Dogs caring for orphaned kittens chimps sharing food or dolphins nudging injured mates to the surface.
In corn reproduction male flowers at the top of the plants distribute pollen grains two at a time through individual tubes to tiny cobs on the stalks covered by strands known as silks in a process known as double fertilization.
The manipulation of corn plant genes that has been going on for millennia--resulting in the production of multicolored Indian corn cobs of various colors like red purple blue
and weighed every individual kernel out of each cob from the harvests. While the majority of kernels had an endosperm
I. Eglinton of the Eidgenã ssische Technische Hochschule and Raymonde Bonnefille of the Universit d'Aix-Marseille. The role that the environment played in the evolution of hominins--the tribe of human and ape ancestors
whose family tree split from the ancestors of chimpanzees and bonobos about 6 million years ago--has been the subject of a century-long debate.
Among other things one theory dating back to 1925 posits that early human ancestors developed bipedalism as a response to savannas encroaching on shrinking forests in northeast Africa.
In addition to informing scientists about the environment that our ancestors took shape in Feakins'study provides insights into the landscape that herbivores (horses hippos
#Corn cobs eyed for bioenergy productioncorn crop residues are often left on harvested fields to protect soil quality
if postharvest corn cob residues were removed from fields. This work led by Agricultural research service (ARS) soil scientist Brian Wienhold supports the USDA priority of developing new sources of bioenergy.
Wienhold with the ARS Agroecosystem Management Research Unit in Lincoln Neb. led studies that compared runoff rates
The scientists also removed cobs from half of the test plots that were protected by the residues.
But the presence or absence of cobs on the residue-protected plots did not significantly affect sediment loss rates.
even though cob residues did slightly delay the onset of runoff sediment loss rates were affected not significantly by the presence or absence of the cobs.
The results indicated that the cobs could be removed from other residue and used for bioenergy feedstock without significantly interfering with the role of crop residues in protecting soils.
In a related study Wienhold examined how the removal of cob residues affected soil nutrient levels.
Over the course of a year his sampling indicated that cobs were a source of soil potassium
and vineyards with a greater prevalence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes and the insects'ability to spread the virus to birds horses and people.
Crowder working with fellow entomologist Jeb Owen other WSU colleagues and the State department of Health merged data from a variety of sources including West Nile infections in humans horses
The researchers found that habitats with high instances of the disease in horses and birds also have significantly more mosquitoes--as well as American robins
or even poisoned carcasses intended to control other carnivores such as jackals. The research using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite transmitters to track the movements of adolescent vultures is published in the journal PLOS ONE.
and away from other competing carnivores such as lions and the new study shows that the birds will go to considerable lengths to find food crossing multiple state boundaries with each bird on average ranging across an area twice the size of England.
The vultures may actively avoid parks with numerous large mammal predators due to competition for food
The more roughage is in the diet of the ruminant animal the more methane is produced by the microbes in the gut of the ruminant
The findings are relatively good news for the cat-sized relative of the weasel family.
The forest-dwelling fisher (Martes pennanti) once lived throughout most of the mountains in northern California and the Sierra nevada and in the Rocky mountains Cascades and Coast ranges.
#Misconceptions about a popular pet treata popular dog treat could be adding more calories than pet owners realize
dog and 30 percent of the daily calorie requirements for a 10-pound dog. While calorie information isn't currently required on pet treats
and pet owners need to be aware of pet treats like these bully sticks as a source of calories in a dog's diet said Lisa M. Freeman DVM Phd DACVN professor of nutrition at TCSVM
With obesity in pets on the rise it is important for pet owners to factor in not only their dog's food but also treats and table food Freeman added.
Most respondents were female dog owners. We were surprised at the clear misconceptions pet owners and veterinarians have with pet foods
Twenty-three percent of the respondents fed their dogs bully sticks. Further research with a larger sample size is needed to determine
His prediction bears fruit in the new work in which finely detailed patterns of graphene are laced into gaps created in sheets of h-BN.
That is different from most species such as deer warblers and swallowtail butterflies whose populations tend to be regular around some average abundance based on food weather and other external factors says Matt Ayres a professor in the Department of Biological sciences at Dartmouth and senior author on the paper.
#Parasites of Madagascars lemurs expanding with climate changerising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns in Madagascar could fuel the spread of lemur parasites
and the diseases they carry. By combining data on six parasite species from ongoing surveys of lemur health with weather data and other environmental information for Madagascar as a whole a team of Duke university researchers has created probability
maps of likely parasite distributions throughout the island today. Then using climate projections for the year 2080 they estimate what parasite distributions might look like in the future.
We can use these models to figure out where the risk of lemur-human disease transmission might be highest
and use that to better protect the future of lemur and human health said lead author Meredith Barrett who conducted the study while working as a graduate student at Duke.
Lemurs are native to the African island of Madagascar where climate change isn't the only threat to their survival.
More than 90 percent of the lemurs'forest habitat has already been cleared for logging farming and grazing.
what these changes could mean for lemur health by taking a cue from the parasites they carry.
and intestinal worms commonly known to infect lemurs. The parasites are identified in lemur fur and feces.
Some species--such as pinworms whipworms and tapeworms--cause diarrhea dehydration and weight loss in human hosts.
When the researchers compared their present-day maps with parasite distributions predicted for the future they found that lemur parasites could expand their range by as much as 60 percent.
Anne Yoder senior author on the study and Director of the Duke Lemur Center said the research is particularly important now as lemurs have been identified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as the most endangered mammals on earth.
As lemur parasites become more prevalent the diseases they carry could show up in new places.
The spread could be harmful to lemur populations that have encountered never these pests before and lack resistance to the diseases they carry.
which purified beta carotene and gamma tocopherol will be fed to lab mice. This may show whether those substances themselves are critical to preventing
#Paradise found for Latin americas largest land mammalwildlife Conservation Society scientists have documented a thriving population of lowland tapirs--the strange forest
and grassland-dwelling herbivore with the trunk-like snout--living in a network of remote national parks spanning the Peru-Bolivia border.
and subsistence hunters WCS estimates at least 14500 lowland tapirs in the region. The population bridges five connected national parks in northwest Bolivia and southeastern Peru.
The study synthesizes 12 years of research on lowland tapirs in the region. Together with WCS studies on jaguars the results underscore the importance of this protected area complex for the conservation of Latin america's most charismatic terrestrial wildlife species. The Madidi-Tambopata landscape is estimated to hold a population of at least 14500 lowland
tapirs making it one of the most important strongholds for lowland tapir conservation in the continent said the study's lead author Robert Wallace.
These results underline the fundamental importance of protected areas for the conservation of larger species of wildlife threatened by hunting and habitat loss.
The lowland tapir is the largest terrestrial mammal in South america weighing up to 300 kg (661 pounds.
Its unusual prehensile proboscis or snout is used to reach leaves and fruit. Tapirs are found throughout tropical forests and grasslands in South america.
However they are threatened by habitat loss and especially unsustainable hunting due to their large size low reproductive rate (1 birth every 2-3 years) and ease of detection at mineral licks in the rainforest.
Lowland tapirs are considered Vulnerable by the IUCN. WCS collected and systematized 1255 lowland tapir distribution records in the region.
These records came from research observations and camera trap photographs as well as interviews with park guards of Madidi Pilã n Lajas and Apolobamba National parks in Bolivia and Bahuaja Sonene and Tambopata National parks in neighboring Peru and subsistence hunters from 19 Takana
Camera trap data revealed that lowland tapir abundance was higher at sites under protection than sites outside protected areas.
At one site sampled over time the Tuichi River camera trapping has revealed that lowland tapir populations have been recovering following the creation of Madidi National park in 1995.
Madidi National park contains 11 percent of the world's birds more than 200 species of mammals 300 types of fish and 12000 plant varieties.
and wildlife including lowland tapirs including road construction logging unsustainable natural resource use and agricultural expansion. Julie Kunen WCS Director of Latin america and Caribbean Programs said:
#Monkeys stressed from longer foraging timesendangered Mexican howler monkeys are consuming more leaves and less fruit as a result of habitat disturbance by humans
It shows that increases in howler monkey'travel time'--the amount of time needed to find requisite nourishment--are leading to increases in levels of stress hormones called glucocorticoids.
and resulting health implications more generally in primates living in habitats disturbed by human activities such as deforestation.
Howlers are arboreal primates that is to say they spend their wholes lives in the trees said Dr Jacob Dunn from Cambridge's Department of Biological Anthropology who carried out the research.
As forests are fragmented the howlers become cut off isolated on forest'islands'that increasingly lack the fruit
This has led to the monkeys expending ever more time and effort foraging for food often increasing leaf consumption
and the monkeys will naturally revert to'fallback'foods including leaves when fruit is scarce.
But as habitats shrink and fruit is harder to find leaves from second-choice plants such as lianas have increased in the Mexican howlers'diet.
and plants--so the monkeys are forced actually to spend more time seeking out the right foliage to eat such as new shoots
The traditional view was that the leaves exploited by howler monkeys were an abundant food source
The monkeys rely much more heavily on fruit than previously believed and when turning to foliage for food--as they are forced increasingly to do--they have to be highly selective in the leaves they consume visiting lots of different trees.
This leads to the increased'travel time'and consequent high levels of stress we are seeing in these primates as their habitats disintegrate.
As trying to catch the howlers to examine them would in itself be highly stressful for the animal the best way of evaluating stress levels in wild primates is by analysing their faeces for glucocorticoid stress hormones which are general to all vertebrates.
Monkeys in disturbed habitats suffering high levels of stress is in itself unsurprising perhaps but now we think we know why the root cause from the primates perspective.
Our results also highlight the importance of preserving and planting fruit trees--particularly those species such as figs that can produce fruit during periods of general fruit scarcity--for the conservation of howler monkeys said Dr Jurgi Cristã bal-Azkarate also from Cambridge who led the research
in collaboration with Dr Joaquim Vea from the University of Barcelona. The authors say that further studies are required to fully understand the significance of increases in stress in howler monkeys living in disturbed habitats.
Determining the full relevance of our results for the conservation of primates living in forest fragments will require long-term studies of stress hormones
and survival said Dunn. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Cambridge.
Voles know which acorns have insect larvaeresearchers at the UPM have observed as voles are able to distinguish the acorns containing insect larvae from those that have not.
This is the place where researchers at the School of Forestry from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid have carried out a research on scattering patterns of acorns for voles
and are reachable for the rest of animals that seek this fruit during the autumn days (wild boar deer and mice among others).
Voles are the main consumers of acorns and they hide this fruit during autumns in order to consume them in winter time.
or stolen by another vole and achieving so a dispersal distance up to hundreds meters with respect to its mother tree
But what do voles do attacked with the acorns by beetle larvae? There is not just an answer
Acorns whose larvae had emerged out were rejected rapidly by voles barely touching moving or storing them.
and stored by voles. The study reveals that voles liked these larvae (rich in proteins) and feed on them decreasing the harm produced by these worms over the acorns.
Therefore voles scattered and buried these acorns that finally contributed to generate new plants. The fact that the larva was resulted still inside definitive for the near future of the acorn and therefore the future of oak forests.
The nature maintains its compensation mechanisms and an apparent harmful beetle can be attractive to voles that at the same time releases acorns from this enemy
and help them to thrive thanks to its rich substance what allows them to survive winter
and maintain this favorable relationship between vole and acorn. These results reveal that we do not know ye the behavior of those ecosystems that we aim to preserve.
#Human-tiger conflict: are overestimated the risks? A new study finds a complex web of factors increases perceived risk of tiger attack in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh.
Wildlife conservationists are well aware of the potential conflicts that exist between the endangered species they seek to protect and the human populations
Carnivores such as tigers pose a risk to humans and their livestock and can be killed because of this potential risk.
which may contribute to perceptions of risk from tigers in a conservation area in Bangladesh.
and in depth interviews to explore the wider socioeconomic context of human-tiger conflict. The survey was carried out around the Sundarbans mangrove forests of southwestern Bangladesh home to one of the world's largest remaining tiger populations.
Although there are no human inhabitants of the Sundarbans eight sub-districts with a total population of around 1. 7 million people lie directly adjacent to the forest boundary.
Records indicate that approximately 30-50 people are killed annually by tigers in the area. The researchers held 54 semi-structured interviews in six villages which border the Sundarbans forest followed by 385 questionnaires in a further ten border villages.
Of all the issues related to lives and livelihood tigers were the most commonly reported problem. Other issues recorded were related largely poverty including low incomes dependence on natural resources poor infrastructure and services and a lack of clean water together with soil erosion and weather.
Inskip and her colleagues identified the fact that these issues had a direct impact on villagers'perceptions of risk from tigers.
The respondents'perceived susceptibility to and their ability to mitigate human-tiger conflict was influenced largely by their poverty related-problems.
The authors suggest that any actions taken to improve these socioeconomic issues will also reduce the perceived level of risk from tigers
which tigers are killed. For conservationists this would mean a shift from traditional models of conflict reduction to holistic models which also incorporate situation-specific actions to reduce risk perceptions.
Whether it will stop journalists from interpreting a quarrel over nuance as a complete reversal of opinion is given another question the powerful editorial attraction to man-bites-dog stories.
Extreme weather potent force for Arctic overwintering populationsclimate change is known to affect the population dynamics of single species such as reindeer
or caribou but the effect of climate at the community level has been much more difficult to document.
because it is composed of just three herbivores in the winter--the wild Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) the Svalbard rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta hyperborea)
and the sibling vole (Microtus levis) and one shared consumer the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus). The community's population fluctuations were driven mainly by rain-on-snow events the researchers found.
The ice keeps reindeer from grazing on their winter pastures and also reduces food accessibility for the rock ptarmigan
and sibling vole populations causing extensive simultaneous population crashes in all three species in the winter and spring after the extreme weather.
However the arctic fox which mainly relies on reindeer carcasses as its terrestrial winter food source didn't see a decline in its population size until a year after the herbivore die offs.
Even though the synchronized die offs decrease the number of live prey available for foxes to eat the high number of reindeer carcasses generates an abundance of food for foxes during icy winters and the subsequent spring and summer.
This leads to high fox reproduction. But almost no reindeer carcasses will be available during the following winter mainly
because those reindeer that survived the previous winter are more robust and also subject to reduced competition for food resources.
At the same time none of the other herbivores is able to recover in the summer after the icing.
The net result is low fox reproduction and a strong reduction in the arctic fox population size one year after the herbivore die offs.
We have known for a long time that climate can synchronize populations of the same species but these findings suggest that climate
Docampo and his colleagues tested their hypothesis by watching genetically modified versions of the parasitic cell both in laboratory cultures and in mice.
and mice in the experimental group remained disease free. We knew that these organelles were rich in acidic calcium
#Leopards and tigers in India: New genetics research underscores importance of protecting forest corridorsas rapid economic expansion continues to shape the Asian landscape on
which many species depend time is running out for conservationists aiming to save wildlife such as tigers and leopards.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute have used genetic analysis to find that the natural forest corridors in India are essential to ensuring a future for these species. According to two studies recently published in two papers these corridors are successfully connecting populations of tigers
and leopards to ensure genetic diversity and gene flow. The results of the study that focused on tigers were published in Ecology
and Evolution and the results from the study that tracked leopards were published in Diversity and Distributions.
This research provides crucial information about the need to maintain these vital veins to support tiger
and leopard populations said Sandeep Sharma SCBI visiting scholar and lead author of the Ecology and Evolution paper.
These habitats and corridors in India are threatened by infrastructural developments and need to be conserved if we want to save these species for future generations.
The authors of the two papers used fecal samples to analyze the genetics of tiger and leopard populations in four reserves in central India:
The Kanha and Pench reserves and the Satpura and Melghat reserves are connected via forest corridors that tigers leopards humans and cattle share.
The researchers found that both tiger and leopard populations in the reserves had maintained a high level of genetic diversity.
Neither tigers nor leopards were genetically distinct with one exception among the leopards which the scientists hope to explain with additional research.
The corridors appear to allow individuals to move between reserves facilitating genetic exchange. However the proliferation of roads rail lines mining urbanization and other forms of development through the corridors jeopardize these species'ability to move between reserves.
and Pench tiger reserves as has the widening of a national highway (NH-7) and a broad-gauge railway line that cut across the corridor between the Kanha and Pench tiger reserves.
By looking at two species we were really able to illustrate the functionality of these corridors said Trishna Dutta SCBI visiting student
and other species. The Indian subcontinent contains the largest number of tiger conservation areas which are home to 60 percent of the world's wild tigers.
Leopard range has extended historically through most of Sub-saharan africa along parts of the North African coast through central south and Southeast asia and north to the Amur river valley in Russia.
In addition to Sharma and Dutta the papers'other SCBI authors are Jesã s Maldonado a research geneticist at SCBI's Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics and John Seidensticker head of SCBI
The other authors are Thomas Wood in the Department of Environmental science and Policy at George Mason University and H. S. Panwar former director of Project Tiger India and Wildlife Institute
Wild yaks are the third largest mammal in Asia second only to elephants and rhinos.
While polar bears represent a sad disclaimer for a warming Arctic the recent count of almost 1000 wild yaks offers hope for the persistence of free-roaming large animals at the virtual limits of high-altitude wildlife.
and the role wolves may play on population dynamics. The team's next steps will be to process data to understand more about climate change impacts on this high elevation ecosystem
but the mass vaccination of poultry has continued by those breeders subscribing to the Lion Quality Code of Practice
and using the Lion Mark on eggs. The code of practice requires mandatory vaccination of all young hens destined to lay Lion eggs against Salmonella as well as traceability of hens eggs
and feed a best-before date stamped on shells and hygiene controls at packing stations.
Lion eggs now account for around 85%of the total market. Sarah O'brien Professor of Epidemiology and Zoonoses from the University's Institute of Infection and Global Health attributes a dramatic fall in the number of Salmonella cases in humans to this mass vaccination programme in poultry.
Wheeler JG Sethi D Cowden JM et al. Study of infectious intestinal disease in England: rates in the community presenting to general practice
#NASA Mars rover preparing to drill into first Martian rocknasa's Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red planet.
since the landing It has never been done on Mars said Mars Science Laboratory project manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena Calif. The drill hardware interacts energetically with Martian material we don't control.
and use those to scrub the drill. Then the rover will drill and ingest more samples from this rock which it will analyze for information about its mineral and chemical composition.
#Bengali forests are fading awaymangrove forests of the Sundarbans are disappearing taking endangered species like the Bengal tiger with them.
and mammals including the endangered Bengal tiger. Sarah Christie ZSL's tiger conservation expert says: The Sundarbans is a critical tiger habitat;
one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers.
To lose the Sundarbans would be to move a step closer to the extinction of these majestic animals.
Although mangroves are rare they are an important barrier against climate change providing protection to coastal areas from tsunamis and cyclones.
and found they made mice in the laboratory less sick than viruses containing the NSS gene.
#Research revisiting the safety of GM weevil-resistant peas in mice contradicts previous risk assessment findingsresearchers at the Medical University of Vienna have conducted feeding trials with mice to investigate the allergenicity of genetically modified (GM) weevil-resistant peas.
and Australian National University showed negative reactions in mice to the peas (Prescott et al 2005).
Unlike peas beans are attacked not by pea weevils as they contain a protein called Î-amylase inhibitor (Î AI) that causes the weevils feeding on beans to starve before they cause any damage.
The Meduni Vienna-team investigated immune responses in mice fed several varieties of beans non-transgenic peas
The mice showed similar levels of immune response no matter which food they consumed. Dr. Michelle Epstein the lead researcher said We observed that the immune response in mice was the same no matter
whether the inhibitor came from beans where it naturally occurs or from peas genetically modified to express the inhibitor and even in non-transgenic peas.
These results demonstrate that Î AI transgenic peas are no more allergenic than beans or non-transgenic peas in mice Dr. Epstein added.
Rodent studies for genetically modified organism (GMO) safety have recently been in the news. Seralini et al. showed untoward effects in rats fed GM corn
and add to the controversy of using rodents to study GMO safety (see EFSA report). The study is important
Dr. Epstein questions the utility of rodents for evaluating biotech crops and points out that the MUV results highlight the importance of a careful case-by-case evaluation of GM CROPS
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