#As Superbugs Rise, New Studies Point To Factory Farms (Op-Ed) Peter Lehner is executive director of the Natural resources Defense Council (NRDC.
Finally treatment with a potent form of the antibiotic cephalosporin managed to beat back the multidrug-resistant superbug.
or fields fertilized with pig manure is also at greater risk of getting infected by a superbug.
For decades scientists have been teasing out the link between the abuse of antibiotics on livestock farms and the rise of superbug infections in humans.
Eighty percent of all antibiotics sold in the United states by weight are used by the livestock industry mostly for animals that aren't even sick.
The CDC in its recent report stated bluntly Much of antibiotic use in animals is unnecessary and inappropriate
and Drug Administration (FDA) to do the right thing and stop the use of antibiotics in animals that are not sick.
and others are working to provide their customers with products from animals raised without antibiotics.
routinely administering antibiotics to animals that aren't sick is putting human lives at risk.
#At least 26 Elephants Killed by Poachers in Central africa At least 26 elephants were killed in Central africa after a group of armed poachers raided a protected sanctuary on Monday (May 6) according to wildlife officials.
The poachers made their way to the Dzanga Bai an open area where anywhere from 50 to 200 elephants gather daily to drink nutrients and mineral salts in the sands.
At least 26 elephant carcasses including four calves were counted in and around the Dzanga Bai on Thursday (May 9) WWF officials said.
Wildlife representatives described the Dzanga Bai scene as an elephant mortuary and it was evident that local villagers had started taking meat from the remains of the dead animals they added.
Elephant Images: The Biggest Beasts On land The killing has started Jim Leape WWF's international director general said in a statement.
The Central african republic must act immediately to secure this unique United nations educational scientific and cultural organization World Heritage site. The brutal violence we are witnessing in Dzanga Bai threatens to destroy one of the world's great natural treasures
Poachers continue to kill elephants and strip them of their ivory tusks to sell on global markets
According to the Wildlife Conservation Society some 25000 African elephants are killed every year. The elephants here face a sure death as criminals obtain ivory
which fuels even more violence in the Central african republic Cristiã¡n Samper the Wildlife Conservation Society's president and CEO said in a statement.
I watched hundreds of elephants gathering in this incredible area. WCS stands with our conservation partner WWF calling for immediate action to stop the killing of these elephants.
The Dzanga Bai area is known to locals as the village of elephants because of the herds of elephants that assemble there every day.
Because the poachers raided the sanctuary however no elephants have been seen at the Bai WWF officials said.
The Central african republic has been a hotbed of violence and political instability since the beginning of the year.
The events in Dzanga Bai are a vivid reminder of the existential threat faced by forest elephants in Central africa Leape said.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow. Follow Livescience@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.+Original article onâ Livescience. com n
whether it be human hand a crawly insect or an oozy fungus. Research teams led by Robert Last Daniel Jones
and the evolution of resistance to pests offers critical data for scientists as they breed
Orange-Bellied Parrot (Op-Ed) This article was published originally atâ The Conversation. Â The publication contributed the article to Livescience'sâ Expert Voices:
If you had to ask an average Australian the name of a threatened bird in this country many would nominate the Orange-bellied Parrot.
Every year the last birds remaining in the wild leave their breeding grounds at Melaleuca in the remote southwest wilderness of Tasmania to fly to the saltmarshes along the coastline of Victoria and South australia.
And each year hundreds of volunteers go out to count the birds and see how they are faring.
Yet somehow the poor Orange-bellied Parrot is always getting into trouble. The first incident was in 1996
and discovered that the area was favoured habitat for the parrot. He didn t want any oetrumped up corella (a distantly-related species of cockatoo) to stop his development a name that conservationists subsequently adopted as their newsletter on the species. It was listed even in a recent book as the only bird name coined by a politician.
Ten years later Environment Minister Ian Campbell decided that the bird could be used as an excuse not to allow the construction of a wind farm in a friend s electorate in Gippsland.
The chances of any birds hitting the turbines were vanishingly small and he was forced to reverse the decision
but not before the parrot s reputation as a hindrance to development had been strengthened. More recently in 2012 the bird was blamed for holding up a marina development in Westernport.
The site also happened to be beside a globally important wetland but the parrot copped the blame
even though it had not been seen there for 25 years. The trouble is that no one has yet been able to put their finger on why the parrot is so rare.
This is despite it being the first bird in Australia to have its own recovery team set up in 1981.
Not that there is any shortage of theories. For a long time the most popular theory was a shortage of habitat in winter.
Many saltmarshes have been reclaimed along the southern coast of Australia. Those remaining are introduced full of nasty predators like foxes
and cats and invaded by weeds. Much work has been done to identify and protect the remaining coastal habitat.
However few of these sites still get parrots even though the birds have learnt to eat the weeds.
The birds are also under pressure at breeding sites in Tasmania. The birds nest in tree hollows that are favoured also by species introduced to Tasmania-such as the European Starling
-which steal the nest sites. Fortunately few starlings visit Melaleuca. And for most of its history there have been very few people either.
One of those few however may inadvertently have saved the parrot. Deny King lived at Melaleuca from 1946 until his death in 1991.
A bushman s bushman he actively managed the environment by lighting small fires to create a mosaic of habitats of different ages
just as Aboriginal people are thought to have done for thousands of years. Fires release nutrients and parrots love feeding on sedge
and grass seed in the first years after they are burnt. However keeping fires small is an art
and few managers of the southwest wilderness had the skills to keep Deny s legacy going
or else could not get permission from their park managers who feared fires getting out of control.
Perhaps a shortage of parrots is due to a shortage of fire. This is certainly consistent with recent trends:
breeding productivity increases after the parrots get all the food they can eat. For a long time the population was estimated to be about 200.
While a captive population had been established back in 1983 genetic work showed that there were too few to encompass all of the parrot s genetic diversity.
So in 2011 21 young birds were taken from nests and transferred into the captive population. They have done well.
Currently there are over 200 birds in captivity at seven locations. But while they may be secure in captivity what of the birds in the wild?
So far they seem to be hanging on. In the spring of 2012 20 adults returned from migration producing 22 chicks over the ensuing months.
and the birds are feeding on burnt country as well. All females attempted to breed. This year 19 birds returned
and the decision was made to boost the wild population with 23 birds reared in captivity-enough to augment the population not enough to swamp wild behaviours.
Earlier tests have shown remarkably that newly released birds can migrate to Victoria and back. As of yesterday at least 14 pairs of Orange-bellied Parrots are breeding at Melaleuca this year.
Also the first chicks of the year hatched at Taroona and Healesville. Just possibly the wild population at Melaleuca can be recovered with the help of their cousins in captivity.
In the meantime the species remains a beacon of hope for those determined to retain all our biological heritage for our children.
All pictures supplied by photographers courtesy of Debbie Lustig at Save the Orange-bellied Parrot.
Despite their well-earned reputation as a firefighter's worst nightmare eucalyptus trees remain a favorite landscape specimen renowned for fast-growing stands of tall shade trees that according to some research help repel insects through the same fragrant eucalyptus oil that's blamed for fueling wildfires.
Dazzling light shows with hues most commonly of pink green yellow blue violet and occasionally orange and white depending on what elements the particles collide with. 2. Animals respond testes swell Living things respond to the light
and animals preparing for hibernation. Fall can bring an especially noticeable change to the high-attitude-living male Siberian hamster.
That's because the rodent's testes swell up 17 times their size from short days to long;
the swelling allows in part the animals to time reproduction properly. Hamsters aren't the only creatures to herald in fall in strange ways.
When autumn hits the black-capped chickadee goes gangbusters collecting seeds and hiding them in hundreds of different spots in trees and on the ground.
At the same time the tiny bird's hippocampus balloons by 30 percent as new nerve cells pop up in this part of the brain which is responsible for spatial organization
and memory. 3. Full moon named for autumn Autumn gets its own full moon the Harvest moon. From Wolf and Sturgeon to Hunter and Harvest full moons are named for the month
or season in which they rise. The Harvest moon is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox
which occurred on the night of Sept. 18-19 this year. Before artificial lighting farmers took advantage of the full moon's light to harvest their crops.
#Babies Abound at Penguin Colony Found by Poop A recent visit to a remote Antarctic emperor penguin colony found thousands of fuzzy penguin chicks meaning the colony is even bigger than previously thought.
A team from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar research station estimates there are 15000 penguins living in four groups at the colony on East Antarctica's Princess Ragnhild Coast.
The good weather this season gave us the opportunity this season to spend a bit more of time counting individual emperor penguins said Alain Hubert the expedition leader
Antarctica's Baby Penguins A December 2012 expedition from Princess Elisabeth station marked the first time humans saw this colony of flightless birds.
Lots of chicks This year's penguin count confirms the accuracy of the satellite monitoring Hubert said.
This a good sign for the survival of the species. The team found only about 100 adult penguins along the shoreline where the ice meets the sea compared with about 1000 adults last year Hubert said.
Other birds sighted during the trip include Adelie penguins and skuas a type of seabird that preys on penguin chicks.
The baby penguins were further inland slowly migrating toward stable sea ice about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from their overwintering spot where the fathers huddle together for warmth
 Hubert and field guide Christophe Berclaz had to pick their way down a 130-foot-tall (40 meters) ice cliff to find the waddling groups of penguins.
Pesky penguins Seeing the fuzzy penguin chicks demand a vomited-up meal was Hubert's favorite part of the few hours spent at the massive colony.
Emperor penguins are the largest penguin species and stand on average about 45 inches (114 centimeters) tall and weigh 90 pounds (41 kilograms) when full-grown.
Satellite imagery has helped find previously unknown penguin colonies in Antarctica expanding their known population but the future of penguin species remains uncertain as global warming changes Antarctica's climate.
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While animals like sharks are known to sense electrical fields nobody had ever found that an insect could do the same Scientificamerican reports.
The 10 Weirdest Animal Discoveries Animals are just constantly surprising us as to how good their senses are Dominic Clarke lead author of the study published in journal Science told the BBC.
Flowers use various means to attract bees and other pollinators. In addition to their electrical charge and alluring fragrance flowers display bright colors and research has found that bees see colors three times faster than humans.
whose nectar has just been taken by another insect. The last thing a flower wants is to attract a bee
This is a magnificent interaction where you have an animal and a plant and they both want this to go as well as possible study co-author Gregory Sutton told NPR.
Other scientists are excited about the possible implications this research may have for other nectar-gathering insects such as hoverflies and moths.
Assuming we can replicate the findings this is going to open up a whole new window on insect sensory systems.
Mysterious disappearance Honeybees have been disappearing mysteriously in a trend known as colony-collapse disorder. Though no one knows exactly what causes the dramatic die-off scientists think a range of factors including parasites
Honeybee Scouts Find Food To see whether honey provided any benefit to the bees May Berenbaum a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The researchers then took those chemicals added them to bee candy a combination of sucrose and powdered sugar and fed them to 15 worker bees.
They still carry primitive genomes from their days as prokaryotes. The emergence of Eukaryotic life opened the door for all higher forms of life that would follow including us!</
when it impacted triggering a global winter that was devastating for nearly all land plants and animals.
But the small furry mammals that burrowed underground survived. They had been living in the shadows of the dinosaurs all along
Eventually the mammalian lineage evolved into primates then apes then hominids and finally the Homo lineage that produced human beings.
</p><p></p><p>By about 5 million years ago certain apes in Africa had mastered the art of upright walking these were the hominids.
</p><p></p><p>Jared Diamond popularized this descriptor in his book The Third Chimpanzee (1992)
Animals too were domesticated as companions servants or food sources. By about 10000 years ago large permanent settlements like Jericho and Catalhoyuk appear in the archeological record.
Climate change promotes fire-friendly infestations of bark beetles via a double whammy: Milder winters enable populations of bark beetles to survive the winter
and thereby increase their numbers and amplify their killing power. By contrast populations of these pests used to be thinned
and thereby neutralized by the killing cold of winter. At the same time climate change increases the vulnerability of forests to bark beetle attacks.
It does so by triggering droughts that subject trees to water stress which reduces their resistance to bark beetle infestations much the way that starvation reduces the resistance of people to infections.
Climate Change and Wildfires Reinforce Each other To make matters worse the problem is not only that climate change promotes wildfires
of which are greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and thereby help raise global temperatures.
and adjacent areas by a Twin Otter airplane that collects ecological measurements with state-of-the-art remote-sensing instruments.
#Bison Could Be reintroduced to Alaska North america's largest land animal will roam the Alaskan wilderness once again
Some Alaskans have rejected the idea of introducing an animal listed under the Endangered Species Act for fear that this might interfere with gas and oil development the Dispatch reported.
Habitats of endangered animals often cannot be used for certain commercial activities. Under the new plan the Alaskan bison would be designated as a nonessential experimental population that isn't necessary to the survival of the species
If their population reaches a certain size the animals would also be fair game for hunters according to the plan.
  A total of 132 animals already live in captivity at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage.
Establishing wild populations of this magnificent animal in Alaska would be a significant step toward its eventual recovery
#Bizarre Egg-Burying Birds Hatch at Bronx Zoo Three maleo chicks have been hatched at the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Bronx Zoo in New york where keepers recreated the conditions of the birds
While most birds sit on their eggs to keep their unhatched young warm maleos bury their large eggs in underground nests letting heat from geothermal sources the sun
Maleos at The bronx Zoo are provided with deep river sand which is heated electrically from below so that the birds can find a warm spot to bury their eggs.
Surveillance cameras allow keepers to watch the nesting areas closely so that when an egg is laid it can be dug out of the sand immediately
and being kept in an off-exhibit area of the zoo WCS officials said. Maleos are mostly black in color with peach plumage on their stomach yellow facial skin a red-orange beak and a casque on top of their head.
The birds which belong to the megapode family are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
In Sulawesi the birds'wild population is shrinking due to humans'unsustainable harvesting of their eggs and predation by invasive species according to WCS officials.
Almost half of all megapode species are threatened with extinction Nancy Clum curator of ornithology at The bronx Zoo said in a statement.
The work we do with maleos both at the zoo and in the field can provide a model for conservation of other megapode species. Email Megan Gannon
or follow her@meganigannon. Follow Livescience@livescience Facebook & Google+.+Original article on Livescience. com m
Releasing Captive-Bred Pandas This Behind the Scenes article was provided to Livescience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
Only about 1590 giant pandas remain in the wild distributed among a few mountain ranges in Central China.
Because the giant panda an endangered species is among the world's rarest animals the Chinese government has established more than 50 panda reserves.
Nevertheless only about 61 percent of China's surviving panda population is protected in these reserves.
 Home At last Experts in China and Michigan State university are feverishly working together to increase the size of populations of wild protected pandas.
Their work includes breeding captive pandas via artificial insemination in veritable panda-ariums. It also includes reintroducing young captive-born pandas into Southwestern China's Wolong Nature Reserve where they are protected.
Once a young panda arrives at Wolong it initially lives in a section of the reserve that has been converted into something like a survivalist boot camp for pandas.
Expansive panda enclosures within the boot camp are located on steep panda-friendly hills and are filled with trees and bamboo.
With mother serving as drill sergeant each new panda recruit learns survival skills such as how to forage for food
and avoid predators. Dressed for panda success keepers who monitor and care for the pandas wear panda suits as camouflage to help the animals maintain a healthy fear of humans.
When deemed ready for the real world each young recruit in Wolong boot camp is released to the wild.
Habitat Habitat Habitat With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Jianguo Jack Liu who holds the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability at Michigan State university is contributing to the Wolong re-introduction program
by helping to improve panda habitat in Wolong. He and his team are generating multi-disciplinary analyses of panda habitat that incorporate information about the habits of local villagers demographic changes in the labor force the current state
and anticipated availability of bamboo and panda activity obtained by tracking collared pandas in the wild.
The successes of Liu and his students include laying the foundation for a policy to subsidize the cost of electricity used by the reserve's human residents;
the goal is to discourage residents from chopping down trees in panda habitat for use as firewood.
In addition Liu recently discovered that reserve residents have been keeping horses in the reserve mostly to bolster panda tourism.
But these horses have been consuming large amounts of bamboo and thereby destroying panda habitat. We have been focusing on identifying how panda habitat changes over time
and across space says Liu. This is very important because when you release pandas you need to know where the good places to release pandas are.
We need to release pandas in good habitat so that pandas can survive and sustain themselves for a long time.
Black and white and Wanted All over Threats to panda survival include poaching and smuggling which is promoted by the black market for panda fur.
In addition the panda's primary habitat is located in the forests of China's Yangtze Basin region the capital of China's economic boom.
As a result panda habitat is increasingly being fragmented by roads and railroads that isolate panda populations
and prevent mating across groups. In addition an adult panda must eat about 28 pounds of bamboo per day to fulfill its nutritional needs.
Unfortunately however pandas must increasingly compete for their needed bamboo with people who use this plant as food for livestock an ingredient for medicines and raw material for musical instruments.
What's more research conducted by a research team that includes Liu and is funded partially by NSF indicates that by the end of the 21st century climate change may kill off swaths of bamboo that pandas need to survive.
Another problem: the natural cycle of bamboo growth involves massive periodic die offs. To cope with a die off in any particular area pandas must move to non-impacted areas.
However such movement is obstructed sometimes by the shrinkage and fragmentation of panda habitat. An Online Panda-thon For more information about pandas as well as videos and photos of pandas see Michigan State university's Web site on pandas.
Editor's Note: The researchers depicted in Behind the Scenes articles have been supported by the National Science Foundation the federal agency charged with funding basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering.
Any opinions findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. See the Behind the Scenes Archive A
#Breast Milk Bought Online May have High Levels of Bacteria Breast milk sold online may be contaminated with disease-causing bacteria researchers have found.
After noticing more women offering to buy and sell breast milk over the Internet researchers launched a study to see how safe that milk really is.
They sent anonymous purchasing requests to about 500 sellers on a popular U s. milk-sharing website.
About half of the sellers answered and finally about 100 milk shipments arrived. We found three quarters of the milk that we studied was contaminated either with high levels of bacteria
and other cruciferous vegetables prevents rats exposed to lethal doses of radiation from dying. If follow-up studies show the treatment works in humans the compound could be given to people before
To find out the team exposed 40 rats to a dose of gamma-ray radiation that would normally be deadly
Whereas all of the untreated animals died 60 percent of the DIM-treated animals survived for more than 30 days.
After 30 days animals typically will not die of acute radiation sickness; however the researchers didn't study the animals that long
so it's possible that the animals could die from cancers that take years to develop Rosen said.
 But in the case of a nuclear disaster you're not really worried about someone who is going to get cancer from the radiation 10 or 20 years down the line;
When it was given prior to radiation exposure the compound also shielded rats from radiation's effects.
Brown is among a growing number of farmers who use a suite of techniques to build soil's natural capacity to retain moisture discourage weeds and pests and nurture crops.
and it teems with earthworms beneficial insects and microorganisms. The change is due to several key farming practices including cover cropping and no-till farming
and how much meat one could get from each animal to figure out how many animals would be required to provide the protein.
Herds big enough to supply that many animals would contain an estimated 21900 cattle and 54750 sheep or goats
It would have required almost 19000 people to raise that many animals almost 2 percent of the kingdom's population.
How the animals got to Giza is controversial; Redding thinks they came in long cattle drives.
or the hunting of meat from wild animals may be transforming the rain forests in Africa. When hunters kill gorillas
and other primates for their meat the primates no longer disperse the seeds of some fruit
-and nut-bearing trees and wind-dispersed seedlings take root instead according to a study published today (March 19) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The seedling communities of the forest floors are really different in a hunted forest compared to a well-protected forest said study co-author Ola Olsson an ecologist
Illegal practice Though illegal hunting for bushmeat from wild or endangered animals such as primates is now widespread in Africa.
25 Primates in Peril Population increases have forced people to live at the forest's edges.
and there are few taboos against eating nonhuman primates. New roads guns and cars also enable people to hunt gorillas
and bring carcasses to city markets where they fetch a handsome sum Olsson said. Hunted and protected To find out how primate hunting affected the forest Olsson
and his colleagues surveyed trees and mammals in the Nigerian rain forest bordering Cameroon. Park rangers protected some forested areas
which teem with monkeys and gorillas while nearby hunted areas were full of rodents such as rats and porcupines.
Whereas similar large trees dominated both types of forest the seedlings looked very different. Well-protected forests had many seedlings such as the bush mango that rely on primates to spread their seeds.
Many of these trees bear fruits or nuts that humans also eat. Hunted forests held seedling species that relied on wind to disperse their seeds.
In a generation that could fundamentally change the forest ecology he said. And whereas gorilla and monkey meat does provide protein for local people the fruit trees the primates maintain may be an even bigger economic benefit to people Olsson said.
Important work The findings show yet another devastating impact of the bushmeat trade said Joanna Lambert an ecologist at the University of Texas at San antonio who was involved not in the study.
Without primates and other large-bodied mammals forests are not regenerating in the way they've evolved to do over millions of years Lambert said.
Ending bushmeat hunting requires several tactics. Increasing fines and enforcement could help as would improving local populations'access to other protein-rich foods Lambert told Livescience.
But another strategy one that helped gorilla populations rebound in Rwanda and Uganda is to pay former hunters to serve as park rangers
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