Toucan beaten by youths to receive prosthetic beak

A chestnut mandibled toucan (Ramphastos ambiguus swainsonii) from Costa Rica was brutally attacked by a group of youths, causing it to loose a substantial amount from its beak. The toucan despite being wild is known by the locals who put out food for it, causing him to become the town's mascot and adopting the towns name Grecia. Grecia's attack occurred in January when youths beat him with a plank of wood, the bird was taken to a local animal rescue center where, vets have been caring for him since and has been recovering and eating small bits of food with some assistance. 
When news spread of the vicious attack on the bird it caused outrage among people, causing them to turn to their pockets in a attempt to help fund the birds treatment; a social media campaign started by Luciano Lacayo with the hashtag #savethetoucan managed to raise more than $7000 to help the injured toucan, smashing its $5000 goal in less than 48 hours.

This led to four different companies within Costa Rica to offer to help the bird by designing and printing a new 3d beak for the bird which, will be the first of its kind to be used on a toucan but has been used and successful with other bird species such as eagles and penguins. The bill will have both a fixed and mobile part to allow it to be cleaned and replaced as needed however, time is needed to let his wounds heal before what is left of his beak can be scanned to plan for models.
Despite all this mass effort the poor toucan's future is still uncertain, he may not readily accept his new prosthetic beak and in the wild the beak aids in thermoregulation (temperature control) and attracting mates.
Unfortunately for Latin America this is not the first case of animal cruelty that has gained media attention, as little as a month ago a dog was brutally murdered by being blown apart by fireworks which, was filmed and placed online; this is due to the lack of laws or punishment for such abuse and perpetrators often face no penalty or if they do it is as little as a $2 fine; hopefully this will change as activists strive for tougher punishments for these acts of animal cruelty.  

This story shows both the worst in humans and the best and is a wonderful example of just how well we can group together to overcome a tragic incident by showing how truly compassionate we can be. My fingers are crossed that this little survivor will be able to eventually get his new beak and that all goes well and I am sure a lot of other people are too.
To view original story click here   
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Why do cats love boxes?

Something every cat owner experiences is when they spend £100's on that huge new fancy cat tree only for the cat to totally ignore it and spend endless hours playing in the box it came in, much to the slight annoyance of the owner (we still love them loads regardless!), however new research by a team of veterinary scientists from the university of Utrecht titled 'Will a hiding box provide stress reduction for shelter cats?' has showed that boxes do aid in providing a comforting, stress relieving area for cats.
The research was aimed at aiding with shelter cats (Felis sylvestris catus) whom dependent on personality type, can experience high levels of stress within a shelter environment which, can lead to not only mental issues but health issues as well. The scientists divided a group of shelter cats into a group that had access to a box and those that did not, observing their behavior over a period of two weeks; behavior was measured using the Kessler and Turner cat stress score as shown below.

By the third day of observation the cats which had been provided with boxes had lower stress scores than those without though, it was observed that some probably those with a more stronger personality, were not affected by not having access to a box but those that were, showed higher levels of stress which gradually reduced over time to the same as the box access cats by day fourteen.
The sample size of nineteen cats used is classed as small by most scientific standards but the paper still concluded that access to boxes provides a higher level of enrichment for the cats during the first weeks of shelter life, aiding with coping strategies thus reducing levels of stress and that further research will hopefully build upon this conclusion.

Why cats appear to love boxes so much is still a mater up for scientific debate, some suggestions include: that they like the warmth and allows a solitary species an area to hide away from social interactions however, I like to think as a cat owner myself, that it holds a attraction similar to that with young children; a box can be so many amazing things to a cat, a fort to conquer and defend vigorously from fellow cats and humans with a few well placed swipes at unsuspecting feet and hands, a place to hide from all of life's many annoyances, or maybe a object to pounce on and destroy till only scattered fragments remain and finally a lovely cosy place to snuggle up and catch some shut eye after a hard day of doing cat things.

Courtesy of Maru the cat :)

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To view the original article click here

Scorpions can lose their tail to prevent predation

When a animal voluntarily sheds part of its body, often as a result of predation it is called autotomy; this occurs at a defined cleavage plane, as shown by the black lines on the above picture. When cleavage occurs at these sites it minimizes damage to the animal and aids with the rapid sealing of fluids called hemolymph. In scorpions this means that often the stinger and the anus is lost as they never grow back, this means that the scorpion can no-longer defend itself/inject venom (hunt) or pass feces.
A team of scientists led by Camilo Mattoni from Unversidad nacional de Cordoba went out into the field and turned over rocks, using UV at night, marking where detachments occurred on the scorpions. In the lab they observed museum specimens that displayed autotomy and conducted a experiment with the species (Ananteris solimariae) holding onto the metasoma (Posterior end of scorpion) with forceps and gently pulling backwards to see where cleavage occured.

In 22 out of 25 males studied cleavage occured at joints between the metasomal segments I, II, II and III and III and IV (see pic below for reference) allowing the scorpion to escape. Females and juveniles either showed one instance (female) or not at all (juvenile). After detachment the parts kept on wiggling for over a minute which, may aid in distracting the predator away from the escaping scorpion and in 47% of cases the detached tail attempted to sting.
The area around the detachment heals quickly and scar tissue forms within five days but the lost parts do not regenerate preventing the scorpion from being able to defecate and reducing it to only being able to catch small prey using their mouth parts only. The bodies eventually start to swell as a result of the inability to pass feces and some even experienced a second autotomy as a result of this however, most of the males survived and even mated with females up to 8 months after autotomy.

To view the original paper click here
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