Cyclone Rusty

Cyclone Rusty, A radar image of cyclone Rusty as it nears Port Hedland in western Australia. Photograph: Australian Bureau of Meteorology/Reuters
A major storm has missed Australia’s major iron ore port and crossed a sparsely populated stretch of the west coast.

The country’s meteorology office said in a statement on Thursday that cyclone Rusty was weakening as it tracked inland from the coast of Western Australia state but remained destructive with gusts up to 78mph.

Port Hedland was left relatively unscathed by the storm in which gusts reached 140mph late on Wednesday night as it crossed the coast from the Indian Ocean to the south of the town.

Residents were returning to their homes from storm shelters on Thursday after the danger was declared passed. The iron ore export facilities were shut down on Wednesday for fear of damage.

Balcony Collapse

Balcony Collapse, A balcony has collapsed on Sydney’s north shore, injuring eight people.

Police say they were called to the accident at the apartment building at Lane Cove just after 10pm (AEDT).

They say 11 people had just finished dinner on the timber balcony when the balcony collapsed.

The second story balcony gave way as they were heading inside, plunging some of the family members up to seven metres.

Eight people were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital with a range of injuries, five thought to be serious but not life-threatening.

Inspector Darren Hoschke from the New South Wales Ambulance Service says the patients suffered limb, spinal and pelvic injures.

“The scene… initially was chaotic with eight patients scattered over the ground, ambulance had to prioritise their injuries and then we went from there with the assistance of the police and the fire brigade,” he said.

Inspector Kim Simpson from Fire and Rescue NSW says it is not immediately clear why the balcony collapsed.

“As far as we can see it looks quite a well made balcony,” he said.

Crews say it was lucky no-one was buried in the rubble.

Engineers will return to the site this morning to try to determine what caused the balcony to give way.

Police says WorkCover NSW and the local council are likely to be involved in the investigation.

A spokeswoman for the Royal North Shore says four of the injured have been released from hospital.

African Elephant Babies

African Elephant Babies, DAVID ATTENBOROUGH’S new wildlife series, Africa, has amazed viewers with its revealing insights into the continent’s animals. But this week’s episode sparked a storm when it showed the painful, lingering death of a baby elephant. Viewers demanded to know why the BBC crew didn’t step in and save the creature.

Here, the series producer explains why that wasn’t possible.

WS-EX-N you go to Africa, you have a plan of what you want to achieve. But the subjects you’re filming – the animals – haven’t read the script.

The death of the baby elephant was something we hadn’t planned and it was something we could not prevent. We wished we could have but it was impossible.

Helpless … James Honeyborne

You have to understand the scale of the problem. The year before the elephant’s death, a drought was already starting to take hold.

We saw hippos in a spring. They were thin and ill because there was no grass to eat.

A year on, there was not enough hay in the whole of Kenya to feed the animals of the Amboseli park, even for just a week.

To have fed them at all would only have prolonged their agony.

During the drought, the number of wildebeest in the park fell from 6,000 to 150. Zebras fell from 7,000 to fewer than 1,500.

It was the worst drought for 50 years and this baby elephant was far from the only one dying.

Death was all around – and people were dying, too. This natural tragedy was so huge we were powerless to help.

We were just there to record it so the outside world could understand. Trying to intervene with that tiny elephant would have caused such stress to its mum that she might well have harmed herself trying to protect her baby.

The crew were heartbroken, as cameraman Mark Deeble explained in the making of the film.

We had to let nature take its course and, luckily, the story does have a happy ending. The rains eventually came and the mum had another chance to have babies.

In fact, after the rains returned, more than 200 baby elephants were born – a record.

It was heart-wrenching to see the baby die. The crew were haunted by it. I can understand why our viewers were upset and thought we could have done more but I hope this helps them understand.

We are there to share the gloriousness of Africa – the good and the bad. Drought and famine regularly occur yet we rarely see the effects on the wildlife.

That’s the sometimes sad reality of nature.

African Elephant Pounds Of Food

African Elephant Pounds Of Food, African elephants (Loxodonta africana), also known as African bush elephants or African savanna elephants, are the largest living land mammal. African elephants have a large head, large ears, and a long muscular trunk. The two front incisors of African elephants grow into large tusks that curve forward. Tusks are present in both male and female African elephants. The African elephant’s trunk has two fingerlike outgrowths, one at the top edge of the tip and another on the bottom edge. These outgrowths, also called proboscides, enable the elephant it to pick up small objects and strip leaves from trees.

African elephants, like most elephants, require a great deal of food to support their large body size. They can eat up to 350 pounds of food each day and their foraging can drastically alter the landscape. The African elephant’s predators include lions, hyenas, and humans.

The basic social unit in African elephants is the maternal family unit. Sexually mature males also form groups while old bulls are somtimes solitary. Large heards can form, in which the various maternal and male groups mix.

African elephants are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN. The main threats facing African elephants are hunting and habitat destruction. The species is targetted by poachers who hunt the elephants for their valuable ivory tusks.

Diet:
African elephants are herbivores. They feed on plant material such as grasses, buds, fruits, leaves, roots and bark.
Size and Weight:
About 13 to 16 feet long and 4?-7¾ tons
Habitat:
African elephants once inhabited a range that stretched from the southern Sahara Desert to the southern tip of Africa and reached from the west coast of Africa to the Indian Ocean. Today, African elephants are restricted to small pockets in southern Africa.
Reproduction:
African elephants reproduce sexually. Females become sexually mature between the ages of 12 and 14 years. Pregnancy is 22 months long and is timed so that calves are born during the rainy season when food is plentiful. When born, calves are large and mature slowly. Since calves require much care as they develop, only one calf is born at a time and females only give birth about once every five years. In captivity, elephants breed poorly or not at all.
Classification:
African elephants are traditionally considered to be one of two species of elephants, the other being the Asian elephant. Recently, however, scientists have suggested a third species of elephant. This new classification still recognizes Asian elephants as a single species but divides African elephants into two new species, the African savanna elephant and the African forest elephant.
Evolution:
Elephants closest living relative are manatees. Other close relatives to elephants include hydraxes and rhinoceroses. Although today there are only two living species in the elephant family, there used to be some 150 species including animals such as Arsinoitherium and Desmostylia.

Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya, Maasai Mara (Masai Mara) is known as Africa’s Greatest Wildlife Reserve, situated in southwest Kenya. Famous for the abundance of lion, the Great Wildebeest Migration and the Maasai people, well known for their distinctive custom and dress, it is without a doubt one of Africa’s most famous safari destinations.

Maasai Mara National Reserve stretches 1,510 sq km (580 sq miles) and raises 1,500-2,170 meters above sea level. The terrain of the reserve is primarily grassland and riverine forest with clumps of the distinctive acacia trees. It’s about 270 km from the capital city Nairobi and takes about 5-6 hours by road or 40-45 minutes by flight.

The Maasai Mara Ecosystem holds one of the highest lion densities in world and this is where over TWO MILLION Wildebeest, Zebra and Thomsons Gazelle migrate annually. Its hosts over 95 species of mammals and 570 recorded species of birds.

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