Dr Seuss's Lorax 'inspired by orange Kenyan monkeys'

Moustachioed animals’ relationship with whistling thorn acacia trees resembles that of the Lorax with truffulas, researchers say

Nicola Davis

Mon 23 Jul 2018 16.00 BSTLast modified on Mon 23 Jul 2018 17.10 BST

 “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees,” says the eponymous hairy hero of Dr Seuss’s children’s book after he climbs out of the stump of a truffula tree. An irate orange figure with a bristling moustache, the Lorax is an environmental activist who wastes no time in berating the axe-wielding Once-ler, a shady money-grabbing interloper who lays waste to the environment to produce peculiar knitted outfits called thneeds.

Now researchers say the book may have been inspired by the things Seuss saw on a trip to Kenya, and that the bristly character may have been based on the orange moustachioed patas monkeys indigenous to the area.

Donald Pease, a Seuss expert and professor of English and comparative literature at Dartmouth College who is a co-author of the research, sees a parallel between the relationship of the patas monkey to its habitat and that of the Lorax to his truffula trees.

“The patas monkey is in a commensalist relationship with the whistling thorn acacia trees,” said Pease. “That means that it depends upon the acacia tree as its primary source of nutriment but it doesn’t threaten the survivability of the acacia trees.”

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UPDATE: Whale killing: DNA shows Iceland whale was rare hybrid

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent

20 July 2018

Genetic material from a large whale killed off the coast of Iceland has confirmed the creature was a rare hybrid.

Campaigners had been concerned that the slaughtered animal was a protected blue whale, the largest species on the planet.

Now DNA has shown it to be the offspring of a blue and a fin whale, as the whaling company had claimed.

Researchers say these hybrids are rare and trading their meat is illegal.

Photographic evidence from anti-whaling groups had shown a large animal being butchered in Iceland early in July - based on these images, some experts concluded that it was a juvenile male blue, a species that hasn't been deliberately killed since 1978.

Now tests carried out at Iceland's Marine Research Institute have confirmed that it was the offspring of a female blue whale and a male fin whale.

Why does the species matter?

The key reason for interest in the species was to determine whether this killing was legal or not under Icelandic law.

Weighing as much as 200 tonnes and stretching up to 30 metres, blue whales were hunted to the brink by commercial whalers from many countries including the UK from the 1940s to the 1960s when they became a protected stock under the International Whaling Commission.

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Whale killing: Iceland accused of slaughtering rare whale

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent

12 July 2018

Whalers in Iceland have killed what appears to be a blue whale, one of the largest creatures left on the planet.

Photographic evidence from campaigners opposed to whaling show a large animal being butchered for export.

Several experts have concluded from these pictures that it's a juvenile male blue, a species that hasn't been deliberately killed since 1978.

The whaling company involved say they are confident that the animal is a hybrid between a blue and fin whale.

DNA testing will be needed to confirm the whale's true identity.

The key reason for interest in the species is to determine whether this killing is legal or not under Icelandic law.

Weighing as much as 200 tonnes and stretching up to 30 metres, blue whales were hunted to the brink by commercial whalers from many countries including the UK from the 1940s to the 1960s when they became a protected stock under the International Whaling Commission. That means that all countries, including Iceland agreed not to kill the creatures.

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Horse sense: Happiest equines love to snort, says study

By Matt McGrathEnvironment correspondent

14 July 2018

Scientists haven't given too much attention to the significance of horse snorting before now.

The expulsion of air through the equine nose has normally been connected with "clearing phlegm, flies or other irritants".

But now researchers in France say that these blow-outs are a key indicator of what's going on in the equine mind.

They found horses living in relaxed environments produced far more snorts than those in stressful conditions.

Why the long face?

Understanding when a horse is feeling happy, scientifically, is quite difficult. Cats are easy by comparison; their purring is a clear sign of contentedness.

Horses give off conflicting signals - their heart rates increase at the anticipation of food, but decrease during grooming, something that humans generally believe they enjoy.

Some people believe that horses being playful are showing they are happy. But researchers say that this isn't always the case, as play can be a "coping mechanism" when horses are faced with unexpected events, and it may also be a way of reducing social tension in the group.

In this study, the scientists wanted to test the anecdotal idea that snorting in horses occurs more often in positive situations.

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Threatened species: nine mammals and mountain mistfrog could join extinction list

Number of extinct species on EPBC fauna list will rise by almost 20% if species added to list

Lisa Cox

Tue 10 Jul 2018 19.00 BST

Ten species could soon be added to Australia’s list of extinct fauna, including a Queensland frog that was last seen in 1990.

The federal government’s scientific advisory body is assessing whether to add nine mammals and the mountain mistfrog to its list of native animal species considered extinct under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

If declared extinct, the number of extinct species on the EPBC fauna list will grow by almost 20%, and the number of extinct mammals by one-third, with scientists saying it demonstrates Australia’s extinction record is worse than currently recognised.

Seven of the mammals are species considered to have died out between the 1800s and the 1950s, and which were discovered through small piles of fossil remains.

The remaining two mammals are the bramble cay melomys and the Christmas Island pipistrelle, recent species that scientists confirmed as extinct between 2009 and 2014.

“We’ve lost much of the nature that makes this country distinctive and special,” said John Woinarski, a professor of conservation biology whose book, The Action Plan for Australian Mammals, prompted some of the new assessments.

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