Penguins have gotten a bad reputation as being some of nature's loudest squawkers, earning them the nickname "jackass penguins." But scientists behind a recent study have finally figured out what these noisy birds are trying to say, according to a press release. (Photo : Favaro et al.; CC-BY)
Penguins have gotten a bad reputation as being some of nature's loudest squawkers, earning them the nickname "jackass penguins." But scientists behind a recent study have finally figured out what these noisy birds are trying to say, according to a press release.
They are doing more than just yelling, according to Italian scientists who recently deciphered a variety of African penguin vocalizations. It is known that they communicate with their parents, mates and colony members, but up until now scientists only had a general idea of what they were saying.
By comparing hundreds of audio and video recordings of a captive bird colony, the authors were able to come up with a penguin vocabulary, which is described in the journal PLOS ONE.
The results showed that adult penguins have a repertoire of four distinct vocalizations: a brief contact call emitted by isolated birds, an agonistic call used in aggressive interactions, a mutual display song vocalized by pairs at their nests, and an ecstatic display song uttered by single birds looking for a mate during the breeding season (a la "Happy Feet"), shown in the following video:
Young penguins and chicks have their own vocabulary, too. Nesting chicks - less than three months old - use begging peeps to ask parents for food, while unweaned juveniles - between three and 12 months - vocalize deeper begging moans.
Since the colony used in this study is captive, researchers note that it's possible they haven't identified all the possible vocalizations among penguin populations, but they suggest this analysis will help to standardize known vocalizations that can be used in further study of these endangered seabirds.
African penguins are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN), as commercial fishing off the southern coast of Africa has depleted the bird's food supply. Understanding how these birds communicate, according to The Dodo, can be helpful in protecting this species.
Ebola may be present in more animals than previously thought, according to researchers studying the virus. So far, it has been detected in chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, antelopes, porcupines, rodents, dogs, pigs and humans. (Photo : Pixabay)
Ebola may be present in more animals than previously thought, according to researchers studying the virus. So far, it has been detected in chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, antelopes, porcupines, rodents, dogs, pigs and humans.
Humans and primates are particularly susceptible to the deadly disease, at least to certain strains. During the outbreak currently wreaking havoc in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Ebola has killed 670 people thus far and infected more than 1,000.
"The close evolutionary relationship between humans, chimpanzees and gorillas makes their immune systems very similar," Peter Walsh, a primate expert at the University of Cambridge, told Discovery News.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), humans contract Ebola - formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever - via direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people. During an outbreak like this most recent one, those at the highest risk of being infected are health workers, family members and others in close contact with sick people and deceased patients.
Eating or handling bush meats are also potential sources of Ebola, but experts are now focusing on fruit bats, which they believe harbor the illness. Ebola is fatal in up to 90 percent of humans who become infected, according to the WHO. Most of the infected bats appear to come from the following three species: Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti and Myonycteris torquata.
"In general, Ebola researchers think that the natural host of Ebola virus are fruit bats, and that the virus is transmitted to non-human primates and then to humans through the bush meat trade," Purdue University's David Sanders, one of the world's leading experts on zoonotic diseases, told Discovery News.
He added, "It is possible that there is direct transmission from fruit bats to humans."
In certain African cultures humans eat bat meat, but as for non-human primates, they might become infected by consuming the same fruit that bats eat.
Sanders and his team found that even the way Ebola infects human cells is nearly identical - both structurally and biochemically - to the way that similar viruses enter bird cells. This suggests that the proteins of the virus had a fairly recent ancestor.
"It is therefore possible that Ebola was at one time associated with a bird host and may even be so today," Sanders said, adding that the bird must be native to Central Africa, where Ebola was first discovered in 1976.
Tuesday's International Tiger Day highlights the need for drastic action to protect tigers in the wild, which are increasingly at risk of being wiped out because of both humanity and climate change. (Photo : World Wildlife Fund)
Tuesday's International Tiger Day highlights the need for drastic action to protect tigers in the wild, which are increasingly at risk of being wiped out because of both humanity and climate change.
The day is meant to raise awareness of the dwindling population of this beautiful and exotic species. It was founded four years ago at the 2010 Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit, and since then has been celebrated every July 29, according to Blue & Green Tomorrow.
A century ago, there were hundreds of thousands of tigers roaming in the wild, but due to hunting and forest destruction there are now as few as 3,200, the National Geographic estimates, with three sub-species already extinct. And with all remaining five sub-species listed as endangered, conservationists worry that soon all the tigers will be gone.
Threats to the Big Cats
According to Blue & Green, some people worry that all wild tigers will become extinct in the next five years as threats persist. Deforestation continues to reduce their habitats, as seen in Indonesia where a study in June found 840,000 hectares of Indonesian forest had been cleared and is consequently pushing Sumatran tigers to the edge of extinction.
And if loss of habitat isn't enough, this is actually making the tigers more vulnerable to illegal hunting, their other biggest threat. Tigers are often victims of poaching, wanted by hunters for their valuable fur and body parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicines.
The Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference decided to take decisive action against the illegal tiger trade this past February when they met at a London conference. They agreed to strengthen law enforcement against the illegal practice, renounce the use of wildlife products from species threatened with extinction, and amend legislation to make poaching and wildlife trafficking "serious crimes" under the terms of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, according to a press release.
"Tonight we are here with a single, shared purpose - to use our collective influence to put a stop to the illegal killing and trafficking of some of our world's most iconic and endangered species," Britain's Prince William, who attended the conference, told guests in a speech.
"Never before has a group like this come together - in these numbers - to stop the illegal trade in wildlife. All of us in this room have a duty to make sure that tomorrow is a date that marks the beginning of the end of this despicable trade."
The summit talked of illegal trade in elephants and rhinos as well as tigers.
Illegal trade has also taken away tigers sources of prey, leading to food scarcity and reduction in numbers.
(Photo : Reuters) Police officers displaying tiger skin confiscated from a group of smugglers in Chennai, India.
A recent study by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) also found that rising sea levels due to climate change is a threat to tiger habitats. Large populations of Bengal tigers in Sundarbans, a forest on the cost of the Indian Ocean, could be destroyed by 2070 if sea levels continue to rise.
"If we don't take steps to address the impacts of climate change on the Sundarbans, the only way its tigers will survive this century is with scuba gear," lead author Colby Loucks, WWF's deputy director of conservation science, said in a press release.
"Tigers are a highly adaptable species, thriving from the snowy forests of Russia to the tropical forests of Indonesia. The projected sea level rise in the Sundarbans will likely outpace the tiger's ability to adapt."
The Sundarbans, which covers parts of India and Bangladesh, is home to between 250 and 400 tigers. Though their population numbers are just as estimate, tigers living is this forest reportedly represent as many as 10 percent of all the remaining wild tigers on Earth.
"The mangrove forest of the Bengal tiger now joins the sea-ice of the polar bear as one of the habitats most immediately threatened as global temperatures rise during the course of this century," added Keya Chatterjee, acting director of WWF's climate change program.
From the Wild to Captivity
According to the WWF, more tigers don't live in the wild, but in captivity. About 5,000 of these exotic animals, which can weigh up to 500 pounds, are kept in captivity in the United States.
"Most of the people who buy tigers are what you could call impulse buyers," Zoe Taft, the director of the Exotic Feline Rescue Centre in Indiana, warned via The Independent. "People who say, 'If I raise a cub, it won't bite me, will it?'"
One infamous incident in particular shows just how dangerous it can be to keep these wild animals in cages - especially when kept in private zoos.
In October 2011, exotic pet owner Terry Thompson committed suicide, but not before setting loose his dangerous menagerie into the local community in Zanesville, Ohio. First responders were forced to shoot more than 10 captive tigers and other animals.
In total six black bears, two grizzlies, two wolves, one macaque monkey, one baboon, three mountain lions, nine male lions and eight lionesses were killed in what has since been referred to as a massacre. But for conservationists, the biggest loss was the death of 18 Bengal tigers, one of the world's rarest and iconic creatures.
"As the Zanesville incident showed, it's critical for America to clear out captive big cats from our backyards. This is a matter not only of public safety, but also of preventing captive tigers from being fed into the massive illegal tiger trade driven by a booming black market for tiger products," said Leigh Henry, WWF Species Policy Expert.
One the first anniversary of this tragedy in 2012, a new law was introduced to Congress to ban the buying tigers from Americans other than those affiliated with accredited zoos or wildlife sanctuaries. Those who violate the Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act will face up to five years in prison.
"It's a little hard to believe that there's a crazy patchwork of regulations governing people who try to keep wild cats as pets," US Secretary of State John Kerry, a backer of the bill, said in a release when it was submitted. "This bill will ensure that these endangered creatures are kept in secure, professional facilities like wildlife sanctuaries rather than in small cages in someone's backyard or apartment building."
Previously only nine states had laws preventing the keeping of wild animals such as tigers as pets. This new law - supported by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Born Free USA, Humane Society of United States and Big Cat Rescue - is a giant step towards protecting wild tigers from leading an unnaturally cruel lifestyle, and meeting the same fate as those killed in the Zanesville catastrophe.
International Tiger Day says people can help by donating or simply raising awareness and is supported by many organizations including, WWF, Wildlife Conservation Society and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Thousands of tiny silvery fish are washing up dead along the waterways of the north Oregon coast - namely around the coast town of Seaside. The hundreds-of-thousands of fish reportedly died trying to swim up the Necanicum River, coming in with the tide only to get stranded shore-side and die. (Photo : Flickr: jenny downing)
Thousands of tiny silvery fish are washing up dead along the waterways of the north Oregon coast - namely around the coast town of Seaside. The hundreds-of-thousands of fish reportedly died trying to swim up the Necanicum River, coming in with the tide only to get stranded shore-side and die.
Tiffany Boothe, a representative from Seaside's Aquarium told local media that this kind of thing is not terribly unusual, although this specific mass death is larger than many seen in the past.
Boothe told the Oregon Coast Beach Connection that this morbid (and smelly) occurrence happens every few years around Seaside, as anchovy populations swell to unmanageable numbers. The Necanium River, too small to support such massive numbers, quickly becomes depleted of oxygen and the anchovies choke to death
"It may not seem like it, but this is a sign that the anchovies along our coastline are doing good," Boothe said. "It also provides a lot of food for birds and marine mammals."
Experts speculate that this anchovy influx occasionally occurs when a large cold-water upwelling from the deeper ocean brings up more nutrients, attracting bait fish en masse.
"It's going to smell for a couple of days probably," Boothe apologetically told Oregon's KGW.
Some experts expect that deep ocean upwelling is going to become more common as sea levels rise across the globe and atmospheric wind patterns continue to change.
Earlier this month, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography spotted a massive school of countless anchovies passing by the California coast. Why exactly a school that size, which is normally seen in much deeper waters, was swimming along a coast-line remains a mystery.
Even earlier this summer, thousands of fish in Belmar, New Jersey similarly washed up dead along the shores of Shark River. Experts found that they were asphyxiated, suggesting a phenomenon similar to what is seen Necanium River. However, what was unusual was that veteran fishermen of Shark River reported that this was the first time a mass death happened at that location in thier lifetime.
Pangolins are insect-eating mammals native to Asia that resemble a cross between an armadillo and an artichoke. However, these unusual critters have recently been identified as exceptionally vulnerable and "critically endangered," largely due to a little known illegal trade that is treating Pangolin meat as a high-end delicacy. (Photo : Wildlife Alliance)
Pangolins are insect-eating mammals that resemble a cross between an armadillo and an artichoke. However, these unusual critters have recently been identified as exceptionally vulnerable and "critically endangered," largely due to a little known illegal trade that is treating Pangolin meat as a high-end delicacy.
As of this week, all eight species of pangolins across the world were labeled at least "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC), adding them to the group's Red List of Threatened Species.
Asian pangolins, which consists of four species, are considered in the most immediate danger. The Indian and Philippine pangolin has been officially listed as an endangered species, while Chinese and Sunda species of the animal have been listed as "critically endangered" - in dire need of protection.
On Thursday, the IUCN released a new plan to address this dire need, asking specifically for cooperation from the Chinese and Vietnamese governments.
Jonathan Baillie, Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group and Conservation Programme, explained that while there is a legal trade of pangolin scales - used in traditional medicines - in these countries, the illegal trade of the animal's meat is swelling scale supplies, leaving a vital clue that can help track and shut down slaughter of the protected species.
"In the 21st Century we really should not be eating species to extinction - there is simply no excuse for allowing this illegal trade to continue," he said.
"A vital first step [in our global strategy] is for the Chinese and Vietnamese governments to conduct an inventory of their pangolin scale stocks and make this publically available to prove that wild-caught pangolins are no longer supplying the commercial trade," Dan Challender, Co-Chair of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group, added.
While exact numbers are difficult to track, the pangolin is suspected to be one of the most trafficked mammals in the world. Just last year, 400 boxes containing nearly 2000 dressed pangolin carcasses was seized from the F/V Min Long Yu, a Chinese fishing vessel that had run aground on the Tubbataha Reefs, the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) reported.
This was a grisly reminder on how intense pangolin poaching is, and how little it is controlled.
WWF Philippines Vice-chair and CEO Jose Ma. Lorenzo Tan said that day that he believes the best way to protect pangolins is not to target the trade, but instead target the people.
"When the buying stops, the killing will, too," he said.
Corded Ware sherds (Photo : Finnish National Board of Antiquities/ University of Bristol )
Residents of Finland began farming dairy cows some 4500 years ago, a new study suggests.
Finland is covered with snow for about four months in a year. A new research shows that despite suffering from such harsh winters, the Finns have been supplementing their diets with dairy products since 2500 BC .
The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B and was based on the analysis of pot remains from prehistoric times.
This is the first time that researchers have found that people living north of 60 degrees drank milk 4500 years ago.
"We thought our ancestors would have supported themselves with locally-available natural resources, because feeding your own animals in freezing cold winters would've been challenging to say the least," said Dr Lucy Cramp of the University of Bristol, lead author of the study, according to PlanetEarth.
Scientists at the Bristol University and colleagues conducted the study. The team even looked at milk digestion abilities of modern-day residents of the region.
The 70 pot fragments used in the study are from two different eras: one from 3900 BC to 3300 BC and circa 2500 BC.
"This is remarkable evidence which proves that four and a half thousand years ago, Stone Age people must have been foddering and sheltering domesticated animals over harsh winters, in conditions that even nowadays we would find challenging," said Cramp in a news release.
According to the researchers, dairy farming originated some 11,000 years ago in the Near East. In Finland, 'Corded Ware' settlements saw the introduction of animal domestication some 4500 years ago.
Genetic analysis of modern-day Finns showed that they have the required genes to digest milk.
"The Finns are the biggest milk drinkers in the world. This is reflected in their genetics - those living in the western and southern parts have got the highest incidence of the lactase persistence allele which means they can digest the milk sugar lactose,' said Cramp, according to PlanetEarth. 'It shows what a critical staple it was to their diet."
In the animal kingdom, it has long been seen that even newborns know to fear certain predators or situations long before they could have possibly learned for themselves about that threat. This has baffled researchers for years, especially among those who scoff at the notion of intrinsic, or "pre-programmed," fears at birth. Now, a new study suggests that these initial fears are not intrinsic, but shared by their mother through odor alone. (Photo : Pixabay)
In the animal kingdom, it has long been seen that even newborns know to fear certain predators or situations long before they could have possibly learned for themselves about that threat. This has baffled researchers for years, especially among those who scoff at the notion of intrinsic, or "pre-programmed," fears at birth. Now, a new study suggests that these initial fears are not intrinsic, but shared by their mother through odor alone.
According to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers were able to transfer a fear of peppermint from mothers to their newborn offspring in a controlled experiment.
They achieved this after teaching several female lab rats to fear the smell of spearmint by pairing the smell with mild electric shocks. Eventually, the rats learned to fear the smell alone, expecting a shock.
After giving birth, the children of these rats were found to fear the smell of peppermint too, but only after witnessing their mother grow weary in the wake of a peppermint odor.
"During the early days of an infant rat's life, they are immune to learning information about environmental dangers," study author Jacek Debiec said in a statement. "But if their mother is the source of threat information, we have shown they can learn from her and produce lasting memories."
But how exactly does this occur? According to the study, order is key. Not the odor of the peppermint mind you (although that was an important part of this experiment) but the odor of the rat pups' mother experiencing fear.
Like it is commonly said of sharks, wolves, and other intimidating animals, rats too can spell fear, at least among their own kind. Baby rats from a young age can at least learn that a threat is present simply from the odor of their fearful mother, which they will quickly learn to associate with that threat (in this case, peppermint).
Debiec next plans to apply these findings to what they know about fear circuitry in the brain, applying new knowledge to develop new ways to address and understand trauma, especially early childhood trauma, in humans.
The mating ritual of a recently discovered species of octopus is shattering the social norms of these marine creatures and shedding light on their unusual behavior patterns, according to new research. (Photo : Reuters)
The mating ritual of a recently discovered species of octopus is shattering the social norms of these marine creatures and shedding light on their unusual behavior patterns, according to new research.
Panamanian biologist Aradio Rodaniche first reported the Pacific striped octopus in 1991 off the coast of Nicaragua. Rodaniche noted its strange behavior - living in groups of up to 40 individuals, laying multiple egg clutches, and practicing rare reproductive rituals like mating face-to-face.
This mysterious creature, however, was not seen again for another 20 years until 2012 when Richard Ross, a biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, came across one and began studying it.
Ross was fascinated by the social behavior of these cephalopods.
"Regular octopus mating, where the male is behind and on top of the [female] - or far away - that's scary enough to watch... [but] watching these guys come and interact with their beaks - wrapped up in a ball of limbs - are they fighting or mating?" he said, according to National Geographic.
What's more, instead of laying all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, the females continuously lay litters of eggs, said biologist and octopus expert James Wood.
"Why not live to fight another day and reproduce again?" Wood told National Geographic.
However, he notes that this characteristic may make these eight-armed creatures vulnerable to changing environmental conditions.
Ross notes that much more studying is to be done to even begin to understand these fascinating marine animals. They must be observed from birth to death to fully understand their way of life - a feat easier said than done. Ross has not yet successfully raised hatchlings into adults and his captive octopus population is dwindling.
For octopus researchers, "there seems to be an eternal quest for 'the social octopus,'" said Jennifer Mather, a biologist and octopus expert at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.
And this species reminds us, Ross told The Dodo, that "There may be no outer limits."
A swarm of 1,000 angry killer bees stung a Texas man while mowing a park lawn this past Thursday, and he miraculously survived the ordeal, reports say. (Photo : REUTERS/Lisi Niesner )
A swarm of 1,000 angry killer bees stung a Texas man while mowing a park lawn this past Thursday, and he miraculously survived the ordeal, reports say.
The unidentified victim, a street department worker in Wichita Falls, Texas, accidentally disturbed the hive, putting the bees in defense mode. The county worker is currently in good condition at a local hospital. Two of his co-workers tried to help and fight off the bees, but to no avail - one of them was also brought to the hospital.
The attackers are believed to be Africanized honeybees, more commonly known as "killer bees," according to the local fire department.
Bee Keeper John Bouchard, said the hive the bees came from was the size of a basketball. A hive of that size can hold around 50,000 bees, Wichita Falls' News Channel 6 reported.
Africanized honeybees may have a bad rep, but they are not as lethal as their name suggests. In order to be deadly, the bees would likely have had to sting the man several hundred more times, experts say. In addition, the victim seems not to have been allergic to the bees. If he were, he likely would have gone into anaphylactic shock - a severe allergic reaction.
The average adult can tolerate about 10 stings per pound of body weight, so an adult could withstand more than 1,100 stings, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
An estimated 40 people in the United States die every year from stings by hymenoptera species - a group of insects that includes some 150,000 species of bees, wasps, ants and other bugs.
"With honeybees, in particular, the venom isn't really designed to kill. It's designed to educate - basically, to drive away an enemy and make sure the enemy doesn't repeat the threat," May Berenbaum, head of the department of entomology at the University of Illinois, told Live Science.
Unfortunately, one killer bee victim was not so lucky as the Wichita Falls worker. Last year in Waco, Texas, an estimated 40,000 Africanized honeybees attacked - who else - a local farmer mowing the grass, ABC News reported. Larry Goodwin, 62, sustained more than 3,000 stings before he collapsed and died.
The tennis center where the bees were disturbed during this most recent incident, as well as a nearby golf course, have been closed off to the public until authorities can be sure the insects have moved on.
Africanized honey bees attack in great numbers and will chase someone up to a quarter mile, according to the Smithsonian Institution. Instead of swatting away the bees, experts recommend running indoors for shelter.
Koalas may be cute and cuddly looking, but they are apparently tough as nails. On Friday, one koala (not pictured) proved his resilience when he was able to hang on to the back of a car's grill - unbeknownst to its passengers - for 50 miles and survive. (Photo : Pixabay)
Koalas may be cute and cuddly looking, but they are apparently tough as nails. On Friday, one koala proved his resilience when he was able to hang on to the back of a car's grill - unbeknownst to its passengers - for 50 miles and survive.
At a service station in Gympie, Australia, a taxi driver and four passengers were shocked to find an understandably shaken up-looking koala clinging for dear life to the back of the car. The vehicle had sped down the Bruce Highway last Friday for 50 miles before finding the poor animal.
The koala, dubbed Timberwolf, was likely struck by the car, and amazingly managed to hang on despite the harrowing trauma, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. The worst of his injuries was just a few scratches.
"It is absolutely amazing that he has such minor injuries and he survived," vet Claude Lacasse, from the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital where the koala was later taken in for treatment, told the Herald.
"It is a truly remarkable story. He is a very lucky koala."
(Photo : Facebook)
And Timberwolf, a four-year-old male, is not just lucky in the fact that he survived this terrifying journey. After being brought in to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, staff at the hospital found that the koala tested positive for chlamydia.
Throughout Australia, koalas are under threat from the disease, which is spread both sexually and from mother to offspring and can result in infertility, blindness, and even death. Wildlife authorities call it an epidemic, with as many as 90 percent of koalas in some regions having been infected, according to The Dodo.
Timberwolf will spend another month in the hospital receiving antibiotic treatment before he is given a clean bill of health and can return back to the wild.
Though these animals are often referred to as koala "bears," they are actually marsupials, and relatives of Australia's other signature animal, the kangaroo. They live in eastern Australia, where the eucalyptus trees they feed off of are plentiful, according to National Geographic. And when they aren't gnawing on their favorite plant, they are sleeping during the day, sometimes up to 18 hours.
Prairie dogs, which are susceptible to the deadly bubonic plague, may be saved by new social network research that sheds light on previously uncovered relationships between the animals. (Photo : Pixabay)
Prairie dogs, which are susceptible to the deadly bubonic plague, may be saved by new social network research that sheds light on previously uncovered relationships between the animals.
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) used statistical tools to map social connections in prairie dogs that until now were overlooked by traditional observational techniques. Understanding these connections may help scientists figure out how to limit the spread of bubonic plague and guide future conservation efforts.
"Prairie dogs are increasingly rare and are subject to bubonic plague," Dr. Jennifer Verdolin, lead author of a paper and an animal behavior researcher at NESCent, said in a statement.
"This work improves our understanding of the social dynamics within a prairie dog colony, which could help us find ways to mitigate the spread of plague. It also helps us understand how these social groups are connected, so we can limit the disruption to prairie dog populations when we need to relocate them for conservation purposes."
The study team analyzed data on three Gunnison's prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) colonies in Arizona, ranging in size from 60 to 200 individuals. And within each of these colonies are smaller social groups that are made up of up to 15 individuals.
One social interaction performed by prairies dogs called "greet kissing" was of particular interest to researchers. Greet kissing is when these animals briefly lock teeth with each other. This somewhat hostile behavior only happens between prairie dogs of different groups, after which they usually fight or chase one another.
By looking at data on greet kissing, Verdolin and her colleagues could determine which of these critters belonged to the same group.
This method also identified substructures within those social groups and key "bridge" individuals that connected different groups - findings that may have significant conservation applications.
"For example, there's a possibility that we could slow or stop the spread of plague in a colony by relocating these bridge individuals," said co-author Amanda Traud.
"By the same token," Verdolin added, "conservationists could use this data to be sure to relocate all of a relevant social group, rather than splitting up groups. That could improve the group's chances of thriving in a new environment."
The study's findings were published in the journal Ecological Complexity.
Soon the diminishing Pacific bluefin tuna population may be thrown a lifeline. The NOAA Fisheries Service is considering enacting a ban on both recreational and commercial fishing of the species in an effort to save it. (Photo : NOAA Fisheries)
Soon the diminishing Pacific bluefin tuna population may be thrown a lifeline. The NOAA Fisheries Service is considering enacting a ban on both recreational and commercial fishing of the species in an effort to save it.
According to The Dodo, there are just 40,000 adult Pacific bluefin tuna remaining in the wild today - four percent of the fish's historic average.
Commercial and recreational fisheries have targeted the Pacific bluefun tuna (Thunnus orientalis) for some time, but the rise of sushi and sashimi markets in the 1970's and 1980's caused the demand and prices for bluefin tuna to soar - prices have reached $1.76 million for a single fish.
And 90 percent of the fish caught are juveniles who haven't had the chance to breed before they die (usually only two years old and a mere three feet long). Bluefin tuna are late to mature, slow-growing, and long lived, so they are especially vulnerable to fishing pressure compared to faster growing, more productive species, according to the NOAA.
Thankfully for the tuna's sake, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) petitioned NOAA in April to consider putting the Pacific bluefin tuna on its list of endangered species along with Atlantic and southern Bluefin tuna.
"This initiation of this important process provides a glimmer of hope in a sea of bleak news for Pacific bluefin tuna," CBD Attorney Catherine Kilduff, said in a news release. "Saving Pacific bluefin tuna from the world's insatiable appetite for sushi requires action at all levels, starting with protection in U.S. waters."
Though the CBD is taking initiative, the international fight to save these fish is slow going. Just two weeks ago, Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) announced it was delaying discussions on fishing quotas until October after Japan, Korea, Mexico and the United States could not agree on conservation measures. The EU commission said in a statement that IATTC "failed to adopt any conservation measures on Bluefin tuna, despite strong scientific advice."
If the NOAA follows through on the CBD's request, the United States will have followed in Mexico's footsteps, which just prohibited commercial and recreational fishing for bluefin tuna for the remainder of 2014 (after reaching the international 5,000-metric-ton limit).
Bluefin tuna are really a remarkable species. They can reach speeds up to 60 mph. They spawn in the western Pacific near Japan, and some migrate to the California current as juveniles to feed on anchovy, herring and red crab.
Child and slave labor, military aggression, and profiteering have all been found to arise from declining animal populations, especially in the underdeveloped countries. Now experts are claiming that the "unprecedented loss of wildlife" seen within the last few decades is ushering in new conflict and human tragedy. (Photo : Flickr: Entrepreneurial Dreams. (Rakesh Rocky))
Child and slave labor, military aggression, and profiteering have all been found to arise from declining animal populations, especially in the underdeveloped countries. Now experts are claiming that the "unprecedented loss of wildlife" seen within the last few decades is ushering in new conflict and human tragedy.
Late last June, United Nations investigators and INTERPOL released a new report at the United National Environmental Assembly that details how the prevalence and profitability of environmental crimes has seen a dramatic rise in the last several years.
Now research promoted by the Wildlife Conservation Society has found that these crimes and the violence that stems from them is directly related to the notable drop in biodiversity and individual animal populations seen across the globe.
"Wildlife loss is widely viewed as a symptom of social unrest and injustice; we show with this work that is often the source of these social outcomes," research lead Justin Brashares said in a statement. "As such, wildlife management should be a central element of efforts to mitigate conflicts as seemingly disparate as child slavery, ivory trafficking, and piracy."
According to Beahsare's study, wild animals directly support an estimated 15 percent of the world's peoples and provides food for more than a billion of the world's poor. Will a great number of species across the globe slipping into decline, the authors argue that crime and conflict will rise.
"Unsustainable human exploitation of wildlife populations does not have singular effects on ecological integrity, but rather has far-reaching consequences that lead to the instability of our health, livelihoods and national security," said co-author Chris Golden.
According to Golden, the collection of thinning resources is leading to a sudden spike in need for labor, which in-turn promotes the child labor industry. As animal populations drop, their value increases, enhancing the profitability of poaching and illegal trade. Vigilante groups are also common products of declining wildlife populations.
These groups, which start with the admirable intentions of defending species their respective governments cannot protect, often slip into more thuggish roles over time and contribute to violence.
These observations and others are detailed in a study published in the journal Science on July 25.
"Light pollution" from artificial light in cities may affect the love lives of birds in the Viennese Forest, according to recent research. (Photo : Pixabay)
"Light pollution" from artificial light in cities may affect the love lives of birds in the Viennese Forest, according to recent research.
Artificial light has negative affects on humans and the environment, but it reportedly impacts the reproductive behavior of blue tits. Researchers are hopeful that their study could help develop concepts, minimizing negative effects on the lives of animals and the ecological system, by reducing light sources in specific regions.
The circadian rhythm or "body clock" influences the behavior of living beings, and for these birds they rely on light to know when it is time to mate, breed, forage or migrate. If the natural day and night rhythms are affected by artificial light, the natural behavioral patterns of the animals may also change.
"There are studies investigating the effect of artificial light on the orientation and activity of birds. Light, for instance, limits the sense of orientation, but also activity patterns in birds to a great extent," co-author Katharina Mahr said in a statement.
The Viennese research team tested the effects of artificial light by shining LED lights on parts of the Viennese Forests for a period of three weeks. They focused specifically on blue tits because they already know a lot about their reproductive and mating behavior, and could more easily detect changes in mating.
After experiencing two additional hours of light before sunrise and after sunset, the researchers found that female blue tits "get it on" with more male partners, showing that circadian rhythm influences mate choice.
"We assume that light at night affects the birds' strategies of choosing partners. Males, for instance, like to be in the 'limelight' whereas females might prefer to 'remain in the dark.' Thus, light may exert different effects on the love lives of the different sexes," Mahr explained.
Researchers speculate that more light at night means that the birds are restless and therefore more prone to occupying their time with other "activities."
"Urban lights are obviously important for human safety and comfort. Nevertheless, urban planning should take into account the question of where light sources are really necessary," Mahr added.
The study's findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.
Even the relatively minimal amount of radiation that was leaked during the Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster in 2011 is having a big impact on wild monkeys in the region. A new study has shown that monkeys in the Fukushima, Japan area are suffering from blood anomalies linked to nuclear fall-out. (Photo : Wiki CC0 - PMS2718)
Even the relatively minimal amount of radiation that was leaked during the Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster in 2011 is having a big impact on wild monkeys in the region. A new study has shown that monkeys in the Fukushima, Japan area are suffering from blood anomalies linked to nuclear fall-out.
According to a study published in Nature's Scientific Reports, local populations of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)near the Fukushima nuclear power plant were found to have low red and white blood cell counts, an abnormality that could lead to a weaker immune system.
The researchers determined this after observing and testing 61 monkeys living within 44 miles (70 km) of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
In 2011, a combined earthquake and Tsunami struck Japan's eastern coast, disrupting cooling processes at the power plant and resulting in a fire and reactor core meltdown threat. Thankfully, containment efforts were a large success, resulting in minimal radiation exposure, compared to previous reactor meltdown incidents seen throughout history. However, the range of radiocesium soil concentrations in Fukushima City were still 10,000-300,000 Bq/m2 following the disaster - high enough to be deemed a temporary health threat.
Two years following the incident, these monkeys - who boast 20-year life spans - had supposedly been living under the long term influence of low-level radiation.
Comparing the 61 subjects to 31 macaques living nearly 230 miles away from Fukushima, the researchers found that the Fukushima monkeys had significantly lower hemoglobin and blood cell counts compared to the distant monkeys.
"Abnormalities such as a decreased blood cell count in people living in contaminated areas have been reported from Chernobyl as a long-term effect of low-dose radiation exposure," Shin-ichi Hayama told the Guardian, adding that this study can help further an understanding of the consequences of long-term exposure to even extremely low levels of radiation.
Still, it is important to note that a direct link between radiation levels and the blood abnormalities was never found. Instead, the data just highlights a correlation.
Jim Smith, at the University of Portsmouth, told the Guardian that he is "highly sceptical" of Hayama's claim.
"The levels of radiocaesium in the Fukushima monkeys are about the same as those found in sheep in some parts of the UK following the Chernobyl accident, i.e. extremely low in terms of damage to the animals themselves," he said. "I think it much more likely that the apparently low blood cell counts are caused by something other than radiation."
A previous Nature World News report detailed how microbial life is extremely vulnerable to radiation, and this fact alone may contribute to some unusual natural phenomena.
Experts are proposing changes to shipping lanes off the coasts of Los Angeles and San Francisco, at least during summer and fall seasons, in order to reduce the number of whale deaths caused by collisions with large vessels. (Photo : "Mike" Michael L. Baird)
Experts are proposing changes to shipping lanes off the coasts of Los Angeles and San Francisco, at least during summer and fall seasons, in order to reduce the number of whale deaths caused by collisions with large vessels.
According to a study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers attached transmitters to 171 blue whales found off the coast of California at various times between 1993 and 2008.
These transmitters allowed experts to track whale distribution during various seasons, determining where exactly the massive creatures went to feed.
"The main areas that attract blue whales are highly productive, strong upwelling zones that produce large amounts of krill - which is pretty much all that they eat," lead author Ladd Irvine said in a public release. "The whales have to maximize their food intake during the summer before they migrate south for the winter, typically starting in mid-October to mid-November."
Thanks to funding from the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, and the National Geographic Society, along with significant funding from various universities and private parties, this is reportedly the most comprehensive study of blue whale travel patterns ever conducted.
And the study reports some striking findings. About of fourth of the worlds estimated 10,000 blue whales were found to be spending time in the waters off the West Coast, primarily feeding in areas that unfortunately put them in the direct paths of shipping vessels.
"Blue whales may not be as acoustically aware as species that rely on echolocation to find prey," explained Bruce Mate, who directs the Marine Mammal Institute at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Ore. "There is some evidence that the location of the engines in the rear of the ship creates something of an acoustic shadow in front of them, making it hard for whales to hear the ship coming."
However, the study's authors argue that simply adding a warning noise to these ships could do more harm than good.
"Putting some kind of noise deterrent on the ships isn't really an option," Mate said. "You don't really want to drive endangered whales out of their prime habitat and best feeding locations."
So what can be done? The researchers argue that moving the shipping lane "would not be unprecedented" and could potentially lead to a drop in whale collisions by a whopping 80 percent.
"It's not really our place to make management decisions, but we can inform policy-makers and in this case it is pretty straightforward," added co-author Daniel Palacios. "You will eliminate many of the ship strikes on blue whales by moving the shipping lanes south of the northern Channel Islands."
The study can be found published in PLOS ONE on July 23.
Squirrels living in urban areas like New York City may fare just as well - if not better - than their country counterparts, according to a new study in the Journal of Zoology. (Photo : Flickr)
Squirrels living in urban areas like New York City may fare just as well - if not better - than their country counterparts, according to a new study in the Journal of Zoology.
Living in a busy metropolitan park, squirrels have learned to assess which humans pose threats, running away when approached or even looked at.
"Optimal escape theory predicts that animals should moderate their flight responses according to the level of risk represented by a potential predator. This theory should apply even when organisms are habituated to disturbance, and how animals respond to human presence is likely to determine their success exploiting urban habitats," the authors wrote.
Australian researchers monitored squirrels in a park - home to roughly 800 squirrels - near Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan's lower east side. If humans strolling along kept to the footpath, squirrels did not budge or seem to mind them. But once a passerby left the path, or worse, made eye contact, the squirrels' flight response kicked in and they fled the scene.
"For a squirrel, the city provides a habitat with fewer predators than in the woods, and food tends to be available all year around," Bill Bateman, a wildlife biologist at Australia's Curtin University, said in a press release.
This may be, but Bateman points out that traffic "remains the biggest killer for all urban wildlife." About 4,000 squirrels get hit by a car every year.
Squirrels are familiar to just about everyone. More than 200 squirrel species live all over the world, with the exception of Australia.
Tree squirrels are the most commonly recognized, seen leaping from branch to branch, perhaps in Central Park. Other species are ground squirrels that live in burrow or tunnel systems, where some hibernate during the winter season, National Geographic reported.
All squirrels are omnivores, nibbling on everything from nuts, leaves, seeds and berries to insects and caterpillars.
While probably not seen in New York City, there's also the impressive flying squirrel. Although they can't actually fly, flaps of skin connecting their limbs allow them to soar through the sky in leaps and bounds. These gliding leaps can exceed 150 feet (46 meters).
So the next time you're walking around New York, or any city for that matter, pay no mind to the cute squirrel nearby munching on an acorn.
As moose feed, their slobber may weaken the toxic defenses of certain grasses, displaying the power of drool, according to a report in the journal Biology Letters. (Photo : Flickr)
As moose feed, their slobber may weaken the toxic defenses of certain grasses, displaying the power of drool, according to a report in the journal Biology Letters.
Some tasty grasses harbor fungi such as Epichloë festcuae, which can produce strong alkaloid toxins. These compounds can make large grazing animals sick and potentially cause loss of limb.
Yet herbivores like moose and reindeer have developed an unconventional way of fighting back, according to ecologist and lead study author Andrew Tanentzap of the University of Cambridge: they drool.
"Herbivores can actually fight back," Tanentzap told Zoologger. "No one has ever thought of this."
In the study, researchers simulated grazing by clipping red fescue, a common grass that is a major part of the animals' diet, and dabbing it with moose or reindeer salvia. The research team found that when applied to grasses two or four times, their spit could lower the concentrations of the toxin ergovaline by 40 to 70 percent over the course of two months. Not to mention, that dripping the drool on Epichloë in lab dishes slowed down fungal growth.
"The exact mechanism of ergovaline suppression is unknown," the researchers told the The Royal Society of London, but the results indicate that herbivore saliva interferes with the signaling which switches on a plant's defense mechanism and alkaloid production.
While it's impressive that herbivores like moose can actually fight back and slow down the growth of the fungus itself, Tanentzap told Zoologger that it's less surprising because many animals' saliva has antifungal properties - including human saliva.
"If these animals continually graze the same plants, then it would be quite beneficial," added Gary Felton of Penn State University in University Park, Penn. "We are still uncovering novel roles for saliva," he said.
For instance, sheep saliva can even stimulate plants to grow, according to a related study published in 2012 in the journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers recently found that Maine's only native rabbit, the New England Cottontail, has been slowly disappearing over the past decade. Now experts are fighting to restore this endangered species' habitat, an action that they believe will keep the rabbits around for years to come. (Photo : Flickr: Derek B. (Bipin) )
Researchers recently found that Maine's only native rabbit, the New England Cottontail, has been slowly disappearing over the past decade. Now experts are fighting to restore this endangered species' habitat, an action that they believe will keep the rabbits around for years to come.
"The New England cottontail is a species of great conservation concern in the Northeast. This is our only native rabbit and is an integral component of the native New England wildlife. Maintaining biodiversity gives resilience to our landscape and ecosystems," Adrienne Kovach, a researcher with the New Hampshire Agriculture Experiment Station (NHAES) said in a recent statement.
According to Kovach, ecologists have actually known that cottontail populations in New England have been declining for decades, but in this past 10 years alone that decline shot up to nearly 50 percent.
NHAES research reveals that this is largely due to reduction and fragmentation of the rabbits habitats. Road and housing projects commonly break apart once whole habitats, fragmenting them into smaller more isolated regions.
This habitat isolation hurts the cottontail populations, which would traditionally send thier children away to start new families elsewhere to mingle genes.
"We have found that it is increasingly difficult for Maine and New Hampshire cottontails to travel the large distances between fragmented habitats necessary to maintain gene flow among populations of cottontail," Kovach explained.
He also adds that cottontail habitats naturally decline, maturing into thick forests if natural forest fire and forest rebirth cycles are disrupted.
"Cottontails require thicketed habitats, which progress from old fields to young forests. Once you have a more mature forest, the cottontail habitat is reduced."
Encouragingly, the NHAES research has shown that man-made regions such as power-line right of ways and the sides of rail-ways serve as ideal cottontail habitats. According to Kovach, making use of the regions and helping them develop into ideal grounds for the rabbits could help.
"If we can... work on creating a landscape that has a mosaic of different habitats, including mature forests and young forests, we know that it is going to help a lot of species."
A study detailing these findings was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
A Japanese-based Internet company is wanted by several international organizations for selling ivory products, seemingly backing the illegal poaching of African elephants, according to reports. (Photo : Reuters)
A Japanese-based Internet company is wanted by several international organizations for selling ivory products, seemingly backing the illegal poaching of African elephants, according to reports.
Rakuten, the sixth largest e-commerce company in the world, offers ivory products on its website, fueling the demand for elephant poaching. While conservationists usually target the United States and China, ivory hotspots, they are now focusing on Rakuten and asking them to ban all such items.
"We appeal to Rakuten to help protect Africa's elephants by banning all ads offering ivory for sale on its Japanese website," Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Founder and CEO of Kenya's Save the Elephants, said in a news release.
"With so many African elephants being killed for their ivory, it is vital to reduce demand for ivory in Japan."
Up to 50,000 African elephants are poached annually to satisfy the demand for ivory from countries like Japan and China. Since 2002, more than 65 percent of Central Africa's elephants have been wiped out. And in Tanzania's famous Selous Game Reserve, the elephant population dropped 67 percent in just four years, according to the release.
Along with Save the Elephants, other groups like the Cameroon-based Last Great Ape Organization, WildlifeDirect, Humane Society International and the Environmental Investigation Agency are joining in the effort to ban these sales, which are a "death sentence for out elephants," they say.
Rakuten's Code of Ethics even states the company's goal to "staunchly reject any request to engage in illegal or morally questionable activity" - a tenet that is clearly hypocritical in light of the situation.
Just last month elephant lovers everywhere were in an uproar when Kenya's beloved elephant Satao was killed by poachers solely for the price of his ivory.
In other more welcoming news, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) the nation of Thailand has until March 2015 to take action to shut down its illegal ivory trade - something they pledged to do in 2013. Under the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), failure to do so will result in sanctions that will cost their economy an estimated $80.7 million.
"Elephants across Africa and Asia are being slaughtered for ivory and illegal markets in countries like Thailand are allowing wildlife crime to flourish," the WWF wrote.
The African elephant is the largest animal walking the Earth. It is considered a vulnerable species due to poaching as well as habitat loss.
A new study on honeybees suggests that not all worker bees are hardworkers and that some are busier than others.
Honeybee colonies are considered to be an efficient colony system where each worker bee forages for food for long hours, helps build the hive and protects the colony. A new study at the University of Illinois Institute for Genomic Biology has found that some bees do work hard, however, some bees often don't work as hard as others.
The study is published in the journal Animal Behaviour and was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Christopher Family Foundation.
For the study, researchers attached radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to thousands of individual bees and tracked their activity.
Gene E. Robinson, lead author of the study, said that even in an ant colony, some workers are busier than others.
According to the researchers, about 20 percent of the foraging bees were elite and brought more than half of the nectar needed for the colony.
The team included Paul Tenczar, Claudia Lutz and Vikyath Rao. Tenczar developed the technique of using radio tags to monitor bees' activity.
Researchers also found that when the high-activity bees disappeared, the low-activity bees replaced the elite bees and increased their activity levels.
"It is still possible that there truly are elite bees that have some differential abilities to work harder than others, but it's a larger group than first estimated," Robinson said in a news release. "Or it could be that all bees are capable of working at this level and there's some kind of colony-level regulation that has some of them working really, really hard, making many trips while others make fewer trips."
According to Robinson, some of the "lazy" bees might actually be a kind of reserve force to replace hard-working foragers.
A researcher from the University of Alaska Fairbanks is conducting what is thought to be the first live field study of wood frogs - freeze tolerant amphibians who can survive extremely low temperatures until the spring thaw. (Photo : Uwe Anders)
A researcher from the University of Alaska Fairbanks is conducting what is thought to be the first live field study of wood frogs - freeze tolerant amphibians who can survive extremely low temperatures until the spring thaw.
"Alaska wood frogs spend more time freezing and thawing outside than a steak does in your freezer, and the frog comes back to life in the spring in better shape than the steak," Don Larson, the lead author of a recent paper detailing this freeze-tolerance, joked in a recent release.
But culinary humor aside, Larson has revealed some striking findings about the tiny amphibians.
In subarctic Interior Alaska, where temperatures can remain below freezing for more than six months, these frogs winter simply by allowing themselves to get frozen. Cells traditionally die when frozen because ice formation pulls water out of the cells, desiccating them and leading to death.
"Imagine what happens when you suck on a freeze pop," said Larson. "After you've sucked out all the sweet stuff, you're left with just ice."
And "just ice" sure isn't living. However, past studies of wood frogs has revealed that their cells are capable of holding a remarkable amount of glucose, which serves as an extra supply of "sweet stuff," effectively preventing the freeze-pop effect.
Interestingly, Larson's field study revealed that wood frogs in the wild were surviving colder temperatures than ever thought. Data showed an almost 10-fold increase in glucose capacity compared to lab samples, with a nearly 100 percent survival rate.
So how was this happening? Larson theorizes that repeated on-off flash freezing can help build up a "freezer-burn" like layer of additional protection around cells.
"In the field in early Autumn it's freezing during the night, thawing slightly during the day, and these repeated freezing episodes stimulate the frogs to release more and more glucose," Larson said. "It's not warm enough for long enough for the frog to reclaim much of that glucose and over time it accumulates giving the frog more protection against cell damage."
According to Larson, understanding this feat may help humans one day preserve organs for extended periods of time, aiding transplant banks.
"If science can figure out how to freeze human organs without damage it would allow more time to reach people in need of organs."
The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
African elephants no doubt have one of the most impressive noses in the animal kingdom, and new research reveals that their superior shnozzes also contain 10,000 genes for smell - the most ever found. (Photo : Pixabay)
African elephants no doubt have one of the most impressive noses in the animal kingdom, and new research reveals that their superior shnozzes also contain 10,000 genes for smell - the most ever found.
Though elephants may be the most discerning mammalian sniffers - they have more than twice the number of olfactory genes in domestic dogs and five times more than in humans - scientists say that doesn't mean there is necessarily a connection between having more genes and being a better smeller.
"We don't really know how the number of olfactory receptor genes relates to olfactory ability," study author Yoshihito Niimura, a researcher at The University of Tokyo's department of applied biological chemistry, told The Washington Post.
"For example, dogs are known for their keen sense of smell - but we actually already knew that their number of genes was much smaller than mice, who we don't see with that same ability."
But while dogs may be good at smelling certain smells, elephants have a broader range and are able to distinguish between very similar odor molecules - ones that humans and other primates find impossible to separate.
While this fact may be impressive, why do elephants even have so many genes for smell?
"We don't know the real reason," Niimura told National Geographic.
One likely explanation, he says, is that good sense of smell is needed to compensate for African elephants' poor eyesight and help them navigate around their environment. The finding really isn't surprising, Niimura added, given that they touch their trunks to anything and everything.
"Imagine the situation [in which] we have a nose on our palm!"
The study, published in the journal Genome Research, discerned smell-related genes for 13 mammal species, including horses, rabbits, guinea pigs, cows, rodents and chimpanzees.
They found the African elephant has the largest number of olfactory receptor genes ever characterized, numbering at a whopping 10,000.
Upon further analysis, researchers also revealed that over the course of evolution, one ancient gene dedicated to smell has created as many as 84 additional genes that the animals likely use to detect odors specific to their environment.
For instance, elephants in the savannah can pick up on a human's scent from a little over half a mile away, or smell a nice banana from 160 feet away.
In addition, they can use their noses to keep tabs on their family members by smelling urine-soaked soil.
"Want to know what is going through the mind of an elephant? I have always said: Watch the tip of its trunk," Niimura said.
Woodrats can "stomach" just about anything, even toxic creosote bushes, thanks to helpful gut microbes, a new study published in the journal Ecology Letters found. (Photo : Kevin Kohl, University of Utah)
Woodrats can "stomach" just about anything, even toxic creosote bushes, thanks to helpful gut microbes, a new study published in the journal Ecology Letters found.
Numerous plants produce toxic chemicals, which they use as a defense mechanism against herbivores like woodrats (Neotoma lepida) native to western North American deserts. For these creosote bush-munchers - a plant that is abundant in the region, along with juniper - they have to watch out for the chemical nordihydroguaiarectic acid (NDGA) that wreaks havoc on the liver and kidneys of other lab mice. For any critter that eats these harmful foods, they require a mechanism that helps protect them from the toxic chemicals that the plants produce every day.
Researchers suspect that 17,000 years ago woodrats somehow acquired novel toxin-degrading gut microbes to adapt to climate and vegetation changes, thereby allowing them to digest poisonous plants.
"For decades, scientists have thought that gut microbes or gut bacteria might help mammals eat poisonous plants, but there really hasn't been a thorough test of that idea. We conducted a series of experiments to show this was the case," Kevin Kohl, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah, said via Uncover California.
In this study, Kohl and colleagues performed three experiments using two kinds of woodrats--juniper eaters from the Great Basin desert and creosote eaters from the Mojave Desert. They were captured and kept in the lab on a diet of rabbit chow.
They decided to incorporate fecal matter into their rabbit feed. Feces is actually already part of a woodrat's normal diet.
After ingesting feces - and thus gut microbes - from creosote eaters, juniper eaters persisted for 11 days on the creosote diet without losing much weight. This means that the woodrats were able to eat the potentially harmful creosote plant to their heart's content thanks to the transplanted gut microbes. Meanwhile, 65 percent of the juniper eaters that ate feces of other juniper eaters didn't gain microbes that detoxify creosote, so they lost 10 percent of their weight by day 11 on a creosote diet.
Additionally, woodrats that didn't get transplants of creosote-detoxifying microbes had more acidic urine, suggesting their livers expended a lot of energy to degrade creosote toxins.
Researchers say that these findings could potentially impact farming practices in arid regions where toxic plants are abundant. And though insightful, the concept of fecal transplants is nothing new. In the medical field, enemas are often used to transfer fecal matter from one person to another.
