WILD LIFE: In chimpanzees, females contribute to the protection of the territory.

WILD LIFE: In chimpanzees, females contribute to the protection of the territory. Researchers have extensively studied several neighboring groups of western chimpanzees and their findings reveal that females and even the entire group may play a more important role in between-group competition than previously thought.



 They found that even though adult males seem important in territory increase, territory maintenance and competitive advantage over neighbors act through the entire group in this population of chimpanzees in the Taï National Park.


 In humans, warfare and territoriality have traditionally been considered male "business." Chimpanzees, with whom we share this propensity for out-group hostility and territoriality, are thought to follow the same gender difference.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: How sea snakes, surrounded by salt water, quench their thirst.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: How sea snakes, surrounded by salt water, quench their thirst.Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. Such is the lot in life for thirsty sea snakes—and yet they’ve found a way to thrive. Most yellow-bellied sea snakes spend their entire lives at sea. They rarely end up on land and are vulnerable there, since their paddle-shaped tails and keeled undersides make crawling difficult. Armed with potent venom, they drift in a vast territory that encompasses much of the world’s oceans, riding the currents and hunting fish near the sea surface. Like other reptiles, these creatures need to drink water to survive. How does an animal surrounded by saltwater quench its thirst? It used to be thought that these serpents drank from their salty surroundings. “Previous textbook dogma was that sea snakes drank seawater and excreted the excess salts using their sublingual salt glands,” explains Harvey Lillywhite, a biologist at the University of Florida. Recent work has proven that false—and a new study suggests that yellow-bellied sea snakes (Hydrophis platurus) rehydrate at sea by drinking rainwater that collects on the ocean surface.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: Urbanization may hold key to tiger survival.

VETERINARY MEDICINE: Urbanization may hold key to tiger survival.Conservationists look at five human socioeconomic scenarios to better understand fate of endangered big cat.A new wildlife conservation society led study published in the journal Biological Conservation says the future of tigers in Asia is linked to the path of demographic transition -- for humans. The study marks the first-of-its-kind analysis that overlays human population scenarios with the fate of these endangered big cats. Prior to the 20th century, some experts estimate there were more than 100,000 tigers living in the wild; today that number is between 3000 -- 4000. At the same, over the last 150 years, the human population of Asia as grown from 790 million to over 4 billion, with dire consequences for tigers and other wildlife. But these trends are changing. The demographic transition is the process by which human populations peak and then go down. The researchers looked at different scenarios of economic, education, migration, and urbanization policy. In 2010, 57 million people lived in areas defined as "tiger conservation landscapes" that contained all of the world's remaining wild tigers. However, by 2100, depending on population trends, as few as 40 million people could be sharing space with tigers, or it could be as many as 106 million.

SMUGGLED BUSHMEAT IS EBOLA'S BACK DOOR TO AMERICA.

SMUGGLED BUSHMEAT IS EBOLA'S BACK DOOR TO AMERICA.Less than three miles from Yankee Stadium, the colorful storefronts of African markets lining the Grand Concourse are some of the first signs of a bustling Bronx community that includes immigrants from those West African nations hit hardest by the recent and unprecedented outbreak of the Ebola virus. We are here today looking for bushmeat, the butchered harvest of African wildlife, and an ethnic delicacy in West African expatriate communities all over the world. A turbaned woman smiles vividly when we enter one small market with canned goods displayed in its window, but the light in her eyes immediately dims when we ask about bushmeat. Shrugging, looking away, she says she knows nothing about it and then, after a moment’s calculation, asks us to repeat the word, as if she didn’t understand what we had said. #bushmeat Paa George Appiah is from Ghana, but has been living in New York for 10 years. A former GNC employee, he sidesteps questions about his current work status, but is cheery and candid when it comes to bushmeat. “Akarnte is the best, my favorite,” he tells us. Akarnte, he explains, is a type of “grass-cutter.” His brief curbside mimicry of buckteeth suggests a large rabbit, but the grass-cutter is in fact a large rodent, more commonly called a “cane rat” in the U.S. Cane rats are similar in appearance to a guinea pig, prized as a source of protein throughout Ghana and other parts of West Africa, and officially unavailable anywhere in the United States. #bushmeat Bushmeat, which can range from bat to monkey to lion, including a number of endangered species, is beloved by many African-born Americans, despite the fact that it is illegal in the U.S. In the Bronx, the high price (up to $100 for six or seven pounds, Appiah tells us) attached to bushmeat (or viande de brousse, as it is known in the French-speaking world) indicates a luxury indulgence in the same way illegally imported caviar might for Russian émigrés in Brooklyn.

Global pet trade and spread of infectious disease.

The exotic animal trade is a multi-billion dollar industry, and the US is the world’s leading importer. While the US government is on the alert for well known animal-transmitted diseases, there is no mandatory health surveillance for most animals coming though US ports for commercial distribution.

 Live animal imports could bring new diseases into the US and infect endemic wildlife, with devastating consequences as, for example, was seen with the worldwide exposure of amphibians to Chytrid fungus which resulted in the decline of more than 200 species. 

 The legal commercial exotic animal trade is a booming enterprise that ships ornamental fish, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians around the world. 

These pets, livestock and other animals can carry unexpected infectious diseases from their homelands. If these non-native species escape or are released to the wild, they can create epidemics among susceptible endemic wildlife. 

 Four US agencies oversee live animal imports, but there is currently no systematic screening for disease in most live animal imports. The majority of animals processed through American ports for the pet industry fall under the aegis of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which has no authority to conduct health inspections. 

 Livestock imports are regulated by the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), with oversight by the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection. Species known to carry certain diseases (rabies in dogs, or tuberculosis in monkeys, for example) are monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

 According to a 2010 report from the US Government Accountability Office, a lack of interagency collaboration creates gaps in health surveillance that could leave native wildlife and people exposed to disease. 

These risks could potentially be enormous. A single fungal disease, Chytrid, for example, devastated more than 200 amphibian species worldwide.

 A related pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, originating with the Asian salamander trade, wreaked similar havoc on native populations in the Netherlands and Belgium. 

If this fungus gains a foothold in the US — a salamander biodiversity hotspot — experts fear entire species could be wiped out. continue

WILDLIFE MISHAP: STRAY LION INJURIES MAN.

A male lion that strayed into rush hour traffic in the Kenyan capital injured one man before being captured and taken back to a reserve that lies on the edge of the city, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said. KWS, which manages the country’s safari reserves including the Nairobi National Park on the outskirts of the capital, said its units had caught the lion after images posted on social media showed it wandering along a main road near the park. A man who was injured by the lion (has been) taken to hospital, KWS said on its Twitter feed. KWS spokesman Paul Udoto told Kenya’s NTV that the elderly man was in a stable condition after the black-maned lion attacked him when it became agitated by the hooting of car horns by passing motorists. The images on social media showed the lion walking along a grassy verge next to the busy road and past some people who looked on from behind a closed iron-bar gate. Inside Nairobi National Park, which lies on the city limits, tourists enjoy views of lions, rhinos, giraffes, zebras and other wildlife against a backdrop of high-rise buildings. Lions are occasionally spotted in the city close to the park after finding a way through fences that protect the built-up areas near the reserve. Read more at http://newsdaily.com/2016/03/stray-lion-injures-man-in-kenyan-capital-wildlife-service/#EOzmIpKULgBiTVBF.99