and hyenas were unable to break them open to access their nutrient-rich brains. Tool-wielding hominins at KJS on the other hand could access this tissue
Some studies have shown that trained dogs can detect cancerous tumours such as lung cancer by smelling a person's breath.
and affects habitat use by mammals including increased prevalence of coyotes and other carnivores. Amphibians are facing an extinction crisis worldwide with 165 species likely having gone extinct in recent years according to the Amphibian Ark a coalition of conservationists devoted to seeking solutions to the decline.
and attracts some carnivore species. We now know that there are significantly more coyotes raccoons and opossums in buckthorn invaded areas and significantly fewer white-tailed deer.
because buckthorn is an undesirable food source and also due to the increased prevalence of coyotes.
Research shows that deer fawns are a relatively common food item for Chicago-area coyotes.
Wolf Frommer of the Carnegie Institution of Science; Mary Lou Guerinot of Dartmouth College; Maria Harrison of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Ithaca NY;
Dogs and cats require specific nutrients not ingredients. It is possible to meet nutritional requirements using a wide variety of nutrient sources.
A controversial study published in 2009 equated the cost of keeping a mid-sized dog eating a normal diet with the environmental cost of driving an SUV 12500 miles a year.
and a dog tracking team working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have captured 37 lions to date.
#Parents tend to share more bacteria with family dogs than childrenas much as dog owners love their children they tend to share more of themselves at least in terms of bacteria with their canine cohorts rather than their kids.
That is just one finding of a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder that looked at the types
and transfer modes of microbes from the guts tongues foreheads and palms (or paws) of members of 60 American families including canines.
Knight and his team sampled 159 people and 36 dogs. Seventeen of the 60 families had children at home ranging in age from 6 months to 18 years 17 families had one
or more dogs and no children eight families had both children and dogs and 18 families had neither children nor dogs.
Each family consisted of at least one couple between the ages of 26 and 87 and all of the children in the study were biologically related to the couples in the study.
The team swabbed various parts of the body to obtain microbial samples on the couples children and dogs.
and fecal samples to detect individual microbial communities Dogs were sampled similarly except that fur was sampled instead of skin on the forehead
In fact the microbial connection seems to be stronger between parents and family dogs than between parents and their children.
If you want to share more of your skin bacteria with your spouse get a dog.
Dogs were key to the new study said Knight of CU-Boulder's chemistry and biochemistry department since results from previous studies suggested there were components of co-habitation involved in microbe sharing.
Knight also is involved in the American Gut project a crowdfunded effort that allows members of the public to learn more about their own individual microbes as well as microbes being carried by their dogs.
which led to it becoming easy prey for hunters particularly with the arrival of European colonists in the area who would hunt Huemul for meat to feed their dogs.
and increased extinction risk as with another Chilean mammal that Briceã o is researching called Darwin's Fox--named for the scientific genius that first discovered it--with barely 500 now left in the world.
Another group got bland old rat chow. Scientists then used high-tech magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices to peer into the rats'brains seeking differences in activity between the rats-on-chips and the rats-on-chow.
With recent studies showing that two-thirds of Americans are obese or overweight this kind of recreational overeating continues to be a major problem health care officials say.
In the study rats were offered one out of three test foods in addition to their standard chow pellets:
powdered standard animal chow a mixture of fat and carbs or potato chips. They ate similar amounts of the chow as well as the chips
and the mixture but the rats more actively pursued the potato chips which can be explained only partly by the high energy content of this snack he said.
Although carbohydrates and fats also were a source of high energy the rats pursued the chips most actively and the standard chow least actively.
By contrast significant differences in the brain activity comparing the standard chow and the fat carbohydrate group only appeared to a minor degree
and matched only partly with the significant differences in the brain activities of the standard chow and potato chips group he added.
either crystalline or amorphous but these categories were probably more reflec tive of the limitations of imaging methods than the underlying structural organization of the cellulose says Jerome Fox lead author of the Nature Chemical Biology paper
and Fox other co-authors of the paper A single-molecule analysis reveals morphological targets for cellulase synergy were Phillip Jess Rakesh Jambusaria and Genny Moo.
#How does the price of cheese influence perceptions of wolves? Relationships between humans and wolves are linked often to conflicts with livestock breeding activities.
Contrary to a widespread belief among western environmentalists these conflicts don't only occur only in western countries
Indeed in many countries livestock breeding activities have been dealing with wolves for centuries and rural societies have developed paths to coexistence through protection of livestock and control of wolf populations.
However the world is changing and rural societies are facing changes that can affect the way they relate to large carnivores like wolves.
It is particularly obvious in countries which went through dramatic and rapid transition processes after the fall of USSR and Yugoslavia.
Researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research conducted ethnological investigations based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews on human-wolf relationships in Kyrgyzstan (2003-2007
Wolf hunting was affected also in Kyrgyzstan as economic and logistical means supporting intensive wolf hunting were no longer available after the collapse of the USSR. The studies revealed that these changes in hunting
and husbandry practices have led to modifications of the human--wolf interactions as well as of the social and environmental contexts of human--wolf relationships.
In Kyrgyzstan wolves used to be seen as an intelligent alter ego of humans and were regarded as respectable enemies that had to be controlled
In this context wolves are perceived not as the main threat to their future but as an additional threat
and Yugoslavia have resulted in an increased vulnerability of local people to wolf damage and a concomitant reduced acceptance for wolves.
All these changes contribute to changes in the perception of the wolf and to an increase in the perception of conflicts even in countries where humans and wolves have coexisted continuously.
The results show that the human-wolf relationship is dynamic as well as highlighting the necessity of understanding the broader socio-economical context within which human-wildlife conflicts are embedded
and the challenge pastoralists are facing in a changing world. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.
We still do not know why a dog says'bow-wow 'and a cat says'meow'Yoshimura says.
which covers most of Arizona western New mexico and northern parts of the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua.
Pankaj Jaiswal Assistant professor of Botany and Plant pathology at Oregon State university Samuel Fox a Postdoctoral Associate in Jaiswal's laboratory and colleagues assembled transcriptomes of a noxious weed Brachypodium sylvaticum
Fox and colleagues have assembled the transcriptomes for two slender false brome populations from its native range (Greece Spain) and one population from its invasive range (Oregon.
Fox and Cruzan note The seed and genomic resources are publicly available so it would be relatively easy for any research group to establish a research program focused on slender false brome.
and include sniffer dogs to detect ivory and working with judiciaries and other agencies to increase the number of cases taken to court and rates of successful prosecutions.
Among 62 coprolites analyzed of all types--34 human 16 domesticated dog and others from various animals--43 (or 69 percent) contained maize starch grains phytoliths
or pant like dogs to cool down. These results could have important implications for Asian elephant populations both in western zoos where they may experience unfamiliar climate added Hannah
Dogs caring for orphaned kittens chimps sharing food or dolphins nudging injured mates to the surface.
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.
#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
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.
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.
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
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
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
and 82 dog breeds and already found some interesting results. For example boxer and basenji breeds of dogs trace a large portion of their DNA (nine percent
and 25 percent respectively) back to wolves after domestication meaning that these breeds interbred with wolves again after humans had begun to domesticate dogs.
What I like about this is that it's starting to give us some resolution on relationships that are just much more complicated than you can capture using the standard tree approach Pritchard said.
Beavers are preferred a prey for wolves. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by South dakota State university.
The study focused on commercial pet foods marketed for dogs and cats to identify meat species present as well as any instances of mislabeling.
Pet food safety was another area of concern particularly with pet foods that are formulated specifically to address food allergies in both cats and dogs continued Dr. Hellberg.
Because they grow underground people use trained dogs or pigs to find them. But the distinctive smell of truffles is not only of interest to gourmets.
Dogs and pigs are able to find truffles underground thanks to the slightly sulphuric smell.
Think of a wolf or coyote. Larger predators hunting by scent--and the prey trying to detect their predators--may be affected by less wind moving scents around.
#Cat bites dog: In Indias human dominated landscapes, top prey for leopards is dogsa new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society reveals that in India's human dominated agricultural landscapes where leopards prowl at night
Domestic goats for example are seven times more common than dogs in this landscape yet only make up 11 percent of leopard's prey.
while dogs are allowed largely to wander freely. Cows sheep and pigs were eaten also but collectively made up less than 20 percent of leopard's food.
Thus human-leopard conflict is more likely to be related to people's fears of leopards foraging in the proximity of their houses and the sentimental value of dogs as pets.
During the past two-to-three decades legal regulation of leopard hunting increased conservation awareness and the rising numbers of feral dogs as prey have led all to an increase in leopard numbers outside
while other species may prefer birds dogs sheep etc. However Pitts argues that these insects are opportunists rather than true specialists.
and domestic animals (dogs and pigs) rest below found that only 20 percent of the A. gambiae females contained human blood while the rest contained animal blood.
Domestication of animals started as early as 9000 to 15000 years ago and initially involved dogs cattle sheep goats and pigs.
because they are hunted by eagles hawks foxes and humans and therefore must be very alert
#Sheepdogs use simple rules to herd sheepsheepdogs use just two simple rules to round up large herds of sheep scientists have discovered.
For the first time scientists used GPS technology to understand how sheepdogs do their jobs so well. Until now they had no idea how the dogs manage to get so many unwilling sheep to move in the same direction.
NERC fellow Dr Andrew King of Swansea University fitted a flock of sheep and a sheepdog with backpacks containing extremely accurate GPS devices designed by colleagues at the Royal Veterinary College London.
Daniel Strã mbom of Uppsala University and colleagues then used data from these devices together with computer simulations to develop a mathematical shepherding model.
The team found that sheepdogs likely use just two simple rulesl: to collect the sheep
'If you watch sheepdogs rounding up sheep the dog weaves back and forth behind the flock in exactly the way that we see in the model'says King.'
'We had to think about what the dog could see to develop our model. It basically sees white fluffy things in front of it.
If the dog sees gaps between the sheep or the gaps are getting bigger the dog needs to bring them together'he explains.'
'At every time step in the model the dog decides if the herd is cohesive enough or not.
If not cohesive it will make it cohesive but if it's already cohesive the dog will push the herd towards the target'says Strã mbom.'
'Other models don't appear to be able to herd really big groups--as soon as the number of individuals gets above 50 you start needing multiple shepherds
or sheepdogs'he says.''There are numerous applications for this knowledge such as crowd control cleaning up the environment herding of livestock keeping animals away from sensitive areas
#Pig pheromone proves useful in curtailing bad behavior in dogsa professor at Texas Tech discovers Androstenone can stop dogs from barking jumping.
He simply wanted to keep his Cairn terrier from barking incessantly. Then again Mcglone is not like most dog owners in that he is a professor at Texas Tech University who just happens to specialize in animal welfare and behavior.
And in that capacity he just happened to have a product on hand at his house from a previous research study called Boar Mate an odorous concoction which helps farmers with swine breeding.
So he gave one little spritz to his dog Toto and immediately the dog stopped barking.
Right on the spot.''It was said completely serendipitous Mcglone who works in the Animal and Food Sciences department of the College of Agriculture and Natural sciences.
One of the most difficult problems is that dogs bark a lot and it's one of the top reasons they are given back to shelters or pounds.
It has been met with tremendous success by pet owners who were on their last legs in trying to curtail bad behavior in dogs.
My dogs were focused instantly and silenced with one spritz said one product reviewer on Amazon com.
and also affects dogs through their olfactory system. Androstenone is produced by pigs in their saliva
Mcglone contacted a canine research site he had worked with on previous experiments knowing this site had a wide array of adult dogs both mixed and pure breeds.
He also knew that about half of the 100 dogs there barked constantly and would be perfect for testing.
It doesn't mean it's going to work on a lot of dogs just because it worked on one dog Mcglone said.
It might have been the noise of the spray that stopped them and not the chemical. Mcglone asked Sergeant's to make several spray cans that had the androstenone in different concentrations
Mcglone had four different groups of barking dogs in separate kennels. The first group of dogs simply had a person with another dog stand in front of the kennels.
The second group of dogs was sprayed with a placebo that made the startling spritz noise.
The third group of dogs was sprayed with the noise and a lower concentration(.01â g/ml) of androstenone in isopropyl alcohol.
The fourth group was sprayed with a higher concentration (1. 0 Â g/ml) of androstenone in isopropyl alcohol that also made the spritz sound.
In the first group 25 percent (3 out of 12 dogs) stopped barking. In the second group 44 percent (4 of 9 dogs) stopped barking.
In the third group sprayed with the lower concentration of the pheromone 78 percent (7 of 9 dogs) stopped barking.
In the fourth group sprayed with the higher concentration of androstenone 100 percent (6 of 6 dogs) stopped barking.
We sprayed it in their nose or toward their head while they were barking â#barking
'Mcglone and his group also tested the dogs to see if there were any physiological effects from the spray on the dogs observing them for 10 minutes before
and after being sprayed after outfitting the dogs with telemetry jackets and transmitters to monitor heart rate.
The androstenone had no effect on the dogs'heart rates either before or after being sprayed. Having shown its effectiveness Mcglone was able to classify androstenone not only as a pheromone
but also as an intermone a term developed by him and his team that refers to a product that is a pheromone in one species
and hit the stores as Stop That for both dogs and cats available at Petsmart or through Amazon com.
But Mcglone warns it's not an end-all beat-all to stopping dogs from barking as the effects last just about a minute.
If you continue to spray the dog again it will stop Mcglone said. If you (show the can) they will stop.
either as he is testing those from dogs cats pigs and horses. For now though there are quite a few pet owners relieved to be able to stop their pets'bad behavior
They examined the vegetation-caribou-wolf food chain in the area where the presence of other organic contaminants such as legacy pesticides
Wolves like people are a top consumer of caribou. It is an important responsibility both for health
The concentrations were even lower in wolves suggesting sufficient metabolism of CUPS in both animals to prevent significant biomagnification.
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.
while some untagged calves were killed by coyotes and vultures. The ranches'physical geography including open spaces and the proximity of wooded areas in
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
Coyote and bear attacks were much more damaging with the calf's body badly bruised
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 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.
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
The second group ate only rabbit chow and didn't lose weight showing that killing their gut microbes didn't harm them
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.
protein DHA for puppies/kittens and no fillers artificial ingredients or byproducts (Packaged Facts 2014). 6. In 2013 more households had dogs than children with 39 percent of households having a dog
and 32 percent of households having children (Packaged Facts 2014). 7. The Paleo Diet has created a new sector of ancestral foods reflective of earlier diets of canines
and grains in pet food. 8. 53 percent of dogs and 58 percent of cats are overweight causing the need for functional and therapeutic pet food (APOP 2013). 9. 51 percent
of dog owners and 44 percent of cat owners believe that made in the U s. is a very important package claim as fear of contamination
Ravens and possibly arctic foxes scavenged exposed portions of her carcass including parts of the trunk and skull and the fat hump that likely covered the back of her neck.
Only five plants have been collected from two sites in Mexico's western Chihuahua state. Its status is data deficient
The first species is weed a widespread from northern Chihuahua and west Texas to central Arizona and New mexico.
Other co-authors include David Bell from the University of Wyoming Dewayne Fox from Delaware State university
#Some dogs and cats prone to sunburn: How to protect your animal from skin damageexcessive sunbathing damages the skin.
Dogs and cats with white or thin coats are at particular risk as are animals with very closely shorn fur
For dogs and cats this applies in particular to those parts of the skin that are exposed regularly to the sun. These include the ears the bridge of the nose the skin around the eyes
The Dogo Argentino breed white bulldogs Dalmatians boxers whippets beagles and white or multicoloured cats with white patches have skin that is very sensitive to light especially on their heads.
Hairless dogs and cats are naturally more sensitive to the sun since they lack the natural sun protection fur affords.
â#oenot every white dog or white cat needs sunscreen or clothing to protect it from the sun
The researchers specifically observed the foraging activity of elephants impalas small-dog-sized antelopes known as dik-diks and rodents.
#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.
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