"Eat' Em" Stratagem for Lionfish Invasion in Florida

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida marine conservationists have come up with a simple recipe for fighting the invading lionfish that is gobbling up local reef life -- eat them.


The Key Largo-based REEF conservation organization has just released "The Lionfish Cookbook," a collection of 45 recipes which is the group's latest strategy to counter an invasion of the non-native reddish brown-striped fish in Florida waters.

It's absolutely good eating -- a delicacy. It's delicately flavored white meat, very buttery," Lad Akins, director of special projects for Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), told Reuters. He authored the cookbook along with a professional chef, Tricia Ferguson.


Red lionfish, a prickly predator armed with flaring venomous spines like a lion's mane that give them their name, are native to the South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

With few natural predators, they have been rapidly expanding in Caribbean and Atlantic waters, voraciously preying on local fish, shrimp and crab populations across the region and in Florida, which has world-famous coral reefs.

Some scientists are now listing the invasive lionfish species among the top 15 threats to global biodiversity.

While REEF has organized local fishing "derbies" to hunt the lionfish, including handling tips and tasting sessions, Akins said making humans the invading species' top predator was the best way to fight back against the threat it posed.

"Fishermen and divers realize it's a danger to our native marine life, through its predation. But there really aren't government funds to provide bounties or removal programs. So creating a demand for the fish, a market for the fish, is in effect a de facto bounty," he told Reuters.

U.S. government researchers believe the red lionfish was introduced into Florida waters during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 when an aquarium broke and at least six fish spilled into Miami's Biscayne Bay.

By Pascal Fletcher
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=12500740

Reader spots swan with frozen beak on river at Otley

The extreme weather has started taking its toll on Wharfedale’s wildlife – as this shocking photo of a swan with a frozen beak at Otley proves.


Resident John Morgan spotted the unfortunate bird floating in the mostly frozen River Wharfe, huddled with other swans and ducks in a rare patch of water beneath Otley Bridge, last week.

As his photograph shows, the thick ice holding the swan’s beak together had also formed a two-inch icicle hanging at the end – making it impossible to feed.

Mr Morgan wanted to reach the bird himself to help it, but that proved too difficult. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was contacted to see if it could help.

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), meanwhile, said he had never encountered such a case before.

He said: “Freshwater birds at this time of year can suffer if the rivers, lakes or ponds where they’re living get frozen, although normally the casualties are birds like kingfishers and moorhens.

“I have personally never heard of birds having their beaks frozen like this before, although we are a conservation rather than a rescue organisation.

“It’s indicative, though, of the exceptional freeze we have had over the last three or four weeks and it’s clearly going to be the case that some birds will have perished, from mute swans right down to kingfishers.

“It’s really a case of survival of the fittest.”

“Luckily,” he added, “mute swans generally are doing very well in terms of their population, but for the individual birds trying to endure through this cold it’s a very difficult challenge.

“What we really need are kinder conditions and a thaw to give an opportunity for these birds to feed and recover.”

The RSPB’s general advice is to leave wild birds alone to sort themselves out, unless – as in this case – they are in clear distress or danger of suffering, in which case the RSPCA can be contacted.

By Jim Jack

http://www.wharfedaleobserver.co.uk/news/8762707.Wildlife_suffer_in_freezing_conditions/

Tagged flamingo to show bird's migratory routes

Abu Dhabi: "Yasmeena", a greater Flamingo will help humans with new information on flamingo's migratory routes stretching from the UAE to Kazakhstan.


She was tagged by the Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD) yesterday at Al Wathba Wetland Reserve as part of its work to track and monitor birds.

Some among the nine flamingos tagged by the EAD since 1995 have flown to Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, and provided new insights into their adventurous journey, an official told Gulf News.

The tracking programme is not meant for getting any new information on the behaviour of the birds but their migratory routes and stopover sites only, Dr Salim Javed, head of EAD's Bird Programme and Manager of Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring, said. The EAD, the first organisation in the Gulf region to satellite tag flamingos since 2005 has successfully tagged 15 flamingos in the UAE, of which nine are still being tracked.

One of these birds, named ‘Sindibad' by EAD, was the first bird to cross the Arabian Gulf stopping along the way at key wetland sites and is currently in Khor Al Beidah in Umm Al Quwain and continues to be tracked by EAD experts.

GPS transmitters
In 2005, five flamingos were captured and marked with plastic rings and satellite transmitters. The capture and tagging was done at the Abu Dhabi Al Wathba Wetland Reserve by the EAD, which also manages the Reserve. Inspired by the success of the programme, the agency has expanded it to cover migratory birds of prey such as the Osprey and Sooty falcon.

The EAD now has a better understanding of where these birds go to feed and where they were migrating from. Birds were tagged with GPS transmitters in November 2005, January 2007, and December 2009. Four flamingos were tagged in Dubai in 2009. Three birds were also tagged in Bul Syayeef area in January 2010.

Satellite tagged birds have successfully migrated north to their potential breeding or summering areas in Iran and Kazakhstan

Regular locations from one of the flamingos' satellite tagged in Al Wathba in 2007 helped EAD discover a new breeding colony of flamingos in April 2009 in Abu Dhabi's Mussafah Channel.



By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/environment/tagged-flamingo-to-show-bird-s-migratory-routes-1.738162

Seven Brazilian bird species granted endangered status

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) voted recently to designate several rare bird species as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The designation becomes effective on January 27, 2011 and will protect against the trade of, increase conservation funding to, and promote habitat safeguards of seven of the most imperiled species in Brazil.


The selected species live in or near the Atlantic forest biome, a region of tropical and subtropical moist forest, tropical dry forest, tropical savannas, and mangroves along the Atlantic coast of Brazil. The Atlantic forest, or Mata Atlântica has been designated a World Biosphere Reserve because of its high level of biodiversity and endangered inhabitants which include marmosets, lion tamarins, and woolly spider monkeys. It's also massively threatened by the encroachment of civilization. For hundreds of years, the forest has been cleared for urban settlement and the production of sugar cane, with the result being that less than 10% of native, fractured, forest remains.

The species were chosen by the USFWS because they all inhabit the same region and share a high level of threat posed by destruction of their environment due to human activity. One of the species being listed is the black-headed antwren, a small member of the antbird family which lives in pairs or family groups and eats insects, spiders, and small frogs. Currently, the entire species consists of only one population of 1,000 - 2,500 individuals restricted to just 19 miles of coastline near Rio de Janeiro.

Another is the cherry-throated tanager. This small white, black, and red bird was presumed extinct until 1998. Estimates put its current population at just 50 - 250 individuals, probably inhabiting one small tract of protected forest.


In addition to the black-headed antwren and cherry-throated tanager, the designation includes the Brazilian merganser, the fringe-backed fire-eye, the Kaempfer’s tody-tyrant, the Margaretta’s hermit, and the southeastern rufous-vented ground cuckoo.

The USFWS decision follows decades of petitions and lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation nonprofit, over the preclusion of many imperiled species from the Endangered Species Act. In total, 25 international bird species have gained Endangered status in the past three years out of the 45 that were petitioned.

“Protecting these species under the Endangered Species Act will give them a better chance of survival, and it will help attract worldwide attention to the urgent plight of these animals,” said Justin Augustine, staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We hope the Obama administration continues to undo the significant backlog of foreign species that deserve protection but have yet to receive it.”

Morgan Erickson-Davis, mongabay.com

http://news.mongabay.com/2010/1229-morgan_brazil_birds.html

Secret lives of baby American beavers filmed

The secrets lives of beavers have been revealed by a new study.

Using discreet video cameras, scientists have been able to study the long-term natural behaviour of beavers "at home" in their lodges.

The tiny, waterproof cameras, inserted into beaver dens, show that beavers lead very different private lives when at home than when outside.

At home, the animals are surprisingly co-operative and scientists have even recorded baby beavers growing up.

Much of what we know about beavers and their use of dens is limited to questions like 'what times of day do they go in and out of the den'", says Cy Mott, a biologist at Kentucky Wesleyan College, in Owensboro, US.


"Simply because, until recently, we haven't had the technology to follow their behaviour within the den without potentially disturbing natural behaviour."

So Professor Mott and colleagues, Craig Bloomquist and Clayton Nielsen of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, US, decided to study American beavers (Castor canadensis) denning on the Mississippi flood plain in south-western Illinois.

Beavers in this region declined drastically in the 19th and 20th Centuries, but have since recovered due to a ban on hunting them for their pelts.

The researchers used special "probe" cameras that do not disturb the beavers to record the animals' behaviour in 23 colonies over the course of more than a year.

Beavers make sophisticated homes, either in dens burrowed into river banks, or more complex lodges.


Lodges are essentially dens built from wooden branches that are surrounded by water, the level of which beavers help maintain by also building wooden dams.

Video taken of beavers within 17 lodges and six bank dens revealed some surprising behaviours.

Living in their elaborate shelters, beavers were thought to be cut off from the outside environment.

But the video study shows that they exhibit regular patterns of behaviour, leaving to feed at roughly the same time every day, for example.

"This suggests that they may not be as cut off from the external environment as we think they are," says Professor Mott.

Male and female beavers appear to take equal responsibility for raising their babies, known as kits, perhaps because the young are so "high maintenance".


In the privacy of their own home, beavers also spend 95% of their time feeding, sleeping, and grooming.

"It supports the assumption that the relative security of the den is a place where they can exhibit behaviours that would be potentially dangerous outside of dens," says Professor Mott.

Baby sleep
Another surprise relates to the private lives of baby beavers, and their sleeping patterns.

Baby beavers, and adults, follow a similar sleep schedule to humans, the researchers report in the journal Mammalian Biology.

Adults beavers tended to sleep at a similar time, though not all the adults fall asleep at once, perhaps to ensure the babies are looked after.

"Kits, on the other hand, exhibited multiple sleep wake cycles throughout the day and night, with each interval lasting only a few hours, much like a human infant waking up every few hours during the night," says Prof Mott.

Finally, "given that beavers are in incredibly close confines within dens, we fully expected to document aggressive behaviours," he explains.

Most social animals that live in close-knit groups tend to use aggression to establish a "pecking order" between individuals.

But "one of the most interesting things we didn't find was aggression within beaver colonies," Prof Mott told the BBC.

The researchers know of only two previous studies that attempt to explain what happens within a den, despite the fact that beavers spent considerable portions of their lives in these structures.


In one study, scientists cut away one side of a lodge to view the beavers directly via a glass panel, which likely disturbed the animals' natural behaviour.

The other study consisted of a researcher "listening in" while outside the lodge, in an attempt to describe what was happening inside.

"To our knowledge, our study is the first to use long-term video data to follow behaviour for months at a time, over successive years, and even during the period from birth of beaver kits until they disperse to find territories of their own," says Professor Mott.

By Matt Walker

Editor, Earth News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9283000/9283367.stm

The smile that says rescued Mely the orangutan loves her new home

Three months ago, she was in shackles, with a chain clamped around her neck and desperation in her eyes.


After being neglected and held captive for 15 years, Mely the orangutan struggled to walk, climb or feed herself. But what a difference 12 weeks – and the generosity of Daily Mail readers – makes.

Now, playing happily in her nest and eating fruit and leaves, the look on Mely’s face clearly shows she is enjoying every moment of her new life after being rescued from a riverside shack in Borneo.

When Mely first arrived her steps were very calculated and slow since she had to learn how to walk and climb,’ said Carolynn Fitterer, a volunteer with the charity International Animal Rescue.

‘But now she has become quite playful, and I always see her weaving in and out of tyre swings and ropes suspended in mid air.’


As a baby, Mely was taken as a pet by a fisherman who shot her mother as a trophy.

But as she grew into an adult, he lost interest, leaving her chained to the balcony as a tourist attraction and surviving on scraps of unsuitable food that were thrown to her.

After Mely’s plight featured in the Mail, readers raised more than £8,000 to help International Animal Rescue seize her.

She travelled by river, road and air to get to the forest sanctuary in Ketapang, Indonesia.

Miss Fitterer said: ‘Mely’s personality is so sweet I never would have guessed she came from such a horrific background. She always comes over to say hello, and she is incredibly gentle.

'Mely got to do so many things for the first time here, like touch the hand of another orangutan, climb higher than one metre off the ground, and sleep in a bed of leaves.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1342622/The-smile-says-Mely-orangutan-loves-new-home.html#ixzz19hFjXRA6

Environmental Factors Limit Species Diversity, Lizard Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Dec. 29, 2010) — New research on lizards in the Caribbean demonstrates that species diversification is limited by the environment. The finding supports and extends the MacArthur-Wilson theory of island biogeography.


It's long been accepted by biologists that environmental factors cause the diversity -- or number -- of species to increase before eventually leveling off. Some recent work, however, has suggested that species diversity continues instead of entering into a state of equilibrium. But new research on lizards in the Caribbean not only supports the original theory that finite space, limited food supplies, and competition for resources all work together to achieve equilibrium; it builds on the theory by extending it over a much longer timespan.


The research was done by Daniel Rabosky of the University of California, Berkeley and Richard Glor of the University of Rochester who studied patterns of species accumulation of lizards over millions of years on the four Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Cuba. Their paper is being published December 21 in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Glor and Rabosky focused on species diversity -- the number of distinct species of lizards -- not the number of individual lizards.

"Geographic size correlates to diversity," said Glor. "In general, the larger the area, the greater the number of species that can be supported. For example, there are 60 species of Anolis lizards on Cuba, but far fewer species on the much smaller islands of Jamaica and Puerto Rico." There are only 6 species on Jamaica and 10 on Puerto Rico.

Ecologists Robert MacArthur of Princeton University and E.O. Wilson of Harvard University established the theory of island biogeography in the 1960s to explain the diversity and richness of species in restricted habitats, as well as the limits on the growth in number of species. Glor said the MacArthur-Wilson theory was developed for ecological time-scales, which encompass thousands of years, while his work with Rabosky extends the concepts over a million years. "MacArthur and Wilson recognized the macroevolutionary implications of their work," explained Glor, "but focused on ecological time-scales for simplicity."

Historically, biologists needed fossil records to study patterns of species diversification of lizards on the Caribbean islands. But advances in molecular methodology allowed Glor and Rabosky to use DNA sequences to reconstruct evolutionary trees that show the relationships between species.

The two scientists found that species diversification of lizards on the four islands reached a plateau millions of years ago and has essentially come to an end.

Glor said the extent and quality of the data used in the research allowed him and Rabosky to show that species diversification of lizards on the islands was not continuing and had indeed entered a state of equilibrium.

"When we look at other islands and continents that vary in species richness," said Glor, "we can't just consider rates of accumulation; we need to look at the plateau points."

Glor emphasizes that a state of equilibrium does not mean that the evolution of a species comes to an end. Lizards will continue to adapt to changes in their environment, but they are not expected to develop in a way that increases the number of species within a habitat.

Glor believes his work with Rabosky represents the "final word" on the importance of limits on species diversity over the rate of speciation when explaining the species-area relationship in anole lizards.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101220163248.htm

Seal sightings baffle wildlife experts

A sharp increase in the number of seals around the coast has baffled wildlife experts, who say they have no idea where the animals are mating or giving birth.


They want the public to help solve the mystery.


Researchers have no accurate numbers for the country’s seals but have reported a large increase in sightings in recent years, especially in the Kent and Sussex area.

Brett Lewis of the University of Kent is leading the investigation.

He hopes that if coastal walkers record their sightings with the university an accurate picture can be created.

“If a dog walker or someone sees anything they think we might be interested in, I want to know the details and the exact location of the breeding pair,” he said.

“It will help us build up a much bigger picture of where they are colonising.”


A report last year found that Scotland had more grey seals than previously estimated but that common seals were in decline.

It was estimated that there were around 164,000 grey seals north of the border and a minimum of 20,000 common seals.

Around 15 per cent of the world’s grey seal population is thought to breed on Orkney but little is known about the boom in the South.

A similar survey helped map seal populations in Cumbria in 2007.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8228656/Seal-sightings-baffle-wildlife-experts.html

Urban marmosets avoid pet threat

Black-tufted marmosets living in Brazil's city parks are going to surprising lengths to avoid unusual predators - domestic cats.


The small urban-dwelling monkeys return to favoured sleeping sites - something jungle-dwelling marmosets do not do.

Cats often make multiple attempts to catch the monkeys each day, but have difficulty accessing tall trees with smooth bark and fewer low branches.

So the monkeys habitually return to these tall trees to thwart the cats.

Details are published in the International Journal of Primatology.


Marmosets usually live in rainforest canopies but have adapted to life in Brazil's urban green spaces.

Marmoset researchers observed the behaviour whilst investigating the affect of city noise levels on urban populations in Belo Horizonte City Park in Minas Gerais, south-eastern Brazil.

In their study, Marina Duarte and Professor Robert Young revealed how the black-tufted marmosets make sleeping site choices.

The park contains more than 3,000 trees, but the nine resident marmosets only slept in 12 particularly tall trees, all of which had high first branches and smooth bark.

The monkeys also showed a preference for trees that could only be accessed by jumping from neighbouring trees.


This behaviour has not been observed in black-tufted marmosets living in more traditional rainforest habitats.

"Normally, in nature the animals prefer to sleep in several different trees so that predators do not learn to find their sleeping places," explained Ms Duarte.

Approximately 115 domestic cats live in the park and researchers recorded an average of three attempts at marmoset predation by cats per day.

However, the cats were unable to scale the tallest trees or those without suitable climbing supports like rough bark or low hanging branches.

By adapting their choice of sleeping sites, the marmosets were able to evade the exceptionally high number of predators.

Feral predators
Unwanted pets have been abandoned in the park for the last 20 years, greatly increasing the cat population.

Scientists studying how marmoset and tamarins adapt to urban environments have also recorded their communication in groups and interaction with humans.


In the past, these sap-feeding species have been identified as particularly adaptable to urban environments where they can find suitable food sources.

The small monkeys are also popular with exotic collectors and it remains unclear how many of Brazil's urban marmosets were once pets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9271000/9271898.stm










By Ella Davies


Earth News reporter

New species of fishes found in Indian waters

The presence of a shark species new to science and 84 other deep-sea dwellers new to the Indian waters have been brought out by a stock assessment of deep sea fishes of the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone and the central Indian Ocean, according to researchers.


Mustelus manglorensis, a new gummy shark species, was discovered from a depth of 500 metres off the Mangalore coast. According to researchers, this is the second gummy shark that has been reported from the Indian Ocean against the 19 known worldwide.

Of the 84 species of fishes found in the Indian waters, 15 were shark varieties, including Baloon, Cat, Lantern and Gulpers. Researchers have also confirmed the presence of 10 species of eels belonging to Conger, Cusk and Snipe families from the study region. Most of the species were found inhabiting the sea at a depth beyond 500 metres, researchers said.

The assessment was carried out by a research team led by B. Madhusoodana Kurup, Director, School of Industrial Fisheries of the Cochin University of Science and Technology. The team included researchers M. Harikrishnan, S. Venu, Sharin Sonia, A.V. Deepu, Ginsen Joseph and Diana. The study was supported by the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The assessment also revealed that the Indian waters supported rich and diverse deep sea angler fish, which uses the fleshy lobe on its head to catch its prey. The presence of six new species coming under ‘smooth,' ‘double,' ‘dicerateid' and ‘blackmouth' angler fish categories was also recorded. Most of them were found occupying the ocean space between a depth of 500 and 800 metres.

The samples were collected from the exploratory deep sea fishery cruises on board the ocean research vessel Sagar Sampada. Fishing was carried out in depths between 200 and 1100 metres from the Wadge bank in the south and Ratnagiri in the north along the south west coast during the last 10 years. Fishing operations were carried out in 220 stations with high speed demersal fish and shrimp trawls, researchers said.

The analysis has revealed that the Kozhikode-Mangalore region was rich in deep sea fish biodiversity as 121 species were collected from there. This was followed by the Kochi-Kozhikode belt with the presence of 95 species. In the Kozhikode- Mangalore belt, the richest fish biodiversity was found at depths ranging between 500 and 800 metres, they said.

Morphological features
The morphological features of some of the species identified included transparent or black body, poorly developed muscles, absence of gas bladder and greatly reduced eyes. Some of the species possessed expandable stomachs. In some other fishes, jaws were either absent or present with huge hinged jaws with long and inward pointing teeth, they said.

The origin of many species could be tracked to the tropical regions of the Pacific and the Atlantic, especially to South African coast, Madagascar Bridge, Mozambique, Gulf of Aden, Canary Islands and the Mediterranean Sea. Many species were found sharing similar habitats with their counterparts in other oceans, they said.
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article1011567.ece?homepage=true

Penguins hop on scales in Antarctic climate study

Specially designed measuring scales have been built to allow experts to gain vital information about the feeding habits of the Adelie penguin.


Three sets of scales have been disguised and strategically placed on the routes popular with the birds at a colony in the Antarctic.

The scales are triggered when the penguins waddle over them after returning from fishing trips out at sea.

The Adelie penguin, named after the wife of French explorer Admiral Durmont d'Urville, is relatively small with the typical black and white markings of the penguin family.

The bird, which can dive to a depth of 500ft, sports a striking white eye ring which makes it appear as though it is wearing goggles.

Scientists working at the Dumont d'Urville base on Pointe Geologie archipelago in the Antarctic can then monitor the data to gain detailed information about the colony.

Weighing the birds gives scientists an indication of the amount of food they have eaten, which is crucial for finding out how the species are adapting to changes in their habitat.

Penguins have suffered as a result of climate change with 11 of the world's 18 species decreasing in numbers, according to the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/8228565/Penguins-hop-on-scales-in-Antarctic-climate-study.html

Dog gets head stuck in wall

A German shepherd dog has been rescued after getting his head stuck in a wall.


The eight-month-old dog, called Rebel, somehow managed to squeeze his head through the 18-inch block wall in Desert Hot Springs, California, reports the Telegraph.

A friend of the owner heard the dog whimper and bark and called the County Animal Services, before officers gently pulled its head back through the wall after 30 minutes.

Rebel made a full escape from the wall and recovery from the ordeal.

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Dog_gets_head_stuck_in_wall

Bees One of Many Pollinators Infected by Virus Implicated in Colony Collapse Disorder

ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2010) — Penn State researchers have found that native pollinators, like wild bees and wasps, are infected by the same viral diseases as honey bees and that these viruses are transmitted via pollen. This multi-institutional study provides new insights into viral infections in native pollinators, suggesting that viral diseases may be key factors impacting pollinator populations.


Their research published on December 22nd in PLoS ONE, an online open-access journal.


According to Diana Cox-Foster, co-author and professor of entomology at Penn State, pollinator populations have declined for various reasons, including ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses, which are emerging as a serious threat. "RNA viruses are suspected as major contributors to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD ), where honey bee colonies die with few or no bees left in the hives. Recent detection of these viral species in bumble bees and other native pollinators indicates a possible wider environmental spread of these viruses with potential broader impact," explains Cox-Foster.

The researchers studied viral distributions from pollen pellets of honey bees and other pollinators collected from flowering plants in Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois in the United States. "For the first time, RNA viruses such as deformed wing virus, sacbrood virus and black queen cell virus were detected in pollen pellets collected directly from forager bees," said Cox-Foster. "Pollen pellets from several uninfected forager bees were detected with virus, indicating that pollen itself may harbor viruses. The viruses in the pollen and honey stored in the hive were demonstrated to be infective, with the queen becoming infected and laying infected eggs after these virus-contaminated foods were given to virus-free colonies."

The detection of RNA viruses in other pollinators, including bumble bees, solitary bees and wasps, suggests that viruses might have a deeper impact on ecosystem health , given that these pollinators are essential to most plants for seed set and production of fruits, nuts, berries, and vegetables. The findings are important to the public and scientific community worldwide, given pollinators' role in agriculture and the environment and recent declines in native pollinators.

The findings also raise biosecurity issues because pollen is currently being imported into many countries to feed honey bees used in agricultural pollination.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101222173037.htm

New species abound in Peru, but so do threats

By Roberto Cortijo (AFP)


LIMA — Each year, a new bird is found and every four years a new mammal discovered in the Peruvian Amazon, a haven for biodiversity where conservation and danger often go hand in hand.

Although Peru is known for its Andes mountain range, the Amazon actually covers 60 percent of the country's territory. It is a hotbed of bio-activity and is home to 25,000 species of plants -- 10 percent of the world's stock.

Thanks to the Amazon, Peru has the world's second-largest bird population (1,800 species) and is among the top five countries for mammals (515 species) and reptiles (418 species).

This year alone, scientists stumbled upon a previously unknown leech and a new type of mosquito.

The animal population has grown in recent years, namely adding a mini poison dart frog with a fire-red head and blue legs (Ranitomeya amazonica), a purple-throated Sunangel hummingbird (Heliangelus viola) and a "tyrannosaurus leech" with eight teeth (Tyrannobdella reina).

More than 1,200 new species of plants or animals have been discovered in 10 years in the Amazon, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature. But paradoxically, the novel species are often discovered during the very activities that threaten the Amazon the most.

"Most of these discoveries don't happen during scientific expeditions, which are often costly. They most often come when workers are digging exploration sites for oil, mining or lumber companies," said WWF Peru's Amazon program director Michael Valqui.

"This type of discovery is also simultaneously endangering the species that is being discovered in its one and only habitat."

Peru, home to one of the biggest forest lands -- 700,000 square kilometers (270,270 square miles) -- is also a magnet for resource extraction.

The number of concessions granted has doubled since 2006 to cover 16 percent of the territory, according to the Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America.

At the same time, Peru boasts of being on the cutting edge of conservation, with 15 percent of its territory under protected status.

"And we're aiming for 30 percent," said Environment Minister Antonio Brack.

Environmentalists, though, worry about the future of biodiversity and the species living outside these protected zones.

"There are no clear signals as to what the country intends to do to protect biodiversity," said Ivan Lanegra, representative of the influential government-funded Peruvian ombudsman office.

Gerard Herail of France's IRD research and development institute in Lima noted that "a mining or hydrocarbons firm is not innately destructive. The key is whether or not it is 'clean'," or uses cleaner methods and technologies.

More species are disappearing than are being discovered around the world, noted Ernesto Raez, who heads the Sustainable Development Center at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima.

"In other words, species are disappearing before we discover them," he added.

But the IRD says the very context of their disappearance allows the group to "develop biodiversity conservation strategies," such as those deployed successfully for the huge arapaima or paiche fish (Arapaima gigas), one of the largest freshwater fish in the world.

Twenty-one species remain in "critical danger" of extinction in Peru, according to 2004 numbers, including the short-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla brevicaudata) and the sharp-eared bat (Tompoeas ravus). The leaf-eared mouse (phyllotis andinum) is believed to have already disappeared.

The Lima gecko (Phyllodactylus sentosus), a minuscule nocturnal lizard also in critical danger, illustrates the sometimes complex relationship between threat and conservation.

The gecko finds its habitat in the darkest corners of the huacas, pre-Hispanic burial grounds or ritual sites that dot Lima and the coast.

"But archeologists' maintenance work, crucial for conservation, is exactly what's destroying the gecko's habitat" and triggering its downfall, said Valqui.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g_3zOtgQRjjeXOrm-Ds2PlylB39Q?docId=CNG.081ed8ef951580bf2ea69716935b211d.441

Nose job book from 1597 sells at auction

Bought by a plastic surgeon, the book addresses the rhinoplasty procedure in writings dating back to 1597. It proves that the obsession with going under the knife dates back way before the 20th century.

It is unknown if the plastic surgeon will try the old techniques, though his customers will likely hope not.

Called De Curtorum Chirurgia Per Insitionem - translating as Surgery of Defects by Implantations - the book contains one diagram with a patient in bed and his forearm attached to his head. A flap of skin is then grafted from his bicep to his nose.

It was penned by Italian surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi, who helped reshape the noses of soldiers who had been affected by battles during various conflicts.

Selling the journal at the Dominic Winter Auction House in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, former owner Chris Albury said: 'It's a wonderful and rare book. The ­techniques were clearly well-thought of at the time, yet all was forgotten following Tagliacozzi's death.'

He added that religious ­authorities may have turned their own noses up at the work, as many may have seen it as '­interfering with God's work'.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/851469-nose-job-book-from-1597-sells-at-auction#ixzz19VnKnMl3

Costa Rica Investigates Mysterious Death of Sea Turtles

INSIDE COASTA RICA (San José) 12/13/10


Scientists in Costa Rica are studying the death of at least 10 and 12 more ailing turtles in the southern zone. Universidad Nacional (UN) told the press that the environmental organization MarVia found the 22 turtles floating near Matapalo beach.

Ten of the Kemp's Ridley turtles died within days of bringing them to shore and biologists and veterinarians have no ida of what caused their deaths.

According to Widecast Network, this occurs when creatures have been floating adrift in the water for a prolonged period.

Widecast diretor, Claudio Quesada, told the La Nación that the turtles could have been at sea for more than two months, as they showed dehydration and lack of feeding for weeks.

Chemicals from nearby drainage from crops of palm, rice and pineapple, given their concentration of agrochemicals, could be the reason as some of the substances could affect the turtles.

So far this year another 41 Kemp's Ridleys were found in the biological reserve on Caño Island in a similar state as those of Matapalo.

Kemp's Ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) is a critically endangered species of sea turtle. It is one of two living species in the genus Lepidochelys, the other one being L. olivacea, the Olive Ridley. It is also the rarest sea turtle. Kemp's Ridley is the smallest living sea turtle species, reaching maturity at 2-3 feet (61-91 cm) long and averaging only 45 kilograms (99 lb).

It is typical of a sea turtle, having a dorsoventrally depressed body with specially adapted flipper-like front limbs. Like other sea turtles, it possesses a horny beak.



From: Herp Digest,
Volume # 10 Issue # 55

Solving Turtle Life Mysteries (Lea Emery)

MSNBC (New York, New York) 12/14/10

The mystery surrounding what turtles do while offshore waiting to lay their clutch is one step closer to being cracked.

Rangers at the Mon Repos Conservation Park Research Station fixed a satellite tracking device to a loggerhead turtle yesterday in hope of find out more about what they did at sea.

Dr Col Limpus, chief scientist for marine biology and freshwater ecology with the Department of Environment and Resource Management, said the tracking device would send back information about where the turtle was between laying clutches.

"We know a lot about which beaches the turtles prefer and what they do on the beach but not much about what happens while they are out at sea," he said.

The turtle tagged has already laid two clutches this season and is expected to lay another one or two.

Dr Limpus said the tracking device would allow researchers to look at how artificial light on shore affected turtles while they were at sea.

"One of the issues for sea turtles is that they prefer dark beaches," he said.

"We have seen over the 30 or 40 years we have been studying them that their movement on the beaches has changed in parallel to the increase in light."

The cost of tracking a turtle with a satellite tag can be quite expensive with the device priced at $5000 and the cost of getting the information from the satellite about $3000.

"It is expensive but the quality of information we get is invaluable," he said.

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks has come on board to help out, officially sponsoring the tracking of the loggerhead.

This year researchers will be tracking two turtles with a satellite tracker and hope to trace another group with a new type of tracking device.

"The satellite device sends the data directly to us," Dr Limpus said. "But with the new device we cannot get the data until we get the tracker back off the turtle."

From: Herp Digest,
Volume # 10 Issue # 55

Fish Swam the Sahara, Bolstering Out of Africa Theory

Fish may have once swum across the Sahara, a finding that could shed light on how humanity made its way out of Africa, researchers said.


The cradle of humanity lies south of the Sahara, which begs the question as to how our species made its way past it. The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, and would seem a major barrier for any humans striving to migrate off the continent.

Scientists have often focused on the Nile Valley as the corridor by which humans left Africa. However, considerable research efforts have failed to uncover evidence for its consistent use by people leaving the continent, and precisely how watery it has been over time is controversial.

Now it turns out the Sahara might not have been quite as impassable as once thought ­ not only for humanity, but for fish as well.

"Fish appeared to have swam across the Sahara during its last wet phase sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago," researcher Nick Drake, a geographer at King's College London, told LiveScience. "The Sahara is not a barrier to the migrations of animals and people. Thus it is possible ­ likely? ­that early modern humans did so, and this could explain how we got out of Africa."

Using satellite imagery and digital maps of the landscape, the researchers found the Sahara was once covered by a dense network of rivers, lakes and inland deltas. This large waterway channeled water and animals into and across the Sahara during wet, "green" times.

In their analysis, Drake and his colleagues found evidence that many creatures, including aquatic ones, dispersed across the Sahara recently. For example, 25 North African animal species have populations both north and south of the Sahara with small refuges within the desert, including catfish (Clarias gariepinus), tilapia (Tilapia zillii), jewel cichlid fish (Hemichromis letourneuxi) and freshwater snails such as the red-rimmed melania (Melanoides tuberculata). Indeed, more animals may have once crossed over the Sahara than over the Nile corridor, the researchers said ­ only nine animal species that occupy the Nile corridor today are also found both north and south of the Sahara.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/fish-possibly-swam-across-sahara-101228.html

Petition to Save the Grass Snake (Constantinos Ioannou)

CYPRUS MAIL (Nicosia) 12/11/10
An online petition has been created to save the endangered Cyprus grass snake.

The petition says: "Snake George is desperately worried about the high risk that the endemic Cyprus grass snake will become extinct and realises that the Republic of Cyprus is simply not taking the necessary action to give it a real chance of survival."

Snake George, whose name is Hans-George Wiedl is a conservationist whose speciality is reptiles.

He is proposing much stricter protection of habitats, combined with a really well-planned captive breeding programme to safeguard the genetic stock. His focus is on the area around Paralmni Lake, which is being developed to the detriment of the grass snake (natrix natrix cypriaca).

The petition will be delivered to the government "as soon as possible as a real show of support for this critically endangered and beautiful animal," he said. Snake George warned last month that the species was under threat.

He said: "The whole environment around the lake has changed for the worst. I would not be surprised if the grass snake at Paralimni has disappeared altogether." He said that even if there was still a small number of grass snakes in the area they would soon disappear.

Earlier this week environmental services officer Charalambos Hadjipakos warned deputies at the House that he had received reports that people with "twisted minds" had been shooting grass snakes at the Paralimni Lake.

Pantelis Hadjiyerou, Director of the Cyprus Game Fund said that he had heard similar reports but after investigating found no proof of such a phenomenon.

"There are limited chances of a person finding grass snakes, let alone killing them with a gun," he said.

Cyprus has already been in trouble with the European Commission, which has sent a notice requiring that Paralimni Lake be designated a "site of community importance" (SCI). However the government ignored this by allowing development around the lake, which is home to the grass snake.

Barbara Helfferich, spokeswoman for the Environment at the European Commission said: "The Commission considered that the Cypriot authorities had not taken the necessary measures to protect the Cyprus grass snake, contrary to the requirements of directives on the conservation and habitats of flora and fauna."

The Famagusta municipality under instructions from the Interior Minister has done some work to improve the site, local district officer George Antoniadis said: "We cleaned out a lot of the debris, waste from local farmers and levelled the motocross which affected the lake."

Anyone interested in signing Snake George's petition can do so online at http://www.cypruspetitions.com/petition_details.php?petition_id=25

From: Herp Digest,
Volume # 10 Issue # 55

Tadpoles Croak Like Adults

MSNBC (New York, New York) 12/14/10

When frogs are just teensy tadpoles, they're already croaking like adults, researchers have observed for the first time.

They not only croak when attacked, but when they cannibalistically attack members of their own species as well, scientists find.

Tadpoles, or pollywogs, are frogs in their young larval stages. They dwell entirely in the water and look somewhat like fish.

Frogs are well known for croaking, with each species having its own unique call. Now researchers are discovering that tadpoles can speak up as well (albeit much more softly).

Evolutionary biologist Miguel Vences at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany investigated the tadpoles of a frog species from western Madagascar, Gephyromantis azzurrae, which prefers living in cool, shallow, fast streams. These pollywogs are carnivores, preying not just on insect larvae and shrimp, but also on tadpoles of the same and other species.

Vences and his colleagues found these predator tadpoles called out while attacking prey by making rapid clicks, perhaps by snapping the hard sheaths over their jaws together. They called out significantly more often when they were hungry or when attacking tadpoles of the same species.

Most animal sounds, such as in birds, frogs and crickets, "are produced in the context of reproduction and therefore by adult animals, usually males," Vences said. "It is very rare that young animals and especially larvae are producing sounds, except maybe in birds, where of course the young are known to chirp as loud as the adults."

Traveling tadpoles

The researchers actually initially discovered these tadpoles could make clicks in 1994.

"Almost 20 years ago, [taxonomist] Frank Glaw and I found them for the first time and suddenly realized that faint sounds were coming out of the bucket were we were keeping them," Vences told LiveScience.

Vences and Glaw, of the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Germany, found the tadpoles in the Isalo region and were struck by their unusual color and massive jaw sheaths. The pair decided to bring them back to Madagascar's capital Antananarivo where they could observe them.

"At the time, we had no money to rent [our] own car and had to travel with public transport, which in Madagascar is a real challenge, and in that year, there was a really bad hurricane striking the island," Vences said.

"So, there we were, traveling for more than three days in extremely overcrowded minibuses and cars, over roads partly destroyed by landslides, and all the time with a large bucket full of water and with some of these tadpoles on our knees," he added.

On more than one occasion, the pair contemplated throwing the tadpoles into a ditch to make their ride more comfortable - but they didn't.

"Then we had to wait over 15 years until we found some students interested in tadpoles and who would invest the effort to sit for many, many hours in front of a little aquarium with a video camera and special microphones to record these sounds and monitor the tadpole behavior," Vences said. "A very painstaking job, and [biologist] Erik Reeve really was exceptional in getting this system to work. Consider that these tadpoles are tiny and the sounds very faint - without a special microphone and amplifier, you can just barely hear them if your ear is very close to the aquarium."

What are the tadpoles saying?

The experiments showed that smaller tadpoles made fewer calls and were less likely than the big guys to use a combination of different call types, suggesting the sound of the clicks might yield clues about the size of the tadpoles making them. They might be used to chase away other members of their own species, the scientists speculated. Their findings will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Naturwissenschaften. [Read about tadpoles with three eyes.]

Tadpoles of another frog species were also revealed earlier this year as capable of calling out - the South American horned frog Ceratophrys ornata. However, they mostly sounded off when attacked, emitting brief, clear metallic notes by pushing air out their lungs when tadpoles of their own species attacked them. These distress calls might prevent the tadpoles from cannibalizing each other.

"I find communication a marvelous thing, in nature, modern society, art expressions, technological development, and its evolution towards complex adaptive systems," said herpetologist Guillermo Natale at the National University of La Plata at Buenos Aires. He and his colleagues detailed their findings regarding South American horned frog tadpoles online Feb. 26 in the journal Acta Zoologica.

When it comes to future research into tadpole calls, "we need additional experiments showing that the tadpoles actually hear these sounds and alter their behavior accordingly - that is, they escape when they hear the sounds even if there is no one attacking them, or they become themselves more aggressive when hearing such sounds around them," Vences said.

Vences suggested that additional research on tadpoles could help better understand amphibian ecology and evolution.

"In Madagascar, we are realizing only now how diverse in morphology and feeding modes these larvae are, with extremely different oral structures and some of them now apparently even with, albeit simple, systems of acoustic communication," Vences said. The true depth of specialization and competition in frogs, which is "important to explain their extraordinary diversity in the tropics, may well take place at this level rather [than] at the level of adults."

From: Herp Digest,
Volume # 10 Issue # 55

Denver Zoo Team Creates Insurance Population to Save the Lake Titicaca Giant Frog

DAILY ROSETTA (USA) 12/14/10 (Jeff Jankowski)

The biologists and the Denver zoo team have gone to South Peru in creating an insurance population laboratory to save the endangered Lake Titicaca giant frog. This insurance population was built as a laboratory for the breeding of more giant frog from Lake Titicaca. Giant frogs were very much in danger of extinction because some people in Peru were capturing them into frog shakes which have become common in their area.

These set of teams from Denver were on its focus on helping to revive the population of these frogs. Before, they have created a breeding laboratory in Lima, but now that the giant frog concern has gotten horrible, they have built another laboratory at Puna near Lake Titicaca. Even before this, Peru had already made laws that were bound to protect these giant frogs but it appears that Peruvian people do not care about the law and still continue in taking the frogs for trade.

For this, the Denver zoo team and biologists have informed the Peruvian public that they will be offering great rewards to people who can identify haulers who have made the giant frogs became endangered. A reward amounting to $2,000 was promised to be given by the team for every successful hint done by Peruvian.

This international project done by the Denver zoo team was just among the mission of the team with an objective that is to secure a better world for animals through human understanding.

From: Herp Digest,
Volume # 10 Issue # 55

Sonoran Desert Tortoise Gets Protected Status

KGUN (Tucson, Arizona) 12/14/10, by Sheryl Kornman


Phoenix: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated the Sonoran desert tortoise as a candidate for endangered species protection.

Its status will be reviewed annually. It is not on the list of endangered species, but could be added to the list once there is sufficient scientific information to warrant it.

An announcement by the federal agency on Monday states that:

"Much like the saguaro cactus, the Sonoran desert tortoise is symbolic of the rich Southwestern desert," said Steve Spangle, the Service's Arizona field supervisor. "A collection of various conservation partners have made great strides to better understand and protect the Sonoran desert tortoise, but our comprehensive analysis shows an increasing magnitude of threats is offsetting some conservation efforts. This candidate conservation status should increase opportunities for reversing this trend."

The Service's determination - also known as a 12-month finding - indicates sufficient scientific and commercial data exist to warrant protecting the Sonoran desert tortoise as a Distinct Population Segment (DPS) under the ESA. This follows a comprehensive review of the best available scientific information concerning the Sonoran desert tortoise and the threats it faces. A combination of habitat loss and threats resulting from increasing population growth in the Southwest and northern Mexico are threatening the Sonoran population of the desert tortoise.

The Sonoran tortoise differs from the Mojave desert tortoise, which has been listed as an endangered species threatened since 1989.

The Sonoran desert tortoise occurs south and east of the Colorado River, and half of its range extends into northern Mexico where it is currently listed as threatened by the Mexican government. Unlike the Mojave population that generally occupies desert valley floors, the Sonoran desert tortoise generally prefers rocky, steep slopes and bajadas (lower mountain slopes including alluvial fans - fan-shaped deposits at the ends of canyons formed when fast flowing streams slow and widen) and, to a lesser extent, others may occupy flatter terrain.

The Service will add the Sonoran desert tortoise to its list of candidate species and review its status annually."

From: Herp Digest,
Volume # 10 Issue # 55

Gators Thriving Along Georgia's coast

KBTX (Bryan, Georgia) 12/13/10


Brunswick, Ga.: There's a population explosion on the Georgia coast -- of alligators.

The reptiles are being spotted on roads, in backyard pools and even sunbathing on the beaches. The Brunswick News reports state wildlife officials put the number of gators at well over 200,000.

Unregulated hunting and poaching pushed the creatures to endangered status in the late 60's. Now, there are so many gators, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources is proposing a management plan.

The plan includes using money from gator hunting permits to fund wildlife watching areas.

From: Herp Digest, Volume # 10 Issue # 55 12/21/10

HS2 plan 'will destroy Warwickshire wildlife'

THOUSANDS of nature lovers across Coventry and Warwickshire are being rallied to fight the latest plans for a high-speed rail line.

Warwickshire Wildlife Trust is calling on its 23,500 members to stand together in opposing plans for non-stop bullet trains that would cut the journey time from London to Birmingham to 49 minutes.

They say the proposed route for HS2 will create a “massive iron and concrete curtain” that will have a “devastating” impact on wild animals and plants.

Chief executive Steven Trotter, who this year took over the running of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, based at Brandon Marsh Nature Reserve, has spoken out since the government announced their intended route.

He said: “The new route for HS2 will be devastating for Warwickshire’s wildlife – and especially protected species such as bats, nationally-rare butterflies, bluebells and otters in some of our most sensitive and beautiful habitats.

“We’re here to stand up for wildlife. I know that thousands of Wildlife Trust members and members of the public will be writing to their MPs, lobbying government, and collaborating with the many community Stop HS2 action groups.”

On Monday, transport secretary Philip Hammond announced the government’s “preferred route” for the £17 billion scheme, which would see 250mph trains run through local communities including Burton Green, Stoneleigh, Kenilworth, Southam and across the western edge of Coventry.

A six-month public consultation will now follow.

Warwickshire is one of seven Wildlife Trusts that will feel the impacts of the high- speed rail route and Mr Trotter’s fears have been echoed at a national level.

Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said: “Whilst consideration may have been given to noise and visual impacts on those people who live along the proposed route, Philip Hammond made no reference at all to the impact on the natural environment.”

Analysis by the Wildlife Trusts finds the route will directly affect two of its nature reserves, four sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), 10 ancient woodland sites and 53 local wildlife sites.

The Wildlife Trust is made up of 47 groups nationwide with more than 800,000 members.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2010/12/24/hs2-plan-will-destroy-warwickshire-wildlife-92746-27881636/#ixzz19Pj3bOh5

Cypriot bird trappers flock to British military base

As many songbirds, including robins, in Britain and northern Europe struggle with the icy blast of Arctic weather, many of their counterparts which have migrated to Cyprus to escape the harsh conditions are being killed by the island’s trappers in greater numbers than any year in the previous decade.


Shockingly, a report by BirdLife Cyprus reveals a large proportion of these birds are trapped at Dhekelia – a UK Sovereign Base Area in the south-east of the island.

Figures released by BirdLife Cyprus, the RSPB’s BirdLife International partner on the island, reveal that an estimated 1.4million songbirds have been trapped illegally this autumn to provide the main ingredient for a local delicacy: ambelopoulia. BirdLife Cyprus has described this level of slaughter as an ‘ecological disaster’
BirdLife Cyprus’s Martin Hellicar says the island has now lost significant ground in the battle against bird trapping. He added: “The picture emerging from this autumn is one of a bird-trapping disaster unseen since we began monitoring almost 10 years ago.”


Indiscriminate
He added: “Bird trapping is an illegal indiscriminate practice that threatens many birds of conservation concern, especially migratory ones.”

Tim Stowe is the RSPB’s International Director. Commenting on the rapidly worsening situation, he said: “The millions of Britons feeding songbirds in their gardens to help them survive this harsh spell will rightly be horrified at the level of slaughter that is happening in an area of Cyprus under direct British control.

“The fact that more than five times the level of netting activity were recorded on the UK’s Sovereign Base Area compared with the Cypriot Republic is a major embarrassment for the Ministry of Defence and the UK Government.

Annual carnage
“We know that some efforts have been made to clear trapping equipment from the Base Area, but this serious organised criminal activity and annual carnage will only be ended by increasing the level of arrests and convictions.”

Although trapping levels are thought to be lower than those experienced in the 1990s, the situation must be addressed urgently. Trappers are reportedly making hundreds of thousands of Euros by selling songbirds to restaurants to be served up as expensive delicacies.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/267412-cypriot-bird-trappers-flock-to-british-military-base

Robins in Scotland battle for survival

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Robins, icons of the Christmas season, don't practice peace and goodwill with each other and often turn murderous toward their own kind, U.K. researchers say.


Experts with Scottish Natural Heritage said the festive songbirds think nothing of bumping off their rivals to ensure they get their beaks on enough food to survive, The Scotsman reported Thursday.

About one in 10 robins is killed by another bird of the same species as both males and females enter into vicious battles over territory and food, a wildlife expert said.

"Traditional images of peaceful robins adorn our Christmas cards at this time of year, but this harmless-looking bird is actually a territorial terror," said Tom Cunningham, reserve manager at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve.


"As well as defending territory during mating, they will often fight other robins, sometimes to the death, over scarce food resources in winter," he said.

Heavy snows sweeping across Scotland have buried their usual food supplies, he said.

"A lot of birds and animals are starving this winter," he said. "It's not surprising that they're fighting each other for what they can get -- it's survival of the fittest at the moment. They really are territorial creatures."


http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/12/23/Robins-in-Scotland-battle-for-survival/UPI-67011293138907/

Hairless animal 'could be chupacabra' (via Rebecca Lang)

A Kentucky farmer has shot and killed an unidentifiable animal which some local residents believe could be proof of a mythical creature.


Locals in Nelson County have developed theories about the animal, saying it could be anything - a cat, a rat, a raccoon, an opossum or the legendary "chupacabra ", WLKY Louisville reports.

"I just happened to walk out onto the porch and saw something moving in the field and it looked unusual," said farmer Mark Cothren.


The animal moved closer to Mr Cothren's house and after staring at it through binoculars, he was still unable to determine what it was.

"Well, it's something strange so I got my rifle to shoot it, get a closer look," Mr Cothren said.
"And I'm glad I did because I don't know what it is."


Some people think the hairless creature could be proof of the existence of the chupacabra, a creature of urban legend whose name means "goat-sucker" in Spanish.

People have reported sightings all over the United States since at least 1995.

The elusive dog-like creature reportedly attacks livestock, bleeding them dry. According to legend, their favourite animal to kill is goats.

But many animal authorities don't believe the theories surrounding the existence of the chupacabra, with Laura Higgason of the Humane Society and Animal Control saying the creature can easily be explained.

"It looks like its probably a raccoon or an opossum with mange," she said.

"It's not a mysterious animal."

The mystery is set to be solved soon with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife testing the animal's DNA to determine exactly what it is.



http://www.iinet.net.au/customers/news/articles/8188941.html

Leapin’ lizards! KU graduate student discovers a new species

The Associated Press

A University of Kansas graduate student was on the hunt for a new lizard species and found it in Vietnam — on a restaurant menu.

A colleague in Vietnam told Jesse Grismer last year about the possibility of a new species in Vietnam and sent him photos and tissue samples. Grismer tested the samples for mitochondrial DNA and realized they were probably dealing with something new.

Grismer went to Vietnam in search of the lizard with his father, Lee Grismer, a biology professor at La Sierra University in Riverside, Calif. They headed to a restaurant in the Ca Mau region on Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, where they had heard the lizard was on the menu.

The restaurant was all out of the lizard meat, but Grismer said he did eventually taste the new species of lizard, which they named after the scientist and family friend in Vietnam, Ngo Van Tri, who told them about it. It’s called Leilolepis ngovantrii.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/26/2543671/leapin-lizards-a-new-species.html

Bat cull 'will not stop white-nose syndrome spreading'

By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News

Culling will not halt the spread of a disease that has killed a million bats in the US since 2006, a study says.

Researchers reached their conclusion by modelling how white-nose syndrome (WNS) is passed from bat to bat.

Writing in Conservation Biology, they add that a cull would not work because the source of the fungal pathogen is believed to occur in the environment.

Earlier studies have warned that WNS could wipe out bat populations in the north-east of the US within 20 years.

Carrying out a cull of bats in areas where the disease is known to be present is one of the options available in an attempt to contain the spread of the killer fungus.

Continue reading the main story

White-nose syndrome

• WNS is associated with a fungus known as Geomyces destructans
• Once present in a colony, WNS can wipe out the entire population
• It was first reported in a cave in New York in February 2006
• The most common visible symptom of an infected bat is a white fungus on the animal's nose, but it can also appear on its wings, ears or tail
• Other symptoms include weight loss and abnormal behaviour, such as flying in daylight or sub-zero temperatures
• Species known to be vulnerable to WNS include: tri-coloured, little brown, big brown, northern long-eared, small-footed and Indiana bats
• There is no known risk to human health

(Source: US Fish & Wildlife Service)

"We developed a model taking into account the complexity of the bat life history, looking at the roosts and the areas where there are large contacts between the bats," said co-author Thomas Hallam from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee.

"Given the dispersal aspect of the problem and the complexity of hibernating bat ecology, it was a case that these things together certainly meant that culling would not work in the case of bats."

WNS, described by some as the worst wildlife health crisis in the US in living memory, is named after a white fungus that appears on the muzzle and/or wings of infected animals.

However, bats with WNS do not always have the characteristic visual symptoms, but may display abnormal behaviour around their hibernacula (caves and mines where bats hibernate during winter months).

These behaviours include flying outside during the day (when their insect prey is not available) in sub-zero temperatures, or clustering near the entrance to the hibernaculum.

Professor Hallam explained that there was a high degree of bat-to-bat interaction, which has been identified as the main way the disease is transmitted, during the course of a year.

In autumn, the mating season brings together large numbers of males and females.

This occurs shortly before colonies enter hibernacula, some of which are large enough to house in the region of half-a-million bats.

In the spring, females head to a maternity roost to have their young. Again, this brings bats into contact with members of different colonies.

Since WNS was first recorded in February 2006 in a commercial cave in New York, it has spread to at least 14 states. Cases have also been recorded in a number of Canadian provinces.

Researchers say the fungus associated with the disease, Geomyces destructans, thrives in the dark, damp conditions - such as caves and mines.

Out of control

In their paper, Professor Hallam and co-author Gary McCracken write: "Because the disease is highly virulent, our model results support the hypothesis that transmission occurs in all contact arenas."

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

I don't see any easy solution on the horizon”

End Quote Thomas Hallam

They add: "Our simulations indicated culling will not control WNS in bats primarily because contact rates are high among colonial bats, contact occurs in multiple arenas, and periodic movement between arenas occurs."

Jeremy Coleman, the national white-nose syndrome co-ordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), said that culling was a potential tool available to agencies attempting to curb the spread of the disease.

"The spread has been very rapid and very alarming," he told BBC News.

"The initial comment that spawned all of the ideas of culling was that if we had known what would happen, then we would have gone in and killed every bat and we would not be facing this problem.

"That had a real resonance among researchers and land managers," Dr Coleman recalled. But he added: "Most people, I would say, feel it is too late for any culling to be effective."

He explained that the final decision on whether to cull would rest with state or federal agencies.

It is believed that the fungus associated with WNS arrived in the US after it was somehow transported from Europe or possibly Asia.

To date, 14 states have recorded cases of white-nose syndrome and the fungus

"It was possibly brought over via 'human-assisted spread' of some sort - like on somebody's boots," Dr Coleman suggested.

"Another possibility is that a bat was somehow transported to North America, perhaps by a cargo plane or freight container, and mixed with bats in New York State."

A team of European researchers followed up unconfirmed reports in Europe that bats had white fungal growths appearing to match the symptoms of WNS.

In a paper in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, they suggested that the Geomyces destructans fungus was present throughout Europe.

However, they added, it seemed as if species of bats in Europe were possibly more immunologically or behaviourally resistant to the fungus than North American species, as it did not increase mortality.

No magic bullet

European bats may be resistant to the disease because they are generally bigger than comparable species in the US. Also, European colonies tend to be not as large as ones found on the other side of the Atlantic.

"What we hope to learn, through genetic means, is the similarities and differences between the North American strains and the European strains," explained Dr Coleman, who is overseeing the formation of a national management plan that hopes to bring together the efforts of state and federal agencies under one umbrella.

US researchers based at MIT recently sequenced the genome of the US strain of G. destructans and made the data publicly available in a hope that it would "jumpstart work on this problem, to help devise ways to track and combat this fungus".

"There are a lot of questions where some answers could potentially could give us some hope," observed Dr Coleman.

Professor Hallam said it was difficult to know if anything could be done to prevent the current outbreak from spreading further and wiping out millions more US bats.

"We have a lot of chemical agents that will get rid of the fungus," he told BBC News.

"The difficulty is the complexity of bats' life histories; it is almost impossible to treat enough bats to make it worthwhile.

"I don't see any easy solution on the horizon."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11878001

Tiger team marks 20 years of conflict resolution

By Victoria Gill Science and nature reporter, BBC News

Living within the habitat of a dangerous animal is not easy.

But it is particularly challenging when that animal is the critically endangered Amur tiger.

If a tiger wanders into a remote Russian village it poses a threat, but also raises a difficult quandary: how can people protect themselves without resorting to killing a creature that is on very the brink of extinction?

A special Tiger Response Team in Russia has sought to solve that problem.

The World Conservation Society (WCS) and an anti-poaching patrol dubbed Inspection Tiger are working closely with the team.

It was set up by the government in 1999 to help resolve "human- tiger conflict".

Amur tigers live in the mosaic of forests in Russia's Far East - an expanse of more than 150,000 sq km of tiger habitat that is dotted with small human settlements.

"There's a grey area where both tigers and humans co-exist," explains Dale Miquelle, director of the WCS Russia Programme.

"So, even though the tigers are incredibly scarce, they do pass through or close to villages on a regular basis."

When a tiger does come too close, it might prey on a domestic animal - most commonly a pet dog or a cow.

Much more rarely it might attack a human.

Danger signal

In the past 10 years, Amur tigers have killed at least 254 domestic animals, 160 of which were dogs.

Official records show 19 attacks on humans, resulting in 11 injuries and two deaths.

And this is where the response team's very hands-on approach comes in.

When someone sees a tiger or discovers an animal that has clearly been mauled by one, they can alert the local authorities, who then contact the team.

"The local authorities assess the situation and, if necessary, a team is despatched," explained Dr Miquelle.

"But we're dealing with a vast area, so it can take several days to reach the village."

Once there, the response team has a number of options.

The most straightforward is to scare the tiger away, using rockets or flares. But sometimes it is necessary to capture the animal.

"We do that quite often," says Dr Miquelle. "What we do once we capture it depends on the situation.

"Sometimes we'll put a radio collar on it and put it back where it is.

"Sometimes we'll move it to another location - if we think that will reduce the likelihood of it [returning to the village]."

But if a tiger is wounded, the situation is more complicated.

John Goodrich, a conservationist and wildlife photographer, has worked with the team during some of their tiger rescue missions.

He says most tigers that attack people in Russia have been shot by poachers or injured by traps.

And these injuries change the tigers' behaviour - driving the animals into human populations to pick on domesticated prey, if they are incapacitated and unable to hunt.

According to Dr Goodrich, wounds from from botched poaching attempts are a leading cause of Amur tiger attacks on people.

Tiger rehabilitation

Injured tigers can sometimes be rehabilitated and released into the forest.

But when one is too badly hurt or too dangerous, the team has to remove it from the wild altogether - for its own safety, as well as to protect humans.

Dr Goodrich followed the rehabilitation of one young male tiger called Volya, which was shot in the face by poachers.

"The bullet broke three canines and shattered his lower jaw," he recalled.

Vets at the Utyos Wildlife Rehabilitation Center wired it together as best they could: "But the injury condemned Volya to a life in captivity".

Dr Goodrich and his colleagues are now attempting to survey the prevalence of infectious diseases in the Amur tiger population, which might also affect their behaviour and make them more aggressive to humans.

Counting tigers

It is tricky to quantify exactly how many tigers the team's efforts have saved; but at this stage, every individual counts.

The latest survey estimated that there were just 350 Amur tigers remaining in the wild.

"There's some indication that we've been able to reduce the number of tiger losses associated with conflicts," said Dr Miquelle.

He says there is definitely room for improvement. Efforts to scare animals away from human-dominated areas have not been as successful as hoped.

"But with so few tigers remaining, we know we have to turn that declining trend around," he tells BBC News.

"And we do see human caused mortality as a really important component of that - 20 years ago, the main intervention was a bullet."

In such isolated communities, the response team hopes to give local people a signal that there is a group that cares about their welfare.

"It really can be extremely threatening when an animal the size of a tiger walks into you neighbourhood," says Dr Miquelle.

"So having a team that can deal with that is really important."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9313000/9313098.stm

Pembrokeshire big cat spotted in Crundale

An eight-year-old girl had a close encounter with a big cat near her home in Pembrokeshire.


Jemma Jones was ‘spooked’ by the encounter, in which the large animal stared directly at her while she was in the garden of her home, her father said.

The incident, on the outskirts of Crundale, was reported to police, who told the family that they had also recently received a big cat sighting two miles away.

The encounter took place four weeks ago, at around the same time as farmer Malcolm MacPhee told the Western Telegraph that he believed a sheep kill on his land at Princes Gate was the work of a big cat.

A large prowling feline has been seen in the area on a number of occasions.

And following the Western Telegraph’s story, several people have come forward with their own big cat sightings.

Jemma’s dad, Sid Jones, a 47-year-old builder, was inside the house when he heard his daughter shouting to him: ‘Dad, there’s a massive cat.’ The family’s home at Tulip Hill backs on to fields, and Mr Jones went into the garden to catch sight of the animal going over a low hedge some 50 yards away.

“It was a big cat, there is no doubt about it,” said Mr Jones.

“I only saw its back end, but noticed its tail which was dropped and circular.”

Jemma told her father that the big cat had stared her straight in the face and had ‘greeny-yellow’ eyes.

“We’ve got a wire-haired pointer dog, and she said that the cat stood taller than him,” he added.

“Jemma is very switched-on and knows a lot about wildlife and nature. But she came in crying saying that the cat had spooked her, and she still talks about it.”

Send details of your big cat sightings to us by email at wtnews@westerntelegraph.co.uk.

http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/8755059.Girl__spooked__by_encounter_with_big_cat/

Hong Kong duck returns from epic Arctic trip

The return of duck to Hong Kong after a year-long 6,000km (3,700-mile) journey to the Arctic has yielded new information about bird migration.


The female, fitted with a tracking device, was one of about 20 monitored by the WWF conservation group.

Using Google Earth, the WWF identified the duck's feeding areas and route back to Hong Kong's Mai Po Nature Reserve.

Another duck flew at the record-breaking speed of 114km/h (70mph), the data revealed.

The Mai Po Nature Reserve's manager, Bena Smith, said the duck that returned often travelled at 50km/h (31mph).

One of the birds was shot dead over Russia, where its transmitter was tracked to what was probably the hunter's home.

WWF and its partners, including the US Geological Survey, are studying not only migration but also avian diseases.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12074558

Bat cull 'will not stop white-nose syndrome spreading'

Culling will not halt the spread of a disease that has killed a million bats in the US since 2006, a study says.

Researchers reached their conclusion by modelling how white-nose syndrome (WNS) is passed from bat to bat.

Writing in Conservation Biology, they add that a cull would not work because the source of the fungal pathogen is believed to occur in the environment.

Earlier studies have warned that WNS could wipe out bat populations in the north-east of the US within 20 years.

Carrying out a cull of bats in areas where the disease is known to be present is one of the options available in an attempt to contain the spread of the killer fungus.

"We developed a model taking into account the complexity of the bat life history, looking at the roosts and the areas where there are large contacts between the bats," said co-author Thomas Hallam from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee.


"Given the dispersal aspect of the problem and the complexity of hibernating bat ecology, it was a case that these things together certainly meant that culling would not work in the case of bats."

WNS, described by some as the worst wildlife health crisis in the US in living memory, is named after a white fungus that appears on the muzzle and/or wings of infected animals.

However, bats with WNS do not always have the characteristic visual symptoms, but may display abnormal behaviour around their hibernacula (caves and mines where bats hibernate during winter months).

These behaviours include flying outside during the day (when their insect prey is not available) in sub-zero temperatures, or clustering near the entrance to the hibernaculum.

Professor Hallam explained that there was a high degree of bat-to-bat interaction, which has been identified as the main way the disease is transmitted, during the course of a year.

In autumn, the mating season brings together large numbers of males and females.

This occurs shortly before colonies enter hibernacula, some of which are large enough to house in the region of half-a-million bats.

In the spring, females head to a maternity roost to have their young. Again, this brings bats into contact with members of different colonies.

Since WNS was first recorded in February 2006 in a commercial cave in New York, it has spread to at least 14 states. Cases have also been recorded in a number of Canadian provinces.

Researchers say the fungus associated with the disease, Geomyces destructans, thrives in the dark, damp conditions - such as caves and mines.

Out of control
In their paper, Professor Hallam and co-author Gary McCracken write: "Because the disease is highly virulent, our model results support the hypothesis that transmission occurs in all contact arenas."

They add: "Our simulations indicated culling will not control WNS in bats primarily because contact rates are high among colonial bats, contact occurs in multiple arenas, and periodic movement between arenas occurs."


Jeremy Coleman, the national white-nose syndrome co-ordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), said that culling was a potential tool available to agencies attempting to curb the spread of the disease.

"The spread has been very rapid and very alarming," he told BBC News.

"The initial comment that spawned all of the ideas of culling was that if we had known what would happen, then we would have gone in and killed every bat and we would not be facing this problem.

"That had a real resonance among researchers and land managers," Dr Coleman recalled. But he added: "Most people, I would say, feel it is too late for any culling to be effective."

He explained that the final decision on whether to cull would rest with state or federal agencies.

It is believed that the fungus associated with WNS arrived in the US after it was somehow transported from Europe or possibly Asia.

"It was possibly brought over via 'human-assisted spread' of some sort - like on somebody's boots," Dr Coleman suggested.


"Another possibility is that a bat was somehow transported to North America, perhaps by a cargo plane or freight container, and mixed with bats in New York State."

A team of European researchers followed up unconfirmed reports in Europe that bats had white fungal growths appearing to match the symptoms of WNS.

In a paper in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, they suggested that the Geomyces destructans fungus was present throughout Europe.

However, they added, it seemed as if species of bats in Europe were possibly more immunologically or behaviourally resistant to the fungus than North American species, as it did not increase mortality.

No magic bullet
European bats may be resistant to the disease because they are generally bigger than comparable species in the US. Also, European colonies tend to be not as large as ones found on the other side of the Atlantic.

"What we hope to learn, through genetic means, is the similarities and differences between the North American strains and the European strains," explained Dr Coleman, who is overseeing the formation of a national management plan that hopes to bring together the efforts of state and federal agencies under one umbrella.

US researchers based at MIT recently sequenced the genome of the US strain of G. destructans and made the data publicly available in a hope that it would "jumpstart work on this problem, to help devise ways to track and combat this fungus".

"There are a lot of questions where some answers could potentially could give us some hope," observed Dr Coleman.

Professor Hallam said it was difficult to know if anything could be done to prevent the current outbreak from spreading further and wiping out millions more US bats.

"We have a lot of chemical agents that will get rid of the fungus," he told BBC News.

"The difficulty is the complexity of bats' life histories; it is almost impossible to treat enough bats to make it worthwhile.

"I don't see any easy solution on the horizon."

By Mark Kinver

Science and environment reporter, BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11878001

Guatemala rainforest in trouble – Help save this remnant

Endemic species under threat

December 2010. Sierra Caral is the single most bio-diverse forest remnant in Caribbean Guatemala, and is an unparalleled centre of endemism for amphibians, reptiles, and insects. It is probably the top conservation priority for acquisition in the country, and possibly in the Caribbean slope of northern Central America. Seven endemic species of amphibians have recently been discovered in the region, plus the arboreal Blue Pit Viper - Bothriechis thalassinus (named for its amazing blue tonality).

Thirty five percent of the amphibians of Sierra Caral are listed as threatened by IUCN, with ten either Critically Endangered species (Cryptotriton wakei, Nototriton brodiei, Agalychnis moreletii, Duellmanohyla soralia, Ptychohyla hypomykter) or Endangered.

Deforestation, illegal cross-border logging activities and expanding cattle ranching
Sierra Caral is threatened by deforestation, illegal cross-border logging activities and expanding cattle ranching that is rapidly fragmenting a once continuous forest across the Merendón Mountain Ridge. Although our partner FUNDAECO has successfully designed a protected area and has mobilized community support for its legal declaration by the National Congress, the Decree for a new protected area could take many years to be passed. By then, this much of the species diversity that makes Sierra Caral exceptional could be lost. In this context, land acquisition is an immediate need. FUNDAECO has a Land Acquisition Strategy to buy and protect 5,436 acres of key properties strategically located across Sierra Caral.

Immediate action required

World Land Trust partner is working to purchase several private properties in three strategic areas that are under threat and the most biologically important. In total, FUNDAECO needs to raise just over $1 million to protect the entirety of the Sierra Caral site. Right now, we urgently need $100,000 to put a down payment on several critical properties at Sierra Caral before it is too late. Please help us take a stand for this region's incredible biodiversity by giving generously while there is still forest to protect.

Sierra Caral background
Located on the Guatemala-Honduras border, Sierra Caral is consistently identified as the highest conservation priority in the region. This area's unique biogeographic conditions, including a diverse terrain and climate, makes it a hotspot of endemism for amphibians, reptiles, and insects in northern Central America. Of the amphibians, nine Critically Endangered or Endangered species are found here, five of which are found nowhere else in the world. Sierra Caral is also one of the most threatened forests in Caribbean Guatemala - as logging and agriculture continue to take a terrible toll on this unique ecosystem.

WLT partner in Guatemala, FUNDAECO, has been involved in grassroots conservation actions and land protection projects in the region for years. With WLT-US support, FUNDAECO will acquire several strategic private properties that are currently earmarked for logging or clearing and are high-priority sites for Critically Endangered species. But it is essential that we act quickly. Each day that we delay action, more of this spectacular forest habitat is lost. If this forest is destroyed, with it will go an incredible diversity of plant and animal life found nowhere else on the planet.

This area's unique biogeographic conditions, including a diverse terrain

and climate, makes it a hotspot of endemism for amphibians, reptiles,

and insects in northern Central America. Of the amphibians, nine

Critically Endangered or Endangered species are found here, five of which

are found nowhere else in the world.

Please donate today and help us put a stop to this tragedy.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/guatemala-rainforest.html