Unprecedented display of concern and 'consolation' toward an unknown monkey offers hope for endangered macaques

JULY 10, 2019

by University of Oxford

A wild group of endangered Barbary macaques have been observed, for the first time, "consoling" and adopting an injured juvenile from a neighbouring group. The observations by a scientist from Oxford University and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (ifaw) are published today in the journal Primates.

'Pipo', a nearly three-year-old juvenile, was seriously injured and became separated from his group following a road traffic accident.

He was found distressed and alone two days later by a neighbouring Barbary macaque group. Although these monkeys had no social relationship with Pipo, they approached, groomed and affiliated with him, and accepted him into their group. Pipo made a full recovery and stayed with them for four months until returning to his own group.

The observation in Ifrane National Park in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco—one of the Barbary macaque's last remaining areas of habitation—provides valuable information and offers hope to researchers and local communities who are trying to safeguard and boost the endangered species, which is under threat following habitat loss and poaching.

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Secrets of a sex-changing fish revealed

JULY 10, 2019

by La Trobe University

We may take it for granted that the sex of an animal is established at birth and doesn't change.

However, about 500 species of fish change sex in adulthood, often in response to environmental cues. How these fish change sex has, until now, been a mystery.

The secrets of fish that change sex have, for the first time, been revealed by an international collaboration led by New Zealand scientists and including La Trobe University geneticist and Prime Minister's Prize for Science winner 2017, Professor Jenny Graves. The findings were published today in the prestigious journal, Science Advances.

"I've followed the bluehead wrasse for years because sex change is so quick and is triggered by a visual cue," Professor Graves said.

"How sex can reverse so spectacularly has been a mystery for decades. The genes haven't changed, so it must be the signals that turn them off and on."

Bluehead wrasses live in groups, on coral reefs of the Caribbean. A dominant male—with a blue head—protects a harem of yellow females. If the male is removed, the biggest female becomes male—in just 10 days. She changes her behaviour in minutes, her colour in hours. Her ovary becomes a testis and by 10 days it is making sperm.

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Wildlife service withdraws request for approval to dump rat poison on Farallon Islands

JULY 11, 2019

by Laura Newberry, Rosanna Xia

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday withdrew its request that the California Coastal Commission sanction its controversial mouse eradication proposal on the Farallon Islands.

Following nearly two hours of testimony from the federal agency and conservationists, several commissioners seemed poised to vote against the project, which would involve scattering 1.5 tons of rat poison pellets over the islands, which lie just 27 miles from the San Francisco coast.

"We haven't been convinced this is the best and only way to go," said Commission Chair Dayna Bochco.

Fish and wildlife biologists say they must drop a powerful rodenticide on the islands in order to kill tens of thousands of invasive house mice they say are wreaking havoc on a fragile ecosystem.

The federal government does not require the express permission of the Coastal Commission in order to go ahead with its plan. However, the body's approval would help bolster public supportand potentially stave off litigation.

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Small horned dinosaur from China, a Triceratops relative, walked on two feet

JULY 12, 2019

by University of Pennsylvania

Many dinosaur species are known from scant remains, with some estimates suggesting 75% are known from five or fewer individuals. Auroraceratops rugosus was typical in this regard when it was named in 2005 based upon a single skull from the Gobi Desert in northwestern China. But that is no longer the case.

In the intervening years, scientists have recovered fossils from more than 80 individual Auroraceratops, bringing this small-bodied plant-eater into the ranks of the most completely known dinosaurs. It is now one of the few very early horned dinosaurs known from complete skeletons. In a collection of articles appearing as Memoir 18 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology this week, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Gansu Agricultural University, and other institutions describe the anatomy, age, preservation, and evolution of this large collection of Auroraceratops.

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Study finds severely disturbed habitats have impacted health of Madagascar's critically endangered lemurs

JULY 10, 2019

by Tom Parisi, Northern Illinois University

A new study led by Mitch Irwin and Karen Samonds of Northern Illinois University finds that degraded rainforest habitats are having an unhealthy impact on at least one species of Madagascar's treasured lemurs, the most endangered mammal group in the world.

Irwin, Samonds and other research team members captured, measured and released 113 critically endangered diademed sifakas over the course of 19 years. They then compared the health of the animals living in intact continuous rainforest versus those in habitats disturbed and fragmented by human encroachment.

Working with a veterinarian to ensure animal safety, the scientists recorded the body mass, length and body condition of the stunning silken-furred primates, which grow to be roughly a meter in length and weigh in at about 6.5 kilograms. The results actually revealed that sifakas in some fragmented rainforest environments were doing fine—their bodies were identical to those animals in the richest environments.

But significant differences were found in the two most disturbed habitats.

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