Cryptozoology Online: Daily News

Jamaica Plain's Own Loch Ness Monster

2012-02-11T14:51:00.000+01:00

Jamaica Plain's Own Loch Ness Monster?
Boston magazine's Boston Daily (blog)
BY Courtney Hollands POSTED ON 2/9/2012
Jamaica Plain's Own Loch Ness Monster?

CAT RELATED STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

2012-02-11T13:34:00.003+01:00

Ranthambore gets a big cat surprise
MSN India
While the park officials appeared perplexed over the identity of the big cat, MAIL TODAY has come to know that this male tiger was seen in the park in April 2009. Jaipur: A sambar's alarm call is taken to be the surest sign of a predator's presence in ...

A Cat's Amazing Tale
WDTN
Is this a joke? Someone really found my cat all the way in Ohio? Quite a surprise! I do give all thanks to number one God and number two the microchip." The Allens wanted us to pass along a big "thank you" to Everit Terhune who found Madison.

Greenwich Township couple holding out hope that cat escaped January house fire
The Express Times - LehighValleyLive.com
28, the couple's first thought was of Sweetpea, their 6-year-old calico cat. “I kept thinking we shouldn't have left her alone. I should have brought her to my sisters' house,” Neil Greco said Friday, describing the torrent of if-only thoughts that ...

Possible mountain lion in Westchester New York
Doubtful Newsblog
By idoubtit
MOUNT PLEASANT, N.Y.— Another big predator cat is apparently roaming the northern suburbs. The calls started coming in ... Young saw the spot in Mount Pleasant where the big cat crossed paths with a number of startled suburbanites.

Prowling big cat remains elusive even after a month
The Times of India
A month has finished since the forest officials began efforts to trap the prowling tiger in Kakori.However, no success has come their way yet. The forest
officials ...
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/...cat.../11721472.cms?...

THE MYSTERY MONKEY OF TAMPA BAY

2012-02-11T13:14:00.001+01:00

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A monkey that has eluded capture for nearly two years has seemingly put down roots in a family's backyard.

The Tampa Bay Times (http://bit.ly/AhT6Ol) reports that the rhesus macaque monkey lives in the backyard of a secluded Pinellas County home of a retired couple, their elderly mother and an aging cat named Koko. The family feeds the monkey and the animal is calm and friendly.
The newspaper saw the primate but is not revealing his location.

In 2009, he became known as the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay, after traveling from Pasco County to Clearwater and eventually Pinellas County. He was shot repeatedly by trappers' dart guns and featured on Comedy Central. A Nashville country duo wrote a song about him. He has more than 82,000 fans on Facebook.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/11/2635990/mystery-monkey-of-tampa-bay-puts.html#storylink=cpy

Whales not slaves because they are not people, judge in SeaWorld case rules

2012-02-11T10:05:00.002+01:00

A US federal judge has thrown out an animal rights group's lawsuit accusing SeaWorld of enslaving captive killer whales, ruling that orcas have no standing to seek the same constitutional rights as people.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) had accused the chain of aquatic theme parks of violating the rights of whales under the 13th amendment of the US constitution, which abolished slavery.

The lawsuit, filed in the US district court of San Diego, listed as plaintiffs five performing orcas at SeaWorld's parks in California and Florida: Tilikum, Katina, Corky, Kasatka and Ulises.

"The only reasonable interpretation of the 13th amendment's plain language is that it applies to persons and not to non-persons such as orcas," US district judge Jeffrey Miller wrote in his ruling.

"Both historic and contemporary sources reveal that the term 'slavery' and 'involuntary servitude' refer only to persons."

The 13th amendment was enacted in 1865, the year the US civil war ended.

Legal experts previously denounced as frivolous the Peta lawsuit, which had sought a court order requiring SeaWorld to release the five killer whales to a "suitable habitat".

Miller noted in his ruling that animals did have legal rights under state and federal statutes, including criminal laws.

He added the "goal" of Peta attorneys who brought the lawsuit "to protect the welfare of orcas is laudable" even if the 13th Amendment was not the correct way to approach the case.

David Steinberg, a professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, told Reuters when the lawsuit was filed in October that it was "demeaning [to] the integrity and humanity of people who were owned as slaves".

Virginia-based Peta has staked out a number of controversial positions in the past in seeking to advance the cause of animal rights.

In 2003 the Anti-Defamation League accused Peta of trivialising the deaths of Jews in the second world war with a campaign that compared the meat industry to the Holocaust.

Colleen O'Brien, a spokeswoman for Peta, said in a statement that her organisation would regroup as a result of the dismissal of "this historic first case" on behalf of orcas.

"Today's decision does not change the fact that the orcas who once lived naturally wild and free are today kept as slaves by SeaWorld," O'Brien said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/09/whales-not-slaves-judge-seaworld

Continental mosquito with ‘vector’ potential found breeding in UK after 60 year absence

2012-02-11T10:05:00.001+01:00

A species of mosquito not seen in the UK since 1945 has been discovered breeding in the country. Populations of the mosquito, found across mainland Europe and known only by its Latin name Culex modestus, were recorded at sites in the marshes of north Kent and south Essex in 2010 and 2011.

The discovery was made by postgraduate student Nick Golding, and the mosquito was definitively identified by colleague Stefanie Schäfer of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH). The mosquito was also concurrently found by medical entomologists at the Health Protection Agency as part of their nationwide mosquito surveillance programme. Details of a collaborative study between CEH and the HPA are published today (9 February 2012) in the journal Parasites and Vectors.

Culex modestus is suspected to transmit West Nile virus (WNV) to humans during sporadic epidemics in southern Europe. However, to date, WNV has never been found in the UK so there is no known current risk to humans living here. The virus primarily infects birds, but when the pathogen is transmitted from birds to humans by the bite of a mosquito it can very occasionally cause severe disease, although it usually causes only asymptomatic or mild infections.

Lead author Nick Golding said, “It is unclear how long Culex modestus has been breeding in the UK – the new specimens were found during field studies in 2010 and 2011 – but it seems likely that the species has arrived fairly recently. A handful of individuals were collected on the south coast in the 1940s, but didn’t appear to be an established population. Since those records the species hasn’t been seen again in the UK, until now.”

Dr Miles Nunn from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, who is Nick Golding’s doctoral supervisor, said, “Not all mosquito species can transmit West Nile virus to people. In continental Europe, Culex modestus is able to because the virus can reproduce inside the mosquito and the mosquito feeds on both humans and on birds which are the main host of West Nile virus. Once the mosquito’s salivary glands become infected the virus is secreted into the host (man or bird) in saliva when the mosquito feeds. However, in the UK the mosquitoes' biting habits and ability to transmit West Nile virus have yet to be investigated.”

Nick Golding, Dr Nunn and colleagues at CEH, the HPA and Oxford University are continuing to work together to establish just how widespread these mosquitoes are and whether there is any risk to human health. They have been using satellite imagery in order to identify habitats where the mosquito might be breeding, before looking for it on the ground.

Nick is also studying Culex modestus and other mosquitoes to determine the specific habitat within the marshes in which they breed and what effect wetland management has on this habitat.

Dr Nunn added, “Culex modestus is difficult to distinguish from related mosquitoes that are less likely to transmit viruses to humans. Its discovery highlights the importance of expert long-term biological recording of UK wildlife by the scientific community.”

Additional information

A Q&A feature provides more background information on both Culex modestus and West Nile Virus

CEH issued a press release for this story.

The full paper "West Nile virus vector Culex modestus established in southern England" by Nick Golding, Miles A Nunn, Jolyon M Medlock, Bethan V Purse, Alexander G C Vaux and Stefanie M Schäfer is published in Parasites and Vectors.

Related CEH links

Staff page and research interests of Dr Miles Nunn

Staff page and research interests of Dr Bethan Purse

CEH Biodiversity Objective 2.2: The impact of invasive species, pathogens and vectors of disease

http://www.ceh.ac.uk/news/news_archive/vector-potential-mosquito-UK_2012_11.html

Redder Ladybirds More Deadly, Say Scientists

2012-02-11T10:05:00.000+01:00

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2012) — A ladybug's colour indicates how well-fed and how toxic it is, according to an international team of scientists.

Research led by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool directly shows that differences between animals' warning signals reveal how poisonous individuals are to predators.

Published in the journal Functional Ecology, the research shows that redder ladybugs are more poisonous than their paler peers. The study reveals that this variation is directly linked to diet in early life, with better-fed ladybugs being more visible and more deadly.

Ecologists have long assumed that there are no individual differences between the warning signals of animals of the same species. More recently, scientists have identified variation between individuals' warning signals, but have not known if these differences were meaningful and linked to levels of toxicity.

Continued: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120206214228.htm

Rare white Dorcas gazelle and unusual birdlife spotted in Sahara

2012-02-11T10:02:00.001+01:00

By John Newby of the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF)

"In almost 40 years of travel throughout the Sahara and Sahel I have never seen a white dorcas gazelle before" summed up SCF's Director, John Newby, when presenting his team's findings on a recent survey of Chad's Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve to ministry officials in Chad's capital city N'Djaména.

John and team-mates, Tim Wacher and Renata Molca-nova, were there as part of SCF's ground breaking Pan Sahara Wildlife Survey (PSWS); an outstanding initiative that continues to turn up new extremely valuable information on the fauna and flora of some of Africa's least studied countries.

The project, funded most generously by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, through the Emirates Center for Wild-life Propagation, is nearing the end of a 2-year pilot phase in which it has to date surveyed 6 sites in Niger and Chad.

Chad survey
During the recent survey carried out in Chad in September, further sightings of the critically endangered Dama gazelle were made. Also present were many Dorcas gazelles, including the pale animal shown above.

Migrant birds
It is at this time of the year the reserve is also home to a large number of migrant birds, mostly from Europe but also inter-tropical mi-grants from within Africa. One very striking example is the magnificent Denham's bustard, one of the largest and most graceful of the entire group. The birds seem to arrive in pairs and only spend 2-3 months in the region before flying back to countries like the Central African Republic, Uganda and beyond. During their stay, the bustards inhabit areas of dense, seasonal grassland, gorging themselves on the abundant grasshoppers and locusts present.

Migrating wader hotspot!
Unlikely as it seems, the desert is also a hotspot for migrating waders and other waterbirds, that enjoy the abundant pondlife of the temporary pools and wetlands. These ephemeral waterholes also provide much-needed stopover and resting points to long-distance migrants, some of which, like the many thousands of swallows, swifts and martins, eventually head on to Southern Africa.

Demoiselle cranes
Whereas white storks are fairly often seen on migration, the sleek, grey Demoiselle crane (right) is a far less often observed bird. This year we were lucky and spotted several large groups of this flighty and increasingly rare species.

More articles about the work of the Sahara Conservation Fund

Reports on PSWS surveys can be found in the Re-sources section of the SCF website.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/white-gazelle.html

Zebra stripes evolved to keep biting flies at bay

2012-02-11T10:02:00.000+01:00

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC Nature

Why zebras evolved their characteristic black-and-white stripes has been the subject of decades of debate among scientists.

Now researchers from Hungary and Sweden claim to have solved the mystery.

The stripes, they say, came about to keep away blood-sucking flies.

They report in the Journal of Experimental Biology that this pattern of narrow stripes makes zebras "unattractive" to the flies.

They key to this effect is in how the striped patterns reflect light.

"We started off studying horses with black, brown or white coats," explained Susanne Akesson from Lund University, a member of the international research team that carried out the study.

"We found that in the black and brown horses, we get horizontally polarised light." This effect made the dark-coloured horses very attractive to flies.

It means that the light that bounces off the horse's dark coat - and travels in waves to the eyes of a hungry fly - moves along a horizontal plane, like a snake slithering along with its body flat to the floor.

Dr Akesson and her colleagues found that horseflies, or tabanids, were very attracted by these "flat" waves of light.

"From a white coat, you get unpolarised light [reflected]," she explained. Unpolarised light waves travel along any and every plane, and are much less attractive to flies. As a result, white-coated horses are much less troubled by horseflies than their dark-coloured relatives.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58391000/jpg/_58391196_dscf6956_gabor-horvath.jpg

Read on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/16944753

Rare slender-billed vulture sighted in Terai

2012-02-11T10:01:00.000+01:00

Lakhimpur (UP), Feb 9 (PTI) A slender-billed vulture, which is on the verge of extinction, has been sighted by ornithologists in Terai area of Kheri. Apart from slender-billed vulture, white-backed vultures, Eurasian Griffin and Hundya Griffin vultures have been found in Dhakherwa region of the district, Vijay Prakash Singh, convener of Terai Nature Conservation Society and member of UP state wildlife board, said. Slender-billed vultures are critically endangered vulture species. The sightings have enthused vulture conservationists engaged in making the Terai region diclofenac-free zone, the drug held responsible for mass casualties of vultures. The vultures were sighted during a field-survey on vultures by a team of UK-based Royal Society for Birds Protection (RSBP), Bombay Natural and History Society (BNHS) and TNCS experts. The team is headed by RSBP conservationist Tobby Heath Gelligan and Ananya Mukherjee from England. BNHS experts Janki Teli and Manas along with TNCS convenor Vijay Parakash Singh are assisting in the survey. "Indiscriminate application of diclofenac drug for veterinary medication has left the vultures on the verge of extinction," Singh noted. "The vultures inadvertently take in excessive doses of diclofenac while feeding on carcasses resulting in renal failure," he said. Singh said that RSBP has undertaken the assignment to make entire Terai-region diclofenac free zone. PTI CORR AVA PG
http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/rare-slenderbilled-vulture-sighted-in-terai/961024.html

Also read: http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2710/stories/20100521271006400.htm

Seas around Canna rich in unusual marine wildlife

2012-02-11T10:00:00.000+01:00

Largest area of fan mussels in UK

February 2012: The seas around the island of Canna on the west coast of Scotland are unusually rich in marine wildlife, according to a report published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

A survey carried out by marine biologists from SNH and Marine Scotland in 2010 revealed species and habitats of high conservation value in the Sound of Canna, a steep sided channel that runs between the islands of Canna and Rum. The underwater landscape of rock walls, glacial moraines, boulder piles and sheltered areas of mud and sand provide a wide variety of wildlife habitats.

An area of rare fan mussels, first spotted in 2009, has now been confirmed as the largest in UK waters. With well over a hundred mussels covering more than 170 hectares, it was much bigger than originally expected. Once common around Britain's coasts, only a handful of scattered individuals have been recorded in the past 20 years, making them one of the UK's most endangered shellfish.

'We are surprised and excited by what we found'Northern feather stars, an animal with several feather-like arms used for swimming and catching food, were found on deep sediment at both entrances to the channel. Burrowed mud, an internationally important habitat that is home to burrowing animals and the nationally scarce sea pen, covers much of the seabed.

And excellent examples of northern sea fan and deep sponge communities were found on the cliffs around the nearby island of Sanday, on deep rock outcrops and on the floor of the Sound.

Laura Clark, SNH's project manager for the Canna survey said: ‘Until the discovery of the fan mussels during a routine survey a couple of years ago, the Sound of Canna attracted relatively little attention from marine biologists.

'It's great to see this huge variety of marine life in such a small area'‘What we found when we returned to survey the area in detail surprised and excited everyone involved, particularly the extent of the fan mussel bed. It was great to find such a huge variety of marine life in such a small area.'

The survey is one of several which have taken place around Scotland since 2010, to better understand the distribution and quality of marine wildlife in Scottish waters. They are part of an extensive programme of work carried out by Marine Scotland, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), SNH and Historic Scotland. The information gathered will be used to advise Scottish Ministers on potential locations for marine protected areas, helping Scotland meet international commitments to create a network of sites in Scottish waters.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/canna-marine.html

BIG CAT STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

2012-02-10T14:45:00.002+01:00

Big cat on prowl
Purcell Register
By Susie Williams-Allen - The Purcell Register Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife (ODW) said the big cat spotted in north Purcell is not an immediate safety hazard. Two sightings of a big cat in the Arbors Addition and Lighthouse ...See all stories on this topic »

Mountain lion attack closes trails, campsites in BBNP Alpine AvalancheOne mountain lion attack and one "close call," both involving young children, occurred Sunday afternoon at Big Bend National Park, said David Elkowitz, the park's chief information officer. The close call occurred on the Window Trail, located at the ...See all stories on this topic »

Father Fights Off Mountain Lion [VIDEO]By Jeff DeminskiThe boy who survived the attack but sustained horrific wounds says the big cat just sneaked up on them. With his son's face locked in the jaws of the mountain lion, the father reached for a pocket knife and went after the animal. What happened ...New Jersey 101.5

Big cat goes wild for fluffy slippers! VIDEO! - Care2 News NetworkBy Cher C.A confused tiger at a zoo thought he was being visited by a big cat relative when he spotted a giant pair of paws through its compound window.Care2 News Network

Mountain lion attack closes trails, campsites in BBNP Alpine AvalancheOne mountain lion attack and one "close call," both involving young children, occurred Sunday afternoon at Big Bend National Park, said David Elkowitz, the park's chief information officer. The close call occurred on the Window Trail, located at the ...See all stories on this topic »

Who's your daddy?TheChronicleHerald.caLast week, a reader suggested Boo could be possibly be a Norwegian Forest Cat, a breed, again according to Wikipedia, that "is a strong, big cat, similar to the Maine Coon breed, with long legs, a bushy tail, and a sturdy body." Check.See all stories on this topic »

National network of tiger poachers busted Hindustan TimesBut, their claim of killing eight to ten tigers in less than six months, which is about 40 percent of poaching incidents big cat deaths during the period, has caused panic. “Their claim is alarming and we are verifying it,” said a senior Wildlife Crime ...See all stories on this topic »

Huge haul of poached animal parts, 5 held Daily PioneerThe pelts of one tiger, four leopards and about 3 kg big cat bones were seized from five persons who were arrested in Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. The wildlife contraband is said to have been sourced from Uttarakhand.See all stories on this topic »

America's pets also have an obesity epidemic CBS NewsCarlson told HealthPop that table food is also a big culprit. People may not realize all the diseases overweight animals are likely to get. Common disease risks include osteoarthritis (in the elbows for cats, which is especially painful), diabetes, ...See all stories on this topic »

Experts: Some Kind Of Big Cat Is On The Loose In Westchester ...Another big predator cat is apparently roaming the northern suburbs. The calls started coming in earlier this week in Westchester County.newyork.cbslocal.com/.../experts-some-kind-of-big-cat-is-on-t...

The Littler Cats Found At The Big Cat RescueWe've shown videos of the Big Cat Rescue group before, but one thing left out of their usual videos are all the tiny cats and the non-cat species living on the ...www.neatorama.com/.../the-littler-cats-found-at-the-big-cat-res...

Do Big Cats Purr?The non-profit educational sanctuary in Tampa, Florida, Big Cat Rescue, has put together Do Big Cats Purr?, a video that answers questions about how cats of ...laughingsquid.com/do-big-cats-purr/

World's Highest-Pitched Primate Calls Out Like a Bat

2012-02-10T10:06:00.002+01:00

A huge-eyed little primate of the Philippines can communicate in pure ultrasound — issuing calls so high-pitched that human ears can't detect them.

Study researcher Marissa Ramsier noted the ironic discovery in an animal that has always been considered a quiet night creature. "It turns out that it's not silent. It's actually screaming and we had no idea," said Ramsier, an evolutionary biologist at Humboldt State University in California.

The shrillest noise a human can hear has a frequency of about 20 kilohertz. The Philippine tarsier can hear up to 91 kilohertz, and it cries out in the 70-kHz range. Those numbers put the tarsier's hearing abilities in the same range as bats and far beyond those of any other primate ever known.

Continued: http://www.livescience.com/18359-embargoed-world-highest-pitched-primate-calls-bat.html

Researcher Finds Surprisingly Low Fish Biodiversity in the Earth's Oceans

2012-02-10T10:06:00.001+01:00

John J. Wiens studied the relative paucity of species diversity in the oceans in an upcoming paper in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society

Newswise — STONY BROOK, N.Y., Embargoed for release on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 7pm EST – A Stony Brook University researcher has found that, contrary to popular belief, there are not plenty of fish in the sea.

In an article entitled “Why are there so few fish in the sea?,” published on-line this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, John J. Wiens, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, addresses why the oceans contain only 15-25 percent of all of Earth's species even though they cover about 70 percent of Earth’s surface.

Dr. Wiens and student Greta Carrete Vega examined the evolutionary and ecological causes of the low species numbers of marine environments by studying the biodiversity of ray-finned fish, the most species rich group of marine vertebrates, containing 96 percent of all fish species. They performed analyses using evolutionary trees based on molecular data and fossils, and using a large database on the habitats of nearly all living fish species.

The study found a surprising difference in diversity between freshwater and saltwater habitats.

“There are more fish species in freshwater than in saltwater habitats, despite the much greater area and volume of the oceans,” he said, noting that freshwater environments occupy only about 2 percent of the Earth’s surface. “More remarkably, our results suggest that most marine fish alive today are descended from freshwater ancestors (even though fish and animals in general first evolved in the oceans).”

The authors hypothesized that extinctions in marine habitats, hundreds of millions of years ago, may help explain the low present-day diversity of marine fish.

“Our results suggest that ancient extinctions in the marine environment may have wiped out the earliest ray-finned fishes living in the oceans, that the oceans were then recolonized from freshwater habitats, and that most marine fish species living today are descended from that recolonization (leaving less time for biodiversity to build up in the oceans),” he said. “This pattern of ancient extinction and more recent recolonization may help explain why the oceans are now so species-poor, even for fish.”

http://www.newswise.com/articles/stony-brook-university-researcher-finds-surprisingly-low-fish-biodiversity-in-the-earth-s-oceans

These Are the Earliest Human Paintings Ever

2012-02-10T10:05:00.001+01:00

According to new dating tests, these are the first paintings ever made by humans. They are seals painted more than 42,000 years ago, located in the Cave of Nerja, in Málaga, Spain. And they may change our ideas about humanity's evolution.

Until now, archeologists thought that the oldest art was created during the Aurignacian period, by modern humans. But these are way older, way more primitive than the ones in Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave,the 32,000-year-old paintings featured in Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams.

According to the latest dating of the charcoal found next to the paintings—used either to make the paintings or illuminate them—these seals may have been made more than 42,300 years ago. In fact, they may be as old as 43,500 years.

It's a mindblowing academic discovery, according to project leader José Luis Sanchidrián, professor at the University of Córdoba, one that can revolutionize our understanding of our history, culture and evolution:

Our latest discoveries show that neanderthals decorated their bodies with paint and had an aesthetic sense, and that's a scientific revolutions because, until now, [we] homo sapiens have attributed our selves every achievement, showing [the neanderthals] almost like monkeys.

We thought art history was exclusive to evolved humans, that our sensibility was "an intimate part of ourselves, the sapiens, because we think we are the thinkers." This discovery, if confirmed with further testing, proves this sapiens-centric idea wrong.

According to Sanchidrían, all the available scientific data shows that these pictures could only have been made by Homo Neanderthalensis instead of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, something completely unthinkable until this finding. "The charcoals were next to the seals, which doesn't have any parallelism in paleolithic art" said the professor, "and we knew that neanderthals ate seals." And there is no proof of homo sapiens in this part of the Iberian Peninsula.

Researchers think that this cave was one of the last points in Europe in which neanderthals—who lived from 120,000 to 35,000 years ago—sought refuge, escaping the push of the Cro-Magnon, the first earliest homo sapiens to reach Europe. [Cueva de Nerja via Diario de Córdoba—In Spanish]

http://gizmodo.com/5883082/this-is-the-first-painting-humanity-ever-made

Picture: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2012/02/12aaab88ad4552df38d611842cc3a4d3.jpg

Oil exploration survey spots 17 blue whales off coast of southern Australia

2012-02-10T10:05:00.000+01:00

The area's biggest-ever monitoring programme

February 2012: The whales were identified in the largest aerial monitoring programme ever undertaken for blue whales in the region. The survey is a collaboration between Adelaide-based exploration company Bight Petroleum in conjunction with Portland-based researchers Blue Whale Study Inc, led by Dr Peter Gill.

Three aerial surveys, covering more than 5,000 km, have been flown between Ceduna on the west coast of South Australia and Port Fairy in Victoria. Dr Gill said that in all, 17 blue whales had been identified either feeding or surfacing with a further three sightings of whales which could not be conclusively identified.

'The season so far is quiet'‘The eastern Bight is a very important feeding habitat for blues in some seasons, but the low numbers we have seen suggest this season so far is relatively quiet,' Dr Gill said.

‘Without these surveys we would have no idea what is going on out there.'

The next survey flight is scheduled for later this month, with additional flights to follow to gather more data to enhance the understanding of cetacean activity in the area. The Chief Operating Officer for Bight, Iain MacDougall, said the information from the survey would help Bight in planning its exploration activities to ensure minimal environmental impact.

Hoping to gather more dataBight has been awarded two exploration permits in the Eastern Bight Basin and late last year was granted a 12 month suspension/extension on its permits, allowing it to start its 3D seismic survey at the end of the year.

Mr MacDougall said that operating in Australia's calmer summer months would help in managing safety on board the survey ships as well as avoiding key whale migration times, particularly the winter southern right whale migration through the area.

‘The revised timing of our work programme gives us an extra opportunity to acquire base-line data of blue whale activity in the region through the summer months,' he said.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/whales-australia2012.html

Scared of a Younger Rival? Not for Some Male Songbirds

2012-02-10T10:02:00.001+01:00

ScienceDaily (Feb. 7, 2012) — When mature male white-crowned sparrows duel to win a mate or a nesting territory, a young bird just doesn't get much respect.

Researchers found that older male white-crowned sparrows don't put much of a fight when they hear a young male singing in their territory -- probably because the older bird doesn't consider the young rival much of a threat.

But a male sparrow will act much more aggressively if it hears a bird of the same age singing in a territory it claims as its own.

"These male sparrows assess an opponent's fighting ability based on age. And for a mature sparrow, a young male is just not going to scare them," said Angelika Poesel, lead author of the study and curator of Ohio State University's Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics and the tetrapod division.

Read on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120207202302.htm

US bat killer strikes in Europe

2012-02-10T10:02:00.000+01:00

White nose syndrome has been diagnosed in a European bat for the first time. The disease, caused by a fungus, Geomyces destructans, has wiped out millions of bats in the US since it was discovered there in 2006.

The single case, in a living bat, signifies that the disease may occur sporadically in European populations. Other European bats carry the fungus but do not develop white nose syndrome.

"There's definitely no disaster in Europe, and no mass mortality, and the long-term data suggest the situation remains stable," says Natália Martinková of the Czech Institute of Vertebrate Biology in Brno, who led the research.

Martinková studies greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) in a cave in the Czech Republic. She found crescent-shaped cavities filled with fungal spores and hyphae – the defining symptom of the disease – in the skin of one bat. "The pathology of the skin infection is diagnostic of white nose syndrome," she says.

Two dead bats on the cave floor were also found to be carrying the fungus, but there was no evidence that they had been killed by the disease.

The solitary case strengthens the argument that European bats have long acclimatised to the fungus. North American bats succumb because they have yet to develop resistance. The fungus is thought to have arrived recently in the US from Europe.

No ill effects

Last year Emma Teeling of University College Dublin in Ireland found in a study that bats in 12 European countries are carrying the fungus without any ill effects. She agrees that the isolated case of white nose syndrome is no reason to panic.

"To say that white nose syndrome is in Europe could be a bit premature," Teeling says. If anything, she says, the single case highlights the difficulty of defining when a bat has the disease and when it is harmlessly colonised by the fungus.

"An understanding of the susceptibility [of European bats] may help us understand where we can interrupt the disease cycle and slow or contain the spread of the disease in North American populations," says Ann Froschauer, a spokeswoman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Martinková shares that hope. She adds that European monitoring will reveal environmental factors that suit the fungus. "We have sites where about half the bats are infected, and others where there are far fewer, so we're trying to figure out environmental factors that affect prevalence."

This, in turn, may help to explain how the disease is spreading in the US, and ways to prevent it by modifying the environment within caves.

Journal reference: Journal of Wildlife Diseases, vol 48, p 207

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21452-us-bat-killer-strikes-in-europe.html

Hear This: Ship Noise Stresses Whales

2012-02-10T10:01:00.000+01:00

Quiet oceans make for calmer right whales, new research suggests. When fewer ships sail the Bay of Fundy, the big baleen whales are less stressed — as evidenced by hormone levels in their poop.

This stress could be one reason the North Atlantic population of right whales, which spend part of their lives in the Bay of Fundy off the East Coast, is having such a hard time reproducing. If the sounds chronically stress them, they could be more prone to disease and it could possibly interfere with their ability to reproduce, the researchers say.

"We know that whales have responded to underwater noise by changing their vocalization, but we didn't know if they responded with physical changes as well," study researcher Rosalind Rolland, of the New England Aquarium in Boston, told LiveScience. "What this study has shown is that they are having a measurable physiological stress response to the noise in their environment."

Calling all whales

Right whales use their calls to communicate across long distances. They use low frequencies because they carry farther, but these are similar to the frequencies made by ocean-going ships. Previous studies have shown that noise levels can impact the whales' behaviors, including where they swim and how they vocalize. It's like trying to talk at a party — often a lot of noise will make you either speak louder or, in the worst cases, wait until later to make your point. What the researchers didn't know is how noise may be impacting the whales physically.

The researchers analyzed noise recordings from September 2001, in areas of the Bay of Fundy where the whales generally reside; they then compared them with samples of whale poop collected by researchers in 2001 through 2005. They were looking for evidence that decreased ship traffic after the tragic events of 9/11 lowered the whales' stress hormone levels.

In the two days before 9/11, nine ships passed through the Bay, but in the two days after, only three ships passed through. This led to a significant decrease in low-frequency noise in the Bay and a drop in the intensity of the noise, they found. This coincided with a drop in stress-hormone levels in the whales' fecal samples: Compared with before Sept. 11, hormone levels were significantly lower after Sept. 11 … only in 2001.

Read on: http://www.livescience.com/18367-ship-noise-stresses-whales.html

Piltdown Man: British archaeology's greatest hoax

2012-02-10T10:00:00.001+01:00

In a few weeks, a group of British researchers will enter the labyrinthine store of London's Natural History Museum and remove several dark-coloured pieces of primate skull and jawbone from a small metal cabinet. After a brief inspection, the team will wrap the items in protective foam and transport them to a number of laboratories across England. There the bones and teeth, which have rested in the museum for most of the last century, will be put through a sequence of highly sensitive tests using infra-red scanners, lasers and powerful spectroscopes to reveal each relic's precise chemical make-up.

The aim of the study, which will take weeks to complete, is simple. It has been set up to solve a mystery that has baffled researchers for 100 years: the identities of the perpetrators of the world's greatest scientific fraud, the Piltdown Hoax. Unearthed in a gravel pit at Piltdown in East Sussex and revealed to the outside world exactly a century ago, those shards of skull were part of a scientific scam that completely fooled leading palaeontologists. For decades they believed they were the remains of a million-year-old apeman, an individual who possessed a large brain but primitive jawbone and teeth.

The news of the Piltdown find, first released in late 1912, caused a sensation. The first Englishman had been uncovered and not only was he brainy, he was sporty. A sculpted elephant bone, found near the skull pieces and interpreted by scientists as being a ceremonial artefact, was jokingly claimed by many commentators to be an early cricket bat. The first Englishman with his own cricket bat – if nothing else it was one in the eye for French and German archaeologists whose discoveries of Cro-Magnons, Neanderthals and other early humans had been making headlines for several decades. Now England had a real fossil rival.

It was too good to be true. As decades passed, scientists in other countries uncovered more and more fossils of early apemen that differed markedly from Piltdown Man. "These had small skulls but relatively humanlike teeth – the opposite of Piltdown," says Professor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, who is leading the new study. "But many British scientists did not take them seriously because of Piltdown. They dismissed these discoveries which we now know are genuine and important. It really damaged British science."

In the end, the Piltdown Man began to look so out of kilter with other fossil discoveries that a team led by geologist Kenneth Oakley, anatomist Wilfrid Le Gros Clark and anthropologist Joseph Weiner took a closer look and in 1953 announced that Piltdown's big braincase belonged to a modern human being while the jawbone came from an orangutan or chimpanzee. Each piece had been stained to look as if they were from the same skull while the teeth had been flattened with a metal file and the "cricket bat" carved with a knife. As Bournemouth University archaeologist Miles Russell puts it: "The earliest Englishman was nothing more than a cheap fraud." It had taken almost 40 years to find that out, however.

Read on: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/feb/05/piltdown-man-archaeologys-greatest-hoax

Maryland Man Admits To Turtle Trafficking Online (via Herp Digest)

2012-02-10T10:00:00.000+01:00

Steve Fermier and Associated Press

A Maryland man has pleaded guilty in a turtle trafficking case in New York. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Buffalo says 57-year-old Michael Johnson of Chestertown, Md., ran a turtle meat processing facility in Millington, Md., in 2007 and 2008, at times buying common snapping turtles for their meat from individuals in various states.

Prosecutors say he twice purchased turtles from undercover conservation officers in New York state, where the turtles are a protected species. Johnson faces up to a year in jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to attempted trafficking in prohibited wildlife.

Besides pleading guilty, prosecutors say Johnson has donated $7,500 to the Buffalo Zoo, $5,000 to the Tifft Nature Preserve in Buffalo and $7,500 to Teatown Lake Reservation in Westchester County, all for turtle research and education.

Pakistan Whale Shark's Death a Mystery

2012-02-09T14:28:00.002+01:00

Video of a dead whale shark being pulled from the sea off of Pakistan raises more questions about the school-bus-size fish's demise than it answers, scientists say.

Pakistani newspaper The Express Tribune posted video on Tuesday (Feb. 7) of a crane hauling a whale shark carcass onto a pier in Karachi. According to the newspaper, the owner of the nearby Charai Fishery, spotted the animal floating "unconscious" 10 days earlier, 93 miles (150 kilometers) from the fishery.

But sharks don't fall unconscious, said Bob Hueter, the director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida. And if they stop swimming for any reason, they aren't likely to bob along with the currents.

"If and when they die, they don't float, they sink," Hueter told LiveScience. "So to have one just kind of wash up is very rare. I can only think of a few cases over the years around the world where this is happened."

Continued: http://www.livescience.com/18376-pakistan-whale-shark.html

When the gorillas came visiting....

2012-02-09T14:23:00.000+01:00

Bwindi Impenetrable Park gorillas

February 2012. In December 2011 the guests at a tented campsite in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Park had a major surprise when they got up early for breakfast. Rather than having to go trekking through the mountainous jungle to look for a family of gorillas, the gorillas had come to visit them in their camp.

The video shows a whole family of mountain gorillas, including a silverback and several youngsters, wandering through the camp. They then decide to check out one of the guests who, much to his credit, sits stock still while several gorillas 'groom' his hair with a 400lb silverback sitting just a metre behind him.

Mountain Gorilla Conservation.
The key activity that has helped preserve the Mountain gorillas is tourism. The money that they bring into the local communities is by far and away their largest source of income, which in turn means that they instantly have a very large interest in preserving these animals. Every visitor, apart from the park fees, stays in hotels, eats and drinks, and tips the guides (well most anyway). So how can you help protect them? Easy; visit the mountain gorillas; they need visitors, and the experience never short-changes.

If you would like to donate some money towards the Mountain gorillas survival, we recommend the International Gorilla Conservation Programme or the Congo Rangers.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bwindi-gorillas.html

Disease eradication costs lives of 11,000 trees

2012-02-09T14:18:00.000+01:00

TENS of thousands of trees have been felled in Cardinham Woods near Bodmin to try to prevent the spread of a deadly disease which affects Japanese larch.

Staff from the Forestry Commission began working in December on clearing 11,000 trees in Cardinham and have now moved on to carry out similar work in Dunmere Wood. The felling programme is expected to be completed next month.

The mass tree felling is an attempt to eradicate ramorum disease in parts of the South West.

The disease, which is caused by the fungus-like pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, was discovered infecting Japanese larch for the first time in the world in south-west England in autumn 2009.

Spores

As well as being killed by the disease, larch trees also produce very high quantities of the infective spores that spread it.

John Ebsary, area forester for Cornwall, said: "Cardinham larch-felling is now completed, with the timbers at roadside. The Dunmere larch-felling is now under way and will be completed shortly.

"It's disappointing having to fell trees before they reach full maturity, but the trees are dying from this highly destructive disease, and we have to try to contain it and prevent any further spread."

Duchy College conservation students have been helping with the project.

Nick Taylor, the college's conservation programme manager explained: "Japanese larch is the worst affected; the trees host and spread the disease, so the commission is having to remove large areas of them.

"However, the areas will be replanted with native broadleaved trees, and in the meantime the clearings are excellent habitats for wildlife, which we're helping the Forestry Commission to make even better.

"We're setting up a project with them to cultivate butterfly food plants at the college and then plant them back out into the newly cleared areas.

"The students learnt a lot from the experts and had the opportunity to get involved with some of the conservation work by planting dog violets transplanted from a nearby nature reserve. This area's already been cleared and the flowers are being planted to create suitable habitat for the pearl-bordered fritillary, a very rare butterfly in Cornwall."

Former Duchy College student Chris Mason, now a ranger for the Forestry Commission, gave the students a tour and explained the conservation projects and specialist machinery that have had to be brought in to help fell the larches.

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Disease-eradication-costs-lives-11-000-trees/story-15166244-detail/story.html

Ape versus machine: Do primates enjoy computer games?

2012-02-09T14:06:00.000+01:00

A chimp genius can complete a computer memory test in less time than it takes the average person to blink - and much faster than any human rival. But do the world's cleverest animals enjoy these cognitive tasks?

Ayumu, who was born and raised in Japan's Kyoto University, can remember the location and order of a set of numbers in record time. Sixty milliseconds to be precise.

Of course, it is not "natural" behaviour for a chimp to interact with a computer screen, but scientists suggest this type of task could be good for captive apes.

"Unfortunately, captive great apes often exhibit behavioural signs of boredom, frustration and stress," says Fay Clark from the Royal Veterinary College's Centre for Animal Welfare.

Working with the Zoological Society of London, Ms Clark has recently published a review of research investigating whether challenges that get captive apes thinking can enhance their well-being.

"If an ape does not receive enough cognitive challenge in life, this can lead to abnormal behaviours or a lack of interest in the environment," she tells BBC Nature.

"The key is for scientists to develop challenges which are relevant, motivating, and ultimately solvable if they are going to be used as enrichment."

Read on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/16832378

Purple Squirrel Found in Pennsylvania

2012-02-09T14:04:00.000+01:00

A purple squirrel was found in Jersey Shore, Pa., on Sunday, by Percy and Connie Emert.

"We have bird feeders out in our yard, and the squirrels are constantly into them," said Jersey Shore resident Connie Emert. "My husband traps them and then sets them free elsewhere so they don't get into your bird feeders."

Emert said she had spotted a purple squirrel on her property but no one believed her.

"I kept telling my husband I saw a purple one out in the yard. 'Oh sure you did' he kept telling me," said Emert. "Well, he checked the trap around noon on Sunday and sure enough, there it was."

It was a warm and sunny day in Jersey Shore, Pa., on Sunday.

"The squirrel's been eating peanuts. That's what we used in the trap," she continued.

The Emerts currently do not know why the squirrel is purple.

"We have no idea whatsoever. It's really purple. People think we dyed it, but honestly, we just found it and it was purple."

The Emerts plan to release the squirrel back into the wild in the next few days.

"We put him in an extra big cage so he has room to run around, and we'll release him soon. In the meantime, all the neighbors have been by to see him. No one can believe we have a purple squirrel!"

The AccuWeather.com team is currently investigating why this squirrel is purple. Stay with AccuWeather.com for more developments.

Some AccuWeather.com employees have their own theories. Expert Senior Meteorologist Henry Margusity said, "The squirrel could have been looking for somewhere warm and fallen into a port-a-potty or something similar."

AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski has a different idea. "Squirrels get into all kinds of stuff. He could have gotten into some purple ink or purple paint at some point."

Local squirrel enthusiast Erik Stewart said, "If it has white hair on it at all, it's probably not dyed. I've had multiple squirrels as pets, though, and I've certainly never seen a purple one. I've seen dark red, light red, gray and brown, but never purple. Also, I've tried to dye my dog before, and trust me it didn't look like this. Though, I've only seen a picture, so your guess is as good as mine."

"Like" the purple squirrel on Facebook or follow it on Twitter.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/purple-squirrel-found-in-penns/61308

Endangered Bryde's whale killed by apparent ship strike

2012-02-09T10:05:00.005+01:00

New Zealand's Bryde's whales are Critically Endangered
February 2012. A necropsy on an endangered Bryde's whale found floating in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park has shown that the whale was alive when it appears to have been hit by a vessel.

The population of Bryde's whales living in New Zealand waters is critically endangered. New Zealand is one of the few places in the world where there's a resident population of Bryde's whale. It is centred on the Hauraki Gulf, but fewer than 200 Bryde's whales frequent the gulf.

The dead Bryde's whale was seen by members of the public floating near Waiheke Island and reported to the Department of Conservation. DOC rangers recovered the whale floating north east of Tiri Tiri Matangi. They towed it to Motuihe Island which is managed by DOC in partnership with the Motuihe Trust.

The 15 metre long female whale was buried at Calypso Bay after the necropsy was completed using two earth moving machines and a bulldozer that are on Motuihe for road building work. Representatives of Ngati Paoa blessed the whale and the burial site. The necropsy was led by Massey University veterinary pathologist Stuart Hunter assisted by veterinarians from the New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine at Auckland Zoo.

"The necropsy has shown that the whale was alive when it was struck, most probably by a vessel," says DOC Auckland Area biodiversity manager Phil Brown. We're waiting for the full results of the necropsy to determine if ship strike was the exact cause of the whale's death."

75% Bryde's whales killed by ships
In the last 16 years there have been 41 confirmed deaths of Bryde's whales in the Hauraki Gulf. Eighteen of these dead whales were examined and 15 are most likely to have died as the result of being struck by a vessel.
Ship strike poses the greatest threat to Bryde's whales in the Hauraki Gulf and DOC is working with the University of Auckland on the issue.

"We're concerned about the number of Bryde's whales being struck by vessels," says Phil Brown.

"One of the things that could be done to protect these whales is to lower the speed of commercial ships passing through the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. This happens in other places around the world so we know that shipping companies are used to taking this sort of measure."

Dr Rochelle Constantine and Dr Natacha Aguilar from the University of Auckland are leading research into why Bryde's whales are so vulnerable to being struck by vessels.

Dr Constantine says preliminary analysis of the research shows that the whales are spending the majority of their time less than ten metres below the surface. This puts them within the strike depth of many vessels using the Hauraki Gulf.

"We've been talking to the shipping industry about the threat vessels pose to Bryde's whales in the Hauraki Gulf," says Dr Constantine.

"We're getting positive feedback from the shipping industry in our discussions on measures to protect the critically endangered population of Bryde's whales living in the Hauraki Gulf."

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/brydes-whale.html

Marine risk from skeleton fighting shrimp

2012-02-09T10:05:00.000+01:00

A crustacean branded a 'skeletal alien invader' could be threatening New Zealand's marine biodiversity, marine scientists say.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has issued a warning about the spread of skeleton shrimps called Caprella mutica in New Zealand waters.

In a statement it said the crustaceans were migrating around the country by attaching themselves to boat hulls or drifting algae.

They had recently spread to southern waters including around Dunedin, Bluff and Lyttelton Harbour and could pose a risk to other marine life.

NIWA biosecurity scientist Dr Chris Woods said the shrimps, known as the "praying mantis of the sea", would colonise artificial structures - sometimes appearing in huge densities on anchored buoys, fish cages, wharves and vessel hulls.

"Boat owners are saying to us, 'what are these waving things all over the hulls of our boats?' when they slip their craft and discover the hull alive with movement."

"The males often have big fights with each other, it's like seeing swinging handbags at dawn."

He urged boaties to be vigilant for the "marine invaders" and keep their vessels clean.

"It will likely spread to most areas of marine human activity throughout New Zealand in the near future, so please take care this summer when transporting your boat between different areas."

Caprella mutica was first detected by NIWA in the Port of Timaru in 2002.

They grow to 50 mm in length and are known for holding their enlarged claws in a mantis-like pose.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10783905

Petrel causes a storm for New Zealand

2012-02-09T10:02:00.001+01:00

New Zealand Storm-petrel Oceanites maorianus was presumed extinct until its rediscovery by bird watchers in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf Marine Park in 2003. Since then there has been much speculation as to whether this diminutive 35 g seabird breeds on one of the area’s many Islands, or is a visitor to New Zealand waters, breeding elsewhere, and has thus little claim to the name ‘New Zealand’ Storm-petrel.

With funding from The Birdlife International Community Conservation Fund – and support of the Hauraki Gulf Forum, DOC, the Auckland Council and Forest & Bird (BirdLife in New Zealand) – a team of researchers have now collected the best evidence yet that the Critically Endangered bird breeds somewhere in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

Before dawn on Wednesday 1 Feb, Chris Gaskin, Dr Matt Rayner (University of Auckland), Shane McInnes (DOC) and boat skipper Brett Rathe headed out into the Hauraki Gulf to try and capture New Zealand Storm-petrels and identify signs of breeding on the birds.

The team was able to capture five birds using specially designed net guns. Most importantly, four of the birds showed signs of breeding with bare ‘brood patches’ on their belly that are used to incubate eggs. This evidence strongly suggests the birds are breeding locally, with islands within the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park most likely sites.

“It’s wonderful to think that these birds are breeding right now on islands within the Hauraki Gulf, quite possibly in sight of where we captured them”, said Chris Gaskin.

The team will continue their capture programme through February and March to find out as much as they can about the birds’ breeding cycle. Armed with that information they will determine when would be the best time to try and track birds to their island breeding location using radio tracking devices.

Read on: http://www.birdlife.org/community/2012/02/petrel-causes-a-storm-for-new-zealand/

Cane toads lose their killer touch in east Australia (via Herp Digest)

2012-02-09T10:02:00.000+01:00

Invasive weeds may save Australia's blue-tongue lizards from cane toad poison.

Since the cane toad was introduced to Australia in 1935, it has killed swathes of Australia's native animals including quolls, crocodiles and blue-tongue lizards (Tiliqua scincoides).

Native species that prey on the alien amphibians die because the toads produce a lethal toxin called bufadienolide.

Some blue-tongue lizards in eastern Australia can dine on the cane toads and live, though. Oddly enough, they might owe their immunity to another invasive species.

An ornamental plant native to Madagascar called mother-of-millions (Bryophyllum delagoense) is common in eastern Australia, and has also become part of the lizards' diet. The plants' flowers contain a poison similar to bufadienolide. Rick Shine at the University of Sydney, Australia, suspected that lizards which have already gained immunity to this toxin might be in a better position to withstand the toad toxin too.

His team caught 75 lizards that lived in areas containing either the toad and the ornamental plant, just one of the two, or neither of the toxic invaders. Shine injected toad poison into the lizards, administering a dose high enough to provoke a reaction, but not enough to kill the animal. His team then timed how fast the lizards could swim 50 centimetres.

Blue-tongue lizards from areas containing mother-of-millions were affected to a lesser degree than any others. This was true even for lizards that lived in regions of eastern Australia that contain no cane toads.

"Eastern blue-tongue lizards are able to defend themselves well against cane toads even though they've never actually met one," says Shine.

Mother-of-millions has been recorded in Australia for 70 years or so, suggesting that the lizards have gained tolerance to its toxin rapidly. Blue-tongue lizards create a new generation every two to four years, says study co-author Gregory Brown, also at the University of Sydney.

"It is extremely surprising that one of the lizard populations should genetically change over such a relatively short period of time," says Michael Tyler, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, who was not involved in the work. "But I am convinced. There is no other explanation I can find."

Can the jungle law save orangutans?

2012-02-09T10:00:00.001+01:00

Panut Hadisiswoyo and Gunung Gea, Medan | Tue, 02/07/2012 10:52 AM

There have probably been at least 2,800 confiscations of illegally kept orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra since the early 1970s. In the same period, millions of hectares of orangutan forest have also been destroyed for plantations and other uses, and thousands of orangutans killed, starved and burned to death in the process.

This species cleansing has occurred despite the fact that the orangutan has been legally protected in Indonesia since 1924. Quite simply, in the last 40 years the number of legal cases brought against pet keepers, traders and orangutan killers can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

There was a case in November 2006 of people shooting a Sumatran orangutan (62 times with an air rifle) that had been released at the edge of Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Jambi in October 2004. Six villagers received six-month jail sentences, but later the prison term was extended to eight months. Leuser, the orangutan in question, is now residing at a quarantine center run by the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program (SOCP) near Medan, in North Sumatra. He still has 48 air rifle pellets in his body and is blind in both eyes due to pellets lodged there.

There were also two prosecutions in June 2010 of people trading orangutans illegally in West Kalimantan. The seller was sentenced to eight months in prison and fined Rp 1 million (US$110). The buyer received a meager one month and 15 days in prison. A third person involved managed to evade prosecution altogether.

Yet, seemingly all of a sudden, a number of legal actions in support of orangutan conservation are finally hitting the headlines.

Many people will have seen recent articles in the media concerning the brutal killing of orangutans on an oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, where they were slaughtered en masse for a bounty paid by the Malaysian company PT Khaleda Agroprima Malindo (PT KAM). For each orangutan killed, workers were allegedly paid Rp 1 million. This is an extremely shocking and disturbing case, but it is also an open secret that such practices are commonplace on new plantations.

An article on Dec. 9, 2011 in The Jakarta Post showed how the remains of more slaughtered orangutans were found in a concession belonging to PT Sarana Titian Permata II, part of the Wilmar International group, in Central Kalimantan. But no one there has yet been arrested or charged.

While the PT KAM case has attracted media attention, very few people are aware of an ongoing trial related to orangutans in Kabanjahe, North Sumatra. It concerns Julius, a 4-year-old male Sumatran orangutan confiscated in Mardinding, Karo regency, in July 2011. Forestry police arrested a man, identified by his initial as S, who was transporting Julius and offering him for sale. Unfortunately, however, the alleged “owner” of the orangutan, identified as R, has not yet been arrested or charged.

The law relating to protected species is actually simple. Law No. 5/1990 on the Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystems states clearly that keeping, injuring, capturing, trading and transporting protected species are criminal offenses, carrying sentences up to five years in jail and a Rp 100 million fine.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen if Julius’ case in North Sumatra will be taken seriously by the three judges and the prosecutors. If not, and the defendant is acquitted, e.g. on some minor technicality, it really will reinforce the prevailing impression among conservationists that the Indonesian authorities, and society in general, really aren’t interested in protecting their country’s unique and exceptionally rich biodiversity.

Besides Law No. 5/1990, there are several other regulations that support orangutan conservation, which also seem to be routinely flouted and ignored. The Spatial Planning Law No. 26/2007, and its subsequent Government Regulation No. 26/2008, established the Leuser Ecosystem in northern Sumatra as a National Strategic Area for Environmental Protection. Presidential Instruction No. 11/2011 prevents the issuance of any new plantation and concession permits in primary forests and peat lands.

As the Leuser Ecosystem is home to around 80 percent of all the remaining Sumatran orangutans in the world, and as the peat swamps of Aceh province have the highest density of orangutans anywhere in the world, effective enforcement of these two laws alone would be an important step for orangutan conservation.

And so to another case currently making the news, in which it is claimed that a new permit issued for an oil palm plantation in the Tripa peat swamp forests on the west coast of Aceh, within the Leuser Ecosystem, is illegal, and that its issuance constitutes a criminal act or felony on the part of Aceh governor and a number of other key individuals involved in the process.

The Tripa peat swamp case actually consists of several different legal initiatives. A consortium of concerned NGOs has challenged the legality of the new permit in the Court of Civil Administration in Banda Aceh. Meanwhile, representatives of the communities living directly in Tripa, already fed up with losing their livelihoods, lands and lifestyles due to the destruction wreaked so far, have reported the governor of Aceh, who issued the permit, the company that received it, PT Kallista Alam, and a number of others at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta. They claim the issuance of the permit is a clear contravention of the National Spatial Planning law.

If these Aceh cases were to fail, the orangutan population in Tripa, recognized by the United Nations-backed Great Ape Survival Partnership (GRASP) as critical for the survival of the species, will continue to be devastated and ultimately be destroyed completely.

Perhaps for the first time, and long overdue, we finally seem to be seeing some clear sustained developments in law enforcement pertaining to conservation in Indonesia. But, it is probably too early to draw any solid conclusions.

Furthermore, even if convicted, the deterrent effect of these cases still depends on appropriate punishments being meted out. If sentences are too short or fines too little, it will once again bring into question the seriousness of those involved in enforcing the law in environmental and conservation cases.

Panut Hadisiswoyo and Gunung Gea are respectively chairman and vice chairman of FOKUS (Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Forum

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/02/07/can-jungle-law-save-orangutans.html).

Castaway Lizards Provide Insight Into Elusive Evolutionary Process, Founder Effects (via Herp Digest)

2012-02-09T10:00:00.000+01:00

ScienceDaily (Feb. 2, 2012)

A University of Rhode Island biologist who released lizards on tiny uninhabited islands in the Bahamas has shed light on the interaction between evolutionary

Jason Kolbe, a URI assistant professor of biological sciences, and colleagues from Duke University, Harvard University and the University of California at Davis, found that the lizards' genetic and morphological traits were determined by both natural selection and a phenomenon called founder effects, which occur when species colonize new territory.

Their research was published recently in the journal Science.

"We rarely observe founder effects as they happen in nature, but we know that it happens because islands are colonized by new species over time," said Kolbe. "What we didn't know was how these evolutionary mechanisms interact with each other. What we learned is that the differences caused by the founder effects persist even as populations adapt to their new environments."

The founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. It often results in the new population becoming genetically or morphologically different from the original population.

The scientists randomly collected brown anole lizards from a large island near Great Abaco and released one pair on each of seven nearby islands whose lizard populations had been cleared by a recent hurricane. The source island is forested while the other islands have short, scrub vegetation.

Previous research found that anoles living in forests had longer hind limbs than those found in scrub habitat. Lizards with longer limbs can run faster on the broad perches available in forests, while short-limbed lizards are more adept at moving on the narrower perches found in lower vegetation.
The scientists revisited each of the islands over the next four years to measure the lizards' limb length and collect tissue samples for genetic analysis. All of the new populations survived and increased an average of 13-fold in the first two years before leveling off.

"We noticed a founder effect one year after starting the experiment, which resulted in differences among the lizards on the seven islands," Kolbe said. "Some of the islands had lizards with longer limbs and some had lizards with shorter limbs, but that was random with respect to the vegetation on the new islands."

Because the structure of the vegetation on the islands differed from that of the source island, the scientists predicted that natural selection would lead the lizards to develop shorter limbs.
"Over the next four years, the lizards on all the islands experienced a decrease in leg length that is attributable to natural selection," Kolbe explained. "But those that started out with the longest hind limbs still had the longest hind limbs. The fact that the populations maintained their order from longest to shortest limbs throughout the experiment means that both founder effects and natural selection contributed to their current differences."

According to Kolbe, founding effects are rarely observed in nature, with most previous studies being conducted in the laboratory. "Ours is the first to study this process experimentally in a natural setting, and we were able to account for multiple evolutionary mechanisms through time," he said. "We manipulated the founding of these islands, but everything else about it was natural."
The next step in the research will be to determine how long the founder effects persist before other factors erase its signature.

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society.

Rare Irrawaddy dolphins found in Indonesian waters

2012-02-08T14:02:00.000+01:00

Jakarta, Indonesia - Vulnerable Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) have been discovered for the first time in West Kalimantan, a part of Indonesian Borneo that best known for its dense tropical forests and rich wildlife.

WWF-Indonesia and the Regional Office for Marine, Coastal & Resources Management Pontianak (BPSPL) found the rare dolphins while conduicting a study in the narrow straits and coastal waters of the Kubu Raya and Kayong Utara regencies in the western part of Borneo.
“The presence of Irrawaddy dolphins in West Kalimantan waters was previously unknown, so we are excited with the results of this preliminary study and hope this will help reveal information on the population and distribution of this unique species,” said Albertus Tjiu, WWF-Indonesia’s Conservation Biologist, and one of the study’s lead scientists.

The team also encountered a group of Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in the area, showing strong scientific evidence of the rich biodiversity in Kalimantan waters, which originate in the highlands of the Heart of Borneo.

Conservation challenges
“The results of this study indicate the importance of protecting the dolphins’ habitat, from the origins of the rivers in the Heart of Borneo, to the lower rivers of the island, including waterways of Batu Ampar mangroves and nypah forests, the narrow straits and the coastal areas of Kubu Raya, West Kalimantan,” Albertus Tjiu said.

But he also cautions that the continued growth of charcoal production in West Kalimantan is threatening the area’s mangrove forests, one of the dolphins key habitats. Over one hundred small and medium-sized charcoal producers are now operating in Kubu Raya, and additional threats from increased boat traffic in waterways and forest conversion are posing further challenges to the growth of the species.

“WWF calls on all companies that operate in West Kalimantan waters to apply sustainable practices in their business, and with regards to this dolphin study, to carefully look at their wood supply to help avoid the destruction of mangrove forests,” said Albertus Tjiu.

How many dolphins?
With a global population of around 6000 individuals, Irrawaddy dolphins are found in many of Southeast Asia’s estuaries and mangrove areas. Close to 5,800 of the vulnerable dolphins live in the costal waters of Bangladesh along the Bay of Bengal, and the nearby Sunderbarns mangove forests. The remaining population is scattered throughout Southeast Asia and can be found in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and the northeastern coast of Australia.

Irrawaddy dolphins are classified as vulnerable by the IUCN, but in some areas - including the Mekong River, the Ayeyawardi River and the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan - the species is listed as critically endangered.

“Kubu Raya and Kayong Utara waters are located downstream from the Heart of Borneo in West Kalimantan. Conservation of forests in the Heart of Borneo is considered critical to ensure the proper protection of the Irrawaddy dolphins fresh water habitat in the lower reaches of the river,” said Tri Agung Rooswiadji, WWF-Indonesia’s Fresh Water Conservation Program Coordinator. “As a unique species that live in fresh, salt and brackish waters, this mammal serves as an indicator of the healthiness of the water ecosystem in the area,” Tri Agung added.

“The dolphin survey we conducted in Kubu Raya and Kayong Utara waters is only a preliminary survey, and we are hoping to continue studying the species in other rivers in the upper parts such as in Kapuas, Sejenuh and Mendawa river, “ said Tri Agung. “With comprehensive information on the population and habitat of the dolphin, it is expected that the future policy on the protection of the species can be identified and implemented,” he added.

Kris Handoko, Head of Conservation at the Regional Office for Marine, Coastal & Resources Management Pontianak (BPSPL) said, “We are very supportive of this study. We will continue working with WWF-Indonesia and other relevant partners on monitoring the dolphins as well as identify other actions to enhance the species protection.”
http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?203431/Rare-Irrawaddy-dolphins-found-Indonesian-waters

NZ: Monster tales from deep dark past (via Chad Arment)

2012-02-08T13:56:00.000+01:00

ROGER MORONEY - AT LARGE | Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Down Central Hawke's Bay way there be a monster in the marshes.

A monster which (and this is not a figment of my misfiring imagination) led none other than pioneering William Colenso to offer a young witness of this beast the sum of five pounds "for the creature in any form."

Five quid, back in 1893 - the year of the sighting of the great water-borne beast, was a lot of serious dosh and I daresay the young chap could have done with it.

But then again, he probably figured risking his life was worth more than a fiver.

It is a wonderful tale, and a tale which convinced the learned and wise William Colenso that something mysterious was living in the still waters of the Weber district.

Being a champion of the unknown and the unidentified, especially creatures in deep seas and lakes and desolate forests and frozen wastes, I was delighted to receive a note from Dannevirke historian Phillipa Nelson last week.

She had spotted my words a few weeks back about the unknown creatures of lochs and lakes and it rang a bell.

For the Dannevirke Gallery of History had received a transcript, through the Friends of Colenso group, of a letter the wandering reverend had written to a close friend by the name of James Hector in 1894.

Here is part of the transcript.

"I had very nearly troubled, or surprised you, with a letter while here (Dannevirke) re a living taniwha! I closely examined the young man who saw it, and who fired at it to save his dog swimming after a duck shot in the lagoon - but as it occurred in the shooting season of '93 - and had not been seen since - I dropped the enquiry. I may however mention, that the young fellow's story was a very coherent one, he too, being respectable, quiet and of good report."

Good report ... I like that.

So anyway, as Colenso continued ... "He had told me the tale last year at the time, and now with the shooting season coming on it was revived, to warn sportsmen concerning that spot.

"It is a lagoon, or deep swamp surrounded by high cliffy banks with an outlet to the river Manawatu and not far from the bridge over that stream - the road leading to the Weber district."

On this note of location, Phillipa wonders if the "lagoon" was in fact the Kaitoki Lake which is off the Weber Road.

Locals, she said, had long spoken of a taniwha in the Manawatu Gorge, but this was a different story altogether.

Now this is where it becomes intriguing fellow creature unearthers.

For Colenso went on to describe how two other chaps, who had been out riding the same area some time before the young duck shooter had gone there, had come across a "beast" in the water.

All that poked out above the surface was a dark grey head, about 18 inches long - that's close to half a metre.

The young shooter who also sighted it said he got one shot away at it, and believe he may have struck it "about the angle of its mouth."

"It retreated to the raupo on receiving the shot, and the dog returned in fear ... sans duck."

Many people in the area had heard about it - among them (quote from Colenso) "the Rev. E Robertshawe (stout and strong), Hill the inspector of schools and Bamford, solicitor, went hither to the said haunt in search - they had a time of it!"

The intrepid trio scrambled down steep cliffs to get to the area, arriving home late. They all agreed they would never go back there again.

All very colourful and intriguing, and I am delighted to learn that there be monsters in our own backyard. Pound to a penny though - the Aussies are likely to claim it as one of their's that lost its way from a billabong up Mullumbimby way.

The aborigines spoke of such creatures - bunyips.

Only last year a strange shape was spotted, and photographed, up Darwin way in Lake Alexander.

Oh yes, there be monsters and they be everywhere ... even down CHB way.

Anyone out there also heard the stories of the sightings Colenso was on about? If you have, drop me an email. If we can pinpoint the spot then I be going monster hunting!

http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz/news/monster-tales-from-deep-dark-past/1263159/

Lizard survives 3,000 miles in suitcase and 30 minutes in washing machine

2012-02-08T10:05:00.001+01:00

A hardy lizard that stowed away in a tourist's suitcase survived a 3,000-mile flight from Cape Verde to the UK – and then endured a full cycle in a washing machine.

The lizard, which has been named Larry, is thought to have clambered into Sue Banwell-Moore's suitcase as she packed following a two-week holiday on the islands off the west coast of Africa.

Larry survived the six-hour flight in the luggage hold of a passenger jet and arrived back at Banwell-Moore's home in Somerset.

But its ordeal did not end there. Banwell-Moore scooped up the hapless reptile in a pile of dirty clothes and stuffed it into her washing machine.

She only spotted the lizard as she was hanging out the washing following the 30-minute delicates cycle.

Assuming the 15cm-long (6ins) animal was dead, she covered it with a saucepan but was surprised and delighted when it recovered from its ordeal. Larry is now being cared for at a wildlife park.

Banwell-Moore said: "I was hanging out the washing on the clothes dryer and I looked down and there was this lizard there. I thought he was dead and I'm sure he nearly was – I have absolutely no idea how he was still alive.

"I called my daughter and she was screaming with laughter while I was screaming with shock. I made sure the heating was on overnight so I could keep him warm and he survived. It must have got into my suitcase on the last day and the funny thing was I only saw one lizard when I was out there.

Larry has now made the rather less ambitious 25-mile journey to the Tropiquaria wildlife park in Williton, Somerset. Banwell-Moore added: "I realised what the poor thing had been through and I sort of fell in love with it. I keep ringing Tropiquaria and he seems to be doing OK – it is a miraculous survival."

Chris Moiser, the director of Tropiquaria, is still trying to identify Larry. "It is very rare – Cape Verde is one of those places with native species found nowhere else in the world, it is so remote. We have it down to one of two species of chioninia but to tell the difference between these we need to carefully count some of the small facial scales, which is rather difficult on a relatively small lizard which moves at speed."

http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/uk/the-northerner/2012/feb/07/cheese-police

Burma officials seize 10,000 snakes bound for China (via Herp Digest)

2012-02-08T10:05:00.000+01:00

More than 10,000 snakes bound for China were seized recently in Burma.
The Associated Press, 1/20/12

YANGON - Forestry officials in central Burma have seized nearly 10,000 snakes in 400 crates that were to be smuggled to China.

The weekly journal Modern reported Friday that 50 cobras were among the 9,176 snakes seized in Pyin Oo Lwin district near Mandalay on Jan. 12.

Wildlife smuggling is endemic in Asia, where exotic species are used for food and traditional medicine.
The report did not say how many people were arrested but said those involved would be charged under the Protection of Wildlife and Conservation of Natural Areas law, which carries a five-year prison sentence.

It said the 7,000 non-poisonous snakes were released into a wildlife reserve, while the vipers and cobras were sent to the state pharmaceutical company for their venom.

Toddler chews head off snake

2012-02-08T10:02:00.001+01:00

Thirteen-month-old Imad Aleeyan, who has six teeth, was found chewing on the head of the 12 inch snake by his mother, who alerted the neighbourhood with her screams.

"I was making his milk and I looked over and saw he had a snake in his mouth," said his mother, Ghadir Aleeyan who lives in the Arab Israeli town of Shefa'Amr, 9 miles east of the port city of Haifa.

"I started to scream. I couldn't believe my eyes," she told AFP. "I nearly died of fright."

Her screams brought the rest of the family – and the neighbourhood – running.

"We rushed in and found the baby with a snake in his mouth, chewing it. It was really scary, just horrible," the boy's aunt, Yasmin Shahin, said.

A neighbour who had rushed to see what was going on yanked the half-dead reptile out of the boys mouth and killed it, she said.

"When he pulled it out, Imad started crying," she said, describing the snake's head as "very badly chewed" when it emerged from the boys mouth.

They immediately checked the child for any bite marks but found none, with doctors at Rambam hospital in Haifa confirming he was unharmed.

"Doctors at the hospital told us the snake was really poisonous but that we were very lucky because they release less venom in the winter," she said.

Dr Boaz Shacham, an expert on amphibians and reptiles, told AFP that from looking at images of the smashed-up serpent online, it appeared to be a coin-marked snake (hemorrhois nummifer), a non-venomous species which resembles a viper.

Such snakes grow up to three feet in length, he said suggesting it was a "very young" specimen.

"It probably didn't bite the child because of the cold," said Dr Shacham who is the head of the herpetology collection at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"They are not really active in winter."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9044599/Toddler-chews-head-off-snake.html

Tutan-CAT-mun: 18th Century mummified kitty falls out of ceiling as house is being renovated Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092663/Tutan-CAT-mun-18th-Century-mummified-kitty-falls-ceiling-house-renovated.html#ixzz1ljB6H4YV

2012-02-08T10:02:00.000+01:00

Bringing old homes up to scratch is nothing out of the ordinary for property renovators Andrew and George Hartley

But this professional couple nearly jumped out their skin when greeted by their most recent form of preservation - as a mummified cat fell on them.

The couple got a face full of the ancient feline as they removed ceilings from an 18th century property in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.

Mr Hartley was removing plasterwork and ceilings, to assess what work was needed, when the strange discovery fell from within the roof.

He said 'It is well preserved, and I think it has very likely been up there over 100 years at least.

'We had a look on the internet and it seems that this sort of find is quite uncommon.'

Read on: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092663/Tutan-CAT-mun-18th-Century-mummified-kitty-falls-ceiling-house-renovated.html

Farmer fined for faking a new bird species

2012-02-08T10:01:00.001+01:00

A Dannevirke farmer Grant Teahan has been ordered to pay $5000 fine to the SPCA after he attempted to fake a new bird species.

A new red species of Hawke was seen flying around Southern Hawkes bay in early 2009, but it was later discovered the birds had been spray painted.

SPCA spokesman Danny Auger says it was an unusual case.

"I've just not heard of anyone trapping wildlife and painting them before they release them. It's just very different," he says.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/1446288433-Farmer-fined-for-faking-a-new-bird-species

The Dark Side of New Species Discovery - Lao newt, (Laotriton laoensis) via Herp Digedst

2012-02-08T10:01:00.000+01:00

By Laurel Neme, special to mongabay.com
December 21, 2011

This interview is an excerpt from The WildLife with Laurel Neme, a program that explores the mysteries of the animal world through interviews with scientists and other wildlife investigators. "The WildLife" airs every Monday from 1-2 pm EST on WOMM-LP, 105.9 FM in Burlington, Vermont. You can livestream it at theradiator.org or download the podcast from iTunes, laurelneme.com or laurelneme.podbean.com.

Dr. Laurel A. Neme is also the author of ANIMAL INVESTIGATORS: How the World's First Wildlife Forensics Lab is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species.

The website indicates that there is a Part 2 to this interview, but the test there is just a repeat of Part 1

This interview originally aired on March 14, 2011. It was transcribed by Kirstin Fagan.

Scientists and the public usually rejoice when a new species is discovered. But biologist Bryan Stuart has learned the hard way that the discovery of new species, especially when that species is commercially valuable, has a dark side-one that could potentially wipe out the new species before protections can be put in place.

Stuart has discovered 27 species unknown previously to scientists - so far. That includes 22 species of frogs, three types of snakes, and two salamanders. His experience with one of these, a warty salamander from Laos with striking markings (Laotriton laoensis), opened his eyes to a dark side of scientific discovery: commercial overexploitation before protections are in place.

Shortly after Stuart described the previously unknown species Laotriton (Paramesotriton) laoensis in a scientific paper published in 2002, commercial dealers began collecting this Lao newt for sale into the pet trade. In essence, the dealers used Stuart's geographic description in the paper as a "roadmap" to find the rare newt.

This situation is not unique. It's also happened with a turtle (Chelodina mccordi) from the small Indonesian island of Roti, which was so heavily hunted that today it is nearly extinct in the wild. Similarly, a rare gecko (Goniurosaurus luii) from southeastern China was extirpated from its locality as prices in importing countries soared to highs of $1,500 to $2,000 each.

It's a dual dilemma. On the one hand, publishing scientific descriptions of new species may inadvertently facilitate their extinctions for commercially valuable species. Yet on the other hand, the conservation benefits of describing the new species can outweigh this potential risk.

To reduce the potential tragedy, Stuart recommends that taxonomists work closely with relevant governmental agencies to coordinate publication of the description with legislation or management plans that can thwart overexploitation of the new species. Indeed, he and his students have worked tirelessly in this regard and, in August 2008, Laos' Department of Forestry protected the Lao newt from commercial trade. Now, the remaining question is one of enforcement.

Bryan Stuart is the curator of amphibians and reptiles at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. He received his Bachelor of Science in biology from Cornell University, a Master of Science in zoology from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Illinois. His research focuses on amphibians and reptiles of the Old World tropics, especially Southeast Asia, where he has maintained an active field program for the past decade. He has particular interest in using molecular tools to define species boundaries and unravel their evolutionary histories.

A HAUNTING SPECIES DISCOVERY

Laurel Neme: Of all the species you've discovered and described, I know that the discovery of the salamander in Laos (the Lao newt, Laotriton laoensis) haunts you.

Bryan Stuart: That's a very interesting story. That is probably, of all the species that I have discovered and described, the one that really stays with me. There was a very unexpected turn of events related to that description.

When I started working in Laos in the late 1990s, there were no known species of salamanders from the country. Salamanders are essentially a temperate group of animals, and they just marginally get into the northern parts of Southeast Asia. You find salamanders in northern Burma, northern Thailand, northern Vietnam, and southern China. We expected that they occurred in northern Laos, but none had been previously documented in that country.

Then, in 1999, one of my Lao colleagues found the first examples of a salamander up in the northern part of the country. The actual discovery was rather unusual. He had gone home to a rural part of northern Laos for a wedding, and when he returned to the capital city, he brought back with him a few examples of a salamander that had been put into the local alcohol for medicinal purposes. The idea was you put this animal that has very toxic skin secretions into the alcohol, and then you drink the alcohol at a party, such as this wedding, and there's some perceived health benefits from doing so. In any case, it is really this sort of unusual circumstance where his attendance at this wedding resulted in bringing these salamanders to my attention.

Laurel Neme: What does the salamander look like?

Bryan Stuart: They are a remarkable species. They resemble in their morphology no other known salamander. They are large, have very warty skin, and are brightly colored on their back and belly. Their back has these almost yellowish stripes, and their belly has these bright orange spots.

Laurel Neme: When you first saw these salamanders in the alcohol, what made you think that it was different? Did the alcohol change its color?

Bryan Stuart: Alcohol preservation does over time dilute the colors; the colors do leach out of the specimen. But these were freshly collected, I think, and the colors were still apparent for these animals that had been preserved for medicinal consumption. They were immediately recognizable as something different. Their skin texture, their size, and the coloration were just totally unique.

Laurel Neme: After seeing this first specimen, did you go into the forest to find more?

Bryan Stuart: Unfortunately, the area where they came from, at the time, was a very sensitive area to go to in Laos. There were some security concerns there. It took some time but finally things calmed down and we had a very, very brief opportunity for us to go into that area to find the species in the wild, in a stream.

As a result of that work, we were able to describe this thing a few years later in 2002, in a formal description that came out in a scientific journal called "the Journal of Herpetology." In that journal we named it a new species and we gave it the scientific name "laoensis" (Laotriton laoensis), which means "found in Laos." The reason [for that name] was that we believed at the time that the species occurred only in Laos, and therefore we thought it was an appropriate name.

AN UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS

Laurel Neme: What happened after publication of the scientific description for Laotriton laoensis?

Bryan Stuart: Something unusual happened. We published that description, and then I set out on the business of working on other projects. What happened then was something very unexpected. Because this species of salamander was very, very poorly known - it was essentially known only from the two localities that were presented in its original description, and just based on very, very few animals - and it was such a large and colorful and warty animal that was so unusual, a demand was created by people who collect amphibians and reptiles for the pet trade.

There is a demand to have rare species in private hobbyist collections. What I never anticipated would happen is that commercial collectors used the scientific description of this species, used the actual scientific journal as a sort of road map, for how to go and find it and commercially exploit it for profit.

What happened was, both almost simultaneously, some commercial collectors from Germany and commercial collectors from Japan converged on the small geographic area in Laos where it occurred and, illegally, without permission, started collecting these animals and paying local people to collect them. Ultimately, very large numbers of these animals were illegally taken out of Laos, and sold for a very high value in Japan and Europe.

Laurel Neme: How much were they selling for? And how many were collected?

Bryan Stuart: The price varies, but essentially local people were paid approximately ten to twenty U.S. cents per individual [salamander], and then they're selling back in Europe or Japan for the equivalent of over 200 Euros a piece; so, a very striking price difference.

But it became a real worry because the salamander was only known from these two little streams, and commercial collectors had converged on those two small areas where the species was known to commercially exploit it for profit. There was some real worry that in fact this species might be threatened with extinction from its practice.

TAKING ACTION

Laurel Neme: What did you do when you found this out?

Bryan Stuart: I did two things, almost simultaneously. The first was I teamed up with two other herpetologists who had very similar things happen to them and we published a letter to the editor in the journal of Science.

During the course of their work in doing biodiversity science, in describing species, so that ultimately these species can be recognized and conserved, they had the same thing happen where, unexpectedly, commercial collectors used those descriptions to exploit the species for commercial profit, because these were rare, newly known species.

In addition to the Lao newts, we had an example of a gecko from Southern China and a turtle that was known only from a very small island in Indonesia. Both of these commanded very high dollar in the pet trade given their rarity and their beauty.

So, we wrote this letter to the editor of the journal of Science asking the community the questions: What it is that we need to do as taxonomists, as people who discover and describe species? How do we continue to do that work with the intended good of having these things recognized so that they can be conserved without inadvertently subjecting these populations to commercial exploitation, and eventually extirpation or even extinction?"

At the same time, it was very clear to me that we needed more information on the status of this newt in Laos. By this time, I had started working with my colleagues at the National University of Laos, in this cooperative program with the Wildlife Conservation Society, and it was very obvious to me that this species of newt is known only from Laos. [I thought to myself] why should it be that I am the world's expert on this species when, in fact, its entire known range occurs within the country of Laos. Why not have a Lao person be the world's expert on that species? So, I recruited a student who was interested in taking on the project. Her name was Somphouthone Phimmachak, and she was one of the first students to enter the new Masters of Science program at the National University of Laos. Her background was in fisheries science, and she really knew very little about amphibians when she and I started working together. But she turned out to be extremely competent, extremely bri!
ght, and very quickly amassed tremendous information on amphibians of her country, especially salamanders. She took on the Lao newt to be the focal species for her Master's thesis. Her thesis, which she finished in 2010, became the first Masters of Science degree ever awarded from her country, and she is one of Laos' first national herpetologists.

Laurel Neme: What is she doing now?

Bryan Stuart: She's currently enrolled in a PhD. Program in Bangkok, Thailand where I continue to co-supervise her, and she continues to work on salamanders of Laos, although a different group than the Lao newt.

Laurel Neme: What was the impact of her research on the Lao newt?

Bryan Stuart: In the course of her thesis work she documented the approximate extent of the geographic range of this Lao newt. She confirmed that this species occurs only in very high elevation, in the headwaters of streams, in a very small geographic area in northern Laos, an area that is essentially called the Xiangkhoang Plateau. So, she confirmed our suspicion that, indeed, it occurs not only just within Laos but within a very small area in Laos.

She learned that local people have historically for a very, very long time collected the animals in very small numbers for in some cases food, in other cases medicinal purposes, such as the wedding alcohol example I gave earlier, but that there was no real significant commercial trade in the species, until just a few years ago when foreign commercial collectors for the pet trade visited Laos and set up these trade networks to collect it, illegally export it, and sell it in Japan and the West for profit for the pet trade. And since those activities started, there is now a very large network for the species, and it is very heavily harvested.

What's unfortunate is the newt occurs not only in a small geographic area but, within that small geographic area, it occurs only in within certain streams, at the very high elevation portions of those streams. [Plus,] it's a species that you can see very easily [both] during the day in these small stream pools and also at night. They tend not to be shy because they have very toxic skin secretions. They're very comfortable walking about the bottoms of these stream pools during the day and that makes them very readily harvested by people.

Laurel Neme: How has the ease of harvesting these salamanders affected their populations?

Bryan Stuart: In response to these demands that were set up by foreign collectors, the animal can be collected in very high numbers, very quickly. For example, villagers would often report to us selling this very rare, locally endemic Lao newt to visiting traders not by the number of individual salamanders, but by the kilogram-representing enormous numbers of these salamanders. It's really quite tragic what happened.

A HAPPIER ENDING

Laurel Neme: Is that the end of the story? Is the newt still being traded?

Bryan Stuart: There's sort of a happy end to the story. As a result of Somphouthone Phimmachak's thesis work on documenting the distribution, the natural history, and the conservation of the species, her efforts led to the Lao newt being formally listed in 2008 as a Nationally Protected Species in Laos. That status, called a Category 1 species, now makes it illegal to conduct any commercial trade in the species. So, thanks to her efforts, that species is now, at least by law, protected from those activities.

This [scientific species] description has taken me to places where I never expected it would. What started out as this very straightforward species description, then became quite a shocking tale of me inadvertently, unexpectedly, subjecting the species to extinction because of demand by people who were motivated by greed and profit. Then, ultimately, getting the Lao on board with it, and passing this ownership of the project to them, and helping a Lao biologist become the world's expert in a species that is known only from their country. Then they, in turn, push forward the protection of the species in their country. That, I think, is the way I would hope to always work in the future: working very carefully with local scientists and students, trying to understand the biodiversity collaboratively, and ultimately making sure that the responsibility of what to do about that biodiversity really falls on my in-country partners. This example of the Lao newt shows that ultimately, !
in terms of the conservation of these species, that kind of collaborative activity is really critical.

AVOIDING "RUNS" ON NEW SPECIES

Laurel Neme: What can you do to prevent this situation (overexploitation of newly discovered species) in the future? Could you delay the scientific description until protections were in place? Or would that also be counterproductive because a description, that tells what they are and where they occur, is necessary for conservation?

Bryan Stuart: That is indeed one of the solutions that was put forward from this problem that was raised - for the descriptions of species that we have advanced knowledge of that may be commercially valuable, perhaps we should coincide those descriptions with legislation that will protect them from overexploitation. It's difficult to come up with very many other solutions.

In some cases, I know that some other museum curators, such as myself, while we are motivated by trying to make all the information from the collections that we are responsible for as freely available to the public as we can, we do try to keep in mind stories like the one I've just reported, where there are those few bad apples out there, people who are looking to obtain those data not for scientific activities but rather for personal profit. There are commercially valuable species in museum collections, and in some cases releasing the details on where they came from may inadvertently lead to their exploitation, in the manner like I just described. Now that this is becoming more and more of an issue with other examples around the world, many museum curators, for example, restrict providing detailed locality information on certain commercially valuable and vulnerable species.

But it's not an easy problem because at the end of the day, just as you hinted, if we're really going to conserve these things we must know what they are and where they occur. Keeping those descriptions and their localities a secret ultimately does almost nothing both in terms of advancing science and in terms of conserving these species. It's a big problem, and I think it's a problem that requires more discussion, within the community.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Laurel Neme: What can people or consumers do to prevent this problem?

Bryan Stuart: I hope that this issue raises some awareness when people purchase amphibians and reptiles as pets. The pet trade is not a small industry; it's a very large industry. And the keeping of amphibians and reptiles as pets is now a major industry. Fortunately, there are many species of amphibians and reptiles, especially reptiles, that have been bred in captivity for many, many generations, and are widely kept as popular pet. In fact, many of these snakes in particular, come in a wide variety of artificially produced color morphs, and so on. I think it's great when people are maintaining these captive-born animals as pets, provided they're responsible enough to not release them into the wild, in that they often will generate enthusiasm for people to learn about amphibians and reptiles, and enthusiasm about keeping these kinds of animals alive in the world rather than persecuting them - because snakes and other reptiles are heavily persecuted by people who misundersta!
nd them.

But, on the other hand, there are a lot of species in the pet trade that are not captive-bred but rather wild-caught animals. The trade in wild-caught animals for the pet trade is very, very large. I think some consumer awareness is badly needed. Often people will go down to a pet store and purchase a beautiful amphibian or reptile without considering its source. Oftentimes, those are rare species that were indeed wild caught, and by purchasing them as pets they're providing a motivation for more of that exploitation.

The Lao newt is an extreme example. I hope that it generates some awareness that actually the trade in wild-caught animals for the pet industry can be detrimental.

All in their heads? CDC finds no physical cause for strange creepy-crawly affliction

2012-02-08T10:00:00.002+01:00

ATLANTA — Imagine having the feeling that tiny bugs are crawling on your body, that you have oozing sores and mysterious fibers sprouting from your skin. Sound like a horror movie? Well, at one point several years ago, government doctors were getting up to 20 calls a day from people saying they had such symptoms.

Many of these people were in California and one of that state’s U.S. senators, Dianne Feinstein, asked for a scientific study. In 2008, federal health officials began to study people saying they were affected by this freakish condition called Morgellons.

The study cost nearly $600,000. Its long-awaited results, released Wednesday, conclude that Morgellons exists only in the patients’ minds.

“We found no infectious cause,” said Mark Eberhard, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official who was part of the 15-member study team.

The study appears in PLoS One, one of the Public Library of Science journals.

Sufferers of Morgellons (mor-GELL-uns) describe a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, erupting sores, crawling sensations on their skin and — perhaps worst of all — mysterious red, blue or black fibers that sprout from their skin. Some say they’ve suffered for decades, but the syndrome wasn’t named until 2002, when “Morgellons” was chosen from a 1674 medical paper describing similar symptoms.

Afflicted patients have documented their suffering on websites and many have vainly searched for a doctor who believed them. Some doctors believe the condition is a form of delusional parasitosis, a psychosis in which people believe they are infected with parasites.

Last May, Mayo Clinic researchers published a study of 108 Morgellons patients and found none of them suffered from any unusual physical ailment. The study concluded that the sores on many of them were caused by their own scratching and picking at their skin.

The CDC study was meant to be broader, starting with a large population and then went looking for cases within the group. The intent was to give scientists a better idea of how common Morgellons actually is.

They focused on more than 3 million people who lived in 13 counties in Northern California, a location chosen in part because all had health insurance through Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, which had a research arm that could assist in the project. Also, many of the anecdotal reports of Morgellons came from the area.

Culling through Kaiser patient records from July 2006 through June 2008, the team found — and was able to reach — 115 who had what sounded like Morgellons. Most were middle-aged white women. They were not clustered in any one spot.

That led to the finding that Morgellons occurred in roughly 4 out of every 100,000 Kaiser enrollees. “So it’s rare,” Eberhard said.

Roughly 100 agreed to at least answer survey questions, and about 40 consented to a battery of physical and psychological tests that stretched over several days.

Blood and urine tests and skin biopsies checked for dozens of infectious diseases, including fungus and bacteria that could cause some of the symptoms. The researchers found none that would explain the cases.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/all-in-their-heads-cdc-finds-no-physical-cause-for-strange-creepy-crawly-affliction/2012/01/25/gIQAOnF8QQ_story.html

SeaWorld sued over 'enslaved' killer whales

2012-02-08T10:00:00.000+01:00

Five killer whales have been named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit which argues they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans.

A US judge is considering a complaint by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (Peta) against SeaWorld.

It is reportedly the first time a US court has heard legal arguments over whether animals should enjoy the same constitutional protections as humans.

SeaWorld's legal team said the case was a waste of time and resources.

The marine park's lawyer, Theodore Shaw, told the court in San Diego: "Neither orcas nor any other animal were included in the 'We the people'... when the Constitution was adopted."

He said that if the case were successful, it could have implications not just on how other marine parks or zoos operate, but even on the police use of sniffer dogs to detect bombs and drugs.

'Historic case'

Peta says the killer whales are treated like slaves for being forced to live in tanks and perform daily at the SeaWorld parks in California and Florida.

It is not considered likely that the whales will win their freedom, but campaigners said they were pleased the case even made it to a courtroom.

The lawsuit invokes the 13th Amendment to the constitution, which abolished "slavery or involuntary servitude" in the US.

Jeffrey Kerr, the lawyer representing the five whales, said: "For the first time in our nation's history, a federal court heard arguments as to whether living, breathing, feeling beings have rights and can be enslaved simply because they happen to not have been born human.

"By any definition these orcas have been enslaved here."

Hearing the arguments for about an hour, US District Judge Jeffrey Miller raised concerns over whether animals could be represented as plaintiffs in a lawsuit.

He will issue a ruling at a later date.

Peta names the five wild-captured orca plaintiffs as Tilikum and Katina, at SeaWorld Orlando; and Kasatka, Corky, and Ulises, at SeaWorld San Diego.

It is not Tilikum's first time in the media spotlight - he drowned his trainer before horrified spectators in February 2010, prompting a ban on the Florida park's employees entering the water to perform tricks with the orcas.

The same whale has also been linked to two other deaths.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16920866

Domestic Cats, and Wild Bobcats and Pumas, Living in Same Area Have Same Diseases

2012-02-07T13:21:00.000+01:00

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2012) — Domestic cats, wild bobcats and pumas that live in the same area share the same diseases. And domestic cats may bring them into human homes, according to results of a study of what happens when big and small cats cross paths.

Initial results of the multi-year study were recently published in the scientific journal PLoS One by a group of 14 authors.

The joint National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases (EEID) Program funded the study. Scientists at Colorado State University and other institutions conducted the research.

It provides evidence that domestic cats and wild cats that share the same outdoor areas in urban environments also can share diseases such as Bartonellosis andToxoplasmosis. Both can be spread from cats to people.

"Human-wildlife interactions will continue to increase as human populations expand," said Sam Scheiner, program director for EEID at NSF.

"This study demonstrates that such interactions can be indirect and extensive," said Scheiner. "Through our pets we are sharing their diseases, which can affect our health, our pets' health and wildlife health."

Read on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120206164632.htm

ATM Gives Out Dead Mouse

2012-02-07T13:18:00.001+01:00

You know the economy is really going to bloody hell when ATMs start to pay bank customers with dead rodents, which is exactly what happened to this guy on the right. He got his cash and the dead Mickey on the left.

His name is Gholam Hafezi and he was visiting his daughter in Ersboda, Umeå, in the north of Sweden. He wanted to take out 700 Swedish Kronor from this ATM located inside a Coop Forum, one of the shops of a famous Swedish supermarket chain: "I got my 700 kronor but I never got the receipt. At the same time, I saw a cord that was jamming the ATM slot."

Yes, you know where this is going. But Hafezi didn't at the time. He thought somebody may be trying to do something illegal, so he tried to pull the cord. He then realized it was a mouse tail.

He ran to the supermarket's customer service people and asked for help. They told him that the ATM was not their responsibility but the guys in charge of the shopping carts offered their help. One of them was finally able to take out the whole mouse: "he took out the mouse. His head was intact although a little bit bloody. Then I got my receipt."

http://gizmodo.com/5880209/this-atm-gave-out-this-dead-mouse-after-delivering-cash?tag=wtf

Glacier thief arrested in Chile

2012-02-07T13:16:00.000+01:00

Climate change sceptics have acquired a new explanation for why glaciers are retreating: it's not global warming, it's theft.

Police in Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region to sell as designer ice cubes in bars and restaurants.

Local media reported that last Friday police intercepted a refrigerated truck with an estimated £3,900 worth of illicit ice allegedly bound for whiskies, rums and cocktails in the capital Santiago.

Authorities have accused the driver of theft and are considering adding violation of national monuments to the charge sheet.

Scientists say Jorge Montt, part of the Bernardo O'Higgins national park, is retreating by half a mile a year, making it one of the world's fastest shrinking glaciers.

Environmentalists have cited it as evidence that man-made climate change is warming the planet. Sceptics have cited other explanations for retreating glaciers, but theft – until now – was not one of them. It may be the only case in which both sides agree human activity was to blame.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/01/glacier-thief-arrested-ice-cubes

'Cat-Eye' Boy Video Said To Show Chinese Child Who Sees In Dark

2012-02-07T13:14:00.000+01:00

According to a news reel from China, a young boy there possesses the ability to see in the dark. Like a Siamese cat's, his sky-blue eyes flash neon green when illuminated by a flashlight, and his night vision is good enough to enable him to fill out questionnaires while sitting in a pitch black room — or so say the reporters who visited Nong Yousui in his hometown of Dahua three years ago.

The footage of Nong and his strange-looking eyes originally surfaced in 2009; it got little attention at the time, but is now making a splash all over the Web. If the boy really does have a genetic mutation that confers night vision, then he would be an interesting subject for analysis by vision scientists, evolutionary biologists, and genetic engineers alike — but does he?

The experts we shared the video with say Nong does have unusually colored irises considering his ethnicity, but he's not the next step in human evolution.

Night vision is made possible by a layer of cells, called the tapetum lucidum, in the eyes of cats and other nocturnal animals. This thin layer is a "retroreflector" — when a beam of light hits it, it reflects the light directly back along its incoming path. The reflected beam constructively interferes with the incoming light beam, amplifying the overall signal that hits the retina and enabling the animal to see in very low-light conditions. Retroreflection also causes cat eyes to flash when they are lit upon at night, and experts say Nong's eyes, if they are truly catlike, should do the same. [Red-Green & Blue-Yellow: The Stunning Colors You Can't See]

"It would be easy to test the boy’s eyes for retroreflection (eyeshine), which would be indicative of a tapetum lucidum," said Nathaniel Greene, a physicist at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania who has studied retroreflection.

Read on and see video: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/cat-eyes-boy_n_1244543.html

Bird numbers plummet around stricken Fukushima plant

2012-02-07T13:09:00.000+01:00

Researchers working around Japan's disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life.

In the first major study of the impact of the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the researchers, from Japan, the US and Denmark, said their analysis of 14 species of bird common to Fukushima and Chernobyl, the Ukrainian city which suffered a similar nuclear meltdown, showed the effect on abundance is worse in the Japanese disaster zone.

The study, published next week in the journal Environmental Pollution, suggests that its findings demonstrate "an immediate negative consequence of radiation for birds during the main breeding season [of] March [to] July".

Two of the study's authors have spent years working in the irradiated 2,850 sq metre zone around the Chernobyl single-reactor plant, which exploded in 1986 and showered much of Europe with caesium, strontium, plutonium and other radioactive toxins. A quarter of a century later, the region is almost devoid of people.

Timothy Mousseau and Anders Pape Moller say their research uncovered major negative effects among the bird population, including reductions in longevity and in male fertility, and birds with smaller brains.

Many species show "dramatically" elevated DNA mutation rates, developmental abnormalities and extinctions, they add, while insect life has been significantly reduced.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bird-numbers-plummet-around-stricken-fukushima-plant-6348724.html