#Borneos orangutans are coming down from the trees; Behavior may show adaptation to habitat changeorangutans might be the king of the swingers
but primatologists in Borneo have found that the great apes spend a surprising amount of time walking on the ground.
The research published in the American Journal of Primatology found that it is common for orangutans to come down from the trees to forage
The region's Wehea Forest is known a biodiversity hotspot for primates including the Bornean orangutan subspecies Pongo pygmaeus morio the least studied of orangutan subspecies.
Orangutans are elusive and one reason why recorded evidence of orangutans on the ground is so rare is that the presence of observers inhibits this behaviour said Loken.
However with camera traps we are offered a behind the scenes glimpse at orangutan behaviour. The team positioned ground-based cameras across a 38-square-kilometre region of the forest
and succeeded in capturing the first evidence of orangutans regularly coming down from the trees.
The amount of time orangutans spent on the forest floor was found to be comparable to the ground-dwelling pig-tailed macaque Macaca nemestrina
Over 8-months orangutans were photographed 110 times while the macaques were photographed 113 times. The reason orangutans come down from the trees remains a mystery.
However while the absence of large predators may make it safer to walk on the forest floor a more pressing influence is the rapid and unprecedented loss of Borneo's orangutan habitat.
Borneo is a network of timber plantations agroforestry areas and mines with patches of natural forest said Loken.
The transformation of the landscape could be forcing orangutans to change their habitat and their behaviour.
This research helps to reveal how orangutans can adapt to their changing landscape; however this does not suggest they can just walk to new territory
if their habitat is destroyed. The orangutan subspecies P. p. morio may be adapted to life in more resource scarce forests having evolved larger jaws
which allow them to consume more tree bark and less fruit but they are still dependent on natural forests for their long term survival.
While we're learning that orangutans may be more behaviourally flexible than we thought and that some populations may frequently come to the ground to travel they still need forests to survive said Dr. Spehar.
Wehea Forest is one of the only places in Borneo where ten primates species including five species found only in Borneo overlap in their ranges.
However given that 78%of wild orangutans live outside of protected areas it is critical that all of Borneo's remaining forests are protected
but protecting Wehea Forest and Borneo's remaining forests is vital to the long term survival of the orangutans concluded Loken.
#Borneos orangutans are coming down from the trees; Behavior may show adaptation to habitat changeorangutans might be the king of the swingers
but primatologists in Borneo have found that the great apes spend a surprising amount of time walking on the ground.
The research published in the American Journal of Primatology found that it is common for orangutans to come down from the trees to forage
The region's Wehea Forest is known a biodiversity hotspot for primates including the Bornean orangutan subspecies Pongo pygmaeus morio the least studied of orangutan subspecies.
Orangutans are elusive and one reason why recorded evidence of orangutans on the ground is so rare is that the presence of observers inhibits this behaviour said Loken.
However with camera traps we are offered a behind the scenes glimpse at orangutan behaviour. The team positioned ground-based cameras across a 38-square-kilometre region of the forest
and succeeded in capturing the first evidence of orangutans regularly coming down from the trees.
The amount of time orangutans spent on the forest floor was found to be comparable to the ground-dwelling pig-tailed macaque Macaca nemestrina
Over 8-months orangutans were photographed 110 times while the macaques were photographed 113 times. The reason orangutans come down from the trees remains a mystery.
However while the absence of large predators may make it safer to walk on the forest floor a more pressing influence is the rapid and unprecedented loss of Borneo's orangutan habitat.
Borneo is a network of timber plantations agroforestry areas and mines with patches of natural forest said Loken.
The transformation of the landscape could be forcing orangutans to change their habitat and their behaviour.
This research helps to reveal how orangutans can adapt to their changing landscape; however this does not suggest they can just walk to new territory
if their habitat is destroyed. The orangutan subspecies P. p. morio may be adapted to life in more resource scarce forests having evolved larger jaws
which allow them to consume more tree bark and less fruit but they are still dependent on natural forests for their long term survival.
While we're learning that orangutans may be more behaviourally flexible than we thought and that some populations may frequently come to the ground to travel they still need forests to survive said Dr. Spehar.
Wehea Forest is one of the only places in Borneo where ten primates species including five species found only in Borneo overlap in their ranges.
However given that 78%of wild orangutans live outside of protected areas it is critical that all of Borneo's remaining forests are protected
but protecting Wehea Forest and Borneo's remaining forests is vital to the long term survival of the orangutans concluded Loken.
The study is an important step toward treating WNS according to Mylea Bayless Bat Conservation International's director of conservation programs in the U s. and Canada.
A marked decline in bat populations in the eastern United states was documented in a study published last month in PLOS One by Sybill Amelon a research biologist with the Forest Service in Columbus Mo
The study found cumulative declines in regional relative abundance by 2011 from peak levels were 71 percent for little brown bats 34 percent for tricolored bat 30 percent in the federally-listed
endangered Indiana bat and 31 percent for northern long-eared bats. In 2009 researchers identified the culprit behind WNS as a member of the genus Geomyces resulting in its name Geomyces destructans or G. destructans.
Honey bees are much less complex than mammals and humans but we share many major genes said Wang
and appearances resulting in fish in their larval stage that bear little to no resemblance to their adult counterparts.
#Are North Atlantic right whales mating in the Gulf of Maine? Using data obtained during six years of regular aerial surveys
and genetics data collected by a consortium of research groups scientists have strengthened evidence pointing to the central Gulf of Maine as a mating ground for North Atlantic right whales according to a study recently published online in the journal Endangered
The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is one of the most endangered marine mammal species in the world
But until now there was little to indicate where these whales mated a big missing piece in the puzzle of their life history.
which right whales were present in the study area during 2002-2008. Individual animals were identified using a photo identification catalog maintained at the New england Aquarium that includes most of the adults in the population.
The resulting analyses showed that the animals seen included a higher proportion of reproductively successful animals than were present in other areas that these whales used seasonally.
The researchers further assumed a 12-month gestation period for North Atlantic right whales similar to that estimated for the closely-related southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) by the South african whale biologist Dr. Peter Best.
In fact since the study ended fewer right whales have been observed in the area during what would be the mating period.
We are still seeing right whales in the central Gulf of Maine just not in the same numbers.
Most of the North Atlantic right whale population spends the spring and summer on feeding grounds off the northeastern U s. and the Canadian Maritimes.
but current reproductive rates for North Atlantic right whales are much lower than those for the recovering populations of southern right whales.
Determining the right whale's conception period and mating grounds are important steps in learning about the factors that may be impairing reproduction.
what we know is effective in dogs cats and humans with lymphoma. Nemo's clinical signs soon resolved
#Dangers to biological diversity from proliferation of global cashmere garment industrya new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Snow leopard Trust reveals a disturbing link between the cashmere trade and the decay
of ecosystems that support some of the planet's most spectacular yet little-known large mammals.
The study finds that as pastoralists expand goat herds to increase profits for the cashmere trade in Western markets wildlife icons from the Tibetan Plateau to Mongolia suffer--including endangered snow leopard wild yak chiru saiga Bactrian camel
Ecological effects of the growth in goat herds include increasing conflicts with pastoralists predation by dogs on wildlife retaliatory killing of snow leopards and displacement of wildlife away from critical food habitats.
Joel Berger of WCS and University of Montana Bayarbaatar Buuveibaatar of WCS Mongolia and Charudutt Mishra of the Snow leopard Trust.
and Mongolia the vast highlands and open spaces that once were populated by wild camel and wild yak Przewalski's horse chiru saiga antelope Tibetan gazelle kiang khulan and snow leopard are increasingly dominated by domestic goats and other livestock.
The study results from fieldwork in India western China and Mongolia and builds upon economic data including herder profits changes in livestock numbers and the relative abundance of wildlife.
This study was supported by the Snow leopard Trust Trust for Mutual understanding National geographic Society Whitley Fund for Nature and The british Broadcasting company Wildlife Fundstory Source:
In earlier research Aroian and his collaborators described a protein Cry5b that can kill intestinal nematode parasites--such as human hookworms--in infected test animals (hamsters.
In the current research researchers showed that a small dose of Cry5b expressed in this bacterium can achieve a 93 percent elimination of hookworm parasites from infected hamsters.
The authors maintain that the current rate of unsustainable hunting of forest elephants gorillas and other seed-dispersing species threatens the ability of forest ecosystems to regenerate
In particular mammals such as forest elephants gorillas forest antelopes and others play a major role in seed dispersal for most tree species;
the removal of these mammals by bushmeat hunters disrupts forest regeneration. Furthermore previously untouched swathes of forest are being penetrated by roads
A top priority the researchers assert should be the protection of megafauna such as forest elephants
and apex predators such as leopards in order to maintain intact ecosystems in Central africa. Otherwise the loss of wildlife will result in a disastrous spiral of forest degradation that will reduce the storage of carbon and the resilience of rainforests to climate change.
The removal of seed-dispersing megafauna such as elephants and apes could reduce the ability of forests to sequester carbon.
The clock is ticking on the future of large mammals in Central africa's Congo Basin Rainforest
and with them on the future of the forests themselves and all the people who depend on them said Dr. James Deutsch Executive director of WCS's Africa Program.
Increase in forest cover north of the Congo basin might have been caused by migration to cities resulting in fewer fires and more hunting of large mammals reducing tree destruction.
So you end up with a cat warmer on your shelf. Koomey noted that the computing efficiency problem is exaggerated sometimes.
Ann Wolf executive director of the diabetes Camp Hertko Hollow who worked with researchers on the field study is interested in adding a permanent digital display for next summer's camp.
but Wolf said it reinforces a lesson they hope to teach campers. Children need to make healthy choices Wolf said.
We try to educate our children to eat well and manage their diabetes to live a long and healthy life.
Rice alumna Elvira Pembroke; and Professor Ting Yu of Nanyang Technological University. Tour is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Chair in Chemistry as well as a professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of computer science at Rice.
#Monkey nation: Mainland Africas most important nation for primatesa five-year study by the Wildlife Conservation Society gives new hope to some of the world's most endangered primates by establishing a roadmap to protect all 27 species
in Tanzania--the most primate-diverse country in mainland Africa. The study combines Tanzania's first-ever inventory of all primate species
and their habitats with IUCN Red List criteria and other factors such as threats and rarity ranking all 27 species from most vulnerable to least vulnerable.
The authors then identify a network of Priority Primate Areas for conservation. The paper appears in the July 17 issue of the journal Oryx.
Authors are Tim Davenport of the Wildlife Conservation Society Katarzyna Nowak of the Udzungwa Elephant Project and Andrew Perkin of the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group.
A third of Tanzania's primate species are found nowhere else on earth. The study found that the most vulnerable was the kipunji first discovered by WCS in 2003 on Mt Rungwe
and described by WCS as an entirely new genus in 2006. Another extremely vulnerable species is the Zanzibar red colobus a species
whose population is currently being counted by WCS. More common species include the baboons black and white colobus monkeys and vervets.
The study assigned a score to pinpoint the most important areas for protection. The analysis revealed more than 60 important primate areas including national parks game reserves forest reserves conservation areas and currently unprotected landscapes.
However the adequate protection of just nine sites including six national parks (Kilimanjaro Kitulo Mahale Saadani Udzungwa
's primate species. The authors say that the Priority Primate Areas could be applied in other nations rich in wildlife
In fact Tanzania's Priority Primate Areas were also often rich in bird life underscoring their value to conservation in general.
We believe Priority Primate Areas can be a valuable conservation tool worldwide similar to the successful Important Bird Area concept said the study's lead author Tim Davenport of WCS.
and are more active than the Y chromosomes of other primates according to researchers. This discovery may help biologists better understand how cattle
and other mammals evolved as well as help animal breeders and farmers better maintain and enhance fertility in the cattle industry said Wansheng Liu associate professor of animal genomics Penn State.
The researchers identified 1274 genes in the male specific region of the bovine Y chromosome compared to the 31 to 78 genes associated in the Y chromosomes of various primates.
They also said the genes in the bovine Y chromosome were much more transcriptionally active compared to other mammals.
Most researchers believed that the Y chromosome of cattle would be similar to the Y chromosome of other mammals
Currently the gene content and transcription pattern of the bovine Y chromosome is the only non-primate Y chromosome that researchers have studied in depth according to Liu.
The X and Y sex chromosome in most mammals began to diverge after 160 million years of evolution.
Matthew Wheeler a University of Illinois Professor of Animal Sciences and member of the Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering research theme at the Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) worked with a team of five
and experimental surgery suite to the hospital and clinic Wheeler said. The large-animal model is the roadway to take this device from the bench top to the bedside.
or perfected in animal models Wheeler said. Through the use of animal models scientists and doctors are able to perfect techniques drugs and materials without risking human lives.
First Wheeler sent a CT scan of a pig's trachea to Scott Hollister a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan.
or PCL which Wheeler has used in more than 100 large-animal procedures. Next Wheeler developed a strategy to implement the device
and U-M associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology Glenn Green carried out the surgical procedure. After the splint was placed the pigs'tracheobronchomalacia symptoms disappeared All of our work is inspired physician Wheeler said.
Babies suffering from tracheobronchomalacia were brought to ear nose and throat surgeons but they didn't have any treatment options.
April and Bryan Gionfriddo believed their son's chance of survival was slim until Marc Nelson a doctor at Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio mentioned researchers from the University of Michigan were testing airway splints similar to those used in Wheeler's study.
It's not very rare Wheeler said. It's really not. I think it's very rewarding to all of us to know that we are contributing to helping treat or even cure this disease.
More data from Wheeler's large animal trials will be essential to show the long-term viability of this procedure before it can be used to save the lives of other children born with this disorder.
In future trials Wheeler plans to add stem cells to the splint in order to accelerate healing.
and point out that H7 influenza has a tendency to become established in bird horse and swine populations and may spillover repeatedly into humans.
The authors point out that many H7 viruses have adapted to infect mammals including horses and pigs
but also helps answer why they affect insects but not humans and other mammals. Since this is a growing issue with cockroaches bedbugs fleas potato beetles
#Nuke test radiation can fight poachers who kill elephants, rhinos, hipposuniversity of Utah researchers developed a new weapon to fight poachers who kill elephants hippos rhinos and other wildlife.
By measuring radioactive carbon-14 deposited in tusks and teeth by open-air nuclear bomb tests the method reveals the year an animal died
Iain Douglas-Hamilton founder of Save the Elephants; and Samuel Andanje Patrick Omondi and Moses Litoroh all of the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Ivory Trade Drives Elephant Slaughterinternational agreements banned most trade of raw ivory from Asian elephants after 1975 and African elephants after 1989.
if an elephant is from Africa or Asia says Uno who earned his University of Utah Ph d. last year.
Currently 30000 elephants a year are slaughtered for their tusks so there is a desperate need to enforce the international trade ban
Only 423000 African elephants are left. Conservation groups say 70 percent of smuggled ivory goes to China.
and Somalia to kill elephants and sell tusks so they can buy guns. How the Study Was Performedneutrons from the nuclear tests bombarded nitrogen--the atmosphere's most common gas--to turn some of it into carbon-14.
The method in the study is a bit like telling a tree's age by its rings but instead of counting rings Cerling Uno and colleagues measured carbon-14 levels at various points along the lengths of elephants'and hippos'tusks
The samples included elephant tusks and molars hippo tusks and canine teeth oryx horn hair from monkeys and elephant tails and some grasses collected in Kenya in 1962.
and elsewhere and from Amina an elephant that died naturally in Kenya in 2006 and from Misha an African elephant euthanized in 2008 due to declining health at Utah's Hogle Zoo in Salt lake city. The analysis revealed that various tissues that formed at the same time have the same carbon-14 levels
and that grasses and the animals eating them had the same levels. By determining carbon-14 in these samples of known dates the researchers now can measure carbon-14 levels in other ivory to determine its age within about a year.
and teeth from elephants and hippos and elephant tail hair Cerling says. Extrapolating the growth rates of tusks teeth
and hair to fossil or modern elephants and other animals will help us improve the chronology of the diet history of an individual fossil
and losses in one of the world's richest areas of biodiversity and home to the endangered giant pandas.
Also contributing were Zhiyun Ouyang from the Chinese Academy of Science and Hemin Zhang of China's Center for Giant panda Research and Conservation.
A previous study published last summer by the research team documented that rodenticides were being found in the tissues of the cat-sized weasel-like critters
because unlike their larger bodied relatives in other parts of the country that eat larger prey their diet consists of small mammals birds carrion insects fungi and other plant material.
or dying insects and small mammals are often found. In this study scientists reported on the amount of poisons found at over 300 illegal plots
This new threat may also impact other species already facing declining populations including the wolverine marten great gray owl California spotted owl and Sierra nevada red fox
A previous study published last summer by the research team documented that rodenticides were being found in the tissues of the cat-sized weasel-like critters
because unlike their larger bodied relatives in other parts of the country that eat larger prey their diet consists of small mammals birds carrion insects fungi and other plant material.
or dying insects and small mammals are often found. In this study scientists reported on the amount of poisons found at over 300 illegal plots
This new threat may also impact other species already facing declining populations including the wolverine marten great gray owl California spotted owl and Sierra nevada red fox
#Human activities threaten Sumatran tiger populationsumatran tigers found exclusively on the Indonesian island of Sumatra are on the brink of extinction.
and locations of the island's dwindling tiger population has been up for debate. Virginia Tech and World Wildlife Fund researchers have found that tigers in central Sumatra live at very low densities lower than previously believed according to a study in the April 2013 issue of Oryx--The International Journal of Conservation.
The findings by Sunarto who earned his doctorate from Virginia Tech in 2011 and co-researchers Marcella Kelly an associate professor of wildlife in the College of Natural resources and Environment and Erin Poor of East Lansing Mich. a doctoral student studying wildlife science and geospatial
environmental analysis in the college suggest that high levels of human activity limit the tiger population.
which could inform interventions needed to save the tiger. Tigers are threatened not only by habitat loss from deforestation and poaching;
they are also very sensitive to human disturbance said Sunarto a native of Indonesia where people typically have one name.
The smallest surviving tiger subspecies Sumatran tigers are extremely elusive and may live at densities as low as one cat per 40 square miles.
This is the first study to compare the density of Sumatran tigers across various forest types including the previously unstudied peat land.
The research applied spatial estimation techniques to provide better accuracy of tiger density than previous studies.
Sunarto a tiger and elephant specialist with World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia collaborated on the paper with Kelly Professor Emeritus Michael Vaughan
and Sybille Klenzendorf managing director of WWF's Species Conservation Program who earned her master's and doctoral degrees in wildlife science from Virginia Tech.
Getting evidence of the tigers'presence was said difficult Kelly. It took an average of 590 days for camera traps to get an image of each individual tiger recorded.
We believe the low detection of tigers in the study area of central Sumatra was a result of the high level of human activity--farming hunting trapping
and gathering of forest products Sunarto said. We found a low population of tigers in these areas even
when there was an abundance of prey animals. Legal protection of an area followed by intensive management can reduce the level of human disturbance
and facilitate the recovery of the habitat and as well as tiger numbers. The researchers documented a potentially stable tiger population in the study region's Tesso Nilo Park where legal efforts are in place to discourage destructive human activities.
The study--Threatened predator on the equator: Multi-point abundance estimates of the tiger Panthera tigris in central Sumatra--indicates that more intensive monitoring
and proactive management of tiger populations and their habitats are crucial or this tiger subspecies will soon follow the fate of its extinct Javan and Balinese relatives.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic institute and State university.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Comparing genomes of wild and domestic tomatoyou say tomato I say comparative transcriptomics. Researchers in the U s. Europe and Japan have produced the first comparison of both the DNA sequences and
In a previous trial which is referenced in the current journal article Kavanagh's team studied monkeys who were allowed to eat as much as they wanted of low-fat food with added fructose for seven years as compared to a control group fed a low-fructose low-fat diet for the same time period.
Ten middle-aged normal weight monkeys who had eaten never fructose were divided into two groups based on comparable body shapes and waist circumference.
Six weeks in monkeys is roughly equivalent to three months in humans. In the high-fructose group the researchers found that the type of intestinal bacteria hadn't changed
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