if you require a coffin that large. love those 5th element apart style sign me in---Type 0. 72)= We are still just cleaver monkeys!
#Here's How Big A Problem Wolves Are For Cattle Ranchers Infographic We got a lot of heat for this essay about problematic wolf-hunting laws in Wyoming.
--if you'll notice wolves are not exactly on the top of that list. Much of the motivation for the laws allowing wolf-hunting in states like Wyoming (though this is national data) come from an assumption that wolves are a major problem for cattle ranchers--that wolves are responsible for significant so-called
unintended cattle loss. Unintended cattle loss by the way is the term the USDA uses for cattle who die before they are killed in slaughterhouses.
if they didn't allow hunting the wolf population would balloon with the easy meal that cattle present.
That means if you want to hunt deer elk moose antelope ducks geese cougars and now wolves you have to buy a permit.
You can only hunt the allotted number granted by your permit. It's called wildlife management
So be glad that we have adopted a more enlightened view of wolves that allows them to thrive enough that they are endangered no longer
. I'd like to see these percentages redone drawing data from only states where wolves are indeed a threat.
In addition I'd like to point out that often the numbers for wolf kills only reflect the portion of kills the ranchers can find.
Wolves are a LOCAL problem that are only an issue in a very small section of the country (generally around Yellowstone
which of course makes the wolf problem seem very small. This is like comparing traffic problems in LA to the nation's traffic problems
Guilty of having nothing really to do with Popular Science no matter how you feel about the wolves issue.
and former farmers and ranchers who think reintroducing wolves into the lower 48 United states was a dumb treehugger move.
Myself I see the benefits to the local ecosystem of having wolves present to keep the populations of other species in check.
One cannot blindly vote for the rights of wolves however and suppress the evidence or twist it to support the mostly metropolitan view that all animals everywhere should be protected all the time;
in this case you Mr. Nosowitz are willfully misleading to support your agenda of protecting an endangered species. It is not honest to imply that your infographic supports the claim that wolves are not a threat to livestock in any one state
since wolf populations are not present nationwide and indeed are present in only a small number of states currently.
But not all cattle ranchers can afford to lose livestock to wolves. Consider that. As for wolves being dangerous to humans or not
I think you may have been raised on too many Disney cartoons that portrayed animals as being able to talk
These are not your pet wolves however sir. And I think you'd do well to ask yourself why an animal that can hunt
It isn't even acceptable to calculate it state wide in Montana given that so few cattle are exposed to wolves.
You can't possibly know for any given rancher what burden he is being forced to bear by wolves killing his animals nor can you begin to know his ability to bear those costs.
or night after extended periods of howling having them chased over rodent holes and across freezing rivers moms being separated from their calves
Damn wolves. lolthis is Popsci website blog and Dan is the assistant editor. Wouldn't it just be so funny all those insulting Dan found their login not working tomorrow...
Cripes wolves account for. 02%in 50 states but live in only 8 to 13 states (depending on who you ask
Are you another one of those lemmings packed into shiny metal boxes? Do you think that all those climate scientists are
I must be one of these lemmings packed into a box as you mentioned because
Even organisms that eat aquatic organisms should be calibrated to account for this (for example a seal that was dated to be 1400 years old.
#DNA Test Finds Horse Meat In UK Hamburgersthe Irish version of the FDA called the FSAI has found distinctly non-beef animal protein in ground meat labeled beef in some supermarkets.
Meat from two Irish processing plants has been found to contain substantial portions of pig and curiously horse DNA.
neither pig nor horse is kosher and pig is not halal. The second is that
---Type 0. 72)= We are still just cleaver monkeys!..damn should have read the article first (sorry for paraphrasing)--Type 0. 72)= We are still just cleaver monkeys!
Well if they decide instead to get there cow or meat from China they all be dead including their pets.
---Type 0. 72)= We are still just cleaver monkeys! Can't imagine a mad cow outbreak
i'm pretty sure that horse meat is supposed to be leaner and more nutritious for you than beef and pork. it'd make sense
Today it's horse. Tomorrow it could be altered genetically tree fungus. I wonder what exactly were they looking for in the meet to need DNA tests for...
Nothing wrong with eating horse meat though as long as you know what your eating and you aren't squeamish about it.
or pig but not eat something that looks healthy and beautiful as a horse???get outta heere!!!
not to mention how dirty cows and pigs are compared to horses@solarflaredont be an animal racist. ---Type 0. 72)= We are still just cleaver monkeys!
So horsemeat has been found in Tesco Products. A spokesman says it's bollocks. A woman has been taken to hospital after eating horsemeat burgers.
You know the horse d'oeuvres. Are you in favour of Horsemeat in your burgers?
I'm feeling a little horse Those Aldi horse burgers were nice but I prefer My Lidl Pony.
I really hope they launch a steward's inquiry into the Tesco horsemeat scandal. We must find out hoof to blame.
Good thing about these horse puns is it's stopped all the sick Jimmy Saddle jokes. vt007
In the great ordering of taste and texture I put European horse ABOVE European beef.
#Gorillas, Watermelons and Sperm: The Greatest Genomes Sequenced In 2012click to launch the photo galleryclick to launch the photo galleryin the 10 years
In 2012 genome researchers sequenced the DNA of an unborn human baby the western lowland gorilla fruits and grains and livestock.
Click through our gallery to see the highlights. in 30%of the genome gorilla is closer to human
or chimpanzee than the latter are to each other. from a nature article on the gorilla genome...
Bird and whale migrations have been changing. They're coming later then they used to. We knew from this that climate change was here before the term was introduced to us in English.
They also eat underground mushrooms and deer truffles which are known to store radiation. Apparently researchers have been cataloguing this pattern of boar radioactivity for some time
Plague-carrying rats and other vermin were destroyed. Disinfectants were used freely and fumigation resorted to when necessary in handling contagious diseases.
non-primate mammals such as pigs sheep and cows. Humans don t make the sugar and we all have some form of immune response to it.
A rising deer population may also explain the tick s spread as they are also big carriers of the parasites.
Could the yeast hacks and subsequent processing that Real Vegan Cheese proposes really work? Responding to our questions via blog post Dr. Ricky the pseudonymous writer behind Science Based Cuisine stated that the campaign makes some scientifically dubious promises
A larva that chows down on a Bt-crystal-producing GM plant soon stops eating.
#MERS Virus May be Able To Spread Through The Air Research strongly suggests that camels carry Middle east Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) a viral illness that has sickened nearly 700
For this reason the government of Saudi arabia recently warned people to stay away from close contact with camels at least those that appear to be sick
which prompted some to defiantly post photos of themselves kissing camels on various social media sites.
A study published in the journal mbio found the virus in an air sample taken from a camel barn near Jeddah Saudi arabia.
The genetic signature of the virus was identical to that found in the sick camels and the owner who came down with MERS a week after administering a topical medicine to his camels'runny noses.
The owner later died from MERS. The clear message here is that detection of airborne MERS molecules
which were 100 percent identical with the viral genomic sequence detected from a camel actively shedding the virus in the same barn on the same day warrants further investigations
They only found the virus one of the days the same day that one of the camels tested positive for MERS.
#Eating Poo Helps Packrats Digest Toxic Plantsdesert woodrats are picky but not in the way you might expect:
several woodrat populations in the U s. Southwest specifically eat a type of highly toxic creosote bush.
This gives the woodrats (Neotoma lepida) a nice niche allowing them to dine on a plant that others avoid.
In one test they found that packrats (as the animals are known also) fed creosote had much higher levels of bacteria thought to be involved in breaking down the plant's secondary chemicals
Packrats regularly feed on other animals'droppings in the wild and with that in mind the scientists fed a group of juniper-eating packrats a mixture of rabbit food and feces from creosote-eaters.
These animals apparently developed the ability to break down the plant compared to those just fed rabbit food who couldn't subsequently eat the toxic plant.
All this work with toxic plants poo and packrats has wider implications than you might imagine however.
or perhaps even use bacteria found in the droppings of other animals (here's looking at you packrats).
and Malaysia and is one of only two remaining habitats for orangutans. Between 1980 and 2000 more wood was harvested from Borneo than from Africa
and less depressing news a new species of ground squirrel was discovered recently in Borneo which breaks a record for tail size
and may eat deer's hearts. a
#Another Chinese National Indicted For Stealing American GMO Cornsometimes even a high-tech heist requires a little digging around in the dirt.
As consumers we are guinea pigs because we really don't understand the ramifications. But the truth is GMOS have been studied intensively
One frequently cited study published in 2012 by researchers from the University of Caen in France claimed that one of Monsanto's corn GMOS caused tumors in lab rats.
And if some GMO pollen does blow into an organic field it won't necessarily nullify organic status. Even foods that bear the Non-GMO Project label can be 0. 5 percent GMO by dry weight.
corn on the cob; livestock feedcottontrait: Tolerates herbicides; resists insects Total U s. crop by acreage:
A horse contains more than 200000 calories and a bear three times that much. And that s just from their most appetizing parts.
#Using DNA Forensics To Track Elephant Poachersthe shocking news that Satao the much-loved African elephant who lived in Kenya s Tsavo East National park has been killed
and butchered for his tusks highlights once again the terrible and unsustainable toll of poaching elephants for their ivory.
Satao s death is just one among the many thousands of elephants killed each year. The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants programme part of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES) set up as part of the worldwide ban in 1989 reported that 22000 African elephants
were killed illegally by poachers in 2012 based on data from 27 countries across Africa. The figures for 2013 reported this month show a toll of over 20000 African elephants the vast majority of seizures by customs
or border officials being made in Tanzania Kenya and Uganda. The CITES report reveals that while the numbers of elephants poached appears to have stabilised among large seizures of more than 500kg the number of tusks found in each seizure is rising.
This suggests two things: that there are fewer elephants to poach and that the trade is organised well and not the work of individual poachers or small groups.
This level of slaughter far exceeds the reproductive potential of the remaining elephants and will by any account lead to the extinction of the African elephant in many parts of the continent.
The international community is only now responding to this crisis for the African elephant with action.
Knowing which populations the poachers are targeting can play an important part. Work pioneered by Professor Sam Wasser at the University of Washington uses DNA profiling from seized ivory to trace it back to the geographical location within Africa from which the ivory was taken once roamed.
There are two species of elephant in Africa the savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis.
Within these two species are many subpopulations such as extended family groups where there is a greater sharing of DNA types due to inheritance from common ancestors.
Under CITES there is a total ban on the trade in elephant ivory although not from all other species that have ivory nor from tusks removed from mammoths being extinct they cannot be provided any legal protection.
The cost of mammoth ivory is approximately US$350 per kilogramme significantly cheaper than elephant ivory but often looks very similar.
Again DNA typing can distinguish between African and Asian elephants and mammoths. This aspect of wildlife forensic science is supported by the United nations Office for Drugs
and Crime and has already proved highly successful in tracking seizures and locating their source.
For example when a 6. 5 tonne shipment was seized in Singapore DNA testing revealed it had come from elephant populations in Zambia.
If nations wish to save the African elephant then action to provide and fund the tools necessary is required.
And as ivory becomes rare due to the alarming decrease in elephant numbers the concurrent increase in value will put ever more pressure on the dwindling elephant populations.
So instead of giving pigs mouse genes scientists could make domestic pigs with genes normally found in wild pigs.
I don't think those who don't wish to eat GM foods will find GM pigs-with-pig-genes any better than pigs with mouse genes.
and capybara (the world's largest rodent) taking up stations on the banks. Along the way you enter the Tambopata National Reserve
and a head lamp--275 lumens strong enough to spot an Amazon bamboo rat from a football field away easy--who's just returned from a walk to find spiders.
The lab's recesses house such treasures as a sloth preserved in a vat of formaldehyde.
(and also resembles the tail of this monkey geoglyph found amongst the Nazca Lines). Why they do this remains unknown.
This is not just about disappearing polar bears or melting ice caps. This is about protecting our health and our homes.
I like polar bears and I know about melting ice caps. Taking aim at critics of regulating carbon emissions Mccarthy dismissed charges that the plan's mandated cuts will cause power prices to skyrocket
Time after time when science pointed to health risks special interests cried wolf said Mccarthy. And time after time we followed the science protected the American people
New orleans in Mid-july is no place for a chimp. The sweltering mosquito-assaulted set of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a minor marvel of engineering a three-story habitat with interlacing tree trunks recessed rooms
and passages and a flowing aqueduct that s turned the ground level into a swamp of pooling water and sucking mud.
The filmmakers call it Ape Village and it really does look like something hyperintelligent domineering apes might construct.
Until that is you notice the dozens of motion-capture cameras dotting the structure and the guys in gray full-body suits broiling in the merciless sun and steamy humidity.
They re the sweatiest most miserable make-believe chimps imaginable. And then they start to move.
While Rise of the Planet of the Apes (released in 2011) relied on stunt people the sequel to the sci-fi reboot has cast Cirque du Soleil performers.
what it would be like for a chimpanzee to fly from limb to limb now we have guys that can actually jump the 20 feet says producer Dylan Clark.
From a VFX standpoint Dawn of the Planet of the Apes isn t a single leap of faith but a series of them.
what was possible with performance capture turning Caesar a chimp played by Andy Serkis into a believable full-computer-generated (CG) character.
Dawn features a much larger cast of apes and their expanded screen time makes for a much bigger challenge.
With more data at their disposal animators can imbue the entire supporting cast of 3-D odeled primates with the same uncanny flicker of intelligence that made Caesar an instant CG star.
Because unlike the monsters mutants and other VFX-enhanced flights of fancy populating sci-fi flicks apes (even smart ones) aren t imaginary.
We want the chimpanzees to act and look and be photorealistic Clark says. We want this movie to feel real.
in order to study how viruses jump between species. Last year neuroscientists at Stanford university boosted the intelligence of mice with human brain cells.
With targeted chemical mutagens geneticists have pulled off feats both impressive such as increasing the circumference of macaque monkeys thigh muscles by 15 percent and flat out disturbing like making legs sprout from the heads
Right away your dog tangles with the dog next door and next door is so next that you can't get out of your car.
Even the killer whale herds the sperm whales and kills them only when it needs food but we have wiped out some species entirely.
which put down a drill string to the earth's crust under 18000 feet of water near Guadalupe Island off the west coast of Mexico.
He tested these bread strains on guinea pigs and found that they didn't cause gangrene.
They could try to cultivate insects guinea pigs or other small animals but caring for these would add to their already enormous workload.
In recent years it has spread across Asia and Australia devastating plants there that bear the signature yellow supermarket fruit.
Researchers are reporting that a baboon is still alive after receiving a heart transplanted from a pig The Telegraph reports.
The baboon has lived with the heart in its abdomen for more than a year. Its longevity is a milestone.
Previously when researchers tried to transplant pig hearts into primates the primates'bodies would reject the transplants within six months The Telegraph reports.
which conducted the baboon study. Those who are waiting can use mechanical devices but those aren't perfect the institute says.
It seems pig hearts are just a little too foreign for primate bodies to accept easily however.
In previous studies the hearts would trigger a massive immune response in the primates they were transplanted into.
To make hearts that baboons nd in the future humans on't reject the National Heart Lung
The researchers also gave their baboons drugs to suppress their immune systems. Human patients take immunosuppressant drugs
when it tried other drug regimens their baboons died in less than a year. Baboons who received hearts from un-genetically modified pigs rejected the hearts within a day.
Now that the team has shown pig hearts are able to hang around inside primates safely the next step will be to actually replace baboons'hearts with pig hearts The Telegraph reports.
The baboon in this study has a pig heart in its body alongside its own heart
which is doing all the work. This baboon study hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal yet
but its authors presented it yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
#Has The Reintroduction Of Wolves Really Saved Yellowstone? The story goes something like this: Once upon a time we exterminated the wolves from the Rocky mountain West including the part that would become Yellowstone national park.
We thought this was a good idea because wolves frightened us and also because they ate the domestic livestock we liked a lot more.
But then interest in environmental conservation took hold. Scientists discovered that without wolves present in Yellowstone to hunt
and kill prey the elk population grew so large it ate up all the young willow trees until there were none.
This affected the habitat of many other animals and plants in harmful ways and the ecosystem became unbalanced.
Or as science puts it we caused a harmful top-down trophic cascade by removing an apex predator the wolf from the food web.
and field biologists began to find some evidence for this idea even as popular support increased for bringing wolves back.
So with conservation ethics and ecological science in pretty good alignment we reintroduced the wolves to Yellowstone where today they scare away the hungry elk herds from the tasty young willows.
Thanks to the wolf balance has been restored. Or not? Earlier in the week field biologist Arthur Middleton got a big reaction from readers
when he asked Is the wolf a real American hero? in the opinion pages of The New york times. This story that wolves fixed a broken Yellowstone by killing and frightening elk is one of ecology s most famous he wrote.
But there is a problem with the story: It s not true. Animated discussion ensued in the comments
(which The New york times actively curates for signal over noise) with some readers protesting that the wolves have been crucial to Yellowstone's ecological revival.
what wolves eat commented well-known conservationist Carl Safina. As a Phd ecologist myself it's hard to see how 60%fewer elk could affect vegetation as much as before.
Journalist Emma Marris who recently wrote about wolf/ecosystem science for the journal Nature finds that Middleton's stance aligns with a growing body of evidence.
It's an evolving understanding that started out with a really beautiful and simple story
Every population of wolves has a different interesting story going on with them says Marris.''In some places there are not enough of them in some places people are concerned there are too many.
At Yellowstone despite the re-introduction of wolves the willows are not actually recovering as well as was hoped.
One reason Marris found may be that wolves don't actually scare elk away from their preferred feeding areas as earlier research suggested they might.
When elk are really hungry they're going to take their chances with the wolves Marris says.
Another reason for poor willow recovery may be that the wolves came back to Yellowstone too late to affect the fate of another animal population:
the beavers. Elk populations were really high while the wolves were gone says Marris. That was caused by the absence of wolves but also presumably by human management decisions climate and other factors.
Elks and beavers competed for the same food: willow. The elks won beaver numbers dropped
and so did the extent of marshy habitat. Without beaver dams creating willow-friendly environments Marris says the willows can't recover.
In reporting her article Marris learned that beyond the pages of scientific journals the gaps between researchers who do
and don't support the apex predator theory are really fairly narrow. Generally it's accepted that there is a lot more involved in balancing an ecosystem.
But some still believe carnivores are somewhat special in their top-down effects on the ecosystem she says.
Wolves generate a lot of emotion as well as attention because they've become a bell-weather for the fate of wilderness.
Everywhere wolves exist says Marris they tell stories about how people and wild things make peace
or don't make peace in the 21st century. What's most at risk as we debate the role of wolves in the ecosystem seems to be our hope for a really straightforward story that explains
what's going on around us x
#IBM's Watson Made Me A Kebabyou've probably heard of Watson IBM's super-intelligent supercomputer that dominated on Jeopardy!
In response an international research team suggests eight ways to make ruminant agriculture aising cows goats sheep buffalo camels llamas reindeer and yaks for meat and dairy nvironmentally sustainable.
and other ruminants should get as much food as possible from sources humans cannot consume. These include grazing fodders like hay
It's how ruminants are supposed to eat judging from the fact that they naturally have forestomachs that can break down fibrous plant matter into nutritious calories
We need to be able to use ruminants in the way that they evolved. Maximize grazing and then using byproducts as well from other industries says co-author Michael Lee of Bristol University in a podcast that accompanies the article.
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