Climate News Network: The great Arctic thaw--up to 50 percent of sea ice by area and 75 percent by volume in the summer season--could be offering new opportunities for one of the planets most successful parasites. Toxoplasma gondii, an infection spread by almost all cat species, has been identified for the first time in the western Arctic Beluga whale.
Toxoplasma is found almost everywhere that cats settle: domestic pets, ocelots, cougar, wild cats all carry and spread oocysts of the parasite (structures it uses to...