Dear Kitty. Some blog

This video from the USA says about itself:

In 2005, fossilized mastodon remains were discovered in Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve in Wayne. During the course of a habitat-improvement project, a contractor for the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County made an initial discovery – teeth from a mastodon. With help from the Illinois State Museum, a science team visited the site to search for more fossils. This search unearthed a partial rib and pieces of bone and tusk. Watch the video to learn about the initial discovery.

From Discover Magazine:

Spores in Mastodon Dung Suggest Humans Didn’t Kill Off Ancient Mammals

A fungus found within ancient mammoth dung

Dear Discover Magazine, was it mastodon dung or mammoth dung? Though both are related to elephants, they are not the same species or genus. The BBC is also confused about this.

is providing scientists with clues about how the large ancient mammals collectively known as megafauna went extinct. The fungus, Sporormiella, produces spores in the dung of large herbivores. These are then preserved in the layers of mud and can provide an index of the number of these animals, or megafauna, that roamed the environment at a particular time [BBC News]. For a new study, researcher Jacquelyn Gill collected and analyzed spores in sediment samples from an Indiana lake and several sites in New York.

From Gill’s analysis, published in the journal Science, she concluded that North American megafauna began a slow decline around 15,000 years ago and vanished about 1,000 years later. The data suggests megafauna started going extinct much earlier than previously though, which basically wipes out two theories of their extinction.

There are several theories surrounding the extinction of North American megafuana, but there are a lot more questions than answers. Much of the uncertainty surrounding the extinction of the North American megafauna, which includes mastadons, saber-tooth tigers and giant ground sloths, is due to a scarcity of evidence and difficulty pinning down the timing of events. Several major events occurred around the same time the animals disappeared: Major environmental upheaval associated with the end of the Ice Age; an asteroid explosion over North America; and the arrival of man [Wired.com]. But the new data points to an extinction culprit other than an asteroid or comet impact, because the impact is believed to have occurred long after the megafauna began their decline.

If humans were responsible for the extinction, it would have to be settlers that came along before the Clovis people, which is another debate in itself. The Clovis culture is thought to have been the first civilization to take hold in North America around 13,300 years ago–after the bulk of the megafauna extinctions, according to the new analysis. But some researchers believe that earlier settlers walked the land before the Clovis people, and could have hunted the mastodons and mammoths. The new study adds crucial info to the fossil record, but it is likely to kindle, rather than quench, the debate over megafauna extinction.

This video is called The Isles Of Scilly Wildlife Trust.

From Wildlife Extra:

700+ whales and dolphins seen from Scilly ferry

17/11/2009 16:33:04

Cornish marine survey records 8 species from ferry

November 2009. Marine life surveys conducted onboard Scillonian III this season by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust have turned up some fantastic results, confirming that this route between Penzance and St Mary’s is an excellent platform for wildlife watching.

The surveys, led by Paul Semmens, were have been conducted weekly on Wednesdays between April and the end of October. On the way out to the islands Paul recorded casual sightings while talking to passengers about marine conservation and wildlife spotting. On the way back from Scilly Paul joined the crew up on the bridge and kept a careful watch as he did a scientific transect survey.

The sightings, combined with observations given to the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust by the crew, gave a total of 786 sightings of at least 7 different marine animals.

—————

2009 sightings

Common dolphin 458

Harbour porpoise 171

Basking shark 79

Bottlenose dolphin 27

Ocean sunfish 22

Minke whale 13

Risso’s dolphin 12

Unidentified cetacean 4

Number of each species seen during surveys from the Scillonian in 2009.

This video from Britain is called Common birds, Northampton January 27th 2008, RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

From Wildlife Extra:

13,400 species on RSPB reserves – Less than 3% are birds

18/11/2009 10:34:25

RSPB reserves not just for birds, says new report.

November 2009. Less than three per cent of the species recorded on RSPB reserves are birds, according to a new report.

For the first time the RSPB’s annual report on its 200 reserves across the UK has collated records of all species together - and come up with some surprising results. Of the 13,400 species recorded on our reserves, more than half are insects, almost a quarter are fungi and 12 per cent are plants.

140,000 hectares

RSPB reserves cover 140,000 hectares across the UK - just 0.6% of the area of Britain - yet this land features 68% of Britain’s native plant species, 78% of its spiders, and all of its resident reptiles and dragonflies. …

Nationally important fungi sites - New species?

Gurney added “The RSPB’s woodland reserves are great places to go to discover fascinating fungi, and now is the perfect time of year to do it. Our reserves at Abernethy in Inverness-shire and Tudeley Woods in Kent are nationally important sites for the rare tooth fungi. Surveys there have already revealed two species new to Britain and experts believe another species may prove to be entirely new to science.

“And while our reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk is a mecca for birdwatchers, mycologists have found over 1,500 species of fungi there, including the endangered bearded tooth fungus. We are grateful to all the dedicated enthusiasts like these, who have helped us record wildlife on our reserves.”

41 mammal species, 500+ spiders

The 3,136 recorded fungus species on RSPB reserves are only 21% of the total number of known UK fungi. However our reserves do have 75% of Britain’s vascular plant species (1,137), 77% of grasshopper and cricket species (23), 78% of spider species (505) and 93% of land mammal species (41). All the native British species of cockroaches (3), earwigs (4), dragonflies (45), lampreys and hagfish (3), and terrestrial reptiles (6) can be found on RSPB reserves.

This vifdeo from the USA is called McDonalds Food - The Truth.

From DutchNews:

McDonalds ‘misled’ customers over meat

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Fast food chain McDonalds misled consumers when it claimed in an advert that the meat used in its hamburgers came from cows which had grazed in the fields, the Dutch advertising authority said in a statement.

‘The meat used in Big Macs comes from European cows which are not only kept indoors but can also graze happily outside,’ the tv advert said.

However, McDonalds has never made an agreement with its meat suppliers about the living conditions of the cows and so cannot make that guarantee, the commission said. The advert is therefore ‘misleading’.

McDonalds has 13 days to appeal against the judgment.

The case was brought by animal rights group Wakker Dier.

From mongabay.com:

Extinct goat was “similar to crocodiles”

Jeremy Hance

November 16, 2009

It sounds like something out of Greek mythology: a half-goat, half-reptilian creature. But researchers have discovered that an extinct species of goat, the Balearic Island cave goat or Myotragus balearicus, survived in nutrient-poor Mediterranean islands by evolving reptilian-specific characteristics. The goat, much like crocodiles, was able to grow at flexible rates, stopping growth entirely when food was scant.

This adaptation—never before seen in a mammal—allowed the species to survive for five million years before being driven to extinction only 3,000 years ago, likely by human hunters.

Islands, especially nutrient-poor islands, are usually home to reptiles. Mammals are endotherms, meaning that they have steady and high growth rates, and therefore require rich environments to sustain them. However reptiles, ectotherms, grow slowly and are able to change their growth rates when resources fluctuate, making them perfectly adaptable to resource-poor islands, like the Balearic islands of Spain. So, given the environmental conditions of these islands, how did a species of goat thrive there for millions of years?

This question led researchers Meike Kohler and Salvador Moya-Sola from the Catalan Institute of Paleontology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona to analyze the fossil bones of the Balearic Island cave goat. What they found was nothing short of shocking.

“The bone microstructure indicates that Myotragus grew unlike any other mammal but similar to crocodiles at slow and flexible rates, ceased growth periodically, and attained [physical] maturity extremely late by 12 years,” Kohler and Moya-Sola write in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

While the Balearic Island cave goat is the world’s first mammal known to have adapted reptilian growth strategies, Kohler and Moya-Sola believe there were probably others. The Balearic Island cave goat was a dwarf species: standing only 50 centimeters (19.5 inches) at the shoulder, smaller than a medium-size dog. Only a few thousands years ago, Mediterranean islands were also home to a variety of dwarf mammals, including elephants, hippos, and deer. Kohler and Moya-Sola hypothesize that these other dwarf mammals must have evolved traits similar to the Balearic Island cave goat—and reptiles—in order to survive in low nutrient environments.

Yet, as Kohler and Moya-Sola write it was likely these same traits that led to the species’ downfall.

“The reptile-like physiological and life history traits found in Myotragus were certainly crucial to their survival on a small island for the amazing period of 5.2 million years, more than twice the average persistence of continental species. […] However, precisely because of these traits (very tiny and immature neonates, low growth rate, decreased aerobic capacities, and reduced behavioral traits), Myotragus did not survive the arrival of a major predator, Homo sapiens, some 3,000 years ago,” they write.

From Paw Nation in the USA:

Raccoons Line Up for San Francisco Muni Bus

by Helena Sung

A photograph of a group of raccoons clustered around a San Francisco bus has gone viral. “I’m shocked, actually,” the photographer, Stephen W. Thomson, tells Paw Nation. The delightful photograph was posted to Thomson’s Flickr page, and has been reported by the Daily Mail in London, The Wall Street Journal, and local Web sites. …

Admired from afar, the raccoons outside the bus — some of whom were standing on their hind legs — were well-mannered as they ate bits of food off the ground. “They were quiet and not beating each other to get to the food,” Thomson says. While it’s been reported that the bus driver regularly feeds the raccoons who gather, Thomson says he does not know for a fact whether that is true. “I didn’t actually see the bus driver feeding the raccoons and don’t know if he does that regularly,” Thomson says, adding that he does not want to get the bus driver in any trouble.

“What I find interesting,” says Thomson, “is the joy that viewers get from seeing the photograph.” We sure do!

This video is called Giant Deer and Mammoth Naturalis Leiden Holland.

From the BBC:

Monday, 16 November 2009

Starvation ‘wiped out’ giant deer

By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

The giant deer, also known as the giant Irish deer or Irish elk, is one of the largest deer species that ever lived.

Yet why this giant animal, which had massive antlers spanning 3.6m, suddenly went extinct some 10,600 years ago has remained a mystery.

Now a study of its teeth is producing tantalising answers, suggesting the deer couldn’t cope with climate change.

As conditions became colder and drier in Ireland at the time, fewer plants grew, gradually starving the deer.

The discovery is published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

The giant deer (Megaloceros giganteus) has become famous over the past few centuries.

In the early 1800s, discoveries of its remains opened up the debate about whether animal species had previously become extinct, and whether new life-forms could be discovered in the fossil record.

Around this time, conflicting ideas as to why the animal went extinct began to emerge.

Initial ideas ranged from the Biblical flood described by Genesis, to the idea that humans had wiped them out.

However, the archaeological record suggests that people did not arrive in Ireland until after the last Ice Age, after most giant deer had disappeared.

There is also little evidence that the deer had any predators in Ireland. …

Stressed out

The ratios of isotopes revealed that the ecosystem in which the deer lived became stressed by drought.

As a result it changed from being covered in forest to being more open and tundra-like.

“There’s an overall trend of general vegetation decline,” says Ms Chritz.

The deer also appeared to be born in spring or early summer. But at the time of their extinction, temperatures dropped.

“Giant deer would probably have had a hard time coping with cooler mean annual temperature and a shortened growing season,” says Ms Chritz.

That would be particularly bad news for young deer. Most young animals are born in spring precisely because temperatures are warmer and there is more food available.

“It would be very difficult for young deer to cope with all these changes brought on by the Ice Age, as well as support the energetic demands of their growing bodies,” concludes Ms Chritz, who is now studying for her PhD in palaeoecology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, US.

Data from the cementum, which grows each year much like tree rings, indicates that the deer lived from 6.5 to 14 years old, and they possessed mature antlers by autumn, similar to other living deer species.

Last refuge

Though often called the Irish elk, Megaloceros giganteus is actually a deer species.

Though most abundant in Ireland, it was not confined to the island, with populations living across Europe and Western Asia from 400,000 to 10,600 years ago.

The last Ice Age stretched from 100,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago, containing periods of greater and lesser glaciation.

The deer rapidly disappeared across most of the range at the end of the last glacial transition, though giant deer remains have been uncovered in Siberia that date to around 7,000 years before present.

“That means that mainland giant deer had some sort of refugia from the Ice Age before they met their ultimate extinction; they were able to move to a better environment and survive later,” says Ms Chritz.

But those giant deer in Ireland “had the misfortune to be trapped on an island with nowhere to go.”

From South Carolina Now in the USA today:

State purchases Marion County wildlife habitat

WOODBURY — State and local officials celebrated Friday the state’s completed purchase of the Woodberry Wildlife Management Area in lower Marion County, which they said represents one of the largest habitat conservation purchases in Palmetto State history.

The 25,668 acre tract is located off of U.S. 378, near the point where the Great and Little Pee Dee Rivers meet.

“From an ecological standpoint, this is one of the most important acquisitions in the state’s history,” S.C. Department of Natural Resources Director Jon Frampton said. This is a tract of land that has significant cultural and historic value and really high wildlife diversity and plant diversity.” …

The land is home to such birds as the Kentucky warbler, rusty blackbird, Louisiana waterthrush, swallow-tailed kite, Swainson’s warbler and other animals such as bears and deer.

Today, to the Oranjekom lake in the dunes.

Just behind the entrance of the nature reserve, the bearded tooth fungus was in the same tree as last year.

A bit further, sulphur tuft.

In the water: a little grebe, great cormorants, many tufted ducks, male and female common pochards, gadwall.

A marsh tit in a coniferous tree.

This is a video of a bullfinch eating berries in Hungary.

A bullfinch in a low tree.

A greenfinch in a bit higher tree.

Near a grey heron on the canal bank, three little grebes in the water. One of them catches a small fish.

Fallow deer tracks.

A great crested grebe.

Chaffinch; great tit. Jay sounds.

A roe deer not far away.

From the hide: a female teal, and a female goosander.

A buzzard, sitting in a tree. Later, flying around.

A fallow deer.

On a small tree, golden jelly fungus.

Great spotted woodpecker sound.

From a bridge near Oranjekom lake, ten little grebes together in a canal.

This video from Britan is the film Capitalism & Other Kids’ Stuff. It says about itself:

It was made by four socialists on one freezing Saturday afternoon in a church hall at Hebburn in the north east of England. On a budget of £80 which was spent on travel expenses the cost of hiring the hall and some cold cheese pasties the film may be rough and ready but it’s hoped that it says something real to you.

A global poll by the British Broadcasting Corporation shows widespread disaffection with the capitalist free-market, including a significant opposition to capitalism per se: here.

London Underground cleaners will stage a protest on Tuesday after it emerged that their bosses have raked in a 50 per cent bonus increase: here.

Two reports made public Wednesday underscore the colossal dimensions of the social and financial crisis in the United States. California and nine other US states face severe budget crises that could force mass layoffs and cuts in public services like education: here.

Japan: The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is facing growing demands from big business to ditch its election promises, slash social spending and rein in mushrooming public debt: here.

Nearly 200 million children in developing countries have stunted growth because of insufficient food according to a UNICEF report has published: here. And here.

Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, US-German relations are increasingly dominated by economic and political conflicts, as underscored by the disputes surrounding the auto maker Opel: here.

Hundreds of horse owners may have their mounts shot this winter as the recession hits owners who can no longer cope with the financial burden of feeding and stabling: here.

The global economic crisis and imperialist quest for Africa’s resources: here.