Killer whales seen in river Clyde

Pod of orcas spotted between Dunoon and Gourock, thought to be hunting seals or porpoises

Matthew Taylor

Sun 22 Apr 2018 14.32 BSTLast modified on Mon 23 Apr 2018 00.55 BST

A pod of killer whales has been spotted in the river Clyde apparently hunting seals or porpoises.

Images and videos have been posted on social media over the weekend of about half a dozen killer whales, or orcas, between Dunoon and Gourock.

Lindsay Moss was on a Western Ferries service on Saturday when they made an appearance. Her footage shows three orcas, including what appears to be a youngster, rising to the surface before disappearing again.

Orcas are sociable animals that travel in groups of up to 50. Although they are frequently seen near Arran in the Firth of Clyde, they have not been regular visitors to the upper Clyde for many years, experts say.

It is thought they were attracted to the area due to its abundance of food – porpoises and seals.

In the UK, killer whales are seen most regularly around the Shetland and Orkney islands.

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World’s newest great ape threatened by Chinese dam

The discovery of the Tapanuli orangutan has not stopped a Chinese state-run company from clearing forest for a planned dam. Conservationists fear this will be the beginning of the end for a species only known for six months

Jeremy Hance

Mon 23 Apr 2018 08.13 BSTLast modified on Mon 23 Apr 2018 15.18 BST

Last November scientists made a jaw-dropping announcement: they’d discovered a new great ape hiding in plain sight, only the eighth inhabiting our planet. 

The Tapanuli orangutan survives in northern Sumatra and it is already the most endangered great ape in the world; researchers estimate less than 800 individuals survive. But the discovery hasn’t stopped a Chinese state-run company, Sinohydro, from moving ahead with clearing forest for a large dam project smack in the middle of the orangutan population. According to several orangutan experts, Sinohyrdo’s dam represents an immediate and existential threat to the Tapanuli orangutan. 

“Building the dam means chopping the orangutan population in half,” Erik Meijaard, the director of Borneo Futures and one of the experts to describe Pongo tapanuliensis, said. “You end up with two smaller populations, and these will have much reduced chances of survival, because a small population is more likely to go extinct than a large one.”

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This Contorted Mystery Squid May Be the 'Most Bizarre' Ever Seen

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | April 20, 2018 11:57am ET

"There's a challenge for you — what is THAT?"

Unusual deep-sea creatures seen for the first time can sometimes stump even a seasoned expert in marine biology. And in a recent video of an ocean dive in the Gulf of Mexico, an expert's off-camera exclamation revealed his surprised response to the appearance of a squid that had contorted itself into such a peculiar shape that it barely resembled a squid at all.

On April 17, the inverted, folded-up squid made its on-screen debut for the cameras of an expedition submersible. Its posture was so peculiar that Mike Vecchione, a research zoologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), dubbed the contorted cephalopod "the most bizarre squid I've ever seen." [Gallery: Exploring the Gulf of Mexico]

The dive was part of an ocean exploration mission to investigate deep-sea habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. The expedition is being conducted by the NOAA research vessel Okeanos Explorer and is taking place from April 11 through May 3.

From aboard Okeanos, scientists send deep-diving remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to capture high-resolution video of marine communities and to map the geography of habitats on the bottom of the ocean. Okeanos researchers share frequent updates from the dives, including photos and video, posting them on the mission's website.

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Why freeloader baby-eating ants are welcomed to the colony

Chemical weaponry likely explanation for open-door policy, study finds

Date:  April 23, 2018

Source:  Ohio State University

Summary:

It might seem surprising that a colony of ants would tolerate the type of guests that gobble both their grub and their babies. But new research shows there's likely a useful tradeoff to calmly accepting these parasite ants into the fold: They have weaponry that's effective against their host ants and a more menacing intruder ant.

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Museum researchers rediscover animal not seen in 30 years

San Quintin kangaroo rat found in Baja California will be subject of a conservation plan

Date:  April 19, 2018

Source:  San Diego Natural History Museum

Summary:

Researchers from the San Diego Natural History Museum (The Nat) and the non-profit organization Terra Peninsular A.C. have rediscovered the San Quintin kangaroo rat (Dipodomys gravipes) in Baja California; the Museum is partnering with the organization and local authorities on a conservation plan for the species.

The San Quintin kangaroo rat was last seen in 1986, and was listed as endangered by the Mexican government in 1994. It was held as an example of modern extinction due to agricultural conversion. In the past few decades, San Quintin, which lies 118 miles south of Ensenada, has become a major agricultural hub, converting huge areas of native habitat into fields and hot houses for tomatoes and strawberries.

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New DNA screening reveals whose blood the vampire bat is drinking

Date:  April 20, 2018

Source:  Faculty of Science - University of Copenhagen

Summary:

The vampire bat prefers to feed on domestic animals such as cows and pigs. When it does so, there is a risk of transmission of pathogens. Now, a new study describes a new DNA method to efficiently screen many vampire bat blood meal and fecal samples with a high success rate and thereby determine which animals the vampire bats have fed on blood from.

     

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New ant species from Borneo explodes to defend its colony

Date:  April 19, 2018

Source:  Pensoft Publishers

Summary:

When their colony is threatened by an intruder, workers of a newly discovered species of ant can actually tear their own body apart, in order to release toxins and either kill or hold off the enemy. The new species is the first of the so-called 'exploding ants' to be described since 1935.

Amongst the countless fascinating plants and animals inhabiting the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia, there are the spectacular "exploding ants," a group of arboreal, canopy dwelling ants nicknamed for their unique defensive behaviour.

When threatened by other insects, minor workers can actively rupture their body wall. Apart from leading to the ants' imminent death, the "explosion" releases a sticky, toxic liquid from their enlarged glands, in order to either kill or hold off the enemy.

Curiously enough, while these ants' peculiar behaviour was first mentioned in distant 1916, no new species have been formally described since 1935, due to insufficient evidence. Instead, scientists used to simply refer to them as the members of a remarkable species group -- Colobopsis cylindrica, better known as "the exploding ants."

That was until an interdisciplinary research team from Austria, Thailand and Brunei came together led by their shared fascination with these insects and their extraordinary mechanism of self-sacrifice (also called autothysis) in 2014. Thus, entomologists, botanists, microbiologists, and chemists from the Natural History Museum Vienna, Technical University Vienna, IFA Tulln and Universiti Brunei Darussalam together identified roughly 15 separate species of exploding ants, with one of them now described as new to science in the open access journal ZooKeys.

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Five new blanket-hermit crab species described 130 years later from the Pacific

Since 1888, a lone crab species living in an extraordinary symbiosis has been considered to be one of its kind

Date:  April 23, 2018

Source:  Pensoft Publishers

Summary:

Unlike most hermit crabs, the blanket-hermit crab does not use empty shells for protection, and instead lives symbiotically with a sea anemone. The crab uses the anemone to cover its soft abdomen, and can pull the anemone's tissue over its head to protect itself whenever necessary. Since 1888, this crab had been considered a unique species until a research team recently described five new ones and a new genus.

At the turn of the twentieth century, two independent marine scientists -- JR Henderson in 1888, and A Alcock in 1899, described two unusual blanket-hermit crabs from the Indo-West Pacific.

Unlike other hermit crabs, these extraordinary crustaceans do not search for empty shells to settle in for protection. Instead, they have developed a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones to cover their soft bellies. To do this, the crabs use highly specialized chelipeds to pull back and forth the anemone's tissue to cover their soft bodies and heads whenever necessary -- much like hiding under a blanket.

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Unprecedented wave of large-mammal extinctions linked to prehistoric humans

Date:  April 19, 2018

Source:  University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Summary:

Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and other recent human relatives may have begun hunting large mammal species down to size -- by way of extinction -- at least 90,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study. The magnitude and scale of the extinction wave surpassed any other recorded during the last 66 million years, according to the study.

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Bottlenose dolphins recorded for the first time in Canadian Pacific waters

Date:  April 19, 2018

Source:  BioMed Central

A large group of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) have been spotted in Canadian Pacific waters -- the first confirmed occurrence of the species in this area. The sighting is reported in a study published in the open access journal Marine Biodiversity Records.

On 29 July 2017, researchers from Halpin Wildlife Research, in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canada and the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Canada, observed a group of approximately 200 common bottlenose dolphins and roughly 70 false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens). The sighting occurred off the west coast of northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada and may be the northern most recording for this species in the eastern North Pacific.

Luke Halpin, lead author of the paper, said: 'It is surprising to find a warm-water dolphin in British Columbian waters, and especially to find such a large number of common bottlenose dolphins within the group."

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First genetic evidence of ongoing mating between 2 distinct species of guenon monkeys

Monkeys see, monkeys do cross species boundary

Date:  April 23, 2018

Source:  Florida Atlantic University

Summary:

A new study of guenon monkeys in Gombe National Park is the first to provide genetic evidence of ongoing mating between two distinct species. These monkeys have successfully been producing hybrid offspring for hundreds maybe even thousands of years. Prior studies have suggested that the different physical characteristics of these monkeys keeps them from interbreeding. So, if their faces don't match, they shouldn't be mating, right? Wrong, according to this latest evidence.

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'Environmental DNA' used to identify killer whales in Puget Sound

Date:  April 23, 2018

Source:  Oregon State University

Summary:

When endangered killer whales swim through the sheltered waters of Puget Sound, they leave behind traces of "environmental DNA" that researchers can detect as much as two hours later, a new study has found.

The findings, published today in the journal Frontiers, are surprising and significant. They not only provide a new non-invasive way to study whales, they may help scientists locate cetacean species that are known but have rarely been detected -- including certain beaked whales.

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How cheetahs outsmart lions and hyenas

Serengeti study shows that cheetahs use situation-dependent methods of protecting their hunted prey from larger predators

Date:  April 10, 2018

Source:  Springer

Cheetahs in the Serengeti National Park adopt different strategies while eating to deal with threats from top predators such as lions or hyenas. A new study in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology shows that male cheetahs and single females eat their prey as quickly as possible. Mothers with cubs, on the other hand, watch out for possible threats while their young are eating in order to give them enough time to eat their fill. The research was led by Anne Hilborn of Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment in the US.

Cheetahs are medium-sized carnivores that live alongside large carnivores such as lions and spotted hyenas. These large carnivores are known to not only attack cheetah cubs, but also steal prey in an act called kleptoparasitism. Cheetahs do not have the strength to haul their kills up trees to keep them safe from scavengers as a leopard does, nor can they physically defend themselves against a lion. They therefore tend to hunt when larger predators are away or less active. Hilborn and her colleagues studied 35 years of observations from more than 400 hunts involving 159 cheetahs in the Serengeti in northern Tanzania to find out how cheetah behavior while eating is altered by threats from larger predators.

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Brain activity of free-flying bats

Date:  April 10, 2018

Source:  Johns Hopkins University

Summary:

Researchers have developed a way to study the brain of a bat as it flies, recording for the first time what happens as a roving animal focuses and refocuses its attention.

Johns Hopkins University researchers have developed a way to study the brain of a bat as it flies, recording for the first time what happens as a roving animal focuses and refocuses its attention.

This groundbreaking advance allows us to see what happens in the brains of naturally behaving animals, uninhibited by laboratory constraints. Because bats share the same basic brain structure as all mammals, including humans, the achievement, published today in the journal eLife, deepens our understanding of what happens in the brain as we move through the world.

"If you want to understand how the brain operates in the real world, you have to have the animal moving through the world in a natural way," said co-author Melville Wohlgemuth, a postdoctoral fellow. "This idea of recording the brain without wires is brand new. And no one has used it to understand how an animal senses the world and reacts to that information."

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Most primitive kangaroo ancestor rediscovered after 30 years in obscurity

Date:  April 11, 2018

Source:  Uppsala University

A handful of tiny teeth have led scientists to identify the most distant ancestor of today's kangaroos. The fossils were found in the desert heart of Australia, and then hidden away, and almost forgotten in a museum collection for over three decades. The findings are published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Kangaroos are icons of Australia's unique living fauna. However, their earliest ancestry is shrouded in mystery. At the beginning of the 1980's, a few enigmatic molar teeth were excavated by palaeontologists hunting for fossils around a dry salt lake in northern South Australia. The rare specimens were recognised as an ancient kangaroo ancestor, but had to wait for over 30 years before modern computer-based analyses could confirm the significance of the discovery.

Originally dubbed Palaeopotorous priscus, Latin for '[very] ancient', 'ancient rat-kangaroo', by the now eminent Australian palaeontologists Prof. Tim Flannery (University of Melbourne) and Dr Tom Rich (Museums Victoria), the importance of these remains was suggested in their first unveiling to science.

"The teeth of Palaeopotorous were initially described in 1986. Even then they were stated as representing possibly the most primitive relative of the entire modern kangaroo radiation. Yet, nobody ever evaluated this claim, and despite being occasionally mentioned in the scientific literature, they were never again examined in detail," said Dr Wendy den Boer, who studied the fossils as part of her recently awarded PhD from Uppsala University in Sweden.

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Wildlife haven of Sulawesi much younger than first thought, according to new research

Date:  April 11, 2018

Source:  University of Oxford

Summary:

New research has shed light on the origins of some of South East Asia's most iconic and unique wildlife; the 'deer-pig' (Sulawesi Babirusa), 'warty pig' and the 'miniature buffalo.' In doing so, the research has revealed that Sulawesi, the island paradise where they were discovered, is younger than previously thought.

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A new hope: One of North America's rarest bees has its known range greatly expanded

Date:  April 16, 2018

Source:  Pensoft Publishers

The Macropis Cuckoo Bee is one of the rarest bees in North America, partly because of its specialized ecological associations. It is a nest parasite of oil-collecting bees of the genus Macropis which, in turn, are dependent on oil-producing flowers of the genus Lysimachia.

In fact, the cuckoo bee -- which much like its feather-bearing counterpart does not build a nest of its own, but lays its eggs in those of other species instead -- is so rare that it was thought to have gone extinct until it was collected in Nova Scotia, Canada, in the early 2000s. As a result, the Macropis Cuckoo Bee was brought to the attention of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

Recently, an individual reported from Alberta, Canada, brought new hope for the survival of the species. In addition to previously collected specimens from Ontario, this record greatly expands the known range of the cuckoo.

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More than 12,000 marine creatures uncovered during West Java deep-sea exploration

Over a dozen new species of crabs, prawns and lobsters discovered; over 40 new records for Indonesia

Date:  April 17, 2018

Source:  National University of Singapore

Despite a stormy start thanks to Cyclone Marcus, scientists who participated in the South Java Deep Sea Biodiversity Expedition 2018 (SJADES 2018) had collected more than 12,000 creatures during their 14-day voyage to survey the unexplored deep seas off the southern coast of West Java, Indonesia.

The expedition team, consisting 31 researchers and support staff, were led by Professor Peter Ng, Head of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum of the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Professor Dwi Listyo Rahayu, Senior Research Scientist at the Research Center for Oceanography (RCO) of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). The NUS research team comprises scientists from the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and the Tropical Marine Science Institute.

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Competition between males improves resilience against climate change

Date:  April 18, 2018

Source:  Queen Mary University of London

Animal species with males who compete intensively for mates might be more resilient to the effects of climate change, according to research by Queen Mary University of London.

Moths exposed to increasing temperatures were found to produce more eggs and have better offspring survival when the population had more males competing for mating opportunities (three males for every female).

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that sexual selection can provide a buffer against climate change and increase adaptation rates within a changing environment. This could improve understanding of how changing environments might affect animal species in both natural and agricultural systems.

PhD student and lead author Jon Parrett from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences said: "Climate change is altering environments all over the world in a variety of ways, with increases in temperature of several degrees being likely in many places. It is vitally important that we understand how animal populations will respond to these changing environments. Our study is the first to look at how sexual selection affects an animal population's ability to respond to gradual increases in temperature."

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Declining central American frog species are bouncing back

Date:  April 11, 2018

Source:  Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Summary:

For more than 40 years, frog populations around the world have been declining. Now, a new study reports that some Central American frog species are recovering, perhaps because they have better defenses against a deadly fungal pathogen.

For more than 40 years, frog populations around the world have been declining. Now, a new study reports that some Central American frog species are recovering, perhaps because they have better defenses against a deadly fungal pathogen.

"It's a hopeful, optimistic chapter," said Louise Rollins-Smith, PhD, associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, and a co-author of a study recently published in the journal Science.

A collaborative group of investigators at multiple institutions showed that the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis continues to be as lethal now as it was more than 10 years ago. The antimicrobial defenses produced by frog skin, however, appear to be more effective than they were before the fungal epidemic began.

Rollins-Smith and her colleagues began studying how frogs combat B. dendrobatidis in Panama in 2004. For several years, Douglas Woodhams, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow on her team, and laboratory manager Laura Reinert made multiple trips to Central America to collect samples of frog skin secretions.

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Animal images used in marketing may skew public perception about their survival risks

Date:  April 12, 2018

Source:  Oregon State University

Many of the world's most charismatic animal species -- those that attract the largest interest and deepest empathy from the public -- are at high risk of extinction in part because many people believe their iconic stature guarantees their survival.

A new international study published today in PLOS Biologysuggests that the popularity of tigers, lions, polar bears and others may actually contribute to the species' downfall.

The researchers used a combination of online surveys, school questionnaires, zoo websites and animated films to identify the 10 most charismatic animals. The top three were tigers, lions and elephants, followed by giraffes, leopards, pandas, cheetahs, polar bears, gray wolves and gorillas.

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Chimps Seen Sucking Brains from Monkeys' Heads

By Mindy Weisberger, Senior Writer | April 12, 2018 12:28pm ET

Chimpanzees are primarily plant eaters, though they enthusiastically eat animals when they can catch them, and monkeys are an especially desirable treat. But once the snack is in hand — and with so many delicious body parts to choose from — which do the predatory primates eat first?

Wonder no longer. Scientists have discovered that it all depends on the age of the unfortunate prey.

Researchers recently filmed chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in Tanzania's Gombe National Park excitedly munching on monkeys, hoping to learn more about the chimps' carnivorous eating habits. Whenever older monkeys were on the menu, chimps tended to initially harvest the organs — particularly the liver, which is rich in fat, the scientists reported in a new study.

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Last of the wild asses back from the brink

By Helen Briggs BBC News

Wild asses are returning to the grasslands of Kazakhstan where they once roamed in large numbers.

The equine animals, known as kulans, are native to the area but have been pushed to the brink of extinction by illegal hunting and loss of habitat.

Conservationists have started reintroducing the horses to their natural landscape.

This month, more kulan were released in the Altyn Dala nature reserve to establish a fourth population.

The project is being organised by the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK).

Sergey Sklyarenko said reintroduction started in a reserve on an island in the Aral Sea with fewer than 20 animals.

"We have got to now about 4,000 kulans in three wild populations," he said.

"The creation of a fourth population will allow to provide new areas for the species and increase its sustainability."

The wild asses were captured in the Altyn Emel National Park in the autumn.

The population there has reached about 3,000 individuals, but there is little potential for future growth.

The kulans were moved to a centre at Alytn Dala in Central Kazakhstan, where they were kept in captivity over the winter to allow them to bond and adjust to local conditions.

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Unlocking the mystery of how insects got their wings

Hundreds of millions of years ago, two tissues fused to form wings on ancient beetles, according to the findings of a genetic experiment

Asher Elbein 

Beetle wings are often hidden. Nestled behind armoured shields on the beetle’s back, they unfurl in whirring sheets, whisking their clumsy owners from danger. Beetles don’t have more than two sets of wings – unless they’re in Yoshinori Tomoyasu’s lab.

In research recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Tomoyasu and his co-author, David Linz, genetically engineered beetle larvae with wings on their abdomens, part of an attempt to unpack one of evolution’s greatest mysteries: how insects gained the ability to fly.

Insects took to the empty skies sometime between 300 million and 360 million years ago, long before birds, bats or pterosaurs. Wings allowed them to conquer new habitats and ecological niches, and insecta quickly established themselves as one of the most diverse and successful animal classes, a position they still hold today.

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