"Bird flu was in decline -- but health officials warned Monday that it appears to be on the rise again. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) "urged heightened readiness and surveillance against a possible major resurgence" of the virus, which has crossed over from birds to infect 565 people and kill 331 of them since its appearance in 2003."
A rash of rhino horn thefts, "as many as 30 so far this year, have been reported in museums, galleries, antiques dealerships, auction houses and homes across Europe as criminals try to feed a growing demand in China and other Asian countries, where medicine made from ground rhino horns is believed to act as an aphrodisiac and to cure cancer and other diseases."
"Pine Tree facility in the Tehachapi Mountains faces scrutiny over the deaths of at least six golden eagles, which are protected under federal law. Prosecution would be a major blow to the booming industry."
"The Supreme Court chose [Monday] not to take up the question of whether a woman could sue to force the relocation of a cell phone tower in order to protect migrating birds."
"The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that some chicken meat may contain small amounts of arsenic, though the agency is stressing that the amount is too tiny to be dangerous to people who eat it."
"From chainsaws to flute solos, the lyrebird can mimic almost any sound it hears. But eavesdrop on this magical bird, and what it is singing can sometimes be troubling."
"Some of Britain's most cherished spring visitors are disappearing in their thousands. Ornithologists say species such as the cuckoo, nightingale and turtle dove are undergoing catastrophic drops in numbers, although experts are puzzled about the exact reasons for these declines."
"Two of the most well-known penguin species in Antarctica -- chinstraps and Adelies -- are under pressure because a warmer climate has cut deeply into their main food source, shrimp-like creatures called krill."
The media frenzy started by the mass death of some red-winged blackbirds in Arkansas was based on ignorance. Such mass kills of wildlife occur all the time in nature and have natural causes, biologists say.
"It wasn't a secret government spraying program, Martians or gas seeping out of the New Madrid fault that killed the 5,000 or so blackbirds that died New Year's Eve in Beebe, Ark. It was someone shooting off professional grade fireworks in a residential district, scaring the night-blind birds out of their roost into a 25-mph flight that ran them into houses, signs and even the ground, says Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist."
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