MANILA, Philippines— A saltwater crocodile has killed a fisherman in Bataraza town in Palawan and police said his left leg was bitten off while the other was almost severed.
The body of Edwin Lucero, 36, was found covered with bite marks and floating in a river in Rio Tuba village at 6 a.m. Wednesday, Bataraza police chief Senior Inspector Aldrico Nangit said.
“His right foot up to the knee was missing and his left foot was ripped off,” Nangit said. “Several wounds and teeth marks of the crocodile were seen on his body. It’s too tragic.”
Lucero, a resident of Rio Tuba village, went missing while collecting wood on a riverbank on Tuesday, with residents reporting hearing heavy splashing, said Nangit.
Elephants naturally understand when to lend a helping trunk much as people know when to lend a helping hand, displaying a complex level of cooperation confirmed only in humans and our closest relatives until now.
Planes operating at the Philippines' main airport are facing a growing danger from waterbirds descending there after losing nearby swamps to development, authorities said Monday.
Airlines complained last month to the Manila International Airport Authority about the worsening problem of birds flying into planes, Alex Cariaga, head of the airport's ground operations safety division.
He said the Airline Operators Council, a group representing all carriers that serve Manila airport, said there had been 23 incidents in which birds were sucked up into jet engines last year.
The so-called "bird strikes", which could cause a plane to crash, was up from just nine in 2009, Cariaga told AFP.
However there had been no major incident yet due to the bird strikes.
Cariaga said the problem appeared to worsen after developers reclaimed some small lagoons near the airport runway last year to build warehouses.
"We thought it was a good thing because we expected the birds to move elsewhere," he said.
However the birds, mainly egrets, instead moved to the grassy areas beside the runway to hunt frogs, grasshoppers, lizards and other prey.
Cariaga said pilots frequently contacted the control tower for help whenever they saw birds wandering onto the runway.
He said the airport's 15-member ground safety team has to then scramble to the runway with noisemaking equipment to scare off the birds.
The Philippines is a key pit-stop on the East Asian-Australasian flyway, in which enormous numbers of birds fly between the northern and southern hemispheres to escape cold weather.
Apart from the migratory birds, Cariaga said the team also had to deal with domesticated pigeons that were raised by surrounding communities.
"These pigeons would descend in large flocks. We have asked the local governments to discourage residents from raising birds, but truth to tell, there is no ordinance right now that bans the practice," he said.
Bedbugs have terrorized homeowners and tourists around the world, but US researchers say their genetic analyses of the beasts may lead to better ways to kill them off.
Entomologists at Ohio State University found genes that appear to be pesticide-resistant, according to their findings published on Wednesday in the online Public Library of Science.
"Pinpointing such defence mechanisms and the associated genes could lead to the development of novel methods of control that are more effective," said study co-author Omprakash Mittapalli, assistant professor of entomology.
The study was funded by the US government and carried out at the university's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
"While bedbugs are poised to become one of the major household pests across the United States in the coming years, we know very little about their genetic makeup and their mechanisms of resistance to insecticides," said Mittapalli.
No one has escaped the infestation, including luxury hotels in New York and Paris, costing billions of dollars annually in extermination efforts by businesses and homeowners.
The six-legged nocturnal creatures feed on blood. They don't transmit diseases but people who are bitten often suffer red, itchy welts. They can hide in box springs, closets, shoes and luggage, which allows them to travel, according to the National Pest Management Association.
The researchers called their work "the first study to elucidate the genetic makeup of the insect and to obtain fundamental molecular knowledge regarding potential defense pathways and genes that may be involved in metabolic resistance to commonly used pesticides."
They analyzed both laboratory-reared bedbugs susceptible to insecticides and pesticide-exposed bedbugs collected from an apartment in Ohio state's capital city of Columbus.
More studies are needed, they said, to confirm that some of the genes are involved in pesticide resistance.
The bedbug was a minor nuisance after World War II because of the widespread use of insecticides such as DDT, which was later stopped because it was found to be too dangerous.
Other factors for the spike in bedbugs in recent years include more international travel, increased exchange of used furniture and the development of resistance among bedbugs to current pesticides, the researchers said. They estimate bedbug numbers have increased 500 per cent in the past decade.
Eagle conservationists here have successfully hatched what they claim is the 24th Philippine Eagle (Pithecopaga jefferyi) bred in captivity.
The still unnamed eaglet, which weighed 116.5 grams, broke out of its shell after 57 days of incubation at the Philippine Eagle Foundation Center in Malagos here around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday.
The egg was produced by the natural pairing of Jag and Ka Brianne. It was the 10th offspring of the pair.
“It's good news for the critically endangered Philippine Eagle; one more will soon join you in the wild," said PEF executive director Dennis Salvador.
The PEF has been trying to breed eagles in captivity to increase the bird's population.
Experts believe there are only 500 pairs of eagles remaining in the wild.
The Philippine Eagle, one of the world's largest birds of prey, larger than the American Bald Eagle, was declared an endangered species in 1965.
In July 1995, President Fidel Ramos declared the Philippine Eagle the national bird.
