Researchers have found a new day of tracking the movement of rare and hard to find species. They took the sucked blood from flies to discover what they had been feeding on. This led them to identify various endangered species.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 12:07PM | tagged Endangered species, IIUCN, Red List, flies, leeches, mammals, research, science, tracking | in Science Club 
On April 26th, 1986 a catastrophic nuclear accident took place at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The explosion and fire associated with this event released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere.The impact of the explosion on the local flora and fauna was dramatic with after-effects expected to be seen for another 100 years.
New fossilised bones have been discovered for the first human ancestor that gives an insight into the world’s oldest and most primitive primate. A recent study has exposed the first below-the-head bones for the Purgatorius (Purgatorius unio), and has shown the animal to be agile and slight, similar to a squirrel.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 12:22PM | tagged Dryomomys, Florida Museum of Natural History, Palaeocene era, Purgatorius, Yale University, first human ancestor, mammals, primate, vertebrate palaeontologist 
Previously unused shipping routes are experiencing a large increase in traffic, resulting in increased risk to marine mammal species. These routes have only recently been utilised by shipping transport due to the recent disappearance of sea ice which previously caused them to be blocked.
Now that spring is arriving, it is a perfect time to create a beautiful wildlife garden. Many creatures will emerge from hibernation, flowers will begin to flourish and birds will begin nesting; therefore, I am going to inform you of several easy ways to transform your garden into a wildlife haven.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 2:47PM | tagged amphibians, birds, flowers, gardening, hedgehog, insects, mammals, pollinations, pond, reptiles, wildlife, wildlife gardening | in Science Club 
Winter is beginning to set in, making now the best time for you to start getting your garden ready for wildlife. Some animals need to find a warm and safe place to sleep whilst others stay awake to fight through the season’s shortage of food and cold weather. Now is your time to help.
Many mammals such as foxes will continue to battle through the cold. However, others opt for the hibernation strategy by eating as much as they can before winter and then conserving energy by sleeping in the harsher months when fewer resources are available. These sleepy species include bats, hedgehogs and the rare dormouse and if you’re lucky, they visit your garden!
With much of their natural countryside habitat being destroyed for agricultural use, your garden may be something of a refuge, and you can help to prepare your garden for their visits in many ways. By cutting a small hole in the bottom of your fence you can provide an entrance for hedgehogs into your garden, and by leaving piles of plant cuttings and leaves you can make a cosy insulating shelter for them to stay warm in the winter. Bats would also be thankful for a warm place to sleep, and bird boxes often make perfect substitutes for holes in trees where they can huddle together to see out the winter. Dormice are very shy little creatures, and you would be very lucky to see one. One way to tempt them out is by ensuring you have plants rich with berries in your garden, so that they are able to store up vital energy to keep them alive whilst in their deep sleep.
Birds of all shapes and sizes are currently winging their way around Britain, and with the number of species recorded set to break the current record of 445 (2008), there is no better time to start attracting them to your garden and helping the numbers remain strong over the winter. With some species loosing up to 10% of their body weight in one cold night from trying to keep warm, it is really important that we try to stock up our gardens with suitable food.
Garden centres and pet shops are often full of many varieties of squirrel proof feeders, types of seed and other foods such as fat balls. These are all great for different bird species, although it is important that they are carefully placed so that cats and sparrow hawks don’t present too much of a threat. You should also try not to tidy your garden up too much this winter. Putting up nest boxes are a good way of providing shelter, however leaving plants such as holly, hawthorn, crab apples and ivy untouched is even better as you can provide a great natural food source from their fruits and berries, as well as providing a natural place for birds to take refuge from the harsh weather.
By attracting insects to the garden, you will not only increase its biodiversity but you will also be providing another valuable food source for hungry birds and mammals. Log piles are a great way to attract insects, and when they begin to rot they may even play host to the increasingly rare stag beetle larvae. The best types of wood for log piles include beech, ash, elm and oak (which you should be available locally), but it is important not to use rhododendron as it contains chemicals that prevent insects from colonising. Putting fallen leaves on flower beds also makes a great home for creepy crawlies and creates a great foraging ground for birds. Dried up plant stems can also become home to insects as they crawl inside for shelter, and are also very useful to spiders as it gives them a structure form which to make their webs.
The autumn season is also the perfect time for you to start building a pond. It can be as simple as digging a hole in a quiet corner which can be left to naturally fill with rain over the coming months. If you already have a pond which plays host to some of Britain’s amphibian species, then one of the best things you can do is make leaf and log piles for frogs, newts and toads to crawl into. Between October and January is the period when your ponds activity will be at its lowest, making the best time for you to clear out any excess vegetation, but be sure to leave what you pull out around the edge of the pond for a couple of days to ensure any tangled inhabitants can make their way back into the water. Another key tip for keeping your pond healthy over winter is to ensure that when it ices up you make a hole so that organisms such as common newt (which stays in the pond over winter), have a supply of oxygen and can get in and out. The best recommended way to do this is not simply to smash it, but to place a pan of boiling water onto the ice so that a hole is melted though.
It seems that there is plenty to get on with in the garden before the snow starts to fall and hopefully, this has given you a few tips of how to make your garden the best it can be for wildlife this winter. So start making some changes now, and in a few months take a stroll in your own winter wonderland to see how many new critters you can spot thanks to your hard work.
By Lizy Tinsley
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 12:47PM | tagged birds, british wildlife, conservation, garden, insects, mammals, pond life, winter 
Bangladesh is declaring the establishment of dolphin sanctuaries in three locations of southern Sundarban mangrove forests, in a bid to reverse the rapid decline in freshwater dolphin populations.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 1:04PM | tagged Ganges river dolphin, conservation, ecology, environment news, irrawaddy dolphin, mammals, marine conservation, widlife | in Science Club
“Alan! Alan! Alan!” Not only can small mammals respond to their name, but it has now been established that they are able to recognise calls specific to other individuals. Research has been conducted by Dr Simon Townsend on meerkats inhabiting the Kalahari Desert, South Africa. Dr. Townsend and his research team are the first scientists to discover that voice recognition occurs in other species apart from primates and also suggests the possibility of it being more wide spread in the animal kingdom than previously thought.
Although the research has produced interesting results, Dr. Townsend and his team had to overcome the problem of the meerkat’s reaction to an individual’s call. Although it is widely known that meerkats are social animals, it is much harder to distinguish the relationships to one another in a clan. Consequently, it is difficult to observe which individual will respond to whom. To solve this problem, audio playback was used to gauge the individual’s reaction to a call.
Recordings of staccato "close calls" (noises made to reassure other members of the clan they are there and as territory warnings) were played to an individual from one location and their response recorded. A call from the opposite orientation from which the original call came from was then played to the same meerkat and the response was once again recorded. In the final stages of the experiment, recordings from the same meerkat were played to one individual from conflicting directions.
Dr. Townsend commented this process as being a "violation of the animal's expectation" as the meerkat making the call could not physically be in two places at the same time. Also, during these periods of “violation” the meerkats became more vigilant to their surroundings. It is possible the ability to recognise individual voices has evolved to make communication between members of the same clan more efficient due to meerkats having complex social groups.
It is hoped this research will inspire others to investigate whether other animals can also recognise individual calls and whether we have underestimated other mammals’ communication methods.
Haley Dolton
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 at 12:52PM | tagged Kalahari desert, South Africa, animal behaviour, conservation, environment, mammals, meerkats, voice recognition | in Science Club
A new study comparing two extreme opposite industries in Namibia, seal hunting and seal watching, has been commissioned by a group of animal welfare organisations including The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Humane Society International (HSI). The study, entitled ‘The economics of seal hunting and seal watching in Namibia’ was published by Economists at Large, an independent economics consultancy based in Australia.
The innovative study produced some significant and interesting results. Mark Jones, executive director of HSI UK said, “The Namibian authorities have long defended the seal slaughter on the grounds that it generates money and jobs, but this report shows that it could actually be damaging to the economy”.
After a thorough analysis of the two practices, including a comparison of the most recent financial figures available for both industries, the report concluded that seal watching is worth about 300 per cent more than seal hunting. In 2008 alone, the seal hunt generated only £300,000 while seal watching made £1.2 million in direct tourism expenditure over the same time period. Seal watching also proved to deliver benefits to a far wider range of the Namibian economy, helping boost other aspects of tourism such as hotels and restaurants.
When analysing the two markets, the economists considered the benefits attached to each part of the trade. It was found that bull seals accounted for a large proportion of the hunter’s profits as their genitalia are sold in Asian markets for aphrodisiac qualities, receiving £85 per kilogram. Seal pups also attract hunters as they proved easy to catch and kill, with hunters making approximately £4 per pelt. On the other hand, tourism increased in the area as people flock to watch seal colonies in their natural habitat, with seal pups being the main attraction.
The report concluded that even though the Namibian seal watching industry has increased in popularity and has brought in substantial profits, it is threatened by the annual seal slaughter that takes place between the 1st of July and the 15th of November. Hundreds of tourists a day take pleasure in watching seals frolic in reserves and along coastlines that only a few hours before were the setting for scenes of a very different and brutal nature.
Claire Bass, WSPA International Oceans Campaign Leader said, “eco-tourism is a growing part of Namibia’s identity, but tourists will be shocked to find out that a seal they photograph one day may be killed the next morning. There is a clear economic case for the government to protect these animals.”
This low yield trade in seal slaughter could be disastrous for the reputation of Namibia and the eco-tourism companies that offer visits to see these vulnerable animals. Large scale killing, particularly the targeting of bulls, could lead to a collapse of seal populations, having a devastating impact on both an economic and conservation level.
WSPA ambassador Leona Lewis said, “No price would ever be high enough to justify the killing of these harmless animals. This country has so much natural beauty to offer tourists, why allow this brutal practise to tarnish its reputation forever?”
Nicola Hollamby
Monday, September 12, 2011 at 3:26PM | tagged Namibia, africa, conseravtion, eco-tourism, economics, mammals, seal hunting, seals | in Science Club 
