what I walked through. [It] was starting to get closer again, getting braver again. It was a long, long night."
"It was hard to concentrate and make decisions. At one point I stopped and did some prayers around those mosquitoes and asked my ancestors to help me forget about them."
"Out of desperation I decided to walk towards a cub that had been separated from her mom. They were a fair distance apart from each other… I was hoping that the mama bear would find the wolf that was also behind me before I reached the cub."
"Usually bears are pretty quiet, but she must have been panicked or worried about her baby [bear cub]. I just hoped like hell I wouldn't come between them. But I figured I'd rather die with a bear than die with a wolf. I knew they were fighting and I had no idea who was winning and I didn't care."
Joanne Barnaby, Hay River, North West Territory, Canada

Photo provided by Joanne Barnaby     Joanne Barnaby, left, reunited with her friend Tammy Caudron after fending off a wolf.

"[When you're collecting mushrooms] you're usually squatted down. Most animals respond when you're taller than they are."
"It's not unusual for wolves to follow somebody. Most often this happens in the springtime when wolves have their pups."
"They're escalating the person away from the den site. From the wolf's view, it's not intended to be overly aggressive."
Paul Paquet, biologist, adjunct professor, University of Victoria

Two friends out for a leisure day of mushroom picking, drove about an hour from where they live in Hay River to find the perfect place to pick mushrooms. What could be more natural than to take advantage of the abundance of natural food within relatively easy access to home? Set out with a friend with like intentions, and don't forget to invite your Rottweiler-terrier mix, since he'd have a ball roaming and snuffling about in the woods.

So that's just what Joanne Barnaby and Tammy Caudron did last week, looking forward to having a good mushroom hunt, fresh air, sun and exercise. They did have all of that, and more. The women decided in late afternoon to part so they could find areas they hadn't already depleted of their mushroom treasure. Alone with her dog, Joanne eventually decided to round up what she already had and return to where the truck was parked.

And that's when she heard the unmistakable warning sound of a growl that hadn't emanated from Joey. And saw a thin wolf standing before her, looking threatening and obviously not prepared to let her pass in peace. Her mind went into overdrive, thinking 'Where the hell's my gun?" Joey responded as a faithful dog protective of his human would, attempting to fight off the wolf. When Joanne tried to walk away quietly, the wolf would have none of it. She thought the wolf was intent on separating her from her dog, then realized it was its den the wolf was intent on separating her from.

Dr. Paquet who has studied wolf ecology for 45 years said that many human-animal confrontations occur at a time when people are busy picking or harvesting natural food in a forest. It was his opinion that wolves are more prone to putting space between themselves and humans under most circumstances. It is his contention that on this occasion the woman had inadvertently wandered too close to the wolf's den, and its reaction was to protect newborn pups from the presence of humans.

The pathway toward where the truck was parked was closed off to her, and Joanne Barnaby found herself stuck between fear of attack and avoidance of directly challenging the wolf, so she and Joey kept moving away from the wolf, toward increasingly rough terrain. By this time she was too far removed from the vicinity where she had left her friend to call out and too distant into the bush for a cellphone signal. She was tired, hot and thirsty, and mosquito-maddened.

She fell on her back across a log where most of the mushrooms she had collected tumbled, dispersing. But she did locate her knife along with an empty beer can. It was a cold night, she said later, and "the mosquitoes were driving me bananas". The wolf remained nearby and she felt it could sense her exhaustion. In the small morning hours she heard something; the sound of a bear followed by a higher-pitched sound; a bear and its cub, the mother searching for the baby after a separation.

This led her to move toward the cub-sound, and she could hear the two separate bear calls becoming louder. Then she heard a crashing noise which she took to be the bear and the wolf colliding with one another, and fighting. This was the cue she was hoping for, and she and Joey ran as fast as their fear and fatigue permitted. Eventually they found themselves at a lake where the empty beer can came in handy.

After an ordeal of 12 hours' duration they reached the highway where a Parks Canada worker helped her get back home.

Our Animal Heroes

"The villagers have started to get excited about farming their land again. You can see the light in their faces."
"[Some people remain skeptical of the utility of rate mine sniffers but] as we accumulate more data, the more we break down the skepticism."
"It's not often you hear people say that they love rats."
Paul McCarthy, Cambodia program manager, APOPO (Anti-Personnel Land Mines Detection Project)

"At first I thought: 'Rats finding mines? It's impossible'. But they proved they could do it."
Mark Shukuru, Cambodia project manager

Cambodia 'hero rats' clearing up to six million mines and other unexploded ordnance that kill and main rural dwellers. Denis Gray / The Associated Press

Rats, as adorable, fuzzy-clever little identifiers of the presence of land mines, working their busy little selves in the service of humankind, to undo the dread consequences of man's inhumanity to their fellow men? It's happening, as African pouched rats have been trained and pressed into service as TNT-detectors, communicating their finds to their handlers, and enabling the de-mining teams to clear huge fields loaded with landmines that continue to pose a deadly threat to villagers and farmers throughout the world.

With their sensitive sense of smell, and high intelligence these mice have worked in Mozambique and Angola, and now have been brought to northwestern Cambodia to help make vast areas of arable land mine-free. In Trach, Cambodia, finally two hectares around the village where over 15 people have been killed or wounded by explosives, have now been successfully cleared of the presence of mines thanks to the deployment of African rats. And more, much more is destined to be cleared.

"To me, these rats are wonderful", rapturously declared Khun Mao, a villager unable to cultivate his rice field for years upon end, and who now has high hopes that once all the mines have been removed, that hoped-for event will be bringing him back to the land. The Belgian non-profit organization APOPO has brought these African giant pouched rats to the country to do their magic and release villagers from fear of death, hoping to return to land they were forced to abandon.

Victoria, a 2-year-old rat, sniffs for TNT, sticking her nose high in the air to indicate she's found some. She works her way down a 10-meter line with a handler on either end, and is able to detect the presence of TNT at a distance of approximately half a yard.  Michael Sullivan for NPR

The little TNT-detectives wear pint-sized harnesses attached to a rope strung between two handlers about five metres apart, the men standing outside the danger zone. Darting from one handler to the other, the rats sniff the ground until they detect the (to them) unmistakable odour of TNT. Once one rat has made the discovery another will be deployed to make doubly certain of the accuracy of the first rat's detection. And that's when a de-miner with a detector steps up, digs up the mine and detonates it.

Rats are less expensive to acquire and to train than mine-sniffing dogs, and given their one-kilogram weight/size, are easier to transport. Their slight weight ensures they will not detonate pressure- activated mines and each rat is capable of clearing an area of 200 square metres in 20 minutes as compared to a technician carrying a mine detector who typically will take one to four days to complete the clearance of a similar-sized area.

Cambodia represents one of the world's most heavily landmined countries with an estimated six million pieces of unexploded ordnance remaining in the ground after decades of war. Khmer Rouge guerrillas fighting the Vietnamese army in the 1980s laid the mines at Trach. Across the country some 67,000 people have been killed or injured since 1979 as a result of the presence of those mines, leaving Cambodia with the highest ratio of mine amputees per capita in the world.

The rats work six days a week. On their days off they feast on apples, potatoes, watermelon and carrots. During the working day however, they eat peanuts, and as an especial treat, their favourite food, bananas.

In this Feb. 19, 2016, photo, a landmine clearing rat gets a favorite reward - a banana - after a morning's effort to sniff out mines still buried in Trach, Cambodia. African rats are the latest weapon enlisted to clear Cambodia of up to 6 million mines and other pieces of unexploded ordnance that continue to kill and maim rural dwellers. (AP Photo/Denis Gray)

Absent Social Conscience

"We receive calls from transit, public libraries, restaurants, you name it, it's regular."
Doctors don't have the expertise to determine if that dog is of good enough behaviour to be out in public."
Laura Watamanuk, executive director, Pacific Assistance Dogs Society

"It's just seemed to explode. This is a very pet-oriented society ... so when people see a legitimate [service] dog they think, 'Well why not my dog?' But they don't realize the ramifications."
Lynn Raloff, head, Guide Dog Users of Canada

imgur.com  This is likely one of those fake guide dogs.

It's human nature, it seems, to be resentful of what some view as special privileges extended to some within society, but not others. That the some to whom special privileges are extended are usually people who require those courtesies -- like parking for the handicapped, and permitting especially trained guide dogs entry with the people they guide -- seems not to adequately penetrate the minds of those who park in those spots regardless, and in the instances of some dog owners, claim their pets are entitled to special 'guide-dog' treatment.

It's true, we love our dogs. Why wouldn't we? They love us, and we're impressed that they're so dependent on us. They trust us and they like being around us, so why wouldn't we do our utmost to reward them, have them around us all the time to bask in the feel-good aura of their adoration of their owners? There are some places where dogs are permitted everywhere; certainly more so in Europe than in North America where there are municipal by-laws preventing people from bringing pets into places where food is sold.

As a hygienic, precautionary measure, even though it's true that some dogs are cleaner than some people. As a general rule, humans believe that there is a place for companion animals and it isn't where people tend to congregate in places of commerce. Although we're animals just as they are, we don't threaten to bite others, we just threaten them in other, more human ways. Since there has to be certain limits of permissibility in polite society where a social contract is generally accepted, we obey laws that permit animals trained to guide the blind or the hearing-impaired entry where other pets' presence is forbidden.

Since where there's a will there's always a way, people in British Columbia -- and for all we know elsewhere as well -- have taken to portraying their pet companions as guide dogs, though they are not, to gain them entry and favoured status. But there have been more than ample complaints about this growing phenomenon and the province has decided to address the issue; no longer, without an official permit may people be allowed to bring their dogs into grocery stores and the cabins of airplanes.

A new provincial law has declared that faux service animals will no longer be permitted to make their presence where they clearly do not belong. The Guide Dog and Service Dog Act had its second reading in the B.C. legislature. And under its provisions guide-dog owners are to be given government issued identification, not unlike a driver's license. The current system which accepts cards issued by certified guide dog training facilities has been too long abused.

Doting dog owners have been dressing their dogs in service harnesses and present fraudulent identification which business owners are wary of challenging. Ms. Watamanuk in her capacity as executive director of the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society frequently fields calls by irate citizens reporting suspicious actions with "service dogs" constantly barking, or being placed on chairs in restaurants.

Sometimes doctors' notes accompany the uncertified dogs, but as she points out, authenticating a dog as a service animal is beyond the professional scope of a physician.

Facebook/Government of British Columbia    This service dog is the real thing. The Guide Dog & Service Dog Act would provide the province's guide-dog owners with government-issued identification, similar to a driver’s licence.

Lynn Raloff, herself blind, and as head of the Guide Dog Users of Canada's recently initiated fake service dog committee has her own Labrador Retriever guide dog to help her 'see'. She explains that the fake service dogs' actions are impacting on the positive views in the public of real service dogs. People are bringing their untrained dogs into public spaces sometimes prone to bad behaviour, even attacking legitimate working dogs.

One eBay seller of "certified service dog cards" has boasted "my dog flies on all major airlines with me at no charge, as well as stays in all the hotels with me at no charge". And at the Internet site FreeMyPaws.com, an ID card kit can be had for $70, and an official-appearing service dog cape can be bought for $20. What a changed world we live in; at one time such baldly illicit behaviour would have been looked upon by society with distaste.

Veteran Traveler @veterantraveler

Wonder if @9news or @denvernews wants to meet this guy at the gate? Fake service dog bugging other passengers.

Is it the rise of cutsie social media messages where images of "service dogs" are common, wearing pink cowboy hats, getting into fights with other dogs, defecating in the aisles of planes in flight and generally giving a bad name to the legitimate service dogs trained to behave entirely differently? These irresponsible pet owners appear to believe it is their right in a free society to disport themselves in whatever manner they wish.

Why would they not, when all too often celebrities flaunt their special status by bringing their dogs with them where lesser mortals would never dare, insisting that their pets are "emotional support dogs".

For Love of a Dog

"Remember this is ICU -- you don't bring nothing in there. But I think they ran out of [ideas]."
"[Family dog choices] a brown-eyed Siberian huskie named Sasha. She's a pin in the butt. Then I have a Boston terrier named Matilda, which [Jack Bennett] loves. But we couldn't bring her because she's nippy. And then we have little Pipi. He's half sausage and half poodle. He's our cutie. He's our star."
"So we brought [Pipi] in and he was on the bed, because he's so tiny. And we put my father's hand on his fur. And then the dog licked him, and boom, a 180-degree turn!"
"My father woke up an ICU patient. My father woke up. He opened his eyes and started responding to stimuli.That's the love of a dog, eh?"
"Medical treatment helps, but love of an animal -- there should be more of that."
Susan Bennett, Montreal

Richard "Jack" Bennett, 84, with family dog Pipi in Châteauguay. 
Courtesy of Susan Bennett

Susan Bennett's world crosses between the medical community where she is a health worker at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, and an appreciation for the emotional-draw power of companion animals. She is very well aware how critical medical science is to the health recovery of a seriously ill person, but cognizant as well that sometimes it takes an extraordinary connection between humankind and canines to draw the former into a state of conscious health.

She has the example of her own father's situation as someone who was in dire need of a reason to return to life, a tactile, emotion-driven response that would draw him from where he was, hovering between life and death, to resume his engagement with life, after having undergone emergency brain surgery. Her father, Richard Bennett, had taken a nasty fall on the front steps of his daughter's house in Chateauguay, Quebec.

After the surgery to save his life, Richard Bennett failed to respond to all attempts to bring him back to consciousness. For a week, he remained in a coma post-surgery and nothing that doctors attempted served to revive the 84-year-old patient. He remained comatose. His daughter and her husband brought along an iPhone recording to his bedside, featuring the barking of the family's three dogs. Mr. Bennett's response was a faint stir, nothing more.

But even that hint of a stir, gave heart to Mr. Bennett's daughter. She felt that were her father to have the real-life presence of one of the family dogs at his bedside, he might very well respond fully. So she set about persuading hospital staff to enable her to bring one of the dogs that meant so much to her father into the hospital. The hospital has a firm no-pets-allowed policy, but special permission was given on this occasion to allow a small, life-saving dog into the Intensive Care Unit.

There was a full response, as hoped. Mr. Bennett remains in hospital recovering from his surgery, but he is fully awake and aware. "I haven't seen that kind of turnaround before, no", one ICU nurse commented. "We made an exception in this case", hospital spokeswoman Karina Sieres explained. Adding that it is the policy of the hospital to permit dogs to enter the hospital to comfort patients on palliative care and in oncology units.

She does remain a skeptic, however, remarking that the little dog cannot scientifically be given full credit for having brought the comatose man back to full awareness. Susan Bennett, however, knows better.

A Valorous Steed and Companion

"I only wish Jack Seely were here today to witness Warrior receiving the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross."
"My family and I are more than honoured that Warrior has been given this award on behalf of all animals that also served; we are truly humbled."
"Warrior's story -- which I grew up hearing at my mother's knee -- was lost in time to the wider world. But now he rides again, one hundred years later, thanks to PDSA."
"[... accepting the medal with] great pride and gratitude [on behalf of Warrior and all the] remarkable [animals of the First World War]."
Brough Scott, author, broadcaster, grandson of Warrior's owner and rider, General Jack Seely

Trusty companion: General Jack Seely wrote a book about his time at battle with his beloved war horse, Warrior, who he called a 'courageous animal'

An honorary Dickin Medal of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) was presented at a ceremony on Tuesday at the Imperial War Museum in London, England. The veterinary charity for the first time presented the honorary award, in its 97-years of existence. Through that presentation the PDSA gave due recognition not just to the contribution of Warrior, but to the gallantry demonstrated by all animals that had served on the front lines throughout the First World War.

General Jack Seely, who owned and rode Warrior valued his equine companion. Both now long dead, they did what they could to help advance the fortunes of Great Britain during the First Great War. It was the general's grandson who accepted the award on behalf of the family, to honour the bravery of the Thoroughbred horse. Arriving on the Western Front in 1914 with the general, Warrior distinguished himself there with courage and dignity.

The horse survived machine gun attacks and artillery bombardments at the Battle of the Somme. Warrior had been dug out of the mud of Passchendaele, was twice trapped under a burning stable, survived one charge at the enemy after another, presenting through his bravery under fire as an inspiration to the foot soldiers fighting alongside the mounted officers. Warrior was injured several times, but survived to return to live with the Seely family on the Isle of Wight after the war, in 1918.

"Warrior's gallantry and devotion to duty throughout World War One reflects the bravery shown by the millions of horses, dogs, pigeons and other animals engaged in the war", stated Jan McLoughlin, PDSA director general. The horse's extraordinary character, along with incredible twists of fate aided Warrior to survive the war when hundreds of thousands of horses were slaughtered throughout the course of the conflict.

Dedicated to the war horse: The charge at Moreuil Wood in 1918 was painted by Sir Alfred Munnings for General Jack Seely's book about Warrior

The battle of Mons on the French-Belgian border represented the first time General Seely rode Warrior through shellfire. It was to his great amazement that he discovered Warrior made no effort to run away. Instead, according to the general's recollection he "was pretending to be brave and succeeding in his task". Founded in 1943 by Maria Dickens, the PDSA Dickin Medal is recognized as the highest award an animal can be recognized with, while serving in military conflict.

During the time of its existence, 65 Dickin Medals have been awarded -- the recipients have been 29 dogs, 32 Second World War messenger pigeons, three horses (excluding Warrior), and one cat. Military Working Dog Sasha, who died while on patrol in Afghanistan, was given the award posthumously in May, representing the last recipient on record, to date.

It was Winston Churchill who intervened to secure the safe return of tens of thousands of war horses stranded in Europe after the First World War.

 

Alien Invasion

Species alien to the environment to which they migrate, whether by design or by accident, usually have no natural enemies and if and when the species that have migrated, whether animal or vegetable, have not been a part of the ecology, but find the environment congenial to their prolonged presence, they prosper by settling into the new ecology finding a niche for themselves with a food source that will prolong their lives, and then they set about reproducing. And if they also happen to be particularly resourceful and thuggish by nature they are capable of pushing out native species, sometimes by aggressively growing or feeding on things that native species have always relied upon.

Whether it's kudzu, introduced from Japan, or dog-strangling vine from eastern Europe or Purple Loosestrife that overwhelm other growing things by growing up, around and over them, or the zebra mussels that have proven an aquatic pest, or the predatory oriental fish capable of spreading their nasty presence by brief overland travel from lake to lake, they're a menace. The insect or mould species that have invaded, threatening indigenous tree species like Dutch Elm disease or the Emerald Ash Borer, ensure that nature's plan is upset by an invading species of some kind when inadvertence, carelessness, or someone's decision to illegally bring a plant or a reptile from one continent to another, threatens the local environment.

The giant African snail has a reputation for damaging buildings, destroying crops, and even potentially causing meningitis in humans. Like the Asian Carp invasion, people value them for the table, as part of their cultural cuisine, and have brought them to North America where some of the fish have been loosed into local lakes, proliferated, and caused a giant headache because of the reality of their voracious appetites and threat to local species' survival.

The threat they pose to the Great Lakes is immeasurable, should they ever succeed in populating those vulnerable waters. The Florida Everglades have been invaded by alien snake species, among them the Burmese python that is capable of growing to huge dimensions, and posing a threat to all other animals in the environment, let alone human beings.

 














So when the U.S. Department of Agriculture discovered the presence of giant African land snails, a species that some people fancy keeping as pets, and many others view as food for the table, they were alerted to the need to destroy those animals in an attempt to halt their colonization of wherever they happen to be placed in the environment, through careless indifference to the damage they are capable of creating. The USDA seized over 200 snails from a Long Island, N.Y. individual who identified a Georgia seller as his source. From the Georgie entrepreneur they took another thousand snails.

Their swift capture wherever they appear is a necessity since they're capable of tremendous multiplication, producing 1,200 or more offspring each year. These are large snails, which grow larger than fist-size, with no natural predators. In Florida, Agriculture officials have been trying to eradicate them for three years. In Miami, they have been discovered eating plaster and stucco on houses and eating their way through plants in residential gardens.

In Florida alone, the Department of Agriculture has discovered in 26 areas 141,000 snails to be destroyed. Should they succeed in gaining entry to rich agricultural areas, the creatures which eat 500 types of plants inclusive of row crops and citrus, would be enabled to ruin entire crops. Arriving accidentally in cargo or on peoples' luggage, some are collected by hobbyists, and they're used in some African religious ceremonies, or cosmetic processes, as well as being considered an edible delicacy.

Giant African snails like these damage homes and crops and can cause meningitis, authorities say. Photograph: Scott Burton/AP

Creepily, according to the U.S. federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Giant African land snail can also carry a parasitic worm that can lead to meningitis. It remains legal to import frozen giant African snails to the U.S. and some European countries permit entry to live snails. An entomologist at the USDA specializing in snail and other species' identification intercepted in international commerce has his own safety warning: "Don't play with snails when you are on vacation."

For that matter, giant Asian carp, or Burmese pythons, as well.

Fuming In Technicolour

"My frustration is palpable. It was made quite clear in the beginning that we were going to be on our own on this. Then as it became clear that the whale might have cachet -- and the international media got involved -- things changed quickly."
"We now have a 24/7 security on the whale provided by DFO [Department of Fisheries and Oceans]. So, it was our responsibility and they were going to let that whale decompose, right in a community in Grois Morne National Park, where the home nearest to the whale is a few hundred feet away. And now they are not asking us, but telling us, that this is what's going to happen."
"We are a people tied to the sea. And yet, when one of these rare creatures visit us, even in this circumstance, it is being taken away. I would have hoped we would have at least had some input."
Mayor Paul Matthews, Trout River, Newfoundland

A rotting blue whale lies in shallow water after washing ashore in Trout River, Newfoundland, April 30, 2014, in this handout courtesy of NTV News. REUTERS/Don Bradshaw/NTV News/Handout via Reuters

That's a pretty contrarian view. After all, this picturesque town of just under 600 less than a week ago was desperately contacting federal and provincial agencies to find out which might assume the responsibility of taking a 60-ton blue whale off their hands, or more specifically off the stony beach where town kids usually skip stones into the ocean. The appearance of the sadly deceased king of the ocean sent the town into panic mode.

It contacted the Canadian Coast Guard, Environment Canada, and Oceans and Fisheries Canada, hoping that someone somewhere might get involved and remove the whale, one of the marine wonders of the world, but in death a decided liability. There were fears, as the carcass rotted, that gases would build up in its swelling body to eventually erupt into an explosion. There were fears that children would get hurt, playing around the giant beast. There were fears of someone falling into the rotting body, drowning in its foul liquid.

And there was the undeniable smell of rotting whale flesh. The bloat was threatening, the odour was oppressive. Until, lo and behold the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto had struck a deal with DFO, to send their marine experts, a team of ten, to cut up the whale, dispose of its blubber, and return, in manageable pieces, the hugely valued skeleton to Toronto by transport truck. It would represent a superb specimen -- it, and another beached, dead whale in another outport town in Newfoundland.
 

The corpse of a 25-metre blue whale washed up on the shore in Trout River, N.L. last week. Nine blue whales were crushed to death in ice off the coast of southwestern Newfoundland.
Jeremy Crocker/Submitted

However, just as DFO had second thoughts and the ROM stepped into an opportunity to access a pair of superb skeletons for study and display, so too did the town have second thoughts. They were thinking of terms of how superb an opportunity had presented itself felicitously to them; all that international media interest, and the chance to have a tourist draw, a giant whale skeleton of their very own to be left on the beach as an irresistible bit of marine curiosity.

Of course, Trout River has an annual operating budget of $330,000, and as it happens the cost of carving up and carting the poor beast to Toronto would cost about that. The Trout River locals would much prefer the work be done, and they be the recipients of its tourism value, the whale to be left in situ where the Trout River Blue Whale Museum could be established with a little bit of federal funding.

Right. A tragedy for endangered Blue Whales, a triumph for marine science and local tourism.

Living With Nature

"It is still too early to tell if he will survive but we are doing everything we can to ensure he has the best chance for a successful rehabilitation for the eventual release back into local waters."
Lindsaye Akhurst, manager, Vancouver Aquarium Maritime Mammal Rescue Centre

Vancouver Aquarium handout   An injured sea otter lies on Whiffen Spit, B.C. The otter — now dubbed “Wiffen” — is resting in a specially designed flotation sling and being hand-fed every two hours at Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre.

Up until the 1960s, sea otters had been threatened by extinction on the West Coast of British Columbia. They had been hunted mercilessly, and by 1929 their perilous existence was threatened. Later that decade 89 Alaskan sea otters were brought into the area for an repopulation effort. As of 2008, 4,700 sea otters were counted in British Columbia.

Their numbers, on the other hand, have plummeted in Alaska, with tens of thousands disappearing over the past 20 years. Researchers believe that the Alaskan decline of sea otters owes to the concomitant increase in presence of killer whales. Alaskan orcas can eat up to 300,000 sea otters in a single season.

There are times when nature's balance goes out of whack, and this is one of those times, evidently. Recently, one of the descendants of those original 1960s 89 transferred sea otters injured a hind flipper. Sea otters must consume over 30% of their body weight in food daily. With an injured hind flipper, this fellow's food-gathering abilities had been fatally hampered.

It just happened that this ill and dying sea otter washed himself up on a Vancouver Island beach last Saturday, next to a popular Greater Victoria hiking trail. When he was discovered close to death, an alert went out to the Marine Mammal Rescue Centre in Vancouver. The sea otter had hauled himself ashore on Whiffen Spit, a peninsula close to a restaurant and inn, suffering from seizures, emaciated and close to death.

Sunday, atop Mount Seymour, photo J.R. Rosenfeld

Starting out on their journey from Vancouver to Sooke Harbour at 5:00 a.m. Sunday, driving through a rare coastal snowstorm, the rescue centre's van drove the 3.5 hours to Sooke. They stabilized the ailing otter and rushed him back to Vancouver. "We weren't optimistic that he would survive the trip", said Ms. Akhurst.

But he is now in "24-hour intensive care" at the rehabilitation centre close to downtown Vancouver. Whiffen, named after where he was discovered in extremis, is receiving oxygen, being fed by hand every two hours, and undergoing a series of diagnostic tests. It will take hundreds of volunteer hours, and cost an estimated $30,000 to complete the healing process for this sea otter. There there is no guarantee that these time-and-cost-intensive efforts will be successful.

Vancouver Aquarium handout     Whiffen the sea otter is attended to after being found near death on a Vancouver Island beach. The Vancouver Aquarium’s Marine Mammal Rescue Centre says it is too early to tell if he will survive.

The Maritime Mammal Rescue Centre has been in operation for a half-century. It rehabilitates roughly 100 animals yearly, funded almost completely through private and non-profit donations. Their specialty happens to be harbour seals. They most often return an injured seal to the wild for a cost of about $2,000. A year ago the centre took in a porpoise stranded near Victoria, unable to swim. Staff hung him in a flotation sling, hand-fed him, treated him for a lung infection and applied physiotherapy.

It took 4,100 staff and volunteer hours, but Levi, for such he was named, was sent back into the wild in September. In October the centre treated a sea otter named Walter, blinded by a shotgun blast, off Tofino. It cost $30,000 on that occasion, but medics were successful in rebuilding his damaged flipper and teeth. Because he is blind he will live permanently in the aquarium.

CBC News    Whiffen the sea otter was emaciated with injuries to his hind legs.