Dangerous protected reptiles

Date:  June 27, 2018

Source:  University of Freiburg

Summary:

Attacks by crocodiles have been rising in South East Asia since they became protected animals, a study finds.

The south-east Asian island state of East Timor has a problem with crocodiles. Between 2007 and 2014 there was a sharp increase in attacks on humans. Many of these attacks were fatal. Sebastian Brackhane, a research assistant in the Department of Remote Sensing and Landscape Information Systems of the University of Freiburg, has analyzed data on crocodile attacks in relation to a rise in the population of estuarine crocodiles in East Timor. The results of his field study have been published in the Journal of Wildlife Management.

Continued 

Wildlife haven of Sulawesi much younger than first thought, according to new research

Date:  April 11, 2018

Source:  University of Oxford

Summary:

New research has shed light on the origins of some of South East Asia's most iconic and unique wildlife; the 'deer-pig' (Sulawesi Babirusa), 'warty pig' and the 'miniature buffalo.' In doing so, the research has revealed that Sulawesi, the island paradise where they were discovered, is younger than previously thought.

Read on  

Discovery of an ape virus in an Indonesian rodent species

August 26, 2016

The gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) is a medically important tool in cancer therapies. GALV is a retrovirus pathogenic to its host species, the southeast Asian lar gibbon (Hylobates lar) and thought to have originated from a cross-species transmission and may not originally be a primate virus at all. An international research team headed by the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) screened a wide range of rodents from southeast Asia for GALV-like sequences. The discovery of a new GALV in the grassland melomys (Melomys burtoni) from Indonesian New Guinea supports the hypothesis that this host species, and potentially related rodent lineages in Australia and Papua New Guinea, may have played a key role in the spread of GALV-like viruses. The findings were published in the scientific journal Journal of Virology.

The scientists found that rodents from Indonesian New Guinea possibly contributed as vectors to a cross-species transmission leading to the infection of gibbons with the gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) and koalas with the koala retrovirus (KoRV). GALV is a retrovirus which causes a cancer (hematopoietic neoplasms) in captive colonies of gibbons. However, GALV has never been isolated from wild primates that did not have a captive origin. This suggests that some other species in contact with captive gibbons are the source of GALV. KoRV is a retrovirus closely related to GALV and therefore the two viruses share a common ancestor. Since koalas and gibbons do not overlap in distribution, a direct natural transmission between koalas and gibbons is unlikely. It is therefore probable that one or more mobile and widely distributed host species such as rodents carry GALV- and KoRV-like viruses and infected koalas and gibbons independently. The findings of this study are consistent with this hypothesis.

Read more at: 

Tropical wasps attack intruders with unfamiliar faces

Date:

February 3, 2015

Source:

University of Queen Mary London

Summary:

The scientists went to the remote tropical forests of South East Asia to study this tiny wasp species. Each nest contains a family of related individuals and hundreds of nests can be clustered together to form a kind of city. Close proximity to so many other families means each colony faces persistent landing attempts by intruders from the neighborhood, and these might steal resources or theoretically lay cuckoo eggs.

Continued ...