Image Source: Flickr. By: Michael Heilemann.

A surfer was attacked by a shark on Sunday—not once, but twice.

The attack happened to off Conspicuous Cliff Beach, located south of Perth, Australia. Surfer Michael Bedford, who was rescued by a friend and some fishermen, suffered deep gashes to his right leg, but fortunately he is in stable condition at a hospital.

Apparently, he caught a wave into the beach when the incident happened and his rescuers used the surfboard as a stretcher to carry him to safety. According to his friend, Lee Cummuskey, who saw the attack from the beach:

“[Michael] thought it was just going to go under him, but it suddenly came up and hit him … and I think that is when it bit him.” … “It hit him once and then came back a second time. He thought it was a white pointer, he is not totally sure, but he said it had a bloody big head on it.”

White Pointer is actually another name for a very well-known type of shark: the Great White Shark. The ferocity of this giant, carnivorous fish was blown out of proportion in the book and film series, Jaws. While there have been a number of Great White Shark attacks on humans, most of them have not been fatal and can be contributed to “test bites” or cases of mistaken identity.

By Heidi Marshall

Last week, a rather interesting critter was discovered in Perth, Australia. The creature appeared to be nothing more than a common Shingleback, or skink lizard. Well, with one exception: the lizard has 2 heads.

The lizard is currently being cared for at a reptile park in Henley Brook. Unfortunately, two-headed lizards don’t have particularly long life spans and it probably doesn’t help that the larger head has been occasionally attacking the smaller one. This particular two-headed lizard eats from both heads, though, and it also has a healthy sibling with no signs of mutation.

Polycephaly (the condition of having multiple heads) is a rare condition, but it has been cited in a number of animals. There have also been a number of humans with such a condition, though most of them have been categorized as a type of conjoined twin. Other polycephalic animals include: cats, cattle, goats, pigs, sheep, and a number of reptiles, ranging from crocodiles to turtles to snakes. The oddest reptilian account to date may be a 3-headed turtle found in Taiwain in 1999.

By Heidi Marshall

Image Source: Flickr. By: Robin Hutton.

It may have seemed like the end of the world for residents of Perth, Australia, this week.

At least 160,000 people were left without power on Tuesday as golf ball-sized hailstones, floods and landslides attacked the town. Falling trees took out power lines and damaged homes, while flood waters ran into hospitals and schools. Some patients even had to be evacuated from one hospital’s emergency room after the roof collapsed.

Colin Barnett, premier of Western Australia, figured the damage bill to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He commented:

“I think from my memory this would be the most severe weather conditions we’ve had since the famous May storm in 1994, where we had very, very strong winds and a massive loss of power supply.” … “Hopefully the damage to the power supply won’t be as severe but I suspect this time we’ve got a lot more damage to buildings and housing.”

That’s not even the half of it. Winds gusted over 75 miles (120 km) per hour, cars were crushed by a landslip and at least one apartment was filled with mud. There were also smashed car windows (thanks to the hailstones), not to mention terrible traffic conditions when 150 traffic lights lost their power.

Australia’s east coast didn’t have any better weather this week. The Great Barrier Reef’s coastline was hit by a category 2 tornado. The twister destroyed boats and homes, and also ripped trees right out of the ground. More storms are expected to follow this crazy weather pattern; though how bad they’ll be remains to be seen.

By Heidi Marshall