Earlier this month the government of Gabon announced the loss of approximately 11000 forest elephants in Mink b National park between 2004 and 2012;
The findings are relatively good news for the cat-sized relative of the weasel family.
The forest-dwelling fisher (Martes pennanti) once lived throughout most of the mountains in northern California and the Sierra nevada and in the Rocky mountains Cascades and Coast ranges.
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
when sea otters arrive in an area from which they have been absent they begin feasting on urchins.
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
whilst badgers form part of the environmental reservoir they only play a relatively minor role in the transmission of infection.
Grasslands especially in agricultural landscapes also provide tremendous benefits to humans through erosion reduction and water filtration as well as offering habitat to numerous grassland-obligate species from black-footed ferrets to Dakota skippers.
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.
In addition to songbirds and woodpeckers boreal wetlands provide critical habitat for other park icons like moose loon and marten.
The study focused on the bird-cherry ermine moth and the orchard ermine moth--two insects that feed on the leaves of orchard trees
and as caterpillars can strip trees of their bark. Durrett helped the Swedish researchers use enzymes from plants
However the precise details of how this happens remain largely unexplored says co-corresponding author Eric Martens Ph d. an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the U-M Medical school.
Martens is participating in the Host Microbiome Initiative part of the U-M Medical school's Strategic Research Initiative.
Martens worked with researchers from the University of British columbia Canada the Royal Institute of technology Sweden and the York University Structural Biology laboratory to carry out detailed structural and mechanistic studies into the precise functioning of specific enzymes.
and Arkansas and also has collaborated on the analysis of otters and hellbenders in Missouri rivers. Her study Using genetic profiles of African forest elephants to infer population structure movements
the bird cherry ermine moth (Yponomeuta evonymella) and the orchard ermine moth (Yponomeuta padella. In the wild, females emit these pheromones to attract male suitors,
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