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Pythons turn their food into meat pretty efficiently, a study finds, making them an intriguing alternative to climate-unfriendly cows. Put aside your chicken cutlets and meatloaf and say hello to python curries and satay skewers. Some snake scientists think eating these reptiles—already customary or at least acceptable in parts of the world—might help lessen the damage our food choices have on the environment. With some eight billion people on the planet today, all of whom require protein to stay healthy, finding new sources of these nutrients is a crucial issue. But how do you get from the challenge of providing...

Zanzibar, Tanzania — Eight children and an adult died after eating sea turtle meat on Pemba Island in the Zanzibar archipelago, while 78 other people were hospitalized, authorities said Saturday. Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy by Zanzibar's people even though it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning. The adult who died late Friday was the mother of one of the children who succumbed earlier, said the Mkoani District medical officer, Dr. Haji Bakari. He said the turtle meat was consumed Tuesday.

Haiti is "in a state of chaos" as brutal gang members attack police officers with machetes, a journalist in Port-au-Prince has claimed. Violence has plagued the country's capital of Port-au-Prince for years, but the situation has escalated drastically as gangs demand that Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry resign. A state of emergency has been declared in the country after gangs attacked two prisons, setting many criminals free. It is now thought that 80% of the Haitian capital is controlled by these gangs. Describing the violence in the country, a journalist said that cannibalism has been witnessed on the streets as...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. wildlife managers on Friday proposed federal protections for a rare lizard found only in parts of one of the world’s most lucrative oil and natural gas basins. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the dunes sagebrush lizard should be listed as an endangered species due to the ongoing threats of energy development, mining and climate change in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. The agency will be collecting public comments on the proposed listing through Sept. 1. Environmentalists have been pushing for protections for the reptile for decades, resulting in petitions and lawsuits. There...

A farmer, 72, fell into a crocodile enclosure in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap Luan Nam was pulled in when one of the reptiles pulled on the stick he was using A 72-year-old farmer was killed by 'about 40 crocodiles' this morning after falling into their enclosure on the family's reptile farm. Luan Nam was trying to move a crocodile out of its cage in Cambodia where it had laid eggs when it grabbed the stick he was using as a goad and pulled him in. A group of reptiles swarmed him, tearing his body to pieces and leaving...

Millions of fish are harvested across the world each year, but nearly half are killed due to diseases. However, studies have found that by inserting alligator genes into catfish, their survival chances increase by fivefold. The gene, dubbed cathelicidin, contains properties that protect reptiles from infections when wounded. Typically, farmers treat sick fish with antibiotics, but this contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But now scientists at Auburn University in Alabama are fusing the DNA of the two species. Scientists used CRISPR to insert the alligator gene that codes for cathelicidin into catfish. It found the survival rate of...

A 19-year-old Florida man snagged the top prize in the state's 2022 Florida Python Challenge after capturing and removing dozens of the reptiles. Matthew Concepcion was awarded the ultimate prize of $10,000 after he caught 28 Burmese pythons during the annual contest, according to a Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation news release this week. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the challenge has, once again, "yielded impressive results" after 231 invasive pythons were removed during the 10-day competition. "Removing these snakes is one of the many efforts we are employing to restore and maintain the Everglades ecosystem," DeSantis said.

JAKARTA (AFP) – Four calves of the world's rarest species of rhino have been found in remote jungle on Indonesia's Java island, giving hope to efforts to save them from extinction, an official said Tuesday. "Four Javan rhinos of six to seven months age were seen by scientists on the beach near the jungle during a recent field survey," Agus Primabudi, the head of the Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java, told AFP. Alerted to the presence of humans, the baby rhinos fled into the park to where two adult rhinos aged roughly 35 to 36, believed to be...

Sightings of alligator gar - dubbed “monster fish” in mainland China - which authorities fear could trigger an ecological disaster have been reported in at least eight provinces. This followed the draining of an entire lake in central China on the weekend that eventually caught a pair of the invasive fish species. The large species of freshwater fish, which has razor-sharp teeth and can grow up to three metres long, has captivated the nation after a high-profile, month-long hunt for it that culminated in the draining of an entire lake in the city of Ruzhou in Henan. Now other parts...

“Genyornis was two meters tall and 200 kilos. We don’t know exactly what it would have looked like because it’s been dead for a while and there are few skeletal remains available. It was certainly a flightless bird with some characteristics shared with ostriches, like the big chest and small wings, but it would have looked more like a big goose or duck,” The evidence that humans were eating these large eggs comes from burnt eggshells found among the remains of ancient cultures. Scientists studying these sites find two different types of eggshells, one of which comes from emus and...

Proteins extracted from fragments of prehistoric eggshell found in the Australian sands confirm that the continent’s earliest humans consumed the eggs of a two-metre tall bird that disappeared into extinction over 47,000 years ago.Burn marks discovered on scraps of ancient shell several years ago suggested the first Australians cooked and ate large eggs from a long-extinct bird – leading to fierce debate over the species that laid them.Now, an international team led by scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Turin have placed the animal on the evolutionary tree by comparing the protein sequences from powdered egg fossils to those...

Two men found with a car full of Kentucky Fried Chicken and around $70,000 in cash were arrested as they tried entering New Zealand's largest city, in violation of its tough COVID-19 lockdown measures. The pair, who were described by the New Zealand Police as gang associates, were traveling near Auckland, where restaurants remain closed and are not allowed to take takeout orders. "Officers noticed a suspicious looking vehicle travelling [sic] on a gravel road and upon seeing the Police car, the vehicle did a u-turn and sped off trying to evade Police," a police news release said.(snip) Photos released...

The giant tortoise, one of nature's vegetarians. Or is it? This video shows the astonishing moment an Aldabra giant tortoise hunts and kills a noddy tern chick.It's the first time this behaviour has ever been documented and changes what scientists thought they knew about the species. A study of the slow-speed hunt has been published in the scientific journal Current Biology."Everybody knows, or everybody thought they knew, that tortoises are vegetarians," he says.

In April, Rocky Matthews started finding dead lambs on his farm near Murtaugh Lake. At first, Matthews thought someone had killed the animals with a pellet gun. The animals all had puncture wounds the circumference of a No. 2 pencil. It wasn’t until he saw an eagle attack his flock that he realized the true culprit. A large eagle nest has existed on his property for more than 20 years, but the birds have never affected his farming operations. Currently, the nest is home to two adults and at least two babies. “They’ve never crossed paths till this year,” he...

A member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives has filed a bill that calls for the establishment of a Bigfoot hunting season in the state. The audacious idea is reportedly the brainchild of Rep. Justin Humphrey, who reportedly put forward the proposal on Wednesday. The fairly succinct resolution, which can be read here, states that "The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission shall promulgate rules establishing a big foot [sic] hunting season. The Commission shall set annual season dates and create any necessary specific hunting licenses and fees." It remains to be seen whether or not the bill will wind up receiving...

For cultured meat—which has gone by many names including lab-grown meat, clean meat, or slaughter-free meat—the question has not been “if” but “when.” The development of growing animal cells into edible meat has continued, only the timeline was uncertain. Back in 2016, an Israeli company called SuperMeat even took a guess, suggesting their lab-grown chicken would be available by July 2021. Turns out they weren’t far off, but they also weren’t the first ones to get there. This weekend, Eat Just—which until recently was best known for its plant-based Just Egg—will become the first company in the world to have...

Snake and eggs? Floridians could soon eat invasive pythons Python Bowl kicks off Friday in Florida Everglades Python Bowl kicks off Friday in Florida Everglades FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Donna Kalil estimates she’s eaten a dozen pythons in the last three years or so. That’s not including the python jerky, says Kalil, a python hunter for the South Florida Water Management District. “I eat that several times a week because I take it out with me on python hunts and I eat it out there.” State officials would like to see more people like Kalil putting pythons on the menu...

Vicasso Lara held without bond in Lee CountyA Florida man was charged with torturing and killing a dog that he later baked in an oven, according to authorities. Vicasso Lara, 24, stabbed and beat the dog before placing it in an oven and heating it to its highest setting, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release posted on its Facebook page. “I’m speechless,” Sheriff Carmine Marceno said. “This is possibly the most brutal and horrific example of animal abuse my team or I have ever seen.” Deputies were called to Lara’s home by a neighbor who said...

Most people in the UK are committed meat eaters – but for how long? My new research into the views of meat eaters found that most respondents viewed veganism as ethical in principle and good for the environment. It seems that practical matters of taste, price, and convenience are the main barriers preventing more people from adopting veganism – not disagreement with the fundamental idea. This could have major implications for the future of the food industry as meat alternatives become tastier, cheaper and more widely available. My survey of 1,000 UK adult men and women found that 73% of...

A North Carolina couple cooking a frozen pizza Monday inadvertently charred a snake that somehow found its way inside the oven, a report said. Amber Helm and her husband, Robert Helm, found the “crispy critter” 10 minutes into cooking their dinner when they noticed a foul smell emanating from the stove at their Wake Forest home, according to The News & Observer.