"Devon"

Page last revised:
3rd November 2004

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DATE: ANIMAL: LOCATION:
January 2001 BOA CONTRICTOR Not Known
15th January 2002 GIANT SQUID Plymouth
31st July 2003 SNAKES . Parracombe
1st August 2003 GREAT WHITE SHARK Croyde
10th April 2004 RACCOONS Ilfracombe
19th October, 2004 MONKEY THEFT Teignmouth

 

BOA CONTRICTOR
Two Devon-based parents of a new-born baby were horrified when their eight-foot pet boa constrictor started taking far too much interest in their child. It kept attempting to approach the child when the couple brought their new-born infant home from hospital in January 2001. A constrictor snake can kill an infant with no problem at all RSPCA. The snake was only 18 inches long when they purchased it five years previously, but despite their pet's massive increase in size they still allowed it the freedom to roam around their home. The concerned couple turned in desperation to the RSPCA as their pet became aggressive when they tried to contain it to a smaller space. Their snake was found a new home and RSPCA north Devon branch animal collection officer Diana Lewis said: "Every time the couple allowed the snake anywhere near the baby the creature would head straight towards it. A constrictor snake could kill a baby no problem at all."

January 2001

File: 2001-14
Ref No:

Croyde
GREAT WHITE SHARK
'Great White Shark' spotted
Experts are taking seriously a sighting reported by a young lady of a "Great White Shark" off the Devon coast. it was reported by a teenage holidaymaker from Birmingham, she is very keen on marine biology and is adamant about what she saw.

These fearsome predators are usually found in warm temperate seas. But the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth says she may be right. The wittiness said she spotted the shark through her binoculars off Baggy Point, near Croyde.

'Spitting fish'
She said: "It was white on its belly and on its back it was grey. "The fin was black with a ragged back edge. It was spitting the fish out after biting them and then going back for them, which is indicative of a Great White."

Great Whites are often mistaken for Porbeagle sharks these are native to our UK shores. The Porbeagles are currently hunting close into shore for mackerel. But experts say if her information is correct, she did indeed see a Great White.

Rolf Williams of the National Marine Aquarium, said: "Her account is particularly interesting. "The level of detail she given us helps us to try and pick out whether it was a Porbeagle or that elusive Great White." The nearest confirmed sighting of a Great White to the South West coast has been some 200 miles away in the Bay of Biscay.

A Great White had also been reported off the coast near Padstow in Cornwall by a group of experienced fishermen during August 1999. And there have been a number of other unconfirmed sightings around the South West coast since.

This month two conservationists are to scour the Devon and Cornwall coastline for evidence of Great Whites. Richard Peirce, 55, from Bude, North Cornwall, has teamed up with South African shark expert Craig Ferreira to explore a 70-mile stretch of the North Cornwall coast to attempt to locate and tag an animal.

BBC News
1st August 2003

Contributed by: Mark Fraser
Scottish Big Cats.
www.scottishbigcats.org

File: 2003-03
Ref No: 747 also 798

Did you know:

  • That unlike many other sharks the Porbeagle Shark must swim at all times in order to breathe.

  • The Great White Shark is ovoviviparous, and thr females give birth to 4 to 14 live pups and may only reproduce 4 to 6 litters in a lifetime. the Great White reach sexual maturity at 10 to 12 years of age.

Comments:
I have spoken with Douglas Herdrson of the National Marine Aquarium at Plymouth and below are his comments about this issue:

From: "Ian K. Fergusson" <ian.fergusson@zoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 8 Aug 2003 14:20:29 +0100
Subject: Media briefing note - Cornish 'white' sharks

BRIEFING NOTE: GREAT WHITE SHARKS OFF SW ENGLAND
On Friday 1 August 2003, national news media began carrying a story describing an alleged sighting of a great white shark in the nearshore waters of North Devon.
The story - coupled to growing press & public interest in the possible presence of these sharks off Southwest England - grew in stature through the weekend and was widely cited by some news media, often uncritically, as credible evidence.
We have very genuine concerns that uncritical reporting of this story will inspire unfounded worries about bather / surfer / diver safety off Cornwall and Devon, through a supposed risk of shark attack. There may also be inspiration for a JAWS-style, 'yahoo' response, with people targeting sharks for publicity, or indeed inspiring a crop of hoax 'sightings', perhaps some even using digitally-modified pictures as 'proof'.
In the aim of encouraging moderation, and factual and balanced reporting with a basis on scientific fact, we hope the following briefing notes will prove useful for any newsrooms dealing with this story, which is very likely to be covered again in the days and weeks to come.
(1) The possibility of these wide-ranging, globally-distributed sharks sporadically roaming to UK shores as vagrants cannot be discounted, and we anticipate such records might well occur in the future. However, we have yet to see ANY compelling evidence to suggest this has already happened. Indeed, the scientific enigma is why these sharks have NOT yet been recorded from British shores, and not 'why are they here'?
(2) For background to the known occurrence of white sharks in Eastern North Atlantic / European waters, a review has been prepared for journalists at
http://www.zoo.co.uk/~z9015043/atlantic_white_sharks.htm
from which you are very welcome to freely quote. It summarises the following full work (copies available on request) –
FERGUSSON, I.K. 1996. Distribution and autecology of the white shark in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean & Mediterranean Sea. pp 321-345, Chapter 30 In: (A.P. Klimley & D.G. Ainley, eds.) Great White Sharks: The Biology of Carcharodon carcharias. Academic Press, San Diego.
(3) The matter of 'global warming', reported in various media alongside this story, is a 'red herring'. White sharks inhabit waters between as low as 6 to as high as 28 deg. C., from cold sub-Antarctic right to the equator; also boreal (near-Arctic) areas such as Gulf of Alaska, Labrador, etc. So why are white sharks so incredibly rare in European Atlantic waters? We have no idea, but it has nothing to do with water temperature. The enigma is all the greater, given that an (increasingly beleaguered) centre of abundance and reproduction for white sharks is located in the adjoining Mediterranean Sea, from where a handful of captures are reported each year (the latest from off Croatia, a fortnight ago).
(4) The latest Devon 'shark' story was again carried this morning (4 August) by broadcaster GMTV, who also showed footage of a supposed 'great white' shark off Cornwall, shot in 1999. This footage clearly shows (with 100% certainty) a harmless basking shark - common in those waters. Despite corrections made to editors back in 1999, it is worrying to seen that this clip is still being touted as 'evidence' of a Cornish white shark. GMTV apparently did not research the validity of the clip and we trust other broadcasters will.

(5) The original, detailed witness account (sent as an e-mail to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth) of the supposed white shark observed last week by a 14-year old holidaymaker has been examined by us. Clarification on various points was alos obtained from the witness over the weekend.
We are confident that the sighting was not of a white shark, for a number of reasons (e.g., description of behaviour did not tally with actual behaviour witnessed in the wild elsewhere; inconsistencies with the reported colour and behaviour of the shark; inconsistencies with other sharks seen nearby, etc.
(6) We do not doubt that the witness saw a shark, but crucially, we note that in a live studio interview for GMTV this morning, she was unable to identify the basking shark in the footage (see 4, above). By contrast, (in her original statement, confirmed with her during the weekend) she was apparently able to identify what she says was a '3 metre mako shark' as it cruised at considerable range from shore, simultaneous to her sighting of the 'white shark' swimming nearby.
(7) This inconsistency in observational / identificational acuity, the size and shape of the shark, the apparent sighting of two large sharks close inshore, the reportedly (unusual) un-flustered behaviour of dolphins in close company to the sharks and a reported large shoal of fish (presumably feeding on plankton?), all points to either a basking shark Cetorhinus maximus or conceivably, a porbeagle shark Lamna nasus.
(8). Finally but instructively, we stress that misidentification of basking sharks with great white sharks is commonplace, even in areas where white sharks are relatively common and well-known to local fishermen, divers, etc. We can point to a number of such incidences (some supported by photo-video) in South Africa, the Mediterranean, off Long Island USA and in central Californian waters.
Yours faithfully
IAN K. FERGUSSON CBiol MIBiol
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
www.zoo.co.uk/~z9015043/ian-bibl.htm
Member, IUCN Shark Specialist Group (NE Atlantic - Mediterranean Region)
ian.fergusson@zoo.co.uk

LEONARD J.V. COMPAGNO PhD
Head, Shark Research Centre, Iziko-Museums of South Africa
www.museums.org.za/sam/src/sharks.htm <http://www.museums.org.za/sam/src/sharks.htm>
Chair, IUCN Shark Specialist Group (Sub-Equatorial African Region)
lcompagno@iziko.org.za

STATUS OF THE WHITE SHARK IN EUROPEAN WATERS OF THE EASTERN NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
Ian K. Fergusson
IUCN Shark Specialist Group (Mediterranean Region)
Updated June 2003 from original, September 1999
AFTER the media circus surrounding Cornwall's alleged white shark sighting during 1999 and a recent resurgence in interest for British 'records' of this species, it is worthwhile to reflect upon the confirmed status of the white shark within European waters of the eastern North Atlantic Ocean.
Essentially, what follows summarises and expands upon Fergusson (1996) and Quero et al (1978). The views expressed are not peer-reviewed - this is merely a casual discussion piece.
A rare beastie
Firstly, let's be concise here in terminology: Carcharodon carcharias is exceptionally scarce in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean. This simple but indisputable fact can be confirmed not only by the extreme paucity of specimens caught in any one decade by the intensive commercial fisheries operating all the way between the Shetlands and Senegal, but moreover through examination of historical literature. Despite some highly dubious citations - notably those of earlier (18th and 19th Century) British ichthyofaunal lists such as by Pennant, Lowe and Hamilton - the white shark is not reliably confirmed from any European nation north of France.
United Kingdom records are especially doubtful. We should pause to remember here that another lamnid shark - the shortfin mako Isurus oxyrinchus - was itself only separated from the porbeagle Lamna nasus by U.K. anglers as late as the early 1950's. Clearly, the prospect of three-metre (plus) makos being misidentified as white sharks was a very real possibility in earlier centuries, not least because earlier authors didn't have the benefit of photographs, movies and such like that today make the white shark's visage so easily recognisable globally, much like that of a movie star. Indeed, the white shark was often misidentified during the same period by Mediterranean authors, including with wholly unrelated species such as the sandbar shark Carcharhinus plumbeus.
Even now, small white sharks continue to be misidentified in Mediterranean and other fisheries as either Isurus or Lamna. Whatever the case, it is clear that as indicated by Quero et al. (1978) and Fergusson (1996), no specimen of white shark appears to have been landed, or examined, or otherwise reliably indicated since 1900 from European waters north of the Island of Noirmoutier, France (near the Mouth of the Loire, at about Lat. 47° N).

Confirmed records
On the other hand, historical literature and more contemporary records in living memory does confirm the sporadic, rare occurrence of white sharks further south in the eastern North Atlantic. Certainly, the species is confirmable within the faunal lists of Portugal, southern (Atlantic) Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Senegal and offshore at the oceanic islands and archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, Canaries and Cape Verdes. Recent indices of its distribution, or transient passage, have been afforded by juveniles caught off Morocco (Bernard Seret, MNHM, pers. comm.) and from Tenerife in the Canaries; San Miguel in the Azores (a 5 metre-plus male, taken in February 1990 and confirmed by good photographs); at Tarifa in southern Spain (a confirmed attack by this species upon a windsurfer) and (with much less reliability, but nonethless plausible) off the Algarve of Portugal.
The white shark is recorded annually from the confines of the Mediterranean Sea, making their apparent scarcity on the opposite side of the Straits of Gibraltar a real paradox and at the same time, reaffirming the possibility of the Mediterranean population being somewhat isolated.
Let's re-assess here the status of the white shark within the most northerly European Atlantic area from where it is confirmed: The Bay of Biscay. Again, the rarity of this species there is best emphasised against the sheer intensity, year-in, year-out, of both coastal and offshore-pelagic commercial fisheries that operate throughout the Biscay area and use gear quite capable of ensnaring large sharks. The bycatch of unusual or rarer species has been long catalogued through the efforts of Dr Jean-Claude Quero and colleagues based at IFREMER, La Rochelle. Their combined papers afford a unique inter-annual account, from the 1970's onwards, of the types and numbers of rare fish caught by Biscay fisheries, with an emphasis upon the Charente-Maritime province of France. Amongst the goblin sharks, smooth hammerheads, little sleeper sharks, greenland sharks, smalltooth sandtiger and even nurse shark recorded by Quero et al., is one white shark.....just one. Surely, no greater a systematic and scientific reflection upon the low density of white shark numbers anywhere north of Portugal could be afforded?


That latest specimen was a 210 cm TL, 110kg juvenile, taken on 24 May 1977 in nets set over 15 m depth in the Pertuis d'Antioche off La Rochelle (approx. 46° 03'N, 01° 17'W). The photograph shown here (reproduced after Quero et al., 1978) depicts the specimen with its captors, the crew of the fishing vessel 'Petit-Moussaillon'. As noted by Quero and co-authors (op cit. and 1994) and more recently re-affirmed by personal communication, this was the first (and thus far, only) Biscay specimen known for the 20th century, but by no means the first for that area as a whole. As evidenced by earlier literature, a specimen was recorded from La Rochelle in 1821 and another one stranded in 1843 near the Loire River Mouth. In 1851, a specimen was caught within the Gulf of Gascony and the noted French naturalist Moreau (1881) describes another La Rochelle example of "..13 feet in length, weighing 1700 kg..." caught in 1872.
Sporadic....at best
Thus, although four specimens were reliably recorded from the Bay of Biscay during the 19th century, conspicuously there is only one such record for the 20th. A reduction in the number of white sharks in the region? Probably not. Four examples in over 100 years is hardly a sufficient sample size from which to ascertain a trend, but the evidence overwhelmingly confirms the rarity of this species in the eastern North Atlantic.
A key issue here is the sheer mobility of white sharks: this species may have the greatest range of all living sharks and recent long-term tracking in California and Australia demonstrates just how far these remarkable animals will travel. In all probability their occurrence in Biscay is merely as highly sporadic transients. Of more immediate interest is the demographic origins of Biscay specimens (and indeed those from other NE Atlantic locales). Are they of Mediterranean origin? Or Western North Atlantic? Or even Southern African? Perhaps some of these key questions may be resolved through genetic analyses to ascertain regional interrelationships but of course, for that one needs a specimen or two....and it may be another 100 years before the opportunity presents itself again off the European Atlantic coasts...!
JAWS UK?
None of this, of course, either confirms or refutes the 1999 'white' shark sighting from Padstow. I am open-minded: the eyewitness accounts were the most compelling I've heard over the years (these are perennial 'silly season' stories in the media and often quite wrongly linked to 'global warming'). Nonetheless, the Padstow sighting is by no means conclusive.
Contrary to the tabloid hyperbole, the whole issue perhaps needs inverting. In other words, the real scientific enigma is not if white sharks are off the UK - after all, the sporadic presence of this wide-ranging species would hardly prove a big surprise. No, the real question must be why the species has not been reliably recorded from here, to-date. But then, that sort of news-angle won't make front-page news with The Daily Mirror...!!
Thanks go to Colin Speedie (Shark Trust) and Rolf Williams (National Marine Aquarium, Plymouth) for assisting in tracing and clarifying the witness accounts during summer 1999; to my senior colleague Leonard Compagno (Shark Research Center, Cape Town) for exchanging views when this story first broke; and to Jean-Claude Quero at IFREMER and Bernard Seret at MNHN, Paris).
References
Fergusson, I.K. 1996. Distribution and Autoecology of the white shark in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. pp. 321-345. In: A.P. Klimley & D.G. Ainley (eds.) Great White Sharks: The Biology of Carcharodon carcharias, Academic Press, San Diego.
Moreau, E. 1881. Histoire naturelle des poissons de la France. G. Masson, Paris. 1: 478 p.
Quéro, J.-C., R. Verron & Y. Cattin. 1978. Observations icthyologiques effectuées en Charente-Maritime en 1977. Ann. Soc. Sci. nat. Charente-Marit., 6 (5): 428-439).
Quéro J.-C., P. Decamps, R. Emonnet & J.J. Vayne. 1994. Requins de l’ordre des Lamniformes dans le golfe de Gascogne. Quatrieme Coll. Intl. d’Oceanographie du Golfe de Gascogne, Santander, 12-14 April 1994.

Douglas Herdson
Information Officer
National Marine Aquarium
Rope Walk
Coxside
Plymouth PL4 0LF
UK

Telephone: (+44)01752 275216/01752 600301
Fax: (+44)01752 275217
Email: Douglas.Herdson@national-aquarium.co.uk
website www.national-aquarium.co.uk

Ilfracombe
RACCOONS
“April 2004 saw a pair of escaped Raccoons being searched for in North Devon. The beasts – who were young and in no way dangerous - escaped from the Combe Martin Wildlife Park near Ilfracombe.

Comments:
Racoons are likely to live in trees, and are able to travel fairly long distances.”

10th April 2004
(Source: BBC News)

Contributed by: Lisa Willow
Written by: Lisa Melvin

File: 2004-140
Ref No: 1192

Parracombe
SNAKES
SNAKES ALIVE! IT JUST DOESN'T ADD UP!
Neil Newman and Chris Billens. two workmen who visited a garden in Parracombe. were shocked when they were installing a soak away in the garden of a house at Parracombe, they disturbed a nest of snakes.

Anne Pullman, based at "Drain Doctor Plumbing" in their regional office at Yeovil, said: "They were digging away when suddenly these large snakes tumbled out of the nearby hedge. "They called the house owner who had been walking round in shorts, but he came out wearing trousers and trainers."

Anne said some of them were between three to four feet long, the men caught one and placed it in an open container. She added: "It was jabbing at them then coiled up and leapt out of the bucket. At that point the men ran away." Neil said: "We were shocked at how aggressive the snakes were. One sank its fangs into a stick we used to help capture it and refused to release its bite. "They didn't have the distinctive zigzag markings of an adder and
they were far too aggressive to be grass snakes. We wondered whether it was a colony of snakes developed from an exotic pet that someone had abandoned in the wild."

The serpents slithered away quickly and they are still missing.
English Nature and reptile expert Jim Foster said: "They were probably adders with very dark colouring that masked their distinctive markings. "Normally all snakes are very timid, but they will naturally defend themselves if they feel threatened. "Adders are a protected species with a penalty of up to six months imprisonment for killing them, so I urge the public not to panic if they see one."

31st July 2003
(Source: North Devon Journal)

Contributed by: Mark Fraser
Scottish Big Cats.
www.scottishbigcats.org

File: 2003-04
Ref No: 748

Plymouth
GIANT SQUID
A giant squid which is more than three metres long has been found off the coast of the UK. It's the first time such a huge creature has been seen in our waters in 15 years. And the squid, which is now dead, might have been even longer when it was alive.

Experts reckon if it still had its feeding tentacles, which were lost when it was caught, the squid would've stretched out to more than five metres long. The squid is so huge it is apparently capable of cutting through steel cables with its 'beak' or mouth. It was spotted by a fisherman who was sailing near Plymouth in Devon, who hauled the squid up to the surface. Unfortunately it died on the way up, but the monster squid will now be preserved and put on display in the 'Creatures of the Deep' area of the National Marine Aquarium in Devon.

The last time we've seen a giant squid in this part of the world was in 1987 when a mammoth creature washed up on the shores of the Shetland Islands.

15th January 2002
(Source: CBBC Newsround)

File: 2002-75
Ref No:

Teignmouth
MONKEY THEFT
16 rare Monkeys have been stolen from Shaldon Wildlife trust near Teignmouth the Wildlife Trust has been targeted twice since August . Interpol has been called in to help track down the 16 monkeys. Among the 16 monkeys that were stolen are three Cotton-Top Tamarins, two silvery marmosets, a squirrel monkey and a four week old Goeldis which was clinging to its mothers back. The Intruders also struck on the 1st August when five squirrel monkeys were taken.

Police have warned Wildlife Trusts that the thieves are targeting the region.

Wildlife Trust director Tracey Moore welcomed the investigation and said "If it is the case the monkeys are heading for the continent, it is great news Interpol are involved,"

She also said. "The more people that are trying to find our monkeys the better. It's been devastating for us. We are a tiny charity and we only have two members of staff.

Everyone who works for us is a volunteer and gives up their time for what we do.

We work with the animals on a day-to-day basis and they obviously trust us. It has hit us extremely hard and I would ask anyone who has any information to contact the local police.”

These monkeys require special care and if they are not looked after in the correct way then their lives could be in danger.

So if you have any information please help us find these monkeys as their lives are at risk.

(Source: BBC News - 19th October, 2004)

Contributed by: Karen Allison
Re-Written By Cher Jenkins

File: 2004-262 - 2004-266
Ref No: 1798

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