Catalina Island Foxes No Longer Endangered, But Face New Threats

(Photo : Flickr: Brian Uhreen)

Catalina Island foxes were nearly wiped out by a canine distemper epidemic in 1999, but now they have bounced back, so much so that officials are now considering taking them off the endangered species list.

However, these foxes are not in the clear quite yet, as their rebounding numbers are causing them to face new threats.

There are now more than 1,700 foxes on Catalina Island, according to conservationists, thanks to a $2-million recovery effort including vaccination and captive breeding programs.

The fox is one of six subspecies of the Island Gray fox (Urocyon littoralis) - one for each of the six main Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. Researchers believe Paleo-Indians brought the foxes to the southern islands roughly 4,000 years ago.

Then, in 1999 the Catalina Island fox population dropped from more than 1,300 to just 100 animals. In 2013 authorities counted 362 foxes, which included 68 pups. In 2014, authorities counted 342 animals, which included just 19 pups.

"It may be that the fox population is regulating itself in the face of higher population densities and reduced abundance of prey such as mice due to the ongoing drought," Julie King, director of conservation and wildlife management at the Catalina Island Conservancy, told the Los Angeles Times.

However, while this is good news, their growing population is leading to dangerous run-ins with humans on the 76 square mile island, which hosts more than 1 million tourists each year.

"The recovery of the island fox is one of the great success stories of ecological restoration," said Dave Garcelon, president of the Institute for Wildlife Studies, a nonprofit research organization. "But with no natural predators, this little fox is the king of beasts on Catalina - and that can get it into trouble."

The seemingly fearless animals are not only getting hit by cars, but also keep getting trapped inside trash bins and uncovered water containers.

The Catalina Island Conservancy has installed "fox crossing" signals on the island to try to prevent any future motor accidents involving the animals. The authority has also raised funds and provided trash cans that are animal proof to avoid foxes feeding upon human trash.

While it's good news that soon the Catalina Island fox may soon no longer be endangered, conservation efforts will have to continue to help them and humans learn to live side-by-side and ensure that this species is never on the brink of extinction again.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).

post from sitemap

The Race to Save the Amur Tiger [EXCLUSIVE]

(Photo : Flickr: AllieKF)

Amur tigers, the world's largest cats, are likely to go extinct in the near future as habitat loss and poaching devastate their populations; but one coalition of conservationists is quite literally in a race to save this endangered species.

The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has teamed up with creative agency, Hungry Boys, to produce a website that lets you race against an Amur tiger in its natural habitat. If you've run in marathons or simply run for fun or to stay fit, perhaps you'd be interested in facing a worthy opponent.

Also known as Siberian tigers, Amur tigers on average run about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) a day - to put this in perspective, that's roughly the equivalent of running a half-marathon every day for us humans.

So how exactly does the Race A Tiger - WWF "Tiger Challenge" work, and more importantly, how does it help save this imperiled species?

By accessing the Tiger Challenge website and connecting it with your chosen running app - such as Nike+, MapMyRun, Strava and RunKeeper - participants can go head to head with an animal in the wild fitted with a GPS tracker. If you can run further than the tiger on a given day, a weighty challenge, you win the race. However, run a shorter distance and you lose, paying $5 to the charity.

"When we started to analyze the facts around the Amur tiger, we paid particular attention to its ability and how far it runs on a daily basis. As running is becoming trendier each year, it seemed like a perfect marriage between conservation and people's appetite for this form of fitness," Vlad Sitnikov, the creative director at Hungry Boys, told Nature World News (NWN) in an email.

There are only about 450 Amur tigers left in the wild. Due to intensive farming, building and human expansion, tiger habitat is now restricted to two provinces in the Russian Far East and small plots along the border areas of China, and possibly North Korea. Though, recent rare footage suggests that Amur tigers are making a comeback, at least in the heart of China where they haven't been seen for more than 65 years.

(Photo : Reuters)

Surprisingly, the Amur tiger is a protected species, however, illegal logging and poaching has caused their numbers to dwindle. Tiger farming is a huge issue, with humans (mostly in China) killing them for their skin, bones and teeth.

Even more appalling is that "visual feasts" have became a popular sport of sorts among China's wealthy elite, in which participants watch a live tiger be slaughtered, butchered, and then prepared in a fine meal.

And while poaching indeed plays a huge part in their decline, these animals are passively declining as well, simply disappearing along with their habitats as climate change and deforestation encroach on their hunting grounds.

"The decline in the wild tiger population is a global issue. This is a positive and creative way to raise awareness of their plight. It's a win-win situation. You get to race against this magnificent animal whilst simultaneously generating money to help protect it," Yury Sochnev, Head of Marketing at WWF Russia, said in a statement provided to NWN. "It's time to run for your life."

So dust off your running shoes and help to save the Amur tiger, one step at a time.

Note: Entrants can monitor their performance against the big cat and other contestants by following the hashtag #Run4Tiger on Twitter. They will also appear on the website's ranking page. The campaign launched February 14^th, and will continue throughout all of 2015.

To learn more about how the campaign works, watch this video here.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).

post from sitemap

Once 'Extinct' Bird Rediscovered in Myanmar

(Photo : Robert Tizard/WCS)

A bird species long thought to be extinct has now been rediscovered in Myanmar, and it seems to be alive and well, according to new research.

Jerdon's babbler, or Chrysomma altirostre, had not been seen in Myanmar since 1941, where it was found in grasslands near the town of Myitkyo, Bago Region near the Sittaung River. But now, the bird is seemingly getting a second chance at life.

The research team, from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Myanmar's Nature and Wildlife Conservation Division - MOECAF, and the National University of Singapore (NUS), actually rediscovered the Jerdon's babbler back in May 2014 while surveying a site around an abandoned agricultural station that still contained some grassland habitat. They heard the bird's distinct call and recorded it, and over the next 48 hours were lucky enough to find several more of the birds at different locations in the area.

British naturalist T. C. Jerdon first identified the small brown bird, which is about the size of a house sparrow, in January 1862 in grassy plains near Thayetmyo. Although it was common at the beginning of the 20^th century, agriculture and human development replaced most of its grassland habitat, which made many believe that the subspecies of the Jerdon's babbler became extinct.

The Jerdon's Babbler in Myanmar is currently considered as one of three subspecies found in the Indus, Bhramaputra, and Ayeyarwady River basins in South Asia.

To better understand the diversity of this particular subspecies, researchers took DNA samples of the bird.

"Our sound recordings indicate that there may be pronounced bioacoustic differences between the Myanmar subspecies and those further west, and genetic data may well confirm the distinctness of the Myanmar population," researcher Frank Rheindt from the NUS said in a statement.

Currently, scientists are studying DNA samples to see whether or not the Jerdon's babbler should be considered a full species or simply a subspecies. However, if it is indeed its own species, exclusive to Myanmar, that could spell trouble for this bird. Its fragmented and threatened habitat pose a significant danger to the species, and could possibly push the Jerdon's babbler into extinction once and for all.

The exciting rediscovery is detailed in Birding Asia, the journal of the Oriental Bird Club.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).

post from sitemap

Menopausal Whales Makes Good Leaders

(Photo : David Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research)

It is well known that women after a certain age undergo menopause, a trait that is rare in the animal kingdom. However, outside of the human species, killer whales also experience menopause, and these older females apparently make good leaders, a new study says.

Female killer whales typically become mothers between the ages of 12 and 40, but they can live for more than 90 years. For comparison, males of the species rarely make it past age 50. While menopause among animals is a rare and rather bizarre trait, new findings suggest that, evolutionary speaking, it does serve a purpose.

According to a report in the journal Current Biology, older individuals serve as key leaders, directing younger members of whale society - especially their sons. This leadership role gives a new and different meaning to the old saying, "respect your elders."

Specifically, menopausal whales can guide younger members of their pod towards all the best spots for finding salmon, their favorite fish. Especially when pickings are slim, this can prove useful in helping others survive and prolong the species.

When it comes to killer whales, apparently older is wiser.

"Menopause is one of nature's great mysteries," lead author Lauren Brent of the University of Exeter said in a press release. "Our study is the first to demonstrate that the value gained from the wisdom of elders may be one reason female killer whales continue to live long after they have stopped reproducing."

To better understand the role of menopause among female killer whales, Brent and her colleagues observed 102 killer whales in the wild, taking into account birth and death dates, as well as genetic and social relationships between whales.

It turns out that females past their reproductive prime were especially strong group leaders in years when salmon availability was low. Not only does this shed light on reproduction and survival in whales, but it also suggests that the origin of menopause in humans may have a similar explanation.

"In humans, it has been suggested that menopause is simply an artifact of modern medicine and improved living conditions," explained Darren Croft of the University of Exeter, the study's senior author. "However, mounting evidence suggests that menopause in humans is adaptive. In hunter-gatherers, one way that menopausal women help their relatives, and thus increase the transmission of their own genes, is by sharing food. Menopausal women may have also shared another key commodity: information."

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).

post from sitemap

Could Spider Venom Relieve Chronic Pain?

(Photo : Pixabay)

When you hear "spider bite," the first thing you probably think of is pain or incessant itching. You may even picture paralysis, which is what some of the most venomous spiders can cause. However, new research has determined that spider venom could contain some promising compounds capable of relieving even the most stubborn pain.

What we're talking about here are chronic and widespread pain disorders - things that reportedly affect more than 1.5 billion people. That means about one out of every five people suffer from persistent pain that cannot be explained by acute sensations triggered by injury.

Fibromyalgia is a big one, with experts still scratching their heads as to how and why this disorder causes a widespread and incessant pain sensation that often grows worse as a victim ages. Arthritis is also a common one - a neuropathic pain disorder that is sparked by physical degradation of the joints and their associated nerves.

There are other conditions too, all of which have two things in common: doctors don't fully understand them, and treatments often don't help.

And yet, all the same, the global market for managing persistent pain was estimated to be worth about $60 billion (USD) this year. The US healthcare system alone also spends 10 times that value on powerful, but often ineffective painkillers and research. With so much money being dumped into it, victims would not be wrong to hope for a cheaper and better means of pain management.

Enter spider venom. A lot of new research has focused around arachnids and their powerful bites, as tens-of-thousands of spider species boast unique venoms containing hundreds, or even thousands of protein molecules. The proteins in turn could have major medicinal value that has yet to be explored. (Scroll to read on...)

(Photo : pixabay)

"A conservative estimate indicates that there are nine million spider-venom peptides, and only 0.01 percent of this vast pharmacological landscape has been explored so far," researcher Julie Kaae Klint said in a recent statement.

The challenge, she said, was to find a method that could sift through these untapped resources, looking for ones that could help block the sensation of pain.

According to a study recently published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, that's exactly what Klint and her colleagues have pulled off, building a system that has so far screened 206 species of spiders. Even in this small group, 40 percent of their venoms contained at least one of seven compounds that can block human Nav1.7 channels.

"Previous research shows indifference to pain among people who lack Nav1.7 channels due to a naturally-occurring genetic mutation - so blocking these channels has the potential of turning off pain in people with normal pain pathways," explained research lead Glenn King from the University of Queensland.

Klint adds that this could give new hope to pain sufferers. After all, farming spiders for their venom could be an effective an inexpensive way to make new treatments widely available.

"Untapping this natural source of new medicines brings a distinct hope of accelerating the development of a new class of painkillers that can help people who suffer from chronic pain that cannot be treated with current treatment options," she said.

Still, it's important to note that identifying an available and natural source of prime compounds is just the beginning. Devising ways to isolate the compounds and use them to craft new - and safe - painkillers is another challenge entirely.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).

- follow Brian on Twitter @BS_ButNoBS.

post from sitemap