A game farmer has been mauled to death by a buffalo on his Free State farm. Willie Cronje farmed in Boshoff and was also a qualified doctor. The incident was witnessed by his 18-year-old son.
Cape Medical Response recently got a call to transfer a patient to Constantiaberg as an emergency. But they were stopped at the Chapman’s Peak toll first. According to Entilini Concession – the company that operates the road – even ambulances must stop and pay the toll fee, “irrespective of whether it is an emergency.”
On the back of the dreadful news that eight rhino carcasses were found in the Kruger National Park within the space of 24 hours the day before yesterday, a South African columnist and well respected journalist has asked whether we should be farming rhino.
The Cape Town City Bowl has, luckily, had a fairly quiet fire season. Just before midday today, a fire started on Signal Hill, and drew the attention of two helicopters, which brought it under control rapidly. Pictured is the yellow Working on Fire, chopper dropping water from its Bambi Bucket.
Ever wondered how many times a bungee cord can be used before it snaps? The answer, as an Australian tourist recently found out, turns out to be about 50 000 times. Miraculously she survived her 111-meter nosedive into the Zambezi River – video after the jump.
Scientists researching previously unexplored deep-sea vents in Antarctica stumbled upon a host of new species, including hairy-chested crabs, ghostly octopus and predatory starfish, in what has since been dubbed a “lost world”.
Yesterday we brought you an update on the news of the hunter who has paid nearly a million rand to shoot an endangered trophy white rhino. But where rhinos are poached, there are even more far reaching implications, not least finding the resources to care for their orphaned young.
A public and media outcry followed the release of information that a KZN businessman, who has not been identified, made a winning bid of R969 150 for the right to hunt a male white rhino in Mkuze Game Reserve. Rhino hunting permits are actually issued far more often than you might think.
At the moment, Samoa is the last country to see the sun go down every day, but a change in the international dateline will now make it the first to see the sun rise. Samoa is getting ready to skip a day and shift its time zone forward by 24 hours.
Shell has just alerted Nigerian coastal communities that up to 40 000 barrels of crude oil was spilled on Wednesday off the coast of the Niger delta while it was being transferred to a tanker about 120 kilometres off the coast. The spill is likely to be the biggest in a decade.
A team of scientists has finished developing a cheaply manufactured paint-like product prototype that they hope you will eventually be able to put on the outside of your home. The paint will generate electricity from light – electricity that can then be captured and used to power the appliances and equipment on the inside of your home.
National Geographic announced yesterday that we have lost a staggering 443 rhinos to poaching this year – a number that seems to climb exorbitantly on a daily basis. It’s with open arms that the country welcomes the sentencing of Hsu Hsien Lung to six years imprisonment for his part in rhino horn smuggling.
Two male African penguins recently made worldwide headlines after it appeared the two might be gay. As it turns out, Toronto Zoo’s gay penguins were not really gay after all. A female has come between them, and they have officially been split up.
It’s official – Earth and Mars are similar enough for terrestrial life to be sustained on the red planet. Australian scientists have confirmed that organisms from our planet can survive on a substantial percentage of Mars. This study is said to be the best estimate yet of how habitable Mars is for Earth-dwelling microbes.
Not only are the beds about 77 000 years old, but it appears they were also designed to ward off insects like mosquitoes. The fossilized material has been found at an ancient cliff shelter known as Sibudu, which is near to Durban on our east coast, and continues to fuel the debate that modern man evolved out of Africa.
On the back of the dreadful statistics that poachers have killed a new record of 405 rhino’s in South Africa since the beginning of the year, comes the news that the Kruger National Park will immediately halt the posting of rhino sightings on its notice boards.
Taiwan has the fourth largest shark-finning industry in the world, but it will soon become the first Asian country to ban the practice of removing shark fins in open water. But the majority of Taiwan’s glamorous hotels have refused to take shark-fin soup off the menu in order to do their bit for the cause.
In September, the science world was left in shock when workers at the world’s largest physics lab announced they had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light. Now, measurements by an opposing team of physicists suggest neutrinos cannot have travelled faster than the speed of light.
Thailand’s Thai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department confirmed that a total of 562 people have already died during the more than three-month long flooding taking place there, which is the worst in over 50 years. Nevertheless, some Thai residents affected by the flooding have begun dealing with the lemons that life has thrown at them in unique ways.
Barack Obama will visit Australia tomorrow, and the US President isn’t taking any chances with those fearsome Aussie crocs. He’s been issued with a crocodile attack insurance policy, which will pay out more than $50 000 on the off-chance that he should be fatally attacked during his tour of crocodile-infested Darwin, where ‘Crocodile Dundee’ was set.
“Humphrey’s like a son to me, he’s just like a human. There’s a special relationship between me and Humphrey”. These words were uttered by Klerksdorp farmer, Marius Els earlier this year. Pictures were also taken of him happily riding on his 1 200kg pet bull hippo’s back. But on Saturday night, Humphrey the hippo gouged Els to death by repeatedly biting him.
The Black Rhino Range Expansion Project recently successfully transported 19 black rhinos 1 500 kilometres across South Africa. They did this by airlifting each rhino by its ankles before carrying it upside down! Read exactly why they do it this way, and see some amazing images of this process, after the jump.
If you’ve been following the development of the rhino poaching issue in South Africa recently, you will be pleased to know that two Thai nationals, suspected to be central to an international rhino poaching syndicate, were arrested at OR Tambo International this morning.
Jamie O’Brien is a well-known Hawaiian pro-surfer. He recently decided to create some awareness surrounding fibropapillomatosis – a herpes-type virus that affects sea turtles. His “campaign” involved posting a picture of himself “riding” one of these turtles underwater. But it turns out he may have instead broken laws against harassing turtles, as well as offended fellow Hawaiians who consider these creatures as ancestral guardian spirits.
A new laser is to be built that is as powerful as “concentrating the rays of the sun for the entire earth onto the tip of a pen”. Scientists claim it could allow them boil the very fabric of space, AKA the vacuum. Because that’s a fantastic idea. It is official, mankind has a death-wish.
A second fatal shark attack, believed to be by a Great White, has occurred off the Australian west coast – the second such attack in 12 days. A 32-year-old US man was mauled to death off Perth’s Rottnest Island on Saturday. By Sunday, Australian authorities were hunting the shark.
Pictures of a “cyclops shark” , taken in Mexico, appeared online recently. Too strange to be true, it was quickly written off as a hoax. Until now. Scientists have revealed that it is in fact a 22-inch-long dusky shark fetus. It has a single, functioning eye that’s front and centre on its head.
Sometimes, taking a loved one, or a potential loved one, on a scenic drive and stop-off along either the Table Mountain or Signal Hill roads, is quite a winner. Romantics, be aware, the roads have now been closed to unauthorised vehicles, between 22h00 and 05h00, in an attempt to prevent crimes from occurring around these charming routes.
As many as 48 wild animals, including lions, tigers, bears, wolves and cheetahs could be on the loose in the vicinity of Zanesville, Ohio, after they escaped from a private wildlife sanctuary, police said last night. Officer’s say they have shot 25 of the animals so far, but it’s not clear exactly how many escaped, or where they are now.
These amazing images were captured in Zambia next to the Luangwa River by Martin Nyfeler. Watch as an elephant mum finds herself in a wild tug of war with a crocodile after it gets hold of her trunk. Scared and unable to help, her baby hides behind its mother as the crocodile attacked. See how this story ends inside.