Concern as US bat-killing disease jumps to west coast

By Mark KinverEnvironment reporter, BBC News

31 March 2016

Wildlife officials say they are extremely concerned after a disease that has killed millions of bats has arrived on the Pacific coast of the US.

Until now, white-nose syndrome has only been recorded in the eastern US but the latest case means the fungal infection has jumped 1,300 miles (2,100km).

The killer pathogen, first recorded in New York in 2006, is now present in 28 states and five Canadian provinces.

It has been described as the worst US wildlife health crisis in recent years.

On 11 March, a hiker discovered a sick little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) while walking in Washington state and handed it in to a local animal welfare centre. Two days later, the bat died.

While carrying out an examination, the centre's vet noticed visual symptoms consistent with the disease and it was decided to run tests on the dead bat.

David Blehert, from the US Geological Survey's (USGS) National Wildlife Center, said samples returned "strongly positive" results.

He added: "We have also cultured the fungus... from tissues of the bat, and work that we are continuing to pursue is genetic characterisations of this fungus to see if it is most closely related to strains... that are known to exist in North America or whether it is perhaps more closely related to strains found elsewhere in the world."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35937977

Sea lion strandings: The view from the rookery

Date:

May 6, 2015

Source:

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service

Summary:

Wildlife biologists are describing conditions at the sea lion rookeries on the Channel Islands, where pups are going hungry because unusually warm water along the Pacific coast has made it more difficult for their mothers to find food.

For a few months now, sea lion pups have been stranding on the coast of Southern California. So many have washed up, emaciated and exhausted, that marine mammal care centers can scarcely hold them all. But while most people first notice the pups on the beach, their desperate plight began on the Channel Islands, which are about 25 miles offshore of Santa Barbara. Those islands are home to the sea lion rookeries where the pups are born and where they spend the first year of life.

Many pups at the rookeries are going hungry, according to Sharon Melin, a wildlife biologist with the NOAA Fisheries National Marine Mammal Laboratory who recently returned from 3 weeks of fieldwork on the Channel Islands.

Continued ...

Virus devastating sea stars on Pacific Coast identified

Museum biological collections are the records of life on Earth and as such, they are frequently used to investigate serious environmental issues. When public health officials were concerned about the levels of mercury in fish and birds, for example, scientists studied museum specimens to assess historical changes in mercury contamination. Eggs in museum collections were analyzed to establish the connection between DDT, thinning eggshells, and the decline in bird populations. And now, specimens from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) have helped explain the mysteriously sudden appearance of a disease that has decimated sea stars on the North American Pacific Coast.

In a paper published Monday, November 17, 2014 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cornell University microbiologist Ian Hewson and colleagues identify the Sea Star Associated Densovirus (SSaDV) virus as the microbe responsible for Sea Star Wasting Disease (SSWD). NHM Curator of Echinoderms Gordon Hendler and Collections Manager Cathy Groves, along with scientists from universities and aquariums along the coast (including NHM neighbor, the California Science Center), collaborated in the study.

Read on ...

Starfish deaths off US coasts continue to puzzle scientists

Researchers rule out culprits including fungi and certain parasites, but remain vexed by unexplained wasting disease

theguardian.com, Friday 2 May 2014 15.08 BST

Scientists are struggling to find the cause of a disease that is killing off numerous species of starfish on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, dispatching the five-armed creatures in a particularly gruesome way.

Researchers said this week that they have ruled out some possible culprits including fungi, some parasites and certain other microorganisms and are taking a hard look at whether viruses or bacteria may be to blame.

The starfish, also called sea stars, are being obliterated by an unexplained wasting disease that causes white lesions to appear before the animal's body sags and ruptures and it spills out its internal organs.

"The magnitude of it is very concerning. There's the potential that some of these species could actually go extinct," said Cornell University ecologist Drew Harvell, one of the scientists involved in the loosely organised search for a cause.

Harvell said she is concerned because the mysterious pathogen is affecting 18 different west coast species along their entire range. Pathogens that affect an animal's range in such a way like a fungus that has targeted frogs can be particularly damaging, she said.

Read on

Climate-adapting squid has scientists thrilled, puzzled

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A mysterious squid that lives along the Pacific coast could be one of the big winners in adapting to climate change. The squid is very large, very fast and very mean, but it's also willing to adapt.

The wild-looking animals are on the move with just two things on their mind: Finding food and making babies. The squid can get up to six feet long and weigh 100 pounds, and they are survivors.

"It can tolerate low oxygen," said Stanford Prof. William Gilly, Ph.D. "It can tolerate extreme temperatures, both cold and warm, and it can migrate wherever it wants. It's a very powerful swimmer."

Gilly is with Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station and is an expert on Humboldt squid.


"They are sort of the ultimate predator," said Gilly.

In the middle of those tentacles, there is a razor-sharp beak.

"When it grabs food, it engulfs the food in the arm and brings it to up the mouth, then it probably just sits there like a little mincing machine," said Gilly.

Gilly knows that first hand: He was badly bitten by a squid a few years ago and has the scars to prove it.


Read more here ...

Scientists Unlock the Mystery Surrounding a Tale of Shaggy Dogs

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2011) — Researchers from the University of York have produced the first clear evidence that textiles made by the indigenous population of the Pacific coast of North America contained dog hair.

In recent years, scientists have hotly debated whether textiles such as blankets and robes made by the skilful Coast Salish weavers before contact with Europeans were made of dog hair as oral histories have claimed.

Coast Salish oral tradition refers to a special dog which was bred locally until the mid 19^th century for its woolly hair or fleece for use in the textile industry.

Using highly sensitive equipment at the University's Centre for Excellence in Mass Spectrometry, York researchers from BioArCh (Departments of Biology, Archaeology and Chemistry) analysed the protein composition of 11 textiles in different locations, representing 25 samples in total.

The samples were taken from artefacts in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian collections and included blankets, a sash and a robe of fur. Some of the textiles were collected during the American expeditions to the West Coast, including the Lewis and Clark (1803-1806) and Wilkes (1838-1842) expeditions. The samples dated mainly from early to mid 19^th century.

Researchers found evidence of dog hair in the robe of fur and six of the woven textiles, primarily in a blend with goat hair.

However, the results published in the journal Antiquity, show there is no real proof of a preference for dog hair in high status fabrics and the researchers did not find any textiles made entirely of dog hair. Instead, researchers conclude that dog hair appears to have been used to supplement mountain goat hair, possibly as a bulking material.

Surprisingly too, the results also indicate that commercial sheep wool was also incorporated into textiles in the 19^th century. Previous investigations had implied that sheep wool was not used in Salish weaving.

The research was led by Dr Caroline Solazzo, a Marie Curie Research Fellow from York's Department of Archaeology, and a former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Museum Conservation Institute at the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr Solazzo said: "Dogs have a long history of interaction with humans, from companionship to guarding and hunting; but raising dogs for fibre production was a unique cultural adaptation in the Pacific Northwest. It is perhaps the unusual strategy that has led some to doubt the use of dog wool.

"We found dog hair in all textiles produced before 1862, but it was absent from blankets woven in the late 19^th century to early 20^th century. Noticeably, dog hair is absent from all plain twill-woven ceremonial-type blankets, indicating a strong preference for mountain goat hair, in both aesthetic and technical aspects."

Bio-archaeologist Professor Matthew Collins, from York's Department of Archaeology, said: "Protein mass spectrometry is a useful new tool for the study of textiles, and indeed cultural artefacts composed of proteins, such as silk, wool, ivory, leather, bone and parchment, in which the original source of production is difficult to identify.

"Despite the minute quantities of fibres used, the analytical sensitivity of the instrumentation at York was able to reveal the use of dog hair in Salish weaving."

The Coast Salish peoples are indigenous to the Pacific Northwest coastal areas of northern Washington and southern British Columbia, and are particularly notable for their large, finely woven blankets. In pre-contact times, the blankets were important items and their gift and distribution were present in all aspects of social life. As well as having a functional use, they were important in ceremonies such as marriages and funerals.

Co-author Susan Heald, Senior Textile Conservator, from the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, said: "Salish weaving is undergoing a resurgence. With this revival it is crucial to have the use of dog hair in older blankets confirmed.

"The research at York has finally provided confirmation for the Coast Salish oral history of the use of dog hair. It appears that dog hair mixed with goat wool was used in every day textiles, with goat hair alone being used in ceremonial textiles."

The existence of a woolly dog is supported by historic accounts of 18^th century European explorers. The dogs were reported to be corralled on small islands off the coast to prevent inter-breeding with short-haired village dogs. The dog disappeared less than 100 years after the first contact with Europeans.

Dr Solazzo said: "Based on our results, the description of textiles in museum collections as 'dog hair blankets' should be reconsidered; in no case did we find a textile made solely of this fibre. It may have been the case that pure dog hair blankets were once more common, but considered of lower value and consumed in use and lost."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111124150355.htm