#Climate and Civilization Killed Egypt's Animals If you took a cruise along the northern stretch of the Nile some 6000 years ago you wouldn't have seen any pyramids
But animal bones and images of animals on ancient artifacts reveal what creatures once roamed the region.
We were amazed just at the diversity of animals in the artifacts Yeakel told Live Science.
It got us thinking about how we could use representations of animals in the historical record to understand how animal communities have changed.
when certain animals might have been considered exotic after disappearing locally. The researchers found that Egypt was home to 37 large-bodied mammals (those over 8. 8 lbs. or 4 kilograms) during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene.
and overhunting might have driven the decline of large herbivores such as elephants giraffes and native camels
which then indirectly affected the populations of the predators that ate the herbivores. Agriculture was also on the rise during this period.
and competition with farmers might have also hurt herbivore populations. A third possible driver could have been the climate;
wild animals. But while prehistoric paintings in places such as Chauvet Cave in France depict cave lions horses
and hyenas the animals represented in Sulawesi include fruit-eating pig-deer called babirusas Celebes warty pigs and midget buffalos also known as anoas.
Understanding climate change Unlike other types of fossilized animals such as mammals and birds insect fossils can provide valuable clues to ancient environments
These animals have defined well life cycles and tight climate restrictions and aren't likely to migrate if the climate shifts.
Gray Wolves, Timber Wolves & Red Wolves Wolves are large carnivores the largest member of the dog or Canid family.
but wolves can live in temperatures that range from minus 70 to 120 degrees F (minus 50 to 48.8 degrees C) according to the San diego Zoo.
Since they are carnivores their meals consist of meat that they hunted. Gray wolves usually eat large prey such as moose goats sheep and deer.
and kill domestic animals as well as animals they find in the wild. Red wolves eat smaller prey such as rodents insects and rabbits.
They aren't afraid of going outside their carnivorous diet and will eat berries on occasion too.
and other animals in its global supply chain will be treated. The company has a market capitalization of nearly a quarter-trillion dollars
mutilating animals by cutting their tails horns and genitals off without pain relief; and locking egg-laying hens veal calves and mother pigs in tiny cages for their entire lives.
'Remove the worst Promote the best Improve the rest'Nestlã said in its new animal welfare policy.
and the health of animals raised for food and firmly believe that robust farm animal health
This change follows more than a decade of food companies announcing policy-after-policy to improve the way their suppliers treat animals.
All forms of restraint the Animal Industry Foundation (now the Animal Agriculture Alliance) has insisted are designed for the welfare of the animal as well as the efficiency of production.
Science reveals that locking animals in cages barely larger than their own bodies is detrimental to their welfare.
Global animal experts know that something is foul in factory farming whether it's confining animals to such extreme degrees mutilating them without pain relief
or manipulating them to grow unnaturally top-heavy. For a food giant like Nestlã to recognize this
The especially harsh dzud in 2010 killed 20 percent of the nation's livestock population or 8. 5 million animals.
As the largest land animals On earth elephants face relatively few predators in the wild but these threats include people who poach the animals for their ivory and swarms of angry bees
which can inflict painful stings around the eyes and trunks of elephants. A powerful swarm of bees could even kill a thin-skinned calf.
the animals started sniffing they lifted their heads up and scanned the landscape and they hightailed it out of the area.
With 24 species of hamsters these animals come in a wide range of sizes. The European breed can grow as large as 13.4 inches (34 centimeters) long
Wild hamsters also eat insects frogs lizards and other small animals. A captive hamster's diet should be at least 16 percent protein and 5 percent fat according to Canadian Federation of Humane Societies.
The animals also bested the oil and gas industry. We are very confident that livestock emissions were being underestimated said lead study author Kevin Wecht an atmospheric chemist at Harvard university in Massachusetts.
and from human activities including oil and gas production and animals and manure on farms. Explore Earth's Atmosphere:
This can involve using herbivores and thinning vegetation including burning the debris in specially designed portable furnaces that have low smoke emissions.
Climate, Animals & Plants The Triassic period was the first period of the Mesozoic era and occurred between 251 million and 199 million years ago.
and clearly show their tetrapod ancestry. Their vertebrae indicate they probably swam by moving their entire bodies side to side like modern eels.
Their vertebrae indicate they swam more like fish using their tails for propulsion with strong fin-shaped forelimbs and vestigial hind limbs.
Two groups of animals survived the Permian Extinction: Therapsids which were mammal-like reptiles and the more reptilian Archosaurs.
One genus Lystrosaurus has been called the Permian/Triassic Noah#as fossils of this animal predate the mass extinction
Coelophysis fossils found in large numbers in New mexico indicate the animal hunted in packs. Some of the individuals found had remains of smaller members of the species inside the larger animals Scientists are unclear as to
whether this indicates internal gestation or possibly cannibalistic behavior. By the late Triassic a third group of Archosaurs had branched into the first pterosaurs.
Sharovipteryx was a glider about the size of a modern crow with wing membranes attached to long hind legs.
They were mainly herbivores or insectivores and therefore were not in direct competition with the Archosaurs or later dinosaurs.
Many of them were probably at least partially arboreal and nocturnal as well. Most such as the shrew-like Eozostrodon were egg layers
hatchlings are sometimes able to cling to brickwork and escape crocodile farms. In The americas Dinets observed crocs as long as 3 feet (1 m) sunning themselves on mangrove roots and branches.
and when approached the animals in trees always jumped or fell into the water. This shyness might explain why tree-climbing behavior in crocodilians remains relatively little known
and other animals by increasing alertness and reallocating energy reserves to react to stressors. But chronic stress can produce negative effects in an individual's health
Older artifacts typically showed stylized or schematic representations of humans but realistic depictions of animals.
The hatchlings patterns fade as they age and by adulthood these snakes have deep red backs.
Had fruit-eating animals including human ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage by learning to associate the smell and taste of alcohol with ripe fruit?
'and other animals'attraction to fruit and as a result alcohol. 10 Easy Paths to Self-destruction Introducing the drunken monkey The concept goes like this:
Fruit-eating animals everything from primates and other mammals to insects and reptiles began to use the scent of ethanol as a cue to find ripe fruit.
and consumption by tens of thousands of species of animals Dudley told Live Science. His theory casts an attraction to alcohol as an adaptation to the natural world.
Despite the concept's name drunkenness is only a small part of the hypothesis. Stories of apparently intoxicated animals may get a lot of attention
Overt inebriation is probably a bad idea in the animal kingdom Dudley said. Likewise most people manage to drink without getting drunk often consuming low levels of ethanol with food he said.
Dudley cites studies showing beneficial effects of moderate ethanol consumption in a few animals and in humans.
Humans are cultural animals she said. Humans can move all over the globe and take the most seemingly uninteresting item out of the environment
#The 7 Weirdest Moms in the Animal kingdom<p>Moms we' ve all got them
But some animals have a slightly different idea of what it means to be a good mother.
Another example is the recent news that scientists have discovered an animal that runs faster than any other and it s a mite.
It is well known that smaller animals can run faster when measured by body size even the humble cockroach beats the cheetah on that measure.
But a simple biomechanical model applying the appropriate scaling laws would suggest that all animals should be able to run at the same absolute speed not the same relative speed.
For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived in hunter-gatherer societies eating wild plants and animals.
Back in a lab the researchers looked for signs of claws hoofs and hair and other indigestible parts of unlucky prey in the scat.
The small portion of the wild animals in the leopards'diet consisted of mostly rodents as well as civets monkeys mongooses and birds.
when the animals have distinctive and co-evolved bacterial species in their guts Moran says.
Microbial gut symbionts are essential for the life of most animal species but their diversity and functions in hosts and their responses to ecological disturbance are understood poorly she says.
#Zoo-Raised Gorillas Prefer Forest Sounds Over Chopin (ISNS)--The sounds of a gently babbling stream
These natural sounds may also influence the behavior of gorillas raised in zoos that have seen never a rainforest.
The results accepted for publication in the journal Zoo Biology suggest that the forest melodies were more effective at reducing stress-induced habits such as hair-plucking
Previous research on how music affects zoo-housed gorillas produced mixed results. One study found adult gorillas were agitated more
Another paper found that the animals appeared more relaxed in response to music whether classical or forest tunes than
at the Buffalo Zoo. Each selection was played for two hours a day four times a week over a period of three weeks.
The animals received a week-long break of no music at all between each experimental period.
#Though the researchers only observed three gorillas the study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests enriching soundscapes can help the wellbeing of captive animals.#
#Several previous studies have analyzed the effects of human-composed melodies on the behavior of captive animals.
and workplaces auditory stimuli are used not often in zoos. A 2010 survey of 60 zoos in 13 countries found that nearly 75%of respondents had used never music to enrich the habitats of captive mammals.#
#oeauditory enrichment is used very sporadically right now#says Margulis. But we need to be aware of the impact it might have both on species and also on individual animals.#
#This story was provided by Inside Science News Service. Jyoti Madhusoodanan is a science writer based in San jose Calif. She tweets at@smjyoti s
Some turtles are carnivores while others follow a strictly vegetarian diet. Most turtles however are omnivores eating both animals and plants.
What a turtle eats depends on its species specifically what kind of jaw it has for masticating (chewing) food where it lives and
Green sea turles (Chelonia myadis) on the other hand are herbivores that feed on algae and seagrasses. A freshwater turtle's diet is varied
An additional plus is that replacing antibiotics with phages during the fermentation process increases the marketability of the dried distillers-grain byproduct (the potential animal feed)
WCS manages The bronx Zoo the New york Aquarium and other sites in addition to its conservation work. Calvelli contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices:
If there were a competition for best father#in the animal kingdom owl monkeys might very well win.
#and even cannibal dads#in the animal kingdom why of all creatures are father owl monkeys so attentive and protective of their young?
By contrast DNA fingerprinting has revealed that many animal species that were thought once to be truly monogamous are really social monogamous instead#eaning that a male and female form a long-term pair;
The Many Forms of Monogamy in the Animal kingdom Washingtonpost. com chat with a former NSF program director:
and these organelles still carry primitive genomes from their days as prokaryotes. The emergence of eukaryotic life opened the door for all higher forms of life that would follow including humans.
and other effects that were devastating for most land plants and animals and much of life in the sea.
if the forest monitors see an animal or its tracks they take photos with their smartphones he said.
ranges of animals such as the tiger elephant rhino and orangutan; and floral diversity according to a statement from Eyes on the Forest.
Elephant tracks Despite many efforts to curb elephant poaching including a 1989 agreement among CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
The group uses GPS collars to track elephants in Africa providing the organization with live detailed information about the animals'location and movements.
With knowledge of the elephants'routes the organization can better protect the animals from poachers
but the researchers were able to use the shape of the animal's vertebrae to determine that it was a new species. They dubbed the dinosaur Leinkupal laticauda.
and making her unappetizing to would-be scavengers Fisher said. A mammoth-ivory hunter found the second mummy which researchers named Khroma after the river in Yakutia in which she was found frozen upright in permafrost.
Scavengers possibly Arctic foxes and ravens devoured Khroma's heart and lungs as well as parts of the trunk and skull between the time she was discovered in 2008
While Feeding Like an herbivorous Count Dracula a snakelike vine coils around its leafy victim punctures its stem
and domestic sales of ivory to help fight the killing of rhinos elephants and other animals for profit.
In animals cells change and break down over a lifetime eventually causing death. But trees seem free from this growth limit called senescence.
These exotic polar animals are thought to be among the most vulnerable in the coming decades:
Furthermore while many species On earth#arnacles butterflies birds#re shifting their habitats poleward in search of cooler climates where are the Antarctic animals supposed to go?
If more specimens are found in the future they may add to researchers understanding of the animal's flying capabilities Chiappe said.
And who knows maybe its forelimbs had even longer feathers than its hindlimbs. Chiappe and his colleagues detailed their findings online today (July 15) in the journal Nature Communications.
One possibility is that the man caught the disease from direct contact with animals perhaps
and waste from plants and animals and a vast population of microbes. Together they are known as soil organic matter.
and all kinds of animals mountain lions bears and the like roam the darkness of our neighborhood.
Industrial farm-animal production getting animals from farms to our plates is inherently inefficient. According to the Food and agriculture organization of the united nations global animal agriculture produces vast amounts of crops to feed billions of farm animals long before they are consumed themselves.
The animals eat this food for months sometimes even years before being slaughtered they are the world's most under-recognized middle men.
Raising animals for food also includes feed-crop production which requires extensive water energy and chemical use as well as energy for transporting that feed live animals and animal products.
The total process for bringing such vast quantities of meat egg and dairy products to our plates comes at a substantial cost to the environment.
About a half-billion fewer animals are now being raised for food than just several years ago reducing animal agriculture's global impact.
while refining diets (switching to products from sources that adhere to higher animal-welfare standards).
With more than nine billion animals currently being raised for food in the United states each year if we all eschewed meat even one day a week
whether it s a Meatless Monday or any other day we'd spare more than one billion animals from the horrors of factory farms
Goat Enthusiastically Completes Cognitive Tests The goats'ability to retrieve food from the box may mean that the animals are generally good at problem solving Mcelligott said a skill that could come handy
And the animals still remembered how to retrieve the food at the later date. The findings may help researchers understand why goats adapt easily to extreme environments.
#oebiodiversity offsetting#protecting animals and plants in one area to make up for negative impacts in another is used increasingly by companies such as mining firms as a way to boost their corporate responsibility
or integrate into the genome the pig experiments showed that a small amount of virus did end up in other organs in the animals besides the heart according to the study published today (July 16) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
You either have information about livestock coming though here or flocks of animals themselves. Each farmer or herder would have a bag with tokens to represent their flock.
and killing of many non-threatening non-offending wolves and other animals For example one of the proposed amendments would allow landowners to kill any wolf anytime anywhere on their property without a permit
or even think it was probable that such animals were killed by a wolf. These measures already safeguard ranchers and their property;
and would be more likely to capture a non-threatening non-offending animal than a specific wolf.
and killing of threatened and endangered species such as wolverines lynx and grizzly bears as well as black bears deer elk moose mountain lions eagles and yes landowners'own dogs and livestock the very animals
and manage not kill these animals. Let's discuss how to treat them as they deserve to be treated not as saints not as demons
Grow them crossbreed them pick the best then grow and crossbreed them again. Scientific plant breeders do essentially the same thing
and leaves they also eat locusts lizards snakes and rodents according to the San diego Zoo. They also eat sand
though most have 10 members according to the San diego Zoo. The group has a dominant male and a dominant female and several other females.
The males and females share the responsibility of taking care of the young according to the San diego Zoo.
and Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago have followed the chimpanzees in the study for years.
When Morgan first arrived in 1999 the chimpanzees were not afraid of humans suggesting that this was the animals'first encounter with people he said.
Over the past several decades it's become standard practice for farmers to give animals such as chickens and pigs regular doses of antibiotics.
but rather to promote the animals'health and speed up their growth. However the increasing use of antibiotics has encouraged the evolution of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.
whether the fat was from animals. A textile found on each of the skulls may have been used to cover part of the head.
High up in the forest canopy the animals interlace strong stems and foliage into a basketweave creating a thick springy mattress that sinks in the middle.
This compound found in raspberries has been tested in animals and in cells in the lab but never for weight loss in humans.
Some research in animals has suggested that it might increase some measures of metabolism. Still there is no reliable scientific proof that it improves weight loss in people
which the animals have little to do but eat and sit down mostly in their own feces.
These chickens animals who are normally quite athletic are manipulated genetically to grow so obese so fast that many can't take more than a few pitiful steps before collapsing under the enormous weight of their oversized breasts.
As Superbugs Rise New Studies Point To Factory Farms (Op-Ed) Awful indeed as is the amount of time the animals spend wallowing in manure often not only their own.
Those animals end up in defeathering tanks essentially vats of scalding-hot water while fully conscious.
This not only will reduce the amount of suffering inflicted upon these animals but move the country toward a more humane society and one hopefully where people are more likely to encounter chlorine in the pool than in their meals.
Poachers are hunting the animal faster than it can reproduce with deaths affecting more than half of elephant families in the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya a new study finds.
The animals'numbers dropped further when a wave of poaching which has been ongoing since that year upset the population.
but at unsustainably high levels John E. Scanlon secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and the female will lay one egg at a time according to the Smithsonian National Zoo. Each egg is a little bigger than a large chicken egg at 3 to 3. 5 inches (78 to 90 millimeters) long and 4 to 4. 9 ounces (115
Flamingos live 20 to 30 years in the wild or up to 50 years in a zoo.
In East Africa more than 1 million flamingos have been known to gather together forming the largest flock known according to the Philadelphia Zoo o
The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA) for which The HSUS works to secure substantial funding each fiscal year requires that animals be unconscious before they are shackled
Unfortunately the HMSA doesn't specify how soon ritually-slaughtered animals should reach an unconscious state.
and Serve Including the Animals. This article was adapted from HSUS Undercover Investigation Shutters NJ Slaughter Plant
It's a fairly delicate animal compared to the large predators that were living at the time Schachner a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah told Live Science.
A private collector had found two nearly complete skeletons of the same animal in South dakota
It was likely omnivorous eating plants eggs and perhaps small animals. One of the specimens was found with debris of shells
which have been shown to keep blood pressure in check in animals according to the researchers. 7 Foods Your Heart Will Hate The scientists used mice to investigate how nitro fatty acids may lead to reduced blood pressure looking specifically at
The animals in the study had high blood pressure and were given olive oil omega-6 fatty acids along with sodium nitrite to mimic components of a Mediterranean diet for five days.
and urine of people and animals and have been shown to relax blood vessels and reduce inflammation the researchers said.
while females weigh 100 to 200 pounds (45-90 kg) according to the Denver Zoo. In August and September jaguars mate.
Jaguars are carnivores which means they eat only meat. In the wild jaguars will use their speed
In fact in the zoo bones are part of a jaguars'regular diet. Jaguars typically live in forests
or inclined surface is difficult for animals. The key to this motion is finding a way to prevent the body from slipping as gravity pulls down and different animals have solved this problem in different ways.
For example numerous mammals use their claws to cling to trees while some lizards and tree frogs simply adhere to surfaces using specialized toe pads
But humans and other animals lack these adaptations and can only hold on via friction generated by muscle forces.
Though the topic hasn't been explored much choosing safety over economy may be more common in the animal kingdom than thought Byrnes said.
what's necessary to support each animal's body weight. And though the gripping forces people use while climbing ropes or rock walls hasn't been studied research suggests people use two to four times the necessary force to hold on to objects Byrnes said.
And how far does an animal choose to jump when it has to cross a gap?
#Can Animals Be Too Happy, or Have Too much Fun?(Op-Ed) Marc Bekoff emeritus professor at the University of Colorado Boulder is one of the world's pioneering cognitive ethologists a Guggenheim Fellow and cofounder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals. Bekoff's latest book is Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed (New world Library 2013).
This Op-Ed is adapted from one that appeared in Bekoff's column Animal Emotions in Psychology Today.
because when animals human and nonhuman play it's clear they are happy and having fun.
and we've had great discussions about the evolution of nonhuman animal (animal) and human-animal emotions.
Can animals be too happy or have too much fun on the run? All of this led me to wonder:
Can animals be too happy or have too much fun to their detriment? For example can a dog running here and there with reckless abandon injure herself?
Can a young animal spend too much energy playing rather than putting energy into growth and maintenance?
For more on possible risks and costs to play see Robert Fagen's Animal Play Behavior (Oxford 1981) Animal Play:
Animals work hard to maintain fair play and fair play may be related to individual reproductive fitness.
Nonetheless young animals in particular engage in vigorous social and locomotor self-play during which losing oneself in the activity can be detrimental.
if animals can be too happy or have too much fun to the point that it's costly to them.
I can well imagine that animals can indeed be too happy or have too much fun
Bekoff's most recent Op-Ed was Do Zoos Really Teach Visitors Anything? This article was adapted primarily from the post Can Animals Be Too Happy
or Have Too much Fun? in Psychology Today. The views expressed are those of the author
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