DNA Study Yields New Subspecies of Tiger | LiveScience
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FOXNews.com - Snot-Like, Acid-Producing Bacteria Found to...
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http://www.treknature.com/gallery/Oceania/photo86220.htm
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The Honeybee's Genome Could Be Its Savior & SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3858477a4501,00.html
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Attenborough in waste not, want not call to tackle...
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Rudolph is threatened by unsafe sex - Telegraph
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Rudolph is threatened by unsafe sex
A study of rutting contains more bad news for Europe's wild reindeer, reports Roger Highfield
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer is under threat because of risky sexual practices, ranging from polygyny to inbreeding, according to a new study.
Norway is home to the majority of Europe's wild reindeer population, a subspecies of Rangifer tarandus. However, the 40,000 surviving animals now face a range of threats, from a decline in alpine habitats caused by climate change to the rise of tourism in the mountains of southern Norway. And, because the males are highly prized by hunters, mature Rudolphs are becoming an increasingly rare sight as the herds become dominated by females.
In the journal Biology Letters, a team led by Dr Øystein Holand of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences reports that the remaining populations are also at risk of inbreeding, so that there will be a greater mortality caused by genetic diseases.
The team came to the conclusion after studying an experimental herd during two rutting seasons, which adds to their existing problems: "Their polygynous mating system (where males mate with more than one female in a season) and the man made female biased sex ratio among adults may contribute to reduce effective population size."
"The populations are rather female skewed and rather few old males are around," said Dr Holand. Because, unlike other animals, the reindeer seem to be as willing to breed with close relatives as unrelated animals, this will put further pressure on the remaining populations, especially those with 500 or fewer animals.
Reindeer (called caribou in North America) are adapted to Ice Age conditions and, in the past, would cross the Scandinavian peninsula on their seasonal migration of up to 300 miles. This would reduce the chance of inbreeding but today the fragmentation of their habitat means that more inbreeding occurs, undermining the long-term viability of the remnant populations of wild European tundra reindeer.
The Norwegian Directorate for Natural Conservation and Management has recently devised an action plan to manage and protect key wild reindeer habitats, he said. The study was conducted with colleagues in Norway, Finland and Canada.
The study was conducted at Kutuharju Field Reindeer Research Station, in Kaamanen, Finland, as a part of a bigger study of reindeer sex.
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Farewell to the Yangtze dolphin | Environment |...
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Farewell to the Yangtze dolphin
The search for China's rarest dolphin has had an unhappy ending with scientists fearing it is lost forever
It lived in the Yangtze river for millions of years and was revered by the Chinese as the "goddess" of the mighty river. But now scientists believe that the baiji, a white, freshwater dolphin, is extinct.
A painstaking six-week hunt on the Yangtze for any remaining signs of the baiji ended yesterday with the news scientists had been dreading: there don't appear to be any remaining.
"The baiji is functionally extinct. We might have missed one or two animals but it won't survive in the wild," said August Pfluger, a Swiss naturalist involved in the expedition. "We are all incredibly sad."
Also known as the Chinese river dolphin, the baiji is the first large aquatic mammal to be declared extinction since the Caribbean monk seal was killed off by hunting and over-fishing half a century ago.
The marine scientists from the baiji.org foundation launched their hunt with some limited optimism six weeks ago, aware that the dolphin was in desperate peril but hopeful they would sight some of the pale, nearly blind creatures.
But as the Guardian's Jonathan Watts detailed last month even halfway through the expedition the signs were looking gloomy.
The dolphin, which dates back 20 million years, has been pushed to extinction by the severe degradation of its habitat. Increasingly noisy shipping traffic on the Yangtze affected the dolphins' sonar, while severe pollution and over-fishing diminished food supplies.
The completion of the massive Three Gorges dam project upriver also did not help, worsening the decline of the smaller fish on which the baiji fed and shrinking the sand bars around which they once played
Around 400 baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the early 1980s, when China was just launching the free market reforms that have transformed its economy. The last fully-fledged search, in 1997, yielded 13 confirmed sightings, and a fisherman claimed to have seen a baiji in 2004.
The closest most modern Chinese people got to the creature was Qi Qi, a female baiji found in the river in 1980, who lived in an aquarium until her death in 2002.
The chances of a miraculous return from presumed extinction seem extremely remote, given that the team of 30 scientists from five countries searched a 1,000-mile stretch of the Yangtze over the six weeks. At least 20 to 25 baiji would now be needed to give the species a chance to survive, they say.
The disappearance of the "goddess of the Yangtze" is a sobering reminder to the Chinese government about the extent to which the country's economic transformation is affecting the environment.
According to Mr Pfluger, China's Agriculture Ministry had hoped the baiji would end up being another giant panda, an animal brought back from the brink of extinction in a highly marketable effort that bolstered the country's image.
Almost equally under threat is Yangtze finless porpoise (above), whose numbers have fallen to below 400, the expedition found.
"The situation of the finless porpoise is just like that of the baiji 20 years ago," the baiji.org expedition group said in a statement. "Their numbers are declining at an alarming rate. If we do not act soon they will become a second baiji."
