Sumatra - Highways Threatening Tribes and Wildlife

Construction of a highway in Bukit Tigapuluh forest landscape, for logging trucks servicing one of the world’s largest paper companies (Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) is threatening two tribes of indigenous people and endangered species like elephants, tigers and orangutans. The forest is one of the prime forests in Sumatra, with amazing biodiversity. It is also the location of a successful conservation project to reintroduce orangutans. After careful studies 90 Sumatran orangutans were recently introduced into the area for the first time in more than 150 years. One of the tribes threatened by APP-linked activities is wholly dependent on the Bukit Tigapuluh forests for survival. APP partners have already cleared an estimated 20,000 hectares of natural forest.

Conservationists the world over are appalled by this desecration of nature.

For more information contact

Desmarita Murni, WWF-Indonesia: +62 811793458) dmurni@wwf.or.id

IUCN launches initiatives for sustainable water use in Asia Pacific

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in association with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched initiatives to achieve more sustainable management of precious water resources in the Asia Pacific region. The initiatives were launched at the Asia Pacific Water Summit, held in Beppu, Japan. The fact that water is to be managed in a way that provides both environmental and development was stressed.IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre said that in order to realise environmental flows there needs to be more integrated thinking to recognise the environment as a stakeholder in water-related decisions. Environmental flows refer to water within a river, wetland or coastal zone which maintain ecosystems and their benefits where there are competing users. The conference also highlighted the need to invest in ecosystems as development infrastructure which must be maintained, restored, monitored and managed.

For more information contact

IUCN: Kate Lazarus, kate@iucnlao.org, +66 81 371 3062, www.iucn.org

The Ants and The Butterflies – Fascinating Facts

The latest issue of science has some interesting facts about relationship between butterflies and ants in Denmark. In parts of Denmark, the Alcon blue butterfly caterpillars feed within ant colonies. The caterpillar, which later develops into a large blue butterfly, mimics the surface hydrocarbons, the surface chemicals that the ants have on their own brood. The caterpillars first start developing on a food plant, but after they reach a certain stage they leave the food plant and wait on the ground to be discovered by these ants. Adult ants think the caterpillar is one of their young. The authors believe that the butterfly and ants are engaged in a kind of coevolutionary arms race. This parasitism by caterpillars sometimes wipes out entire ant colony. But other times, ants are able to recognize the caterpillars as invaders and kill them. If you are keen about details look it up in Science

A Mosaic of Chemical Coevolution in a Large Blue Butterfly

David R. Nash,^1* Thomas D. Als,² Roland Maile,³ Graeme R. Jones,³ Jacobus J. Boomsma¹

¹ Institute of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
² Department of Genetics and Ecology, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark.
³ School of Chemistry, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK.

Science 4 January 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5859, pp. 88 - 90
DOI: 10.1126/science.1149180

Happy New Year

New Frontiers For Tigers In Thailand

Thailand right now has a population of 720 tigers. Wildlife experts say this could go up to 2000 with sagacious planning. The basis for this enthusiastic forecast is based on a study by Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation and the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. The authors of the study conducted intensive surveys of tigers in Huai Kha Khaeng reserve, using camera traps. According to the scientists the primary thrust should be curtailing of habitat loss and strict enforcement of antipoaching activities. Thailand has some of the most notorious poachers in South East Asia. Another stumbling bock was the fact that until now the courts have refused to jail tiger traffickers, choosing instead to hand down small fines. December issue of the journal Oryx has all the details of this fascinating study which opens the door of hope for the Tiger enthusiasists against a global decline in population. The global estmate right now is around 500 tigers.

Driving Out Large Mammals – The Human Angle

The fact that human beings, in their inexorable desire for development, drive out large mammals from their habitat is an accepted fact. Now scientist have come out with facts and figures. The research was carried out by a team of scientists from Princeton University and WWF-US. Researchers found that at least 35% of mammals over 20kg had seen their range cut by more than half. The researchers compared the current ranges of the world's largest 263 land mammals with their distribution 500 years ago. Tigers, leopards, lions, American bison, elk and wolves have suffered the most. The details appear in the Journal of Mammalogy.

The Return of the Beaver

Returning of locally extinct wildlife back to original habitat is music to the ears of conservationists. Here is some music from Scotland. Beavers were hunted to extinction in Scotland in the 16th Century. Now the the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland are planning to release beavers into the Scottish wild for the first time in 500 years. The first beavers could be reintroduced to Mid-Argyll in Scotland in spring 2009. Beavers play an important role in aquatic and wetland eco-systems. In Scotland it is expected to give a boost to tourism also.

Merry Christmas

Wish You A Merry Christmas

New National Park for Russian Tigers

Here is some happy news from Russia. The Russian Government is constitituting a new national park for the endangered Amur Tigers. Christened Anyuiskii national park this is in Khabarovsk province, located in the Russian Far East. The formal declaration came on December 15. Anyuiskii Park serves as an ecological corridor in the region and will become a link in the chain of ‘the tiger econet’, a network of protected areas, which is now being created. Tiger enthusiasists all over the world are elated at this initiative by Russian Government. Hats off to the conservationists who have worked hard to bring this dream to fruition.

Apes and Facial Mimicry

Another ability once thought to be exclusively human,mimicking expressions of others, has been breached. Research by behavioural scientist Marina Davila Ross and colleagues from University of veterinary medicine, Hanover,Germany has proved that Apes share this ability with us. In Apes mimicry was more prevalent in juveniles and adolescents. The findings suggests that this ability precedes the origin of our species. Full details appear in the latest issue of Biology letters.

Kicking the CO2 Habit

The United Nations is chipping in with its mite for worldwide effort to become climate neutral. Members of the UN attending the crucial climate convention meeting in Bali announced that they are offsetting their greenhouse gas emissions linked with travel to and from the event. The move also includes the Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, and his team. This is around 3,370 tonnes of carbon dioxide worth approximately $100,000 at current carbon prices. UN bodies have jointly agreed to invest in credits accumulating in the adaptation fund of the Kyoto Protocol. Norway, one of four countries that have pledged to go climate neutral nationally, reconfirmed that it is backing the UN system-wide work towards climate neutrality with an initial investment of $820,000 for the UNEP-hosted Environmental Management Group.

Long-Eared Jerboa caught on Film

The mysterious long-eared jerboa (Euchoreutes naso ) which hops like a kangaroo,has been caught on camera for the first time.The animal was flmed in the Gobi desert during an expedition led by Dr Jonathan Baillie of Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The distribution of this rare animal is restricted to deserts of China (Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang) and South of Mangolia(Trans-Altai Gobi). The species is classified as endangered on the IUCN Red list

Building of Mental Maps by Elephants

Royal Society journal, Biology Letters has some interesting facts about elephants in the latest issue. Accounts of how Elephants build mental map of absent relatives by sniffing out their scent are fascinating. Elephants keep track on up to 30 absent relatives. The research was undertaken by the University of St Andrews. They studied 36 family groups of elephants living in Amboseli National Park. One of the ploys used was to collect samples of female elephant urine from the ground and present it to relatives to trick them into believing that the elephant had recently passed by. Elephants showed surprise when they encountered the scent. This and a host of other details will keep you riveted to the pages.

Photographic Memory of Chimps

Researchers of Kyoto University have come up with some amazing facts. In memory tests devised by Japanese scientists, young chimps outperformed university students. Dr Matsuzawa the lead scientist and colleagues tested three pairs of mother and baby chimpanzees against university students in a memory task involving numbers. Each subject was presented with various numerals from one to nine on a touch screen monitor. The numbers were then replaced with blank squares and the subjects had to remember which number appeared in which location, then touch the appropriate square. Young chimps outsmarted University students. The research is published in Current Biology.

Aggressive Sexual Pursuit of Males by Female Topi Antelope in Kenya.

Sexual attitude of Topi Antelope( Damaliscus lunatus jimela) in Kenya is a reversal from our usual idea about sexuality. Here aggressive females pursue the males. Lead scientist Dr Jakob Bro-Jorgensen who did the research says “some pushy females were so aggressive in their pursuit of the male that he actually had to physically to attack them to rebuff their advances." Most males refuse the advances of previous partners. This increases the chances of fatherhood with the widest possible number of partners. Each female would mate, on average, with four males, while some reached 12 different partners. These findings are contrary to conventional sexual selection theory. The research was undertaken in the Masai Mara area of Kenya. Full details appear in the journal Current Biology.

You Can Cut Down Your CO2 Emission by up to 80%

A study by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute has indicated that carbon emissions from UK homes could be reduced by up to 80% by 2050. Financial incentives for home owners and tighter energy efficiency standards were among the study's recommendations. Cavity wall insulation, double glazing,more efficient boilers and lighting, solar panels and ground source heat pumps are in the scheme of things. One technology that could deliver sizeable saving is micro combined heat and power (CHP). Micro CHP systems generate both heat and electricity locally, and reduce costs and emissions A new legislation that will be tabled shortly will require CO2 to be cut by 60% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Fake Snakes to Scare Australian Birds

Plastic snakes are being deployed in an effort to scare away tens of thousands of starlings that have descended on Tamworth in Australia. Pungent droppings of birds have created lot of problems for the authoritities. Pink, orange, green and black plastic snakes, will be tied to branches of trees. This is a desperate attempt by the Tamworth council even though there is no firm scientific basis for the operation.

Queen Bees Control Sex of Young

A new study shows that queen honey bees can choose the sex of their offspring. The young queen goes on a flight spree and stores the sperm she collects from multiple mating for the rest of her life. She uses it up bit by bit as she lays eggs. It has been shown that if the queen adds sperm to an egg, it will produce a female and if she withholds sperm, the egg will produce a male. But the workers control the type of eggs the queen lays. The queen lays eggs in a particular cell only if the cell is big enough to accommodate a male larva, which is bigger than a female one. So depending on the cells they build of each size, the workers can limit how many male offspring the queen produces. Katie Wharton and her team of entomologists at Michigan State University in East Lansing says that in spite of this drawback the queen can still tip the balance of the sex.If you are keen about details please refer to November/December issue of behavioural ecology.

Grooming Reciprocation Among Female Primates: A Meta-Analysis

Among primates, grooming is one of the most common altruistic behaviours. Interesting facts have come put of a recent study regarding grooming.The results of this meta-analysis showed that female primates groom preferentially those group mates that groom them most. T

For more details refer to

• Journal Biology Letters
• Online ISSN 1744-957X
• Print ISSN 1744-9561

• Content Type Journal Article
• Category Animal behaviour
• DOI 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0506
• Authors
• Gabriele Schino, Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 00197 Roma, Italy
• Filippo Aureli, Research Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology, School of Biological and Earth Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK

Extinction Stares In The Face Of Seventy-five Percent of Bear Species

According to recent assessments by the IUCN Bear Specialist Groups which has concluded a meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, on November 10, six out of the world’s eight species of bears are threatened with extinction. Serous concern has been expressed about the world’s smallest species of bear, the sun bear (Helarctos malayanus), which has been classed as Vulnerable. It has been estimated that sun bears have declined by at least 30% over the past 30 years. Vulnerable species include Asiatic black bears and sloth bears, both inhabitants of Asia, and Andean bears from the Andes Mountains of South America. The IUCN Bear Specialist Group indicated that Sloth Bears might have disappeared entirely from Bangladesh during the past decade. Brown bears, the most widespread Ursid, are not listed as threatened globally because large numbers still inhabit Russia, Canada, Alaska and some parts of Europe. At 900,000 strong, only the American black bear is secure throughout its range, which encompasses Canada, the United States and Mexico.