Deer hunting given go ahead in ancient London woodland, sparking outrage

It means hunters will be able to shoot rifles in areas open to the public

 

Tom Embury-Dennis

Tuesday 29 November 2016

A decision to allow members of a private club free reign to shoot deer in an area of ancient woodland in London has sparked outrage.

The Capreolus Club says it has “exclusive rights” from the City of London to hunt deer in 2,000 acres of Epping Forest.

It means hunters will be able to shoot rifles in areas open to the public.

Anyone looking to kill large Fallow and Muntjac deer will be assessed by the club’s head stalker before being handed a gun and sent to a “suitable” area. 

A specialist is provided year round who can help members retrieve, disembowel and move dead deer to the club’s “chiller facility”.  

People living nearby reacted with outrage. On an online forum, local Robert Rust said: “What worries me are people hunting in Epping Forest ,which is public land, and someone getting hurt.”

Jo Stapleton wrote: “Have I missed something here? Am I right in saying there will be people with loaded guns in the forest??”

It costs £800-a-year to join the Capreolus Club, as well as a one-off £300 joining fee, according to its website.

A spokesperson for the City of London Corporation said: “Deer within Epping Forest are not subject to a cull.  

“The private contractor only has a license to carry out deer population control on the Buffer Lands, 1700 acres of farmland and woodland around the Forest.

“This takes place across strictly controlled areas of the Buffer Land at very specific periods prescribed by law.”

Source  

'Predator of the deep' or gentle giant?

By Helen Briggs BBC News


30 November 2016


Scientists say the giant manta ray, known as a gentle leviathan, is in fact a "predator of the deep" preying on fish and other animals.

The ray, which can grow up to 7m (23ft) across, was thought to feed on tiny floating animals at the surface.

New evidence shows much of the ray's diet is made up of food from the deep.

The finding raises questions about the future of the giant manta ray, which is listed as a vulnerable species.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the fish is likely to become endangered unless its survival chances improve.

Giant manta rays are known to feed on zooplankton drifting on the ocean surface, but a new study suggests the animals could also be getting their food from the depths.

"This was a big surprise," lead researcher Dr Katherine Burgess told BBC News.

"We sometimes see manta rays feeding in surface waters so have always assumed this is where they were getting most of their food from.

"But results from our latest study show that these are just snacking events, and their main source of diet comes from somewhere else - most likely the deep sea [below 200m (650ft)]."

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Study explains evolution phenomenon that puzzled Darwin

Date: November 30, 2016

Source: Northwestern University

Why do some animals have extravagant, showy ornaments -- think elk and deer antlers, peacock feathers and horns on dung beetles -- that can be a liability to survival? Charles Darwin couldn't figure it out, but now a Northwestern University research team has a possible explanation for this puzzling phenomenon of evolution.

The researchers developed a mathematical model that made a surprising prediction: In animals with ornamentation, males will evolve out of the tension between natural selection and sexual selection into two distinct subspecies, one with flashy, "costly" ornaments for attracting mates and one with subdued, "low-cost" ornaments.

"Ornamentation does persist in nature, and our quantitative model reveals that a species can split into two subspecies as a result of the ornamentation battle that occurs over time," said Daniel M. Abrams, an associate professor of engineering sciences and applied mathematics in the McCormick School of Engineering.



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New forecast tool helps ships avoid blue whale hotspots

Satellite tracking informs maps of blue whale density off West Coast 

 

Date:November 29, 2016

Source:NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region

Scientists have long used satellite tags to track blue whales along the West Coast, learning how the largest animals on the planet find enough small krill to feed on to support their enormous size.

Now researchers from NOAA Fisheries, Oregon State University and the University of Maryland have combined that trove of tracking data with satellite observations of ocean conditions to develop the first system for predicting locations of blue whales off the West Coast. The system, called WhaleWatch, produces monthly maps of blue whale "hotspots" to alert ships where there may be an increased risk of encountering these endangered whales.

NOAA Fisheries has begun publicly posting the maps on its West Coast Region website each month. A new scientific paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology describes the development of the WhaleWatch system and the methodology behind it.

"We're using the many years of tag data to let the whales tell us where they go, and under what conditions," said Elliott Hazen, a research ecologist at NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the new paper. "If we know what drives their hotspots we can more clearly assess different management options to reduce risk to the whales."

 

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Ants communicate by mouth-to-mouth fluid exchange

Date: November 29, 2016

Source: eLife

Liquids shared mouth-to-mouth by social insects contain proteins and small molecules that can influence the development and organisation of their colonies, according to new findings published in eLife.

The study from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, suggests Florida carpenter ants can collectively influence their communities by shifting the cocktail of proteins, hormones and other small molecules that they pass mouth-to-mouth to one another and their young through a process called trophallaxis.

"Food is passed to every adult and developing ant by trophallaxis. This creates a network of interactions linking every member of the colony," says senior author Laurent Keller, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution.

"A lot of researchers consider trophallaxis only as a means of food-sharing," adds Professor Richard Benton of the Center for Integrative Genomics, also a senior author of the study. "But trophallaxis occurs in other contexts, such as when an ant is reunited with a nest-mate after isolation. We therefore wanted to see if the fluid exchanged by trophallaxis contains molecules that allow ants to pass other chemical messages to each other, and not just food."

To answer this question, the team, led by first author and postdoctoral researcher Dr Adria LeBoeuf, analysed fluid from pairs of ants engaged in trophallaxis. Surprisingly, they identified a large number of proteins that appear to be involved in regulating the growth of ants, along with high levels of juvenile hormone, an important regulator of insect development, reproduction, and behaviour.



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