Dear Kitty. Some blog

This is a video of a bittern in winter.

From Wildlife Extra:

Bitterns and large flocks arriving at WWT London

03/11/2009 18:02:35

Bumper flock of wintering birds at WWT

November 2009. The first bittern of the season was seen flying over WWT London Wetland Centre on 16 October, earlier than ever. It has now settled amongst the reeds. The bird has been arriving earlier and earlier in the year since it first appeared in 2002. It is not known why this pattern of early arrival seems to be emerging, but speculation at the centre points to weather patterns and winds on the continent, where this individual is believed to come from. The London Wetland Centre in Barnes is one of a very few locations in London to see a bittern, and certainly the closest the bird gets to the City centre.

Excellent predator

Keen birdwatchers at the centre have seen the bird several times in the Wildside of the reserve where it is likely to stay until February or March. Expectation is high for one or two more bitterns to fly into the centre, as there were three visiting the centre in 2008. Bitterns usually take a few weeks to find their winter feeding spot, but once they do they remain in their territory through the winter. The birds are excellent predators, feeding mostly on perch, but also prey on roach, frogs, eels and small birds. Known as shy creatures, they are excellent camouflage artists concealing themselves from larger predators and humans.

Hundreds of gadwall and shoveller

“The centre has been attracting high numbers of wintering birds in the past few weeks, and the bittern always brings excitement to the reserve because it is such a rare bird in the UK. Nationally significant duck numbers have already been reached, with hundreds of gadwall and shoveller seen on the main lake,” said Adam Salmon, Reserve Manager. “Other highlights include good counts of arriving redwing and Cetti’s warblers. There are still chiffchaff and blackcap around, some of which may over-winter, siskin and lesser redpoll are feeding now through the birch trees.”

Other spectacular autumn birds seen at the London Wetland Centre this week include water pipit, rock pipit, mealy redpolls, jack snipe, brambling, tree sparrows and woodlark. Centre staff are expecting a woodcock to arrive this winter as it did in 2008.

Guided walks

Visitors can take in all the sights of the autumn migrations on self-guided tours through the site, or book a Wildlife Walk for Members tour on 7 November and 5 December. An introductory birdwatching course is being held on 10 January.

Visit www.wwt.org.uk/london or call 0208 409 4400 for more information and to book.

From the Irish Times:

Flesh-eating plant and a fast-talking frog among Australian discoveries

PÃDRAIG COLLINS in Sydney

A FLESH-EATING plant, the fast-talking tree frog and one of the world’s most venomous snakes are among at least 1,300 new plant and animal species discovered in Australia over the past decade, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Federation.

The report highlights the discovery of over a thousand plants, 195 fish, 74 reptiles, 13 amphibians and seven mammals. “The extent of Australia’s rich biodiversity is astounding,” said Michael Roache, threatened species programme manager of WWF-Australia.

“This report shows that we have discovered an average of at least two new species a week every year for the past 10 years . . . But this could just be the tip of the iceberg. There could be thousands more out there.”

Mr Roache says the fast-talking tree frog is not even the most interesting frog discovered. “It’s just got a very fast, trilling call,” he told The Irish Times. “The name sounds cooler than the species might be.

“A more interesting discovery is the northern stony-creek frog. The males and females are brown for most of the year, but males turn yellow during breeding season.

“He then turns bright yellow when coupling with the female. It’s a good thing humans don’t do that,” said Mr Roache.

While flesh-eating plants have a long history as B-movie staples, the Nepenthes tenax, better known as the pitcher plant, was only discovered in 2006 in Cape York, far north Queensland. It can grow up to one metre tall – far greater than the usual 15cm limit for such plants – and has a taste for small rats, mice, lizards and even birds.

Of more immediate concern to humans is the newly-discovered central ranges Taipan, believed to be one of the world’s most venomous snakes. As well as presenting strange and exotic new flora and faunae to the world, the report says many vital habitats are increasingly endangered.

“Over 1,700 of Australia’s plants and animals are listed by the Australian government as threatened. With the discovery of so many new and exciting species it is crucial that efforts to keep them off the threatened lists are maintained,” said Mr Roache.

One of Australia’s most endangered species, the pipistrelle bat of Christmas Island, may have just become extinct.

Scientists have spent a month trying to capture the bats for a breeding programme, but have failed to find any.

White ibis becoming urban birds in Australia due to drought: here.

From the Smithsonian Institution in the USA:

September 3, 2009

Toad “Fraud” May Have Been Ahead of His Time

Before Charles Darwin, there was Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the French naturalist who proposed that an organism could pass to its offspring characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime. The classic example is the idea that giraffes got their long necks by gradually stretching them over successive generations in response to the need to reach food high in the trees. Darwin’s theory—which held, in contrast, that giraffes with the longest necks were more likely to survive and reproduce—eventually won out, though Lamarckism persisted well into the 20th century (particularly in the Soviet Union, where it was revived as Lysenkoism).

One proponent of Lamarckism in the 1920s was Austrian biologist Paul Kammerer, who undertook a series of experiments on amphibians, including the midwife toad. These toads are special because they copulate on land and then the male keeps the eggs out of the water by carrying them around, on land, stuck to his own legs.

By placing the toads in an arid, hot environment, Kammerer induced the toads to mate in the water. Under these conditions, the toads simply deposited the eggs into the water—the male did not carry them—and only a few hatched into tadpoles. But later generations who grew up under normal conditions preferred to copulate in the water, and some males developed a trait called “nuptial pads” on their forelimbs (black spots that are used for gripping females and are common on water-dwelling toads). Kammerer believed that this was evidence that Larmarckian evolution was real.

In 1926, however, a herpetologist determined that the nuptial pads on the only specimen remaining from Kammerer’s experiment were simply black spots created by injections of India ink. And six weeks after the herpetologist’s paper appeared in Nature, Kammerer killed himself.

Kammerer denied injecting the frog, but his experiments were never repeated and he is often held up as an example of Lamarckian fraud. Nothing was ever proven, though, and nuptial pads have since been found in a wild midwife frog, proving they are a possible trait. Now, in a new paper, University of Chile biologist Alexander Vargas argues that Kammerer’s experiments produced intriguing evidence of epigenetics, in which a gene’s expression can change but not its underlying sequence, years before scientists discovered this non-Mendelian form of inheritance.

In Kammerer’s time, traits were thought to be inherited in a strict Mendelian fashion, in which genes obey statistical laws. We now know that genetics are far messier; the DNA sequence of a gene is only one part of the picture. For instance, with DNA methylation, a methyl group attaches to DNA resulting in less expression of the gene. Environmental factors can influence DNA methylation, and this can look something like Lamarckian evolution.

Vargas argues that moving the toad eggs from land to water changed their environment, and that change could have caused alterations in gene methylation. And epigenetic mechanisms are now known to influence some of the features that became altered in Kammerer’s toads, such as adult body size and egg size. “Rather than committing fraud,” Vargas writes, “it seems that Kammerer had the misfortune of stumbling upon non-Mendelian inheritance at a time in which Mendelian genetics itself was just becoming well accepted.”

From Wikipedia:

Interest in Kammerer revived in 1971, when he became the subject of a book by Arthur Koestler, The Case of the Midwife Toad. Koestler surmised that Kammerer’s experiments on the midwife toad may have been tampered with by a Nazi sympathizer at the University of Vienna. Certainly, as Koestler writes, “the Hakenkreuzler, the swastika-wearers, as the [Austrian] Nazis of the early days were called, were growing in power. One of the centers of ferment was the University of Vienna where, on the traditional Saturday morning student parades, bloody battles were fought. Kammerer was known by his public lectures and newspaper articles as an ardent pacifist and Socialist; it was also known that he was going to build an institute in Soviet Russia. An act of sabotage in the laboratory would have been … in keeping with the climate of those days.”

This video from the USA is called Reptiles of the San Pedro River in Arizona by Mike Foster.

From ScienceDaily:

Why Solitary Reptiles Lay Eggs In Communal Nests

(Sep. 2, 2009) — Reptiles are not known to be the most social of creatures. But when it comes to laying eggs, female reptiles can be remarkably communal, often laying their eggs in the nests of other females. New research in the September issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology suggests that this curiously out-of-character behavior is far more common in reptiles than was previously thought.

Dr. J. Sean Doody (The Australian National University) and colleagues, Drs. Steve Freedberg and J. Scott Keogh, performed an exhaustive review of literature on reptile egg-laying. They found that communal nesting has been reported in 255 lizard species as well as many species of snakes and alligators. The behavior was also documented in 136 amphibian species.

Common lizards in the Netherlands: here.

From British daily The Guardian:

Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New Guinea

* Robert Booth

*Monday 7 September 2009

A lost world populated by fanged frogs, grunting fish and tiny bear-like creatures has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea.

A team of scientists from Britain, America, Hawaii and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 frogs which have never before been recorded by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world.

The discoveries are being seen as fresh evidence of the richness of the world’s rainforests and the explorers hope their finds will add weight to calls for international action to prevent the demise of similar ecosystems. They said Papua New Guinea’s rainforest is currently being destroyed at the rate of 3.5% a year.

“It was mind-blowing to be there and it is clearly time we pulled our finger out and decided these habitats are worth us saving,” said Dr George McGavin who headed the expedition.

The team of biologists included experts from Oxford University, the London Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution and are believed to be the first scientists to enter the mountainous Bosavi crater. They were joined by members of the BBC Natural History Unit which filmed the expedition for a three-part documentary which starts tomorrow night.

They found the three-kilometre wide crater populated by spectacular birds of paradise and in the absence of big cats and monkeys, which are found in the remote jungles of the Amazon and Sumatra, the main predators are giant monitor lizards while kangaroos have evolved to live in trees. New species include a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo grunter, named because it makes grunting noises from its swim bladder.

“These discoveries are really significant,” said Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist who became so friendly with the never-before seen Bosavi silky cuscus, a marsupial that lives up trees and feeds on fruits and leaves, that it sat on his shoulder.

“The world is getting an awful lot smaller and it is getting very hard to find places that are so far off the beaten track.”

Photos are here.

See also here. And here. And here.

Giant rat satire: here.

From WebEcoist in the USA:

Nature’s Wild Nurses: 5 Caring Animal Species

The old adage of “treating others as you would like to be treated” especially holds true for certain animals that make no bones about going out of their way and caring for others. In some instances, animal kindness is a case of a species being good parents to their young; in other situations, the generosity is truly amazing and defines stereotypes. From vampire bats sharing blood with sick mates to dogs adopting kittens, the following list of nurturing animals may surprise, leave a smile on the face or even inspire. To these animals, their noble actions are not about recognition or notoriety, but just doing what’s right — a philosophy we all could do a better job of following at times. …

With their enormous girth, giant South African bulldogs [sic; bullfrogs] may look like immobile blobs, but they are actually quite agile when it comes to protecting their young tadpoles. Male African bulldogs [sic; bullfrogs] dutifully stand guard over their young tadpoles as they wade through the water and have been documented standing up to snakes and even lions and elephants that get too close. And when the swarms of tadpoles struggle to survive as stream waters become too shallow, the male frogs spring into action by digging trenches that connect nearby streams and allow the tadpoles to survive in deeper waters. Talk about a literal lifesaver. …

Arguably one of the most altruistic animal species around, dolphins have been known to help out others in need, including possible predators and even humans. A few years ago, a bottle nosed dolphin heeded the SOS calls of two beached whales in New Zealand and led them into safe waters. Without the guidance of the dolphin, the whales would have most likely perished. Also occurring in New Zealand a couple of years back, a group of swimmers were first surprised when a group of dolphins began circling around them. However, as the circle got tighter and the dolphins began splashing in the water, the swimmers became a bit nervous by the aggressive behavior. It turns out that the dolphins were warding off a nearby shark that was moving close to the swimmers, who were certainly less apprehensive and more appreciative when reaching shore and realizing the heroism of the dolphins, which have also prevented sharks from continuing attacks on humans in other circumstances. …

When a flood overwhelmed an Amazon jungle, a family of ants adapted quickly, specifically by linking their legs together and forming a raft built on teamwork and love. As the above video amazingly captures, the ants utilize the raft to guide their Queen and babies through the water. While some ants were lost along the way to hungry fish, their sacrifices didn’t go without purpose as the ants safely reached shore and lived to see another day.

This video says about itself:

Spanish Ribbed Newt (Pleurodeles waltl) Largest newt species.They can reach in excess of 35cm and weigh 300+ grams

From Wildlife Extra:

Bizarre newt sticks ribs out of body for protection

24/08/2009 22:34:43

Newt forces rib points out of body to act like spines

Courtesy of Egon Heiss of the University of Vienna

August 2009. The Spanish ribbed newt Pleurodeles waltl displays a bizarre defensive mechanism against predators.

X-ray analysis before and after a simulated threat shows that this newt can rotate its ribs until they project from the animal’s body. This forward movement causes the sharply pointed rib tips to lacerate the body wall and project freely from the sides of the trunk as spines.

Microscopy shows the micro-anatomy, and computed tomography shows the 3D morphology of these unusual weapons. They are ‘spear-shaped’ and are connected to the corresponding vertebra by a well-developed, two-headed joint. The skin in the penetration areas lacks permanent pores through which the ribs could be projected and is pierced by every anti-predator posturing. This investigation provides new insight into the functionality of a highly complex, integrated and unusual defensive strategy.

Poisonous secretions

Remarkably, the same newts have another defence mechanism. They have several special glands that are especially concentrated in body parts that are presented to an attacking predator and produce repellent poisonous substances to thwart potential aggressors.

Click here to see the full paper on the ribs.

Click here to see the full paper on the poison glands.

This video says about itself:

Work of wildlife cinematographer Fernando Riano of Colombia is featured in this beautiful portrait by writer/director/editor David Roth Weiss.

From Wildlife Extra:

Ecological disaster looms in Colombia: Mining companies granted rights over unique habitats yet to be explored by science

17/08/2009 12:42:15

Serranía de San Lucas at major risk

August 2009. The Serranía de San Lucas is one of the last unknown frontiers for biologists. Isolated and once covered with 2.5 million acres of forest to 7,500 feet elevation, none of it is protected and only a fraction of its forests survive. Sadly almost every acre has been designated as mining concessions for gold. This incredible and unique massif is at imminent risk of destruction.

Brief survey found new & endangered species - Declared an IBA

Serranía de San Lucas is an isolated 110 km massif in northern Colombia that rises to 7,500 feet (2,300 m) and is covered by lush tropical rainforests. Incredibly, this spectacular massif is biologically unstudied, bar a brief exploration by ProAves researchers during 1999 to 2001 at the lower elevations of 700 to 4,500 feet (200-1,400 m).

This survey registered over 370 bird species including 11 endangered species plus a high concentration of endangered mammals, such as the rare Spectacled Bear and five species of primates. These preliminary results highlighted the global importance of the Serranía de San Lucas for biodiversity and led to the conclusion that there likely to be many species of flora and fauna unknown to science at higher elevations. As a result of the threatened species found during these studies, the region was declared as globally important for conservation: an Important Bird Area (IBA) in 2005.

Least studies region of the Western Hemisphere?

Biologically, the Serranía de San Lucas remains the least known and most interesting area in the Western Hemisphere, a massif that potentially holds an entire community of flora and fauna unknown to science. During the 1999-2001 expedition, various new frog species for science and several new bird taxa were found, which still await description.

Unimaginable environmental crisis

Unfortunately, the San Lucas massif is facing an unimaginable environmental crisis, a victim of its own wealth of huge gold and timber resources. Until recent years, natural resource extraction on the massif has been largely artisanal owing to decades of political instability. But the rising demand and price of gold has spurred an unprecedented “gold rush”.

Despite the importance for biodiversity and in flagrant disregard for environmental impact studies, the Colombian Government has granted mining concessions to large multinational gold mining companies as Anglo Gold Ashanti of South Africa among others. These companies already have claimed rights to destroy almost the entire area of Serranía de San Lucas (see gold mining concession maps) with hydraulic and hard-rock mining activities.

Biodiversity Treasure - Only 10% left

To hand over the Serranía de San Lucas to mining companies is not only irresponsible but represents a potential catastrophe to Colombia and the planet. Serranía de san Lucas is a biodiversity treasure that Colombia and the world should be proud of. Unfortunately, none of the mining companies support the protection of biodiversity and sadly, not a single hectare of the San Lucas massif is protected for biodiversity conservation. Of 2.5 million acres of original forest cover on the massif, only 10% survives and that is estimated to largely be destroyed and fragmented in just eight years.

The consequences of losing 2.5 million acres of forest beside the Colombia’s most important river - the Rio Magdalena, together with heavy land degradation and environmental pollution through mercury and cyanide from mining activities, are incalculable. For example, as extreme weather events become ever more frequent, the situation for millions of people living within the Rio Magdalena valley flood area will be dire.

Void of biological information

Absurdly, after the government had handed over Serranía de San Lucas to mining companies,
a workshop was held on July 31 2009 in the city of Cartagena to establish Biodiversity Conservation Priorities for the Serranía de San Lucas, framed within the theme of Planning and Sustainable Development. The workshop was led by the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Experts in biological groups, such as the Alexander von Humboldt and Ecohabitat Foundation, among others were present with ProAves. All experts agreed on the biological and environmental importance of the San Lucas massif.

Two conclusions of the workshop included an acknowledgement of a tremendous void of biological information and the imminent concern about the lack of a national or private protected area. ProAves therefore suggested that a critical priority be the creation of Serranía de San Lucas National Park to protect its unique ecosystem, biodiversity and many globally endangered species.

Unfortunately, the Colombian government does not agree on the establishment of an effective protected area for the region, preferring a “Forest Reserve” that permits mining of the entire area.

In conclusion, the Serranía de San Lucas with its unique biodiversity and ecosystem function for Colombia and the planet is at extreme risk of extinction within a decade.

See the EBA report published by ProAves about the biodiversity of Serranía de San Lucas.

Hooded paramilitaries have massacred 12 indigenous people at a reserve in Colombia’s Narino state: here.

Mining pollution in New Zealand: here.

From British daily The Independent:

Himalayan wilderness yields 350 new species

Smallest species of deer ever known among new forms of wildlife discovered

By Lewis Smith

Monday, 10 August 2009

One of the last frontiers of nature has yielded more than 350 new species of animals and plants in just the last 10 years. The eastern Himalayas contain vast tracts of remote and inaccessible terrain that few scientists have managed to reach and which provide a home for some of the planet’s most mysterious animals.

New species are turning up at a rate of 35 a year and highlights uncovered in the region since 1998 include the miniature muntjac (Muntiacus putaoensis), also known as the leaf deer, which at 60 to 80cm tall and 11kg is the smallest species of deer in the world, and the Arunachal macaque (Macaca munzala) – the first new monkey to be found in a century.

Among the most visually striking are the red-footed but otherwise bright green flying frog (Rhacophorus suffry) and Smith’s litter frog (Leptobrachium smithi), which boasts huge golden eyes and was described by the WWF, which has compiled a report on the region, as “among the most extraordinary-looking” frogs in the world.

Other new species include catfish with sticky stomachs, a luridly green pit viper, a freshwater beetle living at 5,100 metres above sea level – higher than any other beetle – and a bird restricted to a site less than a square mile.

Overall, from 1998 to 2008, two mammals, two birds, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, 244 plants and more than 60 invertebrates have been identified in the region, according to the WWF report, The Eastern Himalayas – Where Worlds Collide.

The area is already the stronghold of the Bengal tiger, the only home of the snow leopards and the last sanctuary of the greater one-horned rhino, but has so much unknown wildlife that researchers expect many more discoveries to be made in the future.

The eastern Himalayas – divided between Nepal, Bhutan and parts of China, India, Bangladesh and Burma – is regarded as one of the most rugged and beautiful areas of the world. …

Discoveries have also been made of species which lived in the region millions of years ago and were preserved when they became encased in amber resin.

Among the creatures preserved in amber was the earliest known gecko (Cretaceogekko burmae), from 100 million years ago which was identified in 2008. Others included the oldest known tick and the earliest recorded mushroom.

The region is a hotspot for wildlife and harbours a huge number of species including 10,000 plants, 300 mammals, 977 birds, 176 reptiles, 105 amphibians and 269 types of freshwater fish. WWF has launched the Climate for Life campaign to raise public awareness of environmental problems in the Himalayas and is working with local communities to help them cope with the impacts of climate change.

See also here.

Photos are here.

Cute Animal in Danger: Asian Babbler: here.

Snow leopards in Nepal: here.

Garden Design: An Introduction To Water Gardens

From Wildlife Extra:

New wildlife habitat created in the heart of London

22/07/2009 14:35:51

Paddington Recreation ground to get new wetlands

July 2009. A new wetland wildlife habitat is to be created in the heart of London by Westminster Council and environmental charity Groundwork London. They are working together to create a new open water area and wetland meadow in Paddington Recreation Ground.

This is the latest phase in creating a dedicated 3,200m nature area with the addition of a series of wildlife-rich ponds and marshlands that it is hoped will attract a variety of species including frogs, toads, water voles, great crested newts and dragonflies.

New timber decking pathways will surround the ponds to give visitors full access to the water and damp meadow habitats, and a wooden ‘dipping’ platform will also be built to allow school children to take part in pond-dipping and learn about the variety of animals that live in the water.