New Zealand announces huge new marine preserve

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

by Brett Smith

In a surprise move, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key announced plans to establish a marine preserve nearly the size of Texas in an area of the South Pacific.

Called the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, the marine preserve would sit north of the New Zealand mainland and include both an archipelago and underwater volcanoes. The sanctuary would ban both fishing and resource extraction within its borders.

“The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will be one of the world’s largest and most significant fully-protected areas, preserving important habitats for seabirds, whales and dolphins, endangered marine turtles and thousands of species of fish and other marine life,” Key said in a press release.

The preserve will be officially established after legislation is passed, expected to happen sometime next year.

If established, the preserve would include the 6.2-mile deep Kermadec trench, one of the deepest trenches in the world. The trench is known to have a rich biodiversity, including whales, sea lions, endangered turtles, and sea birds. In addition to helping conserve protect species, Key said the move would also benefit New Zealand economically.

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Could this ancient flea harbor ancestors of the bubonic plague?

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

by Savanna Walker

Here's hoping no one goes Jurassic Park on this and unleashes prehistoric Black Death upon us all. Scientists from Oregon State University have found a 20 million year old flea, fossilized in amber, and surrounded by bacteria that they believe may be the ancestors of the Black Death.

George Poinar, Jr., an entomologist and expert on life forms preserved in amber, published the findings in the Journal of Medical Entomology. The fossilized flea was found in amber mines from the Dominican Republic, an area which was a tropical forest millions of years ago. Very few fleas have been found in amber, and none have had associated bacteria.

It’s not certain yet that the bacteria are Yersinia pestis, but their size, shape, and characteristics are similar to modern forms of the disease. They come in both rod and spherical shapes, and Yersinia is the only pathogenic bacteria transmitted by fleas that evidences both forms. Also, the location of the bacteria in both the rectum and proboscis of the flea is consistent with how Yersinia is transmitted today.

Uh wait, does this mean evolution is wrong?

However, modern genomic studies date the flea-plague-vertebrate cycle as evolving only 20,000 years ago, far more recent than the 20 million-year-old flea fossil. If these microbes are actually Yersinia pestis, it would mean that the disease actually predates humans and the previous dates given for its evolution are wrong.

There are several strains of Yersinia pestis, and some past outbreaks of the disease were probably caused by strains that are now extinct. Poinar believes that ancient forms of the disease could have been strictly rodent parasites.

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Global swarming: invasion of the daddy long-legs on the way thanks to Britain's warmer weather

The world's most stupidest creatures are set to invade British homes as chilly nights leave them looking for shelter

By Leon Watson

9:49AM BST 01 Oct 2015

They are perhaps the world's stupidest creatures - they blunder around breaking their legs and they're perfectly happy to dance around a flame.

Yet it may send a shiver down your spine to hear that experts predict an explosion in the number of crane flies this month.

The insects, Tipula paludosa, better known as the daddy-long-legs, have been emerging earlier than usual because of recent warm weather.

And, as the nights get colder, they are expected to start invade homes looking for shelter.

Entomologist Barry Warrington, from Hull, said: "It is definitely a bumper year this year, simply due to the nice weather.

"It has not been as cold, there is a lot more for them to prey on.

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Two ex-circus lions from Bulgaria have been released into Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa, the Born Free Foundation has reported.

Jora and Black’s started their 10,500 mile journey ‘home’ ,from a halfway house in central Bulgaria to Bourgas Airport on the Black Sea coast, late on Friday, 25th September. From there they were flown by Thomson Airways to London’s Gatwick Airport where legendary actress and Born Free co-founder, Virginia McKenna OBE, was waiting to give them a warm welcome.

Virginia said: “Born Free has successfully moved many captive animals but each occasion is unique in its own way. I am really happy to have seen these two lions at Gatwick before they head to their African homeland. I hope their story will inspire people to treat wild animals with respect and understanding, and never subject them to totally inappropriate existences in captivity. Jora and Black are flagship animals for the ending of all wild animals in circuses. Let all countries follow Bulgaria’s example.”

Jora and Black then travelled by road, in approved quarantine vehicles operated by JCS Livestock, to London’s Heathrow Airport where they were carefully prepared for the longest leg of their journey - a flight to Johannesburg International Airport. Much-loved Coronation Street actress Helen Worth, who launched the successful appeal for Jora and Black’s rescue in July and has been closely following their progress, took the opportunity to wish the brothers a fond farewell as they left the UK.

Helen said: “It is so exciting to see Jora and Black on the move to their wonderful new home. They are absolutely stunning animals and I feel really privileged to have had a chance to see them close up and on their way. I love Shamwari Game Reserve and I know they will have a lovely home there.”

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Buzz kill: Killer bees invade San Francisco for first time

OCTOBER 1, 2015

by Chuck Bednar

An Africanized type of honeybees referred to as “killer bees” has been spotted in the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time, as researchers from the University of California-San Diego have reported spotting the insects near Briones Regional Park in the city of Lafayette.

According to CBS News and the San Francisco Chronicle, killer bees had only previously been observed as far north as Mariposa County in the more inland Central Valley area, but the insects may have been attracted to the Bay Area because of warming temperatures in the region.

It is unclear how many of the bees, which earned their nickname because of their tendency to swarm and become aggressive when their colony is threatened, have found their way to the San Francisco region. However, the UCSD team believes it is likely that there are multiple colonies of the honeybees, which are hybrids of the European bee and the African bee.

“The sampling is a little sparse up north,” Joshua Kohn, a professor of biology at UC San Diego, told the Chronicle. “Normally honeybees forage within about a mile of their hive, though they can go up to about five miles. There is no way we found a member of the only Africanized bee colony in that region.”

Killer bees have a bad rep

Africanized honeybees can sting en masse when they sense a threat – which they can do from up to 50 feet away from their nests, according to a University of California fact sheet. The bees will pursue targets for at least one quarter of a mile, and although they could pose a threat to humans, Kohn said that San Francisco residents should not be overly concerned.

“An Africanized honeybee out foraging on flowers is no more aggressive than your average European honeybee,” Kohn told the newspaper. “Nor is the sting of an individual any different. It’s only when a hive is disturbed that the level of aggression from Africanized bees is elevated,” he added. In these cases, the bees tend to attack in greater numbers than their relatives.

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