Latest Fauna of Asia Stories
"It is strange to think of a sea turtle as an ecosystem," says Amanda Feuerstein, program coordinator and research assistant at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, "but they are…they have all of these other animals living on their skin and shells." Feuerstein is co-author of a recent survey documenting the crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other marine organisms that make a home on the bodies Olive Ridley and green sea turtles living in the Pacific. For three years --...
(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- If you have a fear of snakes, hopefully this will change your mind! According to a recent study, fatty acids circulating through feeding python bloodstreams promote healthy heart growth in the constricting snake and the results may have implications for treating human heart disease. University of Colorado Boulder Professor Leslie Leinwand and her research team found the amount of triglycerides, the main constituent of natural fats and oils, in the blood of Burmese...
While many people think of snakes as creepy, cold-hearted creatures that swallow their prey whole. But it turns out the reptiles actually have enormous hearts that could offer clues to treating people with cardiac disease, researchers from the University of Colorado-Boulder reported on Thursday. The surprising new study showed that the vast amounts of fatty acids circulating in the bloodstreams of feeding Burmese pythons promote healthy heart growth. The researchers found the amount of...
'Heat-proof' eggs help turtles cope with hot beaches [ Watch the Video ] Sea turtles face an uncertain future as a warming climate threatens to reduce their reproductive viability. However, new research led by the University of Exeter and published this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that some turtles are naturally heat-tolerant. The study focused on green turtles nesting on Ascension Island, a UK overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. Scientists from...
By Louis Bergeron, StanfordTagging and tracking leatherback sea turtles has produced new insights into the turtles' behavior in a part of the South Pacific Ocean long considered an oceanic desert. The new data will help researchers predict the turtles' movements in the ever-changing environment of the open ocean, with the goal of reducing the impact of fishing on the endangered leatherback population. Leatherbacks. They are the Olympians of the turtle world "“ swimming farther, diving...
New molecular evidence reveals a new species of grey wolf living in Africa. Formerly confused with golden jackals, and thought to be an Egyptian subspecies of jackal, the new African wolf shows that members of the grey wolf lineage reached Africa about 3 million years ago, before they spread throughout the northern hemisphere.As long ago as 1880 the great evolutionary biologist Thomas Huxley commented that Egyptian golden jackals "“ then as now regarded as a subspecies of the golden jackal...
A battle is underway in the Gulf of Mexico to save endangered sea turtles from the BP oil disaster. Jane Lubchenco, head of the U.S. government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told AFP news that about 180 turtles had been rescued so far and 170 were still in rehabilitation. "NOAA sea turtle experts are vital members of the incident command's wildlife branch which has deployed five turtle rescue boats whose crews search for oiled turtles," she...
JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga., April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- As coastal Georgia begins to welcome in warmer weather, it is also that time of year to welcome a very special annual visitor to Jekyll Island- the sea turtle! Nesting season begins mid-May and continues through August and hundreds of these amazing sea creatures come home to nest on Jekyll Island's sprawling beaches. Jekyll Island is home to the internationally-acclaimed Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC), an operating sea turtle rehabilitation...
Conservationists said on Wednesday that Malaysia's voracious appetite for turtle eggs could drive the marine creatures to extinction on its shores. Hundreds of thousands of turtle eggs are eaten in Malaysia each year, according to a report by environmental group WWF."One of the contributing factors to the leatherback turtles' disappearance from our shores is egg consumption," said WWF-Malaysia executive director Dionysius S.K. Sharma."We wouldn't want the same thing to happen...
Biologging "“ the use of miniaturized electronic tags to track animals in the wild "“ has revealed previously unknown and suprising behaviors, movements, physiology and environmental preferences of a wide variety of ocean animals. For instance, biologgers have recorded 5,000 foot (1,550 m) dives by Atlantic bluefin tuna, followed journeys of elephant seals halfway across the Pacific from their breeding beaches, and observed annual 40,000 mile migrations of sooty shearwaters "“ the...
Latest Fauna of Asia Reference Libraries
This bird of prey is known more as a pigeon hawk. The Merlin is from the Northern Hemisphere with some migrating to subtropical and northern tropical areas during the winter. There has also been a discovery that there are two different, very distinct, species: the North American and the Eurasian. The North American Merlin was first described by a Swede taxonomist, Carl Linnaeus. The Merlin is between 9 and 13 inches long with a wingspan of 20-29 inches. The Merlin is an exceptionally...
The brown bear (Ursus arctos) can be found in North America and northern areas of Eurasia. There are sixteen recognized subspecies of the brown bear. This is the most widely distributed species of bear in the world, although its range is shrinking. Its range includes the Alaska and a few other areas of the United States, areas of Russia, and Romania and other areas of the Carpathian region, as well as Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the Balkans. The brown bear derives its common name from the...
The Asiatic linsang (Prionodon) is a genus that contains two species of linsangs, and it is the only genus in the Prionodontidae family. The two species, the banded linsang and the spotted linsang, were previously classified in the Viverrinae subfamily, but studies have shown that they differed enough to warrant their own distinct classification. Despite their extreme resemblance to members of the Felidae family, they are not as closely related to genets as African linsangs. The term linsang...
The cinnamon bear (Ursus americanus cinnamomum) is a subspecies of the American black bear known as a color phase. It can be found in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and western areas of Canada. This species derives it common name from the reddish fur that occurs throughout its body. It can reach an average weight between 203 and 595 pounds. This species can vary in color from reddish brown to red with cream coloring, and some individuals are even brown. Cubs are...
The flat-headed cat (Prionailurus planiceps) is a species of wildcat that can be found in a fragmented range that includes Borneo, Sumatra, and the Thai-Malay Peninsula. It prefers a habitat within primary and secondary rainforests. It is often found in areas with abundant freshwater near lowland or coastal areas. Vigors and Horsfield, who classified it in the Felis genus, first described this species in 1827. In 1951, the flat-headed cat was merged with the fishing cat, which shares some...
