#Your Cheeseburger Is Leaving a Giant Environmental Footprint Beef production takes a big toll on the environment according to one of the most comprehensive studies to date on livestock management in the United states. To make one steak 28 times
more land 11 times more irrigation water five times more greenhouse-gas emissions and six times more fertilizer is needed compared to
what's required for other sources of commonly eaten protein like pork and poultry the researchers found.
We were trying to see how many resources we take from planet Earth in order to create what we are eating Ron Milo the study's co-principal investigator
and a professor of plant sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel told Live Science We found that it is much larger for eating beef. 7 Perfect Survival Foods Milo
and his colleagues collected data on the environmental costs per calorie of dairy poultry pork eggs and beef foods that account for 96 percent of the calories Americans get from animals.
The environmental costs of dairy poultry pork and eggs are fairly similar the researchers found.
but this is one of the largest investigations on the environmental costs of livestock in the United states said Nathan Pelletier president of the Global Ecologic Environmental Consulting and Management Services in British columbia Canada.
Because livestock particularly horses have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival. The reason: Horses have been beating pandas to the bamboo buffet.
Because horses are prohibited from grazing in designated grazing areas to prevent them from competing for food with cattle some farmers have been letting horses graze unattended in forests.
But Hull and Liu note that this work has shed light on how competitive livestock can be in sensitive habitat an issue that is duplicated across the globe.
Livestock affect most of the world's biodiversity hotspots Liu said. They make up 20 percent of all of the earth's land mammals
Pastureland that feeds livestock has been affected severely and the stock ponds that provide them with water have dried up.
Ranchers have been forced to send their cattle to slaughter early or send them to more northerly locales Brian Fuchs another Drought Monitor author told Climate Central.
and feed for livestock and a bit more water may be added to reservoirs that are significantly below normal.
of a new elephant calf and is currently working to collect 5000 signatures to hand over to local elected leaders asking them to push for a total ban on the sale of ivory and ivory products in the United States.
And over the next month three Chicago institutions the Chicago Zoological Society's Brookfield Zoo the Lincoln Park Zoo and Shedd Aquarium will likewise be working with local and state lawmakers to raise awareness
#Facts About Ibex Ibex are wild goats that live in the mountainous regions of Europe north Central asia and northern Africa.
There are five species of ibex according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS. They have curved long horns and cloven hooves.
Males have long beards. Ibex are related to antelopes buffalo bison cattle goats and sheep. Ibex are typically about 1 to 5. 5 feet (30 to 170 centimeters) from their hooves to withers the highest part of the shoulders at the base of the neck.
Ibex tend to weigh about 65 to 265 lbs. 30 to 120 kilograms. Both male and female ibex have very long horns
which are used for territorial defense and sexual selection. They curve backward forming a semicircle and have knobby rings on the outer curve.
Male horns may reach about 5 feet (1. 5 m) long. Ibex are herbivores; they only eat vegetation such as shrubs bushes and grasses.
Grazing accounts for a significant part of their eating habits. The low nutritional value of their diet means the ibex must spend much of the day eating.
Ibex make their homes on cliffs that would be dangerous for predators. The Walia ibex can live at altitudes as high as 8200 to 14800 feet (2500 to 4500 m) in the cliffs of the Ethiopian highlands according to the BBC.
The Nubian ibex has a special way to deal with the hot dry climates of the African and Arabian mountains:
Their shiny coats reflect sunlight and keep them cool. Ibex are social and live in groups called herds.
The herds are segregated by gender meaning males will have a herd and the females and offspring will be in another herd.
The two herds usually meet only during breeding season. The male herd is called a bachelor herd.
Sometimes males will wander without a herd. Female herds can have 10 to 20 members.
Ibex males use scent to communicate with potential mates. Nubian ibex males use their beards to spread a scent that draws in
and excites females during breeding season. Breeding season for ibex is called the rut. During the rut males fight for the right to breed with the females by pushing their heads together.
The winners will court the female in a process that can take around 30 minutes.
The life span of ibex in the wild is about 17 years. The taxonomy of ibex according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) is:
Most wild goat species are doing well but two are facing extinction. The Nubian ibex is considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
because its numbers are decreasing; it is estimated that there are fewer than 10000 mature individuals. According to the IUCN the Walia ibex is endangered with only about 500 of their kind left.
One species the Pyrenean ibex was declared extinct in 2000. However it may not be gone forever. In 2009 Spanish biologists used frozen tissue to clone a Pyrenean ibex.
The clone only lived for seven minutes but scientists are hopeful that this cloned ibex will pave the way for the successful cloning of extinct animals.
Ibex are very nimble. They can jump more than 6 feet (1. 8 meters) straight up without a running start.
This helps them climb mountainous terrain with ease. Ibex hooves have sharp edges and concave undersides that act like suction cups to help them grip the sides of steep rocky cliffs.
For example Alpine ibex climb up the side of the Cingino Dam in the Italian Alps to lick salt and lichens from the stones.
People have hunted the ibex for thousands of years. They provided humans with meat to eat
and hide to use as clothing. About 8000 to 10000 years ago in Southwest asia and the Middle east humans began domesticating wild goats according to the San diego Zoo.
Nina Sen contributed to this article d
#Trees: Unlikely Culprits in Ozone Pollution Pollution from forests? As this map shows trees do emit compounds that can worsen ozone and increase aerosols in the atmosphere.
The purple areas on this map show places where satellites have detected formaldehyde. This chemical forms from isoprene a volatile organic compound that trees can give off
when temperatures are hot. Trees also emit compounds called terpenes. Both isoprenes and terpenes interact with sunlight to create a sort of natural smog.
or have related animal ingredients such as lard beeswax and lanolin (a waxy substance in sheep's wool).
The DNA in food found in the plaque matched pigs sheep bread wheat and vegetables such as cabbage.
And for fish poultry beef and pork minimal labeling is needed. Anyone unaware that generous daily servings of fatty beef and pork are unhealthy has been living in a cave.
Meat poultry fish legumes tofu eggs nuts seeds and milk are all good sources of the essential amino acids people need.
A parrot chick is born with only a thin layer of thin wispy feathers called down.
Parrot chicks are blind for the first two weeks of their lives. At three weeks they start to grow their adult feathers.
The chick will not be matured fully for one to four years depending on its species. According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) the taxonomy of parrots is:
During my teen years I was involved in the agricultural program at the school working with chickens goats lizards and other animals.
I even interned at a pig farm in New jersey. I began my career as a zookeeper interning at the Queens Zoo
Our zoo is small enough that keepers get to work with a wide range of animals from bison and mountain lions to tropical birds Andean bears and Roosevelt elk.
since they were week-old chicks. They soon began to grow from knee-high to over five-feet-tall.
Ervin Carlson is the Blackfeet Nation Bison Program manager and President of the Intertribal Buffalo Council (ITBC;
More than any other species the buffalo American bison or iiniiwa in Blackfoot linked native people to the land provided food
and First Nations along the Medicine Line (the international boundary with Canada) to promote the conservation of prairies and the repatriation of American bison.
therefore preserving the prairies is critical to any option for restoring and recovering American buffalo. A Great American Conservationist:
and mountain foothills of the western United states. These intact grasslands provide suitable habitat for American buffalo
#Guan Yu Biography: Revered Chinese Warrior Guan Yu was a Chinese military general whose martial prowess was so great that after his death he was deified as a god.
In modern times he is revered for his bravery and loyalty. He has also become a popular figure in historical fiction movies and video games.
Guan lived at a time when the Han Dynasty which had ruled China for nearly 400 years was collapsing.
Guan served a man named Liu Bei who would eventually become King of Shu. Guan was a man of great physical courage
and skill at one occasion (he) had a serious operation on his arm carried during a banquet
Eventually Guan Liu Bei and another man named Zhang Fei would become brothers of sorts with a deep sense of loyalty to each other one that would become legend.
In A d. 200 Guan was captured by Cao Cao a military general who would go on to control a vast amount of territory in northern China.
Cao Cao treated Guan well and made him a lieutenant general in his own army. Still Guan regarded Liu Bei
and Zhang Fei as brothers and he would not abandon them. According to the 11th-century Chinese historian Ssu-ma Kuang Guan decided that he had to escape
and rejoin Liu but not before doing Cao Cao a favor first. I know well how generously Lord (Cao Cao) has treated me but
#Translation by Rafe de Crespigny published in 1969) To repay Cao Cao for the good way he had treated him Guan decided to kill a general named Yan Liang who served a man named Yuan Shao (a rival of Cao Cao.#
and martial prowess that he ordered his troops to let Guan Go over the next two decades Guan would work with Liu Bei in a series of military campaigns that would eventually lead to the foundation of the Kingdom of Shu.
As Liu Bei consolidated his position becoming the King of Shu Guan was promoted to the position of General of the Van#something that he was unhappy about
#Guan is said to have thundered when he heard that he would have the same rank as Huang (eventually Guan agreed to accept the arrangement).
Around A d. 219 Guan led an army of Liu Bei s in attacking Fancheng a city held by Cao Cao.
Laying siege he was concerned that the forces of Sun Quan would betray and attack him (the alliance between Liu Bei
Ssu-ma Kuang wrote that Guan aggravated the situation by seizing Sun Quan s food stores without permission to support the siege of Fancheng.
Sun plotted against Guan. He replaced the local general Lu Meng with a man whom Guan thought would pose no threat.
This led Guan to withdraw troops from his rear guard to support the siege. Sun also sent a letter to Cao Cao offering to launch a joint attack against Guan.
Cao Cao decided to publish Sun Quan s letter hoping that Guan would abandon the siege of Fancheng to fight Sun (Cao Cao wanted to have his enemies fight against each other.
Guan thought the letter was fake and kept up his siege. Meanwhile Lu attacked Guan s weak rearguard positions taking them out before a message could be sent to Guan.
While his rearguard positions were under attack Guan s siege of Fancheng faltered. A counterattack by Cao Cao s forces forced Guan to break it off.
Guan suddenly found himself commanding a weakened force trapped between two enemy armies those of Cao Cao and Sun Quan.
Lu Meng Sun Quan s general made Guan s situation worse by capturing the city of Jiangling
which housed the families of many of Guan s officers. Lu Meng treated them very well
and made sure that Guan s army knew it.##oeall knew that their families had come to no harm
and were treated even better than in peacetime so Yu s soldiers became less interested in fighting#wrote Ssu-ma Kuang.
This led to desertions shrinking Guan s forces even further. Still Guan refused offers to surrender at one point pretending to surrender to Sun Quan s troops before running away.
Eventually his remaining force was trapped and Guan Yu and his son Guan Ping were captured and executed.
After his death Guan Yu became a legend and eventually a god. Hundreds of years later when a dynasty called the Tang came to power in China Guan was honored for his righteous loyalty#to his lord Liu Bei writes Whalen Lai a professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of California
Davis in the Encyclopaedia of Asian Philosophy#(Routledge 2001. During the 10th century when China was divided again into warring kingdoms his cult grew.
His personal loyalty to a lord was a premium virtue#Lai writes. In the 14th century a novel called Romance of the Three Kingdoms#publicized the exploits of Guan Yu further increasing his popularity.
At some point he became a god of war and is revered today as a symbol of loyalty righteousness and bravery.
He is referred to as Guan Gong (Lord Guan) or Guan Di (Emperor Guan. His image appears in many Taoist shrines of the present day#writes de Crespigny.
He is revered also a figure in Buddhism Confucianism and Chinese folk religion. In 2008 and 2009 a movie dramatizing the Battle of Red Cliffs was released in two parts and featured actor Batdorj-in Baasanjab as Guan Yu.
In Japan and the West he has also become a popular figure in a series of video games produced by the company Koei.
These video games emphasize his abilities as a general and martial artist.##Owen Jaru h
#As Milkweed Disappears, Monarchs are Fading away (Op-Ed) Peter Lehner is executive director of the Natural resources Defense Council (NRDC).
This Op-Ed will appear onthe NRDC blog Switchboard. Lehner contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices:
Livestock can also use these pastures to graze. Feeding bees may help them stave off illness the agency hopes particularly in an agricultural landscape dominated by corn soybean and cotton not the insects'preferred plants.
Sell-By Labels Send Edible U s. Food to the Dump (Op-Ed) The industrial livestock operations that produce the vast quantities of meat consumed in this country pollute the air the water and atmosphere.
The abuse of antibiotics in the livestock industry where animals that aren't sick are fed low doses of antibiotics day after day to try to compensate for unsanitary conditions risks impairing the effectiveness of those essential medicines
In pointing a finger at these human cousins the authors of the paper may have been too quick to rule out bears wild boars
Male elephants are called bulls and females are called cows. After mating the cow will be pregnant for around 22 months.
When the baby elephant is born finally it can weigh around 200 lbs 91 kg) and stand about 3 feet (1 m) tall.
A baby elephant is called a calf. As the calf grows it will gain 2 to 3 lbs. every day until its first birthday.
By the time they are 2 or 3 years old calves are ready to be weaned. Male calves will wander off on their own
while females will stay with their mothers. When they are 13 to 20 years old they will be mature enough to have their own young.
Elephants live 30 to 50 years in the wild. The taxonomy of elephants according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) is:
Kingdom: Animaliasubkingdom: Bilateria Infrakingdom: Deuterostomia Phylum: Chordatasubphylum: Vertebratainfraphylum: Gnathostomata Superclass: Tetrapoda Class: Mammalia Subclass: Theriainfraclass:
Bones from young cattle and teeth from leopards suggest its residents ate and dressed like royalty.</
and nearby mound containing the hind limbs of young cattle the seals of high-ranking officials which were inscribed with titles like the scribe of the royal box and the scribe of the royal school and leopard teeth (but no leopard).<
's best surfers are gearing up for Mavericks International an elite surf competition that pits big-wave riders against the monster swells at a Northern California Beach.</
<a href=http://www. livescience. com/42826-mavericks-science-of-big-waves. html target=blank>Mavericks Competition:
We've been able to deploy nest cameras to watch the birds'chick-raising habits and their family life.
and chicks but they're nothing like great horned owls who will swoop into a nest decapitate the chicks
Now that we know exactly where the eagles are nesting we fly back to each nest counting the number of new chicks.
After flying over all those nests we've gotten pretty good at quickly gauging the age of eagle chicks by evaluating size and plumage.
This year we found birds raising chicks that came from eggs laid in November a time
and can be applied directly to poultry meat.##oeit s not widely used today. It s gaining acceptance
Researchers are also looking into ways to treat bacterial infections in livestock using phages but Sulakvelidze said that results from these tests are inconclusive so far.
However if phages prove successful in this way it would greatly reduce the need for antibiotics in livestock
because scientists don't know how the results from the lab will carry over to complex environments such as a pig's digestive system.#
or restrict the use of this drug during pig production including all countries in the European union Russia and China.
But that hasn't stopped the U s. pork industry from feeding it to an estimated 60 percent to 80 percent of American pigs to rapidly boost growth rates.
If you buy pork at your local supermarket chances are that it came from a ractopamine-treated pig.
A few days ago Mcclatchy published a detailed piece on how the American pork industry led by the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) now is demanding that European authorities allow pork from pigs fed ractopamine
The U s. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ractopamine for use on pigs after just one human health study an evaluation of six young healthy men one of whom dropped out
Ractopamine may increase the number of injured and/or fatigued pigs during marketing. Not for use in breeding swine.
Memo to Congress: Protect Public health Not Toxic Chemicals (Op-Ed) The FDA has linked ractopamine to nearly a quarter-million reported adverse events in pigs (more than half of those pigs were sickened
or killed) more than any other animal drug. These pigs became lame or unable to stand started trembling
or suffered a host of other ailments. In particular ractopamine causes pigs to collapse and become downers that is animals too sick
or injured to walk and then often dragged into the slaughterhouse. HSUS investigations at pig factory-farms have shown that these downer pigs are often terribly
and cruelly mishandled. The pork industry vehemently fights all of our efforts to require the euthanasia of downer pigs perhaps
because it realizes that there are so many downers now that the use of ractopamine is so routine.
This reminds me of the pork industry's stubborn refusal to stop using gestation crates coffin-sized crates that confine pregnant sows so tightly that they can't even turn around.
So our animals can't turn around for the 2. 5 years that they are in the stalls producing piglets.
I don't know who asked the sow if she wanted to turn around#Gestation Crates Have No Place in U s. Food Production (Op-Ed) Thankfully this line of thinking now faces a major challenge from within the pork industry with major producers splitting from the NPPC on gestation crates
#Lonely Cows Are Slow Learners Immediately after birth on many dairy farms baby cows are separated from their mothers
But early-life isolation may be depriving baby cows of the opportunity to reach their full potential found a new study.
Compared to calves raised in pairs isolated calves were much slower to learn new things
Aside from animal welfare concerns the new findings suggest that dairy farmers have long been overlooking the brain development of their cows by depriving them of social interaction in their early weeks.#
#For cows he said it means we re not keeping these animals in an environment that allows them to be
#Diseases spread quickly through cattle herds and calves are particularly vulnerable so for generations traditional farmers have raised newborn cows in their own pens for the first six to eight weeks until they are weaned from milk.
On the research farm at the University of B c . though Weary and colleagues noticed that calves that had been raised alone had trouble adjusting to the group
when they were moved finally over. They couldn t navigate the big pen. They struggled to use the group feeder.
These individually raised cows don t seem to know how to regulate their behavior around other animals at all.#
and not just an example of social awkwardness Weary and colleagues separated 18 calves from their mothers within six hours of birth.
They assigned eight of the young cows to solitary pens and 10 to be kept in pairs.
Starting at about a month old calves were trained on a simple Y-shaped maze that allowed them to choose between a white bottle at the end of one branch and a black bottle at the end of the other.
All of the young cows learned quickly that the white bottle was full of delicious milk while the black one was empty.
#Male Goat's'Goaty'Pheromone Puts Females in the Mood There is more to that characteristic goaty odor of male goats than one may think (or smell.
It turns out a male goat's scent is powerful enough to get female goats in the mood.
New research has identified a pheromone in the hair of male goats that activates a hormone in female goats called gonadotropin-releasing hormone
7 Tales of Naughty Acts in the Wild In other words it seems this single molecule alters both female goats'behavior
The researchers think this may be a clever reproductive strategy of the male goat he said.
Researchers knew for a long time that in sheep and goats the males somehow stimulated the release of reproductive hormones in females
but now the new study has identified the actual compound at work said John J. Mcglone a Texas Tech University professor who was involved not in the study.
The research may have implications for species other than goats he said. When there is a pheromone in one species
what we are learning is that it often has effects on other species. For instance there is a pig pheromone that stops dogs from barking Mcglone said.
The new goat pheromone could even have an effect on humans he said but he noted the olfactory systems of different species can respond differently to the same pheromone.
These three categories are broken further down into many squirrel types such as Albino Mountain Tree Antelope Spotted Grey American Red Douglas Fox Pygmy Northern Flying Southern
San Joaquin antelope ground squirrel woolly flying squirrel Sipora flying squirrel Mentawi flying squirrel Siberut flying squirrel smoky flying squirrel Vincent's bush squirrel Baja california rock squirrel Idaho
#Papadum the Goat and His Model Genome (Gallery)< p>Currently living on a farm In virginia Papadum was selected recently by the U s. Department of agriculture (USDA) to represent one of more than twenty distinct goat populations from the United states Africa and other
The resulting connections will help farmers breed their animals more efficiently yielding healthier more productive goats that will adapt well to their respective environments
and food systems the program called Feed the Future will also increase the biodiversity of goat breeds across the world making it a true win-win.
For Papadum and the San Clemente goat breed of which he is a part with a global population of just over 600 this opportunity is especially exciting.
San Clemente goats are known for their natural abilities in mothering foraging breeding and disease resistance and their hardiness short stature and gentle temperaments will make them prime candidates for a variety of terrains and conditions.</
and endangered breeds of livestock has never been more urgent than today. The United nations Food and agriculture organization has reported that of the world s 65000 breeds one breed a month becomes extinct.
</i></p>A herd of San Clemente goats including Papadum's sire Elvis in the background.
Two Arapawa bucks on pasture at SVF Foundation in Newport R i. This critically endangered breed is a close genetic link to the now extinct Olde English goats.
Red poll dam and heifer calf future embryo donors for SVF's preservation program. SVF aims to include 200 embryos
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