Lipocalins exist in all mammals. We assume that our conclusions will be applicable to the milk of other mammals as well.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Veterinã¤rmedizinische Universitã¤t Wien. Note:
and all birds taste things the same way that mammals do: with sensory receptors for salty sour bitter sweet
The panda for example feeds exclusively on bamboo and lacks savory taste receptors. Carnivores notably cats are indifferent to sweet tastes.
The gene for tasting sweetness is present in their genomes but it's nonfunctional. Scientists suspect that an interplay between taste receptors
#More than 100,000 African elephants killed in three years, study verifiesnew research led by Colorado State university has revealed that an estimated 100000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012.
The study shows these losses are driving population declines of the world's wild African elephants on the order of 2 percent to 3 percent a year.
This study provides the first verifiable estimation of the impacts of the ongoing ivory crisis on Africa's elephant populations to date solidifying speculation about the scale of the ivory crisis. An average of 33630 elephants per annum are calculated to have been lost over those three years
with preliminary data indicating unsustainable levels continued in 2013. To quantify the poaching death toll researchers drew on data and experience from a continent-wide intensive monitoring program.
The most thoroughly studied site was Samburu in northern Kenya where every elephant birth and death over the past 16 years has been recorded.
The intensive population study was conducted in a project founded by George Wittemyer of Colorado State university with Save the Elephants and in association with the Kenya Wildlife Service.
He has dedicated his scientific career to understanding and conserving one of Earth's most intelligent and charismatic species. Witnessing the killing of known elephants some that we have followed
The team used the intensive study of the Samburu elephants as a Rosetta stone to translate less detailed information from 45 elephant populations across Africa to estimate natural mortality
and illegal killing rates to model population trends for the species. The UN-mandated continental Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme establishes cause of death for each elephant carcass found in these sites
Over the last decade the proportion of illegally killed elephants has climbed from 25 percent to between 60 percent and 70 percent.
Such figures cause conservationists alarm as the study shows over 54 percent is a level of poaching that elephant birth rates are unable to overcome
This study helps make sense of the challenge faced by thousands of rangers working on the frontlines to protect elephants
and communicate the true proportions of the threat that elephants face. To establish figures rather than proportions two types of model were used.
One focused on the elephant populations with the best information and used them as an indicator for the conditions in their region of Africa.
elephant deaths. It's a complex situation for elephants across Africa with some populations--such as in Botswana--still increasing.
History has taught us that numbers alone are no defense against attrition from the ivory trade
and this new work confirms that elephant numbers are decreasing in East Central and Southern Africa said co-author Iain Douglas-Hamilton founder of Save the Elephants.
The research paper Illegal killing for ivory drives global decline in African elephants is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Colorado State university. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Pigs hearts transplanted into baboon hosts remain viable more than a yearinvestigators from the National Heart Lung
and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National institutes of health (NIH) have transplanted successfully hearts from genetically engineered piglets into baboons'abdomens
and a more focused immunosuppression regimen in the baboon recipients according to a study published in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery an official publication of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
The transplanted hearts were attached to the circulatory systems of the host baboons but placed in the baboons'abdomens.
The baboons'own hearts which were left in place maintained circulatory function and allowed the baboons to live despite the risk of organ rejection.
The researchers found that in one group with a human gene) the average transplant survival was more than 200 days dramatically surpassing the survival times of the other three groups (average survival 70 days 21 days
but the longest-surviving group was treated specifically with a high dose of recombinant mouse-rhesus chimeric antibody (clone 2c10r4).
In contrast use of an anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody generated in a mouse (clone 3a8) did not extend survival.
when replacing the original baboon hearts. Xenotransplantation could help to compensate for the shortage of human organs available for transplant.
Our study has demonstrated that by using hearts from genetically engineered pigs in combination with target-specific immunosuppression of recipient baboons organ survival can be prolonged significantly.
Sea otter populations provide a historical example of this phenomenon. The fur trade spanning the late 1700s to early 1900s decimated their numbers across their range from Alaska to Baja california Mexico.
Now sea otters and other important predator species face the challenges of a changing climate. The near extinction of sea otters is one of the most dramatic examples of human-induced impacts to the structure
and functioning of temperate nearshore marine ecosystems said Rebecca G. Martone of the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford university.
In the U s. there are two distinct sea otter subspecies the Northern sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) and the Southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis.
Northern sea otters are found in the Aleutian islands Southern Alaska British columbia and Washington. Southern sea otters also known as California sea otters live in the waters along the California coastline
and range from San mateo County in the north to Santa barbara County in the South sea otters live offshore in forests of kelp--huge yellow-brown rubbery seaweed reaching from the sea floor to the surface like tall trees.
In coastal North america sea otters help maintain healthy kelp forests which benefits other marine species dependent on this habitat.
Sea otters must eat about 25%of their body weight daily to maintain their body temperature since unlike other marine mammals they rely solely on their fur rather than an extra layer of blubber to stay warm--it's like a 120-pound human eating 30 pounds of food per day.
Some of otters'favorites are abalone clams crabs mussels shrimp and sea urchins. Few predators can crack the globe-shaped spiny urchins
which in unchecked hordes will chew through the holdfasts of the kelp leaving vast barrens in place of the vibrant forests.
The otter is a keystone predator whose presence has outsized an effect on its kelp forest habitat.
Without sea otters the undersea sea urchins they prey on would devour the kelp forests resulting in dense areas called sea urchin barrens that have lower biodiversity due to the loss of kelp that provide 3-dimensional habitat
and a food source for many species. Researchers found that when sea otters arrive in an area from
which they have been absent they begin feasting on urchins. As a result the kelp forest begins to grow back changing the structure of kelp forest communities.
Many fish marine mammals and birds are also found in kelp forest communities including rockfish seals sea lions whales gulls terns snowy egrets as well as some shore birds.
Otters might also offer a defense against climate change because healthy kelp forests can grow rapidly and store large amounts of carbon.
Dr. Martone's analyses of the effects of sea otters on kelp forest ecosystems can help shape predictions of how climate change
and prefer prey like jackrabbits that occupy similar habitats said coauthor and USGS ecologist Kristy Howe whose masters thesis research with WCS formed the foundation of this study.
to save elephants all ivory markets must close and all ivory stockpiles must be destroyed according to a new peer-reviewed paper by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
and a lack of enforcement make any legal trade of ivory a major factor contributing to the demise of Africa's elephants.
if we are to conserve significant wild populations of elephants across all regions of Africa all domestic
If we are to conserve remaining wild populations of elephants we must close all markets
The paper looked at the corruption index of 177 assessed countries noting that half of the 12 countries in Africa that contain elephants are in the bottom 40 percent.
The paper comes at a time of growing opposition to ivory bans by some groups claiming that carefully regulated ivory sales would help protect elephants
For example forest elephants in Central africa occur in densities seven times higher in sites with ecoguards than without them.
as long as ivory profits continue to escalate giving ever-increasing incentives to kill elephants illegally and traffic in their ivory.
if elephants are to survive we need to close existing legal markets. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society.
Another was adorned with a bronze finial of the head of a feline with the mane of a lion
and the spots of a leopard and for handle attachments had African heads probably sphinxes.
and unworked deer antlers--suggest that the Cetamura well like other water sources in antiquity was regarded as sacred.
which showed good protection in nonhuman primates against the Zaire Ebola virus. Currently the vaccine is being developed with the help of Peter Jahrling at the Integrated Research Facility at the NIH
The experimental therapy that humanitarian aid workers Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol received was purified based on a monoclonal antibodies from mice genetically engineered to produce humanlike antibodies against the Ebola virus.
Insects and rodents seemed to be unimportant. Truck conditions and bad weather were the top factors to blame for loss
#Arctic mammals can metabolize some pesticides, limits human exposurefortunately you are not always what you eat at least in Canada's Arctic.
New research from the University of Guelph reveals that arctic mammals such as caribou can metabolize some current-use pesticides (CUPS) ingested in vegetation.
This limits exposures in animals that consume the caribou--including humans. This is good news for the wildlife
and people of the Arctic who survive by hunting caribou and other animals said Adam Morris a Phd student in the School of Environmental sciences
and mammals and in turn are consumed by other animals and humans. The substances can become biomagnified
They examined the vegetation-caribou-wolf food chain in the area where the presence of other organic contaminants such as legacy pesticides
Caribou are among the most important subsistence animals for people living in the North and the Bathurst caribou herd is particularly critical to the area's socioeconomic security.
Wolves like people are a top consumer of caribou. It is an important responsibility both for health
and for food security issues that Northerner's face that we monitor traditional food sources Morris said.
In caribou eating that vegetation CUPS were also present but they did not increase (biomagnify) significantly in caribou compared to their diet.
The concentrations were even lower in wolves suggesting sufficient metabolism of CUPS in both animals to prevent significant biomagnification.
The lack of biomagnification also means that we are unlikely to see sudden unexpected increases in concentrations of the CUPS in terrestrial top predators he said.
#Kangaroos win when aborigines hunt with fire: Co-evolution benefits Australias martu people and wildlifeaustralia's Aboriginal Martu people hunt kangaroos and set small grass fires to catch lizards as they have for at least 2000 years.
A University of Utah researcher found such human-made disruption boosts kangaroo populations--showing how co-evolution helped marsupials
and made Aborigines into unintentional conservationists. We have uncovered a framework that allows us to predict
hill kangaroo populations because the animals can hide from predators like dingoes in older bush grass
and spend most of their time eating shoots and fruits in patches of younger vegetation.
Counts of kangaroo scats showed kangaroo populations were largest at moderate distances from Martu settlements.
At those distances there also were moderate levels of both kangaroo hunting and burning to expose lizard burrows.
As people spend more time hunting in a region kangaroos densities actually increase but only up to a threshold after
And there are indications mammals like brushtail possums and hare-wallabies also benefit. Unintentional Conservationists and the Dreamtimecodding and colleagues conducted the study in a 60-by-35-mile area within Western australia's Little Sandy Desert where the native Martu people hold title to a vast expanse of land.
There they use. 22-caliber rifles to hunt hill kangaroos a midsized species (3 feet to 5 feet long) named Macropus robustus also known as the euro or common wallaroo.
or indirectly over time in ways that alter each other's evolution--an ecological mechanism that he says explains how moderate levels of burning by the Martu actually bolsters kangaroo populations.
The'conservation'of kangaroos is an outcome that evolved he says. It would be wrong to assume that Martu were intentionally managing a resource.
'But they are well aware their fires benefit kangaroos and other wildlife. In fact they see humans as part of a larger ecosystem that has spiritual components--the dreamtime place of creation where ancestors roamed.
Kangaroo Populations Highest Where Human Disruption is Moderatethe study's key finding is that kangaroo populations are highest where human disruption is moderate not most intense or minimal.
In other words the kangaroos are most abundant at moderate distances from the community--a 40-to 80-minute drive--where hunting is more common than in areas closer to the community and father from it.
Indeed kangaroo population levels close to the village--where they were hunted first--are the same as at great distances from the community where there is little hunting and bush burning.
The study doesn't suggest that hunting kangaroos helps the animals but that any harm to kangaroo populations by hunting is outweighed by
what they gain from a landscape with small patches of different ages of post-fire vegetation.
It's just that the Martu tend to hunt kangaroos in the same areas where they burn the grass to hunt lizards.
Codding says the new study looked at kangaroo populations in all five stages of post-fire spinifex grass vegetation as described by the Martu.
and bush raisin eaten by the Martu and hill kangaroos. The two final stages occur five to 15 years after fire:
and kangaroo) and foraging for bush fruits Codding says. The researchers also monitored how long Martu hunters were away from their camps and
They also walked two predetermined 0. 6-mile lines in each hunting area counting the density of kangaroo scat in patches of vegetation in each of the different post-fire growth stages.
The new findings are sophisticated based on inelastic neutron-scattering experiments performed on several samples of barium iron nickel arsenide at the PUMA triple axis spectrometer at TUM's Heinz Maier
#Selective logging takes its toll on mammals, amphibiansthe selective logging of trees in otherwise intact tropical forests can take a serious toll on the number of animal species living there.
Mammals and amphibians are particularly sensitive to the effects of high-intensity logging according to researchers in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on July 31 who conducted a meta-analysis of almost 50 previously published studies from around the world.
#Panthers prey on ranchers calves, but amount varies, Florida study findsa two-year panther study at two southwest Florida cattle ranches shows that the endangered cats attack
and kill calves but how often that happens can vary greatly by location and landscape.
The Florida panther nearly died out with an estimated population thinning to just 20 to 25 panthers by 1995 with conservation efforts helping the cat's numbers grow to an estimated 100 to 160 by 2012.
But the panthers'comeback has not always been helpful to cattle ranchers. One of the ranches Jacobs studied lost 10 calves
or 5 percent of the herd each year to preying panthers while the other lost only one or half a percent of that herd during the same time span.
Overall panther attacks caused the most deaths although panthers weren't the only predator for calves to contend with.
Each ranch also lost at least one ear-tagged calf to a bear attack during the two-year study
while some untagged calves were killed by coyotes and vultures. The ranches'physical geography including open spaces and the proximity of wooded areas in
which the cats can hide and stalk likely have much to do with the different rates she said.
But for the panthers to continue their comeback they rely greatly on the mixed landscape found on ranches which includes forests wetlands prairies and pastures.
Jacobs said she hopes her research helps lead to fruitful policy discussion between state conservation officials
and ranchers perhaps to programs that might pay ranchers to maintain key panther habitat rather than as compensation for difficult-to-track individual calf losses.
The ranching landscape is important for panthers. Land that's used for housing or row crops
panthers coyotes bears or even vultures. A bite wound to the front or back of the calf's neck was most often the mark of a panther attack she said
and the cats almost always dragged their prey to a hiding spot nearby to revisit later.
Coyote and bear attacks were much more damaging with the calf's body badly bruised
or found to have many external wounds. Jacobs presented her research two weeks ago at the North america Congress for Conservation Biology in Missoula Mont.
A new mango drink enriched with antioxidants from mas cotekresearchers at the Universiti Teknologi MARA have enhanced the antioxidants present in mango fruit drink by adding the extracts of naturally occuring traditional herbs in Malaysia.
The above story is provided based on materials by Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
In order to study the effect of changes in agricultural practices on Midwest river discharge the researchers focused on Iowa's Raccoon River at Van Meter Iowa.
and corn harvested acreage in the Raccoon River watershed. In times of flood and in times of drought water flow rates were exacerbated by more or less agriculture respectively.
#Moose drool inhibits growth of toxic fungussome sticky research out of York University shows a surprisingly effective way to fight against a certain species of toxic grass fungus:
moose saliva (yesâ#moose saliva. Published in this month's Biology Letters Ungulate saliva inhibits a grass-endophyte mutualism shows that moose
and reindeer saliva when applied to red fescue grass (which hosts a fungus called epichloã festucae that produces the toxin ergovaline) results in slower fungus growth and less toxicity.
Plants have evolved defense mechanisms to protect themselves such as thorns bitter-tasting berries and in the case of certain types of grass by harbouring toxic fungus deep within them that can be dangerous
We wanted to find out how moose were able to eat such large quantities of this grass without negative effects.
Inspired by an earlier study that showed that moose grazing and saliva distribution can have a positive effect on plant growth the research team set out to test an interesting hypothesis
--whether moose saliva may in fact detoxify the grass before it is eaten. Working in partnership with the Toronto Zoo the team collected saliva samples from moose and reindeer
which they then smeared onto clipped samples of red fescue grass carrying the toxic fungus simulating the effect of grazing.
because moose tend to graze within a defined home range it's possible that certain groups of plants are receiving repeated exposure to the moose saliva
Supports earlier epigenetic findingswhen Skinner and his colleagues exposed gestating rats to methoxychlor at a range typical of high environmental exposures they saw increases in the incidence of kidney disease ovary disease
Additionally the study identified mutations in the sperm epigenome of great-grandchild male rats. The epigenome functions like a set of switches for regulating gene expression and can be altered by environmental conditions.
and other mammals cool themselves through their blood vessels and skin. This study shows how workers effectively dissipate the heat absorbed via heat-shielding a mechanism used to thwart localized heat stressors says Starks.
When temperatures dip worker bees create heat by contracting their thoracic muscles similar to shivering in mammals.
Moving heat from hot to cool areas is reminiscent of the bioheat transfer via the cardiovascular system of mammals says Starks.
and Maine's only native rabbit after new research based on genetic monitoring has found that in the last decade cottontail populations in northern New england have become more isolated
The endangered New england cottontail is now is at risk of becoming extinct in the region according to NH Agricultural Experiment Station researchers at the University of New hampshire College of Life sciences
and Agriculture who believe that restoring habitats is the key to saving the species. The New england cottontail is a species of great conservation concern in the Northeast.
New england cottontails have been declining for decades. However NHAES researchers have found that in the last decade the New england cottontail population in New hampshire
and Maine has contracted by 50 percent; a decade ago cottontails were found as far north as Cumberland Maine.
The majority of research on New england cottontails has come out of UNH much of it under the leadership of John Litvaitis professor of wildlife ecology who has studied the New england cottontail for three decades.
Kovach's research expands on this knowledge by using DNA analysis to provide new information on the cottontail's status distribution genetic diversity and dispersal ecology.
The greatest threat and cause of the decline of the New england cottontail is the reduction
and fragmentation of their habitat Kovach said. Fragmentation of habitats occurs when the cottontail's habitat is reduced
or eliminated due to the maturing of forests or land development. Habitats also can become fragmented by roads
Cottontails require thicketed habitats which progress from old fields to young forests. Once you have a more mature forest the cottontail habitat is reduced.
A lot of other species rely on these thicket habitats including bobcats birds and reptiles. Many thicket-dependent species are on decline
and the New england cottontail is a representative species for this kind of habitat and its conservation Kovach said.
Kovach explained that for cottontail and most animal populations to be healthy and grow it is important for adult animals to leave the place where they were born
and relocate to a new habitat which is known as dispersal. There are two main benefits of dispersal:
and New hampshire cottontails to travel the large distances between fragmented habitats necessary to maintain gene flow among populations of cottontails Kovach said.
The researchers hope that an improved understanding of how the cottontail moves through the landscape will assist wildlife and land managers in species recovery efforts.
Researchers used genetics to study the changes in New england cottontail populations and their dispersal patterns.
To obtain the DNA of the cottontails in this study researchers collected the fecal pellets of 157 New england cottontails in southern Maine and seacoast New hampshire during the winters of 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.
and likely documented nearly all currently occupied New england cottontail patches in Maine and seacoast New hampshire.
They identified four major genetic clusters of New england cottontails in the region. A major power line connected some of these populations in the recent past--a finding
This research which was funded in part by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station is presented in the article A multistate analysis of gene flow for the New england cottontail an imperiled habitat specialist in a fragmented landscape in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
#Mammals metabolize some pesticides to limit their biomagnificationthe concentrations of many historically used and now widely banned pesticides and other toxic chemicals--called legacy contaminants--can become magnified in an animal that eats contaminated food.
However a new study has found that Arctic mammals metabolize some currently used pesticides preventing such'biomagnification.'
Researchers who studied the vegetation-caribou-wolf food chain in the Bathurst region of Canada say that currently use pesticides enter the food chain
and the people of the Arctic who survive by hunting caribou and other animals said first author Adam Morris
#Fecal transplants let packrats eat poisonwoodrats lost their ability to eat toxic creosote bushes after antibiotics killed their gut microbes.
Woodrats that never ate the plants were able to do so after receiving fecal transplants with microbes from creosote-eaters University of Utah biologists found.
The study of woodrats also known as packrats raises two concerns according to Kohl and the study's senior author Denise Dearing a professor and chair of biology:
The study of woodrats someday might impact farming practices in arid regions where toxic plants like creosote
Kohl says he'd like to transplant woodrat gut microbes into sheep or goats to find out if that increases their tolerance to toxic foods.
Most mammals are herbivores. Some face serious challenges: their bodies must handle up to hundreds of toxic chemicals from the plants they consume each day.
The study involved desert woodrats (Neotoma lepida)--grayish rodents native to western North american deserts. Woodrats somehow acquired novel toxin-degrading gut microbes to adapt to climate
and vegetation changes that began 17000 years ago. In a natural climatic event at the end of the last glacial period the Southwest dried out
Desert woodrats in the Mojave started eating creosote bushes while desert woodrats in the Great Basin kept eating toxic juniper to
How do woodrats get their tiny but valuable bacterial helpers today? Mammals acquire microbes during birth through contact with their mother's vaginal and fecal microbes Kohl says.
Other possible places to get microbes include leaf surfaces the soil or feces that woodrats collect from other animals.
Speeding Up Dietary Evolution with Fecal Transplantsin an earlier study the Utah researchers showed that the creosote-eating woodrats from the Sonoran
and Mojave deserts had higher proportions of gut microbes that might detoxify creosote while juniper-eating woodrats from the Great Basin had a different set of gut bacteria.
In the new study Dearing and colleagues performed three experiments using two kinds of woodrats â juniper eaters from the Great Basin desert
and creosote eaters from the Mojave desert. They were captured and kept in the lab on a diet of rabbit chow.
In the first experiment the scientists studied the relative abundances of gut-microbe genes in two groups of the creosote-eating Mojave woodrats.
One group was fed rabbit chow containing 1 percent of creosote resin for two days followed by rabbit chow with 2 percent of creosote resin for three days.
The control group was fed only rabbit chow. Gut microbes were removed from the foreguts of both woodrat groups.
DNA was isolated from the microbes to identify genes involved in detoxification. The scientists found that a woodrat's diet determines the composition of its gut microbes.
Mammals are adapted to the plant toxins they eat Kohl says. The guts of creosote-fed woodrats were teeming with microbes that may degrade creosote
while the guts of creosote-free woodrats had only one-fourth the levels of the same gut microbes.
In the second experiment the researchers experimentally removed gut microbes to highlight their dietary role in woodrats.
Antibiotics kill about 90 percent of the gut microbes in animals severely impairing their ability to consume toxic foods.
Two groups of woodrats were pretreated with the antibiotic neomycin in their drinking water. One group was placed on a diet of rabbit chow and creosote resin.
With their gut microbes killed by the antibiotic they were unable to feed on creosote and lost 10 percent of their body weight within 13 days.
The second group ate only rabbit chow and didn't lose weight showing that killing their gut microbes didn't harm them
because they weren't eating toxic creosote. In the third experiment the biologists essentially sped up evolution by using fecal transplants to quickly change populations of microbes living in the woodrats'guts.
They conducted fecal transplants and showed that acquiring new microbes indeed helped woodrats adopt new diets.
Woodrats naturally eat their own and other woodrats'feces. So in the experiment juniper-eating Great Basin woodrats were fed rabbit chow mixed with feces either from other juniper eaters or from creosote-eating Mojave woodrats.
Both woodrat groups then were challenged with a creosote diet. After ingesting feces --and thus gut microbes--from creosote eaters juniper eaters persisted for 11 days on the creosote diet without losing much weight.
Yet 65 percent of the juniper eaters that ate feces of other juniper eaters didn't gain microbes that detoxify creosote
so they lost 10 percent of their weight by day 11 on a creosote diet.
It's not that those woodrats rejected creosote-laced food. They ate as much as the woodrats that were fed feces with creosote-detoxifying microbes.
Instead Kohl and co-authors found that when woodrats didn't get transplants of creosote-detoxifying microbes their urine was more acidic suggesting their livers expended a lot of energy to degrade creosote toxins.
But in juniper eaters that consumed the feces of creosote eaters their newly acquired gut microbes likely detoxified most of the creosote taking the burden off of liver enzymes.
Story Source The above story is provided based on materials by University of Utah. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011