Angola
Luanda - A strange animal that caused panic among people at Luanda's Hoji-ya-Henda road, district of Rangel for about eight hours was eventually caught at 05 pm by a team from Fire Department, Angop learnt.
The panic started when the animal that had never been seen before was spotted on a Hoji-ya-Henda road tree.Due to its strange characteristics, the animal caused panic and traffic jam.
The animal is under care of the Fire Department.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Shennongjia releases micrographs of unknown animal's hair (via Chad Arment)
November 25, 2010
The Shengnongjia National Nature Reserve has released the micrographs of unknown animal hair on its website on Nov. 22.
The micrographs show that the hair of the unknown animal is very different from human hair and horse tail hair. Therefore, the exact origin of the hair is worth studying.
The micrographs that have been released are from the molecular lab under the Research Institute of Shennongjia National Nature Reserve. Using a microscope, Piao Jinlan, a researcher from the molecular lab, observed the unknown hair samples, which included black and light brown hair, and translucent cream-colored hair from the area where locals originally found the unknown hair.
She also used horse tail hair taken from a ski field located in southern Shennongjia and women's hair as references to compare her findings.
Researchers spent nearly half a day to compare the hairs and their observable internal structures and agreed that they cannot determine whether the unknown hair is human hair or horse tail hair.
Although Piao has been using and looking through microscopes for a long time, the microscopic images of this unknown animal hair still surprised her.
However, she believes that a further in-depth analysis is still needed, with more scientific technical means to make a qualitative conclusion. The local nature conservation sectors said they will not rule out adopting any openly suggested scientific identification methods in order to determine the source of the unknown animal hair as early as possible and to unveil the mystery of the unknown animal.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/7210877.html
The Shengnongjia National Nature Reserve has released the micrographs of unknown animal hair on its website on Nov. 22.
The micrographs show that the hair of the unknown animal is very different from human hair and horse tail hair. Therefore, the exact origin of the hair is worth studying.
The micrographs that have been released are from the molecular lab under the Research Institute of Shennongjia National Nature Reserve. Using a microscope, Piao Jinlan, a researcher from the molecular lab, observed the unknown hair samples, which included black and light brown hair, and translucent cream-colored hair from the area where locals originally found the unknown hair.
She also used horse tail hair taken from a ski field located in southern Shennongjia and women's hair as references to compare her findings.
Researchers spent nearly half a day to compare the hairs and their observable internal structures and agreed that they cannot determine whether the unknown hair is human hair or horse tail hair.
Although Piao has been using and looking through microscopes for a long time, the microscopic images of this unknown animal hair still surprised her.
However, she believes that a further in-depth analysis is still needed, with more scientific technical means to make a qualitative conclusion. The local nature conservation sectors said they will not rule out adopting any openly suggested scientific identification methods in order to determine the source of the unknown animal hair as early as possible and to unveil the mystery of the unknown animal.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/7210877.html
Chinese "Wild Man" Hair
Local people think hair of unidentified creature could be from "Wild Man"
Global Times
November 23 2010
The Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province has examined a strand of hair which it has not managed to identify, prompting local people to speculate that it may belong to the "Wild Man" – China's own Bigfoot.
Piao Jinlan, a researcher at the reserve, said that scientists need to continue their tests before they can identify the species.
The hair is said to be thicker than human hair and thinner than horsetail hair, and the reserve posted a photo on its website on November 22.
More than 400 people have claimed to have seen the half-man, half-ape "Wild Man" in the area in the last 100 years.
Witnesses describe the creature as walking upright, more than 2 meters tall and with grey, red or black hair all over its body.
An investigative team was set up in 2009 and started a large-scale search for the mysterious creature in Shennongjia this year.
http://china.globaltimes.cn/top-photo/2010-11/595939.html
Global Times
November 23 2010
The Shennongjia Nature Reserve in Hubei province has examined a strand of hair which it has not managed to identify, prompting local people to speculate that it may belong to the "Wild Man" – China's own Bigfoot.
Piao Jinlan, a researcher at the reserve, said that scientists need to continue their tests before they can identify the species.
The hair is said to be thicker than human hair and thinner than horsetail hair, and the reserve posted a photo on its website on November 22.
More than 400 people have claimed to have seen the half-man, half-ape "Wild Man" in the area in the last 100 years.
Witnesses describe the creature as walking upright, more than 2 meters tall and with grey, red or black hair all over its body.
An investigative team was set up in 2009 and started a large-scale search for the mysterious creature in Shennongjia this year.
http://china.globaltimes.cn/top-photo/2010-11/595939.html
Caterpillar fungus craze
THE alleys of the Chrysanthemum Village medicine market in Kunming, in south-western China, are oddly quiet. Few inspect the counters and jars filled with exotic salves and cures, from dried bats and lizards to caterpillar fungus. Prices have been shooting up, but demand from ordinary consumers is not keeping pace.
Residents of Kunming, like Chinese in other cities, have been fretting a lot about prices lately. Inflation is now running at a 25-month high, with food leading the charge. As for Chinese medicines, prices have risen between 50-300% in the past year. Notably, a speculative craze has gripped the market for caterpillar fungus. This unusual medicine, consisting of the remains of a caterpillar from which a thin fungus of similar length has sprouted, is said to be a powerful aphrodisiac and antidote to fatigue. It is dug up on the Tibetan plateau, to the concern of environmentalists.
In Chrysanthemum Village prices of caterpillar fungus, displayed in little bunches, run to more than 200 yuan ($30) a gram, close to the price of gold. The state news agency, Xinhua, says that elsewhere the medicine sells for 680 yuan a gram. An earthquake in April that struck a main producing area in Qinghai province is part of the reason, traders say. But speculative money in an economy awash with liquidity after two years of stimulus is surely at the root of it. Similar forces have driven up the prices for Chinese housing and artworks.
http://www.economist.com/node/17525802
Residents of Kunming, like Chinese in other cities, have been fretting a lot about prices lately. Inflation is now running at a 25-month high, with food leading the charge. As for Chinese medicines, prices have risen between 50-300% in the past year. Notably, a speculative craze has gripped the market for caterpillar fungus. This unusual medicine, consisting of the remains of a caterpillar from which a thin fungus of similar length has sprouted, is said to be a powerful aphrodisiac and antidote to fatigue. It is dug up on the Tibetan plateau, to the concern of environmentalists.
In Chrysanthemum Village prices of caterpillar fungus, displayed in little bunches, run to more than 200 yuan ($30) a gram, close to the price of gold. The state news agency, Xinhua, says that elsewhere the medicine sells for 680 yuan a gram. An earthquake in April that struck a main producing area in Qinghai province is part of the reason, traders say. But speculative money in an economy awash with liquidity after two years of stimulus is surely at the root of it. Similar forces have driven up the prices for Chinese housing and artworks.
http://www.economist.com/node/17525802
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Koalas as picky leaf-eaters
Ask the Eucalyptus connoisseurs
Koalas may be the pickiest marsupials around: They evolved to feed almost exclusively on the leaves of Eucalyptus trees, and they are highly selective when it comes to which species and even which individual trees they visit. When the furry leaf-eater settles on a particular tree, it relies on a number of factors, including taste, to make its selection. In a study published in the November issue of Ecology, a journal of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), researchers used koala feeding preferences to design a new method that could help ecologists and conservationists map habitats.
Ben Moore and colleagues from the Australian National University and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Scotland collected and analyzed leaves from all the trees available to koalas in a Eucalyptus woodland using a near-infrared spectroscopic model. To define "palatability" in koala terms, the researchers tested leaves on captive koalas and recorded how much they ate: They found that the koalas ate less foliage when it contained lots of lipid-soluble phenolic chemicals known as formylated phloroglucinol compounds (FPCs). The researchers then tracked koala tree visits in a Eucalyptus woodland to show that tree preferences of wild koalas could be predicted using the taste preferences of the captive koalas. The researchers also determined the chemical composition of the trees' leaves and other factors such as tree size and neighborhood quality, or how attractive each tree's neighbors were to koalas.
Specifically, koalas spend more time in large trees; however, the individual trees they prefer depend on the taste of the leaves and the "neighborhood" in which the tree is growing. Although tree size and taste are most important to the koalas, the researchers found that trees were visited more often if they were surrounded by smaller, less palatable trees or by larger, more palatable trees. Moore and colleagues explained that trees surrounded by smaller, unpalatable trees were probably more attractive by comparison. At the other extreme, trees surrounded by other large, palatable trees were visited more frequently because koalas were attracted to these high-quality areas.
"This method uses a new technique to combine our understanding of animal behavior with the chemical, spatial and physical aspects of the environment to make a map of koala habitat, as koalas see it," said Moore. "Our approach can aid ecologists in tracking and examining the presence or absence of animal populations in different areas—and it can measure plants' susceptibility to herbivory—by determining the quality and value of a habitat from the herbivore's point of view."
"Palatability mapping: a koala's eye view of spatial variation in habitat quality" from ESA's journal Ecology is open-access and available at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/09-1714.1.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/esoa-kap112310.php
Koalas may be the pickiest marsupials around: They evolved to feed almost exclusively on the leaves of Eucalyptus trees, and they are highly selective when it comes to which species and even which individual trees they visit. When the furry leaf-eater settles on a particular tree, it relies on a number of factors, including taste, to make its selection. In a study published in the November issue of Ecology, a journal of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), researchers used koala feeding preferences to design a new method that could help ecologists and conservationists map habitats.
Ben Moore and colleagues from the Australian National University and the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Scotland collected and analyzed leaves from all the trees available to koalas in a Eucalyptus woodland using a near-infrared spectroscopic model. To define "palatability" in koala terms, the researchers tested leaves on captive koalas and recorded how much they ate: They found that the koalas ate less foliage when it contained lots of lipid-soluble phenolic chemicals known as formylated phloroglucinol compounds (FPCs). The researchers then tracked koala tree visits in a Eucalyptus woodland to show that tree preferences of wild koalas could be predicted using the taste preferences of the captive koalas. The researchers also determined the chemical composition of the trees' leaves and other factors such as tree size and neighborhood quality, or how attractive each tree's neighbors were to koalas.
Specifically, koalas spend more time in large trees; however, the individual trees they prefer depend on the taste of the leaves and the "neighborhood" in which the tree is growing. Although tree size and taste are most important to the koalas, the researchers found that trees were visited more often if they were surrounded by smaller, less palatable trees or by larger, more palatable trees. Moore and colleagues explained that trees surrounded by smaller, unpalatable trees were probably more attractive by comparison. At the other extreme, trees surrounded by other large, palatable trees were visited more frequently because koalas were attracted to these high-quality areas.
"This method uses a new technique to combine our understanding of animal behavior with the chemical, spatial and physical aspects of the environment to make a map of koala habitat, as koalas see it," said Moore. "Our approach can aid ecologists in tracking and examining the presence or absence of animal populations in different areas—and it can measure plants' susceptibility to herbivory—by determining the quality and value of a habitat from the herbivore's point of view."
"Palatability mapping: a koala's eye view of spatial variation in habitat quality" from ESA's journal Ecology is open-access and available at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1890/09-1714.1.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/esoa-kap112310.php
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