Outbreak of 'Frankenstein' rabbits with face tentacles now poses threat to HUMANS: Doctor warns which states disease will spread to next
Originally spotted in Colorado, these bizarre rabbits, with tentacle-like growths sprouting from their faces, have now been reported in Minnesota, , and .
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Solar may account for half of new US electricity added this year, EIA says
NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Developers are on track to add 33 gigawatts of solar power in the U.S. this year, accounting for about half of the total new electricity generating capacity planned for the country in 2025, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. If the plans are realized, large-scale solar power additions in the U.S. would reach a record high, said the EIA, which based its analysis on a survey of developers. New battery storage, which stores electricity from solar farms and other energy sources, may also hit a yearly record in 2025. Wind and natural gas power plants accounted for the rest of the capacity additions, the EIA said. Solar energy does not produce global warming emissions. That makes it central to plans by U.S. states to decarbonize, while also meeting record-high electricity demand brought on by Big Tech and other expanding industries. Many of the federal government financial incentives that propelled the development of solar power over the last several years, however, will disappear under the administration of President Donald Trump, adding uncertainty to future development of the technology. Texas, which last year surpassed California as the state with the most large-scale solar capacity, accounted for more than a quarter of the solar power developed so far in 2025. For the rest of the year, the Lone Star State plans for another 9.7 gigawatts of new solar capacity, or nearly half of all of U.S. solar planned for development over the time period. Texas' sunny weather, availability of large amounts of land and quickly-increasing power demand have drawn solar energy development.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Mutant deer with horrifying flesh bubbles spotted in US as fears of an outbreak grip the nation
Deer across the US have been spotted with tumor-like growths hanging off their bodies, joining rabbits and squirrels as animals showing signs of widespread disease. From the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest, pictures on social media continue to document cases of strange bubbles growing all over local deer, from their faces to their legs. Over the last two months, people have photographed deformed deer in New York, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Wildlife officials have already identified the condition as deer cutaneous fibroma, better known as deer warts. The condition is due to a virus transmitted between deer in all parts of the US, and experts have warned that it's spreading this summer. The virus mainly spreads through disease-carrying insects like mosquitoes and ticks, which pass on the blood of infected deer to healthy animals nearby. Since these potentially deadly pests breed and multiply in warmer weather, Americans should expect to see more cases of the condition wherever deer may live. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said: 'Papillomas are most frequently seen during the late summer and into the fall, probably due to increased biting insect activity during this time of year.' This year, Americans have also been encountering mutated rabbits and squirrels which have been spreading their own species-specific viruses throughout the US. These animals have dealt with similar sores and growths on their bodies as well. The condition spreading through deer this summer is part of the same broad family of viruses that can affect humans, known as papillomaviruses, which target the skin and mucous membranes. In humans, papillomaviruses cause conditions like common warts, plantar warts, and genital warts, and some strains are linked to cancers such as cervical or throat cancer. While both deer and human papillomaviruses lead to growths by infecting skin cells, the deer version is species-specific, meaning it's adapted only to infect deer and cannot jump to humans or other animals due to differences in how the virus attaches itself and enters cells in different species. Deer warts can be small, like a pea, or grow as big as a football, appearing gray, black, or fleshy and often hairless. While disease-transmitting insects are believed to be the main culprit spreading the virus, direct contact with the warts may also infect deer. Dr Kristin Mansfield, a wildlife veterinarian in Washington state, told FOX13 that deer can spread the virus if they share the same feeding areas, sleeping spot, or rubbing posts - usually a tree males use to mark their territory during mating season. Deer warts are found across the entire range of white-tailed deer in North America, so they're common throughout the US, with no specific state being much more affected than others. However, the condition is rarely fatal. The deer's immune system fights off the virus, and the warts shrink and disappear on their own after a few months. In rare cases, if the warts grow too large or become infected with bacteria, they can cause problems like blocking a deer's vision or ability to eat. One medical expert told the Daily Mail that Americans should expect diseases like this to continue spreading as temperatures get warmer throughout more of the year. Dr Omer Awan of the University of Maryland School of Medicine explained that climate change has allowed mosquitoes and ticks to live longer and also spread to areas they don't normally inhabit. While deer can't spread deer warts to people, they can bring illnesses such as Lyme disease to populated areas, which is passed on to humans through the ticks they carry. 'These temperature changes are resulting in diseases that were never endemic in certain areas to become endemic,' Dr Awan said. 'If you take a look at Lyme disease, for example, we're starting to see it in areas that we never saw it before... places like southern Canada, northern states on the East Coast, like Maine,' he added. Deer warts are not a new condition afflicting wildlife. Scientists believe it has been around for centuries, and studies on papillomaviruses affecting wildlife in the US go back to the 1950s. While climate changes in recent years are helping the virus to spread, Dr Awan noted that there's one other factor contributing to the increase in deer wart sightings: social media. 'People are starting to talk about it more, they're starting to document it more on social media, and hence, there's been a lot more discussion about this,' the doctor explained.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
When a sick possum showed up in my garden my heart overtook my head. Is it ever OK to feed urban wildlife?
Chopping vegetables in my kitchen on a winter afternoon, I was startled by the sound of rustling branches and loud coughing coming from my back yard. I walked outside tentatively, prepared to face a fence-hopping intruder. Instead, after a few minutes of listening to evenly timed wheezes, I spotted it – a small brushtail possum, tucked behind lilly-pilly branches bowing over my fence. Through the leaves, two black eyes peered desperately into the afternoon sun, eyelids dotted with pus. Its pink nose was swollen and its body and limbs were a patchwork of rashes, with pieces of fur missing across its torso. Huffing and bloodied, the possum looked like a once-loved teddy bear – greying, losing its stuffing and left to decay in the garden. My bleeding heart took over my head and I dashed inside and grabbed a bag of frozen berries, dumping a handful in a glass of water to thaw before wandering out and dropping a few wet fruits on the fence. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Over the afternoon I watched the sick possum pick up berries, nibbling while purple juice dripped off its chin. As the sun set it put its head into its chest, wheezing itself to sleep. Feeding native wildlife is a divisive topic. While some throw mince to kookaburras with wild abandon, others tut tut, insisting it's best to let them fend for themselves. I called the wildlife rescue organisation Wires, which advised us to capture the possum so it could receive veterinary care. As my husband slowly approached with an old bath towel, in a scene not dissimilar from the 1931 film Dracula, the possum suddenly reanimated, screeched loudly then scampered into the night. Despite its terror it was clearly tempted by the prospect of more thawed-out berries because a few days later it returned. But I was not keen on trying to catch the possum again. After seeing it thrash around in fear, I worried that the stress of the ordeal might actually hasten its death. Diligently, and against best advice, I began leaving food for it. Providing slices of apple and carrot seemed like a neighbourly thing to do. But regular offerings might harm an animal more than they help. Brushtail possums in a natural environment eat native shrubs, plants and leaves. This is why a professor of behavioural ecology, Clare McArthur, says feeding brushtail possums should largely be avoided: 'What are we doing to their gut flora? How good is [the food] we're feeding them? 'If they become reliant on us, what happens when we go away?' John Grant from Wires says feeding poses other risks, too. 'They can also become 'humanised' and lose their natural fear of potential predators including domestic pets,' he says. 'Possums (and native birds) are best fed with native foliage, so planting native trees and shrubs endemic to your area helps provide them with a natural food source.' Male possums being routinely fed can also become stressed when other males, keen for an opportunistic meal, encroach on their territory, which they naturally want to defend, according to a Taronga veterinary nurse, Annii Downing. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion McArthur says giving a brushtail the odd piece of healthy food might not be a cardinal sin. 'Now and then, it would be OK, because one of the virtues is that we start to value the wildlife around us. So it's not a yes or no thing. It's a fine line.' While official advice on wild animal feeding skews negative, Prof emeritus Darryl Jones from Griffith University agrees that responsibly interacting with urban wildlife can increase people's compassion for animals. 'No wild animals in Australia need extra food,' Jones says. 'The reality is, millions of people every single day are feeding birds, and can't find any information.' Compelled to counter this information void with facts, the behavioural ecologist, bird feeder and author of 10 books wrote a popular Australian field guide to urban birds, Feeding the Birds at Your Table. 'If you Google 'What should I feed my magpies' you'll get inundated with huge amounts of negativity,' he says. 'That's my thing … to reconnect people with nature. 'Only when people care about, look for, observe and just try and understand the wildlife around us will they care enough to protect them. 'That's the big philosophical side to this.' Just under a year on, I still see the possum on our fence. Its wounds have healed, it no longer wheezes or wobbles. Instead it has taken to chewing my veggie patch, gnawing rainbow chard and parsley down to the mulch line every few days. While I used to enjoy my own harvest, I now laugh at what the picky possum has chosen and wonder why it doesn't like lemon thyme. Some nights, it seems as though there's been a possum party. I wake to lilly-pilly fruits strewn like confetti across our concrete back yard. And every so often my husband still leaves out an apple slice for the possum. Even though we know we shouldn't. Philosophically, though, I think it is sound.
