Animal populations are shrinking due to their high-risk food-finding strategies

It hasn't been clear why certain animal populations are taking a hit, until now

Date:  November 15, 2018

Source:  Swansea University

A study using animal-attached technology to measure food consumption in four very different wild vertebrates has revealed that animals using a high-risk strategy to find rarer food are particularly susceptible to becoming extinct, as they fail to gather food for their young before they starve.

In the first study of its kind, a team of researchers led by Swansea University used thumbnail-sized electronic tags to record the movement of a number of individual condors, cheetahs, penguins and sheep in Argentina, South Africa and Northern Ireland over a six-year period.

Nicknamed the "Daily Diary," the tags record a mass of data -- everything from the animal's minute movements through space and time, to the temperature of its environment and light levels.

The results from the tags were used to measure:

The probability that each animal finds food items.

The size of the food items.

The effort used to find the food.

The effort used for all other activities such as rest, play etc.

Professor Rory Wilson of Swansea University, a world-leading expert on animal movement and lead author of the study, said: "We know that animal populations across the world are taking a hit, with the most charismatic animals like lions and cheetahs being among the worst affected, but up until now it hasn't been clear why.

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National Trust criticised after hiring marksman to cull wild boar

Animals to be removed from Stourhead estate after complaints from ‘intimidated’ visitors

Steven Morris

Mon 19 Nov 2018 12.00 GMTLast modified on Mon 19 Nov 2018 19.25 GMT

The National Trust has been criticised for planning to cull wild boar at its Stourhead estate in Wiltshire.

It said it had taken the “difficult decision” to remove the animals from its land following reports that members of the public were feeling intimidated by the prospect of coming face-to-face with a wild boar. The charity added it felt it needed to sanction a cull to protect its staff.

The trust said: “Following recent reports of an unlicensed reintroduction of wild boar on land adjacent to the Stourhead estate and several reports of members of the public being confronted and intimidated, we have taken the difficult decision to remove the animals from the estate.

“We only made this decision after considering the alternatives and after consulting with Natural England. Unfortunately, there are some instances where humane control is necessary – for instance where there are safety concerns for our visitors, staff or volunteers; or to protect other species or habitats. We never take this decision lightly.

“Any cull of wild boar will be carried out by an experienced and licensed marksman who conforms to National Trust standards of safety and animal welfare.”

The 2,650-acre estate is known for its lake, which reflects classical temples, grottoes and rare and exotic trees. It has attracted visitors in the autumn when the colour of the trees can be particularly striking.

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Researchers study animals' unique sense of smell to develop improved chemical sensors

Move over Rover: There's a new sniffing powerhouse in the neighborhood

Date:  November 19, 2018

Source:  American Physical Society

Some animals have a superpower in their sense of smell. They explore, interpret and understand their world with such sensitivity that people have enlisted canines to help solve crime and detect cancer on the breath. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology are now homing in on the secrets behind animals' super sniffers to develop an artificial chemical sensor that could be used for a variety of tasks, from food safety to national security.

"We turned to animals to understand what nature has already figured out," said Thomas Spencer, a doctoral candidate in David Hu's lab at Georgia Tech. "We are applying the underlying principles that we learned about these mechanisms to design a better sensor."

Spencer will present the group's latest design for an electronic nose that concentrates odors for improved chemical sensing at the American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics 71st Annual Meeting, which will take place Nov. 18-20 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Their work began inauspiciously at a competition to develop a sensor that could identify different varieties of cheese. Turning to nature to guide their work, they traveled to the Atlanta Zoo to compare the way different animals sniff, from mice to elephants.

"We wanted to measure the sniffing frequency of animals when they are trying to identify a new source of food or something that interests them," Spencer said.

After reviewing the data, they found that sniffing speed decreases as body size increases; put another way, mice sniff faster than elephants. Using their findings, they designed a customized pump that oscillates back and forth at the same frequency that animals sniff. The design of their device moves airflow around the chemical sensor in a more controlled fashion.

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Wombat poop: Scientists reveal mystery behind cube-shaped droppings

19 November 2018

Scientists say they have uncovered how and why wombats produce cube-shaped poo - the only known species to do so.

The Australian marsupial can pass up to 100 deposits of poop a night and they use the piles to mark territory. The shape helps it stop rolling away.

Despite having round anuses like other mammals, wombats do not produce round pellets, tubular coils or messy piles.

Researchers revealed on Sunday the varied elasticity of the intestines help to sculpt the poop into cubes.

"The first thing that drove me to this is that I have never seen anything this weird in biology. That was a mystery," Georgia Institute of Technology's Patricia Yang said.

After studying the digestive tracts of wombats put down after road accidents in Tasmania, a team led by Dr Yang presented its findings at the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics' annual meeting in Atlanta.

"We opened those intestines up like it was Christmas," said co-author David Hu, also from Georgia Tech, according to Science News.

The team compared the wombat intestines to pig intestines by inserting a balloon into the animals' digestive tracts to see how it stretched to fit the balloon.

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Manatees in peril as toxic red tide tests Florida's resources for rescued animals

Resources to save manatee and other sea life nearing limit a year after toxic red tide bloom outbreak

Richard Luscombe in Orlando, Florida

Mon 19 Nov 2018 14.51 GMTFirst published on Mon 19 Nov 2018 11.00 GMT

At the peak of Florida’s red tide crisis this summer, Jon Peterson had to dig deep into Sea World’s storage warehouses to find enough portable pools to accommodate the dozens of sick manatees arriving at a rate of two or three a week.

The Orlando theme park’s manager for animal rescues even found himself forking out for air fares to send some of his younger manatee patients off to zoos in Ohio to free enough space in the rehabilitation centre for the newest victims of the toxic algae phenomenon that has killed thousands of fish and marine mammals.

It was, Peterson says, “the roughest red tide we’ve had in a long while”, testing to the limit the capabilities of the Sea World facility and the many other essential components of a fragile network of foster care for Florida’s distressed sea life in times of emergency.

Now, with red tide blooms still creeping along areas of the state’s west coast in high concentrations, according to the latest water samplings from the Florida fish and wildlife commission (FWC), there has been little let-up in the pressure on the marine parks, zoos and aquariums that continue to respond to the crisis a year after its outbreak.

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