Give endangered jaguars legal rights, Argentina campaigners ask court

With fewer than 20 left in the South American country’s Gran Chaco forest – the big cats could be classed as a ‘non-human person’

Uki Goñi in Buenos Aires

Fri 19 Jul 2019 19.28 BSTLast modified on Mon 22 Jul 2019 10.59 BST

Argentina’s supreme court has been asked to recognize the legal rights of the South American jaguar, of which fewer than 20 individuals remain alive in the country’s Gran Chaco region.

The largest cat in the Americas once roamed the continent as far north as the Grand Canyon, but is now in decline across the entire western hemisphere.

In Argentina, the speckled feline has been driven to the brink of extinction by the destruction of habitat to make way for soy plantations and cattle ranches.

Argentina’s National Parks Administration estimates that fewer than 250 are left alive in the country, and only 20 in the Gran Chaco region, a forest that has lost some 12m hectares (an area larger than Denmark) in the last 35 years.

On Friday, lawyers representing Greenpeace Argentina argued in the supreme court that the country should recognize the rights of the entire species.

“If the legal rights of inanimate corporations are recognized, why not the legal rights of a species of nature, which is very much alive,” said the group’s lawyer Enrique Viale.

A strong legal precedent was set in Argentina in 2016 when Argentina’s courts recognized a 29-year-old Sumatran orangutan held at the Buenos Aires zoo, named Sandra, as a “non-human person”.

Greenpeace Argentina is now seeking a similar status for the remaining jaguars in the Gran Chaco. “We now want recognition of the rights of the entire species,” Viale told the Guardian.

Continued

Scientists discover new species of dinosaur in Argentina

Palaeontologists shocked to find remains examples of herbivore living in what was likely a desert 

Tom Barnes

Palaeontologists have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown species of dinosaur that lived 110 million years ago in Argentina.

The remains of three separate members of the new species, an adult and two juveniles, were discovered by a team of Spanish and Argentinian scientists at a site in Neuquen in the centre of the South American country.

The new species, named Lavocatisaurus agrioensi, is a member of the herbivourous group of dinosaurs known as sauropods, which includes the likes of the diplodocus and brontosaurus.

Scientists said remains that belonged to the adult suggested it would have been around 12 metres in length, while both the young discovered were between six and seven metres long.

“We found most of the cranial bones: the snout, the jaws, a lot of teeth, also the bones that define the eye sockets for example and, in that way, we were able to create an almost complete reconstruction,” Jose Luis Carballido, a researcher at the Egidio Feruglio museum told Agence France-Presse.

“Not only is this the discovery of a new species in an area where you wouldn't expect to find fossils, but the skull is almost complete.”

Continued 

South American marsupials discovered to reach new heights

For the first time, scientists catch on camera a tiny marsupial climbing higher than previously thought in the forest canopy

Date: October 18, 2018

Source: Ecological Society of America

In the Andean forests along the border of Chile and Argentina, there have long been speculations that the mouse-sized marsupial monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) climbs to lofty heights in the trees. Yet, due to the lack of knowledge about the region's biodiversity in the forest canopies, no previous records exist documenting such arboreal habits for this creature.

Some tree-climbing researchers are changing that.

Javier Godoy-Güinao and colleagues set motion-sensing camera traps in the tree canopy to capture photographic evidence confirming the high-climbing theories surrounding this miniature mammal. The findings are published in a new study in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecosphere.

Read on

Nearly 50 dolphins die as 61 wash up on Argentinian beach ‘after being driven to the shore by killer whales’

Sixty-one short-beaked common dolphins found washed up in Puerto Madryn

According to authorities, 49 died on the coast of a Patagonian national park

Secretary of Protected Areas Nestor Garcia noted a killer whale increase nearby

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT 

By Iain Burns For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 11:03, 26 March 2018 | UPDATED: 11:25, 26 March 2018

More than 60 dolphins have been found stranded on a popular beach resort - and experts have said killer whales could be responsible.

Sixty-one short-beaked common dolphins were found washed up in Puerto Madryn, an Argentinian city in northern Patagonia.

According to local authorities, 49 of them died on the coast of the El Doradillo Protected Natural Area while 12 were returned to the sea alive.

Read more and see video :

Record number of whales counted in Argentina's Patagonia

October 19, 2017

Conservation groups say a record number of Southern right whales were counted this year in Argentina's Patagonia region.

Thousands of tourists have enjoyed watching the whales and their calves this season swimming near the shoreline of El Doradillo area.

The Whale Conservation Institute says 788 Southern right whales were counted in the region this year. It says that is the highest since records began to be registered in 1971.

Southern right whales migrate from their icy feeding grounds off Antarctica to warmer climates.

Many come to El Doradillo, on the coast of Golfo Nuevo in the Argentine Patagonia, to breed and nurse their young.

The tiny inlet on the Atlantic coast is one of the few places on Earth where the whales can be seen from shore.

Read more at: 

New analysis of rare Argentinian rat unlocks origin of the largest mammalian genome

July 12, 2017

New biological information gleaned from the red vizcacha rat, a native species of Argentina, demonstrates how genomes can rapidly change in size.

Researchers from McMaster University set out to study this particular species because its genome, or its complete set of DNA, is the largest of all mammals, and appears to have increased in size very rapidly.

The rat's genome is roughly two-and-a-half times as large as the human genome, including 102 chromosomes versus 46 for humans, and is about twice as large as one of its closest relatives, the mountain vizcacha rat. The most recent common ancestor of these species existed only about five million years ago.

"This genomic transformation is striking because it happened over a very short period of time in evolutionary terms," says Ben Evans, a biologist at McMaster and lead author of the new research published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.

The mechanism behind that growth has caused much debate among scientists, some of whom suggest the rapid expansion is due to whole genome duplication when its entire set of DNA doubles.

Whole genome duplication is relatively common in some groups such as plants—it occurred in ancestors of corn, tobacco, potatoes, and many other flowering plants, say researchers.

Others argue the rat's rapid genome expansion is due to repetitive DNA—bits of DNA that are repeated many times in a genome—coupled with chromosomal fissioning, a process where one chromosome divides into two or more over evolutionary time.

To settle the debate, researchers compared and contrasted genomic datasets from the red vizcacha rat and the mountain vizcacha rat.

Continued

Dolphin was 'already dead' when crowd in Argentina handled it – tourist

Hernan Coria says endangered dolphin was one of many which had washed up dead on Santa Teresita beach before crowd started taking selfies with it

Australian Associated Press

Friday 19 February 2016 07.13 GMT

One of the tourists who handed around a dolphin on an Argentinian beach claims it had died before people started taking selfies with it.

Footage appeared to show the small dolphin being scooped up and taken to land where it was surrounded by a gawking crowd. Reports said it quickly overheated and died when it was paraded along the beach so holidaymakers could take photos.

During the video shot at Santa Teresita beach, south of Buenos Aires, people can be heard saying “Take it to the water” and “Poor thing, don’t touch it.”

But a tourist, Hernan Coria, said the dolphin was one of many which had washed up dead on the beach.

“The water was very hot,” he told local news outlet Telefe Noticias. “It was full of jellyfish and people were not going in the water.

“Everything happened in five minutes. It was washed up already dead. They took it back to the water but it wouldn’t go back out.”

Coria said there was no lifeguard on duty to help and dead dolphins were also washing up on nearby beaches.

Continued ...

Baby dolphin dies after being paraded on beach for photographs

Wildlife group warns holidaymakers that the vulnerable mammals should be returned to sea if they get too close to shore after animal dies at Argentine resort

The dolphin died of suspected dehydration after being paraded around  Photo: Hernan Coria/CEN

By Chiara Palazzo

1:05AM GMT 18 Feb 2016

This is the moment when a baby dolphin was carried on to an Argentine beach for selfies, condemning it to death in the hot sun.

Hernan Coria 

Hernan Coria captured the incident in photographs as the crowd at the beach resort of Santa Teresita paraded the La Plata dolphin - also known as the Franciscana dolphin - around like a trophy.

The episode has caused the Wildlife Foundation in Argentina to publish a reminder about the vulnerable species, which is only present off the coast of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

"Recently photographs taken in Santa Teresita showing a group of people passing a dolphin around on dry land on two occasions have emerged. At least one of these animals has died.

"This incident should help the public understand the urgent need to return these dolphins to the sea when they get close to the shore."

Read on ...

Ancient snake skull found in Argentina could reveal why the reptiles have no legs

The research challenges the theory that snakes originally became limbless as they began to live in the sea

John von Radowitz

A fossilised snake skull found in Argentina may have solved the mystery of how the animals lost their legs.

Rather than shed them to become better swimmers as they began to inhabit aquatic environments, the skull, from 90 million years ago, suggests legs became an evolutionary disadvantage as the ancestors of modern snakes wriggled into increasingly narrow burrows in pursuit of prey.

The research challenges the theory that snakes originally became limbless as they began to live in the sea. The secret of the lost limbs was revealed by an examination of the inner ear of Dinilysia patagonica, a two-metre long relative of the modern snake.

Using Computed Tomography (CT), scientists found a distinctive structure in its bony canals and cavities that was also turned out to be present in modern burrowing snakes and lizards.

But the structure, which may assist with the detection of prey and predators, was missing from snakes that live in water or above ground. Lead scientist Dr Hongyu Yi, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said: “How snakes lost their legs has been a mystery to scientists but it seems this happened when their ancestors became adept at burrowing.

“The inner ears of fossils can reveal a remarkable amount of information and are very useful when the exterior of fossils are too damaged or too fragile to examine.”

Read on ...

The Argentinian Werewolf Scandal: Why You Shouldn't Believe Everything You Read

Posted: 01/13/2015 4:10 pm EST Updated: 01/13/2015 4:59 pm EST

On 23rd December, 2014, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the President of Argentina, formally adopted Yair Tawil, a 21-year-old Argentinian Jewish boy, as her godson. The adoption wasn't really a media circus, just a little candlelight ceremony at the Tawil residence. Of course, with the adoption came the usual benefits, a full educational scholarship for Yair Tawil as well as the title of being the President's godswon, complete with a gold medal. However, what President Kirchner described as a "magical moment", soon turned into a publicity nightmare.

Following the Independent, several media outlets of the world began reporting that the real reason behind the President of Argentina adopting a young boy of twenty-one was to save his family from a mythical East-European curse of the nineteenth century.

As per the legend, the seventh born son or daughter of an Argentinian family would be born accursed, doomed to turn into a deformed mythical werewolf-like creature that'll reveal itself on the child's 13th birthday. The creature, called El Lobison or El Lobizon, would from then on feed on excrement, babies and fresh corpses.

Continued ...

'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered

17 May 2014 Last updated at 01:50

By James Morgan

Science reporter, BBC News

Fossilised bones of a dinosaur believed to be the largest creature ever to walk the Earth have been unearthed in Argentina, palaeontologists say.

Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.

Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus.

Scientists believe it is a new species of titanosaur - an enormous herbivore dating from the Late Cretaceous period.

A local farm worker first stumbled on the remains in the desert near La Flecha, about 250km (135 miles) west of Trelew, Patagonia.

Continued and video

Argentina yields three new tarantula species

Date:

May 7, 2014

Source:

Pensoft Publishers

Summary:

Scientists have discovered and described three native to northern Argentina new species of the engaging spider group of the tarantulas. The subfamily Theraphosinae to which the new species belong is a large group of tarantulas distributed exclusively in the New World, whose greatest diversity is found in South America.

Continued

Climate change is 'killing Argentina's Magellanic penguin chicks'

Penguin chicks in Argentina are dying as a direct consequence of climate change, according to new research.

Drenching rainstorms and extreme heat are killing the young birds in significant numbers.

The study, conducted over 27 years, looked at climate impacts on the world's biggest colony of Magellanic penguins, which live on the arid Punta Tombo peninsula.

About 200,000 pairs of these penguins make their nests on the peninsula every year.

They reside there, in desert-like conditions, from September until February to hatch their young.

Continued

Carnivorous fish attack bathers in Argentina

A school of carnivorous fish related to the piranha has attacked bathers in an Argentine river, injuring about 70.

Thousands of bathers were cooling off in the Parana River in Rosario, 300km (186 miles) north of Buenos Aires, on Christmas Day when the attack happened.

Officials blamed the attack on the palometa fish, describing the event as "exceptional".

Paramedics said dozens of people had their extremities attacked and some had lost digits.

Continued

Argentinian Population of the Broad-Snouted Caiman on ESA Goes from Endangered to Threatened -Successful Conservation Effort in Argentina-Leads to Endangered Species Reclassification, Carefully Regulated Trade – via Herp Digest

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced a final rulemaking that reclassifies the Argentinian population of the broad-snouted caiman from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). A longstanding and successful management effort to increase the numbers of this crocodilian species has made it possible to reduce the restrictions on the Argentinian population (called a “distinct population segment” (DPS) under the ESA), and include it in a special rule which allows carefully monitored and regulated trade. Inclusion in this special rule will enable trade in broad-snouted caiman parts and products originating from Argentina only.

The species has been listed as endangered throughout its range since 1976, mainly as a result of illegal harvest for its valuable hide and an overall loss of wetland habitat. The species is found in northeast Argentina, southeast Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Uruguay. Intensive and largely successful management efforts conducted by Argentina to bolster the population of this species led to that country submitting a petition to the Service in 2007 requesting a reclassification under the ESA.

The Service has found that Argentina’s caiman population is widespread throughout its historic range and its nesting areas are expanding. Broad-snouted caiman are even being seen in areas from which they had previously disappeared. Argentina’s intensive management efforts and enforcement of all applicable international laws and treaties have been successful in increasing its caiman population. The key to this enhancement program involved the cooperation of farmers and ranchers to gather the eggs from the nests, rear the young, and then release them back to the wild.

In 1975, broad-snouted caiman was placed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), effectively prohibiting international commercial trade in the species and its parts and products. By 1997, Argentina’s caiman population had begun to increase due to the success of their ranching program and was subsequently down-listed to Appendix II, allowing limited trade in hides subject to a strict tagging and permitting program.

However, the broad-snouted caiman was prohibited from commercial import into the United States due to its endangered status under the ESA. The reclassification of broad-snouted caiman to threatened will allow for limited commercial import of caiman hides and products, aligning U.S. domestic law with the view of the international community on trade in this population.

The status of the species in Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, or elsewhere, remains unchanged and these populations will continue to be fully protected by the ESA. The population of this species within these other countries is described as a separate DPS which remains listed as endangered, and subsequently, there are no provisions for trade. A species-wide down-listing cannot be considered at this time owing to a lack of population and monitoring information from the other range countries.

The final rulemaking describing these actions was published in the June 25, 2013, edition of the* Federal Register. *For additional information, go to 

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-06-25/pdf/2013-15006.pdf**

For photos of the species, see http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGmYecE

To learn more about the Endangered Species program’s Branch of Foreign Species, visit:

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/international-activities.html.

For more info

Contact:

Claire Cassel

703-358-2357

claire_cassel@fws.gov

Man gets shock of his life when he buys two toy poodles for $150 only to be told by a vet that they are actually GIANT RODENTS pumped up with steroids to look like dogs

Gullible bargain hunters at Argentina's largest bazaar are forking out hundreds of dollars for what they think are gorgeous toy poodles, only to discover that their cute pooch is in fact a ferret pumped up on steroids. 

One retired man from Catamarca, duped by the knock-down price for a pedigree dog, became suspicious he had bought what Argentinians call a 'Brazilian rat' and when he returned home took the 'dogs' to a vet for their vaccinations.

Imagine his surprise when his suspicious were confirmed - he had in fact purchased two ferrets that had been given steroids at birth to increase their size and then had some extra grooming to make their coats resemble a fluffy toy poodle.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305310/Man-gets-shock-toy-poodles-turn-GIANT-RODENTS-steroids.html#ixzz2PrytRAP3

2 new marine protected areas created on Argentina's southern coasts

The newly declared Makenke Makenke Coastal Marine Park contains one of the largest breeding colonies of red-legged cormorants in Argentina. G. Harris/Wildlife Conservation Society.

Wildlife Conservation Society applauds the creation of the parks
March 2013. The Government of Argentina has created two enormous marine protected areas in Patagonia, a region filled with majestic shorelines and abundant wildlife. The new marine parks-Isla Pingüino Coastal Marine Park and Makenke Coastal Marine Park-were recently established by the National Congress in Argentina and will safeguard sea lions, penguins, dolphins, and other marine and coastal species. The Wildlife Conservation Society applauds the creation of the parks.

"We commend the Government of Argentina for their conservation stewardship in creating this new network of marine protected areas," said Dr. Cristián Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Isla Pingüino and Makenke Coastal Marine Parks now protect vital wildlife populations for posterity and create new opportunities for Argentina's ecotourism industry."

Important populations
Stretching some 80 miles south of Puerto Deseado and extending 12 miles out to sea, Isla Pingüino covers nearly 1,800 square kilometres (720 square miles) of ocean and cliff-bordered coastline. The new protected area contains large populations of South American sea lions, red-legged cormorants, and one of the largest colonies of imperial cormorants found anywhere (with more than 8,000 breeding pairs). Isla Pingüino also boasts one of the only colonies of rockhopper penguins on the coast of Patagonia.

Makenke Coastal Marine Park
Farther south, the Makenke Coastal Marine Park begins at the entrance of the Ría San Julián, covering almost 600 square kilometres (230 square miles) of shore and ocean. The park contains the largest colony of rare red-legged cormorants in the country. It also protects breeding colonies of the dolphin gull, a rare scavenger, and pods of the small but spectacular black and white Commerson's dolphin

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/argentina-parks.html

FLESH EATING GULLS DEVOUR WHALES ALIVE

Right whales (Eubalaena australis) off the coast of Argentina face the gruesome threat of being slowly eaten alive by birds every time they take a breath. The menace has become so great that local officials are planning to declare open season on the gulls and allow hunters to knock problem birds out of the sky, reported the AP.

The macabre torment of the whales sounds like a punishment from vengeful gods in a Greek myth or the plot of a Edgar Allan Poe story, but the real reason gulls have turned on the whales may be a bunch of garbage. Open air trash heaps near coastal cities have fueled a massive population boom in gulls. Fishermen add to the problem when they throw fish parts back into the ocean.

About eight years ago, the burgeoning gull population around the city of Puerto Madryn learned that they can get fresh meat from the whales. As more gulls learned the trick, the problems for whales increased. The gulls wait until a whale surfaces for air, then tear holes in the whales’ flesh and rip off pieces of skin and blubber. Each time the whales come back up, the gulls go in for more.

“It really worries us because the damage they’re doing to the whales is multiplying, especially to infant whales that are born in these waters,” Marcelo Bertellotti, of the National Patagonia Center, a government-sponsored conservation agency, told the AP.

Continued:  http://news.discovery.com/earth/flesh-eating-seagulls-devour-whales-alive-120829.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

Cormorant's deep underwater dive filmed

A South American seabird's high-speed deep dive to the ocean floor has been filmed by researchers.

A camera was fitted to an imperial cormorant's back before it dived 150ft underwater off Argentina's Patagonia Coast in 40 seconds.

The footage shows how in just over a minute it finds and catches a fish, before returning to the surface.

A Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) team is studying the birds to help spot priority feeding areas.

The team led by Dr Flavio Quintana and including conservationists from the National Research Council of Argentina, was able to witness the birds' feeding techniques firsthand for the first time by capturing the underwater behaviour on camera.

Read on and watch video:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19077825

Argentina: VISION OVNI Investigates a Horse Mutilation

Argentina: VISION OVNI Investigates a Horse Mutilation
By Andrea Pérez Simondini

Once again we are bewildered by news of a strange animal death. In this particular instance, the case involves a white horse belonging to José González, who was surprised not only by the animal’s death, but by the strange injuries it presented.

He was able to see a 35 centimeter perforation between its two front extremities, one of them revealing a clear absence of the heart. Another injury could be found in the lower section of the animal, which was missing the entirety of its genitals.

The rancher also noticed the scarcity of blood at the site, noticing that there were spots of watery blood in the region of the chest injury, as shown in the photo.

This case still lacks analytical elements, but gives us a chance to see the patterns of the incisions and wounds that we have seen in other cases.

One such case involves the mutilated dog in Villa Giarindo, Córdoba, an investigation conducted by Elias Kolev of Visión Ovni. [The animal’s carcass] presented a “punch biopsy” type incision, very similar in its measurements and characteristics to the ones seen in this case.


Continued:  http://inexplicata.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/argentina-vision-ovni-investigates.html