Cryptozoology Online: Daily News

'Supergiant' crustacean found in deepest ocean (via Simon Reames)

2012-02-02T13:50:00.003+01:00

By Rebecca MorelleScience reporter, BBC News

A huge crustacean has been found lurking 7km down in the waters off the coast of New Zealand.

The creature - called a supergiant - is a type of amphipod, which are normally around 2-3cm long.

But these beasts, discovered in the Kermadec Trench, were more than 10 times bigger: the largest found measured in at 34cm.

Alan Jamieson, from the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab, said: "It's a bit like finding a foot-long cockroach."

"I stopped and thought: 'What on Earth was that?' This amphipod was far bigger than I ever thought possible."

“Start Quote

It just goes to show that the more you look, the more you find”

Dr Ashley RowdenNiwa

The strange animals were found using a large metal trap, which had been equipped with a camera, housed in sapphire glass to keep it safe from the high pressures of the deep sea.

Seven specimens were caught in the trap and nine were captured on film by the team from the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), in New Zealand.

The largest specimen brought back up to the ship measured 28cm in length, while the biggest spotted on camera was 34cm-long.

'Conspicuous animal'

Amphipods have been found living in large numbers at the very bottom of ocean trenches, deep, narrow valleys in the sea floor that can plunge down to nearly 11km.

The creatures are small, but extremely active, and seem to thrive in this place where the pressure is one thousand times greater than at sea level.

The name "supergiant" was first coined after large specimens were caught in the 1980s off the coast of Hawaii.

They have been since being seen in the Antarctic, where they grew up to 10cm, but these are now dwarfed by this latest find.

Dr Ashley Rowden, from Niwa, said: "It just goes to show that the more you look, the more you find.

"For such a large and conspicuous animal to go unnoticed for so long is just testament to how little we know about life in New Zealand's most deep and unique habitat."

Over the last few years, scientists have been surprised by the life that is found in ocean trenches.

These deep-sea spots were once thought to be barren; too dark, cold and with too much pressure for anything to survive.

But researchers have found a wealth of life in the deepest of the deep.

As well as swarms of amphipods, they have uncovered shrimp-like creatures called isopods and snailfish that live 7,700m down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16834913

Sugar Should Be Regulated As Toxin, Researchers Say

2012-02-02T13:18:00.000+01:00

A spoonful of sugar might make the medicine go down. But it also makes blood pressure and cholesterol go up, along with your risk for liver failure, obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Sugar and other sweeteners are, in fact, so toxic to the human body that they should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide, according to a commentary in the current issue of the journal Nature by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

The researchers propose regulations such as taxing all foods and drinks that include added sugar, banning sales in or near schools and placing age limits on purchases.

Although the commentary might seem straight out of the Journal of Ideas That Will Never Fly, the researchers cite numerous studies and statistics to make their case that added sugar — or, more specifically, sucrose, an even mix of glucose and fructose found in high-fructose corn syrup and in table sugar made from sugar cane and sugar beets — has been as detrimental to society as alcohol and tobacco.

Continued: http://www.livescience.com/18244-sugar-toxic-regulations.html

Litter of Rare, Scruffy-Necked Wolf Pups Born in Virginia

2012-02-02T12:19:00.000+01:00

A conservation effort to breed rare maned wolves has resulted in four fuzzy bundles of joy in Front Royal, Va.

The litter of pups, born to an 8-year-old mother wolf named Salina and her 4-year-old mate Nopal, is the first at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in two years. The pups are part of an effort to breed these South American wolves under human care. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists maned wolves as "near threatened," due to human activities encroaching on their habitat in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Peru. There are about 20,000 maned wolves left in the wild, and only 20 percent of the animal's habitat remains.

“Every pup born here helps us understand more about the biology of this incredible species,” Nucharin Songsasen, an SCBI research biologist, said in a statement announcing the wolves' birth. “SCBI has a long history with the maned wolf, both in terms of studying the biology and maintaining the genetic diversity of individuals living under human care, as well as in conserving the animals in the wild.”

Maned wolves are difficult to breed in captivity, likely because of gastrointestinal disorders that plague the species. Nopal and Salina are on a new trial diet that is heavily plant-based, which may better approximate the sort of food maned wolves eat in the wild. SCBI researchers also have learned that maned wolf females must be around a male of their species in order to ovulate.

Salina had her black-haired pups on Jan. 5. They're under close watch by zookeepers, because maned wolf pup mortality is high — 50 percent die in the first month of life. The birth of the pups brings the SCBI's number of wolves up to 12. [See pictures of the pups]

The pups provide hope for the species' future, as Nopal is a top-tier male when it comes to ensuring genetic diversity in the species.

“To keep a high level of gene diversity, it is important that every genetically valuable individual reproduce,” said Melissa Rodden, coordinator of the Maned Wolf Species Survival Plan. “SCBI is leading the research on innovative tools that will help us ensure that that will happen.”

http://www.livescience.com/18219-litter-maned-wolf-pups.html

Ecologist searches for new shrimp species in Guernsey

2012-02-02T12:13:00.000+01:00

An ecologist hopes to find previously undiscovered fresh water creatures in the Bailiwick of Guernsey.

Lee Knight, from Devon, has spent 14 years travelling the UK looking for new species of cave dwelling blind shrimp.

He said little was know about the cave fauna so new species were often being discovered worldwide.

Mr Knight said as recently as 2010, a species never before seen in Britain had been discovered in a cave on the Mendip Hills of Somerset.

He said: "Work has found they are more widespread then first thought.

"In the entire Channel Islands there's only four records, one of which is from Guernsey and due to a lack of any sort of systematic survey work I highly suspected we will find other species, and certainly new records for current species."

The Guernsey report was of a species known as niphargus aquilex, which was found in St Martin in 1907.

Mr Knight is due to visit Guernsey, Alderney and Sark later this year and has asked islanders with wells or boreholes to give him permission to explore their underwater systems by contacting the Guernsey Biological Records Centre.

He said the sample process involved lowering a net, with an attached weight, to the sediment at the bottom of wells and boreholes, where the creatures are generally thought to live.

The net is then pulled up and down a few times to disturb the sediment before the net is hauled to the surface, hopefully catching shrimps on the way.

Mr Knight said the process is repeated three times at each site and his equipment could take samples down to 100m in depth and boreholes as small as 5cm in diameter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-16831751

Massive die-off of fish in Philippines

2012-02-02T12:12:00.000+01:00

MANILA, Philippines, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Philippine officials say climate change is to blame for 49 tons of fish found floating dead in a lake in the country's South Cotabato province.

The local Tilapia fish, being raised in 50 cages in Sebu Lake, had a value of $88,000, Rex Vagas, provincial fishery coordinator, said.

He said 46.5 tons of Tilapia were found dead last Friday and 2.5 tons on Monday, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

Vagas attributed the massive death of fish to an "annual occurrence" locals call "kamahong," when water temperatures experience extreme increases leading to oxygen depletion in the waters of the lake.

"We ask consumers to avoid buying and eating Tilapia fish from Lake Sebu until further notice from us," Vagas said.

The provincial agriculture office blamed the low oxygen level in Lake Sebu on overstocking and water pollution, probably from fish feeds.

Fish cage operators were told to temporarily stop feeding surviving fish for at least a week to allow the lake's oxygen level to return to normal, authorities said.

Endangered monkey helped in China

2012-02-02T12:11:00.000+01:00

BEIJING, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- China says its population of white-headed langurs, one of the world's rarest monkeys, has grown in the last decade with conservation efforts.

Government efforts to conserve the critically endangered species in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have resulted in the number of the white-headed monkeys living in the region growing from 598 in 2003 to 937 today, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The majority of the langurs live in a 30-square-mile nature reserve set up by the regional government in 2005 to protect the species, conservationists said.

The preserve was recently upgraded to a state-level reserve meaning more efforts will be devoted to conserving the species, officials said.

White-headed langurs ranks as one of the world's 12 most endangered species due to a sharp population decrease over the past half-century caused by poaching and increased human activity damaging their habitats, wildlife experts said.

Trumpets of outrage in the outback

2012-02-02T12:10:00.000+01:00

An Australian biology professor is causing a rumble in the academic jungle by suggesting that his country should import elephants and other foreign species into its wild interior.

Rhinos and even giant Komodo dragon lizards could be imported, David Bowman suggests in an article in Nature.

He says Australia is just not managing its most pressing ecological problems, and something radical is needed.

But some fellow scientists say it is just a bad and dangerous idea.

Others, however, are supportive, seeing potential for helping beleaguered Aboriginal communities and reducing the risk of forest fires, as repairing some damaged ecology.

The problems Prof Bowman proposes solving with his radical zoological armoury stem from the huge changes wrought by the two waves of human arrival - the first by forebears of the Aborigines about 50,000 years ago, and the second by European settlers a few hundred years ago.

The first initiated the slow demise of the spectacular megafauna that once bestrode the giant continent.

They included the marsupial lion, a metre and a half long and a powerful predator; the diprotodon, a wombat bigger than a cow; giant birds such as the Dromornidae family that once boasted Stirton's Thunder Bird, three metres high; and crocodiles, lizards and turtles bigger than any still walking this Earth.

Take so many big species out of an ecosystem, and there are bound to be changes all the way down to its bottom.

If you throw in land clearance across enormous swathes of the continent and the subsequent introduction of rabbits, camels, cane toads, rats, pigs and everything else that came with the European settlers, you have an ecology in profound turmoil.

Attempts have been made to control rabbits, pigs, buffalo and lots of other alien species; but they haven't really worked.

"We have a very unbalanced ecology and it's all just spiralling into a trajectory," lamented Prof Bowman when I spoke to him earlier in the week.

"We're not managing actively, we're just managing bits of the problem - so it's a big mess."

So the root of his idea is that if you can't restore the animals themselves, bring in something that can fulfil a similar ecological role.

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16843096

Threatened voles found living the high life

2012-02-02T12:07:00.002+01:00

ONE of Scotland’s most threatened native mammals – the tiny water vole – has been found thriving more than 2,000 ft up a mountain in the Highlands.

The population of the rodent has plummeted in Scotland by 94 per cent since 1950, due to changes in their habitat and the introduction of the mink.

But Scottish Natural Heritage has now revealed that small colonies of voles, normally associated with low-level water and river systems, have been found 700 metres up a hillside on the agency’s Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve.

It is the first time water voles have been found living at such a high altitude.

Dr Lorna Brown, who led the survey team, said: “It seems that the population on Beinn Eighe is in good health.”

http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/threatened_voles_found_living_the_high_life_1_2088816

Land of the rising Sunfish

2012-02-01T11:04:00.001+01:00

New observations of Sunfish behaviour have revealed an intriguing symbiotic relationship with Laysan Albatross.

When Japanese researchers in the western North Pacific observed a school of Sunfish appearing to actively follow Laysan Albatrosses resting on the sea, they were soon to discover that this behaviour was mutually beneficial. The juvenile Sunfish, measuring about 40 cm across, were heavily infested with a parasitic worm-like copepod Pennella, a kind of crustacean, which held somewhat of an attraction for the birds. It soon became apparent that the albatrosses were feeding on the worms, as one was photographed doing just this.

The observers suggest that this cleaning behaviour may be frequent in the lifestyle of Sunfish, as the fish seem to actively seek out the birds, which then relieve them of their parasitic. the Sunfish school numbered about 57 individuals and were swimming right at the surface, exhibiting no defensive or evasive behaviour. The feeding actions of one Laysan Albatross soon attracted more, including a black-footed Albatross too. Some of the Sunfish appeared to present themselves by swimming sideways next to the birds, the better to show their parasites.

On a pelagic birding trip, Sunfish are often one of the major non-avian attractions a they swim on or near the surface, and it had been suggested that this behaviour might be due in some respect to their parasitic load. It would now appear that this might actually attract seabirds to remove the parasites. sunfish have also been noted to have associations with Sooty Shearwaters for possibly the same reason, and are attended by cleaner fish species.

Sunfish is the largest marine bony fish species, growing up to 2.7 m in length and weighing up to 2.3 tonnes. Laysan Albatross is a wide-ranging seabird in the North Pacific, with an estimated global population of over 1,180,000, though it is classed as Near Threatened by BirdLife International due to historical declines, but there are also signs that there has been a recent range expansion.

Reference
Abe, T, Sekiguchi, K, Onishi, H, Muramatsu, K and Kamito, T. 2012. Observations on a school of ocean sunfish and evidence for a symbiotic cleaning association with albatrosses. Marine Biology DOI 10.1007/s00227-011-1873-6

https://www.birdwatch.co.uk/channel/newsitem.asp?c=11&cate=__11785

Get your garden ready for wildlife

2012-02-01T11:04:00.000+01:00

The Big Wildlife Garden Competition
January 2012. By providing shelter, food, and wildlife corridors, gardeners can offer space for wild species to come together, and play a vital role for the next generation of UK garden wildlife.

Morag Shuaib, The Wildlife Trusts' Big Wildlife Garden Awards Project Manager, said: "As mating season approaches, species from blue tits to butterflies are about to get busy building nests and laying eggs. With many a species looking to hook up and settle down, this is a great time of year to offer some hospitality and be in with a chance of winning The Big Wildlife Garden Competition, which closes on 20 May 2012."

Easy steps
Helen Bostock, a Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) wildlife expert, said: "With just a few changes everyone can make their gardens wildlife friendly. Contrary to what some people think you don't have to let your garden grow wild. Feeding birds, careful placement of nesting boxes and planting pollinator friendly plants are easy & straight-forward things to do that make an enormous difference."

Here, The Wildlife Trusts and the RHS provide some tips for keen and caring wildlife landlords to help create the perfect love nests:

Nest boxes
It's estimated that each year around two million birds fledge from nest boxes. There's an array of shapes and sizes to choose from, depending on the species you are providing for. To make a nest box extra appealing to couples looking to start a family, place it out of reach of predators. By leaving untidy patches in the garden, and growing a variety of native species, attract in the insects and grubs which will provide valuable food for chicks.

Speed dating
With males and females of all kinds of species ready to seek each other out, the fewer obstacles the better! In early spring, amphibians are heading to spawning ponds, and may need to pass through gardens to get there. Hedgehogs are on the move looking for a mate too. Creating a hole in the garden fence to pass through will help them make the date.

Bumblebees - Make them a nest

The buff-tail is the UK's largest bumblebee species. In the late part of February, the buff-tailed queen will emerge from hibernation to patrol for nest sites. Taking advantage of the absence of other insect rivals, she gathers nectar from early blooming flowers. Once energy reserves are replenished, she searches for a nest site to support a new worker colony. Dig a small hole under a bush and half-bury a terracotta pot upside down. With a small hole in the top, and a bit of dry grass or dry moss inside it, this makes a nest fit for a queen bumblebee looking to settle down.

Butterflies
As early as March, amorous holly blue butterflies are on the wing in pursuit of a partner. Gardeners can increase their chances of attracting a courting pair by providing the plant their spring brood relies on - holly. Once mating has taken place, these butterflies lay their eggs on the flower buds of holly so it is crucial to spare the buds from the pruning shears to provide the right conditions for the family to flourish. Holly blues lay another brood of eggs in summer, this time on ivy flower buds. Growing some ivy in the garden will provide year-round support to holly blues, as well as many other species.

The Big Wildlife Garden Competition has been created to recognise the importance of individuals' action for nature. It is run by The Wildlife Trusts and the RHS, with funding from The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). To find out how to enter visit www.bigwildlifegarden.org.uk.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/garden-wildlife-tips.html

Kerala biodiversity body stops export of rare goat breed

2012-02-01T11:03:00.001+01:00

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) recently helped the cause of biodiversity by stopping the export of a rare native goat breed to Australia, which may have harmed the species in Kerala, a board member said.

Malabari goats are endemic to parts of Kerala's northern districts and theirs numbers are fast dwindling. Any attempt to transport these goats to Australia without proper checks and balances could have been a huge loss to Kerala, KSSB member secretary K.P. Laladhas,said.

The board had got information a few days back about the proposed export between a state agency and Australia from the National Biodiversity Authority.

"We got in touch with the state agency, Kudumbashree, who told us that this is only a proposal and rules would be abided by if this eventually took place," said Laladhas.

The unique feature of the Malabari goat is that it adapts to very hot and humid conditions. Besides, both males and females have a protuberance hanging from the neck.

The colour of these goats varies from white to black and fully grown males weigh 30 to 35 kg, while females weigh 25 to 30 kg.

Malabari goats yield less than one kg of milk during peak days and can be milked for four to five months.

"The rules are very clear when it comes to transfer of any bio resources and this can be done only through clear-cut bi-lateral agreements. Moreover there should be clarity when it comes to benefit sharing in the future if this eventually leads to genetic modifications," said Laladhas.

http://english.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/contentView.do?contentId=10922275&programId=1073750974&tabId=1&contentType=EDITORIAL

A Vast Canadian Wilderness Poised for a Uranium Boom

2012-02-01T11:02:00.004+01:00

Canada’s Nunavut Territory is the largest undisturbed wilderness in the Northern Hemisphere. It also contains large deposits of uranium, generating intense interest from mining companies and raising concerns that a mining boom could harm the caribou at the center of Inuit life.

by ed struzik

Until her semi-nomadic family moved into the tiny Inuit community of Baker Lake in the 1950s, Joan Scottie never knew there was a wider world beyond her own on the tundra of the Nunavut Territory in the Canadian Arctic. She didn’t see the inside of a school until she was a teenager and didn’t venture south until she was an adult.

But that all changed in 1978, when a Soviet satellite carrying 100 pounds of enriched uranium for an onboard nuclear reactor crashed into the middle of the wilderness she knew so well, resulting in a military search that recovered some of the radioactive debris. Everything that Scottie learned about uranium after that convinced her she wanted nothing to do with a mineral that had the potential to cause such serious health problems or be used for military purposes.

So when a German mining company showed up at Baker Lake ten years later with a plan to extract uranium from an area that included a key caribou calving ground, Scottie and her Inuit neighbors weighed theenvironmental implications against the economic advantages and voted emphatically to say “No.” The German company eventually dropped its plans.

Now, however, the Inuit grandmother of two finds herself once again on the front lines of a grassroots movement trying to block several new companies from mining uranium from the same lodes near Baker Lake. And this time the playing field has changed.

The Canadian government has made it clear that Arctic mining will be one of the cornerstones of the country’s economic future. It is encouraging mining companies to exploit the deposits of gold, silver, zinc, diamonds, uranium and other minerals and metals found in abundance in the vast areas of the enormous Nunavut Territory, as well as the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

In spite of the global recession of 2008 and the March 2011 meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, which caused some countries to reconsider nuclear power, uranium exploration is proceeding at a record pace in this part of the world. In Scottie’s backyard, the French mining giant, Areva — partnering with JCU Exploration of Canada and the DAEWOO Corporation of Korea — is actively exploring a major uranium lode at Kiggavik, the site of the former planned German mine, 50 miles west of Baker Lake. Other companies also are considering building mines in the surrounding tundra. In the territory of Nunavut alone, more than $322 million was spent on uranium exploration in 2011, up from $189 million in 2009.

Continued: http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_vast_canadian_wilderness_poised_for_a_uranium_boom/2489/

What Do Killer Whales Eat in the Arctic?

2012-02-01T11:02:00.003+01:00

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2012) — Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are the top marine predator, wherever they are found, and seem to eat everything from schools of small fish to large baleen whales, over twice their own size. The increase in hunting territories available to killer whales in the Arctic due to climate change and melting sea ice could seriously affect the marine ecosystem balance. New research published in BioMed Central's re-launched open access journal Aquatic Biosystems has combined scientific observations with Canadian Inuit traditional knowledge to determine killer whale behaviour and diet in the Arctic.

Orca have been studied extensively in the northeast Pacific ocean, where resident killer whales eat fish, but migrating whales eat marine mammals. Five separate ecotypes in the Antarctic have been identified, each preferring a different type of food, and similar patterns have been found in the Atlantic, tropical Pacific, and Indian oceans. However, little is known about Arctic killer whale prey preference or behaviour.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is increasingly being used to supplement scientific observations. Researchers from Manitoba visited 11 Canadian Nunavut Inuit communities and collated information from over 100 interviews with hunters and elders.

The Inuit reported that killer whales would 'eat whatever they can catch', mainly other marine mammals including seals (ringed, harp, bearded, and hooded) and whales (narwhal, beluga and bowhead). However there was no indication that Arctic killer whales ate fish. Only seven of the interviewees suggested that killer whales ate fish, but none of them had ever seen it themselves.

The type of reported prey varied between areas. Most incidents of killer whales eating bowhead whales occurred in Foxe Basin and narwhal predation was more frequent around Baffin Island. Inuit were also able to describe first-hand how killer whales hunted, including several reports of how killer whales co-operated to kill the much larger bowhead. During the hunt some whales were seen holding the bowhead's flippers or tail, others covering its blowhole, and others biting or ramming to cause internal damage. Occasionally dead bowheads, with bite marks and internal injuries but with very little eaten, are found by locals.

'Aarlirijuk', the fear of killer whales, influenced prey behaviour with smaller mammals seeking refuge in shallow waters or on shore and larger prey running away, diving deep, or attempting to hide among the ice. Even narwhal, which are capable of stabbing a killer whale with their tusks (although this is likely to result in the deaths of both animals), will run to shallow waters and wait until the whales give up.

Killer whales are seasonal visitors to the area and have recently started colonising Hudson Bay (possibly due to loss of summer sea ice with global warming). Local communities are reliant on the very species that the orcas like to eat. Dr Steven Ferguson from the University of Manitoba who led this research commented, "Utilising local knowledge through TEK will help scientists understand the effects of global warming and loss of sea ice on Arctic species and improve collaborative conservation efforts in conjunction with local communities."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120129232818.htm

Scientists reveal how females store sperm for decades

2012-02-01T11:02:00.002+01:00

Scientists have discovered that all sorts of females – from birds to reptiles to insects – have a nifty trick to prolong the lifespan of sperm, letting them store it for weeks, months or even years on end.

They found that females do this by lowering the metabolic rate of sperm, so it can survive in their bodies almost indefinitely.

In one extreme example, biologists have shown that queen ants fertilise their eggs with sperm they've stored for up to 30 years. Normally, once it's outside the male's body, it doesn't survive for long.

The findings could explain why, in reproductive medicine, sperm samples aren't necessarily the best way to predict if someone can father children or not.

'Infertility tests on sperm are notoriously unreliable, and this could be one reason why,' says Dr Klaus Reinhardt from the University of Sheffield, who led the study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

It seems that females lower sperm's metabolic rate and stop sperm generating excessive amounts of highly damaging, reactive oxygen molecules – called free radicals. Having a slower metabolism in turn means sperm age much more slowly than usual.

At the moment, Reinhardt and his colleagues have no idea how females manage this.

'All cells produce these molecules, but sperm tend to produce more, probably because they have such fast metabolisms. What's more, reactive oxygen molecules are thought to accelerate aging in all cells. So it follows that getting rid of free radicals might extend the lifespan of sperm,' says Reinhardt.

Continued: http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=1144

Marine study in Singapore digs up 100 species

2012-02-01T11:02:00.001+01:00

Some are new to the island or to science; project one-third done

By Grace Chua

Burrowed deep into the mudflats of Lim Chu Kang is a bumpy, warty sea anemone so new to science, it does not even have a scientific name yet.

Its finders have fondly nicknamed it Bill.

It is one of the new findings scientists have made, just a year into the most comprehensive study of marine life here.

In the first phase of the three-year Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey, researchers looking at coastal mudflat and intertidal areas have already found a hundred species, some of which are new for Singapore or new to science altogether.

Continued: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_760850.html

Black squirrels could outnumber reds in England

2012-02-01T11:02:00.000+01:00

Black squirrels could now outnumber reds in England as the genetic mutant of the grey species increases across the country.

The first wild black squirrel was spotted in 1912 outside Letchworth in Hertfordshire after being introduced to the area by a Victorian aristocrat.

The darker animals are the same species as the invasive greys and have slowly been increasing as they interbreed with the larger resident population.

At the moment it is estimated there could be as many as 25,000 in the east of England.

Meanwhile native red squirrel populations have crashed in the last 100 years because of the greys spreading disease and taking over habitat.

It is thought there could be less than 30,000 left in the north of England and the islands around the south coast, where the population has held out.

The first wild black squirrel was spotted in 1912 outside Letchworth in Hertfordshire and has been spreading throughout the area since Photo: ALAMY

Dr Craig Shuttleworth, Senior Adviser at the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, said the growing black population may not risk any reds directly but it highlights the plight of the native species.

“I think the public would be very interested to know there is a very rare grey squirrel with a black coat and there now could be more of them than reds in England.”

The RSST is trying to boost numbers of reds in the north of England and Cornwall by trapping and killing greys and improving management of forestry.

Dr Shuttleworth pointed out that all greys, whether albino or the black mutation, could carry pox that kills reds and damage trees.

“Whether it is a grey squirrel that is white or black, they are all invasive species and should not be encouraged.”

Relatively little is known about black squirrels in England.

It is believed the current population spread from a few animals released by the Duke of Bedford at Woburn.

It has been reported black mutations have more testosterone and are therefore more aggressive and attractive to females, however there is very little evidence to support this.

To find out more about the population and habits of black squirrels, Helen McRobie, Lecturer in the Department of Life Sciences at Anglia Ruskin, has launched a survey to find out how widespread the squirrels have become.

She pointed out that the blacks are still far away from any population of reds but the research will also show if they would ever be more or less of a risk to the native species.

“The aim of the Black Squirrel Project is to gather data on the geographical range of the grey and black squirrel in the British Isles, and the data may help explain why the grey squirrel has proved to be such a successful invader in the UK. Therefore it would be great if as many people as possible can visit the website and submit their sightings,” she said.

To report a sighting of a black squirrel go to www.blacksquirrelproject.orgto help map the population of this invading species.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9049333/Black-squirrels-could-outnumber-reds-in-England.html

Residents urged not to feed red kites in Chilterns

2012-02-01T11:00:00.001+01:00

A conservation board in Oxfordshire has renewed its plea for local residents to stop feeding red kites.

Cathy Rose, from the Chiltern Conservation Board, told the BBC's Inside Out programme they were "magical animals" but it was time for people to stop feeding them and let them survive naturally.

Red kites were reintroduced to the Chilterns in 1989 and their numbers have increased from 93 birds to more than 600 breeding pairs.

Some local residents have complained the birds are becoming a nuisance because people feed them.

But one of the men who helped reintroduce them into Oxfordshire has said he does not think it is a problem for people to feed them.

Illustrator and naturalist Nigel Snell was the regional co-ordinator during the reintroduction scheme.

"Anytime anybody sees masses of anything they always think there are too many of them," he said.

"We've only got to go a short way up the M40 and you'll hardly see any of them."

'Sensationalist news'

People feeding red kites in their gardens can attract as many as 50 of the birds, which predominantly scavenge for their food.

Ms Rose said: "People have been putting food out for red kites for years thinking that they are doing them a favour but what it might be doing is causing them to cluster in areas where perhaps they are not as welcome as they might be.

"Maybe they are breeding in areas where they are being fed at a level that is higher than the area would naturally be able to sustain.

"People start reading sensationalist news stories about children being injured by kites or kites coming down into peoples gardens and we don't want the kites to be viewed in that way."

Gamekeeper Joe Wasylowski has said people should be fined for feeding the birds.

"I don't think people should be doing it like this," he said.

"I think they should be left alone to get on with it like the rest of the wildlife."

Coal merchant Richard Smith has fed the birds regularly for nearly a decade.

He said he only feeds them once a week so they do not become too dependent.

And Gill Smith, who also regularly feeds the birds, said: "We don't feed them so much in the summer because there is more food about but in hard winters, it just sees them through."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-16795226

Vets take action to save Poland's lynx

2012-02-01T11:00:00.000+01:00

Eurasian lynx kitten. File picture
Image by: Bernard Landgraf / Wikimedia commons

Growling furiously, Benek the lynx cub looks up with baleful eyes as a veterinarian squats by his cage and takes aim with a tranquiliser gun.

"It'll take a half hour to knock him out," says Jakub Kotowicz, vice-president of the Rehabilitation Centre for Protected Animals in Przemysl, southeastern Poland.

The feline snarls as the dart strikes its haunch, but minutes later is toying kitten-like with another pink, fluffy-tailed missile which went off target.

"If he was a bear, we'd need a whole night to get him under," jokes the centre's head Radoslaw Fedaczynski.

Eradicated from much of Europe 150 years ago, lynx still roam the continent's forested north and east.

Europe's population of Eurasian lynx is estimated at 7,500 to 8,000 -- excluding those in Russia -- with the bulk found in Romania, Scandinavia and the Baltic states.

An estimated 200 of the solitary wildcats live in Poland, mostly clustered near the northeastern borders with Belarus, Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad territory and in the southern Carpathian Mountains, Benek's home turf.

The Eurasian lynx is in far better shape than its critically-endangered Spanish and Portuguese cousin the Iberian lynx, about 100 of which remain in the wild.

But life isn't easy and Benek -- Polish for "Benny" -- is lucky.

After becoming separated from his mother, and too young to hunt game properly, he emerged from the forest.

Locals called the care centre after finding him just before Christmas in Bircza, a village 27 kilometres (17 miles) from Przemysl.

"He was trying to catch chickens from the region's farms but got chased up a tree by some dogs. When we found him, he was starving, exhausted and needed our help," said Andrzej Fedaczynski, 52, who with his son Radoslaw runs the regular veterinary practice doubling as a voluntary care centre for wild animals.

Benek has been getting the best care possible: shots, glucose and medication to boost his metabolism.

He's the fifth lynx to have passed through in three years.

"We don't want to be a lynx sanctuary. Our goal is to get them back to the wild," said Radoslaw. "They have an excellent instinct for self-preservation."

The tranquilised Benek is carried limp-limbed from the isolated cage where he is being kept to stop him getting used to humans, past a domestic cat about to be seen by a vet. It freezes in its owners lap.

"He weighed much less than he should, so we can't use his weight to determine his age. But size and external appearance tell us he's between six and 12 months old," said Kotowicz.

"It's hard to say when we'll be able to let him go. For now he's too weak. We only have 200 lynx in Poland, so each one is very valuable for the local ecosystem. We have to be 100 percent sure he'll cope in the wild," he added.

Benek is regaining his appetite for a normal lynx diet of deer and smaller game.

But if he reaches his third birthday -- and sexual maturity -- he will be an exception.

"Only one in four lynx actually make it to sexual maturity," according to Urs Breitenmoser of the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature.

"It's a balance between different odds," he told AFP in a telephone interview.

Hunted, often by the ruling elite, until the fall of Poland's communist regime in 1989, lynx have since enjoyed legal protection.

But Krzysztof Schmidt of Poland's Mammal Research Institute insists the threats are still manifold here.

Shrinking forests have restricted their territory, and the thinning of woodlands makes it harder for lynx to stalk or hide out to rest, he said.

"Then there's the development of road networks in terms of further habitat fragmentation, roadkills to a lesser extent, and poaching, although that's not very significant," he added.

"Overall, I don't think it's a paradise for lynx. However, they're still lucky here," he said.

Schmidt contrasted Poland with the Baltic state of Estonia, home to around 800 lynx, between 80 and 180 of which are hunted annually for fur and skull trophies under a legal quota.

There is good news for some of those felines: plans are underway to use up to 40 Estonian lynx to repopulate the forest wilderness of northeast Poland's Mazuria region.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2012/01/31/vets-take-action-to-save-poland-s-lynx

Georgia allows hunting of endangered species

2012-01-31T12:38:00.000+01:00

TBILISI, DFWatch – Georgia allows hunting of rare animal species, which could lead to their extinction, environmentalists claim.

The legislative changes will also allow hunting in protected areas.

Hunting and protection of species is regulated by a kind of laws used under the Soviet Union called normative acts and decrees. The law doesn’t directly says one can kill an animal which is on the Red List, but new normative acts now say that authorities may decide what number of animals can be allowed to be killed.

“The decision about allowed amount of harvesting endangered wild animals is made by the Environment Minister based on an individual administrative-legal act,” the law says.

The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources issued a decree which now allows obtaining animals of certain species, including animals that are on the Red List, a list compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, showing the extinction risk of species.

The ministry defines the allowed amount of harvesting certain animals, including ones that are about extinction. Specifically, the following: coypu – 194 animals, rabbits – 615 animals, badger – 168 animals, forest marten – 157 animals, the stone marten – 157 animals, the wolf – 120 animals, jackal – 1453 animals, foxes – 162 animals, wild cat – 77 animals, wild pigs – 189 animals, roe – 417 animals, raccoon – 96 animals, pheasant – 416 animals, partridge – 713 animals, francolin – 50 animals.

Lasha Chkhartishvili, member of the Conservative Party and founder of Greenpeace Supporters Group says that it’s completely unclear why the Energy Ministry should issue such a normative act at all, it should be the competence of the environment ministry.

Georgia’s Ministry of Environment Protection was split up and nearly dissolved one year ago. Responsibility for natural resources was transferred to the Energy Ministry, while the task of overseeing protected areas was handed to the Ministry of Economic and Sustainable Development. The Environmental Protection Inspectorate was dissolved, and the only remaining responsibility for the Environment Ministry was to monitor air pollution. It was also physically moved and now shares offices with the Energy Ministry in Tbilisi’s Ortachala district.

The hunting season is getting closer and the adopted changes create serious danger to the animals if countermeasures are not taken soon. Greenpeace Supporters Group held a rally on Thursday in front of the parliament building to protest the changes in the legislation that they say will legalize hunting in protected territories and of animal species on the Red List.

Continued: http://dfwatch.net/georgia-allows-hunting-of-endangered-species-57870

Trail bikers find suspected tasmanian tiger skull

2012-01-31T12:37:00.001+01:00

Two trail bike riders claim to have discovered what could be the skull of a tasmanian tiger while filming during a ride through bushland.

The skull is being scientifically evaluated this morning.

Brothers Levi and Jarom Triffitt are members of the Tassie Boys, a group of stunt trail bike riders based in central northern Tasmania.

They say they were riding in bushland last week while filming stunts for a promotional video when they came across the skull.

They say it is unlike anything they have ever seen before, and closely resembles the skull of a thylacine.

"Lot's of people think 'dog', but when you actually get on Google and compare it to your normal dogs that are in Tasmania, the closest thing we could find it to was an American timber wolf, which I don't believe we have here," Jarom said.

The last known tasmanian tiger died in the Hobart Zoo in 1936.

Levi denies the find is a hoax.

"We were just having a regular day - just doing some photography and filming," he said.

The brothers plan to have the skull checked in Launceston this morning.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-16/tests-conducted-on-tasmanian-tiger-skull/3773762

Peru's vanishing fish stocks 'devastated' by corruption and growing fishmeal demand

2012-01-31T12:37:00.000+01:00

Soaring global demand for fishmeal primarily for animal feed or fish farms, including salmon, is wrecking havoc on the once abundant fish stocks of the southern Pacific

The fish stocks of the southern Pacific and in particular Peru are being plundered by widespread cheating and overfishing, according to a new investigation.

Peru is the world’s second largest fishing nation after China, with the majority of its catch converted into fishmeal, a feed for farmed fish and pigs. More than a million tons a year exported mostly to Asia, in a trade worth $1.6 billion.

World Society for the Protection of Animals team up with Met police in fight against wildlife crime

2012-01-31T12:23:00.000+01:00

Fight against wildlife crime
January 2012. London's specialist wildlife police have been given a financial boost in their efforts to stamp out wildlife crime in the city - the first time a charity has directly funded a Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) unit. Thanks to the intervention from an animal welfare charity, the MPS Wildlife Crime Unit (WCU) will be gaining more staff as well as resources to train up the next generation of specialist enforcement officers as its current officers near retirement.

World Society for the Protection of Animals
World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA UK) made the unusual move after witnessing a wave of UK-wide austerity cuts and watching Defra Minister Richard Benyon battle to save the National WCU in parliament. The London WCU was finding it increasingly difficult to effectively address wildlife crime in London - more officers and resources were needed, but it was clear that additional centralised funding would have been impossible in the current economic climate.

The charity's funding has safeguarded the future of the unit - allowing the current staff to pass on their extensive and valuable institutional knowledge - as well as allowing the unit to expand to better tackle wildlife crime.

Organised gangs
WSPA UK Head of External Affairs Simon Pope explained: "Without the specialist skills and knowledge of the WCU, wildlife crime in London could flourish. This is not some niche, illicit trade carried out by petty part-time villains. It is a major source of revenue for a global network of hardened criminals, gangs and drug lords; all growing rich from the trafficking of wildlife and none about to have a crisis of conscience and stop what they are doing."

Combined with WSPA's 30-plus years of international animal welfare work, global contacts and expertise, the partnership looks set to create a meaningful legacy.

Sergeant Ian Knox, Head of the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Crime Unit said: "I am delighted that the World Society for the Protection of Animals has decided to contribute a significant amount of money to the Wildlife Crime Unit. The extra funding will pay for more staff so we can be more proactive in targeting criminals who seek to exploit animals for financial gain.

"We will also be able to provide additional support and training to Wildlife Crime Officers across London which will ensure that the Met has the capability to tackle crimes against animals in the future."

Simon added: "WSPA believes that the knowledge contained in the WCU is an irreplaceable asset to London, national and international enforcement communities. We know that our supporters and Londoners want to see wildlife criminals bought to justice, so it seemed vital now more than ever to safeguard the future of this specialist unit."

The partnership launch marks the first milestone in WSPA UK's new wildlife campaign, which will cover a wide range of issues from wildlife crime and illegal trade, to bear sanctuaries and marine welfare concerns.

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wspa.html

Prince of Wales launches fight to save overexploited oceans from overfishing

2012-01-31T12:05:00.000+01:00

A report to be published this week by one of the Prince's charities, theInternational Sustainability Unit (ISU), will say that fisheries around the world could be pulled back from the brink of collapse by tackling wasteful fishing practices.
In a speech at the report's launch, the Prince will warn of "dire" long-term consequences unless action is taken to manage fish stocks more effectively.
He will use the opportunity to encourage governments, retailers and the fishing industry to adopt more sustainable practices, pointing to evidence that it could allow more fish to be taken from the seas rather than fewer.
The move comes on the back of the Prince's campaign save the rainforests, which has been credited with having played a significant role in getting the international community to sign up to initiatives to tackle deforestation.
Campaigners fighting to stop overfishing and end destructive policies such as discards, where fishermen throw dead fish back into the sea to avoid exceeding quotas, have backed the Prince's move.
While the Prince will not mention the European Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in his speech, environmentalists who blame the policy for encouraging discards have welcomed his decision to speak out on the wider issues.
A Clarence House spokesman said: "The Prince of Wales has been concerned about the marine environment for many years.
"He wants to focus on the fishing industry and how to promote a more sustainable approach to managing the marine environment.
"The work of the Prince's Charities' ISU's Marine Programme is about promoting sustainable approaches towards fisheries to preserve a long-term livelihood for the communities and industries that rely on them, to preserve the fish stocks, and to protect biodiversity and ecosystems in the sea."
Twenty five per cent of the world's fish stocks are now believed to be overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion. Half of the world's fish stocks are already suffering catches at or close to the limit that allows them to be sustainable.
The report by the ISU will be launched at an event hosted by the Prince at Fishmongers' Hall in London on Friday, attended by 250 industry representatives and officials.
It will argue that the solution lies in readdressing the economics of fishing so governments and the industry recognise the benefits of preserving stocks.
It will highlight research that shows the oceans are capable of providing $50 billion (£31 billion) per year more value than they currently do if managed in an optimal manner.
Tony Juniper, special adviser to the ISU, said: "The automatic preconception that most people have is that sustainability is about taking less.
"What we have found, in fact, is that if fisheries were managed optimally then we could be taking more. The key to it is how you get the economics lined up.
"Then you can deliver value for the consumer, value for conservation and value for the fishing communities themselves to ensure they are rewarded for a hard job under tough conditions."
The report will analyse ways to keep fish stocks healthy while also providing more fish for consumers. It will argue that reducing supply for certain species would raise market prices, allowing fish stocks to recover while giving fishermen the ability to continue making a living.
Fishing a more diverse range of species could also help to reduce pressure, while new technology could be used to reduce by-catch – unwanted fish that are caught up in nets – and return them to the ocean alive.
It will also suggest removing subsidies for building new fishing vessels and fuel, which could help to control the number of fishing vessels operating. Currently the EU provides £2 billion a year in subsidies.
The Prince, who has a long record of environmental campaigning, has previously backed attempts to reform the CFP and has described the issue of by-catch and discards as "immoral".
Campaigners now hope that his international influence will persaude governments, regulating bodies, fishermen, seafood processors and retailers to adopt more sustainable fishing practices.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the chef who led a campaign to change the CFP and is set to begin filming a third instalment of his Hugh's Fish Fight programmes for Channel 4, welcomed the Prince's involvement.
He said: "This is absolutely the right approach. If the world's fish stocks were sustainably fished they could be more productive, not less.
"The Prince's involvement in environmental issues has the ability to rouse political will and business commitment. It is extremely welcome that he is to continue to turn the spotlight on the problems and the solutions."
A spokesman for the Marine Conservation Society said: "We welcome this approach of tackling the economics to incentivise sustainable fishing. It is something that will work and should appeal to governments no matter what their political persuasion."
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/9046430/Prince-of-Wales-launches-fight-to-save-overexploited-oceans-from-overfishing.html

Bats occupy Israeli army ghost bunkers

2012-01-31T12:01:00.000+01:00

(Reuters) - Abandoned Israeli army bunkers along the Jordan River are providing a lifeline for bats on the endangered species list, researchers say.

Soldiers left Israel's underground forts along the frontier with Jordan after a 1994 peace treaty between the two countries. With much of the former front line, some of it dotted by mine fields, still designated by the military as off-limits to civilians, bats swooped into the secluded and dark steel caverns.

Several years ago, researchers from Tel Aviv University were granted access to the ghost bunkers. Now, they say, they have identified 12 indigenous bat species in the 100-kilometre- (60 mile)-long tract between the Sea of Galilee in Israel and the Dead Sea's northern edge in the occupied West Bank.

Two of the species commonly known as the Mediterranean horseshoe bat and Geoffroy's bat are on the critical list and three others are designated as endangered.

"There is no doubt that by being in a closed military zone that has prevented human interference, the bat habitat will allow these delicate creatures to thrive," said one of the researchers, Eran Levin.

But he said it was too early to quantify the growth of the local bat population, estimated to be in the thousands, because the research project was not yet complete.

One former bunker -- overlooking the spot along the Jordan River where some Christian faithful believe Jesus was baptized by John -- has been turned into a more accommodating home for the webbed-wing mammals.

Continued: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/27/us-israel-bats-idUKTRE80Q0NI20120127

Bears ‘commit suicide’ to escape horror of gall bile farms

2012-01-31T11:02:00.000+01:00

Spending up to ten years in cruel conditions

January 2012: Wildlife campaigner Louis Ng is no stranger to close encounters with animals in distress. But nothing quite prepared him for the emotional exchange with an adult bear outside a bear farm in Laos.

A film-maker had stumbled upon the farm and contacted Ng, the co-founder and executive director of Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) in Singapore.

When Ng visited the farm in November 2009, he was greeted with the sight of a female bear lying motionless in a cage.

The owner explained that she was refusing food and starving herself to death so he had left her outside to meet her inevitable end. Ng crouched near but a safe distance from the cage to watch her.

Bear's eyes were flooded with anguish and gentlenessAfter a few minutes the bear, who was on her tenth day of hunger strike, pushed a limp paw through the cage bars and weakly flexed her claws in Ng's direction. He realised with a start that she was reaching for his hand. And so he gave it to her.

The two ‘held hands' in silence for a few minutes. Ng remembers the bear's eyes being flooded with both anguish and gentleness. She died the next day.

In a world where dignity is sometimes only delivered by death, this bear was the lucky one. She died after three years of living on that farm.

But more than 12,000 other bears will serve up to ten years of their lives in similar farms throughout Asia where they are milked for bile to meet the region's unsatiable demand for its healing properties.

Solitude, pain and fear drive bears mad‘This farm had 29 bears in cages just large enough for them to stand up,' Ng said. ‘All you hear when youS walk inside is the constant banging of heads against those cages.'

Solitude, pain and fear have literally driven the bears mad. Their only outlet is to ram their heads against their tiny prison cells or starve themselves to death.

At this point anything is preferable to the horrific procedure of having their gall bladder drained of bile twice a day.

The medical use of bear bile dates back to the Tang Dynasty in 659 AD. Its only therapeutic component is ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) which makes up 15 per cent to 39 per cent of bile in bears compared to five per cent in humans.

Bear bile was traditionally used for gastric bypass surgery and to treat minor ailments such as sore throats, sprains, as well as epilepsy. As the bile was taken from the intact gall bladders of bears killed in the wild, the absence of torture eased consumers' minds.

Often they end up chewing off their own limbsBut the supply was meagre and led to high prices on bear bile medicines. But then, in the 1970s, South Korea invented a method of extracting bile from live bears. It was cruel, excruciating and the golden ticket to a booming trade.

‘The bile is removed from the bear by inserting a catheter tube through a permanent incision in the abdomen and gall bladder,' Ng said. ‘Sometimes a permanently implanted metal tube is used.'
Imagination eliminates the need to describe the pain that comes with this practice. Most bears are too weak or crazed to protest but those that do face a worse punishment.

‘One cub took a swipe at the farmer,' Ng said. ‘The height of its cage was halved so it could only lie on its back. It soon started gnawing on its own paw which is what happens when bears lose their minds. Often they end up chewing their own limbs off.'

A 2010 report by wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, found that while China is the prime origin for bear bile products in Asia, Malaysia is among a string of Asian countries that play the dual role of producer and consumer.

What most concerns Matt Hunt, chief executive of Free The Bears Fund in Australia, about the report is that a significant number of Malaysia's TCM shops were found to be selling wild-sourced bear gall bladders.
‘This means that sun bears in Malaysian forests are being hunted to feed this trade,' he said.

Gall bladders cost as much as a packet of heroinAccording to Ng, the price of a gall bladder costs as much as a packet of heroin in the black market. Consumers fork out about £150 for 127g while one milligram of bile is priced at £12.50. Each extraction from a live bear yields 10 milligram of bile.

Malaysian shopowners and staff interviewed by TRAFFIC Malaysia revealed that a majority of the gall bladders sold were wild-sourced and that they were aware of its illegal status. This ambivalence is bad news for the Asiatic black bears, sun bears and brown bears, the three species who are hunted for their parts.

Ng is now setting up a rescue centre in Laos on a five-hectare site with a 12-room building for volunteers and two enclosures measuring one hectare each to accommodate 29 bears.

Not only will the bears be rescued but they will also be put through a rehabilitation process to help them adapt to a community after being in solitary confinement for so long.

The £320,000 facility is expected to be ready for volunteers by June. It will be a big step forward on a still long road towards saving Asia's bear population.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bears-gall2012.html

Seeing green helps spiders perfect jump

2012-01-30T14:39:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-30T14:24:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-30T14:20:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-30T14:18:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-30T14:15:00.000+01:00

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.’

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

2012-01-30T14:09:00.000+01:00

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)

2012-01-30T12:30:00.001+01:00

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)

2012-01-30T12:25:00.000+01:00

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)

2012-01-30T12:23:00.000+01:00

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)

2012-01-29T12:23:00.000+01:00

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)

2012-01-29T12:21:00.000+01:00

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)

2012-01-29T12:19:00.000+01:00

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

2012-01-29T11:02:00.001+01:00

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

2012-01-29T11:02:00.000+01:00

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

Rattlesnake roundup in Georgia now a humane wildlife festival

2012-01-29T11:00:00.001+01:00

Calls for final roundup to do the same

January 2012: Georgia could soon say goodbye to the outdated ‘rattlesnake roundups'. The Evans County Wildlife Club in Claxton, Georgia, have changed their annual round-up to a wildlife festival where snakes will be celebrated rather than collected in their hundreds and butchered for their meat and skin.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Coastal Plains Institute, Protect All Living Species and One More Generation have sent a letter to the club, congratulating them on the decision, and are also presenting a 5,000-strong petition to Whigham Coummunity Club, which hosts the state's last remaining rattlesnake roundup.

‘We're so happy the rattlesnake roundup in Claxton is being switched to a humane event that celebrates these great native animals and recognizes the importance of saving them,' said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity who works to protect rare and vanishing reptiles and amphibians. ‘The Whigham Community Club needs to follow suit. It needs to recognize that massacres of endangered animals are just wrong, and clearly the wrong message to send to young people about our relationship to the natural world.'

'All wildlife has a valuable place in nature'The Evans County Wildlife Club is replacing its annual rattlesnake roundup with the Claxton Rattlesnake and Wildlife Festival, which will feature displays of the imperilled eastern diamondback rattlesnake and other native wildlife. Educational programmes, entertainment and a variety of other activities will be offered at the event, held during the second weekend in March.

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/rattlesnakes-roundup2012.html

New 40,000 square mile haven for Pacific’s leatherbacks

2012-01-29T11:00:00.000+01:00

But how do they get there safely?

January 2012: Protection for 40,000 square miles of protected critical ocean habitat off the shores of Washington, Oregon and California are now in place - creating a haven for the endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle. The new protection laws establish critical habitat in areas where leatherbacks feed on jellyfish after swimming 6,000 miles across the ocean from nests in Indonesia.

This is the first permanently designated area for leatherbacks in continental US waters and, although it is substantially smaller than the original proposals for 70,600 square miles, it is the largest area set aside to protect sea turtle habitat in the United States or its territories.

Now we need migration safeguards for these ancient animals‘Habitat protections are vital to the survival of leatherbacks. We urgently need migration safeguards for these ancient animals as they make the longest, most epic journey of any creature on the planet to get to our West Coast every year,' said Catherine Kilduff of Florida's Center for Biological Diversity.

However, there are concerns that the new rules do not extend to protect turtles' migratory paths from commercial fishing, water pollution and marine vessel traffic. The new regulation excludes protections for migration through these habitats and also excludes consideration of dangers to the turtles from fishing, such as mile-long drift nets used for swordfish off California.

‘This is a major decision to protect feeding hotspots for endangered leatherback sea turtles, but the federal government failed to acknowledge that the turtles need safe passage to get there,' said Ben Enticknap, Oceana's Pacific project manager.

‘Leatherbacks finally have a safe haven along our coast, but still face extinction due growing threats from fisheries, pollution and ship strikes,' said Teri Shore, programme director at SeaTurtles.org in California.

Pacific leatherback population declined by more than 95 per centMile-long drift gillnets and longline gear used to catch swordfish, sharks and tunas are the two types of fishing gear most commonly known to capture and kill leatherback sea turtles. While current regulations restrict fishing to protect these sea turtles, the Fisheries Service is currently developing proposals to expand the use of these fishing gears into areas important to the leatherback.

The largest of all sea turtles, leatherbacks can grow up to nine feet long and weigh up to 2,000 pounds. Pacific leatherback sea turtles have declined more than 95 per cent since the 1980s; as few as 2,300 adult female western Pacific leatherbacks remain. The species dates from the time of the dinosaurs, having survived for 100 million years virtually unchanged; but now they face the danger of extinction.

The leatherback sea turtles feeding off the US West Coast make the longest known migration of any reptile, across the Pacific Ocean where they nest on beaches in Papua, Indonesia. They make this great migration to feed on jellyfish in the productive ocean waters of the American Pacific. They are generally found off the West Coast in the summer and fall months.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/pacific-leatherback.html

Bournemouth resident mystified by 'blue sphere shower'

2012-01-28T16:03:00.000+01:00

A man in Dorset has been left mystified after tiny blue spheres fell from the sky into his garden.

Steve Hornsby from Bournemouth said the 3cm diameter balls came raining down late on Thursday afternoon during a hail storm.

He found about a dozen of the balls in his garden. He said: "[They're] difficult to pick up, I had to get a spoon and flick them into a jam jar."

The Met Office said the jelly-like substance was "not meteorological".

Mr Hornsby, a former aircraft engineer, said: "The sky went a really dark yellow colour.

"As I walked outside to go to the garage there was an instant hail storm for a few seconds and I thought, 'what's that in the grass'?"

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-16754531

Fungi-filled forests are critical for endangered orchids

2012-01-28T12:38:00.003+01:00

Older forests with just the right fungi may be secret to saving vulnerable plants.

When it comes to conserving the world's orchids, not all forests are equal. In a paper to be published Jan. 25 in the journal Molecular Ecology, Smithsonian ecologists revealed that an orchid's fate hinges on two factors: a forest's age and its fungi.

Roughly 10 percent of all plant species are orchids, making them the largest plant family on Earth. But habitat loss has rendered many threatened or endangered. This is partly due to their intimate relationship with the soil.

Orchids depend entirely on microscopic fungi in the early stages of their lives. Without the nutrients orchids obtain by digesting these host fungi, their seeds often will not germinate and baby orchids will not grow. While researchers have known about the orchid–fungus relationship for years, very little is known about what the fungi need to survive.

Biologists based at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center launched the first study to find out what helps the fungi flourish and what that means for orchids. Led by Melissa McCormick, the researchers looked at three orchid species, all endangered in one or more U.S. states.

After planting orchid seeds in dozens of experimental plots, they also added particular host fungi needed by each orchid to half the plots. Then they followed the fate of the orchids and fungi in six study sites: three in younger forests (50 to 70 years old) and three in older forests (120 to 150 years old).

After four years they discovered orchid seeds germinated only where the fungi they needed were abundant—not merely present.

In the case of one species, Liparis liliifolia (lily-leaved twayblade), seeds germinated only in plots where the team had added fungi. This suggests that this particular orchid could survive in many places, but the fungi they need do not exist in most areas of the forest.

Meanwhile, the fungi displayed a strong preference for older forests.

Soil samples taken from older forest plots had host fungi that were five to 12 times more abundant compared to younger forests, even where the research team had not added them. They were more diverse as well. More mature plots averaged 3.6 different Tulasnella fungi species per soil sample (a group of fungi beneficial to these orchids), while the younger ones averaged only 1.3.

Host fungi were also more abundant in plots where rotting wood was added. These host fungi, which are primarily decomposers, may grow better in places where decomposing wood or leaves are plentiful.

All this implies that to save endangered orchids, planting new forests may not be enough. If the forests are not old enough or do not have enough of the right fungi, lost orchids may take decades to return, if they return at all.

"This study, for the first time, ties orchid performance firmly to the abundance of their fungi," McCormick said. "It reveals the way to determine what conditions host fungi need, so we can support recovery of the fungi needed by threatened and endangered orchids."

###

The University of Alaska Fairbanks and Purdue University also contributed to this study. The abstract will be available here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05468.x/abstract.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/s-ffa012412.php

For the Birds: Winged Predators Seek Certain Trees When Foraging for Caterpillars

2012-01-28T12:38:00.001+01:00

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) — Location matters for birds on the hunt for caterpillars, according to researchers at UC Irvine and Wesleyan University. Findings suggest that chickadees and others zero in on the type of tree as much as the characteristics of their wriggly prey.

Unfortunately for caterpillars, munching on tree leaves that are healthy and tasty can dramatically boost their own risk of becoming food. Study results, published online this week in The American Naturalist, show that dining on the trees that are most nutritious for caterpillars -- such as the black cherry -- can increase by 90 percent their chances of being devoured by a discerning bird.

"The jump in risk is surprising," said co-author Kailen Mooney, assistant professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at UCI. "It shows that for caterpillars, moving from one tree to the next can mean the difference between getting eaten and surviving."

The findings indicate a "neat potential pest control system," because the healthiest tree species harbor the greatest number of caterpillars, thereby offering the easiest pickings for winged predators, said lead author Michael Singer of Wesleyan. "Our study addresses basic theoretical questions in ecology, but we also want forest managers and conservation biologists to take away practical knowledge."

Mooney, who specializes in the ecology of predatory birds, said tree identification is probably learned by birds, not genetic. He added that Southern California bird species probably do the same with coastal sage scrub, determining which types of bushes afford a better chance of tasty insect treats.

With help from a small army of students, the scientists conducted a two-year experiment in Connecticut forests involving hundreds of tree branches either covered with bird-proof netting or left bare.

Mooney noted that the results illustrate a stark choice between gaining strength through a good diet but being more vulnerable to predators and remaining weaker and hungrier but more safe.

"If a caterpillar could feed on nutritious, high-quality tree species and be left alone, this would be the best of all worlds," he said. "Instead, it's faced with a trade-off. Overall, it appears that it's better to feed on poor-quality tree species and have fewer caterpillars around you than to be on a nutritious plant with many others."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120126143653.htm

Ecologists Capture First Deep-Sea Fish Noises

2012-01-28T12:37:00.002+01:00

ScienceDaily (Jan. 26, 2012) — University of Massachusetts Amherst fish biologists have published one of the first studies of deep-sea fish sounds in more than 50 years, collected from the sea floor about 2,237 feet (682 meters) below the North Atlantic. With recording technology now more affordable, Rodney Rountree, Francis Juanes and colleagues are exploring the idea that many fish make sounds to communicate with each other, especially those that live in the perpetual dark of the deep ocean.

Though little is known at present about the significance of sounds made by deep-sea fishes, Rountree and Juanes say that if, as their pilot study suggests, these tend to be low-amplitude, then man-made noise in the oceans may turn out to be a particular problem for some important species.

Their paper appears in the new book, "Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life," from Springer Science+Business Media in its "Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology" series. It compiles papers from an international workshop in Ireland in 2010.

Using hydrophones deployed by fishermen during normal fishing operations, Rountree, Juanes and colleagues obtained a 24-hour recording in Welkers Canyon south of Georges Bank that yielded "a wealth of biological sounds" including sounds of fin, humpback and pilot whales, dolphins and examples of at least 12 other unique and unidentified sounds they attribute to other whales or fish.

Their new paper includes graphics showing the number of these grunts, drumming and duck-like calls recorded per minute by time of day, plus peak volume and frequencies of various noises. Some of the sounds exhibited strong temporal patterns, for example fin whale and dolphin sounds dominated the recording and peaked at night.

Continued: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120126142908.htm