Detailed Discussion of Laws Concerning Orcas in Captivity Whales have been in captivity since 1861 when P.T. Barnum displayed the first live whale, a beluga whale that was captured from the St. Lawrence River in Canada. However, Barnum had no idea how to care for the mammal and it died after only a week in captivity. Since then, people have been using whales for entertainment purposes leading to the rise of dolphinariums and marine mammal parks across the nation. While the nature and life of captive whales has greatly improved since 1861, along with the knowledge of their human caretakers, the controversy of captive whales is still a hot topic.
Policy Limits Endangered Species Act Prosecutions - latimes Suspects in the killings of some of the nation's most imperiled animals are escaping prosecution under the federal Endangered Species Act because of a Justice Department policy that some federal wildlife officials call a significant loophole in the law. The policy requires that prosecutors show that a suspect knew an animal's biological identity -- for instance, that the animal was a grizzly bear and not the more common black bear. The rule was adopted by the Clinton administration in 1998 but received little attention at the time. It has received more notice recently because of the prosecution of a hunter who shot a California condor this year during a pig hunt near Bakersfield. Britton Cole Lewis, 29, of Tehachapi pleaded guilty last month and is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
Herbarium specimens provide snapshots of plants’ past, data for future – #FloridaMuseumScience While some might press flowers into books to preserve their beauty, researcher Mark Whitten does it to preserve history. Whitten, a botanist in the Florida Museum of Natural History Herbarium, glues pressed plants onto archival paper and stores them as specimens in the museum’s collection. He said herbarium specimens show data about plants’ location, habitat, flowers and fruits at the time of their collection. With this information, researchers are starting to make connections about recent climate change and its influence on the seasonal cycles of plants, or plant phenology. Whitten said researchers lack good observational records on when plants start to flower, produce fruit or form leaves, which is where herbarium specimens come in.
DNA Banks and Genetic Resources Repositories in the United States iDigBio is actively compiling a list of DNA banking facilities and genetic resources repositories in the United States that maintain collections of nucleic acid extracts (DNA or RNA) or preserved tissues suitable for genetic and genomic studies of biodiversity. The following resources (listed alphabetically by institution) represent collections currently known by or reported to iDigBio. Each entry includes the name of the institution, a brief description, and institutional link. Changes in dive behavior during naval sonar exposure in killer whales, long-finned pilot whales, and sperm whales Introduction Our understanding of the effects of military sonars on marine mammals has increased in the past decades (Richardson et al., 1995; Nowacek et al., 2007), but large gaps of knowledge still exist (Nowacek et al., 2007). Attention has focused on beaked whales due to several stranding events coinciding in time and space with military sonar operations (e.g., Simmonds and Lopez-jurado, 1991; Frantzis, 1998; Jepson et al., 2003; Cox et al., 2006; D'Amico et al., 2009). It has been suggested that these strandings are associated with a change in dive behavior which leads to development of tissue nitrogen gas bubbles and symptoms related to decompression sickness (DCS) (Jepson et al., 2003). In this paper, we investigate whether and how whales changed their diving behavior during exposures to naval sonar sounds. Materials and Methods
22 Fascinating Facts About Wolves Things you probably didn't know about the most amazing animal of Planet Earth - Wolves 1- In order for a new wolf cub to urinate, its mother has to massage its belly with her warm tongue. 2- The earliest drawings of wolves are in caves in southern Europe and date from 20,000 B.C. Bits of bamboo – Botanics Stories In the Herbarium at RBGE, we store a huge number of sheets of archival quality paper with squashed and dried plant specimens stuck to them. These have been collected over a period of hundreds of years, by plant collectors all around the world. It’s a phenomenal store of biodiversity, providing evidence of where different kinds of plants have been growing at different periods, and also allowing us access to genetic information from different times and places. Checking through the bamboo collections at RBGE’s Herbarium with Dr Linda Neaves There IS a trade-off involved in getting that genetic material, as our DNA extraction methods involve destructive sampling: the process includes a step where the plant tissue is pulverised then soaked in warm buffers, then discarded.
Ancient plant DNA in lake sediments - Parducci - 2017 - New Phytologist Abstract Summary Recent advances in sequencing technologies now permit the analyses of plant DNA from fossil samples (ancient plant DNA, plant aDNA), and thus enable the molecular reconstruction of palaeofloras. Awesome Orcas - Keep It Wild! A Grade 4 Workshop on Habitats and Food Chains Orcas in the Wild Orcas, or killer whales, are marine mammals that are found in all the oceans of the world, especially the freezing waters of the polar regions. They are easily recognized by their distinct black and white markings and their large dorsal fins. Males can reach 9 metres in length and weigh over 5,000 kilograms; females are slightly smaller, weighing between 1,500 to 3,500 kilograms, with an average length of 6-7 metres. Orcas live in an aquatic habitat, and spend a large portion of their time travelling.
researchers use crowdfunding for Mexican wolf tracking experiments Date: 02/02/2015 Writer: Isabel A. Rodriguez, 575-646-7066, email@example.com Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+ Assessing the Relevance of Herbarium Collections as Tools for Conservation Biology Adhikari, D., S. K. Barik & K. Upadhaya. 2012. Scientific user requirements for a herbarium data portal ArticlesAbout About PensoftBooksE-BooksBlogJournals Register | Login Research Article PhytoKeys 78: 37-57 (24 Mar 2017) Other versions:
Welcome to Orca Network - Orca Lifespans How long do orcas live? There are many questions about how long orcas live in captivity compared to how long they live in the ocean. In the 2013 documentary film Blackfish Howard Garrett said the following: "We knew by 1980, after a half a dozen years of research, that they [killer whales] live equivalent to human life spans." Alaska’s Wolves Face Catastrophe Southeast Alaska’s isolated wolf population has declined by 60 percent in just one year, dropping from an estimated 221 individuals in 2013 to 89 wolves in 2014, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Those numbers are already outdated. Another 29 wolves were reportedly killed in the 2014–2015 hunting and trapping season.