Bronze Age cattle travelled long distances

27 October 2009, by Sara Coelho

Show me your teeth and I'll tell you where you're from: archaeologists analysing tooth enamel from cattle buried at two Bronze Age barrows have found that at least some of the animals originated from elsewhere, revealing long-distance trading networks in ancient Britain.

The 4,000-year-old barrows at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire and Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire are famous among Bronze Age archaeological sites for the unusual amounts of cattle remains associated with their central human burials. Archaeologists have been puzzled about their meaning since the sites were first excavated in the 1980s and 1990s.

At Irthlingborough the cattle bones comprised mainly of skulls. Were they tokens brought from far away as gifts to the deceased? Or did these cows come from local herds?

Jacqueline Towers, an archaeology PhD student at the University of Bradford, tried to solve the mystery by looking at the isotope composition of the cattle's teeth. Some chemical elements occur in heavier and lighter varieties, called isotopes. The proportion between heavy and light isotopes is closely related to environmental factors, such as geology or climate, depending on the element.

Older rocks will be richer in the heavier strontium isotope and this feature is passed on to soils, plants and water. When animals eat locally grown plants and drink water from nearby springs, strontium atoms make their way into the body and accumulate in teeth and bones, where the heavy/light isotope ratio will reflect the local geology.

'Isotope analysis is usually the only method available to determine the provenance of animal remains,' says Towers. Or, rather, to exclude areas where the animals certainly did not come from.

Towers and colleagues sampled several cattle teeth dug from the Irthlingborough and Gayhurst barrows and measured their strontium content at the NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory in Nottingham. The team found that most of the cattle grazed and lived near their final resting place. Some of the teeth from Irthlingborough had strontium ratios so similar that they might have come from the same herd.

But the results published in the Journal of Archaeological Science are not entirely straightforward as Towers uncovered evidence that at least some of the animals recovered from both sites were not born locally.

The strontium ratio found in the second molar of one animal from Irthlingborough is higher than the characteristic range of values for the local area. This means that this cow or bull was born in a region with older rocks - for example the Malvern Hills, Wales, the Lake District or even Scotland. But analyses from the third molar, which develops later, reveal lower strontium ratio values. 'This animal probably travelled to the Irthlingborough neighbourhood during its first year, and spent several months there before it was slaughtered,' explains Towers.

For the Gayhurst barrow, Towers found a tooth with the lowest strontium ratio recovered during her research. A possible origin for this animal is an area rich in chalky rocks from the Cretaceous period, the closest one being about 25km southeast of Gayhurst.

While strontium isotopes cannot be used to pinpoint an exact location, 'they are useful to exclude Irthlingborough and Gayhurst as the original provenance of some of the cattle buried at the barrows,' says Towers. 'This means that the local inhabitants exchanged cattle and communicated with distant groups.'

The findings also suggest that the cattle at the barrows were not brought by non-local mourners as tokens to the deceased because the 'animals spent at least a few months in the area before slaughter,' says Towers.

Jacqueline Towers, Janet Montgomery, Jane Evans, Mandy Jay, Mike Parker Pearson. An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and Irthlingborough. 2009 doi: 10.1016/j.jas.2009.10.012

http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=571

Japanese fishing trawler sunk by giant jellyfish

A 10-ton fishing boat has been sunk by gigantic jellyfish off eastern Japan

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Published: 7:00AM GMT 02 Nov 2009

The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba`as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish.

Each of the jellyfish can weigh up to 200 kg and waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures this year. Experts believe weather and water conditions in the breeding grounds, off the coast of China, have been ideal for the jellyfish in recent months.

The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident.

One of the largest jellyfish in the world, the species can grow up to 2 meters in diameter. The last time Japan was invaded on a similar scale, in the summer of 2005, the jellyfish damaged nets, rendered fish inedible with their toxic stings and even caused injuries to fishermen.

Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures.

Experts believe that one contributing factor to the jellyfish becoming more frequent visitors to Japanese waters may be a decline in the number of predators, which include sea turtles and certain species of fish.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/6483758/Japanese-fishing-trawler-sunk-by-giant-jellyfish.html

(Submitted by Karen Palmer)

Badger wins for endangered species license plate

The DNR says 68 percent of the votes were for the badger.
Oct 28, 2009

The badger took first place in a poll for new endangered species license plates in Wisconsin.

The DNR says 68 percent of the votes were for the badger. More than 23,000 votes were cast to help select the design to benefit Wisconsin’s endangered resources.

The great blue heron and the eastern bluebird designs ran beak and beak, tying for second place with 12 percent of the votes. And the red-headed woodpecker brought in eight percent of the votes.

The new plate design is expected to be available to Wisconsinites for $25. One hundred percent of the money will be used to support the Endangered Resources Conservation Fund.

http://www.weau.com/news/headlines/67041887.html

Hedgehog triplets born in five-star luxury

Staff at Edinburgh's Prestonfield left stunned by delivery in hotel reception.

21 October 2009 14:42 PM

A choosy mother chose a five-star maternity suite in one of Edinburgh's plushest hotels - even though she was giving birth to hedgehog triplets.

Guests at the Prestonfield were stunned when the critter walked into the hotel's reception and settled on the carpet.

However, they were even more surprised when she gave birth to three spiky babies before taking a snooze behind a basket of logs beside the hotel's open fire.

Staff from the SSPCA rushed to the five-star venue to care for the creatures.

Now, the seven-week-old hoglets are said to be doing well and are living with their mum at a rescue centre in Fife.

Centre Manager Colin Seddon said: "This was a very unusual place for the hedgehog to choose to have her babies.

"She was obviously confused and knowing that she was about to give birth, decided to find the nearest warm and sheltered place, which just happened to be a very plush hotel.

"We were worried when she came in because it is not uncommon for a mother hedgehog to eat her young if she is disturbed or feels threatened, so we were obviously very keen to avoid that happening.

"Initially, we kept the family warm and dry and provided them with food and water, but we left them in almost complete isolation to minimise the risk of cannibalism.

"Thankfully this approach has proved successful and all three hoglets are now seven weeks old and ready to be released back to the wild with their mother."

James Thomson, proprietor of the Prestonfield Hotel, admitted staff had been surprised by the delivery, but said: "The wellbeing of all our visitors to Prestonfield is of the utmost importance to us and so we are all really thrilled to hear that both mother and all three hoglets are healthy and are now ready to be released back home.

"We are just glad that they checked in and enjoyed a little five-star luxury along the way."

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/131746-hedgehog-triplets-born-in-five-star-luxury/

Polar bear patrol escorts Hudson Bay trick-or-treaters

October 29, 2009
By Chinta Puxley, THE CANADIAN PRESS

CHURCHILL, Man. - Most trick-or-treaters are well-versed in Halloween safety: travel in groups, wear colourful clothing and only stop at brightly lit homes.

The drill is slightly different, however, for kids in a remote Manitoba town on Hudson Bay.

Youngsters in Churchill are warned not to dress in furry white costumes, to steer clear of baited traps stuffed with seal meat and to listen for the tell-tale sound of fireworks.

That's because these candy-seekers have more to worry about than ghosts and goblins. They need to avoid a different kind of predator on Halloween - the polar bear.

In Churchill - known as the polar bear capital of the world - Halloween falls smack in the middle of the busiest time for the iconic mammals. The bears are restlessly wandering around as they wait for cooler temperatures so they can head out onto the frozen winter ice.

Add to that streets crawling with about 300 trick-or-treaters and their tasty bags of treats. The combination could be deadly.

But Conservation, Parks Canada and RCMP officers have ensured everyone's safety for the last 40 Halloweens and this year is no different. Thirty of them will encircle the town and keep an eye on youngsters going door to door.

"It's a precautionary measure because the polar bear is a predatory animal," said Const. Mike Boychuk. "Our main goal is to have a safe community whether it be from humans or from bears."

School children get a visit from the polar bear patrol team to go over safety tips. On the day of Halloween, several conservation officers take to the sky in a helicopter to see if there are any bears nearby. As dusk descends, Mountie patrol cars and other emergency vehicles are parked around the town's perimeter with their lights flashing.

Other units patrol the town of about 1,000 and also look out for bears, while about half a dozen bear traps baited with seal meat are set up.

If a bear is spotted, said conservation officer Andrew Szklaruk, he and his colleagues are called in to shoo it away.

"We'll use our trucks, our horns sometimes and also 12-gauge shotguns with cracker shells and rubber bullets at times," said Szklaruk. "Our cracker shells are pretty much like fireworks. They're launched from the 12-gauge shotgun, go out about 200 feet and explode making a large bang."

That kind of ruckus is usually enough to make a bear think twice about entering the town, Szklaruk said.

But if the animal persists, a tranquillizer dart is used and the bear is carted off to "polar bear jail" - holding cells where the bear is isolated until it is released back into the wild.

The precautions seem to work. Few can recall a polar bear actually breaching the town's perimeter on Halloween since the program started in the 1960s.

The last deadly attack in Churchill didn't even occur on October's spooky night, but in 1983 when a resident who was scavenging packages of ground beef from a burned-out hotel ran into a bear in a dark alley.

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence said the evening bear patrol has become routine, both for parents and their children.

Kids know not to dress up like polar bears or anything resembling a white furry beast for fear of sparking a false alarm. They are told to stay away from bear traps and to never follow any large bear-claw footprints in the snow.

But living side-by-side with the predators is nothing new for these kids and their parents, Spence said.

"The children are always alert."

-By Chinta Puxley in Winnipeg

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2009/10/29/11568001-cp.html