#Guard dogs reduce killing of threatened speciesresearch from the University of Kent has revealed that guarding dogs can significantly reduce conflict between livestock
and large carnivores such as cheetahs or leopards helping to reduce unwarranted killing of endangered species in South africa.
In a paper published in Wildlife Society Bulletin entitled Perceived Efficacy of Livestock-Guarding Dogs in South africa:
Implications for Cheetah Conservation researchers from the University's School of Anthropology and Conservation studied the effect guarding dogs have on the protection of farm animals across South africa.
The research revealed that livestock guarding dogs eliminated livestock losses from predators on 91%of the farms studied with each farmer saving over $3000 per year due to the reduction in killed livestock.
The team also investigated the tolerance farmers have towards cheetahs roaming their land when they have a guarding dog present.
They found that farmers were noticeably more tolerant of predators resulting in a greater prevalence of cheetahs
and other predators on their land compared to farmers that did not have livestock guarding dogs.
Nikki Rust of the University's Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) said:''This research has shown for the first time that livestock guarding dogs can successfully be used in South africa to protect livestock from attack by predators as large as leopards or small as jackals.'
'This is a true win-win solution to reduce conflict between livestock and predators because it almost eliminates livestock losses to predators saving the farmer a lot of money
whilst increasing the tolerance of predators from the farmers thereby reducing the chance of using lethal control on threatened carnivores.'
'Professor Douglas Macmillan of DICE added:''Retaliatory killing by farmers is a major threat to the survival of many large carnivore species. This study shows that livestock deaths can be avoided through the deployment of highly trained dogs and
I am sure that there are many similar situations around the world where such dogs could make quite a difference to the survival chances of large carnivores.'
'Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Kent. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Competition also increases trees'risk to bark beetles and diseases and subsequently leads to a buildup of dead fuels.
If the stand has experienced high mortality caused by bark beetles it can be thinned more heavily without sacrificing timber biomass or volume increment and plant diversity.
The pillar which still stands bears an inscription documenting a visit by Emperor Asoka to the site of The buddha's birth as well as the site's name--Lumbini.
Seeing this disjunctive researchers from the INIFAP talked to the beekeepers about the organic control of the pest employing powdered thymol
like a tick it produces a disease in the colony called varroasis that can kill entire hives being the main problem that beekeepers face worldwide.
and placed in hives 90 days before bloom begins The most part of the honey produced in Mexico is exported mostly to Europe where health standards are very high mainly concerning chemical residues.
and royal jelly but also to those dedicated to crop pollination and queen bee breeding. The researcher specialized in bee genetics points out that the developed technology was published recently on INIFAP we are in process of validation using field tests with beekeepers
cats dogs or other animals; insect bites or stings; foods; and medications. Of the 79300 VITAL participants who filled out the questionnaires more than 66000 individuals were selected after eliminating those who had a prior history of malignancies other than non-melanoma skin cancers and missing information on baseline cancer history.
There was also an increased risk of plasma-cell neoplasms for participants who reported a history of allergies to cats dogs or other animals.
#Bird is the word--plus some side dish science! While the word thanks is included in our country's favorite holiday's name we all know the real star of the day is the food.
#¢An organic turkey simply means that the bird has met the standards for USDA Organic certification including an organic diet
#¢Wild turkeys are birds that were domesticated not or fed by humans--they're essentially hunted for the meal.
In contrast free range turkeys are birds that are confined not to a cage but were allowed to roam and forage.
Because their diets were augmented with grubs worms and grass the flavor of their meat is distinctly flavorful
study in locusts suggestsa team of scientists has shown how the environment shapes learning and memory by training locusts like Pavlov's dog to associate different smells with reward or punishment.
Solitary locusts rely on camouflage to evade predators and they avoid eating toxic plants; but gregarious locusts eat these plants to'impregnate'themselves with toxins to deter predators.
The transformation to gregarious behaviour which happens when solitary locusts are forced together into a crowd is complete within a few hours.
because it provides new insights into how animals can quickly switch between very different life styles that are adapted to different environments.
Our research shows how animals that undergo a profound transformation in their life style also adapt their learning
and eat toxic plants to defend itself against predators. Then we asked if a solitary locust has learned already about an odour
The study recalls the work of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who famously studied dogs salivating in anticipation of food.
Pavlov rang a bell every time he presented the dog with food. After a few'training sessions'ringing the bell alone was sufficient to make the dog salivate as it had come to associate the sound of the bell with getting food.
The scientists trained the locusts just like Pavlov trained his dog except that the unfamiliar smell replaces the bell in Pavlov's experiments:
they gently blew vanilla or lemon odour at the restrained locust while they spoon-fed it with artificial food.
The latest weapon in combatting climate changeas U n. climate talks continue in Warsaw soon a flying insect-like robot developed by scientists at Wake Forest University will give an unprecedented look at Peru's tropical cloud
Rather than relying on a human operator the drones fly autonomously using global positioning data compass coordinates and onboard stabilization systems.
Plus in our sites it is dispersed bird which means it gets around and is in fact moving into the sites at a frightening rate.
Similar nerve cell studies have been done in animals but they are imperfect representatives of human thought and behavior and without direct human feedback neuroscientists have had to make assumptions when interpreting animal responses.
which unlike the imported vaccines has been demonstrated to provide protection against bacterium infection in the small ruminants like goats and sheep.
and technology could be modified to produce vaccines against other diseases of animals and humans. In fact the technology can be modified further to produce test kits for various diseases he said.
Only scant research data are available on the effects on the lipid metabolism of ruminants of the forage conventionally used to feed dairy cows.
i e. become saturated in the rumen. In addition as a result of feed fermentation fat precursors are formed in the rumen
which develop into saturated fatty acids in the mammary glands. Feeding can be used to affect the lipid metabolism of the rumen
and the mammary glands and thereby the fat composition of milk Halmemies-Beauchet-Filleau explains. The effect of the forage conservation method was examined in two tests using fresh grass hay
The changes in ruminal lipid metabolism are based on the differences between plant species in terms of digestion kinetics and microbial flora in the rumen.
Replacing grass silage with red clover accomplished a distinct decrease in the saturation of fatty acids in the rumen
but the cultivars have suffered historically from several deficiencies including low yields late maturity disease and pest susceptibility and lack of uniformity.
Land management as a key to countering butterfly declinescurrently butterfly populations in many countries decline at alarming rates.
therefore have far-reaching consequences for the success and persistence of the butterfly fauna. A research team from Sweden and Germany have reviewed now effects of land management on butterfly diversity using historical and current surveys during the last 100 years.
The study focuses on systematic surveys of butterfly population trends and extinction rates in southern Swedish agricultural landscapes.
In some areas half of the butterfly fauna has been lost during the last 60-100 years.
The study is published in the journal Nature Conservation. Land use in these parts of Northern europe has changed markedly with key butterfly habitats such as hay meadows disappearing at alarming rates.
Grazed mixed open woodlands have been transformed into dense forests and domestic grazers have been relocated from woodlands to arable fields and semi-natural grasslands.
Adding to these problems current agricultural subsidy systems favour intensive grazing on the remaining semi-natural grasslands with strong negative effects on butterfly diversity.
and land use are problematic for the butterfly fauna relatively minor adjustments to land management have a potential of drastically counteracting these effects.
and to work towards recovery of threatened butterfly populations the review ends by recommending twelve management measures favourable for many butterflies.
and neck cancer cell growth in the mouse model reducing the growth of the tumor. In a controlled lab setting Ray found that bitter melon extract regulated several pathways that helped reduce the head and neck cancer cell growth in the animal model.
#Bait research focused on outsmarting destructive beetleuniversity of Alberta researchers are closing in on developing an effective bait to get ahead of the destructive spread of mountain pine beetle
of the same species--emitted by the pest in North america's lodgepole and jack pine forests.
The compounds are providing insight into how the beetles swarm in destructive numbers in the Canadian boreal forest including Alberta.
The mountain pine beetle has killed lodgepole pine forests in the Western United states British columbia the Northwest territories and Alberta and according to other U of A research could spread east to the Maritimes.
Newer to the beetle's list is the jack pine tree and Erbilgin's research focuses on developing a bait that can be used potentially to monitor beetle activity specifically in jack pine forests in Alberta and other provinces.
Traps with high numbers of beetle catches could indicate the levels of beetle population at a particular site.
The eventual goal is to develop a bait for use in a provincial trap tree program in
which visual and chemical cues would combine to attract high numbers of beetles. Trap trees are used to concentrate
and contain the local beetle population on certain trees in Alberta. The infested trees are used then to assess the beetle population level
and removed along with the beetles. The mountain pine beetle is the most damaging forest insect in North america
and climate change has allowed the current epidemic to spread from lodgepole pine to jack pine a tree species that was thought to be unsuitable for beetle survival in Alberta.
In fact the beetle has attacked large swaths of jack pine in eastern Alberta close to the Saskatchewan border Erbilgin noted.
The bait tested in Grande Prairie lodgepole forests works by attracting the beetles to traps.
Right now we don't know how efficient currently available commercial baits will be in catching beetles in jack pine forest as they were developed to catch the beetle in lodgepole pine forests Erbilgin said.
Pheromones are essential for the mountain pine beetle to be able to spread and thrive so we wanted to explore how we might use that to stop them Erbilgin said.
The chemical compounds play a key role in the insect's ability to find a mate and to overcome tree defences.
The U of A study published recently in New Phytologist investigated the tree chemical compounds that play critical roles in the beetle's pheromone production and attraction in both their established lodgepole pine host and in the newer jack pine host.
The study revealed that the beetles emit the same pheromones from both tree species but researchers found that the females in the jack pine tree emitted more trans-verbenol a pheromone that initiates the beetle aggregation on host trees.
while sending out pheromone signals for more beetles to join the aggregation. Without this initial chemical signalling the beetles couldn't aggregate on the same tree Erbilgin noted.
Beetle attacks also induce a release of a volatile tree chemical 3-carene. Field tests conducted by Erbilgin
when 3-carene was added to a mixture mimicking the aggregation pheromone beetle capture in traps increased.
Understanding the role of pheromones in beetle invasion also allows for quicker monitoring of the insect's activities in jack pine forests Erbilgin said.
because its fruits are removed by ants after falling. The authors are also working with colleagues from University of Sydney to investigate the taxonomic value of aromatic resins which also appear to have therapeutic value.
#Rising concerns over tree pests and diseasesnew research has found that the number of pests
The review The consequences of Tree Pests and Diseases for Ecosystem Services by scientists from the universities of Southampton Cambridge Oxford and St andrews is published today (15 november) in the journal Science.
The researchers say that new approaches to pest and disease management are needed that take into account these multiple services
However identifying all species that may become pests will be impossible and researchers stress the importance of risk management at pathways of introduction especially where modern trade practices provide potential new routes of entry for pests and pathogens.
They argue that science-based policy and practice can prevent the introduction of new diseases
Modern pest and disease management for plants and the natural environment needs to be based on an extensive science base.
and herbivores as well as why some species reach epidemic prevalence and abundance. Researchers also examined the difficulties of maintaining tree health
and considered the consequences of pests and diseases for the full range of ecosystem services provided by trees.
The term pest and disease was used to describe all pathogens and small-to medium-size insect herbivores that--by causing tree damage and death--disrupt the ecosystem services provided by trees.
Many of the benefits from woodlands and forests for example carbon storage maintenance of biodiversity and recreational use are enjoyed uncosted
*An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air water and mineral soil) interacting as a system.
#Combating key viral livestock diseases in Ethiopiagelagay Ayelet Melesse's doctoral research reveals that there are several serotypes of the virus causing foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and the African horse sickness virus (AHSV
However due to a number of diseases affecting domestic animals this resource is not reaching its full potential.
Typical diseases in this respect are foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) African horse sickness (AHS) lumpy skin disease (LSD) and camel pox.
Melesse's doctoral project identified five different serotypes of the FMD virus taken from several different host animals in Ethiopia.
Prevalence of the FMD virus is related to the way the animals are kept and to the extent livestock is in contact with wild animals.
Research on lumpy skin disease and African horse sickness shows that outbreaks of these diseases occur at the end of the rainy season (in November and December.
Melesse isolated several types of AHS virus and also studied the occurrence of camel pox
which has serious repercussions in the main camel-breeding areas of Ethiopia. Melesse's doctoral research has provided us with valuable information about virus types disease distribution in relation to season and geographical region and the economic significance and risk factors for FMD LSD AHS and camel
pox in Ethiopia. Using his findings vaccine-based control strategies can be implemented which may lead to the country becoming more self-sufficient in food.
#Dogs likely originated in Europe more than 18,000 years ago, biologists reportwolves likely were domesticated by European hunter-gatherers more than 18000 years ago
and gradually evolved into dogs that became household pets UCLA life scientists report. We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs ancient European wolves were directly related to them said Robert Wayne a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in UCLA's College of Letters and Science and senior author of the research.
This brings the genetic record into agreement with the archaeological record. Europe is where the oldest dogs are found.
The UCLA researchers'genetic analysis is published Nov 15 in the journal Science and featured on the journal's cover.
In related research last May Wayne and his colleagues reported at the Biology of Genomes meeting in New york the results of their comparison of the complete nuclear genomes of three recent wolf breeds (from the Middle east East asia
and Europe) two ancient dog breeds and the boxer dog breed. We analyzed those six genomes with cutting-edge approaches
and found that none of those wolf populations seemed to be closest to domestic dogs Wayne said.
because they represent wolves from the three possible centers of dog domestication but none was.
All the wolves formed their own group and all the dogs formed another group. The UCLA biologists also hypothesized at that conference that a now-extinct population of wolves was more directly related to dogs.
For the current study in Science the researchers studied 10 ancient wolflike animals and eight doglike animals mostly from Europe.
These animals were all more than 1000 years old most were thousands of years old and two were more than 30000 years old.
The biologists studied the MITOCHONDRIAL DNA of the animals which is abundant in ancient remains. Mitochondria are tiny sub-cellular structures with their own small genome.
By comparing this ancient MITOCHONDRIAL DNA with the modern mitochondrial genomes of 77 domestic dogs 49 wolves
and four coyotes the researchers determined that the domestic dogs were grouped genetically with ancient wolves or dogs from Europe--not with wolves found anywhere else in the world or even with modern European wolves.
Dogs they concluded derived from ancient wolves that inhabited Europe and are now extinct. Wayne said that that the domestication of predatory wolves likely occurred among ancient hunter-gatherer groups rather than as part of humans'development of sedentary agricultural-based communities.
The wolf is domesticated the first species and the only large carnivore humans ever domesticated Wayne said.
This always seemed odd to me. Other wild species were domesticated in association with the development of agriculture
and then needed to exist in close proximity to humans. This would be a difficult position for a large aggressive predator.
But if domestication occurred in association with hunter-gatherers one can imagine wolves first taking advantage of the carcasses that humans left behind--a natural role for any large carnivore--and then over time moving more closely into the human niche
through a co-evolutionary process. The idea of wolves following hunter-gatherers also helps to explain the eventual genetic divergence that led to the appearance of dogs he said.
Wolves following the migratory patterns of these early human groups would have given up their territoriality
and would have been less likely to reproduce with resident territorial wolves. Wayne noted that a group of modern wolves illustrates this process.
We have an analog of this process today in the only migratory population of wolves known existing in the tundra
and boreal forest of North america he said. This population follows the barren ground-caribou caribou during their thousand-kilometer migration.
When these wolves return from the tundra to the boreal forest during the winter they do not reproduce with resident wolves there that never migrate.
We feel this is a model for domestication and the reproductive divergence of the earliest dogs from wild wolves.
We know also that there were distinct wolf populations existing ten of thousands of years ago Wayne added.
One such wolf which we call the megafaunal wolf preyed on large game such as horses bison and perhaps very young mammoths.
Isotope data show that they ate these species and the dog may have been derived from a wolf similar to these ancient wolves in the late Pleistocene of Europe.
In research published in the journal nature in 2010 Wayne and colleagues reported that dogs seem to share more genetic similarity with living Middle Eastern gray wolves than with any other wolf population
which suggested a Middle east origin for modern dogs. The new genetic data have convinced him otherwise.
When we previously found some similarity between Middle Eastern wolves and domestic dogs that similarity we are now able to show likely was the result of interbreeding between dog and wolves during dog history.
It does not necessarily suggest an origin in the middle East Wayne said. This alternative hypothesis in retrospect is one that we should have considered more closely.
As hunter-gatherers moved around the globe their dogs trailing behind probably interbred with wolves.
Wayne considers the new genetic data persuasive but said they need to be confirmed with an analysis of genetic sequences from the nucleus of the cell (roughly 2 billion base pairs)--a significantly larger sample than that found in MITOCHONDRIAL DNA (approximately 20000 base pairs).
This is challenging because the nuclear DNA of ancient remains tends to become degraded. While Wayne plans to pursue this follow-up research he said he does not expect a nuclear genome analysis to change the central finding.
However he said it will fill in more of the details. This is not the end-story in the debate about dog domestication but
I think it is a powerful argument opposing other hypotheses of origin he said. There is a scientific debate over
when dogs were domesticated and whether it was linked with the development of agriculture fewer than 10000 years ago
or whether it occurred much earlier. In the new Science research Wayne and his colleagues estimate that dogs were domesticated between 18000 and 32000 years ago.
The research was funded federally by the National Science Foundation. Co-authors on the Science paper include Olaf Thalmann a former postdoctoral scholar in Wayne's laboratory who is currently the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Finland's University of Turku;
and Jennifer Leonard who earned her doctorate from UCLA. Approximately 80 percent of dog breeds are modern breeds that evolved in the last few hundred years Wayne said.
But some dog breeds have ancient histories that go back thousands of years. Wolves have been in the Old world for hundreds of thousands of years.
The oldest dogs from the archaeological record come from Europe and Western Russia. A dog from Belgium dates back approximately 36000 years and a group of dogs from Western Russia is approximately 15000 years old Wayne said.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Los angeles. The original article was written by Stuart Wolpert.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference r
#First detailed map of global forest changea University of Maryland-led multi-organizational team has created the first high-resolution global map of forest extent loss and gain.
#U s. Fish and Wildlife Service crushes stockpiled illegal elephant ivorythe Wildlife Conservation Society's President and CEO Cristiã¡
which six tons of illegal elephant ivory were to be crushed. Samper one of eight members of the Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking appointed by President Obama
WCS recently launched 96 Elephants a public outreach campaign aiming to bolster elephant protection and educate the public about ivory trade and consumption.
WCS is also part of a Clinton Global Initiative commitment to end the elephant poaching crisis. Today the U s. Fish
and Wildlife Service takes the unprecedented step of pulverizing nearly six tons of elephant ivory stored at the National Wildlife Property Repository in Colorado.
This trade increasingly the domain of large global criminal syndicates has been responsible for the loss of some 76 percent of all African forest elephants in the past decade.
Across Africa elephant range states are calling for a moratorium on the sale and purchase of ivory.
To end the elephant poaching crisis we know that we must take a three-pronged approach:
More can be done domestically to stop trafficking including instituting a moratorium on all ivory sales within the U s. African elephants alone are being lost at an unprecedented rate
Approximately 35000 elephants were killed by poachers last year--some 96 elephants each day. Our government is increasingly sending a clear message to ivory traffickers.
#Queen bees honesty is the best policy for reproduction signalsqueen bees convey honest signals to worker bees about their reproductive status
We usually think of animals'chemical signals (called pheromones) as communication systems that convey only very simple sorts of information said Christina Grozinger professor of entomology and director of the Center for Pollinator Research Penn State.
However this study demonstrates that queen honey bees are conveying a lot of nuanced information through their pheromones.
if queen bees were manipulating workers into serving them or if they were providing valuable honest information to workers.
We have found that the information queens are conveying constitutes an honest message about their reproductive status and quality.
The queens are'telling'the workers that they are queens whether or not they are mated
Why do worker bees care if their queen is mated well? According to Elina Niã o postdoctoral fellow Penn State previous research has shown that colonies headed by more promiscuous queens--those who mate with many males--are more genetically diverse and therefore healthier more productive and less likely to collapse.
Beekeepers have been worried very about their queens since they seem to not be lasting as long--a few weeks
or months instead of one or two years said Niã o. We know that workers will replace their queens
when they are not performing well. So if worker bees are able to detect poorly mated queens
and take steps to remove them that could be an explanation for the rapid rates of queen loss
and turnover that beekeepers have been reporting. The researchers who represent Penn State North carolina State university and Tel aviv University describe how they assigned queen bees to a variety of treatment groups.
They report their findings in today's (Nov 13) issue of PLOS ONE. In one group they inseminated queens with a small volume of semen to mimic a poorly mated queen scenario.
In a second group the researchers inseminated queens with a large volume of semen to mimic a well-mated queen scenario.
In a third and fourth group they inseminated queens with low and high volumes of saline.
A fifth group was untreated an control. The researchers then dissected the queens removing two glands that are known to produce pheromones--the mandibular gland and the Dufour's gland.
Next the team extracted the glands'secretions and analyzed their chemical compositions using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
Finally the researchers presented the gland extracts to worker bees and observed the extent to which they were attracted to different extracts.
The team found that worker bees preferred pheromone extracts of queens that were inseminated with semen rather than saline.
They also found that queens inseminated with higher volumes of semen or saline as opposed to those that were inseminated with low volumes of semen
or saline were preferred by worker bees. These results suggest that queens are signaling detailed and honest information about their mating state and reproductive quality to workers
and workers are capable of adjusting their behavior accordingly Niã o said. When workers replace failing queens it is particularly damaging to beekeepers
since it can take up to three weeks for the new queen to begin laying eggs
and another three weeks for the new workers to emerge as adults. This reduces the workforce
and therefore reduces honey production and even pollination efficiency. The team also found that the mandibular gland
The Dufour's gland seems to inform workers that queens have mated while the mandibular gland seems to indicate the queen's mating quality Niã o said.
This also means that these glands are likely being regulated via different neurophysiological pathways. According to Grozinger in addition to signaling queen bee reproductive status and quality queen bee pheromones regulate how fast workers mature and transition from taking care of developing larvae to foraging outside the hive.
It is possible that changing the quality of the pheromone could disrupt this and other processes
and poor nutrition on queen pheromone quality to see if the queen also is providing workers with information about her health.
The more we know about what affects the queen's health the better chance we will have of creating high-quality queens
and disease-resistant stocks of honey bees Niã o said. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Penn State.
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