Elephant welfare can be assessed using two indicators

APRIL 1, 2020

by University of Turku

Across the world, animals are kept in captivity for various reasons: in zoos for education and research, in research facilities for testing, on farms for meat and other products, and in people's homes as pets. Maintaining good animal welfare is not only important for ethical reasons; poor welfare can impact human wellbeing and the economy. But how do we assess how animals are feeling?

One way to assess animal wellbeing is to look at stress levels. Vets typically use two biological measures of stress: stress hormone levels and white blood cell ratios. In mammals—including humans—the most important stress hormone is cortisol. When animals are faced with danger, cortisol is produced to help prepare the body for a challenge. However, if high stress and cortisol are experienced constantly, they can impact an animal's health.

In addition to cortisol, scientists can also look at the ratio of two types of white blood cells, heterophils (or neutrophils) and lymphocytes. These cells play an important role in the immune system of mammals, and after animals have experienced a stressful event, their ratio is typically high.

Researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, wanted to find out if these two biological measures of stress were correlated and whether animals with high levels of cortisol also had a high heterophil to lymphocyte ratio. They measured cortisol and heterophil to lymphocyte ratios in 120 Asian elephants from a semi-captive population of working timber elephants in Myanmar. The researchers also weighed each elephant, as body weight is a good indicator of general health.

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More than 100,000 badgers slaughtered in discredited cull policy

Badger Trust condemns ‘largest destruction of a protected species in living memory’ as government admits failings and focuses on vaccination

Jamie Doward

Published onSat 28 Mar 2020 16.05 GMT

More than 35,000 badgers were killed during last year’s cull, according to long overdue figures slipped out by the government on Friday at the height of the coronavirus crisis.

The total has dismayed animal rights campaigners, who claim that for the first time since the cull was introduced in 2013, more badgers were shot last year than cattle were slaughtered because they have bovine-TB.

Dominic Dyer, the chief executive of the Badger Trust, said: “The government licensed the killing of 35,034 badgers in 2019 in 40 culling zones stretching from Cornwall to Cumbria in the largest destruction of a protected species in living memory.”

More than 70% of the badgers (24,645) were killed as a result of controlled shooting.

“This is a method of killing which is condemned by the British Veterinary Association as inhumane as it can result in badgers taking more than five minutes to die from multiple bullet wounds, blood loss and organ failure,” Dyer said.

Only 149 (0.6%) of the total 35,034 badgers killed were monitored to establish that they were dispatched humanely.

The total number of badgers killed since the cull policy started now stands at 102,349. It has been estimated that the cull has cost the taxpayer more than £60m.

The figures were supposed to have been published months ago but were delayed as the efficacy of the government’s policy came in for criticism.

“Badgers are now being slaughtered at such a rate across England that they could face local extinction in areas of the country which they have inhabited since the Ice Age,” Dyer said.

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Endangered sea turtles hatch on Brazil's deserted beaches

Coronavirus keeps crowds that usually greet hatching of hawksbill turtles away

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro

Published onSun 29 Mar 2020 16.49 BST

Nearly 100 critically endangered sea turtles have hatched on a deserted beach in Brazil, their first steps going almost unnoticed because of coronavirus restrictions that prohibit people from gathering on the region’s sands.

The 97 hawksbill sea turtles, or tartarugas-de-pente as they are known in Brazil, hatched last Sunday in Paulista, a town in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco.

Photographs taken by government workers, the only people to witness the event, showed the tiny creatures making their way down the beach and into the Atlantic waves.

Locals have been forbidden from gathering on Pernambuco’s spectacular shoreline since last weekend, when the state governor, Paulo Câmara, ordered a partial shutdown and urged residents to stay indoors to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking to the Guardian last week, Câmara said such measures – which the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has actively undermined – were vital if Brazil were to avoid a crisis similar to the one that has taken hold in Europe. “Only isolation will stop the curve growing at the speed it is growing in other places,” he said.

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Giant leap for toadkind after Yorkshire fell runs are cancelled

Activists say hundreds have been trampled by previous cross-country races near pond

Gregory Robinson

Published onMon 30 Mar 2020 06.00 BST

The cancellation of a series of cross-country running races in West Yorkshire because of coronavirus has apparently saved hundreds of migrating toads from being squashed underfoot.

A toad protection group said hundreds of the amphibians have been trampled by fell runners in previous years.

The popular races take place close to a pond where the toads mate, the group said.

The races, known as “bunny runs”, are hosted by the Wharfedale Harriers and had been due to take place in April during the evening.

Sue Patchett, leader of the Riddlesden Toad Patrol, said many toads have been trampled underfoot in previous years. She had been recruiting new marshals to help rescue vulnerable toads during this year’s run.

Patchett has done toad patrolling in Riddlesden for 15 years. “I used to do it by myself but five years ago I formed a group and there’s now approximately 10 to 15 of us,” she said.

“Every spring when darkness falls, hundreds of toads embark on their migration down from gardens on the hillside in Riddlesden and they head downwards towards the canal.

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Cooperative male dolphins match the tempo of each other's calls

MARCH 31, 2020

by University of Bristol

When it comes to working together, male dolphins coordinate their behaviour just like us. New findings, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by an international team of researchers from the Universities of Western Australia and Bristol, provide insight into the importance of physical and vocal coordination in alliance forming animals.

In humans, synchronised actions can lead to increased feelings of bonding, foster cooperation and diminish the perceived threat of rivals. Outside of humans, very few animals coordinate both vocal signals and physical movement when working together.

The study used long-term acoustic data collected from the famous population of dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia, to show that allied male dolphins also match the tempo of their partner's calls when working together, and would sometimes even produce their calls in sync.

It was previously thought that only humans used both physical and verbal synchronised actions to strengthen bonds and enhance cooperative effort.

Lead author Bronte Moore, who carried out the study while working at UWA's School of Biological Sciences said: "Allied male bottlenose dolphins are also well known for this kind of behaviour and can form alliances that can last for decades.

"To advertise their alliance relationships and maintain their social bonds, they rely on synchronous movements. We wanted to know whether they would also synchronise their vocal behaviour."

The study showed that male bottlenose dolphins not only synchronise their movements, but also coordinate their vocal behaviour when cooperating together in alliances.

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