Environmentalism and Wildlife Conservation Discussion

So... two days ago I went to the zoo. It was a very fun time for me, especially since I was able to hang out with my grandparents.

But a few questions borned from that visit.

I don't know what would be a better place to ask this (Direct me to one if you know any) but some questions I got from it were...

• How resistant are Elephants to electricity in comparison to humans?
• How resistant are penguins to the heat?
• How do people treat the wounds of big cats like Ocelots?

• Well a human taser wouldn't work, but there's a reason why people use electric fences to keep them away
• Depends on the species.
• Well, an ocelot doesn't count as a "big cat", but it's not much different than any other animal except with tranquilizer.

Climate profound impact on marine biodiversity: "New research into the impact of climate change has found that warming oceans will cause profound changes in the global distribution of marine biodiversity. The study found that a rapidly warming climate would cause many species to expand into new regions, which would impact on native species, while others with restricted ranges, particularly those around the tropics, are more likely to face extinction."

• I was wondering that because I noticed that the Elephant's place in addition to being pretty big and having a whole made around the fence to keep people away, the fence itself was also electric. I wanted to know if, for example, a fence that would kill a man would only hurt an elephant.
• O.K.
• I meant if there is any difference between treating them and humans.

I don't think there any point in giving any animal an electric fence strong enough to actually kill a person. You definitely wouldn't put one where there's normally a lot of foot traffic. That'd be just asking for trouble.

That said I wouldn't be too surprised if some poorly maintained zoo, probably in a third world country, had actually lethal electric fences. I don't think it would be by design but it could happen.

EDIT: I Googled it a bit. Apparently the voltage is really high, but it comes in really brief pulses and at low amperage so even though it hurts like hell you don't get a large or sustained dose, and are able to immediately remove whatever you have touching the fence. Serious accidents involving electric fences are extremely rare.

edited 24th Aug '15 7:09:56 PM by BestOf

Thing is, like I said, there was a hole made around the fence. Só you'd only get to the fence if you were either really insistant of possibly a criminal.

Do you mean sort of like a moat?

That was probably to discourage people from approaching the fence. Even with warning signs on a fence people are still going to touch it every now and then, and you don't want to deal with those complaints if you can avoid it. (Also, I added something to my previous post before I saw that you had posted.)

The University of Texas Medical Branch's National Labratory is being investigated by federal authorities after an audit found researchers were using shoddy practises, including letting chimps with infectious diseases die painful deaths.

Yes, a dry moat to be precise.

I am going to post this here and hope it is the more proper place, but anyways...

Famous Berlin Polar bear, Knut and the mystery of his untimely, unwelcome death seems to be resolved.

Apparently, the blame lies on human only encephalitis. Given how this is proof that other mammals can get this sort of diseases from us humans, I wonder what effect this can have on our attempts to preserve Wildlife...

I thought the idea of a cross-species disease that doesn't involve the human or the animal being merely a carrier has already been proven.

Yes, considering many of our modern diseases are from animals. This has been known for a while.

But the neuroreceptor in effect for Knut's encephalitis is new, and could explain many other things and help us prepare, in the best of cases.

Plastic in 99 percent of seabirds by 2050: "Researchers from CSIRO and Imperial College London have assessed how widespread the threat of plastic is for the world's seabirds, including albatrosses, shearwaters and penguins, and found the majority of seabird species have plastic in their gut."

Seeing the forest and the trees, all three trillion of them: "A new international study estimates that there are more than 3 trillion trees on Earth, about seven and a half times more than some previous estimates. But the total number of trees has plummeted by roughly 46 percent since the start of human civilization. The results provide the most comprehensive assessment of tree populations ever produced and offer new insights into a class of organism that helps shape most terrestrial biomes."

Change in environment can lead to rapid evolution: "A new Florida State University study is giving researchers a glimpse at how organisms from fish to flowers to tumors evolve in response to rapid environmental change.

The findings could have a broad ripple effect on a number of research areas, including climate change and cancer treatment. And it's all because of guppies.

FSU Professor of Biological Science Kimberly Hughes and a team of researchers set out to find how this tiny tropical fish would evolve if they transplanted wild Trinidadian guppy fish from a stream with predatory fish into two-predator-free streams. Because guppies reproduce multiple times in a year, they were able to track three to four generations of the fish living in a predator-free zone."

edited 3rd Sep '15 12:52:23 AM by rmctagg09

Ecologists wondering where the lions, and other top predators, are: "Ecologists have discovered a pattern that is consistent across a range of ecosystems. They found that, in a very systematic way, in crowded settings, prey reproduced less than they do in settings where their numbers are smaller. Some scientists are already suggesting that it may well be the discovery of a new law of nature."

Fighting explosives pollution with mutant plants: "Biologists have taken an important step in making it possible to clean millions of hectares of land contaminated by explosives. Biologists have unraveled the mechanism of TNT toxicity in plants raising the possibility of a new approach to explosives remediation technology. TNT has become an extensive global pollutant over the last 100 years and there are mounting concerns over its toxicity to biological systems."

Radioactive contaminants found in coal ash: "A new study has found radioactive contaminants in coal ash from all three major US coal-producing basins. Levels of radioactivity in the ash were five to eight times higher than in normal soil or in the parent coal itself. This finding raises concerns about the environmental and human health risks posed by coal ash, which currently is unregulated and is stored in coal-fired power plants' holding ponds and landfills nationwide."

Clues from ancient Maya reveal lasting impact on environment: "Evidence from the tropical lowlands of Central America reveals how Maya activity more than 2,000 years ago not only contributed to the decline of their environment but continues to influence today's environmental conditions, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.

Synthesizing old and new data, researchers were the first to show the full extent of the "Mayacene" as a microcosm of the early anthropocene — a period when human activity began greatly affecting environmental conditions."

As demand for African timber soars, birds pay the ultimate price: "The devastating impact has been revealed of illegal logging on bird communities in the understory layer of Ghana's Upper Guinea rain forests, one of the world's 25 'biodiversity hotspots' where the most biologically rich ecosystems are most threatened."

African dams linked to over one million malaria cases annually: "For the first time, research correlates the location of large dams with the incidence of malaria and quantifies the impacts across sub-Saharan Africa. The study looked at over 1,200 dams and found that the population at risk for malaria around dams is at least four times greater than previously estimated."

World's turtles face plastic deluge danger: "More than half the world's sea turtles have ingested plastic or other human rubbish, an international study has revealed. The study found the east coasts of Australia and North America, Southeast Asia, southern Africa, and Hawaii were particularly dangerous for turtles due to a combination of debris loads and high species diversity."

WWF: World has lost more than half its wildlife in 40 years

Global climate change affects relocation of tropical plants.

edited 16th Sep '15 2:38:31 PM by Aszur

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-the-fake-meat-revolution.html

Come on, tech billionaires! Grab that pink slime market!

Earth's oceans show decline in microscopic plant life: "The world's oceans have seen significant declines in certain types of microscopic plant-life at the base of the marine food chain, according to a new NASA study. The research is the first to look at global, long-term phytoplankton community trends based on a model driven by NASA satellite data."

A cheap pantry ingredient can wipe out 100% of coral-eating starfish: "Household vinegar is already used to make kick-ass salad dressings, clean bathrooms, and soothe insect bites, and now Australian scientists have shown that it can also kill the Crown of Thorns Starfish (CoTS) - which is currently munching its way through the Great Barrier Reef - with a 100 percent success rate.

The CoTS is a spiny species of starfish that feasts on live coral, and it's currently breeding at epidemic levels on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Research suggests that the starfish are already responsible for almost half of the decline in the reef's coral cover, and the only weapon scientists have to control them is to inject them with a special drug. But while it's effective at culling the starfish, it can be expensive and difficult to source.

Now a new study by James Cook University scientists suggests that using cheap household vinegar is just as effective at wiping out the animals. 'Currently divers use 10 or 12 ml of ox-bile to kill each CoTS,' lead researcher Lisa Boström-Einarsson said in a press release. 'It’s expensive, requires permits and has to be mixed to the right concentration. We used 20 ml of vinegar, which is half the price and can be bought off the shelf at any local supermarket.'"

Volkswagen is being sued. Good.

On one hand, it's nice that the eco-conscious market is worth so much dough that billion-dollar companies would commit outright fraud.

But this is ridiculous - apparently the actual emission level of one of their supposedly eco-friendly diesels is more than a (heavy) truck's output.

Would you guys press that universal mosquito kill-switch, provided one exists?

Tempting though it is, there'd be a chain reaction like you wouldn't believe. Those bloodsuckers have been part of the ecology too long for there not to be. :/

The problem is, we wouldn't be able to predict exactly how tits up things would go ahead of time. <_<

Which is why I remain skeptical that extincting all mosquitoes will actually lead to a net good. (Besides the fact that not all species are bloodsuckers.)

Flower declines shrink bee tongues: "Climate-related changes in flower diversity have resulted in a decrease in the length of alpine bumble bees' tongues, a new study reports, leaving these insects poorly suited to feed from and pollinate the deep flowers they were adapted to previously."

Tiny carbon-capturing motors may help tackle rising carbon dioxide levels: "Machines that are much smaller than the width of a human hair could one day help clean up carbon dioxide pollution in the oceans. Nanoengineers have designed enzyme-functionalized micromotors that rapidly zoom around in water, remove carbon dioxide and convert it into a usable solid form."

edited 26th Sep '15 12:32:21 AM by rmctagg09

King crabs threaten Antarctic ecosystem due to warming ocean: "King crabs may soon become high-level predators in Antarctic marine ecosystems where they haven't played a role in tens of millions of years, according to a new study led by Florida Institute of Technology."