Pest control fences

The invasive species in New Zealand are the main threat to the native biota. There are 31 species of invasive mammals in the island. People in New Zealand are mixing the use of tramps and fences. The fences are used to prevent invasive species to enter a conservation zone and the tramps to eliminate them from the area. In small islands near the main island the use of tramps has been a great success. 28 natural reserves are surrounded by fence with a total of 8,396 ha. The fence also serves as barrier to the wild life fauna to leave the secure forest such as the brown kiwi Apteryx mantelli. The fenced areas now serve as sanctuary of threatened species after the reintroduction of threatened species such as Notornis mantelli. In the case of the Chatham petrel Pterodroma axillaris it was only known to have one place of breeding in Chatman Island and now it has been introduced to a fenced reserve hoping to create a second breeding place. When a fence crosses a flow of water it is interrupted to allow the free pass of the water. When at low flow the fence closes the gates to prevent the crossing of fauna with low flow. The fences are also used in Zoos.

The use of a fence is controversial because a fence can also avoid the movement of animals from one reserve to another. It may change the chemical of the soil around the reserve preventing the underground living animals such as nematodes to cross the fence and increasing the edge effect of those organisms. Another benefit of a fence would be to avoid part of the edge effect of large organisms due to predation. The edge effect is different depending on the species. In new Zealand is needed the fence because the primary threat is the invasive species. Therefore the positive effects of having a fence overwhelm the Negative effects. 

Burns Bruce; Innes John and Day Tim.(2012) The Use and Potential of Pest-Proof Fencing

for Ecosystem Restoration and Fauna Conservation in New Zealand. Fencing for Conservation 65-90

http://www.springerlink.com/content/g25w1w08q4640773/

Why did the deer cross the road?

Tip of the hat to Cherie for this one. From the Huffington post (admittedly it's under 'Weird News'). You can listen to the audio there.

If we moved deer crossing signs off of highways, deer would finally stop running into oncoming traffic.

That's the complaint one caller in North Dakota aired to the Y94 Playhouse radio station earlier this month.

The woman -- only known as Donna -- was either hoaxing the hosts or really thought that her three deer-related car crashes over the past few years were the result of government posted deer crossing signs posted along high-traffic roads.

"My frustration is that Minnesota and North Dakota departments of transportation would allow these deer crossings in such high traffic areas," she says. "Why are we encouraging deer to cross at the interstate?"

Real or hoax?

Researchers Make Significant Progress on Farm-Bred Bluefin

Sushi is one of the most widely known and loved cuisines in the world, yet one item on the menu may soon disappear. The Southern Bluefin Tuna is highly prized fish, coveted for its fatty belly meat. However, exploitation and overharvesting has driven this species to be classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Although the Bluefin is a streamlined and fast swimming fish that reside in the open waters, technology such as satellite imaging and GPS has allowed fishermen to harvest this fish across its entire migratory route. The most damaging factor is the harvesting technique. In order to produce the sought after belly meat, the Bluefin are caught alive as juveniles and fattened in a pen before being exported to fish markets around the world. These caught Bluefin are never able to spawn, critically decimating its population. Yet, the Southern Bluefin remains one of the most valuable fish in the industry, with a 202kg Bluefin fetching more than $170,000 in 2001 in Japan. Despite quotas set by governing entities, fishermen have been known to catch Bluefin beyond their set limits.

For many years, there has been effort to farm the Bluefin from eggs in aquacultures, which have been successfully accomplished for other fish species such as yellowtail and sea bream. However, several issues make this difficult for the Bluefin. Firstly, they are a very large species, often tipping the scales at a half ton. Also, the Bluefin is built for fast swimming across the open ocean. As a result, they are warm blooded, requiring them to be in constant motion for water to flow across their gills. As a result, they require incredibly large pens.

However, after years of research, there may have been a breakthrough in raising the Bluefin in captivity. Researchers at Kindai University, Japan, believe they have gathered enough information about the species to successfully farm the prized fish. For example, they understood that juvenile tuna could not steer or brake as well as their adult counterparts, as a result often ran into the walls of a square shaped pen, breaking their necks. A circular pen alleviated this problem. They have also identified behavioral triggers for spawning and understanding that the first spawn is related to size rather than age. The researchers and Kindai are selectively breeding the tuna for hardiness and high quality meat by introducing molecular markers for desirable traits. Finally, one of the most unsustainable aspects of fish farming is the feed. As a result, the researchers have successfully weaned the tuna onto plant protein rather than fish feed, which has not been done in other successful fisheries such as farmed salmon. Despite these accomplishments, only about 1% of Bluefin mature from eggs, compared to 60% in sea bream fisheries. A successful Bluefin fishery would not only satiate the market for this prized fish, but scientists also hope to restock the wild population. However, restocking the wild population remains a contentious issue, and the researchers at Kindai admit that several issues need to be resolved before that is a viable solution. 

Article about the Kindai research can be found here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/324/5932/1260.full

A dinosaur extinction... again?

The tuatara is a reptile native to New Zealand that has been around for a very, very long time. It's most closely related to species that last existed during the mesozoic period. It has outlasted its relatives through the extinction of the dinosaurs, ice ages, humans, and more. But now, after all this time, biologists are concerned that the tuataras might soon cease to exist.

What has led to the tuatara's success over the last 230 million years? It turns out that they are able to be active at much lower temperatures than other reptiles, down to 7 degrees Celsius (44 Fahrenheit). This allows them to do their hunting at night, giving them access to food and resources that other reptiles cannot access. However, the tuatara can't compete with introduced nocturnal species such as dogs and rats, which have driven them off of mainland New Zealand to small offshore islands where they receive government protection.

So what is threatening the tuataras on these islands? The answer is climate change. Temperature determines whether a tuatara egg is more likely to be male or female. Warmer temperatures are now causing too many eggs to develop into males. At extremes all eggs develop into one gender. A climactic model suggests that by 2085 tuataras will be producing 0 females. Efforts are now being made to move tuataras to colder parts of New Zealand.

If the tuataras were not confined to such small islands, they could move to warmer or coolers areas to adjust to climate change. However, introduced species have destroyed this possibility for them. Read more about the tuatara at NPR.

Close to home

Here's a story from last year. Note that the pressure here came from recreational fishermen not commercial fishing and that the fishery was regulated with a 10-fish daily bag limit.

Two popular Southern California fisheries have collapsed right under the noses of management agencies that had inadequate data, a new study suggests.

In an article in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, the authors say the population of barred sand bass and kelp bass began to shrink in the early 1980s amid regional changes in ocean conditions, including warmer temperatures.

But since then, a combination of environmental factors and fishing in seasonal spawning areas appears to have “pushed the species over the edge,” said the study’s lead author, Brad Erisman, a postdoctoral researcher with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Yet the decline of barred sand and kelp bass stock went undetected because large numbers of fish continued to gather in the spawning areas favored by recreational fishermen, creating what the researchers call an “illusion of plenty,” the report said.

Prop. 30

If you don't vote then you will make this puppy very sad.

It can't have escaped your attention that there is an election coming up. As usual environmental issues are top of the agenda. Oh well, you may however have heard about Proposition 30 which will have a direct impact on the University of California.

Voters in November will be asked to decide on Proposition 30, an initiative that would raise new state revenue through temporary increases in the state sales tax and the personal income tax on those who earn $250,000 or more per year. It is sponsored by Gov. Jerry Brown and is part of the 2012-13 budget approved by state lawmakers.

The University of California Board of Regents has endorsed Prop. 30, noting that if the initiative fails, UC is scheduled to receive a budget reduction of $250 million this year and lose an additional $125 million next year.

You can read more about proposition 30 here with links to further information.

I know that some people think that institutions of higher learning are all about indoctrinating students but the truth is that we are issued much clearer guidelines about discussing political issues than those that businesses seem to follow.

UCOP General Counsel has pointed out that employees of the University may not tell individuals how to vote and are not permitted to use state resources, time, or equipment to lobby for or against any ballot measure. However, members of the University community may share factual information about the impact of a ballot measure.

Robosquirrel

In a coincidence (or is it?) yesterday saw the release of Senator Tom Coburn's annual list of what his office considers the most extreme examples of government waste. In a shocking omission this year I don't see a single conservation project! Usually there's a Turtle tunnel or Wildlife overpass or a Bear DNA study in there but not this year.

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) today released a new oversight report, “Wastebook 2012” that highlights more than $18 billion in examples of some of the most egregious ways your taxpayer dollars were wasted in 2012. This report highlights 100 of the year’s countless unnecessary, duplicative and low-priority projects spread throughout the federal government.

The media usually pick up on a couple of the highlighted examples (although the report contains 100) and this year robosquirrel (from UC Davis) seems to be attracting the attention. I'm not sure exactly what Senator Coburn has against robotic squirrels. He seems to be against them on principle:

During these difficult fiscal times of massive deficits, paying $325,000 for a robot squirrel 

seems a bit squirrelly.

Panda porn and more

From Time Magazine's Top Ten Evil animals. #8: Pandas:
What most people don't realize is that pandas have us duped. They are the one species in the animal kingdom that seems to live outside the realm of Darwinian science. Most creatures in the universe follow German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's axiom: a creature "will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant ... because it is living and because life simply is will to power." Pandas didn't seem to get the memo. They have no will to live or reproduce. To this day, scientists have to perform grotesque procedures to keep the panda population from collapsing into oblivion. Forget about the fact that pandas are mean-spirited, mate-abusing, progeny-mauling, deviant monsters. Forget about the fact that these hoodlum bears have conned humanity with their supposed cuteness. The most evil thing about pandas? The cunning with which they expose the stupidity of humans.

Pandas do seem rather inept at reproducing. Among the problems:

Female pandas are only on heat for 72 hours a year, and can only actually become pregnant during a 12 to 24 hour window during this time.

and
Male pandas have proportionately short penises meaning pairs must adopt a very exact position in order to mate.
During their observations, researchers found that pandas demonstrated poor knowledge of this position.

Researchers then employed methods ranging from sex education videos to viagra in order to stimulate natural behaviour.Most techniques failed, and many encounters between pandas turned aggressive and violent.

Quotes are from a BBC article about Giant panda breeding breakthrough in China which describes the innovative 'twin swapping' technique used at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center in China.

Why did the turtle cross the road?

On Tuesday we will talk about wildlife corridors. These seem to attract the ire of those eager for less Government spending like nothing else (well, maybe the Teapot Museum comes close). The Florida turtle tunnel (funded with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money) keeps cropping up on a lot of 'top lists' of Government waste. This is a pretty old story though, from WCJB TV in 2009:

Florida is receiving $13 billion in federal stimulus money to build roads, feed seniors and save jobs.
But $3.4 million of Florida’s cut is going to build a tunnel to help turtles cross a busy highway, and this turtle tunnel has some taxpayers outraged, according to the Capitol News Service....
Pace Allen, a member of several anti-tax groups, said the turtle tunnel is a waste of money.
“It’s outrageous, unbelievable, but I think there is a real opportunity for people to stand up and say, 'Look at this example. Our governments, federal, state and local, are totally out of control," Allen said.

Of course the more things change the more they stay the same. This time four years ago:

Who will protect our pic-a-nic baskets? (Also contains the answer to why a pants free, and otherwise rather casual, Yogi Bear always wore a necktie!)

I Once Was Lost But Now Am Found: Return of the Bururi long-fingered frog

-->

Over 60 years ago, a Belgian biologist discovered the Bururi long-fingered frog (Cardioglossa cyaneospila) in the African country of Burundi.  This beautiful amphibian is about 1.3 inches in length and has a black and bluish grey color pattern. The Bururi long-fingered frog had not been spotted since its discovery, leading some to believe the species had gone extinct.

Fortunately, this little guy was rediscovered during an expedition in the Burundi Forest Reserve last December.  Researchers David Blackburn and Eli Greenbaum were able to locate this rare species by listening for their frog calls, which they presumed to sound similar to its closest relative frog species from Cameroon.  While it is unknown how many of these little frogs actually exist, the researchers claim several dozen males were in the vicinity based on the number of frog calls heard.  Hopefully this species is back for good, but threats to their habitat are increasing due to “a growing human population […] moving into the Burundi mountains.” Their survival, along with many other rare species, will depend on the conservation efforts and public knowledge in the local communities.

I can’t help but wonder how many other species are not extinct, but rather just ‘lost’ in the world.  Do you think it’s possible that many claimed ‘extinct’ species are simply hiding out in areas that humans haven’t ventured to yet? My opinion - probably not, but I can’t help but hope.

For the full story, check out this National Geographic article.

Further information also found from the Huffington Post Internet Newspaper.