TOP STORIES
Penguins Setting Off Sirens Over Health Of World's Oceans
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: University of Washington)
Image courtesy of Dee Boersma
01 Jul 2008
Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, penguins are sounding the alarm for potentially catastrophic changes in the world's oceans, and the culprit isn't only climate change, says a University of Washington conservation biologist. Oil pollution, depletion of fisheries and rampant coastline development that threatens breeding habitat for many penguin species, along with Earth's warming climate, are leading to rapid population declines among penguins, said Dee Boersma, a University of Washington biology professor and an authority on the flightless birds. "Penguins are among those species that show us that we are making fundamental changes to our world," she said. "The fate of all species is to go extinct, but there are some species that go extinct before their time and we are facing that possibility with some penguins."
Pacific Rim prepares for new avian flu
United Press International - www.upi.com
30 Jun 2008
The governments of Japan, China and South Korea are making joint preparations in the event of an outbreak of a new strain of avian flu. The three nations plan to conduct drills to determine whether information sharing and quarantine measures planned will be sufficient to deal with such an occurrence, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Monday. The H5N1 avian influenza virus is said to have mutated into a new strain that can be passed on to humans.
30 Jun 2008
Image courtesy of Associated Press
Area: Alaska Uniated States
You may have seen one of Caroline Van Hemert's research subjects at the Auke Bay Hot Bite, where he is a regular customer. He wears little ankle bands and appears to subsist on French fries, breakfast burritos, bits of hamburger, ketchup packets and sundry delicacies from the trash. Unlike the straight peck-peck-peck of most birds, this crow leans his head sideways to pick bits up off the ground. "It's amazing how well they do, considering how grossly deformed their beaks are," said Van Hemert, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Southeast and a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey who has studied beak deformities in northwestern crows for the last four years. Crows, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, magpies, jays and other year-round Alaska resident birds appear to have unusually high proportions of beak deformities. For chickadees, the longest-studied species, the number is about 10 percent of adults. A normal proportion might be around .5 percent, Van Hemert said.
South Africa: Bleak Future for the Country's Water
allAfrica.com (Source: Inter Press Service)
30 Jun 2008
S Lang
Area: South Africa - Map It
Earlier this month, a private pilot reported to a Johannesburg radio station that while flying over the Kruger National Park, in the far eastern reaches of the country, he had spotted the carcasses of several large crocodiles floating in the Olifants River. This was unusual because the crocodiles within the country's largest game reserve are protected from hunting. Game rangers soon confirmed that at least 30 fully grown crocodiles had died in the river apparently from a disease known as pansteatitis. This condition causes an inflammation of body fats which then harden resulting in a drawn out death for the animal.
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Emerging Infectious Diseases – July 2008
Vol 14, Iss 7
Infectious disease in cervids of north america: data, models, and management challenges.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2008 Jun;1134:146-72 [online abstract only]
MM Conner
Tidal salt marsh sediment in California, USA: part 3. Current and historic toxicity potential of contaminants and their bioaccumulation.
Chemosphere. 2008 May;71(11):2139-49. Epub 2008 Mar 7 [online abstract only]
H Hwang
Quarterly Wildlife Mortality Report - January 2008 to March 2008
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
No comments:
Post a Comment