Malaysian Carnivore Project

Researcher Andy Jennings has been tracking small carnivores like mongoose and civet cats in Krau Wildlife Reserve in Pahang tofiure out their ecology. surprisingly litlle is know about small carnivores in the tropics.

excerpt: “Most people prefer to study large animals like tigers or elephants, so the smaller animals have been overlooked. Many people don’t even know what a civet cat is! It can be quite scary how little we know and how little these animals have been studied.

“They have been seen in the wild but we still don’t know for sure what these animals are like, because there has been no detailed informative research done on them. We don’t even know whether certain species are endangered. In fact, some of the species may disappear without us even knowing about them. "

Overfishing doubles costs of Vietnamese fish sauce

Overfishing doubles costs of Vietnamese fish sauce

"Vietnamese fishing in troubled waters." By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam, Asia Times, 25 May 2005.

'Long-jawed anchovies that are the basic ingredients in the famous Phu Quoc fermented fish sauce now costs double of last year's prices. If factory owners can find enough stock that is.

Unsustainable and illegal exploitation, an increased popuation of fisherfolk and other factors have reduced the population of anchovies by half over the past two years.

This fisheries conddition is symptomatic of the ovexploitation of other marine resources.'

Link.

Snow Leopard on Everest slopes

Snow leopards spotted on top of world
Rare, resilient big cat makes comeback near Mount Everest
By Marsha Walton
CNN

Monday, May 23, 2005 Posted: 3:46 PM EDT (1946 GMT)

Doctoral student Som Ale photographed the endangered snow leopard on the southern slopes of Mount Everest.

(CNN) -- For the first time in more than 40 years, scientists have spotted the elegant and endangered snow leopard on the southern slopes of Mount Everest.

Doctoral student Som Ale photographed the animal October 24, 2004. He has been studying the animals for many years, both as a biology student at the University of Illinois at Chicago and as an investigator for the research and conservation group Earthwatch Institute.

"Snow leopard sightings are very, very rare," said Ale, who grew up in Nepal.

There are only an estimated 4,500 to 7,000 of these big cats left in the wild. But that population is spread across 12 countries and nearly 775,000 square miles. This habitat includes some of the most remote regions of the world, from Afghanistan, across the Himalayas, to Lake Baikal in south central Russia.

"Wellcome insists on open access"

"Wellcome insists on open access." By Stephen Pincock, The Scientist, 19 May 2005.As of October, all new grant recipients will be required to deposit papers with PubMed Central.

"Britain's Wellcome Trust said today (May 19) that after October 1 of this year, all new grant recipients will be required to post any papers arising from the funded research in an open-access repository.

The trust, the United Kingdom's biggest nongovernment funder of life sciences research, said that grant recipients would need to deposit their papers within 6 months of publication, either with the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) PubMed Central or with a UK version the Wellcome Trust and others want to establish."

Link

Proposal of defining science redefined in school's curriculums

Kansas is looking at incorporating the concept of intelligent design in its school's curriculum and also seeks to redefine science in a broader sense - simply as 'a systematic method of continuing investigation'. The object of investigation is not specified. This means that under this defnition, studying paranormal events such as supernaturals manifestations, can be called science as well.

Intelligent design, the concept which the conservative state is looking to incorporate into its education curriculum, suggests that the natural world is so complex and well ordered that there must be intelligent cause behind it. Or an intelligent cause is the best way to explain the complex natural world we see around us.

This is worrying.

"Kansas looks at redefining science." AP report on CNN, 16 May 2005.

New species of rodent found; creates new mammal family

A new species of rodent has been found in central Laos, in a hunters market (of all places), placed on a table besides some vegetables.

Known as the Kha-nyou by the locals, it seem to prefer limestone croppings and appears to be a nocturnal vegetarian. Its discoverer, Robert Timmins of Wildlife Conservation Society, suggested that this could be the last mammal family to be discovered.

The fact that a new family of a higher order animal could be discovered at this time and age simply calls for more support for studies of this kind to be conducted.

For the whole story, see the AP report on ABC news, "New Species of Rodent Found in Laos."

New mammal family from Laos

Jenkins, P. D., C. W. Kilpatrick, M. F. Robinson & R. J. Timmins, 2005. Morphological and molecular investigations of a new family, genus and species of rodent (Mammalia: Rodentia: Hystricognatha) from Lao PDR. Systematics and Biodiversity (2004), 2(4): 419-454. DOI 10.1017/S1477200004001549

Abstract - During biodiversity surveys in Khammouan Province, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, specimens of an unknown species of hystricognathous rodent were discovered in local markets being sold for food; local hunters explaining that these rock rats were trapped in the nearby limestone karst.

These specimens are described here on the basis of their unique combination of external and craniodental features as members of a new family, genus and species, using comparative morphological and molecular data. Phylogenetic analyses of morphological data and of 12S rRNA and cytochrome b are presented on selected taxa from all suborders of Rodentia.

The results of the molecular and morphological analyses are compared and provide the basis for a discussion of relationships of the new taxon within the Rodentia and Hystricognatha.

The disjunct distribution of hystricognaths is recognised as problematic, with most families occurring in the main distributional area of South America, several others in Africa and only one family distributed in Africa and Asia. The presence of an additional hystricognath family in Southeast Asia poses interesting questions and consideration is given to the way in which this new taxon fits into the theories of the biogeographical and evolutionary history of other hystricognaths.

Features of possible ecomorphological significance are briefly discussed, such as the apparent adaptations to a rock dwelling existence evident in various features of the external morphology and comparisons are made to the morphology of other known saxicolous rodents.

Haunting footage of the Tasmanian Tiger

Following a lead from Boing Boing, I watched this short video of the last Tasmanian Tiger and found it heart-wrenchingly haunting.

Then I read ?Andrew Haig's post on one+one=thr33, "Catch that 'Tiger'" and found he (and presumably many Aussies) felt the same way or worse.

"This image is one familiar to many Australians. It's also one of the most haunting to us as well. It's from a grainy black and white film shot of the last remaining Tasmanian tiger, or Thylacine, in Hobart Zoo in 1933.

The film runs only nine seconds – but it's one of the few glimpses any of us will have of the now supposedly extinct mammal – remarkable for reportedly being able to open its jaws wider than any other mammal (a range of 120 degrees) and for being the world's largest marsupial carnivore. And – for embedding itself into 'Australian mythology' as a mysterious and intangible, almost supernatural creature.

I'd propose that while Abraham Zapruder's footage of JFK being shot in Dallas has an eerie resonance with many Americans, for me this simple, nine second film connects on an almost spiritual level for many Australians. It certainly haunts me every time I see it."

The feeling both of us felt may not be unusual. In "Before they disappeared", a 2003 HERO feature article about ARKive, the writer says of ARKive, respository of audio-visual material of extinct and endagered species,

"Viewing the archive elicits simultaneous sensations of wonder and sadness. The Princeton ecologist Andrew P Dobson has dubbed it a collection whose "images will haunt our grandchildren" and the procession of threatened lifeforms will no doubt already seem frightening to many people."

Will we ever do better?

See ARKive's footage of the Thyalcine

Political panda-ring

For a furry endangered species, more intent on chewing bamboo than saving itself (and its species) from extinction by procreating, the Giant Panda is again in the media's focus.

China is offering a pair of the cuddly mammals to Taipei. But the pro-independence DPP administration (they want to break away and declare independence) are looking the gift "panda" in the mouth so far.

Jokes on the net are ribbing the DPP for fearing that the "Chinese" pandas are 5th column infiltrators. They might break out from Taipei Zoo and welcome the Communist invaders sort of like the Trojan Horse...???!!


I just wanna chew bamboo...

Ivory Billed Woodpecker spotted again

Believed to be extinct since 1944, a magnificent ivory billed woodpecker is spotted for the first time since then by an amateur bird-watcher, Gene Starling, along the Cache River in eastern Arkansas on 11th February 2004.

Since then his discovery has sparked a wave of scientific interest. Studies are still unable to determine if the sightings were of one individual or reflective of several individuals in the area.

The question of whether mating pairs exits also remains to be answered.

See this report in "Man shares story of finding ivory-billed woodpecker." AP report on CNN, 02 May 2005.

See also "Extinct" Woodpecker Flies Back from the Beyond, Science News at Scientific American.com, 29 April 29.

Dung Power for zoos?

It's literally under our very noses. The possibility of harnessing animal waste to generate energy:

Rosamond Gifford Zoo (USA) is looking at the possibility of collecting dung from its 6 asian elephants to generate energy to alleviate its energy comsumption used in heating land electricity.

The zoo's 6 asian elephants produces about 1000 pounds (roughly 453kg) of dung per day and this cost the zoo US$10 000 per year to clean up.

If the plan succeeds, the zoo can save money from the waste disposal and also cut down its energy bill which amounts up to US$400,000 per annum.

"Answer to zoo's power needs may be right under their nose." AP report on CNN, 03 May 2005.

Fishy problem

This report warns about over-fishing and Japan's blissful unawareness to the problem despite being a major fishing-eating consumer nation.

Excerpt:

"Early that morning in Tsukiji I watched my translator, Chie Kobayashi, sampling a scrap of tuna offered to us by one of the fishmongers carving up a blue-fin carcass. It was a little, ragged piece of bright red, a famous delicacy scraped from the hollows between the great ribs of the fish. Chie ate it slowly, solemnly, her eyelids closed, giving little sighs of pleasure: 'That is …so special!' she said after the last morsel. 'I am so lucky!' I thought, how are you ever going to educate the Japanese to give up that pleasure? It would be cruel.

It may not, in any case, be necessary. A brief look at the latest FAO statistics on fish consumption patterns and projections of future demand - on imports and aquaculture investment, on the number of people employed in fishing - shows one nation plainly standing out. It is quite clear that it is in fact the Chinese who are going to eat all the fish. And China's first fish and chip shop has just opened in Beijing."

About the ominous warning about China's first fish n' chips shop in Beijing - I saw the joint (it's called "Fish Nation" and is located in Beijing's equivalent of Mohamed Sultan Rd) but never tried it yet.