Tim Caro from UC Davis and Paul Scholte from Leiden University wrote a "policy piece" , a sort of editorial in the September issue of the African Journal of Ecology, bringing up some surprising trends regarding the decline of antelope populations within national parks. We hear enough about poaching outside of the parks certainly, but this is news to me. Conservation efforts may need some tweaking. Of late, antelope have been doggedly tracked - by air, through scat sampling, etc. - due to insufficient data in the past and their reduced numbers are revealing three anthropogenic, "proximate"…
I found a neat little story about the binturong's eating habits in captivity: They prefer the sweetest foods, with the exception of their taste for meats. A partial list: apples, melons of all types, cantaloupes, grapes, pears, kiwi, mangos, star fruits, avocados, oranges, grapefruit, nectarines, peaches, cherries, tomatoes, chicken (raw or cooked), mice and rats, beef, fish, some greens (mostly the stems of anything green in their cage except for grass and poison ivy) and any sweets anyone will feed them. Marshmallows are a big hit, as are chocolate muffins, apple pie, and McDonald's egg…
The bints, it turns out, have an interesting evolutionary history. Recent molecular analysis of the order Carnivora (dogs, cats, bears, seals, bints, etc.) places all subsequent species into two clades (branches): the Caniformia and the Feliformia. The Caniformia clade contains a staggering array of animals - dogs, bears, seals, martins, pandas, otters and walruses - but interestingly enough, dogs (canids) were the first to split from the group (from the Arctoids), something like this: The other side of the clade, the Feliformia, starts with the split of Nandinia, the African palm civet.…
It's nice when you stumble across some scientific literature that answers a question that's been bugging you. Well, in this case, maybe half of a question. I've always wondered if there was some connection between an organism's intelligence and its ability to manipulate objects with hands or some analog, and if there would be a way to quantify either attribute effectively. In my mind, cephalopods (squid, octopus) and primates are prime examples of intelligent manipulators, though this connection breaks down as soon as you browse the cetaceans (whales, dolphins). In my search for literature…
Bint reposts up for the weekend! Let's hope nothing happens to them this time. Everyone have a nice Labor Day.
Arthur Kanegis may have written the worst (best?) movie review of all time. Get Leo some green tights, cape and a steamy cup of shade grown. Speaking of garbage, Ben Stein has sided with the IDers and will play a central role in a sinister new documentary called Expelled. If you haven't heard already, PZ was interviewed for the movie (under the impression that he was being interviewed for a more objective film), Randy Olson has shared his concerns on Pharyngula, and people have been laying into Stein on his first blog post about the movie. Here we go again, folks. Another big battle is…
On the way home from the mountains Sunday night, I was decelerating around one of those lovely Pennsylvanian descending hairpin curves just as a big white dog trotted casually up the slope in the middle of the road. I swerved to avoid it, fully into the opposing lane, barely missed. I swung the car around about a hundred feet down, pulling over to the side of the road. The dog had turned around, and was trotting towards my car, wagging its tail. Heather grabbed Oscar's leash and got out before I could say anything but "Careful," holding her hand out for him to sniff. It barely acknowledged…
PZ mentioned the "aquatic ape" hypothesis (AAH) this morning, a relatively obscure speculation about human evolution, and I thought I'd share a two part radio program (or programme) that David Attenborough narrated a few years ago. The notion that humans have an aquatic past might be far fetched, but Attenborough has a knack for making it interesting nonetheless. The AAH was the brainchild of Sir Alister Hardy, a notable marine biologist who wrote many books on evolution and did some important research on plankton early on. Supposedly through his studies of zooplankton and their relation to…
The binturong posts were supposed to last all weekend, but Blogger was down the day I left for the mountains and I couldn't access my archives. I tried to find a wireless signal in podunk PA, but that little venture was doomed before it began. Sorry about the slackage; I'm going away for Labor Day as well, so the rest will post starting Thursday or Friday. It was a crazy few days, not exactly the ideal vacation, but I'll have the full story tomorrow. I need a day to recoop from the vacation (/sigh).
When we think of communication, foremost on our mind is our own sophisticated means of language - writing and speaking mainly - communicating ideas or concepts through our manipulation of sound and symbology. Evolutionarily speaking, this is a recent development; there are certainly no written documents from the time of the Australpithocenes or Homo erectus, and scientists can only guess at their ability to use a complex language. Scent marking, then, is a much more ancient, much more prevalent form of communication between animals. Even humans use scents for communicative purposes - we use…
One of our geography profs, who is teaching a storm chasing class over the summer, was featured on Good Morning America this past Sunday: "I think it's important the general public begins to understand the concept of inquiry-based science education, which is what this course is all about, and that Frostburg State University is one of those higher education institutions that is leading the way in this area," Arnold said. "I am thrilled that we have the opportunity to communicate these messages through the national media, and am very happy that 'Good Morning America' chose to broadcast a…
I blogged about a study of tropical dry forests in southern Madagascar a while back where the researchers found that the rates of deforestation had dropped in recent years. The challenge was to find out exactly why. Ecologists studying deforestation in the Amazon may have a similar challenge. The Brazilian government is claiming that new legislation and increased policing of their portion of the forest has reduced the harvest by 25 percent. They're right about one thing. Deforestation is at its lowest since they started recording rates - only 14,000 kilometers cut down between 2005 and 2006…
The next ESA/SER meeting is right up my alley: Drawing from a wide range of case studies that illustrate the potential effects of climate on disease dynamics, a series of presentations to be held at the joint meeting of the Ecological Society of America and the Society for Ecological Restoration will showcase what scientists are discovering about the links between climate and disease... John Bruno (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) will review the trends for such coral diseases as White Syndrome and Caribbean Yellow Band Syndrome. Temperature anomalies, which are predicted to…
At Direction not Destination.
"Without knowing it, we utilize hundreds of products each day that owe their origin to wild animals and plants. Indeed our welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of wildlife. Well may conservationists proclaim that by saving the lives of wild species, we may be saving our own." - Norman Myers
I found this article on Reuters this morning that tries to spin old news into a fresh bit of controversy: Doctors recommend a good dose of salmon or tuna in the diet because of its benefits to the heart. But is it good for the environment? Surging demand for salmon in particular has been spurred in part by numerous studies touting the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which are present in some kinds of fish. A study published in June in the American Heart Association journal Circulation said a diet with liberal servings of fish, nuts and seeds rich in such nutrients can help lower a…
Carnival of Maryland #13 is up at Maryland Politics.
James from Direction not Destination is hosting Oekologie in three days, so get your submissions in now! We need hosts starting next February. If you're interested, shoot me an e-mail: thevoltagegate [at] gmail.com.
Check out these human anatomy models from La Specola Museum in Florence. Perhaps not as ambitious as Body Worlds, but they are beautifully rendered. Do people really faint when they see these? I find that hard to believe. I also find it hard to believe that they let that guy host this clip.
I meant to post on this earlier this week, but things have been hectic lately. The National Resources Defense Council released their review of 3,500 beaches in the US, organizing data on pollution, the frequency of closings and the level of monitoring in these areas. Of the six worst beaches, dubbed "beach bums", defined as having "violated public health standards 51 percent or more of the time samples were taken", Maryland has two: Hacks Point and Bay Country Campground and Beach. The problems have been on the rise for years now, but seemed to spike in 2006. Runoff carrying pollution into…