Radio Netherlands Worldwide:

A rare Sumatran tiger has died after his transferral to an Indonesia park was aborted and he was put on a second flight because passengers complained about the smell, an official said.

The eight-year-old big cat was being sent with other animals on a commercial flight Tuesday from Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island to a conservation centre on Java island.

But during a scheduled stopover in Medan, Sumatra, the national carrier Garuda Indonesia decided to unload the animals and fly them back to Banda Aceh, citing passengers’ complaints about unpleasant odors, said provincial conservation agency chief Afan Absory on Thursday.

“When the tiger arrived in Banda Aceh on the same day, we found out that it was already dead,” he told AFP. The tiger was flying alongwith a gibbon and two bearcats, which have a distinctive smell…

Reuters:

Activists with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested what they called poor conditions for killer whales and their trainers at SeaWorld San Diego on Wednesday, a week after filing a federal complaint saying the theme park had failed to keep incompatible animals apart.

The group is protesting a September 20 incident when they say a killer whale at the park, named Nakai, lost “a dinner plate sized chunk of flesh” after another orca attacked him…

Go Erie:

With more than 4,500 stores in the United States, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the world’s leading retailer.

But Mercy for Animals, a California-based animal rights group, is urging the retailer to follow the lead of what it calls a growing list of restaurants and grocers that have said no to the use of so-called gestational crates to confine pregnant sows.

Mercy for Animals brought its point of view and a giant 10-foot inflatable pig — housed in an inflatable crate — to the Elm Street Walmart store late Wednesday morning…

Mirror:

A fun park owner is threatening to sue the Met Office – for wrongly predicting bad weather.

Fed-up Rick Turner, 47, claims “needlessly pessimistic” forecasts have cost him at least £20,000 in lost business.

He says the Met Office’s predictions are too bleak – putting off tourists from visiting his Big Sheep family attraction in Bideford, Devon, and has taken legal advice on suing the Met Office for lost revenue…

Wildlife Extra:

As Curiosity searches for evidence of life on Mars, discoveries of new life on our own planet are still being made. Often nowadays they include some new inset species, or some fish; perhaps even a couple of frogs, and very occasionally a new mammal. 

A team of scientists from Peru and Mexico, led by Gerardo Ceballos of the Institute of Ecology (IE) of the UNAM (National University of Mexico), and Horacio Zeballos of the Natural History Museum of Arequipa, have made a series of discoveries, including potentially eight new mammal species, that may be one of the most important findings for biodiversity in recent decades in the Peruvian Andes…