February 12, 2016 - CENTRAL AMERICA - Scientists are investigating the mysterious die-off of dozens of monkeys
in Central America, including the possibility that they have contracted
Zika or another virus that could be passed to humans.
In recent months, around 40 howler monkeys have been found dead
or dying in the tropical rainforests of Nicaragua. The animals have all
had relatively full stomachs and no obvious signs of trauma. Experts
fear there may be many more cases that have not been reported.
"Wild animals die off all the time, but it is really unusual to
see this many deaths in such a short time with no apparent reason," said
Kim Williams-Guillen, a conservation Ph.D. who has been researching in
Nicaragua's jungles since 1999. "I have never seen anything like it."
"These deaths are worth investigating, not just from a conservation
standpoint, but from a public health standpoint. It is very important we
get to the bottom of this."
WATCH: Nicaragua Howler Monkey Die-off Signals New Viral Outbreak?
Primates are highly susceptible to mosquito-borne diseases, and
outbreaks among them could be a precursor to the spread of disease among
humans, although scientists are careful to warn that this leap remains
rare.
Complicating the mystery is the fact that howler monkeys are
immune to dengue but are highly vulnerable to yellow fever. Yet
Nicaragua has been declared free of that disease for years.
Nicaragua has reported 29 cases of Zika so far. Meanwhile, chikungunya
has infected more than 100,000 people across Central America since first
arriving there in 2014.
Among the numerous unknowns is whether howler monkeys would even exhibit symptoms if they became infected with either virus.
"It is just not something that has been researched yet, how or whether
they would affect primates," adds Williams-Guillen, who is conservation
director at Paso Pacifico, an environmental nonprofit working in Central
America's Pacific jungles.
The group is now coordinating with scientists from the University of
California, Davis, to come up with a definitive diagnosis for whatever
it is that is killing off the monkeys.
In addition to the possibility of a virus, the researchers will also
probe other factors that might be at work, including drought and other
environmental variables.
The first challenge is to take hair, skin and other samples from a recently deceased animal and then transport it to Davis.
Liliana Cortez Ortiz, a University of Michigan researcher and member of the International Primate Specialist Group of
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, said this kind
of unexplained die-off of apparently healthy animals is unusual, but not
unprecedented.
"Any instances in which primates are dying from unknown causes is
potentially a concern for humans as well," she added. "We simply don't
know why this is happening and we need to find out."
Despite their cute appearance and size, typically weighing around 17 to 20 pounds, howler monkeys are actually the loudest land animals on the planet.
That's because they have large, hard, hollow throats, which they use to
project roars that can travel for miles across the jungle. To the
untrained ear, they sound more like a big cat than a fluffy monkey.
But now that they are apparently suffering from a mystery disease, they also face a new threat, warns Cortez Ortiz: humans.
"Now that we know they are dying, it is possible that local people may
become scared and take matters into their own hands, killing the monkeys
deliberately out of fear," she said.
"It is very important that they message gets out in Nicaragua that that
is not the way to handle this, and these monkeys are not a danger to
humans." - PRI.
More than half of the world's primates are at risk
of dying out due to the threat posed by habitat loss and hunting. The
Hainan gibbon (pictured) is thought to be the world's most endangered
primate, with just 25 of the animals left living on an isolated island
in China
November 25, 2015 - EARTH - They are our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom, yet more
than half of the world's primates are facing extinction due to our
destruction of the habitats where they live.
Burning and clearing of large areas of tropical forest, combined with
hunting of primates for food and illegal wildlife trade, has placed many
species of apes, lemurs and monkeys at risk of dying out.
These include iconic species such as the Sumatran orang-utan,
Grauer's gorilla, the Northern brown howler monkey and the Hainan
gibbon.
Scientists and conservation experts have now updated a report on the
world's 25 most endangered primates based on the current knowledge of
the animals numbers and the risks facing them.
Dr Christoph Schwitzer, a primatologist and director of conservation at
Bristol Zoological Society who helped compile the list, said: 'This
research highlights the extent of the danger facing many of the world's
primates.
'We hope it will focus people's attention on these lesser known
primate species, some of which most people will probably have never
heard of, such as the Lavasoa Mountains dwarf lemur from Madagascar - a
species only discovered two years ago - or the Roloway monkey from Ghana
and Ivory Coast, which we believe is on the very verge of extinction.'
'Some of these animals have tiny populations remaining in the wild and
support and action to help save them is vital if we are to avoid losing
these wonderful animals forever.
'This report makes scary reading for primatologists and the public
alike, and highlights where we as conservationists must focus our
attention over the coming years.'
There are 703 species and sub-species of primates around the world.
Every two years experts from the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN), the Bristol Zoological Society, International
Primatological Society and Conservation International, produce a list of
those most under threat.
In their latest report two species - the Philippine tarsier and the
Lavasoa Mountains dwarf lemur from Madagascar - were included on the
list for the first time.
The Lavasoa Mountains dwarf lemur was only discovered two years ago and
its exact numbers are still unknown but its habitat is already being
destroyed.
The report warned that Madagascar and Vietnam are home to large numbers of highly threatened primate species.
This is because many of the species live in isolated pockets of forest that are under threat of destruction.
The Northern sportive lemur from Madagascar is possibly the second most
endangered animal to appear on the list with just 50 individuals known
to survive.
The Cat Ba langur, or golden headed langur as it is also known, has just 60 individuals left on Cat Ba Island in Vietnam.There are thought to be just 24 Hainan gibbons left on Hainan Island in China.
In Africa, the red colobus monkeys was under 'particular threat', as
were some of South America's howler monkeys and spider monkeys.
The Northern brown howler monkey, for example, has less than 250 mature animals living in the wild.
The report warned: 'All of these species are relatively large and conspicuous, making them prime targets for bushmeat hunting.'
Russell Mittermeier, chair of the Species Survival Commission of the
IUCN, said he hoped the report would encourage governments to commit to
'desperately needed biodiversity conservation measures'.
He said there was growing evidence that some primate species play
important roles in dispersing tropical forest tree seeds, meaning they
were essential to those habitats.
He added: 'The purpose of our Top 25 list is to highlight those primates
most at risk, to attract the attention of the public, to stimulate
national governments to do more, and especially to find the resources to
implement desperately needed conservation measures.
'In particular, we want to encourage governments to commit to desperately needed biodiversity conservation measures.'
THE WORLD'S 25 MOST ENDANGERED PRIMATES
Sumatran orang-utans (pictured) are one of the
world's most threatened species and has been the focus of intense
conservation campaigns.
Madagascar has many unique species of primate but
many of the island's lemurs are now threatened, including the Lac
Alaotra bamboo lemur (upper), which number just 5,000 animals left in
the wild. South American primates like the Colombian black spider monkey
(lower) are also under threat from habitat loss
Although some of the species that appear on the
list of the most threatened animals are small and rarely seen, like the
Philippine tarsier (upper), others are quite large and noisy species,
like the brown howler monkey (lower)
Lemurs in Madagascar are among the most threatened
according to the report, including the red ruffed lemur (pictured).
Exact numbers of this species are not known but they are extremely rare
The Roloway monkey lives in the forests of from
Ghana and Ivory Coast but is thought to be on the 'very verge' of
extinction, according to experts behind a new report on the world's most
endangered primates
Primate species. Number remaining in the wild.
Lavasoa Mountains dwarf lemur Unknown
Lake Alaotra bamboo lemur 2,500 - 5,000
Red ruffed lemur Unknown
Northern sportive lemur Around 50
Perrier's sifaka 1,700 - 2,600
Rondo dwarf galago Unknown, but remaining habitat is just 100 square km
Roloway monkey Unknown, but thought to be on the very verge of extinction
Preuss' red colobus monkey Unknown
Tana River red colobus monkey 1,000
Grauer's gorilla 2,000 - 10,000
Philippine tarsier Unknown
Javan slow loris Unknown
Pig-tailed langur 3,300
Cat Ba langur 60
Delacour's langur 234 - 275
Tonkin snub-nosed monkey less than 250
Kashmir grey langur Unknown
Western purple-faced langur Unknown
Hainan gibbon 25
Sumatran orang-utan Unknown
Ka'apor capuchin Unknown
Northern brown howler monkey Less than 250 adults
Colombian brown spider monkey Unknown
Ecuadorian brown-headed spider monkey Unknown
Courtesy of IUCN, the Bristol Zoological Society, International Primatological Society and Conservation International
November 29, 2014 - EARTH-
The following constitutes the latest reports of unusual and symbolic
animal behavior, mass die-offs, beaching and stranding of mammals, and
the appearance of rare creatures.
3 Whales dead after stranding on a beach in Rototai, New Zealand
Charlotte Squire
In
what became a Golden Bay community event, hundreds of people turned up
at Rototai beach to see and touch three dead sperm whales that had
become stranded.
The whales, which ranged in length from 14 to 17
metres long were located about one kilometre out on tidal flats from the
beach carpark.
Local iwi gathered to bless the three whales,
which were towed by tug boat to Farewell Spit last night, once the tide
was high enough to move them.
Charlotte Squire
Department
of Conservation biodiversity programme manager Hans Stoffregen said DOC
had received a phone call from Rototai residents saying there were
whales milling about at sea.
"This morning we got a call from residents saying they were stranded."
Golden
Bay kaumatua John Ward-Holmes said iwi would later harvest the teeth
and jawbone, which were regarded as "taonga". He said local iwi Ngati
Tama, Te Ati Awa and Ngati Rarua were kaitiaki of the teeth and jawbone,
and that iwi were working in partnership with DOC on the whale
stranding.
Charlotte Squire
While
smaller pilot whales strand in Golden Bay every year, sperm whales,
which are the largest of the toothed whales, aren't such a common sight
in Golden Bay.
Stoffregen said the last sperm whale to be washed up in Golden Bay was "Tamati", who stranded at Puponga in 2007.
WATCH: Sperm whales beached in Golden Bay.
Rototai
resident Gaya Brabant said she and her family noticed the whales
offshore last night and called DOC. Initially she thought they were
playing. She said her son saw six whales further out to sea.
She wondered if a large amount of blue bottles had played any role in attracting the whales to come into the shallow waters. - Stuff.
Dead humpback whale washes up on Nantucket beach, Massachusetts, United States
A 25-foot humpback whale was found dead on a Nantucket beach early Tuesday morning.
The whale was found on Miacomet Beach, said Maggie Mooney-Seus,
spokeswoman for the Greater Atlantic Regional office of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It had has no visible wounds,
Mooney-Seus said. She speculated it could have died from disease or been
hit by a boat.
Mooney-Seus said with a nor'easter expected to hit the region Wednesday, the whale might have to stay put for a while.
"They're not anticipating being able to get in and move it at this
point" because of the approaching storm, she said. It could also be a
while until the carcass is removed because NOAA does not have staff who
cover Nantucket and because marine officials' focus is currently on the
hundreds of sea turtles that have been washing up along the Cape with
hypothermia.
"Right now, I guess we're just monitoring the situation," Mooney-Seus said.
Mooney-Seus said she did not know if a necropsy would be performed to determine the cause of death.
Mooney-Seus said people should stay away from the whale and keep their pets away, too.
The whale was found around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, Environmental Police spokeswoman Amy Mahler said in an e-mail. - Boston Globe.
Mass die-off of sea birds washing up along the Sonoma Coast, United States
Cassins Auklet at night (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) photo taken in 2003 on Farallon Islands (COURTESY OF SABINE'S SUNBIRD)
Scientists
up and down the West Coast are monitoring what appears to be a
large-scale die-off of young Cassin’s auklets, small seabirds whose
breeding grounds include a colony in the Farallon Islands west of San
Francisco.
Emaciated, white-bellied
birds have been washing ashore in Sonoma County and along a broad swath
of California coastline since early November after a period of ocean
warming in the Farallones region and disappearance of the tiny krill
that provide their main source of food, researchers say.
Scientists
are still collecting data, but the largest concentration of dead birds
appears to be in northern Oregon, according to monitors in the Pacific
Northwest. Birds have been washing up in Washington, as well.
Scientists
say anyone who finds a dead bird should leave it alone so that monitors
surveying the beaches can collect accurate records on the die-off.
Just what’s behind the phenomenon is far from clear, those involved in the research say.
One
factor may in fact be the species’ recent breeding success, which means
a particularly large number of inexperienced fledglings were introduced
last summer to the harsh challenges of life at sea, they said.
But
there’s concern, at least locally, about the drastic shift in ocean
temperature and feeding conditions — from those that facilitated several
very productive breeding seasons to those that prompted nesting pairs
in the Farallones to abandon their second round of eggs in July — and
the potential for linkage to climate change.
Jaime
Jahncke, director of California Current at Point Blue Conservation
Sciences, which has monitored the Cassin’s auklets in the Farallon
National Wildlife Refuge for more than four decades, said mean sea
surface temperatures recorded in July and August were the second-highest
in 45 years, and rose substantially in September.
But “you can have ocean warming for different reasons,” he said.
An
anomalous warming in 2005 and 2006 — though it was winter — resulted in
a large die-off of birds, as well as a season in which the birds did
not come to the Farallones to breed, Jahncke said. There was also a high
mortality event in 1997 and ’98. - The Press Democrat.
Dead beaked whale washes ashore on Pensacola Beach, Florida
Beach
visitors were caught off guard early Monday morning to find a deceased
Beaked Whale on shore near Margaritaville Hotel on Pensacola Beach. The
20-foot whale beached Sunday night, said Cassity Bromley, chief of
science and resource stewardship for the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
"The whale had washed up and was half buried right where the
tide was coming in," said Josh Bell, a hotel employee. "They brought a
bulldozer-type thing and a big tractor, dug it out, tied it up around
the tail area, picked it up and took it across the beach." Bell said he
works on the beach every day, and he has seen sharks and fish wash
ashore but never anything like a whale.
Santa Rosa Island
Authority used a backhoe loader to remove and transport the whale to the
Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge in Fort Walton Beach, which is part of
the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. The whale will undergo a necropsy
to verify its species and the cause of death.
Bell and
co-worker Belinda Radford were among those on the beach who watched
Santa Rosa Island Authority load the whale for transport.
Radford was concerned about how the whale died, but was confident a
cause would be determined and steps taken if necessary to prevent future
deaths.
"It was crazy," she said. "It was beached and half buried, but they were out there real quick."
Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge has performed a necropsy on the beached Beaked Whale found Monday on Pensacola Beach.
According to Ed Cake, professor emeritus at Southern Mississippi
University and a marine biologist with Gulf Islands National Seashore in
Ocean Springs, Miss., a gross exam was performed first, consisting of
an overall exam of the whale's exterior in which they looked for any
injury or wounds.
Then they performed an internal exam of the
body, looking for any disease or injury not showing on the outside. They
determined the sex of the whale, took tissue samples and looked for
parasites and any bone injuries.
The Emerald Coast Wildlife
Refuge began the necropsy 3:30 p.m. Monday at their facility in Fort
Walton Beach, according to Holly Young, an animal care technician at the
refuge. The necropsy procedure was finished around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
It is unknown when the results will be determined. - PNJ.
Young woman killed by a mob of monkeys in India
Monkey tragic: A string of brutal attacks by the Langur monkey has plagued the city of Shimla
A woman in India has been killed by a mob of marauding monkeys.
The woman was reportedly cornered by a group of monkeys on her farm in Himachal Pradesh, before they attacked and killed her.
A legislation banning people from catching the monkeys and selling them for medical research has recently been passed.
Reports suggest this new rule has seen a primate boom in Shimla, where there is an average of 400 bites a month.
It is believed there are around 400,000 monkeys in the region, with the
attacks being blamed on black-faced langur monkeys, which can grow to
4ft tall and weigh three stone.
According to the NY Post,
regional chief justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir said: "The growth of monkeys
is at its peak. It is shocking to record that in the last week, we have
lost the precious life of a young woman."
An
86-year-old victim of a black-faced langur is also in critical
condition at a local hospital with multiple bite wounds and fractures.
Local deputy mayor Takinder Panwar has criticised the local government
for the wildlife protection order saying the "population is too large to
be supported in the wild and they come into the town looking for easy
food".
But conservationists claim they only cause a problem because of the rapid expansion of towns and villages by humans.
According to theMirror,
former Indian Forest Service ranger and Nature Watch campaigner
Rajeshwar Negi, 36, said: "We strongly reject and condemn the demands
for either culling or allowing the export of monkeys for medical
research." - AOL.
Villager trampled to death by elephant in West Bengal, India
In
the early hours on Wednesday, at Dhupguri area in the Jalpaiguri
district of West Bengal, a local villager was trampled to death by an
elephant, a forest official said.
This shocking incident of
animal attack on a human took place when a herd of elephants from the
neighbouring forest entered Duramari village. This group of elephants
damaged paddy crops and was on the way towards the dwellings of the
village.
Jalpaiguri Wildlife Warden Seema Chowdhury said, The
villager of Duramari Village named Dinesh Chandra Roy was killed by a
pachyderm when he came face to face with the elephant as he stepped out
of his house.
After killing a villager, the herd of elephants then returned to the forest. - Vishwagujarat.
In the wake of increasing attacks by wild animals especially hyenas in the Lake Zone,
the Wildlife Department in Mwanza is calling on parents and guardians
to be extra vigilant to the whereabouts of their children at all times.
Mwanza Regional Wildlife Officer Lusajo Masinde made the call over the
weekend following a fatal hyena attack on two children in Sangabuye
Village, Ilemela District.
One of the children died on the spot while the other passed away few hours later at the Bugando Referral Hospital.
Narrating the incident, Faustine Christopher whose four year old nephew
Elias Onesmo was one of mauled children, said Onesmo and three other
children were playing outside their house when the stray animal struck.
He said the children screamed for help but by the time their
grandfather arrived at the scene, the hyena had already attacked and
dragged Onesmo away.
Sangabuye Village Chairman John Luhaha
said the villagers went in search of the hyena and found the body
disembodied remains of Onesmo with the head and limbs missing.
The surviving child who was however severely injured was rushed to
Bugando Referral Hospital where he unfortunately died undergoing
treatment.
Sangabuye residents Stella Gabriel and Mussa Machongoexpressed their concerns and pointed out that it is not common for wild animals especially hyenas, to attack human beingsnoting that hyenas, for example, are known to feed on carcasses rather than hunt. - IPP Media.
Elderly apple grower killed by bear in Japan
A
74-year-old man was found dead Thursday morning at his apple orchard in
Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, after having apparently been attacked by a
bear.
Police said Kazuo Harada told his wife Wednesday night he
was going out to see if there were any bear tracks near the apple
trees, TBS reported. Harada's wife went to bed early and found her
husband's body at 7:45 a.m. Thursday, police said.
Harada's
face and throat had injuries and claw marks consistent with a bear
attack, police said, adding that bear tracks were found near Harada's
body.
Police said there have been numerous bear sightings in
the area recently. Authorities said that in autumn, bears aggressively
search for food before hibernating for the winter. - Japan Today.
Father and son killed in elephant attack, Sri Lanka
A
father and his six-year-old son were killed after being attacked by a
wild elephant in the Paludeniya area in Aralaganwila this morning, the
Police Spokesman's Office.
The 45-year-old victim, who is
employed as a security guard at a private company in Paludeniya, was
with his son at his occupation when the elephant attack took place.
They were both rushed to the Dehiattakandiya Hospital with critical
injuries following the attack, however were pronounced dead on
admittance, police said. - Adaderana.
2 people killed in another elephant attack in Sri Lanka
A
wild elephant stormed into a crowded pilgrimage town in Sri Lanka on
Wednesday and trampled two men to death near Buddhism's most sacred
tree, a resident and police said.
Wildlife authorities fired
tranquiliser darts to try to subdue the rampaging animal in the town of
Anuradhapura, 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the capital, police
said.
The elephant ran past President Mahinda Rajapakse's
official residence in Anuradhapura at dawn before crushing a cyclist and
a bystander near the holy tree, the Sri Maha Bodi. "It
is very unusual for an wild elephant to go to town like this," a local
resident told AFP. "The last time we saw something like this was when a
tusker came to the town in 2001 but it did not kill anyone, unlike this
time."
Police said it was unclear what sparked
the rampage. They have tied the elephant's legs together and were now
working with wildlife authorities to return it to nearby jungle.
The tree, guarded around the clock by armed men, is believed grown from
a sapling of a tree in India that sheltered the Buddha when he attained
enlightenment more than 2,550 years ago.
"The attack was near the Uda Maluwa (upper terrace) police post (of the sacred tree)," said police spokesman Ajith Rohana.
Elephants are considered sacred in Sri Lanka and are also protected by law.
The country boasted 12,000 elephants in 1900 but their numbers have
dropped below 7,500 as a result of farmers encroaching on their habitats
and killing animals that stray onto their crops.
British tourist victim of 'worst-ever' attack by Gibraltar monkey
Brit holidaymaker needed 40 stitches after monkey attack
A British tourist needed 40 stitches after being attacked by one of Gibraltar's famous apes.
Stuart Gravenell, 53, was walking through the Upper Rock Nature Reserve with his son, Bradley, when he was attacked. A
pack of apes charged at them, and one male sunk his teeth into Stuart's
forearm and shook its head, opening up two bloody wounds.
Stuart collapsed and was rushed to hospital, where nurses said it was the worst injury inflicted by a local ape that they'd ever seen.
Stuart, a retired IT worker, told the Gloucester Citizen: "You just wouldn't believe how traumatic it was. It was a very very upsetting experience.
"It was supposed to be a nice family holiday and it was totally ruined.
"I have no recollection of the actual incident - I think I must have blocked it out.
"But Bradley said it just ran up and stopped dead in its tracks and jumped on me - half on my back and half of my shoulder.
"He said it grabbed my arm - I've got claw marks - and it bit into me
arm and just shook. It was so aggressive. It savagely bit my arm,
tearing it open.
"It jumped off and was just sat on the wall looking at me. Blood was pouring and spurting everywhere - it was like a tap."
Stuart, from Hardwicke, in Gloucestershire, had driven from home to
Casares del Sol in Spain for a three-week break with his wife Diane and
his son.
The keen walkers took a day trip to nearby Gibraltar
and paid 50p each to enter the Upper Rock Nature Reserve when the
incident occurred on 24 September.
Albert Poggio, the UK-based representative for the colony, told the Mirror: "It is very very sad but what can one say?
"These monkeys are wild. We do give as much notice all over the place. It is very unfortunate.
"We are trying to keep the numbers down and we have just exported 30 to Scotland." - AOL.
Hiker killed by bear in New Jersey took photo shortly before attack
A
New Jersey hiker killed by a bear in September took a series of photos
of the animal with his cellphone before it mauled him to death.
Police in West Milford have released five photos taken by 22-year-old
Darsh Patel before he was killed by the 300-pound black bear while
hiking with four friends in the Apshawa Preserve, 45 miles northwest of
New York.
The photos show the bear behind a fallen tree in the
woods. Investigators say the phone was found with puncture marks from
the bear.
The photos were released after NJ.com filed an open records request.
West
Milford police and the state Environmental Protection Department said
last month that the bear did not seem interested in food and exhibited
"stalking type behavior."
Large fish kill found washed up along Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia
On
the morning of Tuesday November 18 I was dismayed to see a large number
of dead fish along the tide line of Main Beach. I am wondering if
anyone knows what caused the fish kill.
Not so long ago I saw the
tide deposit a slimy green mat all along Belongil Beach, and I have
heard a few people saying they have seen no dolphins for a while. Could
it be that the Belongil estuary health has been compromised, and some
serious and independent assessments need to be done before any go-ahead
of any proposal which could increase toxicity and damage marine and
human life? - Echo.
March 01, 2013 - PACIFIC OCEAN - NOC was the name of a white whale caught off the Pacific coast of
Canada in 1977. Until his death five years ago, NOC lived in an open-air
tank at the US National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego, along with a group of dolphins; he also socialized with two female white whales. In 1984, NOC started talking with a human voice. You can hear NOC speaking via the Guardian and the Independent. Before realizing that NOC was talking, the scientists thought they
heard the sound of people chatting as if at a distance and “just out of
range for our understanding,” from a tank that held whales and
dolphins. As noted in Current Biology (pdf), the scientists heard these “conversations” several times before tracing them to NOC:
Captive Whale Tried To Talk Like Humans.
The whale was exposed to speech not only
from humans at the surface — it was present at times when divers used
surface-to-diver communication equipment… The whale was recognized as
the source of the speech-like sounds when a diver surfaced outside this
whale’s enclosure and asked “Who told me to get out?” Our observations
led us to conclude the “out” which was repeated several times came
from NOC.
NOC was seeking to mimic human voices, the scientists say. They
recorded NOC’s sounds both when he was underwater and when he surfaced
for the next several years. An acoustic analysis revealed that NOC’s human voice was several
octaves below typical whale sounds which include echolocation clicks and
whistles (that are actually fast vibrations). The scientists “trained”
NOC to speak when they requested him to do so. They also figured out how
he produced human sounds, by adjusting the pressure and blowing air through his nose rather than through his larynx as humans do. After four years, when NOC reached his maturity, he stopped making
the human sounds, perhaps because he lost either the interest or the
ability. He did remain “quite vocal,” the scientists say, producing
echolocation pulses and also “various pulse burst sounds previously
described as ‘squawks, rasps, yelps or barks.’”
The first to study white whale
(Delphinapterus leucas) sounds in the wild, Schevill and Lawrence [3]
wrote that “occasionally the calls would suggest a crowd of children
shouting in the distance”. Fish and Mowbary [4] described sound types
and reviewed past descriptions of sounds from this vociferous species.
At Vancouver Aquarium, Canada, keepers suggested that a white whale
about 15 years of age, uttered his name “Lagosi”. Other utterances were
not perceptible, being described as “garbled human voice, or Russian, or
similar to Chinese” by R.L. Eaton in a self-published account in 1979.
I’ve listened to the recordings quite a few times: it is uncanny, wondrous and poignant to hear the voice of NOC. In his many years living among humans, was NOC trying to “make
contact”? What motivated him to start, and to stop, talking in a human
voice — did he conclude that the effort to speak the way humans did was
not worth it? When NOC said, as the diver reported, “out,” was he trying to tell the scientists what he wanted? - Care2.
Dolphins Have Their Own Names For Each Other.
Bottlenose dolphins have been observed to use distinctive “signature whistles” towards each other, says new research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. That is, dolphins actually call one another by name, a behavior previously thought to only occur in humans. Scientists have known that dolphins emit unique whistles that
identify them to other dolphins. These can be heard up to 12.4 miles
away, depending on the depth of the water and whistle frequency. Stephanie King, a research fellow at University of St. Andrews,
observed that the bottlenose dolphins actually copy the signature
whistle of other dolphins when separated from them. This finding, she
says in Discovery News,
“supports our belief that dolphins copy another animal’s signature
whistle when they want to reunite with that specific individual.”
King and her colleagues observed the copying of signature whistles
both in wild dolphins around Sarasota Bay in Florida from 1984 to 2009
and in four adult male captive dolphins who live at Florida’s The Sea
Aquarium. The keepers had given the latter four the names Calvin,
Khyber, Malabar and Ranier but the dolphins were seen to have their own
names for each other.
Notably, researchers found that the dolphins used the names for those
they are close to, such as a mother to her calf or male dolphin
“buddies” to each other. The signature whistles seem to be used to
maintain social bonds — just as human language is used — and were not
observed in aggressive contexts such as the “matching” of songs that
songbirds use to “compete” with other. Do Dolphins Have a “Language”?
Scientists have been hesitant to use the “l-word” — language — to refer to the sounds that animals other than humans make, says Discovery News. Clearly, the bottlenose dolphins studied by King have “a very complex and sophisticated communication system.” Dolphins’ sounds include “high frequency echolocation or clicks; and
pulse sounds, like noisy, pulsed squawks,” says Lori Marino, an
evolutionary neurobiologist at Emory University who has long studied
cetaceans, to Forbes.
Her analysis of dolphins’ sounds reveals that these do have
“higher-order internal structure or organizational complexity” that is
analogous to the grammar and syntax of human language. Marino also notes
other aspects of dolphins’ intelligence: they process information and
make decisions quickly; they have a ”fluidity” of movement in a group
that suggests a highly developed “level of social cohesion” and sense of
self; and they show altruism towards other dolphins.
These findings, along with the newfound realization that dolphins
have names for each other, offer further evidence for why, as some
scientists argue, they should be considered “non-human persons,” in the
spirit of the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans, drafted by a group in Helsinski, Finland. It also makes one wonder, what do many captive dolphins think about
having names like “Flipper” given to them — what if we called them by
their names instead and attempted to learn their forms of communication? - Care2.
Seemingly Dead Fawn Pulled From Icy Waters "Licked" Back To Life By Family Of Deer.
Suffolk County cops pulled a seemingly-dead fawn out of icy waters in
Fire Island today — and a family of deer came up to it and licked it
back to health! Suffolk County PD Marine Bureau officers Robert Femia and Peter
Bogachunas were nearing the Davis Park Marina on their boat about 1:04
p.m. when they noticed a little baby deer’s head among pieces of ice and
slush floating on the water about 30 yards from shore. “They don’t know how long it’s been there, so they maneuver their
boat close to the deer, pick it up and throw it into the boat,” said Lt.
Raymond Epp, of the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau, who met the
officers on the dock as they tried to rescue the little animal. The cops quickly covered the brown-eyed deer in several thick
blankets but, despite their best efforts, the little guy remained
freezing wet and motionless.
Suffolk County police officer with the fawn.
Seemingly dead fawn pulled from icy waters ‘licked’ back to life by family of deer.
Suffolk County PD police officer feeding fawn popcorn.
“It wasn’t flailing or kicking, it was just sitting there,” Epp said. “We weren’t sure if it was in shock of hypothermia.” That’s when the Enchanted Forest-like miracle happened: Three deer — an adult and two young babies that appeared to be members of the fawn’s family — came out of the woods and began to lick the little guy. Slowly, he started to come back to life, first blinking its big brown eyes, then getting up slowly and moving around the dock. The officers took the fawn over to the station house and fed it warm popcorn, which the little guy took gladly. “We had limited food,” Epp explained. After a few minutes, the fawn started to get even more alert and ran off with the other deer. “I couldn’t wait to go home and tell my daughter about it,” said Epp, who has an 11 year old. “It was just such a nice, heartwarming story.” - NY Post.
8 Smart Species Challenge How We Think of Animals.
Animals are smarter than we thought. This matters not just because it’s cool and fascinating. It matters because people use lack of intelligence as the reason to treat humans and non-human animals differently. It’s okay to eat animals and experiment on them, the rationale goes, because they are just dumb animals. Science is biting itself in the butt on this one by continually discovering that animals aren’t so different from us after all, which will make it harder to justify experimenting on them. These are some of the smartest animals in no particular order:
1. Dolphins
These thinkers have been named the second smartest species,
after us, of course. They “co-operate with military precision to round
up shoals of fish to eat.” They recognize themselves in mirrors. One
dolphin was held captive for three weeks and was taught to tail-walk;
after her release, “scientists were astonished to see the trick
spreading among wild dolphins who had learnt it from the former
captive.” They can learn “a rudimentary symbol-based language.” Dolphins
“can solve difficult problems” and have “a high level of emotional
sophistication.” Plus, they have really big brains. Things have gone so
far that scientists have suggested “they are so bright that they should be treated as ‘non-human persons,’” protected from imprisonment in tanks, exploitation in amusement parks and slaughter. When people can no longer point to a huge gap in intelligence between
humans and other animals, it gets harder to justify torturing and using
them.
2. Ravens Ravens have incredible recall
for their friends’ voices. After living together for three years, then
being separated for three years (during which time their calls may have
changed), the ravens responded with friendly calls to recordings of the
voices of their old friends. They also remembered which birds they liked and which they didn’t.
Recordings of the voices of ravens they didn’t care for elicited
different reactions in deeper voices. They had yet a third reaction for
the calls of birds they did not know.
3. Grey Parrots Grey parrots can reason as well as three-year-old humans, as Mindy Townsend has written on Care2. When presented with two canisters and shown that one was empty, then “given the chance
to choose one or the other,” they reliably picked the other
one. Scientists performed more complicated versions of this study with
the same result. The birds were showing “abstract, inferential thinking” by figuring out that if one is empty, the other has food in it. Humans can’t do that before age three.
4. Squirrels
Yes, squirrels are smart. They “put on
elaborate shows” in which they pretend they are hiding food “to thwart
would-be thieves.” When squirrels saw human researchers stealing their
peanuts, they faked hiding even more food. This deception involves
planning and a concept of what is happening in others’ minds — the
squirrels are thinking about what may happen in the future (theft of
their food), and about what observers are seeing and deducing (that
there will be food where the squirrel is digging). So there to all the squirrel haters, and especially to the wing nuts who held the “Hazard County Squirrel Slam” last weekend in upstate New York, where they awarded prizes for shooting and killing squirrels.
5. Elephants
Of course elephants have to be on any list of smart animals. They
have proved their intelligence time and again. But here is one you may
not have heard: they can sniff out the scents “of up to 30 absent
members of their family” and build a mental map of where they are. Can
you keep track of where 30 of your relatives are at any given time?
6. Chimpanzees
The latest revelation: chimpanzees have better short-term memory than humans. Not just good short-term memory. Not even just as good as ours. Better. They have a stronger mental ability than humans do. The study, reported in Huff Post Science,
flashed the numbers 1 through 9 randomly on a screen. Chimpanzee Ayumu
“was able to recall the exact sequence and location of each number.” When researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa showed a video of the experiment
“to a room of scientists and journalists, murmurs of amazement were
heard. ‘Don’t worry, nobody can do it,’ Matsuzawa said… ‘It’s impossible
for you.’”
Chimp Ayumu has also learned the numbers 1 through 19 and what order they go in.
7. Pigs
Pigs can learn
to use a joystick to move a cursor to a target and can distinguish
among a child’s various scribblings. Their intelligence is akin to that
of chimpanzees. Comparing them to humans doesn’t come out that well for
us: “even piglets only a few hours old will leave the nest to relieve themselves.” How long were your kids in diapers?
8. Crows
According to National Geographic,
research now suggests that crows “share with humans several hallmarks
of higher intelligence, including tool use and sophisticated social
behavior.” Crows play tricks on each other, and different families have their own dialects. A nature
writer describing one experiment on the birds writes that they are “in a
class with us as toolmakers,” better even than chimps. There is more going on behind animals’ eyes than we have given them
credit for. Having learned more about their mental and social
intelligence, it is time to reevaluate how we treat them. - Care2.
November 18, 2012 - CANADA - Canadian scientists have shown that the deadliest form of the ebola virus could be transmitted by air between species. In experiments, they demonstrated that the virus was transmitted from pigs to monkeys without any direct contact between them. The researchers say they believe that limited airborne transmission might be contributing to the spread of the disease in some parts of Africa. They are concerned that pigs might be a natural host for the lethal infection.
The infection is thought to get into humans through close contact with bodily fluids.
Ebola viruses cause fatal haemorrhagic fevers in humans and many other species of non human primates. Details of the research were published in the journal Scientific Reports. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the infection gets into humans through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs and other bodily fluids from a number of species including chimpanzees, gorillas and forest antelope. The fruit bat has long been considered the natural reservoir of the infection. But a growing body of experimental evidence suggests that pigs, both wild and domestic, could be a hidden source of Ebola Zaire - the most deadly form of the virus.
Now, researchers from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the country's Public Health Agency have shown that pigs infected with this form of Ebola can pass the disease on to macaques without any direct contact between the species. In their experiments, the pigs carrying the virus were housed in pens with the monkeys in close proximity but separated by a wire barrier. After eight days, some of the macaques were showing clinical signs typical of ebola and were euthanised. One possibility is that the monkeys became infected by inhaling large aerosol droplets produced from the respiratory tracts of the pigs. One of the scientists involved is Dr Gary Kobinger from the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada. He told BBC News this was the most likely route of the infection. "What we suspect is happening is large droplets - they can stay in the air, but not long, they don't go far," he explained. "But they can be absorbed in the airway and this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the virus got in that way." - BBC.
Dozens of dead marine mammals, turtles in Gulf this year, NOAA says.
Reports of dozens of stranded dolphins, whales, and sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico continue to pile up in the first two months of 2012, with federal officials tallying 48 marine mammals, mostly dolphins, and 87 sea turtles. Only a handful of marine mammal strandings were of live animals that may have been saved. None of the turtles were alive. There continues to be concern that the high numbers of dead animals, especially the dolphins and whales, may be linked in some way to health problems either caused or exacerbated by toxic chemicals left behind by the BP Gulf oil spill. - NOLA.
Mutated, two-headed trout found in Idaho, United States.
Examples of unusual deformities.
I'm not a scientist -- I don't even play one on TV. But even with my limited knowledge of the scientific world, I know enough to say without fear of reprisal that two-headed fish are not generally an indicator of a healthy watershed. The two-headed fish in question is a trout and was just one of many abnormal fish that were regulated to an appendix of a scientific study commissioned by the J.R. Simplot Company. Despite the presence of fish with two heads and fish with facial, fin, and egg deformities, the mining company's report concluded that the waters it is accused of polluting in southern Idaho are fairly safe. So safe in fact that the company feels it would be just peachy to allow the water's high selenium (a metal byproduct of mining that is toxic to wildlife) levels to remain as is, even though they are higher than are permitted under regulatory guidelines. - Outdoor Life.
100 animals die of unknown disease, India.
Hundreds of animals have reportedly died of an unknown disease in the past one week, at many villages of Tandiki panchayat under Korukonda Panchayat Samiti. So far, 100 animals, including cows and goats, have died, said Unga Podiami, Korukonda-I Zilla Parishad member. Nuabandiki, Bandiguda, Dhangadgata, Gurageta, Chidipalli, Danguda, Tentuliguda, Damaguda, Tandki, Pujariguda, Burdhi, Bahalguda, Jamguda, Titang and Gutamgida are the worst-hit villages. There could be more deaths if the veterinary doctor teams do not reach the village, take appropriate measures to check and ascertain the cause of the deaths, Podiami said. - IBN Live.
Fourth monkey death reported at Harvard research center.
Harvard Medical School has suspended new experiments at the New England Primate Research Center after a cotton top tamarin monkey died Sunday, the fourth monkey death at the lab in less than two years, Carolyn Y. Johnson reported in today’s Globe. The death occurred the same day the US Department of Agriculture released an inspection report highlighting three other deaths at the center and further deficiencies in care of the animals. - Boston.
32 Carlsbad dogs euthanized due to rabies exposure.
The New Mexico Department of Health is reporting that 32 pet dogs from the Carlsbad area have been euthanized since December 2011 because they were exposed to known rabid animals. They were never vaccinated against rabies, a NMDOH spokeswoman said. Aimee Barabe said with the exception of puppies that were too young to be fully vaccinated, all of these animal deaths could have been prevented. Barabe said rabies vaccination of dogs and cats is mandated by state law. In addition to dogs, a number of livestock and at least one cat have also been euthanized due to rabies exposures. - Current Argus.
Rare whale caught on film for first time.
A Shepherd's beaked whale.
Australian scientists have captured what they believe to be the first video of an extremely rare whale, the Shepherd's beaked whale, which has been spotted for sure only a handful of times since its discovery a little over 70 years ago. A pod of the unusual cetacean, which can grow as long as a bus (7 metres or 21 ft) and weigh as much as a sedan car (up to 3 tonnes) was spotted frolicking amongst dolphins and pilot whales in the Eastern Bass Strait, off the coast of Victoria and Tasmania, in January. "What is so unique about this sighting is, we got so many photographs and HD video, so really it's indisputable," said Mike Double, a research scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division, a government research unit for Antarctica. - Mirror.
Koala, young deaths tally rises.
IN reporter Megan Gorrey's excellent feature article, "Future's bright for koalas", in last week's Advertiser, I am quoted as saying: "We've only had two [koalas] which have died of less than old age". That quote applied only to the 23 Campbelltown koalas that we have put radio-collars on. Our wider study of another 140 ear-tagged koalas includes many animals that died prematurely. Tristan Lee is currently sorting out all of these records as part of his PhD studies, but most of the premature deaths are due to dog attacks and roadkills. - McCarthur Advertiser.
