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Attraction brings tourists face to face with giant crocodiles
Australia's newest tourist attraction, the Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, involves coming face to face underwater with giant saltwater crocodiles. The newly-opened attraction offers the chance to be lowered into a tank full of crocs, among them suspected man-eaters, wearing nothing more than a mask, snorkel and swimsuit or trunks.
Is this something you would like to try on your holiday or do you think it is perhaps just a little too unsafe to do it just for fun? Australia's newest tourist attraction, the Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, involves coming face to face underwater with giant saltwat... more -
Scientists discover fish in act of evolution in Africa’s greatest lake
In what could be a first in the world, a fish species in the cichlid family has been observed by scientists in the act of splitting into two distinct species in Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake and one of the world’s biggest fresh water bodies.
This may be remarkable because what is causing them to diverge are adaptations to their vision as animals and plants try to cope with increased pollution and the effects of climate change. The change is also happening without geographical isolation, which was thought to be a precursor for evolution.
The Pundamilia nyererei is a haplochromine type cichlid native to areas in the Mwanza Gulf region of Lake Victoria. This region consists of many islands where each island region has its own color variant of the fish.
In a report published in the journal Nature, researchers from Tokyo’s Institute of Technology and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology have observed the cichlid evolve into a new species better adapted in sighting its prey and predator.
But the scientists have also tabled evidence indicating that it is not pollution and over-fishing alone that are responsible for the disappearance of some fish species in Lake Victoria and the evolving of others like the cichlid into new species.
The report summarizes that new species may be born because of vision differences and what fish see at least in one African lake could be the driving force that causes them to evolve into new species.
This may explain the very rapid loss of pundamilia in Lake Victoria over the past 30 years. The study says the eye adaptations have also affected mating patterns.
Researchers looked at two species, conspicuous by their red or blue colours. They determined through lab experiments that certain genetic mutations helped some fish adapt their vision at deeper levels to see the colour red and others in shallower water to recognise shades of blue.
The researchers showed that the eyes have adapted to this difference so that fish that live in deeper water have a pigment in their eyes that is more sensitive to red light, while shallow-water fish were sensitive to blue.
Generally, the evolutionary process of speciation (the formation of new species) occurs when one species is split by a physical distance or barrier, allowing each group to develop different traits. The observations of Lake Victoria’s cichlids provide evidence of an unusual form of evolution known as sympatric speciation, which occurs without the physical separation of a population group. In what could be a first in the world, a fish species in the cichlid family has been observed by scientists in the act of splitting in... more -
Boar War: Wild hog kills hunter near berlin
An enraged and hungry wild boar attacked a hunter, who then bled to death.
In recent months wild boars, whom zoologists consider to be Germany's "most dangerous animal", have expanded their comfort zones with city centers now also falling under their reign of destruction. This year alone, boars chased a pair of policemen onto a balcony in a suburb of Frankfurt, sent a pensioner to the emergency room in Berlin, and broke into a home improvement store before being shot to death at the checkout counter in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Now the stakes are even higher as an unlucky hunter, a married 72-year-old man from Berlin, lost his life when trying to dispatch a wild beast spotted feasting on maize in a cornfield 70 kilometers outside Berlin.
By the time other hunters found the man, he was lying on the ground bleeding heavily from his knee. They called an ambulance but it was too late. The boar warrior had punctured a major artery and the 72-year-old sportsman bled to death. An enraged and hungry wild boar attacked a hunter, who then bled to death. ... more -
Scientists Confirm Second Virgin Shark Birth
In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female blacktip shark in a Virginia aquarium contained no genetic material from a male. In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female blacktip ... more
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Nearly 300 New Marine Species Found Near Australia
Scientists have found 274 new species of corals, starfish, sponges, shrimps, and crabs 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) beneath the surface of Australia's Southern Ocean.
"We know very little about the deep sea," said lead scientist Nic Bax, a marine biologist with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Hobart, Tasmania.
"Finding out how much live coral is down there, and how large those communities are, is very exciting," he added.
Some of the corals were found to be about 2,000 years old, said Bax.
CSIRO made the discoveries in two separate voyages to marine reserves located 100 to 200 nautical miles off the southern coast of Tasmania, Australia.
This is the third large group of marine species recently discovered in Australian waters.
Jackpot of Marine Life
Using powerful cameras, scientists shot 8,000 pictures and more than 100 hours of video footage of the seafloor.
They also discovered 145 undersea canyons and 80 new seamounts, or underwater mountains.
Seamounts can sprawl 15.6 miles (25 kilometers) across and rise thousands of feet from the seabed.
In the deep sea, where the ocean bottom is nothing more than muddy sediment, rocky seamounts offer a stable habitat that provides shelter and food for sea life, Bax said.
As such, seamounts support a jackpot of rich marine life in a quiet, dark world. Scientists have found 274 new species of corals, starfish, sponges, shrimps, and crabs 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) beneath the surface of... more -
Heron catches, drowns and swallows rabbit
A series of dramatic photos (see link) taken by a wildlife photographer show this grey herron clearly catching, drowning and swallowing the bunny. Though herrons usually eat fish and have been known to eat the odd mouse, no one had ever seen one catch and eat a rabbit before.
Apologies for the slightly older story (it was dated end of September), but I couldn't find it on Current and though people would appreciate.
The photos oddly remind me of Watership Down and teh Bunny Suicides both at the same time... A series of dramatic photos (see link) taken by a wildlife photographer show this grey herron clearly catching, drowning and swallowin... more -
Texas bans fish pedicures
The state of Texas has decided to ban fish pedicures over health and safety concerns. As a result, salon customers will no longer have the opportunity to enjoy the sensation of hundreds of small fish nibbling away the dead skin from their feet.
Fears were raised over the safety of having the same fish clean the skin of multiple customers, leaving them open to possible infections, said Susan Stanford of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. She also said because the foot baths and holding tanks are home to live fish, they cannot always be properly cleaned and disinfected.
A co-owner of Zen Luxury Nail & Beauty Bar, in Frisco, a Dallas suburb, said she was disappointed to learn she could no longer offer the service and said she did not know what to do with the 500 guppy-like fish she bought for $2,500 (£1,500). "I guess we will either keep them as pets, or send them back," she said. The state of Texas has decided to ban fish pedicures over health and safety concerns. As a result, salon customers will no longer have... more -
Mouse bites snake to death
A mouse killed a venomous viper after it was thrown into the snake's cage as a snack.
Vipers usually use their venom to immobilise or kill their prey. The poison, which is injected through their hollow fangs, paralyses the nervous system and causes internal bleeding, but not this time.
The tiny rodent killed the snake after a fierce 30-minute battle, emerging with "barely a scratch on him", according to one person who saw the fight. "It attacked the snake continuously, biting and scratching it." A mouse killed a venomous viper after it was thrown into the snake's cage as a snack. ... more -
Paws of Huaraz
In 2008 Jessica Vachon embarked on her honeymoon to Peru. One major component of their trip was to trek/climb in the Andes near the city of Huaraz. Hauraz has 120,000 inhabitance and is situated at between 10,000 and 11,000 feet - a perfect place to begin acclimatizing for the higher mountains. While in Huaraz, Jessica drew upon on her passion for animals and the fact that she is a veterinary graduate student to compare the lives of dogs in the overpopulated city versus those in the country/mountains. Studying the overpopulation problem in Huaraz she came to realize that the locals, while they love their animals, are not educated on effective population control techniques (sterilization). Even if they were educated, most don't have the money to act. Help is needed from those countries with resources and knowledge. In 2008 Jessica Vachon embarked on her honeymoon to Peru. One major component of their trip was to trek/climb in the Andes near the c... more
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United Kingdom Talk Thursday 9th October 2008
Thursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
Tissues are standing by.
Mombasa.
I've never had bad neighbours.
Advice on the new rides in Orlando.
Sometimes the translation between languages doesn't quite work out.
My peppers have been eaten.
Where's that bit of paper ?
Fly that plane Robert !
Tea bags on the garden.
Anyone been on a safari ?
We can't be getting up too early on holiday.
Joe's back from Peru.
Too much homework.
Plastic's.
Merlin - making things out of mud.
A shield of snakes.
Bjork.
A Wildebeest and a pregnant Giraffe.
They try very hard.
Teeth Whitening.
A suggestion from Suko.
Justin in concerned.
An accident in the studio.
Spiders everywhere.
Banging on the ceiling.
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UK Thursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats. ... more -
Video: RARE Mother and cub snow leopard
Watch the video of the BBC wildlife 'Snow Leopard- Beyond the Myth' crew journey to Pakistan filming fascinating insights into the behaviour of the elusive snow leopard. Watch the video of the BBC wildlife 'Snow Leopard- Beyond the Myth' crew journey to Pakistan filming fascinating insights in... more
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Crazy cat lady: 86 cats rescued from small apartment
A Colorado animal shelter is trying to find homes for 86 cats after the animals were rescued from a small two-bedroom condominium.
The sheriff's spokeswoman Tanny McGinnis said the cats were strays taken in by a woman who then called for help saying she couldn't take care of the cats while moving homes. A Colorado animal shelter is trying to find homes for 86 cats after the animals were rescued from a small two-bedroom condominium. ... more -
Monkeys serve drinks in Japanese tavern
A Japanese sake house near Tokyo has hired a pair of macaque monkeys to serve drinks and hand out towels to patrons. The two moneys -- Yat-chan and Fuku-chan -- are both household pets, but are also certified by local authorities to work at the tavern.
The younger of the two -- Fuku-chan -- runs the first shift, where he hands out hot towels to help customers clean their hands before ordering drinks, as is the custom in Japan. The twelve-year-old Yat-chan goes further, and actually serves drinks as well.
"Yat-chan first learned by just watching me working in the restaurant. It all started when one day I gave him a hot towel out of curiosity and he brought the towel to the customer," the 63-year-old owner of the tavern, Kaoru Otsuka, told Reuters.
The two monkeys work for a maximum of two hours per day, and are paid in soya beans.
"The monkeys are actually better waiters than some really bad human ones," said a customer, Takayoshi Soeno.
The restaurateur is not stopping there, however, and has recently taken on three new baby monkeys who he hopes to train up to work in the tavern.
Fears that this will eventually lead to a Planet of the Apes style uprising are, at the time of publication, mostly unfounded.
------------------no more monkey biz at link...but:
Animal rights activists will, or should have a field day with this one. Also, equal employment opportunists! (: How would you like a monkey giving you a backrub?? A Japanese sake house near Tokyo has hired a pair of macaque monkeys to serve drinks and hand out towels to patrons. The two moneys --... more -
Saving the Orangutan of Borneo
Documentary about the Orangutan of Borneo.
Orangutans are becoming increasingly endangered due to habitat destruction, and youngs are captured to be sold as pets, usually entailing the killing of its mother. Documentary about the Orangutan of Borneo. ... more -
Tortoise Has Bladder Stone Removed (photos)
These interesting photos come from the Bristol Zoo in Bristol, England.
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Male bosses act like monkeys to assert authority
In every work environment, bosses, like dominant animals, mark out their territory, assert their authority and display power, researchers concluded after interviewing hundreds of managers and employees.
Managers will also wear dark suits with bright shirts or ties in much the same way an animal flaunts their brightly coloured body parts. While in the wild it is to attract a mate, in the office, it is about asserting your place in the hierarchy.
Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, who led the study, said: "From an evolutionary point of view, about 200 species are known to strut and puff out their chests. Homo sapiens evolved over two million years to be tribal and hierarchical, and it's really not much different from other species at the evolutionary, biological level. Perhaps it's imprinted on our genes."
The study, published in Australia's Journal of Health Organisation and Management, says managers will tend to have bigger chairs than everyone else, speak more loudly and interrupt more frequently. They also lace their speech with management jargon and acronyms, in order to confuse people. Professor Braithwaite added: "What we found was universal animalistic displays of power, masculinity, sexuality and authority that seem to be hard-wired in." In every work environment, bosses, like dominant animals, mark out their territory, assert their authority and display power, research... more -
One Quarter of World's Mammals Face Extinction
Habitat loss, hunting and other threats are driving our closest animal relatives to the brink.
The baiji dolphin is functionally extinct, orangutans are disappearing and even some species of bats—the most numerous of mammals—are dying out. A new survey of the world's 5,487 mammal species—from rodents to humans—reveals that one in four are facing imminent extinction.
"Mammal species that are just declining, not necessarily near extinction, that's 50 percent," says conservation biologist Jan Schipper of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which keeps the Red List of Threatened Species. "And 836 species—especially rodents and bats—we determined they are threatened but we don't know how threatened, because we don't know enough about them."
Schipper and more than 1,700 scientific colleagues spent the past five years surveying the state of the world's mammals. The results, published in Science to coincide with IUCN's conference on biodiversity this week, reveal that 1,139 mammals around the globe are threatened with extinction and the populations of 52 percent of all mammal species are declining.
South and Southeast Asia are home to the most threatened mammals, from monkeys to rare rats. And many mammals in the species-rich tropical Andes Mountains of South America, Africa's Cameroonian highlands and Albertine Rift as well as the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are also in trouble. Deforestation, along with hunting or gathering food are the prime causes of the rapid declines in land mammals, such as elephants in Asia; most endangered marine mammals, like the vaquita in Mexico's Gulf of California, are killed by fishing nets, ship strikes or pollution.
"Overall conservation status of mammals will likely deteriorate further unless appropriate conservation actions are put in place," the researchers warn in the report.
But the news isn't all grim: Some mammals, such as the black-footed ferret of western North America and the Hainan black-crested gibbon (found only on China's Hainan Island), have been able to rebound as the result of conservation efforts. "These are the kinds of success stories that we need to clasp onto and find out what worked," Schipper says. "Usually, it takes a lot of money."
But he cautions that any conservation success is likely temporary unless the root problems of, for example, deforestation are addressed. In the case of the Hainan gibbon, for instance, "there's not enough room for that species to go back to having a thousand individuals unless we stop deforestation and hunting," Schipper says.
There's also the clash between saving animals and curing other environmental ills such as global warming. Vast tracts of tropical rainforest have been replaced by palm oil plantations for food and biofuels, satellite imagery reveals.
But addressing climate change could also help lessen this extinction crisis as well; the loss of sea ice as a result of a warming world threatens to make life impossible for those mammals such as the polar bear and harp seal that rely on it to survive.
The "general trend is that many more mammal species are rapidly declining than we had suspected," Schipper says. "Fifty percent of species are declining and 5 percent of species are in an upward recovery—that's just not enough." Habitat loss, hunting and other threats are driving our closest animal relatives to the brink. ... more -
Police Taser Stubborn Sheep
Police in North Wales decided to unclog a traffic jam caused by a runaway sheep with the use of a Taser, which, when applied to the sheep, stunned it enough to allow police to carry it to the side of the road.
What I don't understand is why they couldn't have just shoo'ed it away - I dunno, with a police dog or something if humans didn't work, rather than taser the poor thing.
Anyway, this all reminds me of a rather silly rhyme I learnt in primary school..
Mary had a little lamb, she tied it to a pylon,
10,000 volts went up its bum and turned its wool to nylon.
Sorry. Couldn't resist. Police in North Wales decided to unclog a traffic jam caused by a runaway sheep with the use of a Taser, which, when applied to the sh... more -
IUCN - IUCN Red List reveals world’s mammals in crisis
Barcelona, Spain, 6 October, 2008 (IUCN) – The most comprehensive assessment of the world’s mammals has confirmed an extinction crisis, with almost one in four at risk of disappearing forever, according to The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™, revealed at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona.
The new study to assess the world’s mammals shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction. At least 76 mammals have become extinct since 1500. But the results also show conservation can bring species back from the brink of extinction, with five percent of currently threatened mammals showing signs of recovery in the wild.
“Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live,” says Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN Director General. “We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives.”
The real situation could be much worse as 836 mammals are listed as Data Deficient. With better information more species may well prove to be in danger of extinction.
“The reality is that the number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 percent,” says Jan Schipper, of Conservation International and lead author in a forthcoming article in Science. “This indicates that conservation action backed by research is a clear priority for the future, not only to improve the data so that we can evaluate threats to these poorly known species, but to investigate means to recover threatened species and populations.”
The results show 188 mammals are in the highest threat category of Critically Endangered, including the Iberian Lynx (Lynx pardinus), which has a population of just 84-143 adults and has continued to decline due to a shortage of its primary prey, the European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Barcelona, Spain, 6 October, 2008 (IUCN) – The most comprehensive assessment of the world’s mammals has confirmed an extinction crisis... more -
Scientists: 1 in 4 mammals faces extinction
We are mammals, correct? So whose to say one day we"ll become the breed that becomes extinct?
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