Interesting Bits and Pieces
From recent happenings or stories around Australia and the world.
The New Holland Mouse, thought to be extinct, rediscovered on Tasmania's Flinders Island
For the first time in 17 years, a species of mouse described as a "dumpling on legs" has been discovered on Tasmania's Flinders island.
It was feared the New Holland Mouse, known scientifically as Pseudomys novaehollandiae, was extinct, with the last evidence of its existence detected over 12 years ago at Waterhouse Conservation Area. The mouse was captured sniffing a stick of peanut butter on a remote camera on Flinders Island. Further surveying will be used to inform a national recovery plan for the species
Halima Cisse, 26, who made headlines around the world in May when she gave birth to nine babies, poses proudly alongside her husband Kader Arby, 35, with their incredible brood. When MailOnline visited the family at their hospital in Morocco in July, the babies were all still being kept in incubators after their premature birth. Now they have grown and Ms Cisse says she is looking forward to taking them home to Mali. Speaking to MailOnline, she said: 'All of them are getting on very well, and are a joy to look after. They are getting stronger every day.'
The Australian island (pictured) is famed for its sparkling turquoise ocean and spectacular coral reef. But it has a murky history dating back to the darkest days of World War Two.
Epson International Pano Awards 2021
The competition received 5,378 entries from professional and amateur photographers in 97 countries.
Joshua Hermann from the USA was declared the overall winner, thanks to his swampland images.
This entry in the Amateur Built Environment category is by Russian photographer Petr Ushanov. It shows a sunrise over Kizhi Island on Onega Lake in Russia's Republic of Karelia.
NSW outback stations to be converted into national parks to save flora and fauna.
The 120,000-hectare Avenel Station north of Broken Hill is the latest in a series of acquisitions by the state government designed to reshape the state's far west. It's the second-largest property purchase in New South Wales National Parks history.
Avenel and Koonaburra Station, near Ivanhoe, were part of two new deals that added more than half a million hectares to the national parks estate since 2019.
Is this the weather that the planet will be experiencing over the coming years?
Tornado touches down off the freeway in Lake Charles in Louisiana | Daily Mail Online A Twitter user shared a video of an ATV that was picked up by the storm in Orange, Texas and sent flying
An average of 132 tornadoes touch Texas soil each year. The annual total varies considerably, and certain areas are struck more often than others.
More tornadoes have been recorded in Texas than in any other state, with 8,007 funnel clouds reaching the ground between 1951 and 2011, thus becoming tornadoes.
Texas ranks 11th among the 50 states in the density of tornadoes due to its size, with an average of 5.7 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles per year (or 100 mi x 100 mi area) during this period. However, the arid southwestern 1/3 of the state experiences very few tornadoes annually, so the adjusted average number of tornadoes per square mile for the remainder of the state is much higher at roughly 9 to 11 per 10,000 square miles, ranking Texas among the highest occurance rates in the country.
The greatest outbreak of tornadoes on record in Texas was associated with Hurricane Beulah in September 1967. Within a five-day period, 115 known tornadoes, all in Texas, were spawned by this great hurricane. Sixty-seven occurred on Sept. 20, a Texas record for a single day.
The greatest number of tornadoes in Texas in a single year is 232, also in 1967. The second-highest number in a single year is 1995, when 223 tornadoes occurred in Texas.
Old graves recently discovered under Sydney's Central Station
An 181-year-old burial vault, containing 11 graves, being uncovered during excavations for the new metro platforms.
The name plates on the graves date back to as early as 1840. This is the second grave with a legible nameplate to be uncovered during construction work on the new Sydney Metro platforms.
The Central Station site was once the Devonshire Street Cemetery, which was closed in 1867. Despite most of the graves being removed prior to the construction of Central Station in 1901 when authorities exhumed about 35,000 bodies from the site, more than 60 graves and five vaults have been discovered since.
Huge dust storm blankets outback Queensland town of Thargomindah
Late this afternoon, 28 October 2021, winds up to 93 kilometres per hour brought the wall of thick brown dust through the town of about 270 people.
Posted this just because it caught my eye on another site... the long-tailed Laughing Thrush.
What a spectacular little bird.
Critically endangered regent honeyeaters released as fight to save species continues
Nearly 60 captive-bred regent honeyeaters have been released in the Hunter Valley on Wonnarua country.
This wild regent honeyeater was found breeding in the same bushland as the Hunter Valley release site. Photo: Mick Roderick and Mindaribba LALC. Overlay... a drawing of mine.
Birdlife Australia says the program works, with birds released in 2017 recently spotted nesting.
Rest in Peace Bert Newton!!
Photo credit: News.com
Bert is to have a state funeral....
Threatened marsupial brush-tailed mulgara found at Uluru, delighting both rangers and researchers.
More than 40 rangers, researchers and schoolchildren teamed up for a fauna survey at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The number of animals uncovered, including the threatened mulgara, was a "nice surprise" given low rainfall.
As if the planet is not crowded enough!
Indian woman 'has her first child at AGED SEVENTY' to become one of the world's oldest new mothers - as she and husband, 75, conceive a son through IVFJivunben Rabari welcomed a son through IVF this month. Jivunben, from Gujurat, India, was unable to prove her age, which she claims is 70, but could be one of the world's oldest new mothers.