April 3, 2008, 8:42 PM CT

DNA analysis of California wolverine

Preliminary results from DNA analysis of wolverine scat samples collected on the Tahoe National Forest do not match those of historic California wolverine populations, as per U.S. Forest Service scientists.

Geneticists with the agencys Rocky Mountain Research Station recently began analyzing samples, when wildlife biologists with the Tahoe National Forest and California Department of Fish and Game began sending hair and scat samples they collected from wolverine detection sites on the national forest to a lab in Missoula, Mont.

The interagency effort began in March after an Oregon State University graduate student working on a cooperative project with the U.S. Forest Services Pacific Southwest Research Station photographed a wolverine, an animal whose presence has not been confirmed in California since the 1920s.

DNA analysis is critical to researchers working to determine if the animal first photographed on February 28 and in later detection work is a wolverine that dispersed from outside of California, escaped from captivity or is part of a historic remnant population.

Key findings from the preliminary analysis indicate the animal in the photographs is a male wolverine that is not a descendent of the last known Southern Sierra Nevada population, said Bill Zielinski, a Forest Service scientist with the Pacific Southwest Research Station and an expert at detecting wolverine, marten and fisher. It also does not genetically match populations in Washington, he said......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 3, 2008, 8:38 PM CT

Asian waterbirds stage remarkable comeback

NEW YORK (April 3, 2008) As per a report released recently by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), several species of rare waterbirds from Cambodias famed Tonle Sap region have staged remarkable comebacks, thanks to a project involving a single team of park rangers to provide 24-hour protection to breeding colonies. The project pioneered a novel approach: employing former hunters and egg collectors to protect and monitor the colonies, thereby guaranteeing the active involvement of local communities in the initiative.

The report suggests that some species, which include varieties of storks, pelicans, and ibises, have rebounded 20-fold since 2001, when WCS and the Ministry of Environment of the Royal Government of Cambodia established the conservation project. Before that time, rampant harvesting of both eggs and chicks had driven the colonies to the brink of local extinction.

"This is an amazing success story for the people and wildlife of Cambodia," said Colin Poole, Wildlife Conservation Society director for Asia Programs. "It also shows how important local people are in the conservation of wildlife in their own backyards".

Scientists first discovered the colonies in the mid 1990s in Prek Toal, an area within the massive Tonle Sapa seasonally flooded wetland critical to Cambodias people and wildlife. According WCS researchers, the colonies include the largest, and in some cases, the only breeding populations of seven Globally Threatened large waterbird species in Southeast Asia......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 3, 2008, 8:36 PM CT

Hatchery fish outnumber wild chinook salmon

A recent study indicates that wild salmon may account for just 10 percent of California's fall-run chinook salmon population, while the vast majority of the fish come from hatcheries. The findings are particularly troubling in light of the disastrous decline in the population this year, which will probably force the closure of the 2008 season for commercial and recreational salmon fishing.

The role of hatcheries in the management of salmon populations has been a contentious issue for a number of years. The new findings appear to support the idea that including artificially propagated fish in population estimates can mask declines in natural populations caused by a lack of suitable habitat.

"Our finding that 90 percent of the fish are from hatcheries surprised a lot of people," said Rachel Barnett-Johnson, a fisheries biologist with the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Barnett-Johnson and her coworkers published their results in the December 2007 issue of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. The main focus of the paper is the development of a new technique for distinguishing between wild and hatchery-raised salmon. The scientists validated the technique and used it to estimate the percentage of wild fish among the fall-run chinook salmon caught by commercial fishing boats along the central California coast in 2002......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 3, 2008, 8:03 PM CT

Role of bats in plant protection

Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute report that bats significantly reduce insect abundance and damage on plants. In a lowland tropical rainforest in Panama, bats can consume roughly twice as a number of plant-eating insects as do birds. This landmark study in the journal Science is the first to compare the ability of bats and birds to protect plants via insect predation in a natural forest ecosystem.

A prior study by the authors suggested that bats were underestimated predators of plant eating insects, based on video recordings of feeding events.

In the current study, Smithsonian short-term fellow Margareta Kalka, and co-authors Elisabeth Kalko, institute staff scientist and professor at the Institute of Experimental Ecology at the University of Ulm, and Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow Adam Smith, separated the insect-control effects of bats and birds by placing netting enclosures over five common tropical plant species only at night or only by day. Uncovered control plants accessed by both bats and birds lost merely 4.3 percent of their leaf area to insect herbivores. When only birds were excluded, plants lost 7.2 percent of their leaf area. When only bats were excluded, plants lost a striking 13.3 percent of their leaf area, demonstrating that in the tropical forest understory bats can be more effective pest control agents than birds......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 3, 2008, 7:39 PM CT

Are animals stuck in time?

Dog owners, who have noticed that their four-legged friend seem equally delighted to see them after five minutes away as five hours, may wonder if animals can tell when time passes. Newly published research from The University of Western Ontario may bring us closer to answering that very question.

The results of the research, entitled "Episodic-Like Memory in Rats: Is it Based on When or How Long Ago," appear in the current issue of the journal Science, which was released recently.

William Roberts and colleagues in Western's Psychology Department observed that rats are able to keep track of how much time has passed since they discovered a piece of cheese, be it a little or a lot, but they don't actually form memories of when the discovery occurred. That is, the rats can't place the memories in time.

The research team, led by Roberts, designed an experiment in which rats visited the 'arms' of a maze at different times of day. Some arms contained moderately desirable food pellets, and one arm contained a highly desirable piece of cheese. Rats were later returned to the maze with the cheese removed on certain trials and with the cheese replaced with a pellet on others.

All told, three groups of rats were tested in the research using three varying cues: when, how long ago or when plus how long ago......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 2, 2008, 10:04 PM CT

Gypsy Moth Management Made More Efficient

A computer model that provides land managers with a more efficient and cost-effective approach for controlling gypsy moths and other invasive pests has been created by biologists at Penn State University and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Gypsy moths, which were introduced to North America in the late 1860s, are responsible for the defoliation of over a million acres of forest land each year and the loss of tens of millions of dollars. In a paper would be published later this month (April 2008) in the journal Ecological Applications, the team's results indicate that the best strategies for managing the destructive pests include eradicating medium-density infestations and reducing high-density infestations, rather than reducing spreading from the main infestation.

"Our model is state dependent, which means that it recommends different management strategies depending on the situation," said Katriona Shea, Penn State associate professor of biology and the team's leader. "Most managers currently use the same strategy in all situations, but our model suggests that by tailoring their approach to a particular situation, managers can be more effective in slowing the spread of invasive species".

Saving time and money is of the utmost importance with gypsy moths, which have by now spread throughout the northeastern United States and into the Midwest. "Some people argue that it's just a matter of time before the moths spread across the entire United States, so why bother trying to slow them down?" said Shea. "But we see it differently. We hope that by slowing their spread we can buy some time to find a better way to deal with them"......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 2, 2008, 10:01 PM CT

New fish has a face even Dale Chihuly could love

A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a University of Washington fish expert.

The fish, sighted in Indonesian waters off Ambon Island, has tan- and peach-colored zebra-striping, and rippling folds of skin that obscure its fins, making it look like a glass sculpture that Dale Chihuly might have dreamed up. But far from being hard and brittle like glass, the bodies of these fist-sized fish are soft and pliable enough to slip and slide into narrow crevices of coral reefs. Its probably part of the reason that they've typically gone unnoticed until now.

The individuals are undoubtedly anglerfishes, says Ted Pietsch, a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences who has published 150 scholarly articles and several books on anglerfishes and is the world's leading authority on them. In the last 50 years researchers have described only five new families of fishes and none of them were even remotely correlation to anglerfishes, Pietsch says.

Husband and wife Buck and Fitrie Randolph, with dive guide Toby Fadirsyair, found and photographed an individual Jan. 28 in Ambon harbor. A second adult has since been seen and two more small, and obviously juveniles were spotted March 26, off Ambon. One of the adults laid a mass of eggs, just spotted Tuesday......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:30:18 GMT

Itch Cat Scratch Pad

Everytime you look at the tattered corners of your sofa, your shredded curtains or claw marks on the lovely kitchen cabinets, don''t you wish that your kitty didn''t have claws? Why not make your feline happy by providing a stylish alternative for her scratching instinct?

The people who designed the Itch Cat Scratch Pad had just that in mind. And while they were at it, they made it completely environment friendly too. Made from 100% renewable bamboo, the pads can be hung up (or placed horizontally) at strategic locations in your home to entice your kitty. The pads have removable carpet inserts that can be replaced from time to time. Sounds purrfect? Get yours from SquareCatHabitat for $50 a piece.

Via Eco Fling. Posted by: Sarah      Read more     Source

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:55:53 GMT

Killer Fish Terrifies Britain

A savage fish more terrifying than a piranha has been caught in Britain for the first time - sparking fears of a deadly invasion. The vicious giant snakehead eats everything it comes across and has even been reported to kill people.

The monster - from south-east Asia - has a mouth crammed with fearsome teeth, can ''crawl'' on land and survive out of water for up to four days. It is feared the fish had been smuggled in for an aquarium and then illegally released. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

March 27, 2008, 9:28 PM CT

Small desert beetle found to engineer ecosystems

The mesquite girdler Oncideres rhodosticta may only be 13mm long, but it has a big role in shaping the landscape. Research carried out by Benjamin Duval and Walter Whitford at New Mexico State University has revealed that the beetle is speeding up the degradation of grasslands in the Chihuahua desert, the landscape so stunningly depicted in this years Oscar-winning film No Country for Old Men.

The mesquite girdler does this by regulating the growth of the mesquite shrub, ensuring their offspring have a plentiful supply of food. The beetles chew girdles around the older stems of the shrub, which forces the plant to regrow new stems the following year. The new stems supply the beetle larvae with food, but the mesquite shrub takes more nutrients from the soil for its increased growth, leaving less for the other plant species such as grasses.

Up to 150 years ago, the North Chihuahuan Desert was completely covered in grassland. The picture today is very different dunes and mesquite shrubs cover much of the landscape.

Duval said: Eventhough the desertification process was likely started by overgrazing cattle, the ecosystem engineering impact of the mesquite girdler could finish off the process......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source