odds ’n’ ends
Great white sharks are discovering what tourists have known for years: Cape Cod is a great place to spend the summer.
The latest data from a multiyear study of the ocean predators found that the number of sharks in waters off the vacation haven appears to be on the rise, said Greg Skomal, a senior scientist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the state’s top shark expert.
But that’s no reason to cancel vacation. The sharks are after seals, not humans, and towns are using the information from the study to keep it that way.
“How long does it stay and where does it go are the questions we’re trying to answer,” Skomal said. “But for the towns, it’s a public safety issue.”
Researchers using a plane and boats spotted 147 individual white sharks last summer. That was up slightly from 2015, but significantly more than the 80 individual sharks spotted in 2014, the first year of the study , funded by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
More than half the white sharks spotted last summer hadn’t previously been documented by this study.
Researchers have also tagged more than 100 to track their movements.
The white shark population is probably significantly larger, because the scientists can’t possibly spot all of them, Skomal said.
Two of the more interesting findings are the increasing number of young sharks, and that they appear to be swimming farther afield. (AP) Five dozen elephants used their trunks on Monday to scoop up bananas, melons and pineapples from baskets at a special buffet laid on in Thailand’s ancient capital of Ayutthaya to celebrate the national animal.
For centuries, elephants carried warriors into battle, took a key role in royal ceremonies and provided haulage for logging and other industries, in the absence of machines.
Today they are more likely to be part of tourist attractions — where the animals are often mistreated, however, say rights activists.
“We plan to reduce the exploitation of elephants as much as possible,” said Laithongrien Meepan, the manager of the Elephant Kraal and Village in Ayutthaya, where the buffet took place on Thailand’s Elephant Day.
At the event, a Buddhist monk sprinkled holy water on some of the elephants and their trainers. Spectators also watched a pair of the animals lock tusks to reenact a scene from an ancient historic battle.