Mammals

The cats of a woman who died in the 6.6-magntitude earthquake that hit Turkey's Aegean coast on Oct. 30 have been adopted after they underwent treatment.

Süheyla Erdönmez died under the wreckage of the eight-story Rıza Bey Apartment in Bayraklı district, which collapsed to the ground due to weak infrastructure after the earthquake that killed 116 people and wounded 1,034 people.

Coronavirus cases have been spreading fast among workers at mink farms in the province of Western Macedonia, the hub of Greece's fur industry. Authorities believe it is the humans infecting the mink and not vice versa. So far, both authorities and owners agree that there should be no mass slaughter of animals as happened in Denmark.

Fossils of a turtle and three teeth, thought to be of the ancestor of elephants (Proboscidea), believed to be some 7-8 million years old, have been found in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri.

Excavation works that were initiated three years ago, along the Yamula Dam in Kocasinan district's Taşhan neighborhood, have been continuing ever since.

After several decades of low numbers, the return of the lynx to the European forests is slow but steady. The Eurasian lynx was once quite common in most of Europe.

Security forces in the Mediterranean province of Mersin have seized 145 kilograms of whale vomit with a market value of 11 million Turkish Liras ($1.6 million).

Toroslar district police department teams took action upon notice that there was a whale vomit substance used in perfume production at a facility in the Çilek neighborhood.

Poachers have killed at least six elephants in a single day in Ethiopia, wildlife officials said on Tuesday, the largest such slaughter in memory in the east African nation.
The elephants died last week, when they ventured out of the Mago National Park in the far south of Ethiopia to drink water, Ganabul Bulmi, the park's chief warden, told reporters.

A young Mediterranean monk seal and three striped dolphins have been found dead with obvious signs of violence in the northeastern Aegean in recent days, according to a marine conservation group that reported more seal killings earlier this month.

False killer whales, generally found in tropical and temperate waters of major oceans, have been spotted in northern Aegean Sea for the first time in 25 years.
Eight false killer whales floating in open sea some 6 miles away from Imbros island were recorded by a fisherman.

Turkish Agricultural Minister Bekir Pakdemirli said that 23 fallow deer that will be released into nature in the western Manavgat and Köyceğiz districts are now in an adaptation process.

The number of fallow deer, whose natural population continued only in the resort town of Antalya and remained at only seven about half a century ago, reached 500 after a protection project was launched.

A project has been going on for more than half a century to increase the population of fallow deer among endangered species.