The World's 5 Smallest Mammals Because of their temperature sensitivity pikas are bellwethers of climate change.
More than half a billion people depend on forests for their jobs their food their clean water said Andrew Steer the CEO of the World Resources Institute (WRI) which launched the website today (Feb 20.
But humans are failing to preserve these crucial ecosystems Steer told reporters before the launch.
We now have the possibility of doing something that would have been absolutely unheard of 10 years ago Steer said which is near real-time data delivered to everybody who has a laptop or a computer or a smartphone in the world.
Joel Berger who teaches at the University of Montana observed young bighorn sheep running into cacti
and curved spines. 8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries It looked as though tuberculosis was present in the New world before European contact based on these skeletons said Kirsten Bos the study's lead researcher and a postdoctoral fellow
Instead it was branching with the animals'strains of TB Bos told Live Science. The new study also suggests that the common ancestor of the M. tuberculosis complex is just 6000 years old
Bos said. The Bering Land Bridge a stretch of land that connected Russia to Alaska during the previous Ice age had disappeared already under the Bering strait she noted.
we were all thinking that was kind of a joke Bos recalled. Then we got our hands on some seal TB sequences.
Regardless of their age the marine tuberculosis strains appear to have been replaced completely by European strains following contact Bos said.
The ruminants Americans eat mainly cows pose the biggest threat to the climate according to an article in this month's edition of the journal Nature Climate Change.
and 80 percent of those emissions are from cattle. The alternative? Boucher and his co-authors point out that methane emissions from pigs
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).
See Photos of the Discoveries at Giza Pyramids The other thing that is just amazing is almost all the cattle are under 10 months of age#they are eating veal said Richard Redding the chief research officer of Ancient Egypt Research
From his sample of 100000 bones from the nearby mound Redding said he couldn't find a cow bone that was older than 18 months and found few examples of sheep and goat bones.
Leopard teeth Besides cattle bones the archaeologists found two leopard teeth in the house and another two in the nearby mound.
Redding was puzzled also that many cattle hind bones yet few forelimbs were found. For some reason the people of the house avoided eating the forelimbs of the cattle.
Again Redding turned to ancient drawings. There he found numerous examples of scenes where people presented forelimbs as offerings to deities
The fossilized dung offers surprising evidence that bighorn sheep once lived on the uninhabited island a new study claims.
Around 500 bighorn sheep can be found on Tiburã n Island in the Gulf of california today but that population descends from a group of animals brought there by conservationists in 1975.
Starting with 16 females and 4 males conservationists established a population of bighorn sheep to bolster the species'numbers on the mainland.
and disease-transmitting animals like domestic sheep. 6 Extinct Animals That Could Be brought Back to Life The fossilized poop was found in a cave in the Sierra Kunkaak mountain range of the eastern side of the island
and extinct herbivores matching it with the feces of modern desert bighorn sheep. The size and shape of the poop pellets apparently also matched.
Furthermore the sequences are not identical to the modern bighorn populations on Tiburã n Island
so we are confident that the sequences do not derive from modern use of the cave by introduced bighorn sheep.
when exactly bighorn sheep lived on the island or if they lived there for a continuous period
We hypothesize that isolation of the prehistoric Tiburã n bighorn sheep population resulting from sea level rise combined with subsequent drivers that act on small populations including inbreeding overharvesting by hunters
#Gazelles: Facts & Pictures Gazelles are thin graceful antelopes that live in Africa and Asia. They resemble deer
and are in the same family as goats cattle and sheep. Gazelles can be identified by their curved ringed horns tan or reddish-brown coats and white rumps.
Often there are spots or stripes on their coats. Their light frames help make them agile and better able to escape from predators.
There are 19 species of gazelle according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS. Smaller species such as the Speke's gazelle and Thomson's gazelle are only 20 to 43 inches (51 to 109 centimeters) at the shoulder.
They weigh from 26 to 165 pounds (12 to 75 kilograms. The dama gazelle is the largest gazelle.
It weighs in at 88 to 165 pounds (40 to 75 kg) and is 4. 5 to 5. 5 feet tall (137 to 168 cm).
Most gazelles live in the hot dry savannas and deserts of Africa and Asia. To stay hydrated in these grueling environments gazelles shrink their heart
and liver according to a study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. Breathing can cause an animal to lose a lot of water.
A smaller heart and liver need less oxygen so the animal can breathe less and lose less water.
The Edmi gazelle also known as the Cuvier's gazelleis the only gazelle that lives in the mountains.
Gazelles rely on their speed to escape from predators. Gazelles can reach speeds up to 60 mph in short bursts
and sustain speeds of 30 to 40 mph. When running gazelles use a bounding leap called pronking or stotting
which involves stiffly springing into the air with all four feet. These animals are highly social.
Some gazelle herds have as many as 700 members though some herds are segregated small and by gender.
Female Thomson's gazelles for example live in herds of 10 to 30 females in addition to their young. Males live alone or in small groups with other males.
Gazelles carry their young for around six months before giving birth. They have one to two young at a time.
Baby gazelles are called fawns or calves. To keep her calves safe from predators a female gazelle will hide her babies in tall grasses.
While the young are still nursing they stay with their mother's herd. When they are ready to fend for themselves male calves are moved to the male herd.
Gazelles typically live 10 to 12 years. Gazelles are herbivores. This means they only eat vegetation typically grasses leaves
and shoots of plants. According to Endangered Wildlife and Plants of the World Volume 5 (Marshall Cavendish Corp. 2001) some gazelles can live their entire lives
and never drink any water. The taxonomy of gazelles according to ITIS is: There are many vulnerable and endangered species of gazelle.
For example the Cuvier's gazelle's population is estimated at only 1750 to 2950 according to International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.
Another endangered species is horned the slender gazelle. It is estimated that there are only a few thousand left.
The dama gazelle is not only the world's biggest gazelle it is also the rarest according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.
It is endangered critically and has a population of less than 500. The major threat facing gazelles is hunting.
The Queen of Sheba's gazelle became extinct when it was hunted for food in 1951 by soldiers according to the IUCN.
The name gazelle comes from the Arabic gazal the term for love poems. A gazelle will flick its tails
or stomp its feet to warn others of a lurking predator. The horns of the Edmi gazelle can grow to 14 inches (35.5 centimeters) long.
Goitered gazelles get their name from the large bump on their throats. The bump is larger on males.
It is a large patch of cartilage that helps them bellow loudly to potential mates during mating season.
Gazelles can stand on their back legs to reach leaves high in the branches of trees e
#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.
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.
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.
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.
During my teen years I was involved in the agricultural program at the school working with chickens goats lizards and other animals.
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.
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
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:
#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.
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
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.</
</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
The bones the archaeologists found in the galleries indicate they consumed lots of goat and sheep as well as oily bony catfish said Richard Redding chief research officer at Ancient Egypt Research Associates in another symposium presentation.
The troops didn't get as much cattle or Nile perch which were considered the more desirable forms of meat and fish.
or lean-to's but we did find old cattle bone strips of cloth rope and string of all gauges fragments of wood including part of a hammer and other material of the workers.
Horses are banned from grazing in cattle areas so farmers would set them free in the Wolong preserve
#Polar bear Caught on Camera with Eerie Musk ox Horn (Photo) In the blue light of the Russian Arctic scientists captured a rare photo of a polar bear approaching a musk ox carcass Thursday (March 27.
Berger is currently on Wrangel Island with a team of Russian scientists as part of an expedition to study how musk oxen living in this remote refuge compare with those in the warming Alaskan Arctic Scott Smith a spokesman for the WCS told Live
Musk oxen today are only native to Canada and Greenland but they were once more widespread across the Arctic.
Twenty musk oxen were introduced to Wrangel Island in 1975. Today their population has stabilized at around 900 individuals according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration's 2013 Arctic Report card.
Conservationists have established also populations of musk oxen in Alaska where the species disappeared by the 1890s.
Now more than 4200 musk oxen live in five different Alaskan regions though not all of those populations are growing NOAA officials say.
This included diverse small animals such as hares fish turtles hedgehogs and partridges as well as larger prey such as deer boars horse goats sheep extinct wild
oxen known as aurochs and the onager also known as the Asian wild ass. However by 8200 B c. the meat in the diet shifted overwhelmingly to sheep and goats.
These animals once made up less than half of all skeletal remains at the site but gradually increased to 85 to 90 percent of these bones with sheep bones outnumbering goat remains by a factor of three or more.
Young male sheep and goats were killed selectively probably for their meat leaving females and some males to breed more livestock.
Moreover analysis of dung in the mound revealed that plant-eating animals were held captive inside the settlement probably in between buildings.
#European Bison to Be released into Wild Bison went extinct in Europe nearly 100 years ago
Seven female bison raised in captivity in The british Isles will be reintroduced to a forest in Romania officials with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) announced.
One of the bison a female named Glen Rosa born in July 2012 was raised at Scotland's Highland Wildlife Park
The World's Biggest Beasts Glen Rosa and the other bison will join an already established herd in Vanatori Neamt Nature Park Romania to help augment both numbers
European Bison bison bonasus) are the largest herbivores in Europe. The animals went extinct in the wild in 1927
The first captive-bred bison was released into its natural habitat in 1952. Because of continued conservation and reintroduction efforts the total wild population reached over 3000 by 2012.
Bison had a similar trajectory in the United states. Tens of millions of the animals once roamed the Great plains
Thanks to early conservation efforts bison made a comeback. Today there are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of the animals across the nation.
No cattle. Two horses. That s our kids future.##He said he has been writing to both the Navajo
This means that meat from cows is kosher while that of camels rabbits and pigs is not.
These two reserves contain the Big five#African lion African elephant Cape buffalo African leopard and White or Black rhinoceros and are viewed as a safe haven for brown hyaena.
which comes from sources as varied as fracking and cow farts. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration (NOAA) monitors many potent greenhouse gases such as methane carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide at observatories around the world.
antelope porcupines sheep and calves...My trapping records show that for each target animal I trapped about 2 unwanted individuals were caught.
or ox#s the animals were driven away the victim's body was ripped slowly into four quarters.
Brazen Bull: For sheer inventiveness the brazen bull (sometimes referred to as the bronze bull) stands apart:
A large bull was cast from bronze with a hollow interior and a door in its side was placed in a public square.
The unlucky criminal was forced inside the bull and with the door locked a fire was lit beneath the bronze bull.
Pipes inside the bull's neck and head converted the criminal's screams into sounds like the bellowing of a bull.
Eventually of course the prisoner burned to death. The infamous device was used apparently by Phalaris ruler of Sicily with abandon during his reign (c. 570 to 554 B c)
..When Phalaris was met overthrown he his end inside the same brazen bull that came to symbolize his tyranny.
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