Wayne Newton Vegas Neighborhood Under Attack By Peacocks

Wayne Newton’s Las Vegas neighbors are not saying “Danke Schoen” when it comes to his marauding flock of aggressive peafowl who have claimed the neighborhood as their territory. Wayne Newton’s ranch has reportedly had peacocks and other exotic animals since the 1960s, but neighbors are saying they don’t stay put on Newton’s property, and they are a nuisance.

Peafowl (peacocks are male, peahens are female, and the collective is peafowl) are an issue, but like with chickens and game birds, the males can be the most aggressive, so peacocks are a bigger problem in Newton’s neighborhood than the peahens. And even though peacocks are pretty large, they can fly overhead. PageSix says the locals are pretty freaked out. Neighbors say that the peafowl roam the neighborhood, squawking, causing traffic disturbances, and scratching their cars.

Peacocks are terrorizing Wayne Newton’s Vegas neighborhood https://t.co/ufyhf2U8LV pic.twitter.com/6mGV7EnwUT

— Spearmint Rhino LV (@TheRhinoLV) November 14, 2016

April Juelke says the first time the peacocks were on her roof, she didn’t know what it was.

“We heard something on our roof that scared us to death. We thought a burglar was breaking in, but it was a bunch of peacocks.”

Juelke says the peafowl roost at night up at Wayne Newton’s ranch. Other neighbors say their dogs have gotten intestinal parasites from the peafowl droppings.

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Wayne Newton’s attorney Jay Brown says that the peacocks aren’t their responsibility, because they have never bought any peafowl.

“We’ve never bought a peacock. We’ve never brought in a peacock.”

It seems that when Wayne Newton bought the ranch, there were already peafowl there, so they are not responsible.

“Casa de Shenandoah is officially home to about 25 peafowl that are tagged and live in an enclosure.”

The peafowl causing all the trouble are feral peafowl.

“These are feral peacocks. It’s a neighborhood problem, not a Newton problem, in fairness.”

"Gang of peacocks running amok near singer Wayne Newton’s Las Vegas ranch" https://t.co/98LOF1othg #VegasProblems #dankeschön pic.twitter.com/nCFtCXjhtG

— Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) November 14, 2016

But neighbor Bart Donovan told the Las Vegas Review Journal that he doesn’t see it that way, because the birds came from Wayne Newton’s property.

“These things were born on the Newton property, they live there, they roost there at night. As far as I’m concerned, they’re their birds.”

What is making the situation worse is the lifespan of peafowl, which is about twenty years. Commissioner Mary Beth Scow says she went out to the neighborhood around the Wayne Newton ranch to check it out, and can see if a plan isn’t put in place, it will just get worse.

“My view is if we don’t stay on top of this, it will become more of a problem because the animals do breed. I know when I was out there I saw several young peafowl.”

So a plan needs to be put in place that will require the whole community, and everyone, including Wayne Newton, is on board with removing the wild peafowl. But at a local town hall meeting, a half hour was spent talking about the peacocks with no solution reached. It seems animal control doesn’t have the staff, and only one cage big enough, and if the peafowl are trapped, then it couldn’t be decided what should happen next.

Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Doug Nielsen says there is nothing his agency can do. He likened the issue to someone getting a duckling, and setting it loose in a park after it’s grown.

Part of the reason the problem exists is because somewhere along the line, someone just dropped them off. At this point, the community is going to have to figure it out and decide what they want to do.”

Wayne Newton's peacocks at Shenandoah are annoying the neighbors!https://t.co/f5JAmwD34u pic.twitter.com/j0wLLkBX1I

— VIPTIX .com (@VIP_TIX) November 14, 2016

Out of frustration, neighbor Bart Donovan made a homemade trap out of batting cage netting. He has caught twenty-one in the last month, and re-homed them out of state. Council member Scow says animal control is working with Casa Shenandoah to trap the birds on a rotating basis, and giving the birds to the Animal Foundation.

“We didn’t give a specific method (of removal); we just gave that direction. There has been progress, and we continue to expect there will progress so this neighborhood will no longer have this problem. That’s our goal.”

Have you ever seen a peacock fly?

[Featured Image by David Hallett/Getty Images]

Homeschooling Mom Arrested For Letting Tigers, Cougar, And Other Wild Animals Roam Free Inside Her Home

A Texas homeschooling mother was arrested this week following the discovery that she had tigers and other wild animals living inside her home with her children, according to Click2Houston.

Authorities were originally sent to the Houston-area home to investigate a report that the homeschooling mother, Trisha Meyer, had taken $3,000 from a California man for an exotic Savannah kitten that she never delivered. The buyer filed a report of theft after repeated efforts to get the kitten failed. He also stated that Meyer stopped answering her phone.

KPRC-TV reports that an officer with the Houston Police Department’s Major Offenders Animal Cruelty Squad and a Texas Game Warden visited Meyer’s home about a month later to investigate the charges. Once they were at the home, they were shocked to discover wild animals roaming freely inside.

Texas mom charged after girl found petting tigers roaming inside their home, police sayhttps://t.co/96r6emI6Ya pic.twitter.com/T1VKyZQJaF

— Idaho Statesman (@IdahoStatesman) November 15, 2016

Police reported finding three tiger cubs, a cougar, a skunk, and a fox, among other wild animals. The tiger cubs and skunk were roaming through the living room, bedroom, kitchen, and front door entrance, they said, and Meyer’s 14-year-old daughter was petting them.

Meyer allegedly told the officials that “the tigers at their current ages were dangerous and could kill,” WISTV reports.

‘The lady is a crook and a bad mother’, Trisha Meyer, charged with endangering child – Kept… https://t.co/imyvkOwgnA pic.twitter.com/EhoDxJZxEa

— Ksley8 (@KonnieMoments1) November 14, 2016

Court documents show that Meyer also had an adult male tiger in the home, according to KPTV.

Meyer apparently had a permit to have the tigers, but she did not have permits for other wild animals such as skunks and foxes.

Upon being questioned, the homeschooling mom also told them she had monkeys that could be vicious and had attacked someone in the past. She said that all of the animals walked around the home freely; the tigers were only locked up if she left the house.

Trisha Meyer pictures,three tigers, a cougar, a skunk, a fox inside her house https://t.co/qrLSudaPWG pic.twitter.com/aJaEveKNNK

— infowe (@infowe) November 15, 2016

Meyer allegedly fled to Las Vegas soon after. Her landlord, Binh Truong, said he was surprised to learn that his tenant had filled the house with wild animals and evicted her after the police let him know what was going on.

“She only stayed there for three weeks before I found out,” he said. “I don’t know how someone can put that much damage in three weeks.”

The 34-year-old mother’s arrest comes with reports that she is purportedly connected with scams and crimes in several states, including Texas, California, and Colorado, in addition to the felony arrest warrant in Texas, according to Scallywag and Vagabond.

One former landlord claimed in an online complaint board that she caused over $200,000 worth of damages to his property and set it on fire as she was leaving. He claimed that Meyer had over 100 dogs living in that house.

“She trashed my house in excess of $200, 000 in damages and another $133, 000 in theft. She had 104 dogs living inside my house, that is not a misprint…104. There was dog poop everywhere. I evicted her and when she left she robbed my house and two storage units, then she set the house on fire as she was leaving. I was fortunate to drive up just in time to save my house from total destruction.”

Trisha Meyer was found in a suburb of Las Vegas on November 7 with the wild animals, a BARC spokesperson reported. Authorities there found three tigers eating raw chicken in the back yard, with only a four-foot-tall fence surrounding them, and a 17-year-old was supervising the feeding. They also report that the family was keeping eight monkeys inside.

She was arrested in Pahrump, Nevada, and charged with theft and child endangerment.

The Texas Game Warden confiscated the fox and skunk and released them into the wild, according to Inside Edition. Texas Game Warden spokesman Steve Lightfoot said that he assumed that the animals were in fairly good condition since they were able to be released.

The tigers and the rest of the animals were also eventually confiscated by BARC Animal Shelter and Adoptions.

Meyer is being held on a $2,000 bail in the Nye County Jail. She is expected to be extradited to Texas in a few weeks.

[Featured Image by Adrian Horacio Gomez/Shutterstock]

Micromoths in Huge Trouble: The Dwindling Food Source of Hawaii's Philadoria Species

The Philodoria species is well known in Hawaii as micromoths that are roughly the size of a human eyelash. Chris Johns, a biology Ph.D. student of the University of Florida and a National Geographic explorer, has been striving to promote awareness of the plight of this threatened species due to their highly specific diet.

Commonly referred to as leaf miners, the genus Philodoria's moths live inside the leaves of their host plants and burrow around the leaf until they mine their way out when they are about to start metamorphosis. There are 12 different plant species, all endemic to Hawaii, the Philodoria feeds on. However, majority of the Philodoria moth species can only feed on a single species of Hawaiian plant. In recent years, it has been discovered that some of these Hawaiian plants are already endangered.

Until 2013, the Philodoria moth species was thought to have been extinct. Johns was able to rediscover the moth that year and called attention to its dwindling food source through his work Leaf Miners: A Note from the Edge of Conservation.

"It's not typical that you find an organism where each species is so specific but all of the relatives as a whole feed on so many different plants," said Johns in a National Geographic feature. "And we're not entirely sure why that has happened."

After beginning his fieldwork in 2013, Johns has seen the Philodoria caterpillars on all of Hawaii's main islands but he has only seen 30 adult moths. Thanks to their careful research, Johns and his team was able to rediscover two micromoth species that had not been seen or left any recorded trace for over a hundred years.

"Some of the adults we're starting to find, we release back into the wild after capturing and taking a look," shared Johns. "We're starting to feel many of these moths are extremely rare and very vulnerable."

With Hawaii's biodiversity being threatened by ongoing development, invasive species, and changing land use, Johns has included expert botanists and conservationists on his team to locate the rare communities of native plants. He and his team have discovered more than a dozen new micromoth species since 2013, and Johns is hopeful that there are more species waiting to be discovered.

Tropical Bedbug Species Reappear in the US

After disappearing for 60 years, the tropical bedbug has reappeared in Florida, as confirmed by the University of Florida - Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) researchers.

The tropical bedbug, Cimex Hemipterus, has disappeared in the 1950s. These bugs are seen in warmer regions, including southern states of USA as well as countries in Asia and Africa. According to Bedbugs.net, tropical bed bugs are nidicolous parasites (living in the same environment as their hosts) and are known to prefer wood, textiles, and linen for their habitat.

With the resurgence of tropical bed bugs, residents are alarmed at how fast these bugs are spreading. It was found in Brevard County, Florida last year, and researchers are puzzled where it originated or had it been present all this time.

Unlike the regular bed bugs, the tropical species spread faster than the regular one in a report published in Sciencenews.org. Accordingly, female tropical bed bugs lay up to 200 to 500 eggs which hatch after 6 to 17 days under favorable conditions. Even without feeding, and adult bed bug can survive for 10 months and up to a year if fed.

UF/IFAS doctoral student in entomology Brittany Campbell said in a media release that the discovery of tropical bed bugs "could mean that this species would develop more quickly, possibly cause an infestation problem sooner, and also could spread more rapidly."

Campbell added that this species of bed bugs are likely to cause similar health problems if you get a severe infestation: fear, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, and itchy, blistery reactions on some people.

"I have been asking people to send bed bug samples to our laboratory so that I can properly identify the species," Campbell said. "If they do have a bed bug infestation because they are so difficult to control, I ask that people consult a pest-control company for a professional service. There isn't as much research available on tropical bed bugs as common bed bugs, but hypothetically they should be able to be controlled the same way as the common bed bug species because their biology/behavior are similar." 

Population Recovery of 800-Pound Groupers Not Entirely Welcome

After many years of a fishing ban in the U.S. on this endangered species, the goliath grouper population is recovering as sports fishermen and charter boat operators in the Keys report that the 800-pound fish has been causing big trouble according to National Geographic.

Fished to near-extinction in its western north Atlantic habitat by 1990, the goliath grouper was listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Goliath groupers, long-lived fish that could reach 40 years old, can grow up to eight feet in length.

"There are a lot of spots we don't go to anymore because you won't catch anything," said Brice Barr, a charter boat skipper and president of the Key West Charter Fishermen's Association. "The goliaths will catch every single fish that you hook. They hear the sound of our boats and that's the dinner bell. They know they are going to get fed."

Groupers are also blamed for the Florida reef's dwindling snapper and smaller grouper stock, leading fisherman to petition for the fishing ban to be lifted. "They're not selective in what they eat," Barr continued. "If you ask most fishermen, they say we need to get rid of the goliath. These top predators are becoming so protected, they are starting to prey more and more on the rest of the fish."

Marine experts, however, disagree with the fishing and boating community's opinion. "People make up all kinds of reasons why the fish must be destroyed," said Chris Koenig, a retired University of Florida marine biologist who has studied goliaths for decades. "This is a native species. They were part of the natural environment. They have been here for millions of years, much longer than we have."

The Florida Fish and __wildlife Conservation Commission has conducted three population counts, in 2004, 2010, and 2015 in an effort to determine if the grouper has recovered enough to lift the fishing ban. Despite an improvement in population size, none of the counts have persuaded officials to change the current regulations.

"We don't really know how low the population got right before the closure," stated Amanda Nalley, the commission's spokesperson. "We estimate that it probably we below five percent of its original size-a very, very low level."

Koenig believes that ecotourism that attracts divers and tourists to swim with the goliath groupers would be the best alternative for the species. "Nowhere else in the world can you swim up to a fish that is the size of a small Volkswagen and pet it on the face and see about 30 of them around you," he said. "That is a thrilling thing."

'Fame' Is Good for Monkeys Too! Upward Mobility Boosts Primate Health

Fame is good. Well, at least, for monkeys. A new study suggests that the health of primates is partly determined by their "status" in their own social ladders, suggesting that upward mobility is indeed good for monkeys.

If proven, the study may help explain why people with poor backgrounds have higher rates of heart disease and diabetes. According to Noah Snyder-Mackler of Duke University, social adversity does "get under the skin."

Mackler, along with co-author Luis Barreiro of the University of Montreal and colleagues from both Duke and Emory University, led the study and observed 45 unrelated female rhesus monkeys. They slowly observed that they created a social "peking" order and found out the ones introduced earlier "ranked higher" than the last ones.

They then studied the activity of 9,000 genes in the animals' immune cells. According to New Scientist, activity in more than 1,600 genes differed between lower- and higher-ranking monkeys. This is true within "natural killer cells" or white blood cells that defend against infection. It appears these cells appear more in higher-ranking monkeys than lower-ranking ones. 

While low-rankers had stronger immune responses against bacteria, it also fueled harmful infection. Their immune cells went into "overdrive" when exposed to bacterial toxin in the lab.

Scientists explained that while a strong immune response is good, it can be damaging in unregulated numbers.

When the monkeys were re-sorted and the low-rankers became higher-rankers, startling behavior happened. The new higher-ranking monkeys enjoyed benefits such as grooming and are now less likely to trigger inflammation.

Their study suggests that stress plays an important role in the statistics other than lifestyle habits such as smoking and exercise.

According to Science Daily, people in the social ladder differ in life expectancy by more than a decade. It was previously believed that these glaring health inequalities are attributed to healthcare access and lifestyle habits, but now this new research proves otherwise. 

This means if similar molecular mechanisms underlie the link between social status and health in humans, then there can be social interventions that can be done to mitigate the physiological costs of low status. 

Animal Selfies Banned in Shanghai Wildlife Park

The Shanghai __wildlife Park has stopped the picture-taking with tiger cubs after a video of a zookeeper allegedly abusing the cub went viral.

The video that angered netizens shows the male animal keeper placing the cub on the lap of the boy who pushed the animal, causing the cub to fall to the ground. After the incident, the staffer went on forcing the cub to open its eyes even hitting its head to pose with other incoming visitors for photos.

The photo-taking program has been a regular feature of the Shanghai zoo where tourists can pay for 30 yuan or $4.30 to have selfies with cubs of tigers, bears, and lions.

The video has taken too much heat online but the park denied any abuse to the baby tiger and the rest of the animals. It is still under investigation by the Shanghai Forestry Bureau.

In a report by Shanghai Daily, a park employee surnamed Ni confirms that "such interactive programs are a popular practice in overseas __wildlife parks as well because visitors want to get close to animals."

Last 2013, a performance for Jinan Animal Carnival Festival's which suggested acrobatic shows including animals was canceled when it was tipped off to the authorities. Citizens asked to boycott the said circus since it was prohibited under the Chinese law.

In 2011, the Chinese government has issued a total ban prohibiting live animal shows and circuses across 300 state-owned zoos which are part of the China Zoo Association. The circus act ban which was passed by the China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development passed in September 2010 earned PETA Asia's Advancement in Animal Welfare Award. The ban has closed two zoos which had circus acts.

Other than live animal shows, the ban also covers the elimination of shops and restaurants that sell animal parts or animal dishes.

Invasion Alert! Supercolony of Ants Set To Take Over The Planet, Research Suggests

A supercolony of ants found in Ethiopian forests is set to invade the globe, a new study suggests.

According to the researchers, the infamous ant species, Lepisiota canescens, is displaying signs of supercolony formation and this could be a global threat.

Fox News reported that supercolony formation is used to describe the ability to expand limitless.

Ants that form supercolony can invade homes and other structures, as well as damage crops, and can cover thousands of miles, United Press International reported.

"The species we found in Ethiopia may have a high potential of becoming a globally invasive species," study author D. Magdalena Sorger, a postdoctoral researcher at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, said in a statement.

"Invasive species often travel with humans, so as tourism and global commerce to this region of Ethiopia continue to increase, so will the likelihood that the ants could hitch a ride, possibly in plant material or even in the luggage of tourists.

"All it takes is one pregnant queen," she added. "That's how fire ants started."

The supercolony of L. canescens was found in the ancient church forests of Ethiopia.

The largest they found is one that stretches to roughly 24 miles in length. This could be the largest supercolony documented in an ant species living in its native habitat, the researchers noted. The researchers also discovered that the ants are also moving to other areas such as beyond forest boundaries, into neighboring agricultural fields, and along recently constructed roads and other urban structures.

CNBC notes that ants that form supercolonies are rare because in general, ants are territorial. In fact, of the hundreds of thousands known ant species, only 20 have shown this kind of behavior behavior.
Details about the new dominant ant species was described in a new paper published in the journal Insectes Sociaux.

L. canescens has previously caused trouble in South Africa's Kruger National Park and has temporarily shut down Australia's Darwin Port.

Squirrel Leprosy Is Not Their First Attack Against Humans

One of the latest headlines about squirrels concerns how they are infected with leprosy, but this is not the first time that squirrels have terrorized human beings.

Nature World News reports on November 12 that red squirrels on the British Isles were reportedly infected with leprosy. About the situation, a research team from the University of Edinburgh conducted several tests and concluded the red squirrels were, in fact, leprosy carriers.

Naturally, the shenanigans of squirrels are not always so bad, and a recent video made by a squirrel that stole a GoPro proves this.

Alternatively, sometimes squirrels do damage as the victim of humans. For instance, in the 1990’s, Kentuckians were getting brain infections that are similar to mad cow disease. About the situation, New York Times reported in 1997 that part of the problem was that people in Kentucky were eating the brains of squirrels because it was considered a delicacy.

In relationship to mad squirrel disease incidents in Kentucky, scientists said at the time that the squirrels were passing on Creutzfeldt–Jakob Syndrome.

On top of giving human beings serious neurological brain damage because the humans eat their brains, squirrels have also been known to test positive for a terrifying disease that killed almost a third of people in Europe in the Middle Ages.

Feeding squirrels with feeders is advisable, but hand-feeding can lead to attacks. [Image by Visceral Image/Shutterstock]

According to KDVR, in July 2015, squirrels were tested and found to have bubonic plague. Adding to this, Daily Mail stated that squirrels infected with bubonic plague caused economic damage since major campgrounds were closed in America during tourist season.

Squirrels can also cause fatalities in dogs, and, in 2014, Chicago Tribune stated that there was a bacteria killing dogs that was passed to them by infected squirrels. In this case, squirrels were passing Leptospirosis to dogs in their urine.

Squirrels are also considered to be “cyber enemies,” and Washington Post published an article in 2016 that lists all of the locations of squirrel cyber attacks in America. Altogether, since 1987, 623 power disruptions have been directly caused by squirrels, and “there were about 137 squirrel-induced power outages in 2015.”

They also quoted The American Public Power Association stating that more disruption to electrical power is caused by squirrels than storms and “squirrels remain the biggest wildlife nemesis because of their sheer numbers and smarts.”

Squirrels cause more cyber attacks by damaging electrical power grids than storms. [Image by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images]

Sadly, squirrels also cause a lot of bike and car accidents. For example, Guardian writes in 2012 that a prominent football/soccer manager said he was almost killed when a squirrel got caught in the spokes of his bicycle tire.

In Canada, a squirrel caused a four-vehicle crash when it ran across two lanes of traffic in British Columbia, according to CTV News. Thankfully, no one was injured in the incident including the squirrel.

Squirrels are also known to cause serious issues by falling out of the sky. According to Telegraph, in December 2012, a squirrel fell from an unknown location and into a moving vehicle. The squirrel cost an estimated $12,000 worth of damage to the vehicle, and the car insurance company said they were not surprised because they had had 112 “animal strike” incidents within a two month period of time.

Squirrels are also known to viciously attack elders. WHAS 11 reported that three seniors were injured in a long-term care facility in Florida on November 4. According to the 911 call, the seniors were begging for help because the squirrel was “jumping on people and biting them and scratching them.”

It is not difficult to believe that squirrels are going on rampages against seniors because they have been known to binge drink. WGNTV reports in July 2015 that a drunk squirrel did $450 worth of damage to a bar, and the owner thought that they had been robbed by a human. According to reports, the owner stated the following.

“I’ve never seen a drunk squirrel before. He was sozzled and looked a bit worse for wear, shall we say.”

Sadly, in the future, squirrels may still see humans as an enemy that needs to be destroyed because squirrel fatalities and cars may be here to stay. Wired reported in 2014 that the new self-driving cars can detect potholes and have other types of fine-tuning, but, for now, the vehicle’s sensors still do not pick up enough information to stop for squirrels.

Finally, if the above information is not enough of a deterrent to look upon squirrels with fear, Mercury News published an article about how feeding squirrels by hand is discouraged.

After a series of squirrel attacks in Northern California in late 2015, wildlife authorities at the Marin Humane Society had a theory that the squirrel lost its natural fear of humans by being hand-fed. About the dangers of hand-feeding squirrels, Alison Hermance, communications manager with WildCare Rehabilitation Center was paraphrased stating the following.

“A squirrel can’t tell the difference between the person who has been hand-feeding it and anyone else. So it runs up to someone, expecting to be fed, and when the person doesn’t respond, it gets frantic ‘and it ends up with biting, which is what squirrels do.'”

[Featured Image by Giedriius/Shutterstock.com]

Buying A Horse On Craigslist Is Prohibited, And A Free Horse Is Also Expensive

Buying a horse might be a temptation, and they are easy to find one for sale or for free online. However, is Craigslist the right place to arrange a purchase and is getting a free horse a bigger expense than first expected?

Before beginning a search on Craigslist for a horse, keep in mind that these listings are prohibited. On the Craigslist website, they state “pet sales, animal parts, [and] stud service” are not allowed. However, re-homing an animal like a horse for a small fee is allowed on Craigslist.

For anyone that wants to sell or re-home their horse on Craigslist, there is an organization called SAFE Horses that gives excellent advice about finding solutions before, during, and after the horse re-homing process. This helps keep horses safe, but also protects their owners.

Nevertheless, if owning a horse is a goal, there are several ways to get them, but they should be, ultimately, be offline purchases.

For insiders to the thoroughbred horse racing industry, Ellis Law Group says methods for purchasing a horse may include using a buyer’s agent. This person spends most of their time figuring out which horse is foaling, the prices breeders have typically charged in the past, and how to negotiate a deal between the breeder and the buyer.

More often than not, a buyer’s agent will have a team of consultants and experts that help keep them informed. For this reason, unlike other professionals in the horse industry, agents are more likely to stay abreast of opportunities like IRS, estate sale, and bankruptcy auctions where horses are being sold.

Regardless, the old-fashioned way to buy a fine equine specimen is at horse breeder’s shows like Keeneland’s annual sale or the Fasig-Tipton horse auction. These shows are frequently advertised on horse racing websites and in horse-related classified ads.

Many retired work horses are given away for free to families that can support them financially. [Image by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images]

Along with going to a horse auction, buying a horse can be difficult if the buyer does not have the skills to negotiate with a horse seller. Guides by Horse Master, Julie Goodnight, certainly demonstrate that buying a horse is somewhat of an art. Also keep in mind that buying a horse directly from the owner is possible, but a thoroughbred champ that requires tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars outside of future upkeep costs.

By using horse buying consultant services and brokers, owners are assured that important health records, ownership papers, and legal documents or procedures will be up to snuff, according to Equine Legal Solutions.

Once the horse is purchased, there will be several areas of expense to consider — and some are challenging in nature. For instance, Horse Talk points out that a reason to avoid first-time horse ownership includes the fact that it is important to have insider knowledge about feeding the horse alfalfa to prevent stomach ulcers.

Owning a horse also means controlling the environment tightly. For example, new horse owners may not be aware that it pays to be careful which animals horses graze with. This can be confusing to anyone that already owns house pets or other common farm animals because they usually get along. Alternatively, according to Horse Advice, horses are social animals, and they prefer to be with other horses.

Also, unlike other farm animals, the average lifespan of a horse is 30 years, and there may be a lot of hidden costs for keeping a horse. For instance, the University of Georgia estimates that keeping a horse can cost up to $4,000 per year.

There is also a horse ownership calculator provided by Horse Channel to find out how much a new horse will cost per year.

On top of basic care and money set aside for emergency vet visits, there are three facts about grooming a horse that a new owner will need to be aware of. First, keeping their hooves shoed will need to be done every six to eight weeks by a specialist called a farrier (about $500 per year).

Additionally, a horse’s teeth never stop growing and this means they will need regular dental attention. This is called teeth floating, according to Good Equine Dental, and the procedure will be done once or twice a year. If the horse is sedated, the cost can be as high as $70 to $100 per session.

One other hidden cost is the maintenance of pasture land; which can vary drastically based on the owner’s personal experience, local climate, and the land the owner keeps the horse on.

Horses can also incur large expenses because they cannot puke, and this causes expensive veterinarian problems. Unlike other animals that cure themselves by doing so, according to USA Today, a horse will not vomit when it is sick.

Due to the fact they do not vomit, one of the main reasons that horses are expensive is due to the fact that they are prone to be colicky, and colic is difficult to diagnose. The expense is also related to the fact that every suspected case of colic in a horse is an absolute emergency that must be treated by a vet at once.

Dressage and equestrian sport horses require a higher degree of training expenses. [Image by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images]

Adding to this, one of the common causes of colic in horses by new horse owners is feeding them grass clippings from mowing the lawn. Besides mowed grass, horses usually understand which plants are poisonous, according to CSE Landscaping Architect, but they may eat them anyway when they are extremely hungry.

One other major consideration to keep in mind is that different horse breeds do have different personalities, and some are not ideal as pets for small children. For example, the thoroughbred horse has been bred for racing, and it may or may not be suitable for children. On the other hand, an Arabian horse has a sensitive, dog-like personality but may need more attention than a busy owner can give it.

According to the opinions on Horse Forum, the best horse breed to get for a new horse owner is the quarter horse, the Morgan horse, or painted horse. While these horse breeds are intelligent, they are less likely to consistently outsmart a new owner with a fiery personality like the thoroughbred or Arabian horse.

Common parting advice to anyone that wants to buy a horse for the first time is to work with a trainer regularly. This ensures inexperienced horse owners are regularly being evaluated by a professional, have access to tips about raising a horse, and gain techniques to keep the horse happy.

In addition, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, anyone considering buying a horse for someone else, should evaluate ways to own one and pet one without spending labor or money on the upkeep. These include investing in a horse racing syndicate as well as donating or volunteering with a local horse rescue organization.

[Featured Image by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images]

Extinction Looms For Saltmarsh Sparrow, Several Other American Birds

Extinction is becoming increasingly likely for several species of American birds, according to a new report that focuses on declining avian populations in Connecticut.

“Many Connecticut birds are suffering slow, steady population declines caused by the loss of their specialized nesting areas,” the Connecticut branch of the national Audubon Society announced in its annual Connecticut State of the Birds report for 2016.

This year’s report, titled Gains, Losses, and the Prospect of Extinction, is the 11th from the Connecticut branch. It reviews the data from the 10 previous reports.

We’ve found new birds! ANU researchers play their part to help the critically endangered regent honeyeater: https://t.co/d0Jd8lXQeS pic.twitter.com/5Hwd3BxFYH

— ANU Media (@ANUmedia) November 18, 2016

While the report acknowledged improvements in some regions among a few species, in general, the news was not good.

“Despite some improvements, most of the trends aren’t good,” said Milan G. Bull, Connecticut Audubon’s senior director of science and conservation. “Marsh birds such as Clapper Rails and shrubland birds such as Blue-winged Warblers and Brown Thrashers continue to decline. And birds such as Piping Plovers are still highly vulnerable despite recent successes.”

The most discouraging data involved the Saltmarsh Sparrow.

“Most disturbing though is the likely extinction of the Saltmarsh Sparrow because of sea level rise,” Bull continued. “It would be the first avian extinction in the continental U.S. since the Heath Hen in 1931. There’s no way to characterize that as anything but a disaster.”

It should be noted that some might dispute Bull’s claim that the extinction of the Saltmarsh Sparrow would mark the first “avian extinction” in the continental U.S. since the Heath Hen. The Dusky Seaside Sparrow, a subspecies of the Seaside Sparrow, was officially declared extinct in 1990 after the last known specimen died in 1987.

Beach erosion is a major threat to the Saltmarsh Sparrow and other birds that nest along coastlines. Loss of habitat was, in general, the most dire concern throughout the report.

“Shrubland species such as Field Sparrows, Brown Thrashers and Blue-winged Warblers continue to suffer population declines of about 5 percent a year,” the report notes. “Those species can nest only in shrubby fields, which have been lost to lawns or allowed to grow into mature forests.”

In some cases, efforts to save other endangered species by preserving or expanding their natural habitat has helped certain species of birds who share the same habitat thrive or maintain their population numbers.

“[E]fforts starting a decade ago to prevent the New England cottontail rabbit from being listed as a federally endangered species resulted in the creation of about 2,200 acres of additional shrub habitat in Connecticut alone, and many more throughout New England,” the Connecticut Audubon Society reports. “The establishment of the Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge, which was conceived of as a network of cottontail habitat throughout that animal’s range, is likely to generate additional shrublands, all of which will also be prime nesting habitat for many of the shrubland birds whose populations are falling.”

Beautiful #endangered #Forty-spotted #Pardalote #brunyisland???? Many are working hard 4 their #conservation #birds #birdlifeoz pic.twitter.com/pa40lmrjFu

— Sandra (@sandratasmania) November 26, 2016

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently lists nearly 100 species of birds as threatened or endangered.

As a Truthout report by Sharon Kelly published earlier this week notes, the oil and natural gas industries are another major threat to many endangered species of birds and other wildlife.

“Monarch butterflies, tiny lizards, and a type of grouse known as the lesser prairie chicken all drew close scrutiny from a large gathering of oil and gas executives at the Permian Basin Petroleum Association’s annual meeting this year,” Kelly writes. “Fracking has helped turn the Permian Basin into the nation’s most productive oil field — and the only part of the U.S. where the oil industry continues to expand robustly despite a price slump that began in mid-2014.”

The Permian Basin, however, is also home to several protected species. Situations like this have caused the oil and natural gas industries to begin pushing back against the Endangered Species Act.

“[O]ver the past few years, the oil and gas industry has ramped up its efforts to chip away at, de-fund, or even re-write the Endangered Species Act, a cornerstone of American environmental protections,” says Kelly. “The recent election results may have sharply redefined the industry’s prospects in Congress.”

With the habitats of birds being threatened by natural causes like beach erosion, as well as manmade causes like the development of oil “well factories,” conservationists — and the birds like the Saltmarsh Sparrow that they’re struggling to protect — have a tough fight ahead of them.

[Featured Image by Mario Tama/Getty Images]

Born to Perform: Conserving the Jaguar in the Amazon

The central Amazon Jaguar Conservation Unit is the biggest jaguar stronghold in the world, but even here, biological diversity and jaguar populations can fluctuate. The __wildlife Conservation Society has recently presented a plan to help guide multi-institutional efforts in conserving the jaguar in the Amazon basin.

Encompassing Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname, the central Amazon Jaguar Conservation Unit has already been affected by the conversion to monoculture crops, cattle ranching, and hydro-electric, mining, and transportation projects. Because of this, several leading Latin American conservation organizations working in the Amazon basin recently met in Quito, Ecuador to review regional jaguar conservation efforts and outline priorities to maintain healthy jaguar populations in the Amazon.

The Memorias Del Taller Internacional Planificando La Conservación Del Jaguar En La Amazonía was formulated to ensure sustainable development for local communities along with a secure future that includes the iconic jaguar.

"The main recommendations to come out of the meeting were related to the importance of working at large landscape scales to conserve meaningful populations of jaguars," said Dr. Rob Wallace, Amazon landscape conservation expert at the Wildlife Conservation Society. "This landscape approach requires an integrated threats-based strategy involving a series of long-term partnerships with territorial stakeholders such as protected areas, indigenous territories, municipal governments and others. The Wildlife Conservation Society is proud of our long-standing conservation commitments to some of the most outstanding natural wilderness areas in the Amazon."

Five central themes were agreed upon to secure the long-term future of jaguars: landscape and corridor scale conservation, research and monitoring, conflict management, legislation, policy and administration, as well as education, training, and communication.

The document also highlights the emerging threat of hunting and illegal trade of jaguars in the Amazon and beyond. Conservation is an ongoing process and decisive action is needed to address new threats. Jaguar hunting for trade has intensified in recent years since its teeth and other body parts are in demand in Asian markets.

Dr. Emiliano Esterci Ramalho, monitoring coordinator at the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Institute and a groundbreaking jaguar researcher in the flooded forests of central Amazonian Brazil, underlined the importance of collective conservation efforts. "This meeting encouraged us to create the Jaguar Conservation Alliance in Brazil, a multi-institutional initiative that aims to coordinate jaguar research and conservation efforts in the Amazon, and to ensure that our collective efforts amount to more than just the sum of their parts," Ramalho said.

Can Aggression Be Determined by Female Birds' Markings?

Researchers have found that the markings of female birds can tell us more than just their species and gender. Repeating a previous study has yielded a surprising discovery refuting what was thought to be a link between their markings and aggressive behavior when defending their nests. Published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, the study reveals that the meanings behind the markings of female birds may change from one place to another despite a similarity in species.

Caitlin Winters and Jodie Jawor of the University of Southern Mississippi based their research on a previous study that related the brightness of Ohio's female Northern Cardinals' facial markings to their aggressive nesting behavior. But when Winters and Jawor repeated the study in Mississippi's longleaf pine forest, they were surprised to learn that the variation among females' facial masks in their southern study population had no link to their aggressive behavior.

To gather data, Winters and Jawor collected female cardinals early in the breeding season and measured the brightness of their face masks with a color reflectance spectrometer. They observed aggressive nest defense behavior by waiting until a female left for a break in incubation and then placing a female Northern Cardinal decoy near the nest. They then observed the bird's reaction upon its return.

A vital differences between the northern and southern cardinal populations studied is that unlike in Ohio, the researchers did not observe any evidence of brood parasitism, where one female cardinal sneaks an egg into another's nest, among cardinals in Mississippi. The Mississippi birds also had more habitat available to them and defended larger territories, which meant female cardinals weren't as hard-pressed to defend their nests. "This is an indication that selection pressures vary between northern and southern populations and that the information a female in the north needs to convey to other cardinals differs from what a female in the south has to say." concluded Jawor.

Endangered Dolphins Strengthen Thai-Cambodia Relations

Globally threatened Irrawaddy dolphins and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins inhabiting the Thai-Cambodian border served as ambassadors to promote the concept of transboundary Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) management.

The 18-month-long transboundary dolphin conservation project between Thailand and Cambodia revealed that the transboundary coastal areas in the Trat, Thailand, and Koh Kong, Cambodia habitats for these dolphins.

Results between 2008 and 2014 estimated the population of the Irrawaddy dolphins at 500, making the Thai-Cambodia transborder population the second largest in the world.

According to the World __wildlife Fund (WWF) Living Mekong Program, the Irrawaddy River dolphins are "flagship species," as they reflect the overall health of the river for other species. These dolphins can reach a length of nine feet and have blunt, rounded noses.

Reports show that threats for these dolphins include fishing, pollution, and habitat destruction. Gillnets, among other fishing gear, have been the major player in threatening this species. In 2012, a law was passed prohibiting gillnets in large stretches of the Mekong River.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, whereby Irrawaddy dolphins are monitored alongside 71,576 animal and plant species.

In a report by IUCN.org, Brian Smith, Asia coordinator of the IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group and project technical adviser, said, "Unfortunately, these dolphins are in trouble. Many die when they get entangled in fishing gear, particularly gillnets."

To further their conservation project, officials revealed that dolphin watching into ecotourism program in Trat and Koh Kong will be implemented. This program aims to educate and raise awareness for the conservation and protection of such threatened species. They also hope to improve the livelihoods of fishermen who were affected by the dolphin management zones. IUCN partnered with WWF with the Save our Species fund which educates and trains rangers to monitor gillnet fishing in the Mekong.

28-Foot Decomposing Dead Sperm Whale Washes on San Jose Island

The carcass of a giant, 28-foot beached sperm whale was found on San Jose Island and will likely stay there while marine experts figure out what to do with the dead animal.

The female sperm whale was discovered on Monday on a private property located in the north of Port Aransas. In an interview with Corpus Christis television station Kris, Tony Amos, Port Aransas Coordinator with the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, said the mammal could have been dead for a while before it was found on San Jose Island's shore because it was in "bad shape."

Authorities have taken samples of the decaying carcass to pinpoint the sperm whale's cause of death. With regard to disposing the body, Amos said that there's still no proposed way of removing the body except for just letting it naturally decompose on the shore. To add to the problem, the Federal Marine Mammals Act states that it's illegal to touch a whale even though it's dead.

"It's not something you can hook up to a pickup truck and haul it off. It's on San Jose Island, which is privately owned and there's no access except by boat. That's the dilemma right there," Amos told Caller-Times.

Meanwhile, authorities are urging locals to stay away from the dead sperm whale as it may carry a lot of bacteria and could be a health hazard.

"It could be a source of disease, especially as it's decomposing. You can imagine a carcass, 28-foot of decomposing in the sun," Amos said in an interview with Kiitv.

It has been eight years since a giant whale washed up in the area. The last occurrence was in June 2008.

This week on Wednesday, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) euthanized a long humpback whale stranded on the shore of Long Island.

The said whale measures 25-foot long and approximately weighs 20 tons. The mammal has been stranded on Moriches Bay in Long Island for 10 days and had extensive skin injuries, infection and neurological problems. NOAA officials decided to euthanize the humpback whale after several efforts to free the stuck whale from the sandbar.

Bei Bei Surgery: National Zoo Panda Cub Making Successful Recovery

Smithsonian National Zoo panda cub Bei Bei’s surgery has gone down successfully, as reports state the popular cub is now recovering following an emergency operation performed on Friday.

According to a report from the BBC, the 1-year-old male panda cub is now in stable condition with a “very good” prognosis following the surgery. The operation was done in order to remove a “lemon-sized mass of bamboo” at the top of Bei Bei’s small intestine that was discovered via ultrasound.

An official statement from the National Zoo further detailed what happened in the run-up to Bei Bei’s surgery. According to the statement, the giant panda cub had first experienced nausea and stomach discomfort on Thursday, November 24, and was also refusing to eat and sleeping longer than usual. He was then given an anti-nausea injection and observed throughout the day by animal care and veterinary staff members.

Hope you feel better soon @houseofcubs and are back entertaining us in no time at all ????❤️ #pandastory #BeiBei #getwellsoonbeibei pic.twitter.com/U6buJnvjJr

— Sal???? (@shr1978) November 26, 2016

On Friday, however, with Bei Bei showing no signs of improvement, the cub was taken to the veterinary hospital for an ultrasound of his stomach. That was where volunteer Dr. Elyshia Hankin discovered the aforementioned blockage, which required a surgical procedure to remove.

The surgery was performed by board-certified volunteer Dr. Sebastian Gordo, who was able to remove a masticated chunk of bamboo approximated to be about the size of a lemon.

In the meantime, Bei Bei is on a water diet, and will then make the transition to pears, sweat potatoes, and other soft foods. The press release adds that Bei Bei is expected to revert back to his usual diet “in the near future,” with finely-cut bamboo leaves slowly reintroduced to his diet over time.

Those hoping to visit Bei Bei and check up on him will have to wait, the press release added. Due to the sensitive nature of Bei Bei’s surgery, zoo officials have decided to temporarily close the David M. Rubinstein Giant Panda Habitat, where the panda cub can normally be seen. Other pandas, however, will remain visible to the public in their respective outdoor yards.

“To ensure his recovery goes smoothly and veterinary and animal care staff have access to Bei Bei, he will be housed separately from Mei Xiang, his mother, and off the panda cams for the next few days. The Zoo will provide daily updates on Bei Bei’s recovery via social media. The panda house is temporarily closed. Bao Bao, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian may be viewed in their outdoor yards.”

In the above statement, Smithsonian National Zoo director Dennis Kelly expressed his thanks to the zoo’s staff for their quick response in treating the panda cub.

“I’m extremely proud and thankful for our team of keepers, veterinarians, animal care staff, volunteer medical experts and all staff who have helped facilitate the urgent response. Bei Bei’s prognosis is very good. The challenge will be for our team to monitor him safely, and that requires his cooperation.”

Sad we won't see our buddy @houseofcubs this morning; hope he recovers quickly. We will ask daddy @tiantianpanda97 to say hello for us. pic.twitter.com/nQb1ZjV3xy

— Ai-Mei (@Ai_Mei_Panda) November 26, 2016

Bei Bei first rose to prominence when he was born on August 22, 2015, the BBC wrote. This was because people were able to view his mother’s pregnancy, using the National Zoo’s “panda cam” to track the progress. The cub, whose name is Chinese for “precious,” was named by U.S. and Chinese first ladies Michelle Obama and Peng Liyuan.

The Smithsonian National Zoo promised to share regular updates on Bei Bei’s post-surgery recovery on its social media pages. As of this writing, the only update on Twitter was Friday’s confirmation that the bowel surgery had gone through successfully, but the Twitterverse has nonetheless been quite active in wishing Bei Bei a smooth and speedy recovery, as seen in the above tweets and others.

[Featured Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

Endangered Dolphins Strengthen Thai-Cambodia Relations

Globally threatened Irrawaddy dolphins and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins inhabiting the Thai-Cambodian border served as ambassadors to promote the concept of transboundary Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) management.

The 18-month-long transboundary dolphin conservation project between Thailand and Cambodia revealed that the transboundary coastal areas in the Trat, Thailand, and Koh Kong, Cambodia habitats for these dolphins.

Results between 2008 and 2014 estimated the population of the Irrawaddy dolphins at 500, making the Thai-Cambodia transborder population the second largest in the world.

According to the World __wildlife Fund (WWF) Living Mekong Program, the Irrawaddy River dolphins are "flagship species," as they reflect the overall health of the river for other species. These dolphins can reach a length of nine feet and have blunt, rounded noses.

Reports show that threats for these dolphins include fishing, pollution, and habitat destruction. Gillnets, among other fishing gear, have been the major player in threatening this species. In 2012, a law was passed prohibiting gillnets in large stretches of the Mekong River.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, whereby Irrawaddy dolphins are monitored alongside 71,576 animal and plant species.

In a report by IUCN.org, Brian Smith, Asia coordinator of the IUCN SSC Cetacean Specialist Group and project technical adviser, said, "Unfortunately, these dolphins are in trouble. Many die when they get entangled in fishing gear, particularly gillnets."

To further their conservation project, officials revealed that dolphin watching into ecotourism program in Trat and Koh Kong will be implemented. This program aims to educate and raise awareness for the conservation and protection of such threatened species. They also hope to improve the livelihoods of fishermen who were affected by the dolphin management zones. IUCN partnered with WWF with the Save our Species fund which educates and trains rangers to monitor gillnet fishing in the Mekong.

Can Aggression Be Determined by Female Birds' Markings?

Researchers have found that the markings of female birds can tell us more than just their species and gender. Repeating a previous study has yielded a surprising discovery refuting what was thought to be a link between their markings and aggressive behavior when defending their nests. Published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, the study reveals that the meanings behind the markings of female birds may change from one place to another despite a similarity in species.

Caitlin Winters and Jodie Jawor of the University of Southern Mississippi based their research on a previous study that related the brightness of Ohio's female Northern Cardinals' facial markings to their aggressive nesting behavior. But when Winters and Jawor repeated the study in Mississippi's longleaf pine forest, they were surprised to learn that the variation among females' facial masks in their southern study population had no link to their aggressive behavior.

To gather data, Winters and Jawor collected female cardinals early in the breeding season and measured the brightness of their face masks with a color reflectance spectrometer. They observed aggressive nest defense behavior by waiting until a female left for a break in incubation and then placing a female Northern Cardinal decoy near the nest. They then observed the bird's reaction upon its return.

A vital differences between the northern and southern cardinal populations studied is that unlike in Ohio, the researchers did not observe any evidence of brood parasitism, where one female cardinal sneaks an egg into another's nest, among cardinals in Mississippi. The Mississippi birds also had more habitat available to them and defended larger territories, which meant female cardinals weren't as hard-pressed to defend their nests. "This is an indication that selection pressures vary between northern and southern populations and that the information a female in the north needs to convey to other cardinals differs from what a female in the south has to say." concluded Jawor.

28-Foot Decomposing Dead Sperm Whale Washes on San Jose Island

The carcass of a giant, 28-foot beached sperm whale was found on San Jose Island and will likely to stay there while marine experts figure out what to do with the dead animal.

The female sperm whale was discovered on Monday on a private property located in the north of Port Aransas. In an interview with Corpus Christis television station Kris, Tony Amos, Port Aransas Coordinator with the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, said that the mammal could have been dead for a while before it was found on San Jose Island's shore because it was in "bad shape."

Authorities have taken samples of the decaying carcass to pinpoint the sperm whale's cause of death. With regard to disposing the body, Amos said that there's still no proposed way of removing the body except for just letting it naturally decompose on the shore. To add to the problem, the Federal Marine Mammals Act states that it is illegal to touch a whale even though it is dead.

"It's not something you can hook up to a pickup truck and haul it off. It's on San Jose Island, which is privately owned and there's no access except by boat. That's the dilemma right there," Amos told Caller-Times.

Meanwhile, authorities are urging locals to stay away from the dead sperm whale as it may carry a lot of bacteria and could be a health hazard.

"It could be a source of disease, especially as it's decomposing. You can imagine a carcass, 28-foot of decomposing in the sun," Amos said in an interview with Kiitv.

It has been eight years since a giant whale washed up in the area. The last occurrence was in June 2008.

This week on Wednesday, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) euthanized a long humpback whale stranded on the shore of Long Island.

The said whale measures 25-foot long and approximately weighs 20 tons. The mammal has been stranded on Moriches Bay in Long Island for 10 days and had extensive skin injuries, infection and neurological problems. NOAA officials decided to euthanize the humpback whale after several efforts to free the stuck whale from the sandbar.

Bluebird Feces Key to Healthy Vineyards

Research showed that bluebirds inhabiting the California vineyards are beneficial to the winegrowers after studying their poop.

The new study published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances led by Julie Jedlicka from Missouri Western State University, aims to study the diet of Western Bluebirds (Sialia Mexicana). The experiment required the installation of nest boxes at a California vineyard to attract hundreds of birds that picked the farmers' crops clean of pests in exchange for the free housing. Using a new approach called "molecular scatology," Jedlicka and her colleagues analyzed the DNA fragments in the birds' feces and found more than what they asked for.

"Placing songbird nesting boxes in agricultural landscapes can provide suitable nesting sites for a lot of birds that used to be plentiful 100 or 200 years ago but lost their natural landscapes," said Julie Jedlicka, an ornithologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

In a report from ScienceDaily.com, Ecosystem Expert Matthew Humboldt of Humboldt State University states that "this study provides important new insights, both in terms of its findings on bluebird diets in vineyard ecosystems and in its advances in molecular diet analyses."

After collecting 237 samples from adult and nestling bluebirds in Napa County, California, the team of researchers found that these Western Bluebirds mostly ate mosquitos and herbivorous insects which are pests to the vineyards. With this, Jedlicka hopes to encourage vineyard owners to install boxes to replace the natural tree houses that were cleared for the vineyard.

"Even though the authors did not find specific pest species in bluebird diets, they did confirm that bluebirds are mainly eating herbivorous insects, including those in the same families as major pests. This suggests bluebirds may contribute to ecosystem functioning in these systems. Their work also illustrates the power of new techniques to reveal bird diets and marks new advances in scatology," Humboldt added.

US Shift Away from Coal Is Saving Tuna From Mercury Contamination, Study Finds

President-elect Donald Trump's stance against climate change is alarming after what appears to be reductions in environmental toxins in the Atlantic bluefin tuna. 

Concern for the species began with a professor in New York found excess levels of mercury in a can of tuna that eventually caused a nationwide recall. Since then, tuna consumption has been the source of 40 percent of mercury contamination in the American diet. 

This is a growing concern since mercury exposure from all sources can cause cognitive impairment, and affects around 300,000 to 600,000 babies born in the U.S. every year. 

A new study now linked the decline of tuna contamination to the reduced mercury emissions in North America. According to Scientific American, this was because of the marketplace shift by power plants away from coal. The latter appears to be the major source of mercury emissions worldwide. 

However, the threat toward tuna conservation is real as President-elect Donald Trump is "promising a comeback" for the U.S. coal industry. 

The study analyzed tissue samples of about 1,300 Atlantic bluefin tuna taken by commercial fisheries between 2004 and 2012 and found out the levels of mercury concentration dropped by more than 2 percent each year. This resulted in a 19 percent decline in just nine years.

The researchers affirmed that they expected the decline in the amount of mercury entering the atmosphere, but were surprised to see it affected fish as well. 

Given that the Atlantic bluefin tuna are big predators, they are suited to accumulate mercury and other contaminants. The study also surprised researchers since mercury lives long in the environment, and mercury from the industrial era still persisted in the deep ocean. Regardless, the bluefin tuna demonstrated that "even a fishery we would have thought had a certain amount of chemical inertia can be cleaned up" provided enough contaminants were removed.

The Atlantic bluefin tuna is highly-prized, especially in countries in Japan. It can be recalled that one such fish went for $118,000 at an auction last year.

Common Asian Tree Frog Found in Japan May Be 2 Seperate Species, Genetic Data Shows

Japanese scientists have discovered that a common species of Asian tree frog may actually be two separate species based on their genetic data.

The ongoing research project led by Ikuo Miura, PhD, an Associate Professor in Amphibian Research Center at Hiroshima University puts into spotlight the Hyla japonica tree frog species, which is found all over Japan, the Korean peninsula, eastern China, and eastern Russia. Experts around the globe are already shipping genetic samples from their own local frog populations to reference any potential evolutionary relationship.

Sparked by the Miura's further studies on sex determination and population dynamics in amphibians, which included Asian species, the study looks into the possibility of ancestors of modern frog populations traveling either into or out of Japan by two separate routes: from the North on a chain of islands between Russia and Japan, and from the South along a land bridge on the Philippine Sea Plate between South Korea and Japan. Japanese H. japonica populations may have been isolated into separate East and West groups, Eureka Alert reports.

The experts have also noted the same separation between East and West Japan in other species of frogs and skinks. According to Miura, the scientific community has no definitive information about exactly what caused the divide between East and West Japan, but suggests the possibility of the expansion of ancient basin associated with volcanic activity in central Japan.

Miura along with Yuya Higaki, a fourth-year bachelor's degree student, are presently conducting genetic analysis on 50 populations of H. japonica from across Japan. A part of Miura's larger research interests in sex determination and its influence on speciation and evolution, study's initial findings will be on November 26th at the annual conference of the Herpetological Society of Japan.

If proven that indeed H. japonica is actually two different species, researchers would need to do thorough research of the history foreign explorers who was granted official access to Japan - dating as far back as 1826 to the times of German-British naturalist Albert Gunther, and German botanists Philipp Siebold and Heinrich Burger - before they can give new scientific names.

Humpback Whale Stranded in Long Island Euthanized

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have euthanized the 25-foot-long humpback whale stranded on Long Island on Wednesday.

The 20-ton mammal has been stranded for 10 days in the shallow waters of Moriches Bay and had signs of "neurological abnormalities and extensive skin injuries with evidence of infection." NOAA researchers explained that euthanizing the whale is the most humane option "since its chance of surviving in the wild was minimal."

Numerous efforts to free the whale from the sandbar have been attempted but to no avail. According to NBC New York, local fishermen and residents criticized the move saying NOAA's response to aid the whale was too late.

The Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation also made several efforts to dislodge the whale but couldn't.

"Even if you get four boats, 10 boats, it's 20 tons," Chuck Bowman, a marine life expert also watching at the shore, told NBCNewYork.com.

NOAA researchers explain that efforts to move whales off beaches "can cause more harm to the animal as strong pressure on the tail or flippers can result in internal injuries and put people involved at risk."

Director of NOAA's Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, John Bullard, explains that "the tidal conditions and other oceanic or biological factors that led to this stranding overtook any ability by our responders to rescue it."

NOAA officials even explained that apart from its extensive skin injuries, the whale may be suffering from "underlying health issues such as illness or malnutrition. Thus, refloating a large whale may not be in its best interest, as it is already sick."

Experts plan to conduct a necropsy and confirm if the whale is suffering from underlying health issues.

This whale was just one of the many humpback whales seen in the region. Recently, one has been spotted swimming in New York's Hudson River.

Winter Moths Are Coming: The Threat of Defoliation

The winter season isn't the only thing stripping leaves off trees and leaving them bare. Cold months also bring with them a veritable swarm of winter months, insects that could lay eggs and potentially cause another spring of defoliated and dying trees.

Heather Faubert of the Plant Protection Clinic at the University of Rhode Island, after monitoring the population of the insects each year, warned that the invasive adult moths would appear from the ground during Thanksgiving and complete their lifespan just before January 2017. "Their caterpillars defoliated 27,000 acres in Rhode Island in the spring of 2015, but even though we had winter moths everywhere last year and I saw a zillion eggs, they caused almost zero defoliation."

Last year's statewide defoliation in New England began after winter moth caterpillars had long become inactive. This defoliation was caused primarily by gypsy moths and, in some communities, forest tent caterpillars. Winter moth eggs typically hatch during a warm spell in April, but last year they began hatching during a warm period in late March. Two weeks later, in early April, temperatures dropped well below freezing and probably killed many of the caterpillars.

"I went looking for dead caterpillars but didn't find many," she recounted. "Maybe the caterpillars hatched too far ahead of the foliage development, so they didn't have anything to eat. I'm not sure what really happened, but it definitely had something to do with our screwy weather."

Faubert warned that the combination of several years of defoliation in a row and the extended drought conditions could result in more trees dying in the coming year.

One strategy Faubert is using to control winter moth populations is the release of a tiny parasitic fly that lays its eggs on tree leaves. When the winter moth caterpillar consumes the eggs while eating the leaves, the eggs hatch inside the caterpillar and the fly larva eat it from the inside out. This method has succeeded in controlling winter moth populations in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and it appears to be on its way to having favorable results in Seekonk as well.

Faubert released the flies in seven locations in Rhode Island between 2011 and 2015, and she hopes to soon see signs that it is beginning to work.

"It's still too early to tell, but we hope the flies will get our moth population down to manageable levels," she concluded.

London Zoo Gorilla Escapes, Captured Again: Nobody Harmed, Though Activists Might Call For Him To Be Free

A London Zoo gorilla broke free of his enclosure on Thursday, causing patrons to be locked indoors and evacuated from the zoo. Later, the gorilla’s freedom dash was stopped when zoo employees fired tranquilizer darts and subdued the rampaging primate.

The gorilla who broke free at the London Zoo, a facility in business since 1828, may have been Kumbuka, a seven-foot tall lowland silverback they have been slowly introducing to females Effie and Mjukuu. It’s unknown why the gorilla had decided to smash the glass enclosure, although animal rights activists are probably going to speculate he simply wanted to be free.

A gorilla busted out of its London Zoo enclosure before being subdued with a tranquilizer gun https://t.co/2BKKBWiP6U

— New York Post (@nypost) October 13, 2016

Zookeeper Daniel Simmonds said that Kumbuka has been exhibiting signs that he’s happy in the enclosure, according to the New York Post.

“We’ve been slowly introducing (Kumbuka) to our three females, and Mjukuu and Effie are already quite smitten with their handsome new roommate. He is proving to have quite a playful side to him. He loves to snap the branches on the smaller trees on their island and standing in the spray of the hosepipe when we clean his dens.”

Smashing the glass might have been the gorilla’s playful side turning aggressive, though nobody really knows. Visitors who’d seen the gorilla reported that he looked “really angry,” so it might not have been Kumbuka, but one of the other male gorillas at Gorilla Kingdom.

Smell that? It’s the beginnings of a meme. https://t.co/vnDpP27Ocz

— Sammy Paul (@ICOEPR) October 13, 2016

It could be the gorilla simply wanting to roam free, meaning this might not be the last time he would do it. Activists might even start picketing the London Zoo until the gorilla is released into his natural habitat. According to BBC News, visitor Brad Evans’ daughter and son-in-law did not want the gorilla to be shot.

Evans told the press what happened when the London Zoo gorilla escaped.

“We were in the zoo for the day, having a cup of coffee in the main restaurant area when they locked us all in and said there was an incident. They gave us free teas and coffees and obviously we were asking what was going on and they told us that a gorilla had got out of its enclosure and that we weren’t allowed out of the park at half-five so we had to wait.”

A protest similar to what might happen in London has nearly ruined business for SeaWorld, a resort known for its aquatic __life being contained in tanks. Blackfish, a documentary about dolphins, killer whales, and other sea __life being mistreated and even killing their caretakers has launched an eruption of bad business. SeaWorld has since decided to focus on aquatic life education instead of the infamous shows in which sea mammals jump through hoops and perform tricks for an audience.

Visitors to #LondonZoo say they have been locked inside amid reports a #gorilla is on the loose https://t.co/TmEjdbuO24

— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 13, 2016

The London Zoo gorilla had escaped his enclosure after 5:00 p.m. London time, and eyewitnesses Hannah O’Donoghue-Hobbs and Charlotte Neild claimed that the escape felt like they were in Jurassic Park. If you haven’t seen them, the Jurassic Park movies are about dinosaurs being brought back to life. By the end, the terrible lizards had broken free, and the owners had no choice but to flee for their lives.

No one was harmed in the process of the London Zoo gorilla’s escape, or in his capture, though the incident could easily spark protests. Activists might say that the gorilla had wanted to be free and begin picketing for his release into the wild.

[Featured Image by MG photos/ Shutterstock]

Hitting Rock Bottom: The Strange Burrowing Habits of Sandstone-excavating Bees

Scientists have discovered a very unusual species of bees: the Anthophora pueblo doesn't live in your typical beehive. Instead, it goes to great lengths to excavate its nests in sandstone.

Entomologists from the Utah State University have observed the bees in the American Southwest desert, a harsh environment where the bees had been nesting in sandstone for almost 40 years at two sites in the San Rafael Desert. Publishing the study in Current Biology, Michael Orr, a Utah State University doctoral student in biology and the lead author of the paper, was impressed by the bees' determination to build in such a hostile place. "Not much is known about this hard-to-find species and our first step was to confirm it actually prefers nesting in sandstone. Once we confirmed this preference, the next step was to explore why the bees expend such tremendous effort and energy, limiting their ability to reproduce, to create these shelters."

Another of the study's authors, retired United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service research entomologist Frank Parker, was the one who had originally discovered the bees four decades ago. He had collected samples of the nests and reared the inhabitants to emergence, but it was only in recent years that he had collaborated with Orr to unearth five new nesting sites ranging from Ancestral Puebloan sandstone cliff dwellings at Colorado's Mesa Verde and natural formations in southern Utah and California's Death Valley.

"These bees are considered uncommon as the bees use water to help excavate sandstone, we found many sites by targeting areas near water." shared Orr. "Sandstone is more durable than most other nesting options and any bees that do not emerge from these nests in a year are better protected. Delayed emergence is a bet-hedging strategy for avoiding years with poor floral resources, especially useful in the drought-prone desert."

In addition to the tough, elevated shelters protecting the bees from erosion and sudden flash floods, they also help to control parasite build-up across years and may even deter growth of threatening microbes. "The desert is a hard place to live," Orr concluded. "Anthophora pueblo has pioneered a suitable niche between a rock and a hard place."

Your Pet Dog Have 'Episodic Memory' Too, Just Like Humans

Have you been naughty or nice to your dog? Either way, he'll remember -- that's for sure.

A recent study published in the Journal of Current Biology has found strong evidence that dogs have "episodic memory," or the amazing ability to recall events from the past, even seemingly unimportant ones at the time it happened, just like their humans.

Claudia Fugazza of MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Budapest, Hungary, says, "The results of our study can be considered as a further step to break down artificially erected barriers between non-human animals and humans. Dogs are among the few species that people consider 'clever,' and yet we are still surprised whenever a study reveals that dogs and their owners may share some mental abilities despite our distant evolutionary relationship."

To test and explore the dogs' memory, researchers took advantage of a trick called "Do as I Do." Dogs trained to "Do as I Do" can watch a person perform an action and then do the same afterwards. For example, if the owner walks two steps forward and then gives the "Do it!" command afterwards, the dog will do exactly the same.

They tested each of the subject dog using the said technique after one minute and after one hour. The results show they were able to recall the demonstrated actions after both short and long time intervals. However, their memory faded somewhat over time, stated an article by the Science Daily.

"From a broad evolutionary perspective, this implies that episodic-like memory is not unique and did not evolve only in primates but is a more widespread skill in the animal kingdom," Fugazza says.

"We suggest that dogs may provide a good model to study the complexity of episodic-like memory in a natural setting, especially because this species has the evolutionary and developmental advantage to live in human social groups."

The Gender Game: How Road Salt Changes Frog Population Sex Ratios

Gender is such a big issue that it isn't confined to just humans. Researchers from the Yale and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered something extraordinary about frogs: chemicals in road salts used to de-ice paved surfaces alter the sex ratios in nearby frog populations.

Scientists have found that the proportion of females within tadpole populations was reduced by 10 percent when exposed to road salt, or sodium chloride, suggesting that the salt has a masculinizing effect. The study was published in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.

"Many scientists have studied similar effects from exposure to pharmaceuticals and pesticides, but now we're seeing it from chemicals found in common road salt and leaf litter," said Maxime Lambert, the lead author of the paper. A doctoral student at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, his work has revealed that this masculinization reduces the size and viability of species populations.

Given that more than 22 million metric tons of road salt are applied to roads in the United States each year, Lambert's findings have widespread effects. "The health and abundance of females is obviously critical for the sustainability of any population because they're the ones that make the babies," Lambert explained. "So if you have a population that is becoming male-based, the population might be at risk."

Previous research suggests that the observed "sex reversal" could be caused by a phenomenon in which simple elements, like sodium, can bind to a receptor in cells. Lambert and his team concluded that by mimicking the actions of testosterone or estrogen, road salts can trigger masculinizing or feminizing functions.

"There is a very small testosterone-like effect with one salt molecule," Lambert stated. "But if you're dumping lots and lots of pounds of salt on the roads every winter that washes into these ponds, it can have a large effect."

Rick Relyea, director of the Darrin Fresh Water Institute at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and co-author of the study, asserted their research could further inquiry on animals with a similar habitat. "The research raises the possibility that many other aquatic species could be affected by road salts in sub-lethal ways, not only in terms of altered sex ratios, but potentially in many other traits."

NOAA Research Ties Dissolving Shells off US West Coast to CO2 Emissions

Most people aren't familiar with pteropods. but they're very familiar with the fish that eat it. Commercially valuable fish such as salmon, sablefish, and rock sole all consume the pteropod. However, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and partner scientists have linked the concentration of human-caused carbon dioxide in waters off the U.S. Pacific coast to the dissolving of pterapod shells.

"This is the first time we've been able to tease out the percentage of human-caused carbon dioxide from natural carbon dioxide along a large portion of the West Coast and link it directly to pteropod shell dissolution," shared Richard Feely. A NOAA senior scientist, he led the research that was published in Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. "Our research shows that humans are increasing the acidification of U.S. West Coast coastal waters, making it more difficult for marine species to build strong shells."

The pteropod is a sea snail the size of the head of a pin. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the pterapod has been the focus of research in recent years because of the possible harmful effects of CO2 in seawater. The way pterapod shells are affected by CO2 could be an indicator of ocean acidification affecting the larger marine ecosystem.

Feely and his team used several decades of measurements from the Pacific Ocean taken through the U.S. Global Ocean Carbon and Repeat Hydrography Program and new data from four NOAA West Coast research cruises conducted between 2007 and 2013. By utilizing a method to estimate additional CO2 from human-caused emissions since the start of the Industrial Era as compared to CO2 from natural sources, the researchers found that concentrations of human-caused CO2 are greatest in shallow waters where the atmosphere gives up large amounts of its CO2 to the sea.

Once researchers created a detailed map of the human-generated CO2 concentrations, they looked at how pteropod shells fared in areas with varying seawater CO2 concentrations. They found more than 50 percent of pteropod shells collected from coastal waters with the high CO2 concentrations were severely dissolved. An estimated 10 to 35 percent of pteropods from offshore waters showed shell damage when examined under a scanning electron microscope.

"We estimate that since pre-industrial times, pteropod shell dissolution has increased 20 to 25 percent on average in waters along the U.S. West Coast," said Nina Bednaršek, a NOAA postdoctoral research associate from the University of Washington. "This new research suggests we need a better understanding of how changes in pteropods may be affecting other species in the food chain."