Mountain Pine Beetle Epidemic

Bark beetles are the number one predator of pine forests in the western part of the United States. They are given the name bark beetles because they are incredibly successful in reproducing in the inner bark of trees. Healthy trees put up defenses by producing resin or latex that can kill or injure attacking insects or immobilize and/or suffocate them. Under outbreak conditions with an outstanding amount of beetles, trees can however become extremely overwhelmed and die. This result can be tremendously disastrous for the lumber industry. Currently from New Mexico to British Columbia, mountain pine beetles a specific species of bark beetles are destroying the forest areas into red dust. Montana in particular has lost millions of acres of trees to these tiny insects but the situation is much worse in Colorado and Wyoming. These types of beetles inject fungus into trees and stop the sap from moving within them. These beetles are black with hard-shells and are the size of a grain of rice. Scientists believe this infestation started approximately 8 years ago. They suppose it is a result of the drought cycle and mild winters. As a result these dead forests are more susceptible to fires, erosion, and will worsen global warming. Overall scientists think there isn’t much that can be done to save the trees.

Check out video on this website with more information about the topic:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/17/science/1194833211431/americas-disappearing-forests.html?
scp=1&sq=america's%20disappearing%20forests&st=cse

Blog Posted by: Joanne Philippeaux (10)

A Real Life Furby

I’m sure you’ve seen the movie Gremlins, and if you haven’t, I know you must be familiar with what Furby is. It has just been released that creatures called pygmy tarsiers were found on an Indonesian island. These little guys haven’t been seen alive by scientists since 1921, and were thought to have been extinct. The cool thing about the pygmies-they are primates!

Tarsian pygmies are nocturnal primates that are found on central Sulawesi and Indonesia, in an areas with lower vegetative species diversity like typical mountain settings (cold, foggy, misty). When mating, pygmies stay in bonded pairs for about 15 months, and they are faithful to their mate. Like other primates, the infants develop very quickly and can travel in groups after about 23 days and can capture prey at about the age of a whopping 42 days. The young females stay with their parents until adulthood, but the males leave while they are still juvenile. The pygmies grow up to about 4 inches (95 to 105 mm) long and about 2 ounces in weight, which huge eyes (about 16mm in diameter).

The scientists have let the pygmies go, but with radio collars so they can track them. When putting the collars on them, they were surprised to be bitten because the heads of the pygmies can turn 180 degrees! Hopefully we can learn more about the pygmies, and who knows, maybe someday we will have little pygmy pets!


The article can be found here.

-Alyson Paige (10)

Ancient Hair Ball Leads to New Discoveries

The woolly mammoth was a very larger mammal that is a distant relative of todays elephant. It was well adapt to live in arctic conditions with a very thick shaggy layer of hair. They were thought to live in northern Eurasia and northern North America. The oldest woolly mammoth bones were found to be about 150,000 years old, and the latest bones found were from about 4,000 years ago. Early research has been done on the genome of many extinct creatures, but none with such success as recent efforts by researchers on the woolly mammoth.
Researchers at Penn State lead by genomicist Stephan Schuster recently decoded over 70% of the woolly mammoth genome. The research team studied the DNA from an ancient woolly mammoth hair ball, which was purchased over the Internet. The hair ball was perfect for DNA sequencing, because hair is less likely to contain bacteria than that of bone which degrades the usable DNA over time. This is the first time an extinct animal's genome has been almost completely mapped. They sequenced 3.3 billion base pairs of the woolly mammoth which is more than 100 times more than any previous work. The researchers were able to do this with a relatively new sequencing technology called 454 method. With their results the researches found that the mammoths were most closely related to todays African elephants. They also found that there were actually two species of woolly mammoths who split about 1.5 million years ago which was previously believed to be true.The results also found that mammoths had very low genetic diversity which made them much more susceptible to extinction.

www.sciencenow.sciencemag.orh/cgi/content/full/2008/1119/2

Alex Pavidapha week 10

Is it the end of the Tasmanian devil?

Many elements contribute to the extinction of a species, however until recently, cancer has yet to be one of them.
A special mutation of cancer has been discovered among the Tasmanian devil that threatens their existence. While cancer in humans can not be transmitted, the form of cancer discovered among these species is passed from one individual to another during their mating ritual, in which they bite each other in the face. Since they are an inbred species, this makes them more susceptible to disease and viruses.
A recent breakthrough by an associate professor of immunology at Menzie's Research institute in Hobart, Tasmania. According to a recent experiment, one devil has been able to develop an immune response to the tumor.
Part of the problem lies with the fact that the devils' body doesn't detect the tumor cells as foreign and therefore doesn't combat them.

This article raises a concern for humans as well.
As a society that uses various carcinogenic chemicals in our daily life, we are more prone to cancer than most species, however so far we can control our predisposition to developing cancer by improving our diet, not smoking and other measures to limit the probability of developing cancer. But what would happen to us if cancer in humans mutated in the same way and a kiss or drinking from the same cup would infect us with a tumor that would unleash a pandemic?

Click to see full article

-Noam

smarter bumblebee, stronger immune system

Bumblebee colonies which are fast learners are also better able to fight off infection, according to scientists from Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Leicester.
these scientists tested the learning performance and immune responses of bumblebees from twelve colonies.
The team tested the ability of 180 bees to learn that yellow flowers provided the biggest nectar rewards, and to ignore blue flowers. To test the evolutionary relationship between learning and immunity, they also took workers from the same colonies and tested their immune response against bacterial infection.
Like humans, bees’ ability to learn appears reduced when they are ill. The prediction was that good learners would be worse at fighting infections – but surprisingly, this was not the case.
the team reported a positive relationship between a bumblebee colony’s learning performance and their immune response. Bees from fast learning colonies are not only the best nectar collectors, but also better able to fight infections. These colonies are probably much better equipped to thrive under difficult conditions.
The team expected that immunity is likely to be a really important trait in social species (like bumblebees, honeybees and ants) that have high-contact rates with closely related individuals leading to a greater chance of infection.
The team found a positive correlation between the ability of a colony’s workers to learn and the strength of their immune response, so there was no evidence for an evolutionary trade-off between these traits. These essential pollinators learn many things in their short life and fight off a range of infections to survive.


Hessom Minaei (10)

update

As nectar levels in flowers change from minute-to-minute, faster learning bees are more likely to keep track of which blooms are most rewarding, and thrive as a result. Dr Nigel Raine and Professor Lars Chittka from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences presented these bumblebee colonies with flight arenas containing blue and yellow artificial flowers, which were stocked with different amounts of nectar reward. The bees were challenged to overcome their natural preference for ‘blue’ flowers, and to learn that the ‘yellow’ flowers were more rewarding. The team found that the colonies which learned colours quickly, were more successful foragers. Rather like us, some bees learn from their mistakes more quickly than others. These faster learning bees also collect more nectar from flowers, which ultimately means their colony will be more successful.

Turtles Change Nesting Dates Due to Change in Temperature

Fred Janzen, a professor in ecology, evolution and organismal biology, has studied turtle nesting habits and also collected research going back decades in order to track the habits of the turtles to find out when they make nests and lay eggs.

He has discovered that some species are starting to nest 3 weeks earlier in comparison to ones in the 1990s and thinks this is a fastest response to climate change of any species that he knows of. Turtles young and old have changed their behavior because of the rising temperatures.

He studied various species of turtles and hopes this gives the study more credibility. He made one astonishing discovery in this study. Usually in reptilian eggs the sex is determined by temperature, he figured because of the higher temperature rgwew would be more females than males. The opposite is happening though, there seems to be a larger amount of males to females being born. He thinks because the air feels warmer that the turtles are nestinf earlier, but the ground is still cold leading to the birth of more males.

Janzen thinks that the larger amoung of males will stress the species. Combined with the adult females being forced to change nesting habits, the stresses could mean the species is under real pressure to adapt swiftly, a pace not popularly considered to characterize turtles, he said.

Article can be found here

Duy Nguyen (10)


*****************UPDATE*************************
It remains to be seen if the turtles will adapt to the ground temperatures as well, one would think they would. But with behaviors you never know.

Dr. Fred Janzen has been studying the tutrtles for some time, since the 1980s according to the article.

"Janzen thinks that the overabundance of males will stress the species. Combined with the adult females being forced to change nesting habits, the stresses could mean the species is under real pressure to adapt swiftly, a pace not popularly considered to characterize turtles, he said."- Article

I don't think Dr. Janzen has enough past data to determine if these fluctuations have occured before.

A New Method

Acupuncture is something several of us I'm sure still may be skeptic about, but recently, it has been one type of therapy to treat animals. Dr. Bess Pierce, an associate professor in the Department of Small Animal Clincal Sciences at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, is leading the hospitals practice in this new method. A relatively painless and safe treatment for illnesses in animals; Gypsy, a horse who had an infection in her ankle, was treated with acupuncture, along with traditional therapy, to help strengthen her bones and her immune system. Some of the common conditions treated in animals are general pain and often osteoarthritis.
Although there are only a select few who are certified at the moment to practice acupuncture, the count is slowly going up. Veterinarians who wish to go this path must pursue additional training. Dr. Beverly Purswell, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, recently brought the total veterinary acupuncturists in the college to four. "Acupuncture certainly does not replace traditional veterinary medicine," says Purswell. "It can, however, compliment the therapies we already use."

The full article can be found here.

Posted by Dan Hong (9)

Update:

Acupuncture is usually used as a method for sedation to alleviating joint and back pains, caused by a range of arthritis to diseases.
It may be used along with other treatments such as medication, surgery, and post-operative treatment.
The duration and frequency of treatment is dependent on the animal and type of illness however, treatment is recommended once or twice a week for several months.

Escape Routes

Though cockroaches are often viewed as disgusting or terrifying insects, they are actually the focus of many scientists. Recently, scientist Paolo Domenici conducted a study in which he hoped to understand the cockroaches escape behavior. Upon observation it appeared that there was no pattern to the route that they took in avoiding a predator.

Domenici found that the direction they run in is not random, but instead depends on the position of their predator. From each angle that they could be startled at there is about four possible escape routes they could take that are at fixed angles from the source. You can therefore predict the four possible directions it may run in, but there is no pattern to which of those it actually chooses. How exactly they manage this behavior is yet to be determined.

You can find this article here

20 Second Memory Can Save a Life

Earlier in the semester, we talked about certain animals that used specific techniques to escape their predators such as the moths that used the E1 and E2 receptors in their ears to detect how far or close the bat was from them so that they could get away in time. Likewise, Zebrafish larvae use a rare form of memory to get away from its predators' attacks. An experiment performed on the Zebrafish larvae by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley showed that the larvae seem to have the ability to remember a rhythm taught to them by using flashes of light for about 20 seconds after the flashes stop. In the experiment, when the light was flashed the larvae moved their tails according to the beat of the flashes, and when the light was turned off the larvae continued to move its tail in the same exact beat for about 20 seconds longer. Also the brain activity was examined during the flashing and after the flashing stopped, and the results showed that their brains portrayed activity that was adjusted to the rhythm (of the flashes) even after the flashes ceased .

Researchers believe that the Zebrafish larvae use this short span of memory to their advantage. To us humans 20 seconds might mean absolutely nothing but as for the Zebrafish whose greatest fear is being attacked by the dragonfly larvae, 20 seconds mean the chance to live a little longer than expected. Researchers say that the dragonflies' attacks may be somewhat rhythmic and thus by learning the rhythm of their attacks the Zebrafish are able to predict and break away from the next attack.

The article can be found here.


Update: Well the experiment was done to get an in depth idea of how animals keep track of smaller increments of time. For instance we know that many animals regulate their day through their internal biological clock known as the circadian rhythm, but researchers are now interested to know if they are able to perform activities that require them to keep account of smaller periods of time ("like how quickly their predators are approaching," http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/1015/2). In the specific experiment explained in my article, the researchers saw that the zebrafish larvae flipped their tails every time the light flashed at six second intervals, and even after the lights were turned off they continued to flip their tails at the same rhythm very precisely. Researchers tested the larvae's ability to learn the rhythms at different durations and frequencies of the light flashing and they never failied to learn the pattern. Even though they weren't able to remember the pattern for too long, as a matter of fact no longer than 20 seconds this still proves that they are able to keep track of small intervals of time (in seconds and minutes) and thus can use this to defend themselves from their predators.

Also some of you were confused with how this memory span actually helps them escape from their predators. It is not that the flashing of the lights exactly imitates their predators attacks, but them being able to learn a rhythm helps them predict the next attack and escape as fast as possible. In terms of the zebrafish larvae whose predator is the dragonfly larvae, the 20 second memory span does seem quite beneficial. The dragonfly larvae is known to be very unsuccessful in attacking its prey. So when the dragonfly first misses its prey, it takes them a couple of seconds to re-adjust and attack again, thus if the dragonfly misses a couple of times it allows the zebrafish to learn the pattern of the attack and predict the next attack and escape accordingly.


Posted by Tazneena Ishaque (9)

Bacteria In Your Mouth

Can you distinguish flavor of food well? Then, you have a good amount of bacteria in your mouth. In Switz­er­land scientists re­port, bacteria in your mouth create a certain flavor of food like magic of food. These bacteria produce food odors from odorless component of food, which is called re­tro­aro­matic ef­fect arises from chem­i­cals pro­duced from pre­cur­sors found in these food. Bacteria help us to test a food fully so we can enjoy our fruits and vegetable.

The scientists had an experiment by using odorless compound from grapes, on­ions, and bell pep­pers. Scientists made participants to test that odorless compounds. The participants were able to distinguish these flavors in 20 to 30 seconds. In addition, the tests lasted 3minutes long. Yet scientists were not able to understand how it occurs. Still, it is very interesting to think about. Bacteria make you can test a food flavor how odd is that.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/081110_flavor.htm

Posted by So Jin Lee(9)



Update(11/18/08)

In the experiment, the scientists found that some fruit and vegetable release the odor only after we swallow the food. Grapes, onions, and bell peppers have natural thiols, which released from odorless sulfur compound. The thiols are the chemical we perceive as the food odors.

In the study, the scientists found that the odorless compounds are transformed into the thiols by anaerobic bacteria living in the mouth,anaerobic bacteria is oxygen-avoiding bacteria, causing the retroaromatic effect.

Genetic Flower Power

Evolution is constantly happening all around us. We see many examples of this every day such as the breeding of animals (such as dogs or horses), the evolution of certain diseases, or common genetics and biology experiments; and now in the U.K. a very strange form of evolution has been encountered.

The common groundsel is a flowering weed found in Europe which has recently (in the last 300 years) undergone a rather unique form of evolution. It has "borrowed" genes from another plant, introduced 300 years ago, and has prospered in doing so. They have changed their common compact flower, to one which has an expansive yellow petaled blossom.

This is interesting for a few reasons. First, this is an example of where gene flow between species can be quite beneficial. The groundsel is normally self-pollinating but with this new form, they are capable of being pollinated by different plants. This is probably why the groundsel has gone from being a relatively rare flower to flourishing, and being much more common.

What I find even more interesting than this is the fact that this is almost a form of reverse evolution. In the past the groundsel used to have this form of petal but evolved away from it. The hybrid cross then caused it to return to its previous evolutionary status. This shows some of the amazing variability allowed by evolution and shows how this form of hybridization can cause both new and old variations to form.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/1113/2

Alex Jackson (9)

Revision (11-17):
The Groudsel originally hybridized with a yellow Sicillian flower called Senicio Squalidus also known as Oxford Ragwort. The hybridization was caused by introduction of the flower which was not initially indiginous to the area. The main change that this caused was a change in petal shape from small internal tubes to larger yellow petals. The genetic advantage that this gave was that the Groundsel, which was originally self-pollinating, was able to be pollinated by surrounding flowers (other types of flowers) which increased its genetic diversity. This caused it to rapidly spread when initially it had been quite rare. The article I am citing is calling the new groundsel a evolved form of the same species and as for timing, the beginning of this evolution was when the hybridizing plant was introduced. They should be continuing to evolve (though if this were repeated in a lab it might happen faster.)

Who's in your top 10?

Ever wonder who were the top 10 most dangerous animals in the planet? Well, LiveScience compile the 10 most dangerous from around the world. So sit back, get your popcorn ready, and be prepare to watch out for these animals.

Top 10:

10.) Poison Dart Frog: Has a slimy neurotoxin that is very dangerous to all predators.
9.) Cape Buffalo: They weigh about 1,500 pounds and attacks with its 2 big sharp horns.
8.) Polar Bear: These big bear are big and I literally mean big, Their breakfast is consist of elephant seals.
7.) Elephants: Each year they kill about 500 people. African Elephants weight about 16,000 pounds so if they stomp on you, expect death.
6.) Australian Saltwater Crocodile: these killers can plunge any prey under water to drown and then eat them for lunch afterwards.
5.) African Lions: These hunters are extremely dangerous with their big fangs, sharp claws, and are fast.
4.) Great White Sharks: These sharks are entice by blood and can chew with their 3,000 teeth.
3.) Australian Bow Jellyfish: They contain about 60 tentacles that are 15 feet long. Each of the 60 tentacles has about 5,000 stinging cells which can kill approximately 60 people.
2.) Asian Cobra: Their sting is not as strong as other snakes but there are about 50,000 deaths a year due to snakes and Asian Cobra is responsible for most of it.

Drum roll please…..Number 1 in the chart by LiveScience is:

1.) Mosquitoes: Not all bites all safe. These blood thirsty insects are responsible for 2 million deaths a year and some carry malaria causing parasites.



Revision (11/17): Thanks everybody who read and commented on my blog. I'm sure every experts out there have their idea of who's the top 10 most dangerous animals in the planet based on their scientific research. Agree or disagree, the listed animals by Live science are pretty dangerous that can kill any species with their given attributes. I'm not sure how the experts conclude these 10 animals are more dangerous than other species. Honestly, I did not expect mosquitoes to be #1 but it would makes sense with the disease they carry around and the amount of death it has caused. I would've expected the cobra to be rank #1 because of their dangerous sting and how intimidating and deadly they are.

Posted by: David Huynh (9)

Crabs That Have To Act Tough

Male fiddler crabs can be recognized by their huge claw that is used to defend and intimidate other crabs. These crabs live in burrows and their enormous claw has a large role in the defending of their territory. Often, crabs will lose their claw in a battle over a burrow with another crab. These claws do grow back looking identical to their original claw but are not as strong. The crabs recognize that the new claw does not function as well as it’s previous claw had.

Even with this disadvantage, a crab with a new, weaker claw will act as nothing is wrong when faced with a new opponent. The fiddler crab will show it’s claw in a threatening manner as a bluff in order to defend or steal a burrow. A group of researchers collected a sample of these fiddler crabs, Uca mjoebergi, with new claws near Darwin Australia. After recording the force the new claw was able to exert, the researchers released the crabs near their home burrows.

Crabs that were released with the second claw and unable to find an uninhabited burrow generally tried to intimidate smaller crabs out of their burrows. The small crabs fell for the bluff most of the time, vacating the burrow. On the other hand, crabs that had the new claw that were invaded by crabs with an original claw were forced to bluff and if necessary defend the burrow. Since the new claw is much weaker than an original claw these crabs generally would lose if a fight broke out. This shows that the crabs with a new claw were much more successful at bluffing and invading a burrow rather than trying to defend one.

Click here for the original article “Crabs That Fib,” by Kelly Whitlock Burton.

Rob Lubenow (9)

* Updated 10-17-08: The fiddler crabs are aware of the weakness in their claw. After the researchers released the crabs, most of them were more selective concerning which crabs they attempted to intimidate. They went after smaller crabs rather than crabs their own size. This is because they acknowledge that they are not strong enough to fight a crab their own size. The new claw looks identical to the old claw. Crabs are unable to distinguish if another crabs claw is it's original or a weaker claw. This is one of the first study on the matter so their is much more to be learned. Similar studies are being conducted on crayfish, bullfrogs, and hermit crabs.

No Sex, No Sperm

Scientists recently discovered that male Steinernema longicaudum, a parasitic worm, stops creating sperm when not sexually active. While it is known that some creatures cut back on sperm creation in certain circumstances, there is no other known instance of animals completely ceasing the creation of sperm.

It is not known exactly what benefit this imparts on the worms, especially since sperm creation is generally considered a relatively "cheap" process, requiring little energy and resources. However, with these parasitic worms, there are instances in which males have no chance of mating. These worms live in hosts, and if there is no sexually mature female in the host with whom the male can mate, the male has no chance of mating and therefore no reason for reaching sexual maturity. Perhaps this helps them conserve energy and possibly cause them to take less from their host.

Amy Kawazoe (9)

Update 11/19:
I forgot to put the link to the article I read which can be found here.

I realize that I made it unclear, but the worms do not stop producing sperm, they do not produce sperm in the absence of a female to with whom to mate. Since these parasitic worms live in a host organism, they have no chance of leaving and therefore no chance of going off to find a mate unless a female chooses to live at some point in the same host. I'm not sure if sperm production stops if a female worm dies and the male worm is left alone. Sperm production can be induced by introducing a female, even on the opposite side of a glass. It is believed that what triggers the sperm production may be pheromones.

Multi-lingual Birds Avoid Danger


As discussed in class, birds (like many other animals) use certain calls to inform others of danger. Upon hearing this call, they can flee from the area in attempt to avoid predation. However, each species of birds have unique calls, allowing them to call for mates of their own species, or aggressively mark territory.



Fairy-wrens in Australia use calls to warn each other of vicious predators such as sparrowhawks, but have also developed another method for avoidance. The scrubwren makes warning calls at the sight of this predator too, and the fairy-wrens have actually learned to identify their calls. This is an excellent adaptation, which has allowed them a far greater chance of being informed of danger, and gives them more time to forage and carry out other tasks, rather then watch for predators.



This behavior has been learned, and is only present in fairy-wrens living in proximity to scrubwrens. Scientists played recordings of scrubwren warning calls to groups of fairy-wrens living near scrubwrens, and fairy-wrens who do not live near other birds, and those that were unfamiliar with the call were unfazed. It appears that scrubwren calls are not the only ones fairy-wren have grown to recognize. New Holland honeyeaters also inhabit the area where fairy-wrens and scrubwrens live, and their call will have a similar effect in fairy-wrens.



Posted by Cecelia Hunt (9)

Rightys and leftys can’t mate??

Imagine being told that just because you were left handed you couldn’t mate with a right handed person. This is apparently true in pond snails, which not only are believed to have brain ‘handedness’ but they are physically unable to mate with another snail whose handedness differs from their own.

Hayley Frend, a student studying the sex life of pond snails has shown through her research that invertebrates too have behavioral handedness. One of the behaviors which is mating is thought to be pre-programmed from the mother’s genes. The pond snail starts mating by moving in small circles and depending on handedness depends on which way you move. Two snails of opposite handedness will usually make mirror images of each other and be unable to mate. Like humans left handedness if much less common and unfortunately for the lefties of the snail world they have a much smaller pool of mates to choose from.

Article found here

Amanda Joyce (week 9)

Direct Benefit to Homosexual Behavior in Male Flour Beetles

Homosexual behavior is found among many animals such as primates, penguins, insects, and lizards. At first these types of behaviors were looked at as a waste of time that could possibly make sense in a social dominance aspect, or possibly as a form of practicing the act before encountering an actual female. However, similar to the all female species of whiptail lizards we learned about in class, flour beetles actually get a reproductive benefit from the behavior.

Evolutionary ecologist Sara Lewis lead a group of curious scientists to find out the real reason of why the beetles behaved this way. The experiment entailed observing individuals and their sexual behaviors and monitoring the paternity of the offspring within the group observed. The results were so surprising that after performing the experiment over and over were they convinced of what they found. It turns out that by mating with other males, they skip the process of going out and finding a female to mate with in order to pass their genes on. By mating with any beetle, male or female they have a chance of passing on their genes either way, so it leaves less pressure in finding a female.

How do they do this? If a male beetle (we'll call beetle A) leaks its semen onto another male beetle while mating with it (beetle B), then beetle B goes and mates with a female, the female could actually get fertilized by beetle A's sperm instead of by beetle B's! Therefore it really doesn't matter whether a beetle mates with a male or a female to pass on it's genes in some cases.

Post by: Ashley Maillet

Click here to read the full article

Domestication of the Dog is Still a Work in Progress


The domestication of dogs has been going on for thousands of years and has presented humanity with an array of recognized dog breed types. Throughout history with each new breed there was a job for it to do and a breed typical behavior to go with it. Labrador’s retrieved, border collies herded livestock, german shepherds made good guard dogs, and dachshunds flushed badgers from their dens. Each breed had the drive to do the job it was expected to do and had an attitude and confidence to go with it. Overtime different aspects of dog breeds behaviors have been changed and have been more selected for being a good candidate for a show dog or for making a good family pet.

In a study done by Kenth Svartberg a more in depth look is given to this phenomenon in dogs. The study used 31 different dog breeds from five groups including herding, working, terriers, hounds, and gun dogs and looked at their characteristic behavior. Scores were given in four behavior categories including sociability (how happy individual dogs acted towards strangers), playfulness (low to high interest), curiosity/ fearfulness (a dogs tendency to explore), and aggressiveness (how aggressively individual dogs acted towards unfamiliar situations). The study found that the more popular a breed was the more positive of a correlation there was in its score for playfulness and sociability. Labradors scored the highest in curiosity and fearlessness and border collies scored the lowest. There was no positive correlation present in these situations for curiosity, fearlessness, or aggressiveness. The study concluded that there has been some change in breed typical behavior due to recent breeding selection and that a breed’s origin is less of a factor in determining its personality.


Having had the opportunity to personally be exposed to many different dog breeds I can see the correlation between breed popularity and a higher degree of sociability and playfulness a result of having a greater opportunity to breed in these desirable pet quality traits. Labrador retrievers are one of the most popular dog breeds which is probably due to their goofy lovable nature. Border collies on the other hand have a tendency of being very intense with a very high energy level and drive to work making them sought after to still do the herding jobs that they have always been bred to do. Although there are always exceptions and when considering any dog breed it is extremely important to do your research first to make sure you are getting a breed that will fit your lifestyle and activity level.

The article can be found here.

Posted by: Lindsay Goodyear (week 8)

PREDATOR Vs. PRAY: A SQUIRREL'S "TAIL" (PART-II)

In my last blog I wrote about how California ground squirrels use its tail to defend themselves against predator such as snakes. Specifically, using their abiligty to control the temperature of their tails to confuse rattlesnake that uses infrared radiation to find their pray. This predator avoidance strategy is useful only when the squirrels are face-to-face against a snake. As most of you might have guessed this method may not always be a efficient as the squirrels might hope for. Also, this method of defense mechanism is used mostly by female squirrels grading their young almost similar to what we studied in  class about the behavior of mobbing by Black-headed gulls. In class we discussed the many stratigies used by pray to avoid predation "Predator Avoidance," in this case, the California ground squirrel uses a mixture of two strategies. 

1) Avoid detection- By grabbing the attention of the rattlesnake, the squirrels are about to "avoid detection" of their young ones. 

2) Make capture less likely- The squirrels not only use their tail's heat to confuse the rattlesnake but also "make capture less likely" by using its tail to fight with the snake. 

This time Barbara Clucas, another graduate student in animal behavior, form the same university "UC Davis" found another predator avoidance strategy used by both ground squirrels and rock squirrels in California. Barbara Cluces, observed that these squirrel species

"chew up rattlesnake skin and smear it on their fur to mask their scent form predator,.."

It seems that mostly female and their young ones, just like the use of heated tail, use this behavior of chewing chewing rattlesnake skin. The squirrels don't just use rattlesnake skins, they also use anything that has a snake's odor. She believes that by chewing and spreading the rattle snake skin on their own fur, the squirrels are about to hind their own scent with the rattlesnake scent. By doing so the squirrels are about to sleep a little bit more peaceful at night. 

The article is located at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071219130305.htm

Posted by Tenzing Y. Dundutsang

Obama May Bring Change, But Jellyfish Bring Security

Recent development in biosensor technology has improved defense against bioterrorism. Scientists injected Jellyfish DNA into mouse cell nuclei. The cells were manipulated to react to specific pathogens. Select stimuli, like dangerous biological agents, cause the cells to react in a manner ideal for detection. The cells release photons of light when they come in contact with a molecule of interest that is in the tested air. The device, called PANTHER, washes the cells with air and uses detectors to read the light released by the cells. Panther is capable of outputting a list of hazards, because cells are altered differently to detect a variety of pathogen. It is at least ten times faster than any other devices that serve a similar purpose.

The article says little about why jellyfish DNA is used or why they are injected into mouse cell lines. Perhaps jellyfish DNA can easily be manipulated to serve the purposes of these scientists, more so than mouse DNA. Maybe jellyfish DNA is already well tuned into detecting pathogens similar to the ones used in biological warfare.

-Posted by Jordan Grinstein

Up, Up, and AWAY!!!

I don't know how many of you saw Charlotte's Web, but when I watched it for the first time, the part after Charlotte died and Wilber was all alone and taking care of her eggs and then they all left him except for the one that wanted to learn about Charlotte, it was so moving and beautiful that I cried. Touching animal movies usually get to me, but it also got my curiosity going. When they all made little web parachutes and waved good-bye as the wind took them, I was in wonder at the fact that they could fly...

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It turns out I was half right, they can float! Just because they don't have wings doesn't mean they can't soar high in the air. Ballooning spiders aren't a species of spider, for a lot of spiders can use the ballooning technique to disperse themselves to other areas. Balloning is mainly seen in younger spiders, which are also lighter, who use it to get to places that can become their homes or to escape from predators. Some adult females of the social Stegodyphus species have also been seen to use this ballooning method on hot windless days. First they send out silk (web) with enough form so that it can lift the spider and so the spider can use it's own body to drag, or anchor itself, and then they go into a tiptoeing behavior where they get on the tips of all their legs and point their abdomen out and wait for themselves to be taken away. Ballooning spiders have been seen miles out into the ocean far away from mainland and, using this method, spiders have colonized many islands. They really know how to get around!

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http://www.livescience.com/animals/060712_parachute_spiders.html

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballooning_(spider)

Posted by Ada Marie Flores (8)

Update (11/11/08)
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So many of you have asked about how they float. Well besides using themselves as anchors so that they decide how far they travel, these different species of spiders, that can balloon, use wind currents to pull them along. The reason that some spiders are sometimes found far out at sea, is that their silk "balloons", that can sometimes consist of only one thread, molds to and gets carried on the eddies of turbulent air which carries them further than weaker, shorter winds.
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Someone else asked a question in regards to the species of spider whose adult females balloon in arid, windless conditions and how this is achieved. The approach used to acquire this "flight" is actually different from the "normal" ballooning method. Not only is it not dependent on the wind, the spider utilizes the rising temperatures to gain its "lift". That's not the only difference either. In the "normal " ballooning, the spider only needs to send out about one string because the wind is generally strong enough to carry its light form, but because these females are adults, and therefore heavier, they make a complex triangular sheet of tens to hundreds of silk strands to help carry their form. Texas seems to be a good place to see these spiders balloon.

http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/media/releases/2006/060712_spiders.html

Half A Brain And One Eye Open: Migrating Birds’ Secret Naps

Many migrating birds fly at night to minimize the risk of predation. Sometimes these flights are long and exhausting, especially in some extreme cases where birds fly continuously for 24 hours. Thus it is obvious that these birds are usually sleep-deprived during migration. Sleep loss tends to render them more vulnerable to predators, but a new study finds that migrating birds compensate for their sleep loss by taking mini-naps during the day. Even when they are napping, however, they still keep one eye open and only rest half their brains at a time.

Frank Moore and colleagues at the University of Southern Mississippi put seven Swainson's thrushes, which are night-flying birds during migration, in a controlled laboratory setting and provided artificial sunrises and sunsets to mimic the migratory season. Electrodes were implanted to monitor the birds' brain activity. The mini-naps occurred when the birds appeared drowsy for a few seconds, but they would soon regain alertness. During these mini-naps, they would often close only one eye. Their brain activities during the mini-naps showed that one hemisphere of the brain had electrical patterns resembling nighttime sleep, whereas the other half had patterns indicating wakefulness. Moore concluded that the birds were resting half of their brains at a time in order to catch up on sleep while staying on guard.

The birds may have also found a way to conserve energy by resting half their brains. Half-brain sleeping has also been documented in marine mammals such as dolphins and whales, so it could be a convergent solution to a similar problem.

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/1106/2

Posted by Hanbing Guo (8)

Homosexual Beetles Increase Chances of Reproducing?

For decades, homosexual behavior observed in male flour beetles has perplexed animal behaviorists.  The beetles, 3-millimeter long Tribolium castaneum, found in temperate areas, have been the focus of several studies in an attempt to solve the mystery of their homosexual tendencies.  From an evolutionary perspective, homosexuality is counter-productive to the species’ fitness, though it has been observed in many animals, including insects, penguins and primates.  There are several theories to explain the phenomenon.  Some scientists believe the males copulate with other males as practice before attempting to mate with females.  Others suggest that the males need to get rid of old, less effective sperm before mating with females.  Other scientists have even suggested that homosexual behavior is a way of exerting social dominance over other males.  A new study threw a wrench in these hypotheses.

The study, headed by evolutionary ecologist Sara Lewis, of Tufts University, began by marking male and female flour beetles.  The team tracked their individual sexual exploits, while monitoring the paternity of any offspring born in the group.  Their results showed that homosexual encounters did not improve the male’s sexual success with females, and found no connection between homosexuality and social dominance.  What they did find came as a shock:  the sperm leaked by one male onto another during homosexual encounters could actually inseminate a female who later copulated with the second beetle.  In other words, a beetle could inseminate a female without directly breeding with her.  This proves the beetles’ homosexuality a reproductive benefit, as the males can inseminate females without spending the energy necessary for finding and mating with them.  The results were so surprising to the researchers, that the experiment was repeated several times, with the same results.  This research is a triumph for evolutionary biology, as homosexuality in animals is often written off as confusion, and is rarely explored objectively.  

Update: (11/11/2008)

Though zoologists often avoid the topic for fear of crossing into political debate, the fact is that homosexuality has been observed all across the animal kingdom, in captivity and in the wild.  It has been observed in insects, birds, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, apes and monkeys.  At the New York Central Park Zoo, two male penguins named Ray and Silo have been displaying classic pair bonding behavior for 6 years.  This behavior includes entwining of necks, mutual preening, flipper flapping, and mating, while ignoring females.  In the wild, some male ostriches only court their own sex, and pairs of male flamingos have been known to build nests and raise foster chicks.  Homosexuality in females has been observed in Japanese macaques, though scientists are still unclear on the reason.  It is possible that these relationships have an unknown adaptive pay off, or they could just enjoy it.  In bonobo apes, a close relative of humans, 75% of all sex is non-reproductive, and almost all bonobos are bisexual.  Scientists believe that the bonobos use sex to resolve conflicts in the group.  Temporary homosexual partnering in immature dolphins is believed to be a way to form lifelong bonds.  Explaining he mystery of homosexuality in animals has only begun.  Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology, argues that homosexuality may be a by-product of something else and hold no evolutionary function at all. 

Homosexuality Debate

Bonobo Apes

-Jane de Verges (8)

Calculating diabetes risk by observing environmental behaviors

Diabetes type II is a disease inherited from parents and passed on through genes to their offspring. Genes can be influenced by an organism's relationship to its environment. In an article from Science Daily scientists are considering the effects of mice interactions within their environment when trying to determine the risk of catching a disease like diabetes. The authors of this study looked at glucose tolerance in order to determine diabetes risk in two different species of mice that are closely related but behave and live very differently. One of the things observed by these researchers was that just handling the mice to perform the experiment resulted in significant blood sugar level changes. The study indicates that calmer male mice have higher levels of stress hormones and maintain their blood sugar levels a lot better than less calm male mice and females of both species. The scientists were also able to show that genetic variation of the Y chromosome was responsible for a specific response to stress of the observed male mice. How well mice are able to handle stress and regulate blood sugar levels could also help determine whether a mouse will be monogamous or not. This conclusion was reached by the UC Irvine scientists.

This study helps to illustrate the importance of considering an organism’s relationship to its environment as well as its behaviors when attempting to understand disease risk.

Allan Eldridge (8)

That is one Hot Kitty!

Male tiger's means to fight is usually over a breeding female. They will challenge each other and if neither give way they will go into a ritual. The ritual is made of various challenges and one has the opportunity to back down. They challenge each other by staring one another down, showing their teeth, and fanning their whiskers. To bring it up a notch they add vocals. First they give a catlike hiss then quiet growls. As the challenge gets more intense they get louder. After this the battle begins.

The battle begins with a constant back and forth slapping with the front paws until one reveals its claws. Their vocals increase and then they stand on their hind legs and start swinging. This can continue for a few minutes, but in extreme cases a few hours and if neither male backs off the fight will continue till death, which is often from a broken neck. While all this is taking place the female may have left in search for another mate.

Click here to view the article and other tiger behaviors.

Revision

It seems as if most of the comments revolve around why male tigers continue to fight if the female leaves and what are the other reasons for fighting. Therefore, instead of individually answering questions I will make one response.

Male tigers will continue fighting, if the female they are fighting over leaves, because it isn't only the female they are fighting over, but also the territory. This is because adult tigers of both sexes have to get an area of their own before breeding. In some cases a male comes along and tries to obtain an already occupied territory and the female in it. Therefore, other than fighting for a female tigers fight to defend, expand, or acquire a territory. Also, female tigers will attack male tigers and other predators to protect their young. Despite all this fighting tigers actually rather avoid one another instead of fight.


Chantal Gomes (8)

Frozen mice and Frozen Mammoths?


In Japan scientist were able to clone mice. This may not seem so exciting since we all know cloning is not a thing of the future anymore. But these cloned mice were different; they had been frozen for 16 years! Mouse cloning expert Teruhiko Wakayama was able to derive a technique to clone these mouse even though all of their cells had burst. His team used a nuclear technique. This technique involves taking an egg cell and removing its nucleus. The nucleus from the frozen animal is then put in. "Thus, nuclear transfer techniques could be used to 'resurrect' animals or maintain valuable genomic stocks from tissues frozen for prolonged periods without any cryopreservation," he wrote Sadly it should be stated that the hopes of possibly resurrecting Mammoths and Sabertooths is highly unlikely since there are no live cells of these mammals around anymore. Freezing an animal causes the cells the burst destroying the precious DNA. Using a chemicasl called cryoprotectants before the freezing can prevent this. Wakayama said that using brain cells worked best in these mice. They still aren’t sure why, since no living mice have been cloned by brain cells before. Is there a chance of bringing Ted Williams back with this latest technology? I guess time will tell.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre4a26nv-us-clones-frozen/


Mia DiFabbio (8)

The Smell of Sweet Success

The search for food in nature is a very crucial event to any living organism. I know for sure that when I’m hungry I make sure that I try find the most amount of food for the lowest price. This is very much the same with living organisms, such as bees, except the “price” of acquiring food isn’t exactly money, but energy used to get find and attain the food. Observations of honeybees show that us honeybees actually use a motion formation, called the waggle dance, to inform their fellow bees the distance and direction of a newly discovered food source. Bumblebees on the other hand cannot inform their fellow bees of the location of a food source in the manner of the honeybee.

Bumblebees release a recruitment pheromone in the nest to encourage the other bees to leave the nest and search for food. This chemical signal may send a generic message to the bees, telling other bees to just go out and search for food, but could there be more information being passed to the bumblebees from the release of this pheromone? Students from the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences observed honeybees’ foraging patterns after exposing honeybees to anise-scent (the scent of anise flowers) and the recruitment pheromone. The students discovered that because the bumblebees were exposed to a scent along with a release of recruitment pheromone, the bees “learned” that anise scented flowers were the most fruitful. This experiment recreated the situation of when a bee that founds a good food source, returns to the nest releasing recruitment pheromone, and spreads the scent of the ‘flower scent’ around the nest.

When the bees in the nest detect a new combination of smell along with recruitment pheromone, the bees learn that the new scent must be from nectar-rich flowers, and they leave the nest in search for the flowers with the same scent. The pheromone itself didn’t effect how well the bees learned the smell, but significantly motivated the other honeybees to go out and forage. The honeybees’ waggle dance at first seemed to be a more efficient foraging signal than the bumblebees’ chemical signal, but now the bumblebees aren’t far behind. With what we now know with the new discovery related to bumblebees, advancements may be possible in commercial pollination fields concerning bumblebees.

Update 11/5/08

The article did not elaborate about a decline in bumblebee population, but I did research the subject a little. A decline in the bumblebee population was recorded in the late 90's due to a disease outbreak in the commercially used Western Bumble Bees. Factors also contributing to the declination of bumblebee population may be any combination of: the destruction/alteration of their habitat, pesticides, invasive species, or climate change. Climate change in itself is a massive alteration of a habitat, and as we all know, the climate due to global warming is most definitely not as routine as has been prior to the increase of carbon dioxide levels beginning in the mid to late 70s. Use of insecticides have also been known to result in massive kills of bumblebee populations.

About the effectiveness of the bumblebees' chemical signal compared to the honeybees' waggle dance, I would have to say the chemical signal is just as effective as the honeybees' dance. The factor that I would say that makes the waggle dance a little bit more effective though is that we know that distance, quality, and direction of a food source is relayed in the dance signal. These factors may or may not be interpreted within the chemical signal from the bumblebees, but we just have not completely discovered it if that's the case.

-Kiel Boutelle
Week 7
-This blog post was based on an article from Science Daily (Oct. 27, 2008)

Blood Sucking Vampire Bats Sing Duets
This article is pretty cool, especially because it's Halloween. When you think of friendly, family oriented animals, vampire bats probably do not spring immediately to mind. However, new research shows that vampire bats may sing coordinated duets with each other. In this article, researchers explain how singing has been recorded in other species, and between mother-pup pairs in other bat species, but never before between adult bats. New research shows that adult White-winged vampire bats may exhibit this behavior. 18 white-winged bats were tested in the experiment. It was found that when chickens, a popular source of blood for the bats, were brought near them, the bats became very vocal. It was also found that when the lights were turned off, the bats started calling out. Surrounding bats responded to the initial caller within 1/4 of a second after the first call. Each bat was also found to have it's own unique call that other bats could identify it by. The scientists conducting the test believes the calls could be a mechanism for bats to find one another when seperated, as well as being a way for a bat to convey how it is feeling. While this group oriented behavior may seem strange in an animal that has so many negative stereotypes, it's interesting to note that vampire bats are one of the few species known to exhibit reciprocal alturism, meaning they are known to share food with more unsuccessful members of its group.

Edit 11/4
According to encyclopedia.com, reciprocal altruism occurs when "when the actor acts altruistically in expectation of having the same done in return at a later time. " So, the bat will help out less successful group members, knowing that this increases his chances of being helped in the future. Not many other animals besides humans are known to display alturism. One form of alturism, kin selection, where an animal will help its close relatives survive at a cost to itself, is shown in the Kenyan Bee-Eating bird. This bird will wait until it is older to produce its own young, instead helping its older family members raise their chicks. (This information can be found here.)
In regard to the song the bats produce, they are NOT on the same frequency as echolocation, since they are at least partially audible by humans. As to what they are singing about, or why they are doing it, that hasn't been determined yet. One theory is that it helps identify who belongs in the same group. This goes back to the reciprocal alturism. Each bat's individual song may identify it to others, so a bat will know if it's his group mate who's asking for a snack, or just some random individual that he should ignore.
Just as a side note, does everyone know that vampire bats don't actually drink enough blood to harm most large mammals? It's more like a bad mosquito bite. The real danger lies in the diseases they can pass on, such as rabies.

-Corinne Delisle (7)