Seeing green helps spiders perfect jump

Jumping spiders use green light to gauge the distance of their jumps, a Japanese study has found.

The findings not only explain how the spiders so reliably hit their targets, they may help to improve computer vision.

Professor Akihisa Terakita, Dr Mitsumasa Koyanagi and Dr Takashi Nagata and colleagues of Osaka City University in Japan report their results this week in the journal Science.

There are thousands of species of jumping spider spread throughout the world, which have a remarkable ability to leap several times their body length on to their prey. The scientists looked at a particular species (Hasarius adansoni) that lives in the fields around the Osaka City University. "We often find them in our houses", says Terakita.

Most jumping spiders have four sets of eyes. The key to their athletic prowess appears to be the main eyes in the centre. In the 1980s, studies showed that the retina of these central eyes are very unusual - having four layers of photoreceptor cells instead of the normal single layer.

The Japanese scientists knew that the spiders were not using 'binocular vision' to measure distance. This is the main technique we use, where each eye gives a slightly different picture of the scene and the brain can then work out how far away things are.

The spiders were also not using 'lens accommodation' - thickening or thinning of their lenses. The spider lens is "in a rigid cuticle and therefore not able to be altered in thickness", says Terakita.

They weren't using 'motion parallax' either. This is used by insects such as the praying mantis, which sways back and forth thus giving itself different pictures of the object.

This left scientists wondering how do spiders measure depth.

'Depth defocus'

Terakita's team examined a mechanism known as 'depth defocus', where the depth (or distance to an object) is determined by measuring the fuzziness of its image.

Their first discovery was that the two deepest layers of the retina only had receptors for green light.

Whether or not an image is focussed depends on two things: the wavelength (or colour) of the light, and distance between the lens and the layer of photoreceptors. Other scientists had already noted that green light would only be sharply in focus in the deepest retinal layer. In the next layer, which is a little closer to the lens, green light would be 'defocused' giving fuzzy images.

So why would the spiders bother collecting a fuzzy image? Terakita thinks that the spiders are in some way measuring the fuzziness of the image in the nearer layer and using that to judge distance by depth defocus.

The culmination of their research was an experiment where four spiders were repeatedly tested for their ability to jump on flies in either red or green light. In the green light they jumped perfectly. In the red light they consistently fell short, jumping only about 90 per cent of the distance to the flies. The value of 90 per cent fitted nicely with theoretical calculations the scientists had done using lens equations.

'Excellent eyes'

Professor Marie Herberstein of Macquarie University, who was not part of the research, is an expert in colour and vision in spiders. "Jumping spiders have excellent eyes", she says. "Their entire life revolves around vision, unlike most other spiders which rely on vibration."

"Depth perception is important to these spiders, not just for jumping on prey, but for things like males approaching females (which can be much larger). Cannibalism is rife amongst spiders and when they are hungry, well anything that moves, they just jump on it."

"The real beauty about this paper is the fullness of their explanation", says Herberstein. "I particularly value the fact that they went on to do the behavioural study. High tech is great but in the end you have to test [the hypothesis] on the whole animal."

Terakita's team have looked at just one species of jumping spider, but both he and Herberstein suspect that other jumping spiders are also using depth defocus.

"About ten kinds of jumping spiders have had their retina structure investigated by different research groups", says Terakita. "All of them have a four-layered retina. So we think most jumping spiders have a similar system."

"How to detect depth is one of the ongoing challenges in the field of computer vision", adds Terakita. He thinks there may be much to learn from the spider's system.

Clare Pain
ABC

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/01/27/3416523.htm

Snow Leopard Discovery In Tajikistan Shows Need For Conservation

A recent biodiversity survey in a remote corner of Tajikistan has yielded surprising results.

Fauna & Flora International (FFI) recently teamed up with local and international scientists to conduct a survey of life in the Zorkul nature reserve, near the Afghan border. FFI's team planted camera traps which captured images of five different snow leopardsin one valley, according to a press release.

Wired UK reports that the FFI team, with the help of Panthera, planted 11 cameras around a 5.8 square mile (15 square kilometer) area in August 2011.

The survey's results have prompted a quick response. FFI's Dr. Alex Diment told Wired UK that FFI is training local rangers in the nature reserve "on how to work in the harsh field conditions, and how to combat illegal poaching and other threats."

Their actions are undoubtedly warranted. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently lists snow leopards (Panthera uncia) as endangered.

FFI reports that habitat loss and poaching have caused at least a 20 percent decline in snow leopard populations in the past 16 years.

Scientific American writes that scientists in Australia have created "embryonic stem-like cells from the tissue of an endangered adult snow leopard." The scientists' (theoretical) goal is to help save endangered big cat species by reproducing them in labs.

Earlier this month, a team from the Wildlife Conservation Society photographed mother and cub snow leopards together in Afghanistan.

Below, check out images of the snow leopards in Tajikistan and photos of several other species identified by FFI's biodiversity survey.

photos: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/snow-leopard-tajikistan-photo_n_1224993.html?ref=weird-animals

Birds Invade Town: La Grange, Ky. Swarmed By Black Birds

Residents in a Kentucky town are saying "Get the flock out of here" to thousands of black birds that fill the sky each night.

At dusk, the birds take flight in La Grange, Ky., and create what some locals describe as a "cloud of birds," according to TV station WAVE. The birds nest down in a wooded area for the night and depart each morning in a huge pack, reports said.

Fine-feathered friends, they're not. Residents complain that they're constantly cleaning up after the avian arrivistes, who started showing up last November in the community northeast of Louisville. Nearly everyone has heard their town compared to Alfred Hitchcock's classic film "The Birds."

To protect themselves from bird poop, some people have begun carrying umbrellas, even on sunny days, CNN reports.

The birds' unexplained presence has allegedly coincided with a surge in respiratory ailments, according to one woman who spoke with WAVE.

While nobody is sure why the birds migrated to La Grange, wildlife experts told CNN that the behavior of flying clockwise in large groups is called murmuration and is common among starlings.

In an effort to scare off the unwelcome newcomers, a married couple blasts a noisy air canon. But the birds keep coming back.

video here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/birds-invade-town_n_1233709.html?ref=weird-news

Lucas and Juno: Special bond of a rescue dog and dying boy

As nearly anyone who has adopted a dog or cat from a shelter can attest, there’s something special about a rescued pet; it’s as if the animal senses he’s been given a second chance at life. That’s certainly the case with Juno, aBelgian Malinois who was rescued from a shelter just days before she was to be euthanized. But since coming to live with her family in Alcoa, Tenn., Juno has taken on the role of rescuer to four-year-old Lucas Hembree.

Lucas suffers from Sanfilippo syndrome, an inherited, metabolic disease caused by the absence or malfunctioning of an enzyme needed to break down long sugar molecules. As the disease progresses, children lose the ability to speak, walk and eat. The disease also causes severe neurological damage that leads to aggressive behavior, hyperactivity and seizures.

“The most catastrophic thing parents hear when they learn their child has this disease is that there’s no cure or treatment available,” says Lucas’ father, Chester.

Unless that changes, Lucas isn’t expected to live past the age of 15 and may be in a vegetative state by the time he is eight. Realizing that every moment is extra precious, Chester and his wife, Jennifer, want their son to experience as much as he can while he still has the capacity to enjoy it.

Prayer and persistence So when the disease started to take a toll on Lucas’ joints, Chester looked into getting a service dog to keep Lucas steady when he walked. “I was told that a service dog would cost at least $15,000, and that Lucas wasn’t a good candidate because of his deteriorating abilities and his behavior,” Chester says. “I refused to accept this answer.”

Continued:  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46168614/ns/todaytoday_pets_and_animals#.TyaX-8V-XtE

Man's best friend for 30,000 years: Canine skulls discovered in two separate digs reveals historic relationship Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2091192/Dog-skull-Siberia-33-000-years-old--hints-mans-best-friend-didnt-come-single-ancestor.html#ixzz1kwlrxhlz

Dogs have been a loyal companion to mankind for more than 30,000 years, findings reveal.

Scientists believe that two 33,000-year-old skulls unearthed in digs in Siberia and Belgium show dogs were domesticated long before any other animal, such as sheep, cows or goats.

Researchers from the University of Arizona said the skulls had shorter snouts and wider jaws than undomesticated animals such as wolves, which use their longer snouts and narrower jaws to help them hunt.

The researchers think dogs could have been the first species of animals to be domesticated by humans, long before farm animals were bred for their meat and skins. 

This offers a possible explanation for why breeds such as pugs and huskies look so different, despite being the same species.

The scientists used carbon dating to determine the age of the two skulls, then looked at the bone structures and concluded that claims the dogs had been domesticated were ‘pretty solid’.

Study author Dr Greg Hodgins, whose findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE, said: ‘Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological [structural] characteristics.

‘Essentially, wolves have long thin snouts and their teeth are not crowded, and domestication results in this shortening of the snout and widening of the jaws and crowding of the teeth.

‘The interesting thing is that typically we think of domestication as being cows, sheep and goats, things that produce food through meat or secondary agricultural products such as milk, cheese and wool and things like that.

‘Those are different relationships than humans may have with dogs. The dogs are not necessarily providing products or meat.

‘They are probably providing protection, companionship and perhaps helping on the hunt.

‘And it’s really interesting that this appears to have happened  first out of all human relationships with animals.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2091192/Dog-skull-Siberia-33-000-years-old--hints-mans-best-friend-didnt-come-single-ancestor.html#ixzz1kwlw2yWc

Article: If You Spot Bigfoot, Should You Shoot Him?

In the new Animal Planet reality TV show optimistically titled "Finding Bigfoot," a team of experts examines video of an alleged Sasquatch spotted in the Canadian Rockies. The video, shot by a man named Todd Standing, shows something large and dark, standing atop a wooded ridge and then ducking back behind a bush. It could pretty much be anything, and when the experts concluded that the subject was probably not a Bigfoot, Standing expressed his frustration: "No video is ever going to be evidence, ever. It's never going to be good enough…"

Standing, like many Bigfoot researchers, misses the problem: It's not so much that any Bigfoot video is inherently worthless, it's that his video, like all that have come before it, is of such poor quality that there's no way to know what we're seeing. It could have been anything – a guy in a dark jacket (or gorilla costume), a bear or even Bigfoot. The fatal flaw in Bigfoot photos and videos is the image quality, not the image subject. If Standing, the "Finding Bigfoot" team, or anyone else shot well-lit, clear video of what was obviously a 12-foot-tall, hairy bipedal creature in the woods, that would be compelling.

But even the highest-quality photograph or video can't be considered definitive proof of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or any other mythical beast. Similarly, if the goal is to simply make scientists and the general public take Bigfoot seriously, then some verified remains of the creature – be they hair, teeth, blood, bones or something else – would do the trick. [Infamous 'Yeti Finger' Flunks DNA Test]

But definitive proof is a very high standard. Most Bigfoot enthusiasts — and the general public — would be satisfied with nothing less than the rock-solid definitive proof offered by a living or dead specimen.

This issue brings up a longstanding debate within the Bigfoot community: Would be ethical to shoot and kill a Bigfoot? Some say yes, because that's the only way to prove they exist, and once proof is found, funds could be made available to protect them as an endangered species. Others say no -- that because Bigfoot sightings are so rare, they must have very small populations and killing one might drive the animals to extinction. Shooting a suspected Bigfoot with tranquilizer darts is an option that has gained some steam.

Ethics and the lethal-or-nonlethal debate aside, there's a good reason aiming your gun at a Bigfoot could be a bad idea: It might be illegal. A Texas teen shot what he believed to be a Chupacabra earlier this year, and while charges were not brought against him, if the creature turned out to be someone's dog or a mangy coyote, he could potentially havefaced a felony charge.

The point is, you simply can't know for sure if the mysterious, burly figure you have lined up in your sights is the real beast, or a bear or someone's pet – or, even worse, just a person in a gorilla suit.
This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.


Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author ofScientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries. His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.

http://www.livescience.com/18063-shoot-bigfoot.html

Cold-stunned turtles washing ashore (via Herp Digest)

 The cold snap plaguing large areas of the Tar Heel state is causing problems for sea turtles, who have begun washing up on shore in large numbers after being stunned by quickly-dropping water temperatures.

As of Thursday morning, 19 marine reptiles - three loggerheads, 16 green turtles - had been found on regional beaches, mostly in the Cape Lookout area.

Twelve of the green turtles died Wednesday night, but Jean Beasley, director of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Topsail Beach, said the rest of the group was showing some signs of life.

"I think within 72 hours we should have a pretty good idea," Beasley said late Wednesday. "It's going to take us a while to warm these turtles up."

Because reptiles, including turtles, can't regulate their own body heat, they're susceptible to sudden, drastic shifts in water temperature. 

"If it's a gradual lowering of temperature, they can survive and do pretty well," Beasley said. "But if they've been at 78 degrees and it drops into the lower 60s, they are probably going to stun."

Cold-stunned turtles appear extremely lethargic and in some cases will stop moving entirely as more of their blood supply diverts to the core of their bodies, a condition Beasley said is a relatively common occurrence in North Carolina during the winter months.

"Last year, we had up over 150, and we had quite a few that died," she said. "The longer they're exposed to the severe cold, the bigger impact it's going to have on their basic systems, their core body and their vital organs, so the sooner we can get them the greater chance they have."

To recover from a cold stun, sea turtles must be warmed gradually. Raising their core temperature too quickly can result in a reverse shock, which can kill them, Beasley said. And though the extreme cold weather has passed, turtles may continue to wash up on shore in the coming days.

"We'll still have the hangers-on. Those that are under the docks will be showing up on shore, but hopefully we're not going to have another major event," Beasley said.

If you find a cold-stunned turtle on the beach or in shallow water, call the Topsail Beach facility at (910) 470-2800 or (910) 470-2880, or the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network at (252) 241-7367.

If the turtle is small enough to be moved, Beasley recommends placing it in a garage or carport and covering it with a towel.

"Just keep them out of the weather, but do not start warming them up," she said. "As soon as those numbers are called, we'll have somebody out to get the turtles."

Turtle Rules Limit Harvest (via Herp Digest)

At the end of the month the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Board will vote on new rules for taking turtles out of the wild. On Thursday the DNR held a public hearing in Macon.

Right now there are no limits on the number of freshwater turtles trappers and farmers can catch or breed. In 2010 lawmakers passed legislation requiring the DNR to come up with rules on commercial turtles.

David Hem's been a turtle farmer in North Georgia for 20 years. He takes mature snapping turtles from the wild and harvests their eggs on his farm.

"Most of it's going to China, the baby turtles. So, all I do, I don't sell the meat or anything. I have my own turtles, my own ponds. I dig eggs every season and sell the babies after I hatch them and they get shipped. Probably 99 percent of them go to China."

New rules would require reporting harvest numbers and species. That would limit Hem's take to 300 snapping turtles a year. DNR officials say the Chinese are buying American turtles for food and medicine after decimating their own wild populations.

Animal rights activists hopping mad over kits (via Herp Digest)

Controversy over the sale of "frog-o-sphere" kits has reached Windsor, with an online petition to get one store to stop carrying them gaining almost 400 signatures in one day.

"I was floored when I saw they were selling these frog-o-spheres, especially at a place called Green Earth, which I thought was more of an eco-friendly, green place to shop," said Dan MacDonald, a longtime animal rights activist who started the petition against the Devonshire Mall store on Thursday. "A tiny frog in a plastic case, that's the least green thing I can think of. They might as well start selling fur coats and deer heads."

The kits, which contain one or more African dwarf frogs, gravel containing micro-organisms and sometimes snails and plants in a small cube-shaped aquarium, have been targeted by animal rights activists before. On its website, PETA calls them "cruel and terribly unnatural cubes" and claims the frogs are often neglected by untrained staff at the stores and warehouses where they're kept before being sold.

Christine, a manager at Green Earth who declined to give her last name, said she wouldn't comment on the petition.

However, she said staff receive training and know to only use dechlorinated water, handle the frogs while wearing gloves and feed them two food pellets per frog twice a week.

Christine said Green Earth has been selling the frogs since the spring and is currently sold out. She was unable to say how many kits the store has sold, but estimated five per cent of customers contact the store to ask for a replacement frog because theirs died shortly after purchase.

"From what we were told, they're very happy in the smaller aquariums because in the wild, they're at risk from predators, so they're constantly hiding. So they feel safer in that smaller container," she said.

Two experts contacted by The Star said the small aquarium was suitable for the frogs, at least until they're sold. David M. Green, a conservationist and amphibian expert at McGill University, said the frogs should be transferred to a tank holding between 75 and 190 litres of water to live long-term.

"You can keep them in there temporarily. Not for their entire lives, no, that's miserable. But they're fine for a few weeks. They live in puddles. They live in muck. They live in mud wallows," he said, adding the water should be kept at room temperature or warmed with a tropical fish heater.

Another expert said he didn't want his name used because he was worried about repercussions from extreme animal rights activists, who have targeted his colleagues in the past. He forwarded an email from his university's administration warning about extremists who made threatening phone calls, firebombed residences and cut the brakes of vehicles belonging to researchers and professors.

He said concerns about the size of the tank are the result of people projecting human concerns onto animals. "Sure, I would like a lot of space to run around, a clean habitat. But I am a human, not a frog," he wrote in an email.

Some postings on animal rights sites say the small tank is to blame for restless, aggressive frogs, but the expert said the source of the problem is more likely something counterintuitive - keeping the tank too clean.

"Probably the cruellest thing about the picture on the website is how clean the water is," he wrote. "Species from this family of frogs are adapted to hiding and feeding on the bottom in murky water."

Regardless of whether the tank environment is suitable, MacDonald said a big part of the problem is how the kits are marketed as toys and gifts, not pets. He said shoppers were tapping on the glass and asking if the frogs were real when he visited the store.

"A lot of people buy these on impulse, because they're very, very cute," he said. "But it is an ecosystem. If that's disturbed, it sets the whole thing off and the frog dies a really terrible death."

Why is the land of snakes, so inept at dealing with snake bites? (via Herp Digest)

The number of people who died of snakebite in India was not known for decades. But there was no doubt thousands perished. This was, after all, the proverbial land of snakes. Finally, in April last year, a study estimated about a million people were bitten by snakes and approximately 46,000 died annually. These first reliable figures illustrate the enormity of the problem rural people face in this country. We also know more people are killed by snakes in India than any other country in the world.

Snakebite is a major occupational hazard in a country where farmers typically walk barefoot along field bunds. While we can exhort them to wear footwear, it will take years for this long-observed practice to change. People also tend to walk in the dark without a torch. For several decades, the price of disposable batteries was prohibitive for ordinary villagers, but the use of the new, affordable Chinese-made rechargeable torches may reduce the death toll. The other habit that puts rural people in harm's way is sleeping on the floor. When farm economy is floundering, advising them to sleep on bedsteads will only elicit blank, uncomprehending stares. If people get bitten and are rushed to the hospital, the lack of doctors, trained in treating snakebite, as well as the limited availability and effectiveness of antivenom serum, jeopardize their lives further.

The only way to save a person from a lethal venomous snakebite is the administration of antivenom serum, even though too many people rely on superstition and alternative forms of medicine. Indians have had a surefire way of surviving a lethal bite as early as the 1920s, when the Central Research Institute began producing this life-saving drug commercially. Yet, almost a century later, despite snakebite continuing to be a major public health crisis, the availability of antivenom serum in small towns and villages, where bites usually occur, is limited.

Six manufacturers produce a serum made from the venoms of the Big Four: cobra, common krait, Russell's viper and saw-scaled viper. Despite advances in antivenom production techniques, those of the Indian companies remain relatively unchanged since the 1950s. Several international publications have criticized Indian antivenoms for their impurity and for causing complicating side effects.

All the companies claim identical potency for their antivenom serums, which is astonishingly low. This means many more vials are needed to neutralize the harmful effects of a venomous snakebite. One study says a person needs an average of 51 vials to treat cobra and krait bite, while 32 vials are needed to treat Russell's viper bite. Another study quoted as much as 91 vials being used to neutralize cobra and krait bites. Such high doses of impure antivenom serum can potentially cause adverse reactions. In Sri Lanka, up to 87% of snakebite victims who were treated with Indian antivenom developed untoward side effects.

A standard clinical procedure to validate the claimed potency values has never been published. Inexplicably, prior to the mid-1950s, antivenom serums were much more potent than those currently available. It's not clear why the Indian authorities lowered the standards.

The low potency and high adverse reactions have raised doubts about the effectiveness of Indian antivenom serum. Venom is a protein-rich soup with numerous toxins, peptides and enzymes. What snakes eat determines the combination and proportion of these elements in their venom. In many species, the venom of young snakes, which eat small creatures like frogs, undergoes a transformation as they grow older and switch to eating larger animals like rodents. Where they live also appears to influence the kind of venom they produce, even within a species. For instance, the venom of Russell's vipers in south India is quite different from the north. So antivenom made with the venom of a southern viper may not work against the same species in other parts of the country.

Indian antivenom is produced for four snakes against the World Health Organization's (WHO) list of twelve high-priority species for South Asia. In short, we do not know what coverage the antivenom serum has. Does it neutralize the bites caused by the young of the same species, and is it as effective anywhere in the country. Does the serum made for the Big Four counteract the venom of any others? In the absence of these tests, physicians have no choice but to try and save the lives of their patients with the only tool they have.

In 2010, WHO recommended a set of standard procedures for the assessment and evaluation of antivenoms anywhere in the world. David Williams, a clinical toxinologist working with the Global Snakebite Initiative, says Indian antivenom has to be tested for effectiveness against the high-priority snake species. Only then can doctors be sure that the treatment they are providing their patients, which is often expensive and beyond poor people's means (between Rs. 450 and 500 a vial), is effective.

Williams further advises that once the lack of effectiveness of the available antivenom serum is established, if the problem cannot be fixed easily, then a new start has to be made to produce a broad-spectrum antidote for the entire region. Several manufacturers should be licensed to produce this life-saving drug. Antivenom should be distributed free or at heavily subsidized rates through the public health system. In Tanzania, people sought antivenom treatment much more readily when it was provided free, which indicates their reliance on traditional medicine and superstition is at least partly driven by cost considerations.

Indian health authorities must recognize snakebite for what it is: a neglected tropical disease that maims and kills tens of thousands of poor people. While the WHO acknowledged this fact in 2009, snakebite is yet to feature in any of the organization's programs. Besides the development of an effective antivenom serum and training doctors, a major awareness campaign needs to be launched to teach people to avoid being bitten by snakes, as well as the appropriate first-aid practices to follow in the event of a bite. India has to overcome poor governance, abysmal regulation of antivenom quality, and social inequity to arrest the unconscionable loss of lives to snakebite

In Bucks County, volunteers await duty as salamander escorts (via Herp Digest)

On a warm and wet March night, Devich Farbotnik was heading home to Quakertown on a back road when his headlights caught something shiny spilling across the macadam.

He hit the brakes.

Farbotnik, an environmentalist, quickly realized that he had chanced upon - luckily, without also flattening - a surge of salamanders in the heat of their annual breeding rite. Jumping out of his truck, he kept oncoming traffic at bay as he shepherded the slithery paramours from one swampy side to the vernal pool on the other, there to hook up.

A half-dozen mating seasons have passed since then in upper Bucks County, and Farbotnik, now 31, has presided as crossing guard at each. On the first mild, rainy evening of late winter or early spring, he heads for the 518-acre Quakertown Swamp, a favored haunt of not only salamanders but also frogs, toads, birds, and muskrats.

During the salamanders' few nights of canoodling, he posts himself at the tiny amphibians' most beaten paths on rural roads through the swamp in East Rockhill and Richland Townships.

Upwards of 1,000 salamanders might be out and about. "Just one person going through at the wrong time," he said, "could kill a lot."

This year, Farbotnik will get some help.

The Doylestown-based Heritage Conservancy and a brigade of volunteers are planning to set up amphibian-crossing signs at five locations where the salamanders - eight documented species ranging from three to eight inches long - typically traverse the roadways, along with frogs and toads. The seasonal pools become nurseries for their fertilized eggs.

Similar amphibian rescues have taken place in the city's Roxborough section, in Chester County, and Delaware Water Gap. Approached by Farbotnik and Laura Baird, a resource protection specialist for the nonprofit conservancy, township supervisors agreed to provide highway assistance. In Richland, roads will be closed, except to locals, on crossing nights. In East Rockhill, the township has promised to reduce traffic.

The Quakertown Swamp volunteers - about 25 so far - also will be out with clipboards and headlamps doing a census of sorts, counting the salamanders stepping out on date nights, as well as frogs and toads. It will be a baseline for determining, year to year, if the population is declining. "It's taken a few years to finally pull the right people together," said Farbotnik, also a carpenter and an avid birdwatcher who pursued that avocation to every state but Hawaii. Later this week, he will head to Alaska just to look for a dusky thrush.

At the moment, the salamanders are hibernating in the swamp, just south of Quakertown. But in a couple of months, they'll be in Farbotnik's sights.

The salamanders, which live both on land and in water, play an important role in the life cycle of the swamp, the largest inland wetland in Bucks County. The Heritage Conservancy owns about 80 acres of it. With permeable skin that easily absorbs toxic chemicals, the salamanders are a critical indicator of the swamp's well-being. Their very presence, Farbotnik said, "pretty much means there's a healthy ecosystem."

Standing guard over them is easy work, Farbotnik said. But the devil's in the timing.

"They only move when it's raining," he said. And while the larger ones are obvious, spotting the smaller ones can be tough. "You have to really look for them."

Once the salamanders finish doing what they do, they hightail it out of the water and back to the marsh, leaving their progeny to their own devices. But the return trip isn't as potentially calamitous because not all depart the vernal pools at the same time.

Farbotnik said he signals to surprised motorists, who usually know nothing about the annual breeding rite, to stop, and explains what he's doing. The salamanders, he said, are probably just as surprised to see him. "They probably think it's a predator," he said. "I'm sure they don't realize I'm trying to help."

Monitor lizards heading for extinction in Malacca (via Herp Digest)

Malacca:  Frequent hunting of Malacca's giant monitor lizards, allegedly for their skin and meat as well as their body liquid for aphrodisiac purposes, could drive the reptile to extinction.

"Fifteen years ago, these reptiles could be easily spotted lazing along the river bank of scenic Malacca River. Now, they are hard to come by," said city councillor Ronald Gan Yong Hoe.

"In some countries, monitor lizards are protected under Endangered Species Acts. We hope the state government will move to conserve our local reptiles," the member of the Malacca Historic City Council said.

"If nothing is done, the extensive poaching of this reptile could lead to its extinction," he said.

Gan said the local monitor lizards, known locally as biawak, are large water monitor species (varanus salvator) capable of growing up to three metres long and 25 kilos in weight.

He said that apart from their skin and meat, the reptlie was sought for a liquid from its body that was commonly believed to increase sexual prowess in both men and women.

Gan said the reptile's thick and leathery skin was used for clothing accessories, such as bags and belts, while its meat was said to have healing powers for ailments such as asthma and pneumonia besides increasing sexual prowess.

He said that besides poaching, the reptiles were often exposed to other risks, such as being hit by vehicles when crossing roads.

On a more positive note, Gan said a father and daughter from Australia, who dubbed themselves as Biawak Dundees, were rescuing and treating injured monitor lizards here.

Gan added that following a proposal by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam, the state government has made lizard- watching one of the features of the Malacca River cruise.

Meanwhile, mayor Zainal Abu said poaching activities along the river bank has declined due to continuous patrols by the council's enforcement officers.

However, he added, there could still be some hunting upstream and it was up to the state Wildlife and National Parks Department to curtail such activity.

Tiny Crooners: Male House Mice Sing Songs to Impress the Girls

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) — It comes as a surprise to many that male house mice produce melodious songs to attract mates.  Unfortunately for us, because the melodies are in the ultra-sonic range human ears cannot detect them.  Through spectrographic analyses of the vocalizations of wild house mice, researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna  have found that the songs of male mice contain signals of individuality and kinship. 

Their results appear in the journal Physiology & Behavior and in theJournal of Ethology.

It has been known for some time that house mice (Mus musculus) produce ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during courtship but it has generally been assumed that these are no more than squeaks. However, recent spectrographic analyses have revealed that USVs are complex and show features of song.  Although the vocalizations are inaudible to human ears, when playbacks of recorded songs are slowed down their similarity to bird song becomes striking.  Frauke Hoffmann, Kerstin Musolf and Dustin Penn of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna’s  Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology aimed to learn what type of information is contained in males’ songs for the discerning ear of the female mouse to detect.  Their initial studies, the first to study song in wild mice, confirmed that males emit songs when they encounter a females’ scent and that females are attracted to males’ songs.  Additionally, the scientists discovered that females are able to distinguish siblings from unrelated males by their songs – even though they had previously never heard their brothers sing.

In their recent studies, Penn’s group recorded and analysed the courtship calls of wild-caught male house mice for the first time, using digital audio software to examine parameters such as duration, pitch and frequency.  They found that males’ songs contain “signatures” or “fingerprints” that differ from one individual to another.  Moreover, they confirmed that the songs of siblings are very similar to one another compared to the songs of unrelated males, which helps explains how females can distinguish unrelated males.  This finding could potentially lead us to understand how female mice avoid inbreeding. 

Interestingly, in some species of birds the males with the most complex songs appear to be most successful at attracting females.  Further studies are needed to determine whether the complexity of male mouse vocalizations has an effect on females that is similar to that of “sexy syllables” in birds.

The vocalizations of wild house mice differ significantly from those of inbred strains of laboratory mice.  Wild male mice produce more syllables within high frequency ranges than laboratory mice, a result that is consistent with other studies that find genetic effects on mouse song. “It seems as though house mice might provide a new model organism for the study of song in animals,” says Dustin Penn.  “Who would have thought that?”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120126100633.htm

Protesters take on bird charity over plans for village turbine

Campaigners have objected to plans for a new seabird centre at Bempton after failing to win backing for their own campaign against a nearby wind turbine.

A group called Bempton Residents Against Turbines is fighting plans for three turbines, including one 150ft tall just half a mile from the RSPB centre at Bempton.

They have written to the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has so far given the RSPB £33,000 to develop plans to extend the centre, to object, claiming the RSPB has lost sight of its conservation role by not joining the fight against the turbine, which will supply electricity to a pig unit at Norway Farm. The RSPB insists there is no evidence that there will be an impact on seabirds or birds in surrounding farmland.

But David Hinde, who lives in Bempton, and a spokesman for the group, said there were fears that the development could lead to a slew of similar applications on the coast. He said: “Bird lovers will be amazed to find RSPB conservation officers saying that they are intending not to object to a 150ft turbine, the largest single commercial turbine in the Yorkshire Wolds at Cliff Lane, Bempton, less than half a mile from the RSPB Visitor Centre on the Flamborough Heritage Coast.

“This is the first to threaten and open the floodgates on the Flamborough Heritage Coast through precedent, to even more at this height and above. And it will be visible from Filey Brigg and Filey Country Park and The Bay of course.

“The Flamborough Heritage Coast, that RSPB are supposed to be a protective partner in, a tourism partner too, obtain a large amount of their income from RSPB members who proudly display their member sticker on their porch window.

“When the RSPB migration recorder at Buckton tells you that 100,000 migratory birds will be passing in the line of the turbine proposed on their way to Buckton and Bridlington Bay, including whooper swans and the rare pink-footed geese too, as they shortcut across this part of the headland, one questions how this organisation with royal patronage deserves to have a P in its name – or an R for that matter.”

However, site manager at Bempton Ian Kendall said there was no evidence that turbines impacted on birds – be they seabirds or farmbirds.

Mr Kendall said: “As a scientific organisation which we largely are, we can only state facts; the facts are that it is not going to affect the seabird colony at all because they don’t feed on the fields, they feed on the sea.

“We have eight species of seabirds here and they are completely and utterly oceanic. Guillemots, razorbills and puffins are hardly capable of walking on the land; these birds have developed over the millennia to be completely and utterly dependent on the sea.

“Pink-footed geese pass down the coast and they can quite easily see turbines.

“The fact is birds avoid turbines in the same way that they avoid buildings.”

A report by ecologists on behalf of the applicants for the turbine says over 72 species of birds could use the field, including 51 of conservation concern, but says potential impacts through collisions “are limited by the small scale of the development”.

The Heritage Lottery Fund finance has allowed the charity to work up detailed plans for a major extension of its facilities along with Beverley-based Salt Architects.

The aim is to make it an attractive year-round visitor destination with a dedicated learning space and areas for research.

The RSPB will be putting in a bid to the HLF for around £640,000 in June. Mr Kendall said: “We are not at this stage about growing visitor numbers, it is about giving existing visitors a better experience. The aspiration is to create a community space. At the moment if people come to Bempton and the weather is bad there is absolutely no classroom space whatsoever.”

The HLF said the objection had been noted.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/around-yorkshire/local-stories/protesters_take_on_bird_charity_over_plans_for_village_turbine_1_4172153