Greg Laden's Blog

There are two species of African elephant

Category: Elephants

Brand new research supports a trend in earlier research: The African forest elephants are a different species from the African bush elephants.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 5:00 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Important and cool nature and conservation news.

Category: Nature conservation

Stop eating seafood. Stop coveting ivory. Yay for the wolverines.

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:22 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

A particular elephant

This particular elephant was one of the nicest elephants I've ever met. click for a larger picture I was leading a tour group in the vicinity of the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The local guide suggested that we could take a walk along...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 4:44 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Mammoth DNA Sequence

The genome of the extinct woolley mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) has been sequenced, and reported in Nature. This confirms that elephant genomes are large, like the elephants themselves. It confirms previously proposed relationships amongst the elephants (see phylogeny below) and refines the known phylogeny. Interpopulation differences...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:15 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Elephants Are Not Ethnic-Blind

I have had this experience. I've traveled literally hundreds of kilometers by foot together with Efe (Pygmy) hunters in the Ituri Forest. We see very few animals. The few we do see are attacked, killed, and eaten. Well, a lot of them actually get away,...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 1:50 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Elephants Were Aquatic

That elephants have an aquatic ancestry has been suspected for some time now. Moreover, the idea of elephant aquatic origins and elephant origins in general is part of a growing realization that many of the world's aquatic mammals originated in a couple of regions of...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:35 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Did sexist white males cause the extinction of the woolly mammoth, or was it climate change?

Ever since 3,599 years ago humans have been asking the question "Why did our furry elephant go extinct?" What caused the woolly mammoth's (not to be confused with the also-woolly mastodon) extinction? Climate warming in the Holocene might have driven the extinction of this cold-adapted...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 7:58 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Elephants Are Not Ethnic-Blind

I have had this experience. I've traveled literally hundreds of kilometers by foot together with Efe (Pygmy) hunters in the Ituri Forest. We see very few animals. The few we do see are attacked, killed, and eaten. Well, a lot of them actually get away,...

Read on »

Posted by Greg Laden at 12:00 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Nature News

Hunting Wolves; Killing Elephants...

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Posted by Greg Laden at 3:16 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

How to catch a herd of elephants

You need: a pair of binoculars a pair of tweezers a bottle a cork an elephant call....

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Posted by Greg Laden at 2:00 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks