Cassowaries still feeling cyclone pain
ABC News - www.abc.net.au
21 Feb 2008
D Cooper
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto
Area: North Queensland Australia
An endangered group of cassowaries that survived a severe tropical cyclone almost two years ago may now have to fight disease brought on by the storm, an Australian biologist says. Les Moore, a researcher at James Cook University, says the immediate impact of Cyclone Larry, which crossed the North Queensland coast in March 2006, was a large jump in cassowary deaths at Mission Beach. But two years later he fears diseases such as avian tuberculosis may be spreading through the cassowary community near the coastal township, about 140 kilometres south of Cairns.
And in a paper yet to be published, Moore says natural disasters like Cyclone Larry double the chances of the isolated Mission Beach population dying out. Cassowaries are an endangered species of flightless bird that are found in North Queensland and Papua New Guinea. They can grow up to 2 metres tall, weigh up to 85 kilograms and run up to 50 kilometres per hour. Moore says at least 18% of all adult and sub-adult cassowaries died in the 12 months after Cyclone Larry. This compares with an average 3.7% a year across 20 years.
Bat sickness reaches mines in Western Massachusetts
The Boston Globe - www.boston.com
21 Feb 2008
B Daley
Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Area: Massachusetts United States
A mysterious and deadly sickness that has killed off thousands of bats in New York has now been discovered in two Western Massachusetts mines. Researchers say they expect to find more affected wintering bat populations as they lead expeditions into dark caves and mines in the Northeast over coming weeks. They predict that hundreds of thousands of the furry creatures will be wiped out before the end of winter. The illness - known as white nose syndrome, because some afflicted bats have a white fungus on their noses - does not appear to pose any risk to people, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service is asking the public to stay out of caves and mines in the Northeast because humans may be inadvertently transmitting the sickness to bats.
"No one has a clue what is going on," said Tom French, assistant director of the natural heritage and endangered species program of the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife, who helped find sick bats in Massachusetts. As French and other researchers parked their cars near the Chester mines last Friday, they saw several bats, which normally hibernate all winter, flying outside in daylight. Others were found dead nearby, frozen onto houses, in tree branches, and in the snow. Far larger numbers were behaving strangely inside the mines, clustering near the entrance, instead of hibernating deeper in it.
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Chimps Eat Dirt, Leaves to Fend Off MalariaNational Geographic News - news.nationalgeographic.com
19 Feb 2008
S Norris
Area: Kibale National Park Uganda
Chimpanzees in Uganda swallow mouthfuls of dirt to "self medicate" against malaria, according to a new study. Clay soils consumed by both chimps and humans in Uganda's Kibale National Park contain high concentrations of the mineral kaolinite, a main ingredient in some anti-diarrheal medications. Experts had previously suggested that chimps ate the fine-grained clay to help ward off intestinal ailments or to obtain added minerals in their diet. But a French team recently observed that the chimps eat dirt before or after consuming leaves from the Trichilia rubescens plant, which contains potent medicinal chemicals.
Eating the bitter vegetation alone gives the chimps no health benefit, researchers say. Instead the plant's malaria medicine is activated when fine soil particles bind with chemicals in the leaves. Chimps often select dirt that has been exposed on the roots of newly fallen trees, added study co-author Sabrina Krief, of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. "This may be to avoid worms, bacteria, and stones," she said. Krief and colleagues described the research online in the January issue of the journal Naturwissenschaften.
Rutland Herald - www.rutlandherald.com
20 Feb 2008
J O'Gorman
Photo courtesy of Vyto Starinskas/Rutland Herald
Area: Vermont United States
Wardens with Fish and Wildlife said it was the kindness of strangers that ultimately led to Rocky's death. The yearling moose, known to locals as Rocky, died Tuesday, and his death underscored the danger of domesticating a wild animal and highlighted a philosophical difference between veterinary care and wildlife management. Last September, the then 5-month-old male moose made himself at home on the property of Michael and Wendy Andrews about 4 miles east of the Brandon Notch on Route 73. While the moose was first spotted just up the road, he was attracted to the Andrews' apple trees, Wendy Andrews said.
A moose his age would normally be with his mother until May, said Col. Robert Rooks, director of law enforcement for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Many locals speculated that a car had hit his mother and the orphaned moose attracted the curious and the well-intentioned alike. Andrews said that while she was not home during the day, on the weekends, when the moose would draw a large crowd, she would go outside and ask people not to feed him. The moose had apparently lost his fear of people, who would park by the side of the road and hand-feed him apples, oranges, bananas and doughnuts, she said, adding as word spread of the moose more and more people arrived bringing more and more food.
Killer fungus crosses straitBCLocalNews.com - www.bclocalnews.com
19 Feb 2008
J Nagel
Area: Vancouver, British Columbia Canada
A deadly tropical fungus that first colonized eastern Vancouver Island is now believed to have spread to the Lower Mainland. Researchers say the number of cases of infected people and animals in Greater Vancouver and the lower Fraser Valley suggests cryptococcus gattii has crossed Georgia Strait. Since 1999 a total of 217 B.C. residents have been infected with cryptococcal disease, a lung infection that can result when people or animals breathe in airborne spores released by the fungus.
. . . Cryptococcus gattii can also infect dogs, cats, livestock and marine mammals. Veterinarians are asked to watch for cases in animals that could be a prelude to human infections. The fungus may have crossed over from Vancouver Island by way of someone's boots or vehicle tires. Galanis said the fungus has recently spread south into Washington State but added it is not likely to spread much farther in B.C. because it requires a very mild but dry coastal climate. It's mainly found in South America, Africa and southeast Asia. B.C. is the first temperate area it has colonized.
Frog in danger of croakingWestern Leader - www.stuff.co.nz
22 Feb 2008
Photo courtesy of Greg Sherley/Department of Conservation
Area: Auckland New Zealand
A rare frog in the Waitakere Ranges is under scrutiny as part of a global project to preserve the species. The hochstetter’s frog is endangered and found in a handful of habitats, including the ranges. It is being targeted by the conservation group Amphibian Ark as part of an international public awareness campaign to save it from extinction. Matt Baber monitors the ranges for the Auckland Regional Council.
He says it is important to study frogs because they are a good indicator of how the rest of the environment is doing. "In the last 20 years about 160 species of frogs have gone extinct across the globe," he says. "If there is a lot of pollution in the water and air it suppresses their immune systems making them more susceptible to disease. "So if the frog populations are all right that’s a good sign the environment is doing okay."
Clueless in ChambalDown to Earth - www.downtoearth.org.in
21 Feb 2008
K Awasthi
Photo courtesy of Agnimirh Basu
Area: National Chambal (Gharial) Wildlife Sanctuary India
The mystery of gharial deaths in the Chambal waters continues to elude scientists. More than 90 of the critically endangered species have died since early December, all within a stretch of about 25 km of the river flowing along the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border. Nobody seems to know the reason. In a January 28 meeting of the Crisis Management Group, set up by the union government to look into possible causes and draw an action plan, veterinarians and conservationists could not pinpoint the causes of deaths. Etawah-based ngo Society for Conservation of Nature reported the first death in the first week of December 2007. By the end of the month, 40 gharials had died. Alarmed, the forest department sent samples of viscera and water to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (ivri) in Bareilly for testing toxins and disease.
Though most of the gharial carcasses found were partially decomposed, on-the-spot post-mortems revealed liver cirrhosis, as indicated by scarred and damaged liver. “After death, the carcass first sinks and then surfaces after a few days; by then it is partially decomposed,” says Dhruva J Basu, gharial conservation coordinator at wwf India. ivri scientists suspect a protozoan parasite found in viscera analysis damaged the liver and kidney in gharials. But crocodile experts rule out this possibility. “Protozoan and other parasites are common in crocodiles and other aquatic reptiles, and do not cause mortalities,” says F W Huchzermeyer, a veterinary consultant and co-chair of veterinary science with the World Conservation Union’s Crocodile Specialist Group. R J Rao, gharial researcher at Jiwaji University in Gwalior, echoed his views.
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