The findings are relatively good news for the cat-sized relative of the weasel family.
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
#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.
#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
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.
#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 cats to identify meat species present as well as any instances of mislabeling. Of the 52 products tested 31 were labeled correctly 20 were mislabeled potentially
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.
Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns may get the lion's share of our climate change attention
if the train restricts escape from predators such as tigers and leopards in their natural environment Dr Askew said.
He filmed the take-offs of birds carrying full plumage in 3d and then filmed the same birds taking off without their trains.
#Tigers, pandas and people: Recipe for conservation insightthe first big revelation in conservation sciences was that studying the people on the scene as well as nature conservation was crucial.
Or more accurately tigers and pandas. In the journal Ecology & Society Michigan State university scientists show that useful insights
which shelters 125 wild endangered tigers. People and wildlife are coupled tightly human and natural systems said Jianguo Jack Liu Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability at MSU.
Over many years interdisciplinary studies on pandas tigers and the people who live amongst them are revealing some universal truths about conservation around the globe.
The lead author is Neil Carter who did his doctoral work at MSU's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) studying tigers in Nepal.
and Team Tiger essentially comparing notes on the academic frontier. They show that it isn't always necessary to reinvent a methodology that works.
Tigers can venture out to attack livestock and also can pose a threat to the people who walk through the woods.
On the surface pandas and tigers seem to have different impacts. Pandas eat bamboo. Tigers sometimes eat livestockâ#and even people though rarely.
Both of these animals bring advantages too which range from the tangible such as attracting tourists to more esoteric benefits such as spirituality and national pride.
#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
it's not livestock that's primarily on the menu--it is man's best friend.
The study which looked at scat samples for leopards in India's Ahmednagar's district in Maharashtra found that 87 percent of their diet was made up of domestic animals.
Seventeen percent of the leopard's diet consisted of assorted wild animals including rodents monkeys and mongoose and birds.
Livestock despite being made more abundant up a relatively small portion of the leopard's diet.
Domestic goats for example are seven times more common than dogs in this landscape yet only make up 11 percent of leopard's prey.
but collectively made up less than 20 percent of leopard's food. Most domestic cattle in this region are too large to be preyed on by leopards.
The author's of the study say that the selection of domestic dogs as prey means that the economic impact of predation by leopards on valuable livestock is expected lower than.
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.
Study co-author Ullas Karanth WCS Director for Science-Asia said: 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
of nature reserves in agricultural landscapes. While this is good news for conservation and a tribute to the social tolerance of Indian people it also poses major challenges of managing conflict that occasionally breaks out.
The authors also describe the global game of cat -and-mouse as crops are introduced to pest free regions
#Cheetah menu: Wildlife instead of cattlescientists from the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) can give the all-clear:
in a recent study they showed that cheetahs primarily prefer wildlife on their menu. The cheetah is a vulnerable species that only exists on Namibia's commercial farmland in large populations.
Here local farmers see cheetahs as a potential threat for their cattle. The conflict is an old one:
wherever there are carnivorous wild animals farmers are concerned about their livestock. In Namibia the concern refers to the possible threat from cheetahs on cattle.
When farmers in Namibia are missing a bovine calf cheetahs are regularly under suspicion--nowhere else in the world are there as many animals of this vulnerable species as on commercial farmland in Namibia.
But the suspicion can rarely be confirmed without demur. In their recent study scientists of the IZW investigated
whether cattle is on top of the cheetahs'menu. For this purpose they used an indirect method with
One cannot therefore conclude which food items cheetahs devour in the long run explains Christian Voigt from the IZW.
Instead the scientists used samples of cheetah hair to determine the stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen.
The study shows that herbivores of the C4 food chain to which cattle belong are nearly irrelevant to the cheetah's diet.
The farmers passed on their experience in dealing with these big cats as cheetahs cannot be lured simply with bait like many other carnivores she adds.
This is owed to the fact that cheetahs only eat prey they brought down themselves. Thus aided by the farmers the scientists installed box traps at marking trees
Once a cheetah is captured it is sedated and thoroughly examined: body length and weight are determined samples of blood
and then the scientists release the cheetah equipped with a tracking collar. We conclude that the farmer's problems are smaller than they had assumed before this study Voigt sums up.
This study published in the scientific online journal PLOS ONE will contribute to the protection of cheetahs--but not in adversity to the interest of the farmers.
therefore an important mile stone to resolve the conflict between farmers and cheetahs. Story Source:
and hit the stores as Stop That for both dogs and cats available at Petsmart or through Amazon com.
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
Carnivores notably cats are indifferent to sweet tastes. The gene for tasting sweetness is present in their genomes
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.
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
#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
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.
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
A lot of other species rely on these thicket habitats including bobcats birds and reptiles. Many thicket-dependent species are on decline
and felines that are focused on the high quality of proteins 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
and product safety is a large concern among pet owners (Packaged Facts 2014. Read the article in Food technology:
As early as 1968 the Malaysian federal government recommended establishing a wildlife reserve in Belum-Temengor to protect its populations of Asian elephants Malaysian tigers Sumatran rhinoceroses and other large mammals against poaching and logging.
#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
or even actual skin tumours. â#oewe sometimes see squamous cell carcinoma on the heads of white outdoor cats as the result of chronic sun exposure.
and George Schaller of WCS and Panthera. The study reported that wild yak females are found on mountainous slopes averaging 15994 feet
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.
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.
Cool tree trunks are likely to be an important microhabitat during hot weather for other tree dwelling species including primates leopards birds and invertebrates.
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.
#Over 100 new species discovered by team in drive to document biodiversitya 5-million-year-old saber-toothed cat the world's oldest grape
Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology collections manager Richard Hulbert described the 5-million-year-old fossils of Rhizosmilidon a carnivorous saber-toothed cat from the same lineage as the famous
Animals such as white-tailed deer the Florida panther and migratory birds that depend on native vegetation such as mangrove for food
donkeys and cats. Olsen studies rice and cassava and is interested currently in rice mimics weeds that look enough like rice that they fly under the radar even
We used to think cats and dogs were real outliers in the animal domestication process
But new research is showing that other domesticated animals may be more like cats and dogs than we thought.
People say the greatest animal in Africa is the lion or the elephant but honeybees are more essential
Fortunately Perumal was able to obtain the human breast tissue he needed free of charge through the Lions Eye
Why has chosen nature such radically different forms as the loose-limbed beauty of a flowering tree and the fearful symmetry of a tiger?
a tree and a tiger. In evolutionary terms the tree has the easier task: convert sunlight to energy and move it within a body that more or less stays put.
But because the tiger's surface area is proportionally smaller than its mass the surface is not up to the task.
Unlike in Sumatra where tigers are present predation is less of a concern in Borneo
although infants might be at risk from bearded pigs and clouded leopards. In recent history their biggest predator has been man who is actually more likely to pick Orangutans off in the trees:
There were historically more native large cats and canids like foxes jaguars and ocelots and now more and more feral dogs hunting in these forests Pauli says.
A sloth on the ground is such an easy meal for them. So this risky behavior must confer some sort of advantage.
Previous explanations for the sloth's dangerous choice included communication with other sloths and a gracious gift of fertilizer to the just one or two trees a three-toed sloth calls home.
#Two million years ago, human relative Nutcracker Man lived on tiger nutsan Oxford university study has concluded that our ancient ancestors who lived in East Africa between 2. 4 million-1
. 4 million years ago mainly ate tiger nuts (grass bulbs) supplemented with the odd grasshopper and worm.
An Oxford university study has concluded that our ancient ancestors who lived in East Africa between 2. 4 million-1. 4 million years ago survived mainly on a diet of tiger nuts.
Tiger nuts are edible grass bulbs still eaten in parts of the world today. The study published in the journal PLOS ONE also suggests that these early hominins may have sought additional nourishment from fruits and invertebrates like worms and grasshoppers.
Dr Macho's study finds that baboons today eat large quantities of C4 tiger nuts
Dr Macho modified the findings of the previous study on baboons by Stuart Altmann (1998) on how long it took the year-old baboons to dig up tiger nuts
Tiger nuts which are rich in starches are highly abrasive in an unheated state. Dr Macho suggests that hominins'teeth suffered abrasion and wear and tear due to these starches.
In order to digest the tiger nuts and allow the enzymes in the saliva to break down the starches the hominins would need to chew the tiger nuts for a long time.
All this chewing put considerable strain on the jaws and teeth which explains why Nutcracker Man had such a distinctive cranial anatomy.
The Oxford study calculates a hominin could extract sufficient nutrients from a tiger nut-based diet i e. around 10000 kilojoules or 2000 calories a day--or 80%of their required daily calorie intake in two and half to three hours.
'I believe that the theory--that Nutcracker Man lived on large amounts of tiger nuts-helps settle the debate about what our early human ancestor ate.
'Tiger nuts still sold in health food shops as well as being used widely for grinding down and baking in many countries would be relatively easy to find.
and other animals killed by lions or hyenas. You can imagine how difficult it is to protect a species that uses not just multiple parks
However, traditional computers retain the lion's share of the industry's patent volume, with 71 percent.
the lion's share of water use comes from two places: irrigation and power generation.
and cough them back up like cats cough up hairballs. When that hunk-o-junk meets the seawater,
They have the lion's share of water rights. With low-flow irrigation and other off-the-shelf devices, we're reducing it by 50 to 70 percent.
Animals, especially dogs and cats, are part of the family. The relationship toward the wild is important in American culture:
Maybe in several generations our children will not know lions and gorillas and rhinos. Prominent leaders in the zoo world are trying to see how they can move zoos to take a larger part in this movement of survival of both animals and habitats.
if you want to look up a Jaguar car, there no barcode to scan. But that data we have
if we lost the diversity of life, the monkeys, jaguars, whales for instance. They are all in trouble too.
Big cats--the lion, jaguar, snow leopard--are endangered on the species list at some level. There are others we don't have a lot of information about.
and beetles and big cats--are layered on top. That will give us a view of where we are with our knowledge of the tree of life.
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