My study: A difference seen between snake sheds of corn and kingsnake

My Florida kingsnake Flo

About corn snakes
The corn snake (Pantherophis gutattus) is a species of rat snake from North America, within the eastern and central area and get their name from being found close to corn barns where, they fed on rodents. They lack venom and therefore kill their prey via constriction which includes small mammals such as mice. As adults they can reach lengths of between 2 to 6ft and can live up to 23 years. Their docile nature, manageable size and varied coloration make them a popular pet species.

About kingsnakes
Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis sp.) are part of the colubrid family and have approximately 45 subspecies. They are constrictors and eat rodents and other (venomous) snakes such as rattlesnakes, due to their resistance to their venom. They are found in a variety of colors and some species such as the red kingsnake are often mistaken for the venomous coral snake; a rhyme such as red on yellow kills a fellow, red on black venom lack, aids in identification of species. (Note: Even though the rhyme is a helpful aid, please view any wild snake from a distance and leave handling to the professionals.)

Loki my corn snake

 What I did
For a piece of coursework for my third year, I had to do a series of photographs of increasing magnification on a chosen topic. I decided to focus on snakes and in particular corn and kingsnakes, due to them occupying similar ranges and in the field identification often being very difficult due to them disappearing and due to handling often being stressful on wild specimens. Therefore I decided to focus on snake sheds; snakes shed a process known as ecdysis and is seen in other species such as frogs and spiders. Their outer layer of skin (outer epidermal generation) is replaced by a new inner layer (keritinized (same material as your nails) epidermal generation) and is shed episodically over a period of 6 to 14 days.
I used the most recent sheds from my corn and kingsnake and proceeded to take an initial photo of the entire shed and then focusing on just the head and a section of the body scales with increasing levels of magnification, to see if any difference could be seen.

The snake sheds (The longest (corn snake) was 6ft1)

What I found
It was hard to see great difference between the specimens when a camera and microscope was used but some very interesting differences became apparent when I used the SEM (Scanning electron microscope) this takes images and very high magnification by scanning the samples with a beam of electrons, the electrons interact with the sample producing various signals that project the image.
Firstly I looked at the head samples, focusing particularly on the lens caps (the scale that covers the eye) and noticed that they were both different shapes and the outline of the eye/lens was different between the two. You can see from the pictures below that the corn snake's lens cap is rounder and the kingsnake has a more oval shape; You can also see the eye/lens outline (the darker inner circle line) is larger in the corn snake then in the kingsnake.

Corn snake lens cap. Magnification: x43

Kingsnake lens cap. Magnification: x41

  Next I focused on the body scales and again a interesting difference was seen, in the corn snake the tips of the scales had raised points and less elastic skin then the kingsnake which, had scales that had indents on the tips and more elasticated skin.

Corn snake scale with raised points. Magnification: x88

Corn snake raised point. Magnification: x1000

Kingsnake scale with indented tips. Magnification: x45

Kingsnake scale indented tip. Magnification: x470

Why are these differences present?
As my study did not require a full investigation, I can only speculate to why these differences occur; the kingsnake is a species that eats large meals and therefore the presence of more elastic skin would be advantageous, the kingsnake eats smaller meals and therefore does not need to expand to accommodate large meals. I can not explain why the indentations are present on the kingsnake scale but can possibly suggest a reason for the points on the corn snake which may be a grip aid during movement. Again the difference in lens cap is something that also requires further investigation but may represent different requirements for vision to meet hunting/survival needs. Even though I personally am not sure what these differences are for, they have provided a visual difference in identifying these two species via their sheds and therefore could be of interest to the scientific/herpetology community and warrant further study and something I would be interested in pursuing further.

As always thanks for taking the time to visit and read my blog and leave any thoughts in the comment box below and until next time Keep It Wild!!!

Koko: A friendly gorilla or poor science?

About Gorillas
Gorillas are mainly herbivorous apes that dwell in the forests of central Africa. The genus (The scientific way of showing that species are closely related) gorilla is split into two separate species eastern of western which is further split into 4 to 5 subspecies. Their DNA is 95-99% similar to humans and are the closest living realtives after bonobos (Pan paniscus) and Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
Gorillas can be found over a varying range of elevations; mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) occupy the cloud forests of the Virunga volcanoes whilst, western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) occupy central west African countries and eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) occupying the Democratic republic of Congo near the boarder to Rwanda.
Males can weigh up to 135-180kg (298-397lb) whilst females weigh between 68-133kg (150-249lb). Adult males grow silver hair along the back and are known as silver backs and is a sign that they are now adult to other gorillas within the group.
They live in groups called troops and generally consist of a single male with females and their offspring but multi male groups have been found. The male is usually above 12 years of age and both males and females often leave their family group in search of unrelated partners.
They live up to 40 years in the wild becoming sexually mature at around 10-12 for females and later at around 11-13 for males. Offspring stay close to their mother up to three years of age after which they start to become more independent between 3 to 6 years of age when they are weaned and sleep separately from their mother.

About Koko
Koko a female western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) was born July 4th 1971 at San Francisco Zoo and was orginally loaned to Dr. Francine Patterson for her doctoral research but has remained with her ever since. Her weight is much higher then what would be expected of a wild female due to a diet consisting of human food products including, processed meat and sweets.
Patterson claims that Kokos use of signs and her actions, indicates her understanding of sign language. Other researchers claim this is no more then operant conditioning or a behavior learned by positive consequences i.e. opening a candy box to receive a tasty treat. Another concern is her ability to show coherent thoughts (logical) via signs and that the interpretation is left to the handler who, may see nonsense as sense. After findings were orginally published in 1978 it was critically argued from video evidence that she was prompted by her handlers unconscious clues (weren't aware she was picking up on gestures they were giving) to show specific signs.
Koko was able to pass the self refection mirror test at 19 which, most other gorillas fail, she also signed for baby the day after her own baby was removed from her, the reason why is not stated. Patterson has also mentioned Kokos ability to create new signs for items she does not have a sign for such as ring, where she will combined the sign for finger and bracelet.
Criticism within the field of science stems from the fact that even though much is published within media outlets, very little of Patterson's findings have been published within the scientific community and substantial data is therefore lacking.

 
Koko is one of the few non humans known to be provided with a pet, this was the result of her favorite book being the three little kittens and after being provided with a kitten toy she was apparently not impressed. So on her birthday in July 1984 she was allowed to chose a kitten from a litter; she chose a grey male manx and called him all ball and Patterson described how she cared for him like a baby gorilla and that this would aid her in how to nurture offspring. In December of that year all ball escaped the enclosure and was hit and killed by a car and upon telling Koko she was reported to sign bad, sad, bad and frown, cry frown, sad and was also reported to emit a sound similar to human weeping.
In 1985 she was allowed to choose two more kittens, lipstick and Smokey, it is not told of what happened to Lipstick but it is said that Smokey lived with her for 20 years before dying of natural causes.
This year (2015) again she was allowed to pick a kitten for her 44th birthday, again she chose a little grey kitten called Ms. grey whilst another tabby kitten took a liking to her called Ms.black, they are said to be settling in well.
It was mentioned in some media outlets that as the kittens grew older and more independent, they would bite and wriggle to get away from Koko's nurturing ways. This would cause her to punch the wall in frustration and sign obnoxious cat.

My Views
As a budding animal behaviorist, the first thing I was taught in university was to never humanize your study animal therefore, to suggest that an animal is feeling sad, angry or happy in terms of science is wrong as we can not prove that this is the case (the basis for all scientific study) we therefore use alternative terms such as playing, social interaction i.e. grooming, tool use or object manipulation and exploring therefore, to me this would be classed as poor science as we can never truly understand what Koko is truly thinking we can only put a human interpretation on to it not a gorilla interpretation.
I also think it is important to mention that by now most of you will assume that Dr. Patterson is pursuing a career in animal behavior or something similar maybe a primatologist (studies primates i.e. apes, monkeys). In fact she is a psychologist and therefore only has knowledge mainly of the human mind not the behavioral processes and behavior of the animal mind which does differ greatly. Therefore I find it difficult to state that in any way this is beneficial to gorillas, it is not conservation, it is not a behavioral study on how gorillas behave like gorillas which could either help those in the wild or in captivity. It is a study on how human we can make a gorilla as, this is more interesting and therefore generates more media money then normal gorilla behavior does. This is not beneficial to Koko she does not need to learn sign language to thrive as a gorilla, but it is beneficial to the scientist who is making money via exploitation of her.
But they are our closest living relatives I hear you say, surely it would be of worth to see how much human like they can be? Here is where media can be misleading, our ancestors split from the primate line a very long time ago but we are descendants of neanderthals such as Homo erectus. DNA is a very complex subject which is often difficult to explain but let me try to put it like this, we share 92% of our DNA with mice and 50% with a banana. Are you going to attempt to teach your mouse how to be human or even a banana?

 It is true that apes possess the capabilities to use tools and maybe depending on how it is perceived to 'learn' but we are also learning that dolphins and even crows can learn and perform tasks and also what is worth noting that similar behaviors are seen in the wild without the need for human encroachment therefore, when a chimpanzee uses a tool in the wild is it being a human or a chimp? or when a dolphin uses a sponge to prevent being stung by a jellyfish, is it a human or a dolphin?
We define tool use and the ability to learn how to solve tasks as purely human but nature is starting to teach us that it is not, these animals have often learned from their group members, who have either learned for themselves via trial and error or from another not, by human interaction.
The last point I would like to mention is that we have been told that Koko has had her own baby which, was removed from her, why I do not know but, if she can have her own offspring why present her with fragile kittens? I have seen myself that primates at times can be slightly what we may consider rough with their offspring, especially with age and independence and it has been noted that Koko has punched the wall when a kitten has been defiant. What happens when it is no longer the wall? A juvenile gorilla could handle a smack from mother if they push their luck but a young cat? After all nothing is mentioned of what became of Lipstick, was it due to a freak accident that the media was not to know?
So if she can have her own offspring then why not? She loves babies, she clearly would love one of her own but is it not more of a media spectacle to see a gorilla holding kittens then a baby gorilla even though, a baby gorilla is more profitable to the conservation of her species? Again I ask what is the true meaning behind Kokos existence?

What do you think? I have deliberately aimed to try to give you as the reader as much information to make an informative choice as I can and please go ahead and take a look for yourself if you wish to gain further knowledge which can be found here and feel free to add your comments in the box below.
As always thanks for visiting and reading my blog and until next time keep it wild!!!

New species of death adder found in Australia

About Death Adders
Death adders belong to the genus Acanthophis and belong to the elapid family (venomous snakes found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world i.e Asia, Australia and South America). Death adders are commonly found in Australia and New Guinea and are among the most deadly snakes in the world. They have a short thick body and a triangular shaped head and possess some of the longest fangs within the elapid family (Average size = 6.2mm). They take 2 to 3 years to reach adult size which is usually no more than a meter in length and are ambush predators going from strike position to envenomation (injecting venom into prey) and back into strike position in just 0.15 seconds. They inject on average 40-100mg of neurotoxic (poisonous/destructive to nerve tissue) venom in a bite, this causes paralysis and respiratory shut down within 6 hours if treatment is not received.

Introducing The Kimberly Death Adder
As it's name suggests, the Kimberly death adder (Acanthophis cryptamydros) was found in the Kimberly region of Australia and like all death adders, is a sit and wait (ambush) predator that feeds on frogs, lizards and small mammals.
The new species was discovered by a team from London's Natural History Museum, led by Simon Maddock. The team were analyzing the mitochondrial DNA (the DNA found within animal cells that convert energy from food into a energy type that cells use called ATP) of Australian death adders of which were believed to contain both the same species in the Kimberly region of Western Australia and Northern Australia.
The snake is 65cm (26 inch) long and can also be identified by a higher number of cream colored scales on it's underbelly then other species and is found from Wotjulum to Kununurra in Western Australia and some offshore islands including, Bigge and Wulalam.

My Views
It is always exciting news for me to learn of a new species being discovered within the natural world, especially, as we tend to adopt a view of most species of mammal, bird, amphibian and reptile having already been discovered however, advancements in the molecular biology field (Studies areas such as genetics i.e. DNA), it seems that it may not be the case. DNA analysis has led to scientists finding not only new species but also that species that we once thought belonged to the same species or family, are not actually related at all! This is not only big news for the scientific community but has caused our knowledge and understanding of the natural world to increase dramatically. DNA is an amazing substance and the molecular biology field is always improving techniques and making new discoveries, making it one of the fastest growing areas currently in science therefore, who knows what we still have to discover in the future but one thing is for sure, I look forward to finding out!

What are your views on this new discovery? Are you excited about what we may discover in the future by using DNA studies? As always feel free to leave your comments in the box below. Finally thanks for taking the time to read and visit my blog and until next time Keep It Wild!!!!    

The Cecil saga

About lions
Lions (Panthera leo) belong to the family Felidae and are classed as true carnivores eating a meat only diet. They are found in sub Saharan Africa and Asia and are the second largest cat after the tiger. They are typically found in savannah and grassland but can also be found in bush and forest. They are generally social creatures forming prides of multiple females and one or more males and their offspring. Males typically are ejected from the pride upon maturity and will live solo or form a coalition with another male, until they are able to gain a pride of their own. Females hunt together typically bringing down large ungulates such as gazelles and bison however, once a kill is made the adult male eats first with the females and cubs eating once he has finished.

About Cecil
Cecil was named after Cecil Rhodes a British imperialist (colonist of country) and mining magnate in the 19th century. He is the namesake of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and founder of Rhodes university in South Africa and the Rhodes scholarship at Oxford university.
Cecil was first seen in Hwange national park in 2008, alongside another male presumed to be his brother. In 2009 they encountered a pride; a fight occurred and Cecil's brother was killed and both he and the pride male seriously injured. Cecil retired to a new area of the park eventually establishing a pride of 22 lions however in 2013 he was evicted by two younger males. This led him to form a coalition of his own with a male lion called Jericho and regained control of the pride. By 2015 the pride consisted of the two males, half a dozen females and cubs sired by Cecil or Jericho.
Cecil was well known at the park and was easily identified by his black fringed mane and GPS collar. He had been studied by a team of scientists from the wildlife conservation research unit at Oxford university since 2008. It was suggested that Cecil was so popular due to him becoming accustomed to human presence, allowing tour groups to get as close as 33ft (10m) away from him.

What happened

In June 2015 an American dentist called Walter Palmer supposedly paid $50,000 (Approx £32,000) to a professional hunter called Theo Bronkhorst to kill an adult lion. It was allegedly said that Cecil was lured out of the safety of the park by a jeep towing meat and then shot with a bow and arrow. He was tracked and found roughly 40 hours later, where he was killed with a rifle. He was then skinned and his head was removed; when his body was found by park investigators his GPS collar was missing.

The aftermath

Zimbabwe national parks stated that neither Bronkhorst or the landowner of where Cecil was shot, had the right permit for a lion. Bronkhorst stated however that they had a permit for both the use of a bow and arrow and for a lion from the council. Both Zimbabweans have been arrested for assisting Palmer with the killing but Palmer had since returned to the USA where he stated that he had relied on the guides to ensure a legal hunt.

In Zimbabwe Cecils death went generally unnoticed by the locals who were unaware of the famous lion who lived amongst them however, it had huge implications for Hwange park which the lion used to call home. Visitor numbers dropped significantly, with bookings being canceled after the death of the lion was announced. This is a huge blow for the park as money from tourism helps to support the management and conservation of the park.

When the news broke to the rest of the world it caused outrage amongst the general public, conservationists and politicians. Palmer received hundreds of death threats and his personal details were published online, forcing him to close his dental practice and go into hiding. 

The death of Cecil led to many conservation groups pushing for a proposal banning imports of lion trophies to the US and European Union, as well as discussions on the ethnics of big game hunting and the possibility of getting African countries to ban bow hunting, bait hunting and hunting blinds (cover for hunters). 

A petition called justice for Cecil gathered over 900,000 signatures on social media, the petition calls for Zimbabwe's government to no longer issue permits to hunt endangered animals and talk host Jimmy Kimmel raised $150,000 (Approx £96,000) in donations to Oxfords wildlife conservation research unit.

Safari club international (group comprised of hunters) stated that it had suspended Palmer's and Bronkhorst's memberships, mentioning that anyone who takes wildlife illegally should be prosecuted and punished to the extent of the law.

Bronkhorst appeared in court at Victoria Falls and was charged with poaching offenses for not having the required permit and is due back in court on August 5th. He was reported as saying that Palmer was innocent and thought it was legal but having discovered that Palmer was prosecuted in America for illegally killing a black bear, makes anyone question the truth behind that statement. Ndlovu whose land was where the lion was killed was prosecuted for allowing an illegal hunt on his land, as it is a area that does not have a quota for lion kills.

On the 31st July Zimbabwe officials stated they initiated proceedings to extradite Palmer to face charges, with a petition to the US government which supported this reaching over 100,000 signatures, forcing the white house to respond by saying they will review the petition. 

The fate of the pride

Normally when a male lion is removed from a pride, the cubs are killed by the new male, this prevents the male from raising cubs that are not his but also causes the females to be ready to breed again so he can pass on his genes. Fortunately due to Cecil's coalition with Jericho, Jericho has taken control of the pride and has even been seen defending the cubs from rival males. This is because the cubs will be a mixture of both Cecil and Jericho parentage therefore, it is in his best interest to defend the cubs and protect his legacy, allowing Cecil's legacy to live on too.

My Views

Hunting is no longer a term associated with one meaning, it generally now is viewed as associated with the words sport or trophy. I have no problem with those who hunt for the true meaning of the word which is for food, as even though most of us have disassociated ourselves with where the meat on our plates comes from, others still have to go out and catch their meals themselves. It is sport/trophy hunters who give these people and this term bad press as there is no need for these to occur, they are not providing food, they are viewed as 'fun', 'exhilarating' and the corpses are used to 'decorate' a home. To me there is no pride, no manhood in killing a animal for sport, from a distance and then adopting a domineering presence over it's body with a cocky grin thinking your the business because you've killed a top predator or large game. The truth is these people are the weakest of the weak, they hide the fact that they are in reality meek and mild people that probably would not say boo to a goose, behind guns and weaponry that provide them with the protection and strength that they lack without. Others believe that we as a species are dominant and therefore we have a right to decide what lives and what dies, this arrogance is unfortunately the small proportion of the human race which lets us down. If they faced any of the animals that they kill with the use of weaponry without them, they would not stand a chance and would be forced to remember just how weak and unpowerful they really are.

I fully believe that if you want the thrill of following and finding an animal, waiting for the perfect shot and then having a trophy of that moment that will last forever then become a wildlife photographer! At least the animal will survive to live another day and provide someone else with that perfect moment as well as future generations, instead of being mounted in some rich guys house for all his narrow minded friends to see and admire until its slowly forgotten as it is replaced by more, left to collect dust, a life that was once majestic and beautiful, taken for a pointless short lived moment of glory.

As always thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to read my posts. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment box below and until next time Keep It Wild!!!!!!

   

  

 

It's all in the diet. Why pandas have such a relaxed attitude.

About The Giant Panda
The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca -  meaning black and white cat foot) originates from south central China where it lives on a diet of 99% bamboo, occasionally eating grasses and carrion.
They are currently around 1800 giant pandas living wild; classifying them as an endangered species by IUCN.
Adult pandas are between 4-6ft long and a male can weigh up to 160kg (350lbs), females are smaller in size being between 10-20% less weighing from 70kg (150lbs) to 125kg (276lbs). In captivity they live up to 30 years whilst in the wild it is around 20.
They live solitary lives communicating to neighbors by scent marking, this is achieved by scratching trees and spraying urine.

Its not easy to study pandas
As mentioned previously, the giant panda is endangered and it is this factor alongside its popularity and political importance that makes the study of wild giant pandas somewhat difficult. When any scientific research is undertaken on a animal species, they are many procedures and regulations that need to be followed of which are even more tightly regulated when it comes to pandas. Therefore our knowledge of pandas has been a under researched area but which is now slowing gaining ground; leading to this discovery.

Its all about the diet
The giant panda belongs to the order known as Carnivora, this group includes dogs/foxes/wolves (canids), cats (felids), seals/sealions/walruses (pinnipeds), weasels/stoats etc (mustelids) and bears (ursids). It is however important to mention that just because these species are found within the order Carnivora that they are not all strictly meat eaters, in fact this title applies only to the cats (felids) whilst the rest are manly omnivorous (eating a mixture of both meat and plant material). All animals within this order have short digestive tracts due to meat being easily digested by the body, the giant panda has a gut similar to that of a lion yet, eats a diet that many consists of plant material known as bamboo. The panda has numerous adaptations for eating bamboo, such as a 'thumb' this is not actually a thumb at all but a modified wrist bone, despite all these adaptions the panda's short gut means it has to eat roughly 10-20kgs (22-44lbs) of bamboo a day, as it is unable to properly digest it. It is due to this poor digestion and low quality food that scientists thought giant pandas had a low metabolism (the set of life sustaining chemical reactions which occur within body cells) to survive.

Taking it easy
The metabolism rate of giant pandas had not been studied until recently when a team of scientists used a technique called the doubly-labelled water method which measures the rate at which an animal eliminates stable isotopes (an atom which contains the same number of protons or positive charge but a different number of neutrons or negative charge) from their body. This involved 5 captive giant pandas from Beijing zoo and 3 wild giant pandas from Foping nature reserve.
It was shown that giant pandas do have a very slow metabolism, lower then that of most other mammals and more similar to that of a reptile. How the giant pandas achieved such a low rate of energy was studied in a second experiment. It is known that most of the energy used by the body is taken by few organs such as the brain, liver and kidneys. In the giant panda the brain is 82% less then the expected size, kidneys 74.5 and the liver 62.8% for that of an 90kg mammal. Giant pandas also were found to move only at a rate of 26.9 meters per hour as tracked using GPS loggers.
The giant pandas also had unusual thyroid hormones (the hormone responsible for regulating metabolism/energy), this was found to be due to a mutation within the giant panda genome (complete set of DNA) which affects the production of thyroid hormones. It is known that people who suffer with low thyroid levels often feel the cold more then those that do not, so how does the giant panda stay warm? Giant pandas have a thick fur coat; this traps what little heat is produced by the body. This causes the outer surface of the panda's body to be 10 degrees cooler then that of other black and white animals such as zebras.

As always feel free to leave any thoughts/comments in the box below and thanks for taking the time to read this and visit my blog, until next time keep it wild!

Well that's one way to cause a headache! Flatworm mates with its own head!

What are flatworms?
Platyhelminthes or flatworms are unsegmented, bilaterial (have front/back and upside/downside), soft bodied invertebrates (lack a vertebral (spinal) column). They have no body cavity and are referred to as acoelomates, they have a flattened body shape due to lacking specialized circulatory and respiratory organs i.e blood/lungs, the flattened shape allows oxygen to diffuse (a process in which a substance moves from a area of high amount to one which is lower) into their bodies easily.
Free living flatworms are either found in water or humid areas such as leaf litter on land tapeworms (Cestodes) and flukes (Trematodes) have parasitic lifestyles which are often complex and involve multiple hosts in fact, the second most deadly human disease is called by the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) which is the main cause of epilepsy worldwide when their larvae infect the human nervous system.

Procotyla fluviatilis

What they discovered
Scientists from the University of Basel based in Switzerland and Bielefield University based in Germany, discovered that the flatworm Macrostomum hystrix, an hermaphrodite possessing both male and female reproductive organs, uses self insemination when it is unable to locate a mate. Normally reproduction occurs with these flatworms by exchanging of sperm between two individuals via a stylet (a needle like protrusion) and is described as 'traumatic insemination'. 
The study divided flatworms into two groups one which was isolated and the other which consisted of small groupings of individuals. The amount of sperm possessed by each flatworm was measured and it was found that isolated individuals contained more in their head. Self insemination was never witnessed but the placement suggests a interesting insemination route, with the sperm migrating from the head to the center of the body where fertilization occurred. The flatworms that were kept in groups differed however by having sperm located in their tails.
This therefore could be the first case of flatworms using their needle like penis to eject sperm into their own head, it is suggested this may be due to there being no internal link between their male and female organs.

As always feel free to leave any thoughts or comments in the box below, thanks for taking the time to visit and read my blog and finally until next time keep it wild!!!!

Why parrots can copy sounds and 'dance' along to music.

Blue and yellow macaw (Ara ararauna)

About parrots

They are roughly 372 species of parrot (Psittacines) found worldwide and are categorized into three super-families, Psittacoidea (True parrots), Cacatuoidea (Cockatoos) and Strigopoidea (New Zealand parrots). Parrots are found in the majority of tropical and subtropical regions of the world with, the greatest diversity being found in South America and Australasia. 

Most parrots eat a diet consisting of seeds, nuts and fruit but some species eat carrion and others such as lorikeets feed on nectar from flowers. 

They are among some of the most intelligent bird species found on the planet, a feature that makes them popular as pets unfortunately, this leads to illegal trapping of the species in the wild which has an impact on species numbers, resulting in some species becoming endangered in the wild.

Rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus)

Why parrots can imitate sounds

Parrots are among the few species that can imitate another species sound and a new study has identified the area of the brain that may be the reason that allows this to occur. 

All birds that sing have areas in the brain that enables the singing ability known as cores but in parrots they are also outer rings called shells. To discover how this shell system functions, a team of scientists focused on gene expression (The process in which information from a gene is used to form a functional gene product) of nine species of parrot.

The study found that parrots have a complex pattern of gene expression in all three parts of their brains, meaning that most of the vocal capabilities of parrots is due to the presence of the shells, this came as a surprise to the scientists as it was previously thought that the shells had no connection to speech. However, it was noted that future research is needed to further examine the exact methods of how imitation is achieved.

The fact that shells were present in the most ancient species of parrot the keas, suggests that these vocalization abilities occurred over 29 million years ago or around the time our ancestors separated from our primate cousins. 

Learning to imitate sounds is not a simple process and requires the ability to recognize musical information, process it and reproduce it which, requires a lot of brain power. Fortunately the shell system in parrots enable these processes to occur allowing the parrot to reproduce sounds.

Kea (Nestor notabilis)

All in the groove
Parrots are also one of the few animals that are able to dance along to the beats of a piece of music. Dancing in parrots is associated with non vocal areas of the shells, supporting the possibility of learning sounds and matching that with their behavior. 
To view the original article please click this link.

As always thanks for taking the time to visit and read my blog, feel free to share any thoughts/comments in the box below and until next time keep it wild!!!!!

There is a reason they issue warnings! Bison attack tourists in Yellowstone.

About bison
As many as 30 million bison (Bison bison) used to roam the plains of North America, unfortunately this had dropped to 1091 in 1889 due to habitat loss and unregulated shooting, numbers have grown since then and now numbers of 500,000 are recorded. Bison can live up to 22 years in the wild, reaching a height of between 6-6.5ft with males weighing up to 2000lbs and can charge at speeds up to 30mph. They are herbivores living on a diet of grasses, constantly roaming in herds consisting of females and young (males only join during breeding). The great plains of America often has severe weather fluctuations with hot summers and freezing winters, the bison combat this forming wallows during hotter periods and forming a thick coat during winter, this coat is so thick that snow can settle on it and not melt.

About Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone was first established as a national park in 1872 to help protect its famous geysers such as Old Faithful, it is located mainly in Wyoming but also extends into neighboring Montana and Idaho spanning a total of 3,468.4sq miles. It is home to Yellowstone lake one of the largest high elevation lakes in America, this sits upon the Yellowstone caldera the largest super-volcano on the continent! This volcano is still active and is what fuels the many geothermal vents in the area. Yellowstone is also the home of many species of animal several of which are endangered or threatened, these include the grizzly bear, elk, wolves and of course the bison, the herd that roams here is the oldest/largest public bison herd in America.
To discover more about Yellowstone National Park please click here to visit their webpage.

What happened?
Every day at Yellowstone National Park rangers issue leaflets notifying the public of the dangers of visiting the park, the warnings are very straightforward for example: do not shout near animals or run towards them. One leaflet even goes as far as featuring a man being gored by a bison and telling visitors to maintain a distance of at least 72 feet from them. Yet these warnings appear to still fail to get people to act appropriately as two people have been injured by bison at Yellowstone within three weeks!
The first person who decided not to heed the warnings, was a 62 year old Australian man who was tossed several times into the air by a bison. Rangers from the park noted that a crowd had formed around the bison getting as close as 5 feet away! Upon proceeding to take photos the bison charged at the man tossing him into the air with its horns, the man was taken to hospital where he was treated and released later the same day.
The second incident involved a 16 year old Taiwanese girl who again did not heed warnings and got too close to a bison to pose for a photo, again she was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
 A spokesperson for the park mentioned how people forget that the animals are wild and will behave as such stating that 'the temptation is there when the bison looks calm'.
More and more people visit Yellowstone National Park every year and it is incidents like this that force the park ranger to have to protect wildlife and police tourists which is why warnings are so frequently issued, the problem is that people continue to ignore them.

My Views
I feel ever more constantly that we are becoming a society which firmly believes that in scenarios where serious injury could happen, that we think it won't happen to us and this is why incidents like this occur so frequently. It does not even have to be animal related, for example imagine a person in a car, their mobile phone just went off with a message, now we all know what we should do which is either pullover in a safe place or wait till you arrive at your destination to read the message but maybe this person has texted and drove before and was fine or perhaps they have not done it before but the road is not busy and they know what they are doing (it won't happen to me) and then in that moment whilst they are distracted a kid runs out and the inevitable happens. We all faced with a multitude of warnings every day and most are probably ones that are not all that significant in our daily lives but those like the ones featured here that affect not only yourself but others too and carry a potential high risk factor should always be heeded, it may not happen to you but what if it did? These incidents often carry serious injury or death, what happens when you sustain major fractures and can't work or worse if you died? Nearly every day I read in the news about someone who was killed/seriously hurt driving irresponsibly or in an animal attack and what annoys me is that they could all be avoided if common sense prevailed.
It is important to remember whenever you visit an area where animals are wild to treat them with respect and maintain a safe distance from them, if you want a close up shot then buy a camera with a telescopic lens that will allow you to zoom in and take that great photo whilst staying safe and if you want that selfie how about with a statue or model instead? At least you will be walking away with a set of pictures that you can share with family and friends, instead of a broken camera and spending your holiday in a hospital or worse not coming home at all.

As always thanks for taking the time to read my blog, please share any of your thoughts in the comments section below and until next time keep it wild!!!!!

    

To turn or not to turn? That is the question, as abilty to change mosquito sex is discovered.

About mosquitoes
Mosquitoes belong to the family Culicidae and contrary to popular belief not all species are harmful to us furthermore, it is only the females of most species that are harmful, possessing a proboscis (tube like mouth parts) to pierce the skin and obtain blood. Death never occurs in any host from blood loss but the saliva from the mosquito often causes a irritating rash to develop around the bite. The real problem with receiving a mosquito bite is that they act as carriers or vectors for serious diseases such as dengue which occurs in sub tropical areas and causes severe flu like symptoms and only in severe instances causes death, west Nile virus which most commonly shows no symptoms of the disease but when it does flu like symptoms occur, with less then 1% of cases becoming life threatening and yellow fever which only affects humans and primates causing an initial outbreak of fever, loss of appetite and muscle pain and headaches. This will improve after a few days but occasionally the disease returns with abdominal pains and liver damage causing the skin to become yellow. The person will start to bleed internally causing them to vomit blood with 20% of people who experience this stage loosing their life to the disease, though it is worth considering that in general only 3% of people in general die from this disease.

What the study found
As mentioned previously it is only the females that pose a threat therefore, scientists have tried to find a way to genetically change females into males to render them harmless. This is a difficult process due to insects having a genome in which, it is difficult to identify single genes within the Y chromosome (the chromosome which dictates that a male be formed i.e. if a baby has to XX chromosomes it is a girl but if it is XY it is a boy) however, whilst analyzing male Aedes aegypti DNA a team of scientists from Virginia Tech led by Zach Adelman  and Zhijian Tu, found a candidate gene called M factor Nix (M factor = male determining gene) that was expressed (A genetic instruction often a protein which aids in the formation of hormones, enzymes etc) in both adult males and developing embryos. They used a gene editing tool to control how this gene was expressed, allowing them to discover that it was needed to start male development.
Changes to this particular gene caused substantial deformities to male sex organs and when they silenced (stop the gene from being able to perform its function) the gene, the males lost certain features of their genitalia and when the gene was expressed on other areas of the genome (the name for where all the animals genetic material is stored such as DNA) it caused mutant females to have masculine genitalia.

An example of a mosquito species life cycle.

What these findings mean
The discovery that this particular gene could essentially become an important factor in preventing mosquito borne diseases. This is because when female embryos were injected with this gene they developed male genitalia suggesting that it may be a future possibility to change harmful females into potentially harmless males.
To view the original article click here

My Views 
Initially you may think this sounds like a brilliant discovery and a big step forward in the eradication of harmful diseases within the human race but the question that needs to be asked here is where should the line be drawn between what can be classed as science and when we start to play 'god'? Firstly lets examine what the health benefit to this actually would be. We would all love to live in a world where disease no longer exists and this is a tiny step closer to this but is it really? We created what was classed as the wonder drug penicillin (antibiotics) used it to treat lots of various diseases and now? We are finding that it no longer is as effective as most viruses have evolved their genetics to become resistant to it, putting the world at more risk of fatal epidemics occurring. Is this any different? What if we do eradicate the disease carriers from this particular mosquito species, they still are other species that could potentially fill the gap. How do we know that this species prevents another that could be more deadly to us from becoming more common from out competing them? How do we know what impact the loss of this species would cause? We can not say for certain that a particular type of animal may rely heavily on this species as its main source of food. Many may argue that they are plenty of other species of mosquito present within the same environment but consider it like this, even the slightest of touches on the surface of a pond causes a ripple effect to occur therefore, even though this species may seem insignificant, like everything in nature it does serve a purpose and what ever that purpose may be it most certainly won't be insignificant to those that are part of that purpose.
To me this finding only creates more questions then answers therefore, I firmly believe that a lot more research is required before this could be classed as a truly viable method of disease eradication. 

What do you think? Is this a positive or negative area of research to pursue? Leave your comments in the box below and as always thanks for visiting and reading my blog, until next time keep it wild! 

How much do you really know about bees?

There are over 20,000 species of bee found globally and what may surprise you is from that number only seven species of them are what are classed as honeybees furthermore, most colonies that are found consist of one main species in particular Apis mellifera as shown below. The picture above shows a bumblebee a common garden visitor of which they are roughly 250 species and alike honeybees form social structures consisting of a queen and her worker drones; these are often all female which communicate via emitting pheromones (scents) and waggle dancing which aids in directing colony members to new nectar site by a series of waggle like movements, providing the direction in relation to the position of the sun.
However this only describes a small amount of the various types of bees known, what about all the others?

Not everyone lives in hives
Some bees like to live in vegetation such as the bramble home of the species called Ceratina cyanea whilst, leaf cutter bees such as Megachile centuncularis cut circular pieces from leaves to line their nests. Other species of bee like to form nests underground, such as the tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva) or Lasioglossum malachurum who are often found nesting on footpaths. The red mason bee (Osmia
bicornis) found across Europe and Asia excavates holes in bricks in order to build nests, the females have horn like projections on their heads which aid in excavating the holes. A more unusual approach is seen in Osmia bicolor, this species nests in empty snail shells and will cover them with vegetation to camouflage them from predators.

Ceratina cyanea

Megachile centuncularis

Andrena fulva

Lasioglossum malachurum

Osmia bicornis

Osmia bicolor

A specific diet
All adult bees consume nectar, this is because upon reaching adulthood the adult bees only need to meet their energy requirements which nectar suffices just nicely. Bee larvae on the other hand need a source of protein to be able to grow and develop into adult bees therefore, female solitary bees collect pollen and place it with the egg within a nest cell before sealing it.
Some bee species are picky about which flowers they will obtain nectar from for example, Macropis europaea only visits one species of flower called yellow loosestrife; the bee not only collects pollen from the plant but also fatty floral oils, presenting it to the larvae alongside the pollen.Chelostoma campanularum as its name suggests will only visit flowers which belong to the Campanula genus where, the males can be found sleeping in the flowers.

Macropis europaea

Chelostoma campanularum

Sweat bees
Some bees that are classed as solitary are not living as solitary lives as to be expected and in some parts of the world are known as sweat bees due to the some species appearing to enjoy licking sweat off humans. Some of these species are social whilst others vary between social and solitary lives such as Halictus rubicundus which varies its behavior according to climate, being more social in warmer areas and solitary in colder ones. This group also contains some of the smallest bees in the world and some of the most beautiful, Lasioglossum morio is only 5-6mm in size but has a beautiful metallic green coloration which unfortunately is often overlooked as it looks colorless from afar.
To read the original article click here.

Halictus rubicundus

Lasioglossum morio

I have found a bee in distress what do I do?
I often find a few bees during the warmer months that are on the floor crawling around and appear to be struggling to fly. As bees are currently declining across the UK and other areas of the world I always want to do my part to help get these poor bees back to good health again but how? A very much tried and tested technique that was passed down to me by my grandpa, is to get a little bit of honey and place it near to the bee and then back away and wait (sometimes its quick others it can take a while) the bee benefits from a energy boosting meal and will eventually fly away. Have not got any honey available to use? Agave nectar or even sugared water (2 tablespoons of sugar 1 tablespoon of water) can help to save a stranded bee.

My views
Bees are amazing insects that have adapted to many different ways of living in a variety of environments and with out them flower populations would suffer, as a major pollinator would be no longer available. As humans we rely on them to fertilize our crops/make our gardens beautiful via pollination and to provide us with honey therefore, maybe we should take just a little more time to appreciate and help/encourage bees into our gardens, if you would like to help/encourage more bees to visit your garden here are some helpful tips.

They are also lots of helpful websites with plenty of information available online, such as bumblebee conservation trust which features: identification charts, how you can help and even bumble kids so the younger generation can get involved. To visit the site click here.

As always thank you for taking the time to visit and read my blog, feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below, perhaps you have some tips on how to encourage bees you may like to share or some other helpful websites. Until next time keep it wild!