New phase in Scottish polar bear breeding project

By Steven McKenzie

BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter

19 February 2016

An attempt to breed polar bears in Scotland looks set to go ahead this year.

Polar bear cubs were last born in the UK almost 25 years ago.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) has begun preparations to pair up two bears at its Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore.

A crate has been placed in the male bears' enclosure which will be used to transport Arktos to where the female, Victoria, is kept.

RZSS said captive breeding formed an important part of conserving polar bears, which are classified as "vulnerable" on the International Union Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

But animal welfare organisations OneKind Scotland and Born Free Foundation said tackling climate change to better protect wild bears should be the focus of conservation efforts rather than captive breeding.

Arktos shares an enclosure with a younger male bear called Walker.

Genetically important

The older bear has been selected for breeding because he is considered to be a genetically more important male, according to RZSS. Walker's genes are already well represented within the captive population.

Victoria, who was brought to Scotland from Aalborg Zoo in Denmark last year and is kept in an enclosure about a mile away from the males, previously raised cubs in 2008.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35603473

Florida's monkey river

Anthropologists studied human interaction with a colony of feral rhesus macaques living on the Silver River in central Florida

Date: February 19, 2016

Source: San Diego State University

A colony of feral rhesus macaques calls the banks of the Silver River in Silver Springs State Park in central Florida its home. The monkeys are part of a larger feral population living throughout the Cross Florida Greenway. Many locals enjoy having the monkeys in the park, but wildlife officials are concerned about overpopulation caused by human feeding, the nonnative animals' ecological impact and the potential for interspecies disease transmission. A study released this week in the journal Primates by anthropologists at San Diego State University has found that the park's macaque population is smaller than many previous estimates and that the vast majority of the monkeys' diets come from environmental--not human-given--food.

No one knows exactly how or when the monkeys, which are native to southern and southeast Asia, were introduced to the central Florida wetlands, but they have lived in the region's wetland parks for decades and have adapted to the environment. Over the years, population numbers have waxed and waned due largely to intermittent trapping efforts. Their presence has been contentious.

"The local authorities, like the Fish and Wildlife Service, have been less thrilled with the monkeys," said SDSU anthropologist Erin Riley, one of the paper's authors. "Their purview is to maintain a natural environment, and these animals are not natural to this area. They have concerns about the local ecological impact of these animals, and then there are also health issues if people interface and get close to them."

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Ancient lone star lizard lounged in lush, tropical Texas

Date: February 19, 2016

Source: University of Texas at Austin

Researchers have discovered a new species of extinct worm lizard in Texas and dubbed it the "Lone Star" lizard. The species -- the first known example of a worm lizard in Texas -- offers evidence that Texas acted as a subtropical refuge during one of the great cooling periods of the past.

A paper describing the new species was published on Feb. 18 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The species is officially named Solastella cookei. Solastella is a Latinized form of lone star.

"Nothing has been called Solastella before, which is amazing to me because there are so many fossils from Texas. It's the one guy, and it's from the Lone Star State, so it just seemed to fit," said Michelle Stocker, a paleontologist who described the extinct reptile while earning her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences. She is now a research scientist at Virginia Tech.

The second part of the scientific name honors botanist William Cook, a professor at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, which owns the property where the fossils were collected.

Worm lizard is the common name for a group of reptiles called amphisbaenians, whose long bodies and reduced or absent limbs give them an earthworm-like appearance. The group includes extinct species as well as ones still living today. Solastella belonged to a subgroup called Rhineuridae, a group with only one living member -- the Florida worm lizard.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160219141409.htm

Monstrous fossils 'were armadillos', says DNA evidence

22 February 2016


An extinct group of giant, armoured animals with spiky, club-shaped tails belongs firmly within the family tree of modern armadillos, according to a study of 12,000-year-old DNA.

The glyptodonts roamed South America for millions of years until the last Ice Age, and some grew as big as cars.

Their physical attributes - notably an impenetrable shell - already placed them as likely cousins of armadillos.

Now, researchers say they are not even a sister group, but a subfamily.

"Glyptodonts should probably be considered a subfamily of gigantic armadillos," said Frederic Delsuc, from the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) and Montpellier University in France.

Dr Delsuc and his colleagues used computer predictions to reconstruct some likely DNA sequences of armadillo ancestors, based on the genes of living species.

They then made RNA "bait" based on these sequences and used it to fish for glyptodont DNA in a tiny, mashed-up sample of shell from a fossil in a Buenos Aires museum.

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Escaped lions safely returned to Nairobi national park

Kenya Wildlife Service sent in rangers after lions were seen roaming in residential area in middle of night

Reuters in Nairobi

Friday 19 February 2016 11.06 GMT

Last modified on Friday 19 February 201622.01 GMT

Several lions which strayed from the Nairobi national park, on the edge of Kenya’s capital, and wandered into a residential area, have returned, an official has said.

Kenya’s Standard newspaper said the lions were spotted roaming the Langata area in the middle of the night, prompting the Kenya Wildlife Service to send in rangers.

“Lioness and cub safely back into the park,” said Paul Udoto, a spokesman for the wildlife service. “Two others suspected to have sneaked back before dawn.”

Wildlife pushed back as city encroaches on Nairobi national park

The wildlife service said its team had been dispatched to the residential area at about 3am local time and had urged members of the public not to try to capture the lions on their own.

It is not the first time lions have escaped the park, a sprawling sanctuary for giraffes, zebras and other wild animals. Previous escapes have brought rush-hour traffic to a standstill, forcing bewildered commuters to dodge playful lions.

Kenya’s oldest national park is under pressure from the rapid growth of the capital over the last decade. Poachers have also taken their toll on the animal population, whose numbers have fallen dramatically.

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