SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 5, 2010 – Unlike Hawaii and other island groups, no native bird has gone extinct in the Galapagos Islands, although some are in danger. But University of Utah biologists found that finches – the birds Darwin studied – develop antibodies against two parasites that moved to the Galapagos, suggesting the birds can fight the alien invaders.
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GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Scientists want to determine if killing the aggressive barred owl that has invaded old growth forests of the Northwest would help the protected spotted owl.
Federal biologists are doing a formal study to decide whether to do the experiment, and laying out the terms if they go ahead. The study will be available for public comment and is expected to be completed by fall 2010.
A journey that started with a box of bird feet carried three Montana State University graduate students into the gruesome world of raptors and led to their findings being published in a prominent journal.
Swooping through the crisp night air, and scooping up small insects. The Pennsylvania’s hibernating bat species may have entered caves, attics, and abandoned mines to hibernate for the last time.
A pandemic has broken out and by the end of the next year, nearly 95 percent of Pennsylvania’s hibernating bat species are expected to die, according to Wildlife Biologist Greg Turner with the Wildlife Diversity Section of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Research at the Lund University Vision Group can now show that the color vision of birds stops working considerably earlier in the course of the day than was previously believed, in fact, in the twilight. Birds need between 5 and 20 times as much light as humans to see colors.It has long been known that birds have highly developed color vision that vastly surpasses that of humans. Birds see both more colors and ultraviolet light. However, it was not known what amount of light is necessary for birds to see colors, which has limited the validity of all research on this color vision to bright sunlight only.READ FULL ARTICLE
In response to a recent outbreak of an adapted bat rabies viral variant in terrestrial mammals, skunks in Arizona were trapped, vaccinated, and released.
Foxes and skunks in northern Arizona are spreading an adapted version of a rabies virus variant associated with bats.
Instead of attacking wild birds for our new disease problems, a far more cost effective approach should focus on keeping wild animals separate in the places where they often commingle: in wildlife markets and international trade, according to wildlife health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a recent issue of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
“Every one of the liver samples tested positive for brodifacoum,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Bruce Woods told Scientific American. Fish and Wildlife law enforcement agents are investigating whether there were any egregious errors and to assess that the poison drop was conducted according to an approved protocol, Woods said.
Cancer accounts for about 10 percent of all human deaths. If you think that sets us apart, scientists have news for you: Wild animals die of cancer at about the same rate, and it threatens some species with extinction."Cancer is one of the leading health concerns for humans," Dr. Denise McAloose, a pathologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a statement. "But we now understand that cancer can kill wild animals at similar rates."