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Climate Change And Shifts In The Migration Patterns Of Birds

Just in time for World Migratory Bird Day, May 10, a piece of writing within the April issue of Animal Behaviour explores the impact of shifting migration patterns in one population of migratory birds. An international team of biologists and ecologists used GPS and body-acceleration data on juvenile white storks to report on shifts within the birds' migratory behaviors. They concluded that "wintering in Europe rather than Africa enhances juvenile survival during a long-distance migrant," which is additionally the title of their paper. The research team lead by Shay Rotics of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem starts by noting that bird migration patterns are known to be marked by plasticity: "In many Holarctic bird species, migration phenology is adjusting towards an earlier arrival to breeding grounds to accommodate the sooner onset of spring [brought about by global warming]. additionally, an increasing number of studies have also reported that Holarctic migrants are shortening their migration and overwinter at higher latitudes closer to their breeding grounds." Their study birds, 54 white storks from a population located in Germany, illustrates this in-progress shift in overwintering. Traditionally, these birds use a flyway corridor to migrate to Africa but now a minority of them migrate within Europe, a way shorter distance. Rotics not only compared the survival rates of six Europe-overwintering and 48 Africa-overwintering juvenile white storks, but they also fitted the birds with small solar-charged GPS transmitters to watch specifics of their movement patterns. Of the six Europe-overwintering birds, one hundred pc survived through their first year, versus only 38 percent of the Africa-overwintering ones. It's hard to pinpoint precisely why that survival difference occurred, but because of the GPS data, a key probable factor added to the apparent one among the reduced flight distance involved is often suggested. At the Europe overwintering grounds, the birds displayed reduced movement, and used smaller foraging habitats. They foraged more at anthropogenic sites like rubbish dumps and agricultural areas, which apparently takes less energy than looking for prey within the wild. That probably helped all of them to form it, rather than only a fraction. So why, then, do most of those white storks go all the thanks to Africa, if they will have the best closer to home? Rotics et al. do consider the question of whether the migrators to Africa "display suboptimal migratory behavior." Here's what they write: "Our findings relate to the first-year period, although, within the end of the day, overwintering in Europe won't necessarily be the optimal option, possibly thanks to long-term detrimental effects of feeding on waste or erratic effects of severe winters. Furthermore, the survival benefits of overwintering in Europe could also be restricted to juveniles and might even be reversed at older ages, as has been found in other birds." They go on to notice that an EU Union directive to scale back open landfill areas is probably going to significantly decrease the suitability of European wintering grounds for migratory birds, including white storks. It would be entirely wrong to leap from a study showing good survival during a small sample of white storks to the conclusion that anthropogenic heating isn't so bad in any case for migratory birds because they're reducing their flight distance and thriving closer to home. As Rotics et al. explain, we all know neither the long-term effects of Europe overwintering on bird survival nor whether the suitability of these European landscapes for migratory birds is going to be sustained. Even more importantly, the general threats of worldwide warming to birds generally are quite clear. The 2014 Audubon Climate report's headline is pithy and pointed: "314 Species on the Brink: Shrinking and shifting ranges could imperil nearly half U.S. birds within this century." The reported details lay out the causes of this peril. And that's only one analysis, for one geographical area. Migratory birds, so fascinating in their nomadic behavior as science writer Carl Zimmer described earlier this year within the NY Times, increasingly face an entire sort of new risks due to the ways we humans alter the landscape. More science will help us understand what's happening to migratory birds and the way they're — and are not — ready to cope.

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City-dwelling sea snakes are changing colors for a strange reason

Normally, people and sea snakes don’t swim within the same waters. The slithering creatures prefer hanging calls in remote areas. They also tend to be venomous, so humans don’t normally seek them out. But turtle-headed sea snakes are a special story. They don’t have long fangs or potent venom like their snake compatriots. Instead, they need tiny fangs and typically chow down on fish eggs. They also live fairly on the brink of human cities, like Noumea, the capital city of the French territory New Caledonia within the Pacific. The fact that they're common and comparatively easily accessible makes them an honest target for research. Rick Shine, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney, started studying these snakes almost 20 years ago. “We’ve been ready to conduct far and away from the foremost detailed ecological investigation of any “true" snake (one that never comes out on land) that has ever been attempted,” says Shine in an e-mail. Over the course of his work with these watery reptiles, Shine noticed a difference between the turtle-headed snakes that lived near cities like Noumea, and therefore the same species that lived elsewhere. The snakes near the cities were darker, with fewer distinctive stripes along with their bodies. during a study authored by Shine and published today in Current Biology, he explains that the foremost likely culprit is pollution. “These sites are right beside the most important city in New Caledonia, in order that they get all types of urban pollution—basically everything that's produced during a city and discarded into the drain,” Shine says. Biologists have observed this color change in response to pollution for an extended time. Arguably the foremost famous example of this is often the Peppered Moth. During the economic Revolution in Europe, the Peppered Moth took on a darker color to blend into the new sootier background. Other invertebrates made similar changes over time. But during this case, sea snakes aren’t having to cover during a dirtier environment. “We don’t think camouflage is vital,” Shine says. “Camouflage mostly works if individuals stay still. In contrast, the snakes move about frequently, passing over live coral and coral rubble. There are not any 'black' backgrounds,” Shine says. Instead, Shine thinks that the change in color could be thanks to the very fact that the darker melanin can bind to toxic trace elements within the snake's body. When the snake sheds its skin, it also gets obviate pollutants build up in its body. The darker the skin, the more pollutants the snakes can excise from its system. “It had never occurred to me that an animal could rid its body of contaminants during this way,” Shine says. But, he notes, there's a minimum of one other vertebrate who uses an equivalent adaptation to form life a touch less toxic in a populated area. “The only examples invertebrates seem to be pigeons in cities and our sea snakes in polluted reefs,” Shine says. “in both of these cases the pattern may reflect the power of melanin to bind trace-elements and thus help the animal expel those pollutants from its body when it sheds its feathers or sloughs its skin.” But simply because these sea snakes have found how to measure with our trash doesn’t mean that they're endlessly adaptable. Shine says this study should function as a reminder that although animals can show remarkable plasticity, that does not mean we should always treat these changes as benign. “Living systems are resilient, and therefore the sea snakes are rapidly adapting to oceanic pollution, says Shine. "But there’s a limit thereto resilience; if we keep treating the ocean as a restroom, we'll lose many of the spectacular creatures that depend upon it.”

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The best way to deal with 30 to 50 feral hogs in your yard

When it involves animals that strike fear into our hearts, bears, sharks, and mountain lions get all the eye. But what about wild pigs? The news rarely publishes stories of encounters with them, albeit they're big, have sharp tusks, and are taking up North America. In fact, there are more fatalities from wild hogs within the last decade than from sharks. So, what happens if you actually do find 30-50 feral hogs, or, as is more likely, just one, on your property? Not your average invasive species Explorers introduced domestic swine and wild boars to North America as early because of the 1500s. Eventually, a number of the domestic swine got loose and adapted to the outside, becoming feral. When those animals interbred with wild boars, a kind of hybrid was created: wild pigs, wild hogs, or wild swine. Their range has expanded quickly in recent decades, from 18 largely southern and coastal states in 1982 to 35 states today. Now, wild pigs are one of the foremost destructive species within the US. They sully entire fields of vegetable crops with E. coli, contaminate beverage, decimate native wildlife and plant species, and transport quite 50 diseases, including rabies, hepatitis E, and brucellosis, an unsightly illness that causes recurring flu-like symptoms. Nearly 40 of the swine-held strains are often transmitted to humans. At an equivalent time, the species’ population, some 5 million and counting, has skyrocketed, largely due to its high rate of fecundity. Wild pigs can breed several times a year and birth up to 12 piglets per litter, making them the fastest reproductive machines of any animal in their weight and size class. They’re also not predated by any larger carnivorous animals, though cougars and alligators will kill one occasionally. On top of that, they’ll eat almost anything. “I’ve never seen a starving wild pig,” says John Tomecek, professor and extension wildlife specialist at Texas A&M; University. Foxes, coyotes, and other wild omnivores, sure, but never pigs. “They are an opportunistic omnivore and can always find a meal,” Tomecek adds. They’re also not restricted by habitat. While the species prefers shady areas near water within the summer to remain cool—contrary to the favored adage “sweating sort of a pig,” Tomecek says the animals don’t perspire and thus have a tough time staying cool—they are often found roaming and thriving in only about any terrain, including the desert. Attacks are rare The good news is that the majority of wild pigs would rather flee to safety instead of charge a person's. The last fatal pig encounter within the US was in Texas in 1996; there have been 14 round the world in 2015 and seven in 2018. But very similar to wild pig numbers themselves, attacks are on the increase. A study done by John J. Mayer, an environmental scientist at Savannah National Laboratory in South Carolina, found that from 1825 to 2012, 70 percent of confrontations occurred within the 21st century. Of 21 U.S. states with recorded attacks, Texas topped the list, which is sensible, as long as the state also has the most important population of untamed pigs within the country. Most of the attacks were also in rural areas. which will change, however, because the mammals spread to the suburbs. And while wild pigs look tons like their farm-dwelling counterparts, they're leaner and tougher, with coarser hair and longer tusks. they will weigh up to 350 pounds, be as long as five feet from snout to rump, and run up to 30 miles per hour. They even have excellent vision and are often active after dark, albeit they are not fully nocturnal. No matter the time of day, your chances of encounter increase while you're walking a dog, which, consistent with studies, swine seem to perceive as a threat. Approaching an injured or cornered pig or getting too on the brink of piglets also top the list of things to not do if you're hoping to avoid a run-in. What to try to to in an encounter When wild pigs do get aggressive, things can turn ugly. The animals tend to charge and maul their victims with their tusks, biting or goring legs and feet. and since they need such a lot of bacteria in their mouths, the infection may be a serious concern. To deter an attack upon spotting a hog provides it a good berth, Tomecek says. Often, this is often all that’s required to quell a violent encounter. If you see one nearby, it'll likely run and make its own speedy escape. If it doesn’t—possibly because it’s never encountered a person's or is content to wallow during a cool, muddy creek bed—just put much space between you and therefore the animal. Whatever you are doing, don’t attempt to get on the brink of, feed, pet, take photos of, or provoke the animal. “If you set them into a situation where they feel threatened, they're going to intensify and defend themselves,” Mayer explains. “If they're determined enough to affect this perceived threat, they're not getting to backtrack .” Read: If a wild hog wants to guard itself, it’s not letting you escape without a fight. That said, there are still ways to deescalate things. Once the swine starts running toward you, climb a tree, boulder, even a car or dumpster to urge out of the animal’s reach. attempt to get high: Pigs can't climb, but large ones can work their high a trunk with their front legs to succeed in objects that are several feet above the bottom. If there’s nothing tall nearby, run and sprint. You can’t outrun a wild pig, but during a best-case scenario, they’ll think they’ve neutralized the threat and provides up chasing. If not, “you’re probably certain a nasty day,” Mayer says. Use anything at your disposal—a tripod, walking stick, golf club—to fight back. Do your best to remain on your feet because “if you get knocked down, things get considerably worse real fast,” Mayer adds. Injuries that may have otherwise been relegated to the legs and feet could spread to the torso and face. Whether or not there’s a physical encounter, report the sighting to your local wildlife-management agency in order that they can trap or euthanize the invasive species. If you've got multiple run-ins (meaning the pigs are turning your backyard into a summer home), contact an equivalent agency for help removing them. Always get yourself some medical attention when coming in touch with the mammals to form sure no pathogens are transmitted. “[Feral hogs] are wild animals,” Mayer says—and you ought to always exercise caution around wild animals. So when heading outdoors, remember of your pig-friendly surroundings, keep your distance, and carry an enormous stick.

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The lion who didn’t want to look like a giraffe!

If lions are the ‘king of the jungle’, then leopards have gotten to be its ‘prince regent’! Powerful, athletic, graceful and stealthy, they're the epitome of an apex predator. Leopards are one among the foremost adaptable of all cats, having a wider distribution than the other large carnivore. the very fact that it's the foremost common large predator found in southern African fossil deposits, which go back 1-1.8 million years ago, pays tribute to the present adaptiveness. The word ‘leopard’ stems from the Greek words leōn (lion) and pardons (panther), and therefore the ancient belief is that it's a hybrid of both. Such a thought is, of course, the things of legend, with the lion and therefore the leopard having diverged from a shared common ancestor some 2-3 million years ago. the fashionable leopard emerged 470 000 to 825 000 years ago in Africa (different fossil dating methods give different results) with Asian populations believed to be descended from African leopards, founded in an out of-Africa dispersal event. Globally their range spans both hemispheres, where they will be found in a minimum of 80 countries. they're ready to occupy a highly diverse array of habitats, occurring at elevations starting from water level to five 700m. Their ability to inhabit such a spread of habitats is attributed primarily to their Catholic diet. Leopards aren't fussy eaters. they're going to feed on anything from relatively large antelope, to rodents, fish and even dung beetles. Strictly solitary – apart from a female with cubs – leopards are possibly the foremost elusive of all big cats. Melting in and out of the shadows of their thicket homes, it's often only the flick of a white-tipped tail, or the alarm call of a squirrel, that catches your attention, so well camouflaged, are they. Researchers at the University of Bristol have recently concluded that cats living in dense habitats and active at low light levels are the foremost likely to be patterned, especially with particularly irregular or complex patterns. this means that detailed aspects of patterning evolve for camouflage. the same, but much more entertaining version, are often found in Rudyard Kipling’s with great care Stories. “But the leopard, he was the ‘exclusives sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all… and he matched the ‘exclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish color of the Highveld to at least one hair. “And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows, who lived on the Highveld with the leopard; and therefore the two wont to hunt together.” Eventually, the remainder of the animals wised up to the present and moved to the “great forest, ‘exclusively filled with trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blotchy shadows, and there they hid”. Leopard now showed “up during this dark place sort of a bar of soap during a coal-scuttle” and was unable to catch any food because his element of surprise was lost. Eventually taking the recommendation of the baboon he agreed he needed to blend in better… “‘I’ll take spots, then,’ said the Leopard; ‘but don’t make ‘em too vulgar-big. I wouldn’t wish to appear as if a giraffe – not forever so’. ‘I’ll make ‘em with the ideas of my fingers,’ said the Ethiopian. Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers approximate and dipped them into coal and pressed all of them over the leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five little black marks, all close together”… “if you look closely at any Leopard now you'll see that there are always five spots – off five finger-tips.”! Those rosette patterns are to leopards what fingerprints are to humans; unique individual identifiers that allow researchers to get identification kits to assist them in their work. As an adjunct to their protective coloration, leopards even have well-developed senses. Large forward-facing eyes provide them with sight to work out distance accurately. the massive pupils allow abundant light to enter, making it possible to ascertain during dark nights. The narrow reference point found below their eyes helps reflect light into the eyes for improved night-sight – a leopard’s night-sight is the maximum amount as eight times better than that of humans. Leopards have an acute sense of hearing and smell, and long whiskers (more correctly referred to as vibrissae), which permit the leopard to interpret the planet around it tactilely. Whiskers are present during a sort of place on a leopard’s body, but most blatant are the macro vibrissae which are situated on the edges of the muzzle. they're noticeably longer than the opposite hairs covering the body and are made from sturdier keratin. From tip to tip these macro vibrissae are about as wide because of the leopard’s body. the knowledge fed via these vibrissae is crucial to the success of a leopard’s hunt, facilitating as silent an approach as possible through the dense vegetation; ending during a successful stalk and pounce capture, albeit sometimes only by a whisker!

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Why turkeys circle dead things—the creepy vigil, explained

Back in 2017, the 'net became briefly hooked into a video of turkeys holding a weird, circular vigil round the corpse of an unfortunate cat within the street. Two years later, the video has started circulating again—those dead birds are back, baby, and they are better than ever. There's certainly something compelling about what seems to be an avian black mass afoot. But what's really happening, consistent with a 2017 blog post from the National Wild Turkey Federation's Mark Hatfield, has more in common with an Instagram influencer's half-hearted attempt at a full-of-the-moon ritual than any true witchery. In Hatfield's words, “turkeys are very basic.” The birds, Hatfield explained are just keeping their distance while deciding whether or not the extremely dead cat in question could be a threat. Hatfield's colleague Tom Hughes alleged to National Geographic at the time that the behavior of the cat, whether it had been fully dead or still dying, may have struck the birds as strange and prompted an investigation. The circular nature of their march is simply a result of their instinct to remain within the security of their flock. In other words, what seems like extremely ominous behavior to human eyes is really just a bunch of birds who can't decide how scared they ought to be of roadkill. It's also possible they've totally moved on from examining or trying to intimidate the feline, and instead, have kind of forgotten why they're following each other. "It's commonplace for them to urge into those dances where they chase one another around," California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Scott Gardner told The Verge back in 2017. Given the sort-of-pathetic reality behind this almost-super-hardcore behavior, you would possibly end up wondering: just how stupid are turkeys? the solution is: not particularly stupid. Even domesticated turkeys, which are bred into a fat and helpless existence so we'd feast upon their subpar flesh once or twice a year, don't deserve their bad reputation. the thought that these birds are so unintelligent that they will drown within the rain is definitely debunked. a minimum of some turkey owners swears they have been ready to train their flocks to reply to herding and anticipate feeding times. nobody goes to urge a turkey to unravel a puzzle or play fetch, but they manage to call at the planet just fine. And simply because turkeys are susceptible to lose hours of their lives running in a circle around a cat corpse doesn't suggest you should not take them seriously. they will actually be quite terrifying. Because wild turkeys rely heavily on establishing and maintaining so-called pecking orders within their flocks, any animal that acts frightened of them is susceptible to get bullied. Humans are not any exception, and other people who interact with wild turkeys without working to determine dominance—making loud noises, throwing tennis balls, wielding a squirt gun—can find themselves in trouble. During wild turkey breeding season especially, male turkeys are known to urge aggressive with other animals (or reflective surfaces). Once a bird gets bold, it is often hard to reestablish your own dominance—which can eventually cause animals growing violent enough that animal control has got to step in. So while it'd seem rude (or just unnecessary) to run into your yard yodeling and waving a brush whenever a flock of turkeys starts messing together with your bird feeder, you're actually doing them a favor by keeping them scared of humans. So pack up any tempting seeds or crops in your yard, set a sprig bottle by the door, and canopy all the mirrors: these creepy fowl won't be summoning demons within the streets, but you'll end up with a requirement to exorcise them.

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Why elephants munch more acacia in cool weather

Temperature strongly affects the give-and-take relationship between acacia trees on the African savanna and their carnivorous and protectors, research finds. New research shows that these ant-protected plants are far more susceptible to becoming the snack of herbivores during the cool hours of early morning and evening. “I only saw elephants feed on these acacia trees within the cold mornings,” says Ryan Tamashiro, a researcher at the University of Florida and lead author of the paper in Ecology. “I thought it had been interesting since elephants are eating machines, and these trees looked pretty tasty. I discussed that the ant defense could also be temperature-dependent to Dr. (Todd) Palmer, and from there we began to ascertain if it had been true.” The researchers conducted the study at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya, where they checked out four species of ants, Crematogaster mimosae, C. nigriceps, C. sjostedti, and Tetraponera Benziger, living on acacia trees, which give the ants with nectar and domatia, little quarters within the acacia’s thorns. Although large animals like elephants, zebra, and giraffe prey on acacia, the researchers used Somali goats to simulate eating patterns from dawn to mid-day and focused on the foremost aggressive ant species, Crematogaster mimosae. “We chose goats because they're widespread browsers throughout East Africa, and share feeding adaptations with native herbivores like Steinbeck and kudu, like narrow muzzles and high crowned teeth, says Palmer, a professor of biology. “And in fact, goats are much easier to wrangle than a 200-pound kudu.” The researchers wanted to answer two questions: 1. How does the temperature of the acacia branches affect the activity of every ant species? 2) What are the results of variable activity within the commonest ant species against a model browser throughout the day? They checked out 15 trees for every ant species, measuring from sunrise to sunset the number of ants that attack a glove disturbing the tree and learned that the higher defending species also had the most important changes in activity over the day. From rock bottom temperatures to the very best, the amount of Crematogaster mimosae ants attacking the glove increased over five-fold. In a second experiment, the researchers used eight hungry goats that had the prospect to feed on trees defended by ants and one with the ants removed. When introduced to plants without ants, the animals chowed down fast throughout the day. When introduced to trees with ants, the goats’ behavior changed throughout the day. within the cold mornings, the goats fed as if the tree didn't have ants and took fewer bites because the branches—and their ant defenders—began to warm up. The ants perform best during the hotter, daytime temperatures, discouraging the goats by biting near their eyes, nose, and mouth. “It may be a little bit of a stretch to mention a goat will answer ants within the very same way as a giraffe or elephant. Giraffes grab the branches with their long tongues and strip the leaves off branches. Elephants will do an equivalent with their trunks but can destroy entire parts of the cover,” Tamashiro says. “Still, there are natural browsers just like the "> just like the steinbock that pick at individual leaves like the goats.” “Employing ants may be a great defensive strategy for a plant since ants can attack enemies both large and little,” Palmer says. “But our study points out a very important caveat since the activity of ants is tied to environmental temperature. So when it’s cold out, these plants are basically sitting ducks for herbivores, which may be a pretty significant cost for this plant defense strategy.”

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Chimpanzees Are Going Through a Tragic Loss

Imagine that an alien species landed on Earth and, through their mere presence, those aliens caused our art to fade, our music to homogenize, and our technological know-how to disappear. that's effectively what humans are doing to our closest relatives—chimpanzees. Back in 1999, a team of scientists led by Andrew Whiten (and including Jane Goodall) showed that chimpanzees from different parts of Africa behave very differently from each other. Some groups use sticks to extract honey, while others use those self-same tools to fish for ants. Some would get each other’s attention by rapping branches with their knuckles, while others did it by loudly ripping leaves with their teeth. The team identified 39 of those traditions that are practiced by some communities but not others—a pattern that, at the time, hadn’t been seen in any animal except humans. it had been evidence, the team said, that chimps have their own cultures. It took an extended time to convince skeptics that such cultures exist, but now we've many samples of animals learning local traditions from each other. Some orangutans blow raspberries at one another before they are going to bed. One dolphin learned to tail-walk from captive individuals and spread that trick to its own wild peers once released. Humpbacks and other whales have distinctive calls and songs in several seas. And chimps still stand out with “one of the foremost impressive cultural repertoires of nonhuman animals,” says Ammie Kalan, of the Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. But just when many scientists have come to simply accept the existence of animal cultures, many of these cultures might vanish. Kalan and her colleagues have shown, through years of intensive fieldwork, that the very presence of humans has eroded the range of chimpanzee behavior. Where we flourish, their cultures shrivel. it's a bitterly ironic thing to find out on the 20th anniversary of Whiten’s classic study. “It’s amazing to think that just 60 years ago, we knew next to zilch of the behavior of our sister species within the wild,” Whiten says. “But now, even as we are truly going to know our primate cousins, the actions of humans are closing the window on all we've discovered.” “Sometimes within the rush to conserve the species, I feel we ditch the individuals,” says Cat Hobaiter, a primatologist at the University of St. Andrews. “Each population, each community, even each generation of chimpanzees is exclusive . an occasion might only have a little impact on the entire population of chimpanzees, but it's going to wipe out a whole community—an entire culture. regardless of what we do to revive habitat or support increase, we may never be ready to restore that culture.” Since 2010, Kalan has been performing on the Pan African Programme, an intensive effort to catalog chimp behavior in 46 sites across the species’ entire range, led by Hjalmar Kühl, Christophe Boesch, and Mimi Arandjelovic. At each site, the team checked whether chimps were completing any of 31 different behaviors, including many from Whiten’s original list, and a few that had only been recently discovered. “We had things like termite fishing, and fishing, algae fishing, stone-throwing, leaf clipping, using sticks as marrow picks, using caves, bathing, and nut-cracking,” Kalan says. After all this work, the team showed that chimps living in areas most suffering from humans were 88 percent less likely to point out anybody of the 31 behaviors than those living within the most unaffected regions. “However we divided the info, we got an equivalent very obvious pattern,” Kalan says. It’s hard to prove a negative, though, and it’s always possible that the chimps were up to their old tricks without the team noticing. But the Pan African Programme team filmed the apes using camera traps, to capture behavior without disturbing the animals. It checked surely traditions by trying to find discarded tools or checking for specific foods among the apes’ poop. And it scored the chimps generously: albeit it only saw a specific behavior once, it recorded the behavior as being present. If anything, the new results underestimate the extent to which humans suppress chimpanzee cultures. Such suppression isn’t deliberate. Chimpanzees and other apes learn skills and customs from each other, and people chains of tradition depend upon having enough individuals to find out from. So when humans kill chimps for bushmeat, they aren’t just killing individuals—they also are destroying opportunities for the survivors to find out new things. once they fragment the forests during which chimps live, they’re stopping the flow of ideas between populations. The primatologist Carel van Schaik wrote about these problems in 2002 after studying orangutans, and he predicted then that “major traditional erosion is to be expected altogether great apes.” “I realized that testing the hypothesis would be extremely difficult,” van Schaik says, but “thanks to the gargantuan efforts by this team, we have the primary data, and that they appear to totally confirm the model. It’s a really impressive study.” And it’s worrying, he adds, because many of those cultural behaviors aren’t arbitrary. They’re adaptations, and their loss could push an already species even closer to extinction. No one knows whether the hemorrhage of chimp culture is getting worse. Few places have tracked chimp behavior over long periods, and people that have also are more likely to possess protected their animals from human influence. And “not all human impacts are an equivalent,” cautions Hobaiter, the University of St. Andrews primatologist. Clearing forests for vegetable oil is extremely different from sustainably employing a forest as a food source. The Pan African Programme team clumped many indicators of human presence into one metric, but teasing them apart is vital. “Long-term conservation approaches are only getting to be effective through the support and leadership of the local communities who live there,” Hobaiter says. In some cases, the presence of individuals might create new traditions to exchange those on the team’s list. In Bossou, Guinea, chimps have started drinking the wine that's fermented on palm trees. In other areas, they’ve taken to raiding human crops. “If you’re getting tons of energy from high-nutrition human foods, you don’t need to spend half your day breaking nuts,” Kalan says. There’s certainly evidence that chimps can adapt to the presence of humans—but can they innovate quickly enough to catch up on the loss of their old ways? Even if they will, isn’t that also a tragedy? We care about the loss of our own cultures. We work to document languages that are going extinct. We store old art in museums. We establish heritage sites to guard our cultural and historical treasures. It seems shortsighted—unimaginative, even—to be so concerned with our own traditions, but so blasé about those of our closest cousins, especially when we’ve barely begun to appreciate how rich their cultural landscape is often. Parts of that landscape could be lost before anyone realizes why it exists. In 2016, the Pan African Programme team reported that some West African chimpanzees habitually throw stones against an equivalent tree, creating buildups of rocks that are like human cairns. nobody knows why they are doing this. “We’re still investigating it,” Kalan says. “And we'd be running out of your time .” Other animals also are likely losing their ancestral knowledge at our hands. When poachers kill an elephant matriarch, they also kill her memories of hidden water sources and anti-lion tactics, leaving her family during a more precarious place. When moose and bighorn were exterminated from parts of the U.S., their generations-old awareness of the simplest migration routes died with them. Relocated individuals, who were meant to replenish the once-lost populations, didn’t know where to travel, then did not migrate. These discoveries mean that conservationists got to believe saving species during a completely new way—by preserving animal traditions also as bodies and genes. “Instead of focusing only on the conservation of genetically based entities like species, we now got to also consider culturally-based entities,” says Whiten, who made an identical argument last week during a paper co-written with many scholars of animal cultures. Kalan and therefore the Pan African Programme team even think that conservationists should recognize places connected with unique traditions as chimpanzee cultural-heritage sites. “When we encounter a nut-cracking site that’s been used for several generations, that site is a component of the cultural heritage of this one population of chimps,” Kalan says. an equivalent concept might apply to orangutans, whales, and other cultured creatures. “What we've learned about culture also can be applied to how we conserve animals,” Whiten adds. When people raised endangered whooping cranes in captivity, that they had to point out the naive birds the way to migrate by hopping into ultralight aircraft and showing them the way. “Where animals are to be reintroduced to areas during which they earlier became extinct, we've to form special efforts to reinstate the cultural knowledge they lost,”

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We need to stop letting our pets get fat

When I checked out my appointment calendar for the day, I assumed something must be wrong. Someone who worked within the fitness industry was bringing his cat into the Tufts Obesity Clinic for Animals. Did he confuse us for a special quite weight management clinic? Is he looking to urge muscle on his cat or even kitty protein shakes? I was utterly surprised once I involved my appointment within the lobby and an athletic man stood up with an almost 20-pound cat! I asked if I could speak bluntly with him. Why does someone who clearly knows tons about keeping healthy got to bring his cat to a veterinary nutritionist? What would he say if the cat was one among the people he helps to stay fit every day? Our conversation then went something like this… “Well, I’d tell her, suck it up, buttercup. Do some kitty pushups and no more treats!” “Well, I even have to ask, then, what’s stopping you from doing this together with your cat?” With a worried look of guilt on his face, he replied, “Well, Dr. Linder, I mean… she meows at me…” This was the instant I noticed that I used to be treating pet obesity all wrong. I needed to focus less on the pet and more on the connection between people and their pets. That’s what’s literally cutting the lives in need of the dogs and cats we love such a lot. An obese pet isn’t a cheerful pet As with humans, obesity in pets is at epidemic proportions. Over half the dogs and cats around the globe battle the bulge. While overweight pets might not face an equivalent social stigma as humans, medical and emotional damage is being done all an equivalent. Obesity in animals can cause complications in almost every system within the body, with conditions starting from diabetes to osteoarthritis. Owners often say they don’t care if their pet is “fat”—there’s just more of them to love! It’s my job to then allow them to know there’s less time to supply that love. A landmark lifespan study showed Labradors who were 10-20 percent overweight—not even obese, which is usually defined as greater than 20 percent—lived a median 1.8 years shorter than their trim ideal weight counterparts. Another study shows that obesity indeed has emotional consequences for pets. Overweight pets have worse scores in vitality, quality of life, pain, and affective disorder. However, the great news is those values can improve with weight loss. Furthermore, humans struggle to succeed even within the best conditions—and so do pets. In one study, dogs on a weight-loss program were only successful 63 percent of the time. Showing love through food So where exactly is that the problem? Are foods too high in calories? Are pets not getting enough exercise? Is it genetics? Or can we just fall for those puppy dog eyes and overfeed them because they need actually trained us (not the opposite way around!)? From my experience at the pet obesity clinic, I can tell you it’s a touch of all of the above. It seems veterinarians and pet owners could also be a touch behind the curve compared to our human counterparts. Studies show that it doesn’t really matter what approach to weight loss most humans take – as long as they stick with it. But many in medicine focus more on traditional diet and exercise plans, and fewer on adherence or the rationale these pets may become obese to start with. (This should be easy, right? The dogs aren’t opening the fridge door themselves!) However, the sector is beginning to understand that pet obesity is far more about the human-animal bond than the food bowl. In 2014, I worked among a gaggle of fellow pet obesity experts organized by the American Animal Hospital Association to publish new weight management guidelines, recognizing that the human-animal bond must be addressed. is that the pet owner able to make changes and overcome challenges that may hamper their pet’s weight loss? One interesting editorial review compared parenting styles to pet ownership. As pet owners, we treat our cats and dogs more like relations. There’s a deeper emotional and psychological bond that wasn't as common when the family dog was just the family dog. If vets can spot an overindulgent pet parent, perhaps we will help them develop strategies to avoid expressing love through food. A healthier relationship Managing obesity in pets would require veterinarians, physicians and psychologists to figure together. Many veterinary schools and hospitals now employ social workers who help veterinarians understand the social aspect of the human-animal bond and the way it impacts the pet’s care. for instance, a dog owner who has lost a spouse and shares a frozen dessert treat nightly with their dog could also be trying to exchange a practice they wont to cherish with their spouse. A caseworker with a psychology background could help prepare an idea that respects the owner’s bond with their pet without negatively impacting the pet’s health. Tips and tricks for pet weight loss Having trouble together with your own pet's weight loss? Here are some troubleshooting strategies to undertake Problem Solution My pet begs all the time. First, ask your vet, but if you’re meeting your pet’s calorie and nutrient requirements, your pet may think they have quite they do! Also, try substituting treat times for other social activities, like grooming or walking. Finally, you'll divide up some of the diets to use as treats rather than meals, or divide the food into more frequent, smaller meals. My pet cries all night: Cats especially wish to erode night, so I found out feedings right before bedtime. found out automatic timed feeders to travel off during the night. Or provide hidden toys or treats that your pets can search for throughout the night. Also, confirm you don’t reward the behavior attentively or food. Either put an idea in motion to avoid it entirely, or ignore it, but never reward it. My pet steals other pets' food: Consider separate meal feeding options. Talk together with your vet to ascertain if there's one food you'll feed to all or any pets within the house if possible. you'll offer food puzzles to hamper and separate feedings or try products that restrict food access supported a programmable collar. My pet won't eat the new food: Gradually introduce a replacement of food over one week. Offer the new food side-by-side with the present diet, with the gradual removal of the standard food. If that does not help, talk together with your vet about diet alternatives with different textures and moisture content. you'll also try using treats for up to 10 percent of the general calories, as a palatability enhancer. Avoid offering alternatives if the pet skips a meal; however, don't allow cats to travel longer than 24 hours without consuming any meals. The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: Tufts Clinical Nutrition Service

At our obesity clinic at Tufts, physicians, nutritionists, and veterinarians are working together to develop joint pet and pet owner weight-loss programs. we would like to place together a healthy physical activity program, so pet owners and their dogs can both improve their health and strengthen their bond. We also created a pet owner education website with additional strategies for weight loss and pet nutrition. Programs that strengthen and support the human-animal bond without adding calories are going to be critical to preserve the loving relationship that's the rationale why we adopt our pets, but also keep us from literally loving them to death by overfeeding. Hopefully, we will start to chip away at the notion that “food is love” for our pets.

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Botswana Lifts Its Ban On Elephant Hunting

Botswana's government is lifting a ban that protected its elephants from being hunted, a part of a series of selections that would have lasting impacts on the country's conservation efforts. In a letter to reporters, the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism mentioned elephants as predators and said their numbers "appear to possess increased." It said a subcommittee found that conflicts between humans and elephants had risen, harming livestock and therefore the livelihoods of Botswana's people. The announcement marked a pointy departure from the policies of former President Ian Khama, who suspended elephant hunting after data showed the population in decline. The ban took effect in 2014 but didn't stop hunting in registered game ranches. In May, Botswana's newly elected president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, made international headlines for giving three African leaders stools made from elephant feet. In June, he requested a review of the ban on hunting elephants. His study group recommended "regular but limited elephant culling," additionally to establishing elephant meat canning for pet food and other products. Among other conclusions, it recommended the govt expand Botswana's safari hunting industry. Authorities said Thursday that the govt accepted all recommendations except the regular culling of elephants and therefore the establishment of meat canning. "This was rejected because culling isn't considered acceptable given the general continental status of elephants. Rather, a more sustainable method like selective cropping should be used," the govt said. Conservationists around the world took to social media to denounce the government's reversal on elephant hunting. "Horrific beyond imagination," said Paula Kahumbu, CEO of the Kenya-based WildlifeDirect. She said hunting was an archaic thanks to addressing the issues of living with megafauna. "Africa, we are better than this," she tweeted. German organization Pro Wildlife wrote that hunting was a bloody sport, "#cruel, outdated, unethical and sometimes undermining" conservation. Other groups celebrated Botswana's announcement, including Safari Club International, a U.S.-based organization that supports regulated trophy hunting. President Paul Babaz called it "heartening" during a statement. "These findings clearly show that hunting bans actually hurt wildlife conservation; hunting is that the key to providing the required revenue to fund anti-poaching efforts and on-the-ground conservation research," he said. Fewer than 400 elephant licenses are going to be granted annually, the govt of Botswana announced on Twitter Thursday. It said it had been planning for "strategically placed human-wildlife conflict fences" and compensation for damage caused by wildlife. All migratory routes for animals that aren't considered "beneficial" to Botswana's conservation efforts are going to be closed, including an antelope route to South Africa. Northern Botswana is home to Africa's largest elephant population, consistent with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The population grew steadily from 80,000 in 1996 to 129,000 in 2014. It happened as habitat loss and poaching devastated elephant populations across Africa. Between 2010 and 2012 alone, poachers slaughtered 100,000 African elephants, National Geographic reported. Last September, the carcasses of 87 elephants were found on the brink of a protected sanctuary in Botswana. that they had been killed for his or her tusks.

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Plan to remove gray wolves from Endangered Species Act sparks battle

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmentalists are at war over the agency's latest decision to strip gray wolves of their federal protections and switch management of the often-reviled predators over to states and tribes. "If the agency's proposal gets finalized, we'll see them in court," Michael Robinson, a spokesman for the middle for Biological Diversity said on Wednesday. "Delisting is just out of the question." Surprisingly, however, within the latest chapter of a long-running battle to stay an estimated 6,000 gray wolves safe from trophy hunters and trappers, the middle and therefore the Humane Society of us are suggesting a compromise. "We are proposing an alternate path forward - downlisting the grey wolf from federally endangered to threatened status," said Brett Hartl, an attorney with the middle for Biological Diversity. That action, he said, "would maintain federal protections the animal must survive in certain areas while allowing states to share management oversight." His organization doesn't oppose state management of wolves, but it does oppose hunting wolves for sport, he said. "Free-for-all hunting of wolves isn't management, it's slaughter." Similarly, Nick Arrivo, an attorney with the Humane Society of us, said, "We don't oppose the thought of state management. the matter is that certain states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan have shown that they're not inclined to take care of healthy populations of gray wolves." Federal wildlife authorities removed protections from gray wolves within the Great Lakes region in 2011, allowing thousands of gray wolves in those three states to be hunted or trapped. The protections were restored by court decisions in 2014. The prospect of removing wolf protections aroused rage once earlier this month when the Fish and Wildlife Service touted the species' recovery as "one of the best comebacks for an animal in U.S. conservation history," a characterization that some conservation groups called misguided and premature. David Bernhardt, acting secretary of the Department of Interior, said the decide to delist the species "puts us one step closer to transitioning the extraordinary effort that we've invested in timber wolf recovery to other species who really need the protection of the species Act, leaving the states to hold on the legacy of wolf conservation." However, the Humane Society, during a statement, warned that the plan catered "to a narrow group of special interests: the trophy hunters and trappers who want to kill wolves for bragging rights, social media opportunities and to extend deer and elk populations." It acknowledged, as an example, that in November, "Americans were heartbroken" by the killing of the famous Yellowstone black wolf, Spitfire, by a trophy hunter in Montana. It also argued that gray wolves are worth many dollars to the economies of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, studies show, due to the visitors they attract to national parks within the northern Rockies. Beyond that, animal protectionists say, gray wolves were slain for his or her fur or bragging rights cause suffering and social disruption among these highly organized and rare creatures. At stake may be a federal recovery program designed to bring gray wolves back to the highest of the organic phenomenon in much of the nation's public lands. With wolf packs now loping through a patchwork of forests from Michigan to Lassen County, Calif., significant repercussions are being recorded throughout the region's wildlife hierarchy. Before they were vanquished by government-backed poison-and-trapping campaigns within the 19th and 20th centuries, wolves thrived in nearly every region of North America. Once numbering within the millions, only 6,000 wolves are left within the Lower 48 and as many as 12,000 in Alaska, where they're legally hunted as game. Their absence disrupted the natural predator-and-prey relationships throughout the Rocky Mountain region and resulted during a population explosion of deer and elk. The species is merely starting to recover in other areas, like Oregon, Washington, and California, where a couple roams in and out of the Lassen County area. In California, the grey wolf is listed as a state species. In any case, gray wolves occupy a little fraction of their historic range. Scientists say a comprehensive recovery plan encouraging their return to acceptable habitats is significant to restoring the natural rhythms of life among countless other animal and plant species that evolved with them. "Wolves are vital to their ecosystems, but thousands of square miles of still-wild habitat haven't felt a wolf's paw for a century," Robinson said. "True wolf recovery will cause healthier deer herds, leftover carrion for bears, eagles and badgers, and natural control of coyotes with resulting benefits for foxes and other small mammals."

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Snake On A Plane: Unsuspecting Woman Traveling From Australia Brings A Passenger

A woman who had returned to Scotland after vacationing in Australia didn't know she had hauled home a serpentine stowaway until she reached into her suitcase to unpack and encountered a snake coiled within a shoe, consistent with her family. The Scottish SPCA, an animal welfare charity, confirmed to NPR in an email that one among its rescue officers recovered the snake at a property in Bridge of Allan, a town located about 30 miles northeast of Glasgow. "When I arrived, the snake had been contained by the caller, so I safely removed the snake from the property," animal rescue officer Taylor Johnstone said in an emailed statement. Upon examination, Johnstone said the snake decided to be a spotted python, which isn't venomous. But how is it that the python aroused some 9,000 miles from its home down under? Australia's ABC News spoke to the woman's son-in-law, Paul Airlie, who said she thought she had seen a snake slithering in her room within the middle of the night during a family visit in Mackay, a city on the East Coast in Queensland, but a subsequent check yielded nothing. A few days later, Airlie said, his wife, Sarah, helped her mother close up, but little did they know the shoe placed within the suitcase contained an occupant to surprise the lady when she got home on Friday. "She actually thought that Sarah and that I had put a fake snake in her shoe to wind her up, so initially she thought it had been a joke until she touched it and it moved," Airlie told the news outlet. ABC News says the lady brought the shoe outside and covered it with a box until help showed up. Australian Geographic calls Australia "a paradise for pythons," home to quite a dozen species. Spotted pythons are one among Australia's smallest pythons, notes the Australia Zoo, growing to touch quite 4 feet. They favor woodlands and shrubs as habitat. And despite their small size, they're known for ambush attacks on prey including small mammals, birds, and lizards.

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Woman Breaks Into Houston Home To Smoke Pot And Is Greeted By A Tiger

A tiger alarmed a lady who was sneaking into a seemingly abandoned Houston home to smoke marijuana on Monday. Now it's found a replacement home of its own. The Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, a sanctuary located about 200 miles north of Houston, announced on Tuesday it had been welcoming the tiger, consistent with Lara Cottingham, spokeswoman for Houston's Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department, which oversees the city's animal shelter that had been caring for the animal. Cottingham told NPR on Tuesday that the tiger was on the way to its new home. If you are still trapped on the would-be-smoker-stumbling-across-an-actual-tiger-part, let's copy. The woman, who is remaining anonymous, told police she had gone into the house during a residential a part of East Houston when she found the unexpected inhabitant, said Houston police spokesman Kese Smith. Fortunately for the lady, the tiger was locked inside a 4-feet-by-8-feet cage within the garage. She called 311, the city's nonemergency line, and animal enforcement officers showed up alongside Houston police, who obtained a warrant enabling them to succeed in the tiger. Despite its tight quarters the tiger was apparently healthy and appeared to are fed regularly. Officials just do not know by whom. Houston police have launched a criminal probe to seek out the tiger's still-unidentified owner. "It is categorically not legal to have a tiger within the Houston city limits," Smith said. Animal cruelty charges might be involved. "We are working to work out who owns the tiger and who owns the property because which will or might not be an equivalent person." the lady isn't in trouble, Smith added. The animal officers, who are more familiar with handling dogs and cats of the smaller variety, tranquilized the tiger, loaded its cage into a horse trailer and drove it across town to the town shelter Monday, Cottingham said. The tiger slept off the drugs and seemed in good spirits by Tuesday morning. And while seeing confined tigers — except at the zoo — is exceedingly rare, Cottingham said, the town did receive a call about another pet tiger a few years ago. "People think it's cool to possess an exotic pet," Cottingham said, conceding that a baby tiger looks adorably harmless, "but it's now very large and hungry and expensive to stay and it needs tons of space and it can become dangerous." Cottingham noted that this Houston tiger's story has a happy ending with its upgrade from a garage cage to the sanctuary in Murchison, Texas, which comes with expert care. "We are really glad it figured out as quickly because it did," Cottingham said.

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The Animals That Taste Only Saltiness

Taste plays a crucial function for many animals far beyond enriching their culinary experiences. At its most elementary level, it’s a last-ditch defense against poison, telling the eater whether to swallow or spit out a mouthful of probably lethal material. Humans can detect five primary tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (sometimes called “savory”). These sensations are useful indicators of whether a food is nutritious (sweet, salty, and umami), spoiled (sour), or toxic (bitter). Until recently scientists believed nearly all mammals shared these same basic tastes. But new research suggests that the story isn't that straightforward for instance, some rodents can taste a nutrient we cannot: starches. Other mammals appear to possess lost the power to detect certain flavors. In 2005, one paper reported that cats couldn’t taste sweetness. Their genes that code for taste receptors had mutated, making them unable to bind to sweet molecules. In 2012, another study found that seven carnivorous species, including spotted hyenas, sea lions, and bottlenose dolphins, had also lost their “sweet tooths,” through different mutations. This had repeatedly and independently arisen throughout carnivore evolution just because the trait was not needed. Since these animals evolved to eat meat, they didn’t get to develop a taste for sweet food like fruit. “When the animals weren't consuming sugar to survive, there was a relaxation of evolutionary selection,” explains Dr. Gary Beauchamp, lead author of the study and director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “When a mutation came along that made the receptor not work, that animal was even as likely to survive together that didn’t have the mutation.” This particular study further suggested that bottlenose dolphins had also lost the power to detect umami and bitterness. A study published last month expanded on Beauchamp’s bottlenose research. The scientists analyzed the genomes of 15 different whale and dolphin species and located that they had all lost genes necessary for sensing four out of 5 primary tastes, probably around 36 to 53 million years ago. Only the genes connected to salty detection remained functional. A similar but opposite phenomenon is believed to possess occurred with the enormous panda: It lost its taste for umami, which is connected with protein when it evolved from eating meat to bamboo. The extensive loss of just about the whole spectrum of tastes came as an enormous surprise. “We didn't know four of 5 basic tastes could are lost; we thought animals would die without basic tastes,” says Huabin Zhao, one of the study authors. “We thought the bottle-nosed dolphin [lacking sweet, umami, and bitter sensitivity] was an isolated case.” Such dulled taste might be dangerous. If toxic substances spill into the ocean and poison their prey, whales and dolphins won't be ready to detect the danger. Zhao suggests this could be why orcas are known to accidentally migrate into oil spills or why dolphins seem to eat fish loaded with algal toxins caused by fertilizer runoff. So how can these animals survive without four of the five tastes? Zhao offers three possible explanations. First, whales and dolphins tend to swallow their prey whole, and since most taste is released by chewing, the taste receptors won't be needed. Second, the high concentration of sodium within the ocean water could mask other tastes, thereby making it unimportant. Finally, it would need to do with the first, land-dwelling ancestors of cetaceans, the group that has whales and dolphins. These small, furry land animals had been plant-eaters before becoming fully aquatic, and that they may have lost some sorts of taste for an equivalent reason other carnivores did. “A dietary switch from plants to meat within the whale ancestor may account for the main loss of sweet and bitter tastes because meat contains little sweet and bitter compounds,” Zhao says. He points out that an identical but opposite phenomenon is believed to possess occurred with the enormous panda: It lost its taste for umami, which is connected with protein when it evolved from eating meat to bamboo. this might even be why the manatee—which also returned from land to water—kept its ability to taste, says Beauchamp. It still eats plants. Seeing as cetaceans lack such a lot of the variability of flavor available to most other mammals, there’s also an issue of what keeps them motivated to stay eating. John Glendinning, a biology professor at Barnard, hypothesizes that whales and dolphins are influenced by other factors that “reward” them for feeding. Perhaps the “post-oral stimulation of feeding,” or the positive feeling they get as nutrients get digested, drives them to stay hunting. Another possibility might be that they need other taste genes, not yet known to science. “It’s very possible that there are receptors that we haven’t yet discovered,” Glendinning says. “We can’t quite conclude with certainty that these animals don’t taste anything. But it’s certainly true that if they're [tasting], they aren’t using the regular suspects.”

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Not all dogs eat poop, but the ones that do like it fresh

Dogs are scavengers. As many dog owners know to their cost, dogs often have a penchant for things that we discover but palatable. If it’s not counter or table surfing, it'd be raiding the kitchen rubbish bin or snacking on rich pickings from the park, street, or elsewhere. Occasionally, those rich pickings include poo, much to the disgust of the many owners. That poo is often from a variety of species (birds, horses, rabbits, cattle, sheep, deer, and in my very own dogs’ case, cat poo may be a particular favorite). But sometimes, dogs have a desire to consume either their own or other dogs’ feces. This behavior is named coprophagy, literally translated as “feces eating” and, unsurprisingly, many dog owners don’t love it. Ironically, dogs are often fastidious at keeping their sleeping areas clean by removing their feces. Dogs also will actively avoid areas contaminated with poo from other dogs. this is often probably an innate behavior that has evolved to stop the spread of disease. So as long as eating poo does carry disease risk, why do dogs do it? A recent study has shed further light on the topic and will help us manage the behavior. First, it seems that not all dogs eat each other’s poo. The study found that only 16% of quite 1,000 dog owners surveyed saw their dogs consume canine feces a minimum of sixfold or more (the study’s definition of coprophagy). And 77% recorded never seeing their pets eat other dogs’ poo. The research showed that several key factors appear to possess no effect on whether your dog may be a poo-eater. These included age, gender, whether the dog has been spayed or neutered, whether it had been housetrained, whether it had been weaned or far away from its mother early, and what the remainder of its diet was like. Evidence also suggests that the plethora of products designed to stop or treat coprophagy, or punishing your dog for eating poo, haven't any effect on reducing the behavior. Instead, the recent study suggests the simplest thanks to predicting whether a dog eats feces is what proportion access to poo they need. this is often particularly the case if the feces are fresh, with over 80% of coprophagic dogs only consuming poo but two days old. It seems that keeping your dog faraway from fresh poo is the best strategy for stopping them from eating it. this is often yet one more reason to market regular poo picking and responsible dog ownership, both reception and out walking. In the survey, dogs described as “greedy” and people in households with two or more dogs were more likely to be coprophagic. Terriers and hounds were also more likely to be coprophagic, as were Shetland sheepdogs, with 41% of these within the study recorded as eating poo. Poodles, on the opposite hand, seemed to defy their name and shun the practice. Yet none of this explains why certain dogs will eat poo if they will. it'd simply be that some dogs love it and have learned, either accidentally or with intent, to consume feces. Perhaps dogs roll in the hay if their owners or other dogs they are available into contact with showing a specific interest in feces. After all, we all know that dogs often synchronize their behavior with their owners (though it’s unlikely that the majority of affected owners are coprophagic). Evolutionary leftover But the study authors suggest that coprophagy are some things far more basic. It’s possible that poo eating is an evolutionary remnant from dogs’ ancestors, where feces might be a source of disease, especially from parasites. Removing feces early by eating it'd represent how of cleaning it up to stop infectious parasites developing within the days after it’s deposited. And dogs today may enjoy precisely the same behavior. So what do you have to do if the prospect of your pet eating poo fills you with horror? apart from owning one, non-greedy poodle, the simplest thing to try to do is just to stop your dog from having access to poo, especially the fresh stuff. pack up after your dog, encourage others to try to an equivalent, and check out training your dog to resist the temptation to eat poo by rewarding them with an alternate tasty snack.

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Local knowledge can save endangered animals

From knowing where animals live, to which plants provide what medicinal benefits, communities around the world hold expert levels of data on their local environments. In general, scientific investigations provide precise and measurable information, collected over short amounts of your time. But this “local ecological knowledge” is formed from observations collected over very while periods, which are often passed down through the generations. It is often simple things, like knowing the simplest places to fish, or can include rare or extreme events, like floods or periods of inclemency. For coastal communities hooked into ocean resources, this accumulated ecological knowledge is vital to collecting food and maintaining livelihoods. But community ecological knowledge needn't, and doesn't, stand-alone from science. it's been repeatedly “tested” by scientists and is now increasingly being recognized as a valuable asset in environmental management and conservation biology. In recent years, wider recognition of its value has resulted in local knowledge being drawn on to support natural resources management. it's been wont to help design marine protected areas, for instance in Myanmar and therefore the Philippines. By combining the 2, local knowledge is often a useful gizmo in data-poor areas. Particularly when it involves monitoring rare or species. Saving the dugong The dugong may be a large marine mammal that feeds almost exclusively on seagrass—itself a threatened plant species. at the present, the dugong is listed as “vulnerable to extinction” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature red list. Major threats to dugong populations include habitat loss, coastal development, pollution, fishing activities, vessel strikes, and unsustainable hunting or poaching. Dugongs are thought to exist in just small fragmented groups outside of their primary population in Australia. Though dugongs are still found within the coastal waters of quite 40 countries throughout the Indo-West Pacific, accurate scientific information is scarce and sometimes anecdotal. To properly support the protection of those vulnerable animals, we'd like to understand where they're. To monitor dugong populations, researchers typically use aerial surveys or unmanned aerial vehicles. But these techniques are costly, and sometimes suffering from difficult conditions like cloudy water and glare. Additionally, they also provide only a narrow snapshot of what could be occurring in any particular area at one time. This is where local ecological knowledge is often hugely beneficial. If available, it's the potential to fill within the detail about the whereabouts and numbers of sighted dugongs. Indonesian efforts In Indonesia, dugongs are protected but there's limited accessible information on population numbers or their geographical range. Though the govt appears committed to conserving the species, there's also growing evidence of the rapid decline of Indonesian seagrass meadows thanks to a set of threats including overfishing. But fishers aren't the dugong’s enemy, rather they might be its savior. Our recently published research used the knowledge of fishers to verify the persistence of dugong within the Wakatobi park, Indonesia. The fishers, who fancy the water daily, were ready to relay precise times, dates and locations of multiple dugong sightings, going as far back as 1942. These fishers had knowledge that far surpassed any official research record and were ready to describe previously unrecorded historical trends and population changes. This is not the primary time that this type of locally-held ecological knowledge has been wont to conserve species, nor will it's the last. Other examples include the conservation of the endangered whalebone whale populations within the Falklands and rare freshwater fishes within the Mekong. Using science and therefore the ecological knowledge of local people does quite save only one species at a time, too. The ocean is an ecosystem, and every plant, animal or other creature rely on each other. Dugong and seagrass conservation, for instance, go hand-in-hand. to accumulate better information on the population distribution of dugongs, we also got to know the distribution and standing of seagrass. And by integrating these sorts of information, we will start saving the oceans. Leanne Cullen-Unsworth may be a Research Fellow at Cardiff University. Benjamin L. Jones may be a Researcher at the Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University, and Richard K.F. Unsworth may be a Research Officer at Swansea University. this text was originally published on The Conversation.

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Perdue Farms Signs Up For A Chicken Welfare Revolution

In a vast, dimly lit barn near Frankfort, Delaware, surrounded by tens of thousands of young chickens, a few dozen people in ghostly white coveralls are considering future options for the poultry industry. Executives from Perdue Farms, the fourth-largest poultry producer within the country, have found out this tour. Their guests include some long-time foes: people that lead influential animal welfare organizations just like the Humane Society of us, Compassion in World Farming and Mercy for Animals. They're here because Perdue, breaking ranks with the remainder of the industry, has endorsed a serious shift within the way it treats its chickens, and it wants to point out off what it's done thus far. Animal welfare advocates would really like to force much of the industry to follow an equivalent path. This tour involves a side-by-side comparison of two chicken houses. We're in one that's found out to represent typical industry practices. Right nearby, though, is Perdue's version of the longer term, and a Perdue executive, Mike Leventini, leads us into it. "The very first thing you see is, there are windows, right? You get a pity what proportion light's during this barn," Leventini says. He points to the chickens. "They're flapping their wings, they're running around, they're hanging out." Some of the chickens have climbed abreast of straw bales; some are perched on little wooden ramps. Others are hiding inside small wooden boxes. Those features don't exist in industry-standard houses. Leah Garces, executive of Compassion in World Farming, seems impressed. "It's an enormous difference," she says. Chickens within the house with natural light are "running around, climbing on things, pecking, perching." Birds within the windowless house, against this, are "quiet, they're sitting, they are not moving." Perdue executives say they're making these changes for a few of various reasons. First, they've decided that when chickens are more active, their meat is of upper quality. Jim Perdue, the company's chairman, says they learned this while raising chickens consistent with organic rules. "We're finding that meat from organic chickens is best," he says. "More tender. Different color. Activity is the key. [Organic chickens] are more active, they're running around." But Perdue is additionally responding to pressure from some big corporate customers. These are food service companies that operate cafeterias in companies and other institutions. Several of them, including Aramark and Compass, have announced that by 2024, they'll only buy chickens from companies that give their chickens a far better life. An executive from one among those companies is here: Maisie Ganzler, from Bon Appetit Management Company, which buys many pounds of chicken a year for its corporate cafeterias and museum cafes. "We've all made our commitments," Gansler says. "What's next is to measure up to the commitments we've made, and that I don't say that flippantly; that's a true challenge." The foodservice companies say they'll require their chickens to be raised consistent with new animal welfare rules that are set by the worldwide Animal Partnership, a corporation that was originally launched by the grocery chain Whole Foods. That means, additionally to natural light in chicken houses, a replacement slaughtering process that uses gas to form the birds unconscious before they're killed. this is able to replace electrical stunning, during which the birds are hung by their feet on a sort of conveyer belt and their heads inherit contact with electrically charged water. Perdue is moving toward satisfying all those requirements. Another a part of the new standard, though, is going to be harder to satisfy. It involves growing a special quite chicken which will run and jump more easily because it doesn't place on weight so quickly. Bruce Stewart-Brown, a veterinarian and senior vice chairman at Perdue, demonstrated another side-by-side comparison: two small pens of chickens, one containing the type of chicken the industry grows now, and therefore the other pen stocked an older "heritage" breed called Sonoma Red. I can tell, just by watching them, that the industry-standard white birds are far more plump, albeit all of those chickens are about 41 days old. Stewart-Brown gestures toward the pen crammed with plump, white birds. "I'm getting to guess that that bird is already two pounds heavier than this [Sonoma Red] bird," he says. These chickens are the merchandise of breeding, selecting chickens that placed on weight as fast as possible. "They're just bred for appetite, bred to eat," Stewart-Brown says. That's great for the efficiency of meat production, but these chickens grow so fast that their bones have a tough time supporting their weight. The white birds aren't traveling nearly the maximum amount as their slimmer companions. Fast-growing breeds of chickens are also more likely to suffer from leg ailments and other health problems. The new animal welfare standard from the worldwide Animal Partnership demands that companies use slower-growing breeds — but it hasn't yet decided exactly which breeds are going to be meet its standard. And Perdue hasn't promised to satisfy that standard. "It's really interesting to check-in for something that's not yet decided," Steward-Brown says wryly. "Kind of uncomfortable." the corporation is, however, studying half a dozen alternative chicken breeds at a search farm. Switching to slower-growing chickens could have an enormous impact on the business. it might take longer and more feed to supply each pound of chicken. Also, heritage breeds tend to possess bigger legs and fewer breast meat. So if consumers want Perdue to vary its chickens, they'll need to change a touch, too, Stewart-Brown says. they'll need to pay more for poultry or eat more meat. It's conceivable that this might happen, Steward-Brown says. "Dark-meat eaters are growing, and usually trying to find flavor, right? they ought to be pretty excited about this bird." Animal welfare advocates like Leah Garces are confident that buyers will force the poultry industry to vary, within the same way that the egg industry was forced to shift faraway from keeping birds in cages. In five or 10 years, she says, slower-growing chickens are going to be as common as cage-free eggs.

[loveanimalstory-blog]

Vets warn that 'extreme breeding' could harm horses

Vets are warning that the “extreme breeding” of horses could harm their health and welfare after pictures emerged of a young Arabian horse with a drastically concave profile. Claimed to be already worth “several million dollars”, El Rey Magnum is claimed to be “close to perfection” by its breeders at Orrion Farms, an Arabian horse specialist in Ellensburg, Washington state. But British vets and equine experts have told the Veterinary Record the nine-month-old colt represents “a worrying development,” as its deformed skull could potentially cause breathing difficulties. The Guardian has been refused permission to publish pictures of the horse, but the creature is often viewed here. Tim Greet, an equine specialist, told the Veterinary Record: “I find the entire thing unbelievable. Arabians have always had a rather ‘dished’, face but this takes things to a ridiculous level.” According to Greet, such “deformity” is more significant for a horse than for pedigree dogs like pugs, which may suffer breathing problems. Dogs can breathe through their mouths, but horses can only breathe through their noses. “I suspect exercise would definitely be limited for this horse,” said Greet. Adele Waters, the editor of Veterinary Record, said that each professional vet she had shown the pictures to had found them shocking. She said: “My first thoughts were, ‘Is this the work of CGI trickery?’ Many specialist horse vets have had an identical reaction. But the reality is that this may be a real horse and it's been bred to satisfy the stress of a specific market that likes a specific appearance. Where will it end? Is it really so bad for a horse to seem sort of a horse and not a cartoon character?” Waters questioned the morality of such fashion-led breeding, within the wake of comparable fears over the health and welfare of flat-nosed dog breeds like bulldogs, French bulldogs, and pugs. “The real original Arabian horse’s head was very beautiful but they're now being bred purely for that [concave] look. there's no functional value during a horse having a face like that. Vets believe that if you distort the skull like that there’s a risk you affect the airways and therefore the breathing capacity of the horse.” Dr. Madeleine Campbell, an equine reproduction specialist, expert in animal welfare and ethics and director of the Equine Ethics Consultancy, told the Veterinary Record: “Whilst it's obviously impossible to discuss a private animal-based only on photographic evidence, as a general principle, any trend towards breeding for extremes of form which could adversely affect normal function must be condemned, on welfare grounds.” Doug Leadley, a farm manager and first breeding adviser for Orrion, claimed that “this horse may be a stepping stone to getting on the brink of perfection”. He dismissed criticisms of the horse: “I think most of these people don’t breed horses, or show them or aren’t very involved – those are people that don’t understand.” American vets have recognized El Rey Magnum as an example of an extreme breed, and one vet has said that the horse has no medical or respiratory issues. Since launching a promotional video earlier this month, the farm has received interest from across the planet, including the united kingdom. consistent with Leadley, the young horse is already worth several million dollars.