#Thieving chimps changing the way African farmers feed their familieslight-fingered chimpanzees are changing the way subsistence farmers make a living in Africa by causing them to grow different crops
Unsurprisingly nonhuman primates are quite fond of the food crops we grow! The chimps are basically imposing a'natural tax'on farmers growing crops near the nutrient-rich soils of the forest said Shane Mcguinness lead author on the research
and Phd student in Geography at Trinity who conducted the interview-based study with the help of the Great apes Trust and local conservation workers.
Although their numbers are small in this forest chimpanzees are protected an internationally species and have the potential to generate substantial amounts of tourism-driven revenue.
Sylvain Nyandwi of the Great apes Trust of Iowa (the organisation currently charged with conserving the forest) said that 19 chimps had been identified
but there were likely to be more elusive thieves out there that had yet to be accounted for.
Actions to reduce the impact of the chimps must be measured carefully to balance the conservation of the important habitat in
Work is now being finalized on a much larger project around the Volcanoes National park in northern Rwanda made famousby the film Gorillas in the Mist where Mcguinness is assessing the impacts of mountain gorilla buffalo and golden monkey on the conservation of this park and the development
The EPA attributes one-fifth of methane emissions to livestock such as cattle sheep and other ruminants.
However not all ruminants are equal when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. It turns out that the amount of methane produced varies substantially across individual animals of the same ruminant species. To find out why this is
so a team of researchers led by the US Department of energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) deployed high throughput DNA sequencing
and specialized analysis techniques to explore the contents of the rumens of sheep in collaboration with NZ's Agresearch Limited to see what role ruminant microbiomes (the microbes living in the rumen) play in this process.
To learn why the amount of methane that ruminants produce varies the researchers took advantage of a large sheep screening
and breeding program in NZ that aims to breed low methane-emitting ruminants without impacting other traits such as reproduction and wool and meat quality.
Rumen metagenome DNA samples collected on two occasions from the 10 sheep were sequenced at the DOE JGI generating 50 billion bases of data each.
and methanogen abundance across sheep were rather subtle the team reported that the expression levels of genes involved in methane production varied more substantially across sheep suggesting differential gene regulation perhaps controlled by hydrogen concentration in the rumen
and George Schaller of WCS and Panthera. The study reported that wild yak females are found on mountainous slopes averaging 15994 feet
#Tests confirm that beloved hawk succumbed to multiple rat poisonsa red-tailed hawk named Ruby captured the imagination of many Massachusetts residents who watched Ruby
When Ruby died suddenly in April from apparently ingesting rat poison it was a local tragedy as well as a national warning about the serious dangers these chemicals pose to wildlife.
While these poisons are meant to kill rodents they have unintended consequences of harming and killing animals that prey on rodents.
Sadly wildlife is overlooked often in the age-old battle of human versus rodent. Susan Moses a Cambridge resident who had watched Buzz
Rodents and other species need a much smaller amount of the poisons to suffer their effects.
While this factor doesn't necessarily make second-generation poisons more lethal for rodents than first generation products it has devastating consequences for wildlife.
In light of high numbers of children accidentally exposed to second-generation rat poisons as well as the risk to wildlife the EPA tightened the safety standards for consumer use of household rat
and mouse poisons in 2011. After a prolonged battle with the EPA the last manufacturer to comply with the safety standards agreed in May to stop producing its second-generation poisons for sale to residential consumers by the end of the year.
and a diverse range of birds reptiles amphibians and mammals with some only found in this region making it
and that there are currently 466 e-cigarette brands online offering more than 7700 flavors including candy flavors such as gummy bear
#Animal trapping records reveal strong wolf effect across North Americascientists have used coyote and red fox fur trapping records across North america to document how the presence of wolves influences the balance of smaller predators further down the food chain.
From Alaska and Yukon to Nova scotia and Maine the researchers have demonstrated that a wolf effect exists favoring red foxes where wolves are present
and coyotes where wolves are absent. This effect requires that enough wolves be present to suppress coyotes over a wide area.
Fur trapping records from Saskatchewan and Manitoba reveal that where wolves are absent in the southern agricultural regions of each province coyotes outnumber foxes on average by 3-to-1
. However where wolves are abundant in the north the balance swings dramatically in favor of foxes on average by 4-to-1 and at an extreme of 500-to-1 at one site.
In between is a 200-kilometer (124-mile) transition zone where too few wolves are present to tip the balance between coyotes and foxes.
The results of the study by Thomas Newsome and William Ripple in the Oregon State university Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society were published in the Journal of Animal Ecology by The british Ecological Society.
As wolves were extirpated across the southern half of North america coyotes dramatically expanded their range said Newsome a postdoctoral researcher at Oregon State.
They were located historically in the middle and western United states but they dispersed all the way to Alaska in the early 1900s and to New brunswick and Maine by the 1970s.
So essentially coyotes have been dispersing into wolf and red-fox range in the north but also into areas where wolves are absent
but red fox are present in the East Newsome added. Newsome came to the United states on a Fulbright scholarship from Australia where he earned a Ph d. from the University of Sydney and specialized in the study of dingoes--that continent's top predator.
There's a debate among Australians he said about the potential role of dingoes in suppressing introduced pests that have decimated already wildlife there.
Over the last 200 years Australia has had the highest extinction rate in the world Newsome said.
The debate is about whether the dingo can provide positive ecological benefits. Where dingoes have been removed the impacts of introduced red foxes
and feral cats have been quite severe on native fauna. Dingoes are managed as a pest in New south wales the country's most populous state.
To reduce dingo predation in the livestock industry Australia also maintains the world's longest fence which runs for 5500 kilometers (3400 miles) in an attempt to exclude dingoes from almost a quarter of the continent.
In North america the effect of wolves on coyotes and red foxes provides a natural case study that can be instructive for Australians.
Australians can learn a lot from how wolves are managed in North america and Americans can learn from the ecological role of the dingo Newsome said.
As coyotes have expanded in North america they have become a major cause of concern for the livestock industry.
In the United states in 2004 researchers estimated annual losses due to coyote predation on sheep and cattle at $40 million.
To reduce those damages the Wildlife Service of the U s. Department of agriculture has a program to reduce coyote numbers an effort that has drawn criticism from conservation groups.
In reviewing the fur trapping data from two U s . and six Canadian jurisdictions Newsome and Ripple eliminated potential sources of bias such as records from fur farms that raise foxes.
The fur prices of coyotes and red foxes are correlated also strongly and the two species occupy much of the same types of habitat
so they are equally likely to be targeted and caught in hunters'traps. This study gives us a whole other avenue to understand the ecological effects of wolves on landscapes
and animal communities said Ripple. He has studied the influence of carnivores on their prey--such as deer and elk--and on vegetation from aspen trees to willows.
He and his colleagues have shown that the removal of top predators can cause dramatic shifts within ecosystems.
Wolves are naturally recolonizing many areas of the United states following their reintroduction into Yellowstone national park and surrounding areas in 1995.
Scientists are studying wolf interactions with other species and in particular there is interest in determining whether recolonizing wolves will suppress coyote populations
and have cascading effects on red foxes and other species. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Oregon State university.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Whats the role robotics could play in future food production? A team of computer scientists from the University of Lincoln UK is co-organising an international workshop on recent advances in agricultural robotics.
Academics from the Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems (L-CAS) will be attending the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-13) from 15th to 19th july 2014.
Recent results confirm that robots machines and systems are rapidly achieving intelligence and autonomy mastering more and more capabilities such as mobility and manipulation sensing and perception reasoning and decision making.
The Series of International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS) founded in 1986 is one of the major events summarizing this trend.
As part of this year's conference Lincoln scientists will be running a workshop with the aim of bringing together both academic
of which were endangered species. A short-eared elephant shrew was born May 8 at the Zoo's Small Mammal House.
The short-eared elephant shrew is the smallest of the 17 living species of elephant shrew weighing between less than one-third of an ounce and 1. 5 ounces at birth.
Although the tiny shrew has been active since birth it stayed hidden for the first few days of its life
Keepers are now getting more glimpses of the shrew as it comes out of its den to explore.
These insect-eating mammals'name comes from their noses'resemblance to the trunk of an elephant.
A fishing cat recently named Hunter was born April 15 on Asia Trail. Inhabiting India and Southeast asia fishing cat populations are declining
and the species is considered endangered because of habitat loss and hunting for food and fur. The first pair of twin fishing cats was born at the National Zoo in May 2012.
Only one other facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has bred successfully fishing cats since 2009.
A leaf-tailed gecko hatched June 2. The leaf-tailed gecko is a large nocturnal gecko from Madagascar threatened with extensive habitat loss from cattle grazing logging agriculture and collection for the pet trade.
Black-footed ferret kit season is in full swing at SCBI. Twenty-four ferrets have been born so far and 10 more ferret mothers may give birth in the next few weeks (two were inseminated artificially.
Black-footed ferrets were thought extinct until 1980 when a colony of ferrets was discovered in Wyoming. Today all black-footed ferrets are descended from 18 ferrets in that colony.
More than 640 black-footed ferrets have been born at SCBI Front Royal to date many of which have gone on to be reintroduced in the American West.
Extinct in the wild a rare scimitar-horned oryx was born May 15. It was the 164th scimitar-horned oryx calf to be born at SCBI.
Scimitar-horned oryx once lived in the arid plains and deserts of northern African countries of Egypt Senegal and Chad.
Reintroduction efforts have begun in Tunisia. A red panda gave birth to two surviving cubs May 27 at SCBI.
This species is vulnerable because of habitat loss. Red pandas live in the cool temperate bamboo forests in parts of China Nepal and northern Myanmar.
There are fewer than 10000 adult red pandas left in the wild. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Smithsonian Institution.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#How food marketing creates false sense of healthhealth-related buzzwords such as antioxidant gluten-free and whole grain lull consumers into thinking packaged food products labeled with those words are healthier than they actually are according to a new research study conducted by scholars at the University
Annie's Bunny Fruit Snacks (Organic) Apple sauce (Organic) Chef Boyardee Beefaroni (Whole Grain) Chef Boyardee Lasagna (Whole Grain) Chocolate Cheerios (Heart
Researchers from Universiti Teknologi MARA have invented successfully a PCR kit which provides a suitable and feasible means of screening detection and identification with high sensitivity and specificity of the parasite.
Humans and some primates are defective hosts for Sarcosystis hominis and S. suihominis after ingesting raw meat from cattle and pigs respectively.
The above story is provided based on materials by Universiti Teknologi MARA (Uitm. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
Goats eat it deer eat it and birds eat the seeds all to no ill effects.
#More than just food for koalas: Scientists sequence genome of eucalyptus--a global tree for fuel
When crops are pollinated adequately on the other hand the plants bear more fruit and their nutrient content changes.
In this study the team was able to piece together the biological process that leads to the production of new bone by studying the offspring of mice lacking the Gastric Intrinsic factor gene
The researchers found that bone mass was reduced severely at eight weeks of age in the offspring of mice with Vitamin b12 deficiency.
The team was surprised to find that B12-deficient mice had only one-third of the normal number of bone-creating osteoblast cells
When these mice were fed regular doses of taurine at three weeks of age they recovered bone mass
While the focus of this study was the impact of maternal Vitamin b12 deficiency on offspring in mouse models there are promising parallels between these findings and data from human patients.
The discovery of this unanticipated pathway between gut liver and bone would not have been possible without the use of mouse molecular genetics
and appears to play the same role in mice and human beings raises the prospect that targeting this pathway through pharmacological means could be a novel approach toward an anabolic treatment of osteoporosis. Story Source:
It also reveals genes that underpin the evolution of the rumen--a specialised chamber of the stomach that breaks down plant material to make it ready for digestion.
It's like a boxer getting hit by a flurry of punches says lead author William Laurance of James Cook University in Cairns Australia.
because they are more anatomically similar to humans than other animals such as mice and rats Prather said.
Physically pigs are much closer to the size and scale of humans than other animals and they respond to health threats similarly.
#Tree hugging helps koalas keep their coolaustralia's koalas cope with extreme heat by resting against cooler tree trunks new research has revealed.
Thermal imaging uncovered the koalas'cool plan confirming that they choose to hug trees that can be more than 5â°C cooler than the air during hot weather.
Researchers observed the behavior of 30 koalas during hot weather at French Island Victoria. Co-author Andrew Krockenberger from James Cook University in Cairns in far northeast Australia says heat wave events can hit koala populations hard.
We know that about a quarter of the koalas in one population in New south wales died during a heat wave in 2009 Professor Krockenberger said.
Understanding the types of factors that can make some populations more resilient is important. Koalas also pant
and lick their fur to cool down but that can lead to dehydration. Access to these trees can save about half the water a koala would need to keep cool on a hot day lead researcher Dr Natalie Briscoe from the University of Melbourne said.
Access to cool tree trunks would significantly reduce the amount of heat stress for koalas. Co-author Dr Michael Kearney said the findings were important as climate change is bringing about more extreme weather.
Researchers used a portable weather station on a long pole to measure what the koalas were experiencing in the places they chose to sit compared to other places available to them.
When we took the heat imagery it dramatically confirmed our idea that'tree hugging'was an important cooling behavior in extreme heat Dr Michael Kearney said.
Cool tree trunks are likely to be an important microhabitat during hot weather for other tree dwelling species including primates leopards birds and invertebrates.
Professor Krockenberger's research includes some of Australia's warmest koalas--the population on Magnetic Island in the country's tropical northeast.
These findings underscore the importance of trees to koalas especially in the context of climate extremes he said.
They're not a koala food tree but clearly they can be important when it comes to coping with the heat.
The USDA organic seal verifies that irradiation sewage sludge and genetically modified organisms were used not.
#Skin grafts from genetically modified pigs may offer alternative for burn treatmenta specially-bred strain of miniature swine lacking the molecule responsible for the rapid rejection of pig-to-primate organ transplants may provide a new source of skin grafts
A team of investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that skin grafts from pigs lacking the Gal sugar molecule were as effective in covering burn-like injuries on the backs of baboons as skin taken from other
baboons a finding that could double the length of time burns can be protected while healing.
Since pig organs implanted into primates are rejected rapidly due to the presence of the Gal (alpha-13-galactose) molecule Sachs
When Cetrulo's team used skin from these Gal-free pigs to provide grafts covering burn-like injuries on the backs of baboons--injuries made
and identical to that observed when the team used skin grafts from other baboons. As with the use of second deceased-donor grafts to treat burned patients a second pig-to-baboon graft was rejected rapidly.
But if a pit-to baboon was followed by a graft using baboon skin the second graft adhered to the wound
and remained in place for around 12 days before rejection. The researchers also showed that acceptance of a second graft was similar no matter
whether a pig xenograft or a baboon skin graft was used first. These results raise the possibility
A stamped seal on treated pallets and crates marks compliance. Treatment costs about $1. 50 per pallet amounting to an estimated $437 million in up-front costs (calculated in 2004 dollars.
Protective milk as the basis for a vaccineresearchers found particularly high concentrations of Iga in the very first milk known as colostrum a highly nutritious milk all mammals ingest during the first days of life.
#Top ten new species for 2014an appealing carnivorous mammal a 12-meter-tall tree that has been hiding in plain sight
The majority of people are unaware of the dimensions of the biodiversity crisis said Dr. Quentin Wheeler founding director of the IISE and ESF president.
which species have adapted for survival Wheeler said. One of the most inspiring facts about the top 10 species of 2014 is that not all of the'big'species are known already
the shrimp Liropus minusculus with its phantasmagoric appearance and the gecko which bears a disturbing likeness to some imaginary monster.
Ecuador The appealing olinguito resembling a cross between a slinky cat and a wide-eyed teddy bear lives secretively in cloud forests of the Andes mountains in Colombia and Ecuador.
It is an arboreal carnivore that belongs to the Family procyonidae which includes the familiar raccoon.
The olinguito is smaller though typically topping out at about two kilograms (approximately 4. 5 pounds.
It is the first new carnivorous mammal described in the Western hemisphere in 35 years. Its apparent dependence on cloud forest habitat means deforestation is a threat.
Wheeler offered three reasons why an inventory of Earth's species is critical: â#¢Without a baseline of what exists humans will not know
Wheeler hopes the Top 10 draws attention to the urgent need and real possibility of completing an inventory of all of Earth's species. Advances in technology
#Ape ancestors teeth provide glimpse into their diets and environments: Helped apes move to Eurasia,
may have led to extinctionnewly analyzed tooth samples from the great apes of the Miocene indicate that the same dietary specialization that allowed the apes to move from Africa to Eurasia may have led to their extinction according to results published May 21 2014 in the open access journal
PLOS ONE by Daniel Demiguel from the Institut Catalã¡de Palontologia Miquel Crusafont (Spain) and colleagues.
Apes expanded into Eurasia from Africa during the Miocene (14 to 7 million years ago)
To better understand the apes'diet during their evolution and expansion into new habitat scientists analyzed newly-discovered wearing in the teeth of 15 upper
and lower molars belonging to apes from five extinct taxa found in Spain from the mid-to late-Miocene (which overall comprise a time span between 12. 3â#2. 2 and 9. 7 Ma).
They combined these analyses with previously collected data for other Western Eurasian apes categorizing the wear on the teeth into one of three ape diets:
and Turkey suggested that the great ape's diet evolved from hard-shelled fruits and seeds to leaves but these findings only contained samples from the early-Middle and Late Miocene while lack data from the epoch of highest diversity
and seeds at the beginning of the movement of great apes to Eurasia soft and mixed fruit-eating coexisted with hard-object feeding in the Late Miocene
Cook-Mills had done previous allergy research in mice showing alpha-tocopherol decreased lung inflammation protecting healthy lung function and gamma-tocopherol increased lung
Small and fast-growing Arabidopsis thaliana is used widely as the lab mouse of plant biology. The plant grows in Europe from Spain to Scandinavia
Ecological history--on both land and water--is no longer the province of the lone wolf no matter how talented and dedicated Williams says.
and grass-grazing baboons digest different diets researchers have shown that ancestral human diets so called paleo diets did not necessarily result in better appetite suppression.
and from three gelada baboons the only modern primate to eat mainly grasses. Getting to the bottom of how our gut bacteria
Even the baboon cultures fed potato produced more SCFAS than the baboon cultures fed grass.
When the researchers applied some of these cultures to mouse colon cells in the lab dish the cells were stimulated to release PYY hormone.
Those exposed to human cultures digesting a potato diet released the most PYY followed by those exposed to baboon cultures on a potato diet.
Rather the researchers propose little to no appetite suppression might help baboons maintain grazing all day to consume enough nutrients.
The study supported by The british Heart Foundation used mice to investigate the process by which these nitro fatty acids lower blood pressure looking at
Mice genetically engineered to be resistant to this inhibitory process were found to maintain their high blood pressure
However nitro fatty acids were found to lower the blood pressure of normal mice following the same diets.
#Panda restoration efforts look at digestive systemsmississippi State university researchers were part of the team that learned that giant
and red pandas have different digestive microbes a finding with important implications for conservation efforts and captive animal rearing.
Gastrointestinal diseases are the major cause of mortality in wild and captive pandas but little is known about their digestive process.
The giant panda is endangered an species while the red panda is considered a vulnerable species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Both eat mostly fibrous bamboo. Candace Williams an MSU doctoral student in biochemistry conducted the research in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison the Memphis Zoo
Although they are different species the giant panda and red panda share several characteristics Williams said. Under the direction of biochemist Ashli Brown Johnson MSU scientists set out to determine
if there were similarities in the microbes that digest this plant-based diet. To investigate the microbes Williams collected fecal samples from two giant pandas and one red panda at the Memphis Zoo.
The team also obtained samples from a red panda at the National Zoo. Williams used advanced genetic sequencing techniques to determine what gastrointestinal bacteria were present.
The procedure revealed all microbes in the fecal matter including some that were known not Johnson said.
Our results revealed significant differences between the microbes found in the two panda species Johnson said.
While they have some similar microbes in their digestive tracts each panda species has a different dominant microbe present.
Understanding the gastrointestinal bacteria in pandas will help guide reforestation efforts throughout China's mountainous region.
The Chinese government has established 50 panda reserves within the animals'home range. Additionally China has banned logging to preserve the habitat of the declining species. With gastrointestinal disease causing the greatest natural mortality of red
and giant pandas a greater understanding of the digestive microbes will assist in maintaining captive panda populations housed at zoos Williams said.
and identify the wild panda population. Future research will examine the nutritional composition of bamboo to determine
whether the pandas are consuming different varieties of the fibrous plant. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Mississippi State university Office of Agricultural Communications.
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