An elephant's trunk or a rooster's crest might never fossilize because there's no bone in them Bell explains.
This is equivalent to discovering for the first time that elephants had trunks. We have lots of skulls of Edmontosaurus but there are no clues on them that suggest they might have had a big fleshy crest.
The next most damaging animals are elephants. Elephants are only a problem close to the park says Mwakatobe.
Diseases from wild animals can also spread to domesticated animals. Disease and loss of livestock due to them is a bigger problem in the villages closest to the national park. Illegal bushmeat markets
One such wolf which we call the megafaunal wolf preyed on large game such as horses bison and perhaps very young mammoths.
#U s. Fish and Wildlife Service crushes stockpiled illegal elephant ivorythe Wildlife Conservation Society's President and CEO Cristiã¡
which six tons of illegal elephant ivory were to be crushed. Samper one of eight members of the Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking appointed by President Obama
WCS recently launched 96 Elephants a public outreach campaign aiming to bolster elephant protection and educate the public about ivory trade and consumption.
WCS is also part of a Clinton Global Initiative commitment to end the elephant poaching crisis. Today the U s. Fish
and Wildlife Service takes the unprecedented step of pulverizing nearly six tons of elephant ivory stored at the National Wildlife Property Repository in Colorado.
This trade increasingly the domain of large global criminal syndicates has been responsible for the loss of some 76 percent of all African forest elephants in the past decade.
Across Africa elephant range states are calling for a moratorium on the sale and purchase of ivory.
To end the elephant poaching crisis we know that we must take a three-pronged approach:
More can be done domestically to stop trafficking including instituting a moratorium on all ivory sales within the U s. African elephants alone are being lost at an unprecedented rate
Approximately 35000 elephants were killed by poachers last year--some 96 elephants each day. Our government is increasingly sending a clear message to ivory traffickers.
Scientists had calculated already it would take an elephant on a pencil to break through a sheet of graphene.*
#Crop-raiding elephants flee tiger growlswild Asian elephants slink quietly away at the sound of a growling tiger
The work published Sept. 11 in the journal Biology Letters could help Indian farmers protect their crops from marauding elephants and save the lives of both people and animals.
We noticed that the elephants were scared more of tigers than of leopards said Vivek Thuppil who carried out the work with Richard Coss professor of psychology at UC Davis as part of his Ph d. in animal behavior.
Thuppil and Coss studied the elephants'behavior in an effort to prevent conflicts between human farmers
and elephant herds that raid their fields by night. It's the first study of nighttime antipredator behavior in elephants.
Crop raiding by elephants is a serious problem in India Thuppil said. Farmers use drums firecrackers
and electrified fences to try to keep them out of their crops. About 400 people a year are killed during these encounters
and some hundred elephants are killed through poisoning electrocution or other means according to an Indian government report.
when the elephants crossed infrared beams across paths leading to crop fields and captured the events on video.
Leopards aren't known to prey on elephants but tigers will sometimes attack a young elephant that becomes separated from the herd.
Although their initial reactions were very different the elephants ultimately retreated from growls of both cats.
The elephants might be confused by the leopard growl Thuppil said. A real leopard would most likely retreat from a group of elephants.
Still there's probably no benefit to the elephants in risking an encounter with a leopard
even if it is known not a predator. You don't want to mess with something with claws and teeth Thuppil said.
They're acting in a very intelligent way Coss said. Wild elephant populations are stable
or even increasing in forest areas Thuppil said. While the forest itself is protected human settlement increasingly has moved into the buffer areas surrounding the forest
which elephants pass through while foraging or visiting different patches of forest. The work was supported by the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service Asian Elephant Conservation Fund and the Rufford Small Grants Foundation.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of California-Davis. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
and dispersed by today's larger-bodied animals such as emus or elephants. If these plants are adapted for dispersal by a set of animals that has been missing from Earth's fauna for tens of thousands of years then how can they still be around today?
and Diprotodon a rhino sized marsupial quadruped explains Hall. The large heavy and poisonous seeds surrounded by a fleshy and nontoxic fruit-like layer seem well adapted to being swallowed occasionally whole en masse by megafauna
The findings come from a multi-year airborne survey of atmospheric chemistry called HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations or HIPPO.
Taking advantage of the long-duration and high-altitude-profiling capabilities of the NSF Gulfstream V aircraft also known as HIAPER the HIPPO project was designed to take a'snapshot'of the global troposphere Earth's lowest atmospheric
Recent observations aboard the Gulfstream V were made during regular flights conducted during the HIPPO campaign from 2009 to 2011.
The authors maintain that the current rate of unsustainable hunting of forest elephants gorillas and other seed-dispersing species threatens the ability of forest ecosystems to regenerate
In particular mammals such as forest elephants gorillas forest antelopes and others play a major role in seed dispersal for most tree species;
A top priority the researchers assert should be the protection of megafauna such as forest elephants
The removal of seed-dispersing megafauna such as elephants and apes could reduce the ability of forests to sequester carbon.
Authors are Tim Davenport of the Wildlife Conservation Society Katarzyna Nowak of the Udzungwa Elephant Project and Andrew Perkin of the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group.
#Nuke test radiation can fight poachers who kill elephants, rhinos, hipposuniversity of Utah researchers developed a new weapon to fight poachers who kill elephants hippos rhinos and other wildlife.
By measuring radioactive carbon-14 deposited in tusks and teeth by open-air nuclear bomb tests the method reveals the year an animal died
Iain Douglas-Hamilton founder of Save the Elephants; and Samuel Andanje Patrick Omondi and Moses Litoroh all of the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Ivory Trade Drives Elephant Slaughterinternational agreements banned most trade of raw ivory from Asian elephants after 1975 and African elephants after 1989.
if an elephant is from Africa or Asia says Uno who earned his University of Utah Ph d. last year.
Currently 30000 elephants a year are slaughtered for their tusks so there is a desperate need to enforce the international trade ban
Only 423000 African elephants are left. Conservation groups say 70 percent of smuggled ivory goes to China.
and Somalia to kill elephants and sell tusks so they can buy guns. How the Study Was Performedneutrons from the nuclear tests bombarded nitrogen--the atmosphere's most common gas--to turn some of it into carbon-14.
The method in the study is a bit like telling a tree's age by its rings but instead of counting rings Cerling Uno and colleagues measured carbon-14 levels at various points along the lengths of elephants'and hippos'tusks
The samples included elephant tusks and molars hippo tusks and canine teeth oryx horn hair from monkeys and elephant tails and some grasses collected in Kenya in 1962.
and elsewhere and from Amina an elephant that died naturally in Kenya in 2006 and from Misha an African elephant euthanized in 2008 due to declining health at Utah's Hogle Zoo in Salt lake city. The analysis revealed that various tissues that formed at the same time have the same carbon-14 levels
and that grasses and the animals eating them had the same levels. By determining carbon-14 in these samples of known dates the researchers now can measure carbon-14 levels in other ivory to determine its age within about a year.
and teeth from elephants and hippos and elephant tail hair Cerling says. Extrapolating the growth rates of tusks teeth
and hair to fossil or modern elephants and other animals will help us improve the chronology of the diet history of an individual fossil
Sunarto a tiger and elephant specialist with World Wildlife Fund-Indonesia collaborated on the paper with Kelly Professor Emeritus Michael Vaughan
and rhinos that browsed on C3 leaves it would appear they ate C3 trees-shrubs.
In its perfect crystalline form graphene (a one-atom-thick carbon layer) is the strongest material ever measured as the Columbia Engineering team reported in Science in 2008--so strong that as Hone observed it would take an elephant balanced on a pencil to break through a sheet
Here lions leopards elephants hippos and giraffes wander free. Rivers of wildebeests zebra and Thompson's gazelles--more than 2 million all told--cross the landscape in one of the largest animal migrations on the planet.
Also known as elephant grass miscanthus is one of a new generation of renewable energy crops that can be converted into renewable energy by being burned in biomass power stations.
#Decimation of critically endangered forest elephant detailedafrican forest elephants are being poached out of existence. A study just published in the online journal PLOS ONE and supported in part by San diego Zoo Global shows that a staggering 62%of all forest elephants have been killed across their range in Central africa for their ivory over the past decade.
The severe decline indicates what researchers fear is the imminent extinction of this species. Saving the species requires a coordinated global effort in the countries where elephants occur all along the ivory smuggling routes and at the final destination in the Far east.
We don't have much time say Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists Fiona Maisels Phd and Samantha Strindberg Phd the lead authors.
The study--the largest ever conducted on the African forest elephant--includes the work of more than 60 scientists between 2002 and 2011
and an immense effort by national conservation staff who spent a combined 91600 days surveying elephants in 5 countries (Cameroon Central african republic the Democratic Republic of congo Gabon
and the Republic of congo) walking over 13000 kilometers (more than 8000 miles) and recording over 11000 elephant dung piles for the analysis. The paper also shows that almost a third of the land where African forest elephants were able to live 10 years
Results show clearly that forest elephants were increasingly uncommon in places with high human density high infrastructure density such as roads high hunting intensity
and really highlights the plight of this ecologically important species. Forest elephants are integral to a functioning forest in Africa opening up the forest floor
We have increasing evidence of a decline in certain tree species as a result of the local extinction of forest elephants.
Distinct from the African savanna elephant the African forest elephant is slightly smaller than its better-known relative
This has resulted in escalating elephant massacres in areas previously thought to be safe. Story Source:
In an interview he called for an international Marshall Plan to erect fences where possible to protect people lions elephants
Elephants are in crisis too and although they are largely being decimated by ivory poachers there's little support for elephant conservation in rural villages because of the enormous damage they cause to crops.
A fence that is lion-proof is also elephant-proof so a well-designed policy of fencing would protect more than just lions.
Because the findings from the Ecology Letters paper present such an enormous challenge for African governments and conservationists the best hope may be to advocate for a Marshall Plan for African wildlife conservation Packer said.
but mammals such as horses rhinos and gazelles evolved long strong teeth that are up to the task.
#Extinction looms for forest elephants: 60 percent of Africas forest elephants killed for their ivory over past decadeafrican forest elephants are being poached out of existence.
A study just published in the online journal PLOS ONE shows that across their range in Central africa a staggering 62 percent of all forest elephants have been killed for their ivory over the past decade.
The analysis confirms what conservationists have feared: the rapid trend towards extinction--potentially within the next decade--of the forest elephant says Dr. Samantha Strindberg of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) one of the lead authors of the study.
Saving the species requires a coordinated global effort in the countries where elephants occur--all along the ivory smuggling routes and at the final destination in the Far east.
We don't have much time before elephants are gone says the other lead author Dr. Fiona Maisels also of WCS.
The study which examines the largest ever amount of Central African elephant survey data comes as 178 countries gather in Bangkok to discuss wildlife trade issues including poaching and ivory smuggling.
The study--the largest ever conducted on the African forest elephant--includes the work of more than 60 scientists between 2002 and 2011
and an immense effort by national conservation staff who spent 91600 person-days surveying for elephants in five countries (Cameroon Central african republic the Democratic Republic of congo Gabon
and the Republic of congo) walking over 13000 kilometers (more than 8000 miles) and recording over 11000 samples for the analysis. The paper shows that almost a third of the land where African forest elephants were able to live 10 years ago has become too dangerous
for them. Co-author Dr. John Hart of the Lukuru Foundation says: Historically elephants ranged right across the forests of this vast region of over 2 million square kilometers (over 772000 square miles)
but now cower in just a quarter of that area. Although the forest cover remains it is empty of elephants demonstrating that this is not a habitat degradation issue.
This is almost entirely due to poaching. Recent surveys from Democratic Republic of congo showed a major decline of elephants in the Okapi Faunal Reserve considered the last stronghold for elephants in the region.
Results show clearly that forest elephants were increasingly uncommon in places with high human density high infrastructure density such as roads high hunting intensity
and poor governance as indicated by levels of corruption and absence of law enforcement. Distinct from the African savannah elephant the African forest elephant is slightly smaller than its better known relative
and is considered by many to be a separate species. They play a vital role in maintaining the biodiversity of one of Earth's critical carbon sequestering tropical forests.
A rain forest without elephants is a barren place. They bring it to life they create the trails
they disperse the seeds of many of the rainforest trees--elephants are forest gardeners at a vast scale.
If we do not turn the situation around quickly the future of elephants in Africa is doomed.
This has resulted in escalating elephant massacres in areas previously thought to be safe. We have been carrying out surveys in the forests of Gabon for over a decade
and seen an increasing number of elephant carcasses over the years say co-authors Mr. Rostand Aba'a of the Gabon National parks Service and Mr. Marc Ella Akou of WWF Gabon.
Earlier this month the government of Gabon announced the loss of approximately 11000 forest elephants in Mink b National park between 2004 and 2012;
previously holding Africa's largest forest elephant population. President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon says:
Gabon's elephants are under siege because of an illegal international market that has driven ivory prices in the region up significantly.
If we do not reverse the tide fast the African elephant will be exterminated. Dr. George Wittemyer of Save the Elephants and Colorado State university says:
This study provides unequivocal evidence of the rapid demise of one of the planet's most charismatic and intelligent species. The world must wake up to stem this destruction of species due to conspicuous consumption.
Effective rapid multilevel action is imperative to save elephants. A drastic increase of funding and an immediate focus on the most effective protection strategies are essential to avoid future huge losses to the remaining elephant populations.
Dr. Stephen Blake of the Max Planck Institute says: Forest elephants need two things: they need adequate space in
which to range normally and they need protection. Unprotected roads most often associated with exploitation for timber
or other natural resources push deeper and deeper into the wilderness tolling the death knell for forest elephants.
if forest elephants are to survive. ZSL's West and North africa Programme Manager Mr Chris Ransom says:
if elephants are to survive. The authors of the paper--titled Devastating Decline in Forest Elephants in Central africa--are:
Fiona Maisels Samantha Strindberg Stephen Blake George Wittemyer John Hart Elizabeth A. Williamson Rostand Aba'a Gaspard Abitsi Ruffin D. Ambahe Fidel
International Development (USAID CARPE) USFWS Great ape Conservation Fund USFWS African elephant Conservation Fund Wildlife Conservation Society World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society
#Democratic Republic of congos best run reserve is hemorrhaging elephantsthe Democratic Republic of congo's (DRC) largest remaining forest elephant population located in the Okapi Faunal Reserve (OFR) has declined by 37 percent in the last five years
with only 1700 elephants now remaining according to wildlife surveys by WCS and DRC officials. WCS scientists warn that
if poaching of forest elephants in DRC continues unabated the species could be extinguished nearly from Africa's second largest country within ten years.
According to the latest survey 5100 or 75 percent of the reserve's elephants have been killed in the last 15 years.
According to WCS the primary reason for the recent decline in forest elephant numbers is ivory poaching.
The survey comes in the wake of another grim report earlier this month from Gabon where 11000 elephants were slaughtered in Minkebe National park over a ten-year period.
WCS continue to sound the alarm that rampant poaching is decimating elephant populations throughout Africa
The global poaching crisis for elephants is at epidemic proportions said WCS Executive vice president for Conservation and Science John Robinson.
and demand or we will lose elephants in the wild in our lifetime. In the early 1990s before the civil war of 1996-2003 DRC was relatively calm.
In a 1995-1997 survey of the OFR--a UNESCO World Heritage Site--WCS found that there were approximately 6800 forest elephants living in an area of almost 14000 km2 (8682 square miles.
After the civil war WCS carried out a second survey in 2005-2007 and found that elephants had suffered heavy losses to poaching with numbers having dropped by 60 percent to approximately 2700 elephants.
For example in Salonga National park a huge area that once held the largest elephant population in DRC WCS found that elephants had been decimated to less than 1000 individuals.
Thus by 2007 OFR had DRC's largest remaining forest elephant population. During the war park guards could not protect much of OFR
but were able to document elephant kills and ivory poaching. Since the end of the civil war five years ago park rangers have reduced the decline from approximately 400 to 170 elephants annually.
Despite this success the park rangers cannot keep up with the dramatic increase in demand for ivory that is being fueled by economic growth in Asia particularly China
Despite these hard realities OFR remains the most important site for the conservation of forest elephants and other large mammals in DRC.
and will continue to work in their country to protect elephants and the landscapes where they live.
We urge the international community to support the DRC in the fight against the threat of extinction of the forest elephant.
WCS works to stop the killing by collaborating with partners to prevent criminals from slaughtering elephants in Africa's worst killing fields.
#11,000 elephants slaughtered in national park once home to Africa s largest forest elephant populationthe Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced February 6 that a national park once home to Africa's largest forest elephant
The shocking figures come from Gabon's Minkebe Park where recent surveys of areas within the park revealed that two thirds of its elephants have vanished since 2004.
Gabon contains over half of Africa's forest elephants with a population estimated at over 40000.
) The survey was funded by ANPN the CITES MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants) Program and the United states Fish and Wildlife Service.
This sad news from Gabon confirms that without a global commitment great elephant populations will soon become a thing of the past said WCS President and CEO Cristiã¡
We believe that elephants can still be saved --but only if nations greatly increase their efforts to stop poaching
Until recently Gabon's elephant herds were believed to be impacted less by poaching than in other parts of Africa where according to the Born Free Foundation an estimated 31800 individuals were lost to poaching last year.
However Gabon's National park Agency reported an uptick of poaching in recent years including the 2011 slaughter of 27 elephants in a protected area just outside of the capitol.
Park authorities estimated that 50-100 elephants were being killed daily as a result of increases in demand for ivory from the Far east and resulting price hike.
Over the last three years we have deployed 400 additional parks staff 120 soldiers and 30 gendarmes in our fight to stop illegal killing of elephants for the black market ivory trade.
Despite our efforts we continue to lose elephants every day. If we do not turn the situation around quickly the future of the elephant in Africa is doomed.
These new results illustrate starkly just how dramatic the situation has become. Our actions over the coming decade will determine
if we are to save the elephant. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society.
#Low rainfall and extreme temperatures double risk of baby elephant deathsextremes of temperature and rainfall are affecting the survival of elephants working in timber camps in Myanmar
and can double the risk of death in calves aged up to five new research from the University of Sheffield has found.
this could decrease the populations of already endangered Asian elephants. The researchers matched monthly climate records with data on birth and deaths to track how climate variation affects the chances of elephant survival.
It is hoped this research--which was published in the journal Ecology--will make a difference by highlighting the importance of protecting vulnerable calves in captivity from the effects of climate changeexperts at the University of Sheffield accessed unique recordings of the life
and deaths of more than 8000 elephants from Myanmar spanning three generations throughout almost a century.
The elephants in the database are semi-captive animals working in the timber industry by pushing and dragging logs.
Our results show that the optimal conditions for elephant survival correspond to high rainfall and a moderate temperature of 23 C but that further from those optimal conditions elephant survival was lower.
Overall switching from good to bad climatic conditions within an average year significantly increases mortality rates of elephants of all ages.
The most dramatic example comes from baby elephants whose risk of death before the age of five approximately doubles in the hottest weather in comparison to the optimal moderate temperature for elephant survival.
The researchers found that increases in deaths from heat stroke and infectious diseases accounted for the larger number of deaths during the hot months.
Elephants are vulnerable to heat stress because their large size and because they don't sweat like humans
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
and in range countries where climate may be changing faster than elephants can adapt to it.
It also highlights the importance of protecting vulnerable calves from extremes of temperature because more calves will be needed to maintain the dwindling population of endangered Asian elephants.
The project is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and was carried out at the University of Sheffield and Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany.
In addition to informing scientists about the environment that our ancestors took shape in Feakins'study provides insights into the landscape that herbivores (horses hippos
Wild yaks are the third largest mammal in Asia second only to elephants and rhinos.
Which viruses infect the elephant? Which type of bacteria causes severe lung disease in European brown hare?
As their next task his team wants to retrieve simple and well characterised DNA VIRUSES such as the elephant herpes virus.
#Zoos exonerated in baby elephant deaths; Data support new branch of herpesvirus familyelephants are among the most intelligent nonhumans arguably on par with chimps
but both African and Asian elephants--separate species--are endangered. In 1995 16-month old Kumari the first Asian elephant born at the National Zoo in WASHINGTON DC died of a then-mysterious illness.
In 1999 Gary Hayward of Johns hopkins university and collaborators published their results identifying a novel herpesvirus EEHV1 as the cause of Kumari's sudden death.
They now show that severe cases like this one are caused by viruses that normally infect the species rather than by viruses that have jumped from African elephants
At the time of Kumari's death anti-zoo activists seized on the situation to call for abandoning all efforts to breed Asian elephants in zoos as they claimed that zoos were spreading the deadly herpesvirus says Hayward.
Therefore the viruses have not spread between zoos and the sources of the viruses were most likely wild-born elephant herdmates.
and African elephants says Hayward. In the process they identified seven different species of EEHVS and multiple different chimeric subtypes and strains of each.
Later by also examining benign lung nodules from culled wild African elephants we determined that EEHV2 EEHV3 EEHV6
and EEHV7 are natural endogenous viruses of African elephants whereas EEHV1A EEHV1B EEHV4 and EEHV5 are apparently natural
and nearly ubiquitous infections of Asian elephants that are shed occasionally in trunk washes and saliva of most healthy asymptomatic adult animals.
Hayward notes that only one example of a lethal cross-species infection with EEHV3 into an Asian elephant calf has been observed
Close monitoring of Asian elephant calves in zoos has enabled so far lifesaving treatment for at least nine infected Asian calves says Hayward suggesting that such monitoring may ultimately enable determining why some animals become susceptible to severe disease after their primary EEHV1 infections
About 20%of all Asian elephant calves are susceptible to hemorrhagic disease whereas symptomatic disease is extremely rare in African elephant calves under the same zoo conditions says Hayward.
In another paper in the same issue of Journal of Virology Hayward et al. demonstrate that the many highly diverged species
and subtypes of EEHVS are ancient viruses that evolved separately from all other known subfamilies of mammalian herpesviruses within the ancestor of modern elephants beginning about 100 million years ago.
Elephant populations have been plummeting. African elephants declined roughly from 10 million to half a million during the 20th century due largely to habitat destruction
and intense poaching has decimated since further their numbers. Asian elephants once in the millions now number less than 50000.
They are threatened mostly by habitat fragmentation. Poaching is not an issue since they lack tusks.
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