C U B E: January 2012

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Flightless Cormorant in Galápagos

Flightless Cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi)

Status: Endangered

Galapagos Islands,

Ecuador,

April 2009

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A Cow in the Sunset (Gerês, Portugal)

Peneda-Gerês National Park, Portugal

July 2010

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Bioversity and the Library

"The loss of biological diversity is the loss of a giant library that contains answers to questions that we haven't learned to ask"

- Lynn Caporale

Blue-Footed Booby in Galapagos

Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii)

at the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

April 2009

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Conservation and the emergency ward by Edward O. Wilson

"Because extinction is forever, rare species are the focus of conservation biology.

Scientists in this young scientific discipline conduct their studies with the

same sense of immediacy as doctors in an emergency ward.

They look for quick diagnosis and procedures that can

prolong the life of species until more

leisurely remedial work is possible"

Edward O. Wilson

-The Diversity of Life

Hood Mockingbird in Galapagos

Galapagos Islands,

Ecuador,

April 2009

Hood Mockingbird (Mimus macdonaldi)

Endemic to the island of Española Island in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Status: VULNERABLE

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African Lions: Afraid of the Full Moon

Study by the University of Minnesota found that the risks of attacks by African Lions may decrease in full moon nights.

Study Abstract:

"Nocturnal carnivores are widely believed to have played an important role in human evolution, driving the need for night- time shelter, the control of fire and our innate fear of darkness. However, no empirical data are available on the effects of darkness on the risks of predation in humans. We performed an extensive analysis of predatory behavior across the lunar cycle on the largest dataset of lion attacks ever assembled and found that African lions are as sensitive to moonlight when hunting humans as when hunting herbivores and that lions are most dangerous to humans when the moon is faint or below the horizon. At night, people are most active between dusk and 10:00 pm, thus most lion attacks occur in the first weeks following the full moon (when the moon rises at least an hour after sunset). Consequently, the full moon is a reliable indicator of impending danger, perhaps helping to explain why the full moon has been the subject of so many myths and misconceptions."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110720210651.htm

Full Article: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0022285

References:

Craig Packer, Alexandra Swanson, Dennis Ikanda, Hadas Kushnir. Fear of Darkness, the Full Moon and the Nocturnal Ecology of African Lions. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (7): e22285 DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0022285

University of Minnesota (2011, July 20). Full moon indicates impending danger from lion attack, study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110720210651.htm

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Marine Iguana in Galapagos

Galapagos Islands,

Ecuador,

April 2009

Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)

Status: Vulnerable

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Swallow-tailed Gull in Galapagos

Galapagos Islands,

Ecuador,

April 2009

Swallow-tailed Gull (Creagrus furcatus)

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Primates: More than just a pretty face

Study by UCLA biologists proposed a possible reason for the astonishing diversity in the faces of Neotropical primates

"The rich diversity of primate faces has interested naturalists for over a century. Researchers have long pro- posed that social behaviours have shaped the evolution of primate facial diversity. However, the primate face constitutes a unique structure where the diverse and potentially competing functions of communi- cation, ecology and physiology intersect, and the major determinants of facial diversity remain poorly understood. Here, we provide the first evidence for an adaptive role of facial colour patterns and pigmen- tation within Neotropical primates. Consistent with the hypothesis that facial patterns function in communication and species recognition, we find that species living in smaller groups and in sympatry with a higher number of congener species have evolved more complex patterns of facial colour. The evol- ution of facial pigmentation and hair length is linked to ecological factors, and ecogeographical rules related to UV radiation and thermoregulation are met by some facial regions. Our results demonstrate the interaction of behavioural and ecological factors in shaping one of the most outstanding facial diversities of any mammalian lineage."

http://www.science20.com/curious_cub/evolution_colored_faces-86120

Full article: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/01/11/rspb.2011.2326

References:

Sharlene E. Santana, Jessica Lynch Alfaro, and Michael E. Alfaro. Adaptive evolution of facial colour patterns in Neotropical primates. Proc. R. Soc. B, January 11, 2012 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.2326

University of California - Los Angeles (2012, January 11). Evolution is written all over your face. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120111223744.htm

Toucans and Seed Dispersal

Study by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Balboa, Panama revelead that toucans play a significant role in see dispersal.

"Seed dispersal is critical to understanding forest dynamics but is hard to study because tracking seeds is difficult. Even for the best-studied dispersal system of the Neotropics, Virola nobilis, the dispersal kernel remains unknown. We combined high-resolution GPS/3D-acceleration bird tracking, seed-retention experiments, and field observations to quantify dispersal of V. nobilis by their principal dispersers, Ramphastos toucans. We inferred feeding events from movement data, and then estimated spatio- temporally explicit seed-dispersal kernels. Wild toucans moved an average of 1.8 km d␣1 with two distinct activity peaks. Seed retention time in captive toucans averaged 25.5 min (range 4e98 min). Estimated seed dispersal distance averaged 144 ` 147 m, with a 56% likelihood of dispersal >100 m, two times further than the behaviour-naive estimate from the same data. Dispersal was furthest for seeds ingested in the morning, and increased with seed retention time, but only up to 60 min after feeding. Our study supports the long-standing hypothesis that toucans are excellent dispersers of Virola seeds. To maximize seed dispersal distances trees should ripen fruit in the morning when birds move the most, and produce fruits with gut-processing times around 60 min. Our study demonstrates how new tracking technology can yield nuanced seed dispersal kernels for animals that cannot be directly observed."

Read more at:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110728123115.htm

Full article at:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1146609X1100107X

References:

Roland Kays, Patrick A. Jansen, Elise M.H. Knecht, Reinhard Vohwinkel, Martin Wikelski. The effect of feeding time on dispersal of Virola seeds by toucans determined from GPS tracking and accelerometers.Acta Oecologica, 2011; DOI: 10.1016/j.actao.2011.06.007

Smithsonian (2011, July 28). Toucans wearing GPS backpacks help Smithsonian scientists study seed dispersal. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110728123115.html

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