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Wildlife Monitoring Cameras Click Jaguar and Ocelot Photos

By Guest PostDecember 21, 2012Natureautomated, baboquivari mountains, big cats, boot heel, cat species, central, computer program, distribution of jaguars, ecology and habits, Environment, huachuca mountains, hunter, jaguar survey, lisa haynes, male jaguar, male ocelot, melanie culver, Mexico, monitoring project, mountain ranges, natural resources, neotropical cats, new mexico, ocelot movement, pictures of jaguar, project, rugged arizona landscape, santa rita mountains, sierra vista, sky island, south america, southern arizona, tail photo, united states, university of arizona, whetstone mountains, wildlife monitoring cameras

Automated trail cameras set up by a UA research team have snapped pictures of a male jaguar and a male ocelot roaming the rugged Southern Arizona landscape.

An adult male jaguar and an adult male ocelot have been photographed in two separate Southern Arizona mountain ranges by automated wildlife monitoring cameras. The images were collected as part of the Jaguar Survey and Monitoring Project led by the University of Arizona. Both animals appear to be in good health.

In late November, the UA project team downloaded photos from wildlife cameras set up as part of the research project and found new pictures of a jaguar in the Santa Rita Mountains. A total of 10 jaguar photos were taken by three UA cameras and one Arizona Game and Fish Department camera. The cat’s unique spot pattern matched that of a male jaguar photographed by a hunter in the Whetstone Mountains in the fall of 2011, providing clear evidence that the big cats travel between Southern Arizona’s “sky island” mountain ranges. (more…)

‘House Hunters Walrus’

By Guest PostDecember 16, 2012Environment, Nature3d reconstruction, alaska, arctic basin, Arctic sea ice, bering sea, calibration, camera reconfiguration, camera system, chandra kambhamettu, chukchi sea, database, delaware, german research vessel, homes for walrus, ice floes, infrared backscatter, lidar, map, marine mammal, metric data, parallax, pixel resolution, polar bear cub, polar bears, polarstern, rohith kumar, russia, satellites, scott sorensen, sea ice thickness, stereo pair, surface topography, triangulation, university, vims, visual texture, walrus habitat, walrus weight

UD camera system records sea ice, identifies ideal walrus habitats

About the video: A University of Delaware research team led by Chandra Kambhamettu has developed a novel camera system to map the surface topography of Arctic sea ice, identifying the best “homes” for walrus.

Walrus use sea ice as a reproductive, migration and resting habitat. However, as sea ice melts and recedes, this marine mammal increasingly is threatened. (more…)

Native Delaware: Turkey Trackers

By Guest PostDecember 13, 2012Naturecambodia, colonial times, eastern wild turkey, harvest data, isaacs green preserve, jake bowman, jason beale, lee meadow, matt dibona, population dynamics, wild turkeys

UD researcher works to ensure Delaware’s wild turkey population proliferates

In colonial times, the Eastern wild turkey was abundant in Delaware. But by the late 1800s, wild turkeys were gone, eradicated by over-zealous market hunters and habitat destruction.

Usually, that’s the end of the story for a species. (more…)

Asteroid that Killed the Dinosaurs also Wiped out the ‘Obamadon’

By Guest PostDecember 11, 2012Nature, Scienceage of dinosaurs, alberta, asteroid collision, asteroid strike, bhart anjan bhullar, boundary, canada, carnivorous lizards, cerberophis, cretaceous, dinosaur species, dinosaurs, diversification, ecosystem, edmontosaurus, evolution, extinct lizard, flood, fossils, gracilis, harvard, jacques a gauthier, kill, lizard, mammals, mass extinction, montana, new mexico, nicholas r longrich, North America, obamadon, obamadon gracilis, odon, palaeosaniwa, paleogene, political significance, polyglyphanodontia, slender, snake, species, survivor, swamps, t rex, taxonomy, tooth, triceratops, united states, us president, yale, yucatan peninsula

The asteroid collision widely thought to have killed the dinosaurs also led to extreme devastation among snake and lizard species, according to new research — including the extinction of a newly identified lizard Yale and Harvard scientists have named Obamadon gracilis.

“The asteroid event is typically thought of as affecting the dinosaurs primarily,” said Nicholas R. Longrich, a postdoctoral associate with Yale’s Department of Geology and Geophysics and lead author of the study. “But it basically cut this broad swath across the entire ecosystem, taking out everything. Snakes and lizards were hit extremely hard.” (more…)

Moths Wired Two Ways to Take Advantage of Floral Potluck

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2012Naturearizona, behavior, brain, brain activity, bright green, buffet, caterpillar, channels, chemical composition, favored blossoms, floral environment, flower, hong lei, humans, insects, jeffrey riffell, john hildebrand, leif abrell, manduca sexta, mechanism, moth, naive moths, neural pathways, neurobiology, north, olfactory information, oxygenated aromatic compounds, pollinator, process, scent samples, science express, scientist, sources of nectar, south america, soybean, tobacco hornworms, university, Washington

Moths are able to enjoy a pollinator’s buffet of flowers – in spite of being among the insect world’s picky eaters – because of two distinct “channels” in their brains, scientists at the University of Washington and University of Arizona have discovered.

One olfactory channel governs innate preferences of the palm-sized hawk moths that were studied – insects capable of traveling miles in a single night in search of favored blossoms. The other allows them to learn about alternate sources of nectar when their first choices are not available.

For moths, the ability to seek and remember alternate sources of food helps them survive harsh, food-deprived conditions. Scientists knew bees could learn, but this is the first proof that moths can too. (more…)

Monkey Business: What Howler Monkeys Can Tell us about the Role of Interbreeding in Human Evolution

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Naturehowler monkeys, human evolution, hybridization, hybridization among primates, process of hybridization, role of interbreeding

ANN ARBOR — Did different species of early humans interbreed and produce offspring of mixed ancestry?

Recent genetic studies suggest that Neanderthals may have bred with anatomically modern humans tens of thousands of years ago in the Middle East, contributing to the modern human gene pool. But the findings are not universally accepted, and the fossil record has not helped to clarify the role of interbreeding, which is also known as hybridization. (more…)

New Research Underscores Vulnerability of Wildlife in Low-Lying Hawaiian Islands

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Environment, Natureblack footed albatross, bonin petrel, climate change, crystal m krause, curt storlazzi, global sea level, habitat loss, island biodiversity, jamie carter, karen n courtot, kure atoll, laysan albatross, laysan island, low lying island, michelle h reynolds, migratory wildlife species, model, multifaceted assessment, national wildlife refuge, northwestern hawaiian islands, nwhi, over fished ocean, pacific ocean, paul berkowitz, prediction, sea-level rise, topographic data, trend, tropical seabird rookery, U.S. Geological Survey, wave action, World Heritage Site

HONOLULU, Hawaii — If current climate change trends continue, rising sea levels may inundate low-lying islands across the globe, placing island biodiversity at risk. A new U.S. Geological Survey scientific publication describes the first combined simulations of the effects of sea-level rise and wave action in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, offering the most detailed and multifaceted assessment available of how island biodiversity may be affected by climate change.

The publication, “Predicting Sea-Level Rise Vulnerability of Terrestrial Habitat and Wildlife of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,” by Michelle H. Reynolds, Paul Berkowitz, Karen N. Courtot, Crystal M. Krause, Jamie Carter, and Curt Storlazzi is available online. (more…)

Scientists Find Oldest Dinosaur – or Closest Relative Yet

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Nature, Scienceafrica, alan charig, ancestry, Antarctica, archosaurs, australia, bone cells, bone tissues, cape town, dinosaur family tree, dinosaur like characteristic, dinosaur lineage, diversification, earliest dinosaur, earth, eoraptor, evidence, evolution of dinosaurs, familiar dinosaurs, fossil, fossilized bones, fossilized footprints, herrerasaurus, humerus, labrador retriever, late triassic, lizard, london, middle triassic, middle triassic dinosaurs, natural history museum, nyasa, nyasasaurus parringtoni, oldest dinosaur, paleontologist, paleontology, pangaea, paul barrett, period, permian extinction, primitive dinosaurs, royal society, sarah werning, saurus, single bone, south african museum, south america, southern pangaea, sterling nesbitt, Tanzania, taxon, transitional fossil, triassic period, united kingdom, university, upper arm bone, vertebrae, Washington

Researchers have discovered what may be the earliest dinosaur, a creature the size of a Labrador retriever, but with a five foot-long tail, that walked the Earth about 10 million years before more familiar dinosaurs like the small, swift-footed Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus.

The findings mean that the dinosaur lineage appeared 10 million to 15 million years earlier than fossils previously showed, originating in the Middle Triassic rather than in the Late Triassic period. (more…)

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