Were there monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?

Sorry to disappoint you, but this is not a post about Firefly... it's actually a post about space monkeys.
Here's a news clip I came across about the first monkeys to survive being shot into space. Able, a rhesis monkey and Baker, a squirrel monkey.

These monkeys were not the first creatures to survive a trip into space. In 1947 the U.S. successfully sent (and retrieved) live fruit flies into space, one year later they began trying to send monkeys (after successfully sending mice, of course). Unfortunately, all the monkey flights failed for over a decade. One rocket exploded, two parachutes failed to open, one monkey's capsule descended into the ocean but the flotation device failed and it was never recovered, and one monkey returned to Earth safely but the shuttle didn't make it high enough to get to space. While America was having no luck with monkeys, the USSR was having fantastic luck with dogs. They managed to bring over 30 dogs back alive from suborbital flights and in 1957 a dog named Laika became the first animal to orbit the planet (she did not survive).

Able and Baker were sent up in 1959. Here's a picture of Baker inside her capsule, it was approx. the size of a small thermos:

Sadly, Able died a few days after her infamous adventure but Baker lived until 1984 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center where she would get 100-150 letters a day from school children. More than 300 people attended Baker's funeral when she died of kidney failure & to this day people will leave bananas at her grave. Able's body is stuffed and on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. 

Since Able and Baker, NASA has sent fifteen monkeys into space, including Enos (the first chimp to orbit the Earth) and Multik (who died the day after touch down and raised significant questions about the ethics of using animals for testing. NASA continues biological experiments aboard space shuttles, but there have been no more primate missions since Multik). 

ZomBees

Zombees. They really do exist, I'm not kidding. When a regular honeybee is infected by the parasitic maggots of the scuttle fly, the maggot uses mind control to make the bee abandon its hive at night and cluster near outdoor lights wandering in increasingly erratic circles until it dies.

Well, mind control is one theory anyway. The other theory is that the bees are purposely committing suicide in order to protect the rest of the hive from being infected.

John Hafernik, an entomologist at San Francisco State University, has started tagging infected bees with tiny radio frequency identification tags (about the size of a single piece of glitter) which will tell them when the bee leaves the hive and whether or not it returns. The idea is that if the bees are abandoning the hive at all times of the day, they are committing suicide whereas if they are only leaving at night, they are being controlled by the parasite. The explanation is that bees don't normally leave their hives at night.

Researchers are hoping that this will help us to understand colony collapse disorder. Which is a disease that makes bees abandon their hives and has devastated the U.S. honeybee population.

**Now here's the part where you get to laugh at me a bit- I've been hearing about the disappearance of honeybees for quite awhile now, but I thought that it was a Doctor Who reference, so I didn't pay much attention to it. (To those of you poor saps who aren't Whovians, here's a clip.)

If you see potential "zombees" you can upload pictures to ZomBeeWatch.org. This will help researchers to map the spread of the parasite.

Talking whales?!?!

Quick! Name an animal that can mimic human speech. ... You said parrot didn't you? Almost everyone does, but did you know that Beluga whales can do it too?

Listen for yourself

Ok, so it's not exactly talking. He's not saying real words, but it is several octaves lower than normal whale vocalizations. Apparently he managed to do that by over filling his air sacs, making his head even bulgier than usual while he was "talking."

Noc (pronounced: no-see) the whale that you heard in the link above, would even tell divers to leave his tank by repeating a word that sounded like "out" over and over. Researchers say that it is unlikely that Noc understood what he was saying, but they built him a special underwater microphone to record this unusual vocalization and they have been studying him since 1984 when Noc was first heard "talking." The results of that research were released last Monday.

Longevity linked to little loved ones

On average, people with pets live 2 years longer than people without pets (keep in mind this is appropriate pets like cats or dogs. Having an inappropriate pet such as monkeys or big cats will probably shorten your life by a lot more than 2 years). Maybe it's just because I'm a pet person, but this seems like common sense to me. Some things are obvious, like a dog needs to be taken outside to go to the bathroom which requires you to get off your butt and go outside. Or seeing eye dogs keep their owners from crossing the street when a car is coming. But some of the research I've found is not quite so obvious. Here's a few examples:

A study done by the Minnesota Stroke Institute found that people who own cats are 30% less likely to suffer a heart attack. And psychologists have found reason to believe that owning a dog helps lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. Pets also help us to deal with stress, which can cause illness.

Zia- my miniature pinscher 

Apparently dogs can also smell bladder cancer in a patient's urine.  "Although the dogs were not accurate all the time, they identified the right patients at a rate much better than chance." 
Dogs have been used for years to help their owners during an epileptic seizure. They can get help by either finding another person or activating a pre-programmed phone, they pull potentially dangerous objects away from the persons body, they provide physical and emotional support and they carry information (usually in a backpack or a pouch on their collar) about the owners medical condition, instructions for first responders, emergency medication, etc.  Some of these dogs have developed the mysterious ability to warn their owner when he or she is about to have a seizure. Researchers can't explain it, but apparently these dogs start warning their owners approximately a year after living with them. 

Studies show that kids who grow up with furry friends are less likely to develop allergies or asthma. And they are better equipped to deal with emotional turmoil such as a death in the family.

Irma- my rat. 

Rats make remarkable pets. They are smart, easily trained and very affectionate.

 However, they are also very social, so if you are not willing to spend time

 with them everyday I'd suggest getting more than one. 

Alzheimer's patients have fewer "anxious outburts" if they are in a home with a pet. Interactions with animals helps to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system in elderly patients, which helps the body rest and digest properly (thank you Dr. Ackman for cramming that little chunk of knowledge into my brain). 
As part of it's medical screening process Midland Life Insurance Company asks clients over age 75 if they have a pet at home, a positive answer will usually tip the scale in their favor. 

I could go on and on about all of the reasons to go to your local shelter and find yourself a new friend, but who am I kidding? If you're the kind of person who's going to make a trip to the shelter, you don't need me to talk you into it... and, in my experience, a trip to the shelter NEVER ends with me going home alone. 

Winston (left) is my roommate's dachshund (he's also the only boy in our house), Leia (center) is my roommie's yellow lab & Suki (right) is my aussie/ border collie mix...

Yeah- we plan to live forever in this house. 

Among the Great Apes by Paul Raffaele

I'll be honest- I had a really hard time getting through this book. I just didn't like the author's attitude. He made snide remarks about the locals, made a point of stating only what the (extremely underfunded) sanctuaries were doing wrong, and bullied the real experts into saying what he wanted them to say & if they didn't he'd just say something along the lines of "this is what he/she said- but they're wrong" without giving the reader any reason to believe that the expert is wrong except that he says so. At one point he even makes a volunteer feel bad for spending $4000 to volunteer at an ape sanctuary because "she could have given them the money she spent on a plane ticket as well" as if physical labor isn't also needed at sanctuaries. Obviously this is a guy who's never actually had to spend a day hauling crates of food around, maintaining enclosures or shoveling shit- I know I speak for most sanctuary employees when I tell you that we LOVE our volunteers.
These examples are not constants in the book (each example only happened once or twice), but because they happened at all, I felt like they poisoned the entire book.

Paul Raffaele is no expert. He's a travel journalist by trade who's written two other books, Among the Cannibals (Apparently he's not very creative with book titles either) and The Last Tribes on Earth.
 I have a hard time believing someone who tries to prove he's comfortable with animals by putting this picture on the back of his book:

He may be comfortable with animals, but he's not very smart with them. 

I will give him this; he's passionate about saving these animals, and his book does have some heart-warming stories & a call to action at the end. 

Hip(hop)opotamus

With all of the fearsome animals living in Africa (lions, hyenas & crocodiles to name a few), I think you'll be surprised by whats considered the most dangerous animal in Africa. It's the hippopotamus (unless you count bugs as animals, in which case the most dangerous "animal" in Africa is the mosquito because it spreads malaria). Imagining someone getting attacked by a hippo sounds kind of comical, but no matter how silly it may look 4 tons of angry animal coming at you is bound to do some damage.

Yeah- it definitely looks funny, but this park ranger

 had to sprint over 100 yards to escape with his life.

Hippos are very territorial. They are most likely to attack if you get between them and deep water or if you get between them and a young hippo, but that doesn't mean you're safe if you don't do those things. They may attack just because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or they didn't like the way you were looking at them, or any number of other reasons.

Their huge canine teeth (tusks) can grow to be the size of bowling pins and they can actually bite a crocodile in half. Although they usually choose not to, they are capable of running up to 30 mph, much faster than most humans (the average running speed of a person is 12-15 mph sprinting & 5-8 mph long distance). Hippos are responsible for more human deaths per year than all other African wildlife.

They're even dangerous when they're dead!! Hippo skin is two inches thick, which makes it ideal for making whips. Whips made from hippo skin are called kiboko (the Swahili word for hippo) and they are capable of killing a man in only 10 blows.

Just in case their large size, bad temper, surprising speed, huge teeth and thick skin wasn't enough to scare you off... they also sweat blood. ... Ok, not really. Their skin secretes an oily red substance that helps to protect them from the sun, but it looks like they're sweating blood.

Even the late Steve Irwin (a man who we all know to be fearless) has said that a five minute sequence where his camera team had to cross a river filled with hippos was the single most dangerous moment ever filmed on his show.

Another Zoo Story

I realized that I told you that I fell in love with the rhinos while working at the zoo, but I never actually told you the story behind that.

I was at the zoo for three months as a Vet. Tech. intern. Four days a week I was working in the hospital, but one day a week I got to go out and work with the keepers. One of the first animals I got to work with outside of the hospital were the rhinos. The zookeepers obvious favorite was the baby. She was full grown by the time I was working there but she was born at the zoo and was still the youngest rhino there, so she was the baby. She had vitiligo (the Michael Jackson disease), so she had large pink spots all over her body. This meant that she couldn't go on exhibit because she couldn't be in the sun for that long.

The keepers had made it their morning ritual to go say hello to her before starting their day. They all crowded around petting her and cooing. When they left to do their work, she'd cry for awhile, sad to lose all of the attention. But they'd come back periodically throughout the day to say hello.

This is Tucker (not Rudy), but he was pretty darn cute too. 

Being new to the group and not a normal keeper, I hung back during their morning love fest. I'm glad that I did, because if I hadn't I never would have met Rudy. I glanced over and there he was, a huge male rhino with the longest horn I'd ever seen on a rhino (admittedly not a huge accomplishment, seeing as how the only rhinos I'd seen at the time where the 4 at the zoo). He was standing there looking at me between the bars with his horn pointed away from me (as if he was trying to let me know that he wouldn't hurt me) and the back of his head facing the bars, like a cat waiting for you to scratch it behind the ear. How could I resist? I stuck my hand through the bars and scratched him on the soft spot behind his ear. He pushed his head closer to the bars and even rubbed them alittle (once again, like a cat begging to be pet). I stayed as long as they would let me, scratching all of his soft spots (behind the ears, under the eyes, the armpit, belly, groin...). Eventually, they made me stop petting Rudy and actually do some work. Every time I walked past his enclosure he would walk with me on the other side of the fence. You can imagine that rhino enclosures are somewhat large and it was nice to have the company for the walk.

I spent my lunch break petting him and playing with him. You know that game you play with dogs where you run really fast then suddenly jump and face him and the dog gets really excited and play bows? Rudy did that.

After that day, we were best buddies. He'd always come up to the fence to say hi, even when he was on exhibit. I'd go out to the public area to "get a drink" and he'd see me and come over. Even though he couldn't get close enough to get a rub down or a tasty morsel, he still wanted to say hello- the visitors loved that. I loved it too. The medical crew had a different uniform than the other employees and the animals knew that the ones in blue were the ones that caught, poked and prodded them. The  other animals hated us, the gorillas would run up and pound on the bullet proof glass every time we walked by (another thing that the visitors loved), but Rudy didn't care, he liked me no matter what my job was.

The kiss of death?

There are only three species of venomous snakes that live in Iowa and all of them are endangered or threatened in that state, so I never really had to worry about them before. Now that I've moved to Texas, I do have to worry about them. Venomous snakes are just as common here as the nonvenomous ones. In fact, the only snake I've seen so far was venomous. I think it might have been a cottonmouth, but it was getting dark and hard to be sure.

I can't identify which species of snake I'm looking at yet, but I do know how to tell if they are venomous or not. Most people know to look at the shape of its head. Venomous snakes have a more diamond shaped head while nonvenomous snakes have a rounder head.

But there are exceptions to that rule. So you have to look at a few other things to know for sure. Nonvenomous snakes have round pupiled eyes, a curved "nose," and larger scales on their head.
The Venomous snakes have slit pupils (like a cat), a pointed "nose," and small scales on their head

A Zoo Story

Doing my interview at the primate sanctuary has me thinking about my time at the zoo. I thought some of you would enjoy this story.

One of my projects during my internship at the zoo was to help train a gorilla to let us take his blood. Before entering the gorilla housing area they explained the rules to us. This is the short version of what they told us:
Don't look them in the eyes- that's considered a threat. Don't stand taller than them- that's considered a threat. There are lines painted on the floor, stay between those lines because if one of these guys can even get a finger on you- he'll rip you to shreds before we can even react. And (now that I've scared the crap out of you), they are going to charge you, don't act scared- that'll only make it worse. Keeping in mind the fact that I was scared enough to piss my pants at that point- how do you walk crouched down, staring at the floor and not look scared?

I didn't have a digital camera at the time. This is a picture that the other

 intern took-they're teaching this gorilla to let them do an ultrasound of his heart. 

It ended up not being that bad and I'm glad that they told me all of that or I probably would have done something dumb and gotten myself into trouble, but at the time it seemed sort of silly to tell us all of that then say "Don't act scared."

Kicked, Bitten & Scratched

A Book Review

A fantastic book for animal lovers, especially those working in the animal care field.

This is a non-fiction book about a reporter who attends Moorpark Community College's EATM program (a school for exotic animal trainers) for one year and writes about her experiences.

The book covers some pretty heavy topics, but overall the author (Amy Sutherland) keeps it light hearted and fun. Although, you don't have a main character to fall in love with and really care about, you find yourself rooting for each and every one of the students and animals.

***Warning: This book may cause impulsive urges to quit your job, pack up everything you own and drive to California to enroll in these classes.

Animal Alphabet

I actually stole this picture from a friend of mine who writes a blog about his adventures teaching abroad. Ignorance Is Bliss. I got a kick out of it and I thought you might enjoy it as well.

Monkey Business- Working Interview

I just got back from a working interview at a primate sanctuary. I'll save you the suspense and let you know that I was offered the job and I do intend to take it. I thought that some of you might be interested in knowing what a normal day of work would be like for me.

Oh- before I get started, I should probably mention that I had to sign an agreement saying that I wouldn't post any pictures that I took at the sanctuary (this is standard operating procedure at most sanctuaries), so none of these pictures were taken by me.

I flew into town the night before my interview. The sanctuary does supply temporary on-site housing for it's employees. An oil boom in the area has caused an influx of workers and there just aren't enough places to live. The other new animal caretaker started a few weeks before my interview and she told me about some of the places she had looked at already. One apartment complex was charging $800 a WEEK per person! She did end up finding an affordable apartment but there was quite a wait. So the fact that the sanctuary provides housing is a huge help.

Another obstacle to   moving there is that it is a very rural area. It's approx. an hour and a half drive from the airport to the sanctuary and we stopped 20 minutes into the drive to get groceries for my stay. All I could think was "There's no way I'll be able to support my ice cream addiction here." It turns out that the gas stations carry most of your grocery needs there just aren't as many options. This, I can handle- I'll just need to learn to plan ahead alittle better. Right now I live a block from the grocery and only buy food for 1-3 days.

Anyway, this is going to become a very long blog entry if I don't start telling you about my day. The days there start at 7:00 (alittle early for my taste, but I'll get used to it). Everybody punches in at the office then heads over to the feed room where food was counted out the night before. Here, we split into two groups. The first group went off to feed the main enclosure, pelka (named for one of the original monkey's descendants who split off from the main group and made her own. Eventually, her group grew large enough that they needed their own enclosure) and the semi-natural enclosures (used as temporary housing for new primates and when introducing primates to each other, so they can be better monitored). I went with the second group to feed the Northwest enclosure, baboons, long tails and cats (yes, cats. I'll explain that in a bit).

We did Northwest first. It was pretty straight forward, we basically transferred all of the food from the crates to a wheelbarrow then walked around inside the enclosure, stopping occasionally to throw food out to the monkeys. There were also some large water tubs that needed to be dumped, cleaned, and refilled. During this time we tried to look at all of the monkeys and note abnormal behaviors or injuries. There were two blind monkeys that we had to find and hand some food to.

Next we did baboons. I did not get to go in with the baboons (nor did I want to. I don't have a lot of experience with primates, but I have enough to be scared of baboons).

Instead there is a small part of the enclosure that is gated off with guillotine type doors so we could close the doors and lock the baboons out of that area. Then we go in and clean up the old food, give fresh food, and clean water. Once we were done, we opened the trap door and the baboons came in to eat.

Then we did the long tails. These guys had one natural enclosure, which was done similar to Northwest and a few semi-natural enclosures. The long tails were all ex-research and prone to getting worms because they were raised in such sterile conditions, so they are fed on feeding tables instead of on the ground.

Finally we did the cats. This enclosure has about 40 cats that have been abandoned at the sanctuary over the years and then bred. The enclosure is meant to keep predators out not to keep the cats in, but the cats stay in because that's where they are fed. I should also mention that the monkeys can get out of the natural enclosures. This is done on purpose so that if one monkey is being picked on, they can get away. So there are a few free roaming monkeys around the sanctuary. Those monkeys are called "the trustees."

After that we went back to the feed room to count out dry food and wait for the produce truck, which comes every Wed. I'm told that this weeks truck was a small one, but by the time we were done my arms were shaking and I was out of breath.

Once the truck was unloaded into the cooler, we went to lunch. Normally, they bring their lunch and eat on property, but since I was there it was a special occasion and we went out. We went to one of the small towns near by and ate at what I gather was one of the two restaurants in town.

After lunch we counted out produce for the next day then the manager took me around to see the enclosures that I hadn't worked with in the morning, she also showed me the construction being done so they could take in 130 primates from another sanctuary that has gone bankrupt, and pointed out all of the things that she hoped to improve in the existing enclosures.

Then it was time for meds. There are two monkeys with arthritis that get a pain reliever every night as well as a rotating de-worming schedule.The arthritic monkeys are weary of new people so I didn't get ot give them their meds, but I did get to hand out the cherry flavored de-wormer. One of the females decided that one "cookie" wasn't enough and she grabbed my arm trying to get another. It wasn't a violent grab, but her fingernails dug in and she left a bruise.

The last thing I got to do at my "interview" was to hand out bananas to all of the semi-natural enclosures and the trustees (so the don't try to steal them from the semi-natural enclosures). Some of the monkeys would come up and take the banana from me, others I had to toss it in for them. The only black crested macaque at the sanctuary was one of them that would take it from my hand. There are lots of snow monkeys, long tails, baboons, and bonnet macaques, but only one black crested macaque. As the odd ball out- he was instantly my favorite.

This picture is really cool. The black crested macaque stole 

someones camera and took a picture of herself, then gave it back. 

While handing out bananas, I also met a snow monkey who came from a zoo where he was housed with no other monkeys and therefore needs to work on his social skills. He's in transition so he is still in an enclosure by himself where he can see the other monkeys but he can't reach them. He's conflicted. He so desperately wants to be groomed, but he knows that he shouldn't be interacting with humans. So he'll offer his back to be scratched but once you start scratching he'll turn around and show his teeth in a threat. Sure enough, that's exactly what he did when I made my rounds. What do you do when a monkey is threatening you? You  avoid eye contact, hand him his banana, and move on. 

At the end of the day I was tired, soar, bruised, scratched, dirty, and happier than I can remember ever being. 

Land of the Leopard

The Russian government has created a new national park. It opened on April 9th in the Russian Far East and it's 1,011 square miles will be a safe place for critically endangered Amur (Siberian) tigers and the Far Eastern Leopard, which is the worlds rarest big cat (there are only approx. thirty surviving today). The park was created through the merger of three existing protected areas and the addition of some previously unprotected land along the Chinese border and in the northeast portion of the leopards range.

This park is one of 13 new national parks and 9 new national reserves to be opened in Russia!! That will mean that 3% of Russia's landmass will be protected. Some of you might be thinking 3% isn't that much, but keep in mind that Russia is HUGE. 3% of Russia's lanndmass is 197,784 square miles, for all of you Americans who read my blog- that's approx. the size of Texas. 

WAY TO GO RUSSIA!!! 

On a completely unrelated note: My personal life is very busy right now, so I apologize in advance if it takes a few weeks for me to post anything new to my blog. 

Bonobo Handshake: A book review

Before reading this book; I couldn't tell you anything about bonobos except that they're like chimps who have a  lot of sex, I couldn't tell you anything about life in war ravaged Congo except that the war has something to do with diamonds, and I certainly couldn't tell you anything about meeting, falling for, marrying & living with the love of your life. Now... well... some things you just have to experience for yourself. But I am confident that if any of those subjects were to come up in a conversation, I could keep myself from looking like a complete idiot (celebrate the small victories folks).

This isn't just an adventure story about a girl living in the Congo, working with apes. This isn't just a love story about how she fell in love with her husband or how she fell in love with the bonobos or how she fell in love with a country and it's people. This isn't just a war story about death, violence, torture, anguish and loss. This story is alittle bit of all of those things but when you put them all together, it's something more. It's a story about life, and life never fits nicely into one genre or another.

Terror bird

I was reading an article about the difference between Old World Vultures (found in Europe, Asia and Africa) and New World Vultures (found in North and South America). It was really interesting, we've known for a long time that old world vultures are in the raptor family but there's been an ongoing debate about new world vultures. At first they were thought to be raptors as well (descended from other birds of prey), after studying their behavior and DNA there was some thought that they were descended from stocks, but now the discovery of some prehistoric skeletons suggest that they are actually a family of their own.

The image on the left is a California Condor- a New World Vulture. California Condors are the largest flying bird on Earth (it weighs 18-20 lbs)
__________________
The image on the right is a Hooded Vulture- an Old World Vulture

This is one of the New World (Turkey) Vultures that lives at the raptor center that I work at. Her name is Aura and based on her attitude- she KNOWS she's beautiful

The part of the article that was really interesting for me was the description of the prehistoric vulture. These birds were up to 7 feet tall, had a wingspan of 20 feet and weighed 120 lbs (and they could still fly!). For those of you who are familiar with the Macbride Raptor Project, this bird (with its wings out-stretched) would be as long as our clinic building and only slightly shorter. Imagine if these birds were still around; it would certainly make my job (catching and treating sick and injured birds of prey) a LOT more interesting.

I couldn't find a picture of the prehistoric vulture, but I really wanted to share this picture with you. The caption was "dinosaur-like terror bird"

A Tale of Two Tortoises

Well, actually it's two tales of two tortoises, but that doesn't have the same ring to it.

The first tortoise's name is Freeway:

John Formby saw him trying to cross the M25 motorway in London. At first he thought it was a bit of debris, but as he got closer he saw that it had a head & as he sped by, he noticed that it was moving! As soon as he realized that the tortoise was still alive, he pulled to the side of the road and ran back 400 yards to retrieve it. But he had to wait for a break in traffic. Mr. Formby watched anxiously as three cars sped over the helpless reptile. Luckily, none of the cars hit the tortoise and he passed under the vehicles safely.
After running out to save the stranded animal, John stopped for a lunch of lettuce and tomatoes on the way to the vet.  At the veterinarians office they checked him for injury and found that he was microchipped- in America.
They decided to call him Freeway for now because that is the American word for Motorway (I'm American and I don't think I've ever referred to any road by either of those names until this article).
Freeway is a Hermann's tortoise thought to be approx. 10 years old. He is in very good health and well cared for & with the information from the microchip there is a good chance that he will be returned to his family.

The second tortoise's name is Chelonoidis elephantopus.

After being "extinct" for 150 years, it looks like they may be making a come back. When studying the genomes of a closely related species which lives on Isobela Island (the largest of the Galapagos Islands), it was found that there are 84 hybrid offspring between the two species, 30 of those hybrids are less than 15 years old. Given that these tortoises have a 100 year lifespan, it's not a long stretch to think that some of these hybrids parents are still alive. If researchers can find this hidden population, they're optimistic that they can set up a breeding program. 

 Isobela Island lies about 200 miles (322 kilometers) from Floreana Island, where C. elephantopus was last spotted before disappearing, likely due to hunting by whalers.

Planet of the Apes

Apes can laugh. Not only that, but they're better at it than us! While humans only laugh during the exhale, then have to stop to breath- apes can laugh during both the inhale and exhale.

They don't all laugh the same either. Orangutans produce a series of short laughs (heeheeheehee), while chimps, gorillas and bonobos make longer laughing noises (haaaa haaaaa haaaaa). This happens most often when they are playing, wrestling or being tickled. Here's a video:

Martin Ross of Discovery News also commented that the apes that are genetically closer to humans have more human sounding laughs.

Here's some other ways apes act like us (or we act like apes):
*They shake their head "no" to tell their children not to play with their food, climb into dangerous situations or bother unfriendly males.
*They recognize faces. Primates have been found to be able to pick out a face in a crowd (primate faces, not human faces).
*They use tools and play with toys. Here's the interesting part about this one- they use gender specific toy. Females are more likely to choose plush, doll type toys while males are more likely to play with toys with wheels, like toy trucks.
*Injustice upsets them. When a group of capuchin monkeys was taught to trade off a small granite stone for a treat, and the monkeys were given unequal treats (the first monkey was given a grape and the second was given a cucumber), the entire group got very angry about the unfair treatment.

Rhino Rescue

Alright- It's time for me to suck it up and write about the rhinos. I've been avoiding it because it's a subject that's very near and dear to my heart & I'm afraid that I won't be able to do it justice. And I really want to influence people to care about it, even though it's not right in our back yard. But, if I keep putting it off, then I'll never write about it & I won't be influencing anyone that way... So here goes:

By now, you've probably heard that the Western Black Rhino was officially declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Nov. 10, 2011.
Let me take a minute to clarify: when the IUCN declares a species extinct, that doesn't necessarily mean what you might be thinking it means. There ARE still some Western Black Rhinos alive in zoos and exotic animal sanctuaries.  However, there are no more wild animals of this species.

A mama and baby rhino. Aren't they cute?!

This was big news not that long ago, but most of what I saw written about it was very vague and not very informative. I found that these and other rhino species (the Northern White Rhino and the Javan Rhino are both considered "probably extinct" in the wild) were hunted to extinction by poachers, and that approximately 1/4 of all the worlds mammals are at risk of extinction (WOW- that's a lot... the Red List of endangered species contains over 62,000 species of plants and animals that are "endangered"!!) While both of those facts suck, neither was very surprising to me (most of us already know that the rhinos biggest threat are poachers and that there are a LOT of endangered species). I had two questions in particular that I had to do quite a bit more digging to find answers to. #1, what makes rhino horns so valuable & #2, what's being done to prevent other rhinoceros species from meeting the same fate?

The answer to my first question: What makes rhino horns so valuable? was pretty straight forward- people are greedy. Although it is true that in some places of the world simply owning a rhino horn is a coveted status symbol, this is not the main demand for them. The poaching of rhinos spiked shortly after the Longhui Pharmaceutical Company announced that it planned to sell rhino horn as a cancer treatment in 2005. They marketed it as "natural and without side effects" (I would say the execution of an entire species is a pretty big side effect, but I know that's not the kind of side effect they're talking about). Now, this pharmaceutical company can pretty much charge whatever they want. People will pay just about any amount for something that they believe cures cancer (and they do- rhino horn sells for $57,000/kg [one kg = 2.2 pounds]). But here's the really unethical part about this- there is absolutely no reason to believe that rhino horn has any curative properties whatsoever! These horns are made of keratin (the same protein that makes up human hair & nails) and nothing else. Scientists have done round after round of tests on keratin and determined that it has no use in medicine.

My second question was not quite so straight forward. What's being done to prevent other rhinoceros species from becoming extinct as well? ... Well, a whole lot of arguing about what the best next step is, is what's being done.
There is an internet petition to deny bail to all suspected rhino poachers. Unfortunately, it requires 50,000 signatures to even be considered & the last time I checked, they hadn't even gotten to 7,000. Here's the link to sign the petition if you're interested:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-bail-for-rhino-poachers/
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) hopes to establish new populations on new land by moving rhinos from high density areas to lower density areas. This will encourage them to breed faster. But there are quite a few kinks in this plan. For one thing, the land owners have to agree to allow the rhinos to be moved to their land and people do not want rhinos on their land because it brings poachers, guns, illegal activity and violence. Even without the poachers, it's a hard sale because there are very few benefits to having them around. The second problem that this plan has encountered is that by spreading out the rhino population, it makes it a lot harder to guard them, which means it makes them even more vulnerable to poachers. Regardless, the WWF has moved forward with it's plan and they seem to be showing some success.

A rhino being relocated (via helicopter) to its new home.

In South Africa (home to 93% of the continents rhinos) the government is considering dehorning the animals to make them less attractive to poachers. Even though veterinarians are able to tranquilize the rhinos and remove safe amounts of their horn without harming the animal, you can just imagine what animal rights groups are saying about that idea. 

Another idea seemed simple enough, increase the amount of rangers patrolling the borders of the Kruger National Park (home to one of the largest populations of rhino in Africa with approx. 19,500 white rhino and 1,700 black rhino). In 2011, 57 new rangers were hired and the government even deployed soldiers to help patrol the border. While this solution decreased poaching in the park, it also displaced poaching activities to other areas such as private reserves and game farms. 

I had such a hard time picking this picture (there are so many good ones). Do yourself a favor and image search Kruger National Park.

And the final option being discussed (and fought over) is the legalization of the sale of those horns acquired legally (when a rhino dies of natural causes or if they do end up dehorning the wild populations). I know this sounds crazy, but right now South Africa has a stockpile of these horns that they can't (legally) do anything with. The thought is, selling these horns will flood the market, bringing the price of the horns down and "taking the criminals profit incentive out of it." Then the money made from selling the horns can be used to finance further protection of the rhinos. This plan has obvious flaws, 1. How can we tell which horns were acquired legally and which ones were acquired through poaching? 2. We do not know how big the demand is or if the stockpile will even meet the demand. And 3. If you legalize it, more people will be willing to buy it. Studies show that when elephant tusks were sold legally, there has also been a spike in elephant poaching. 

So basically, there are a lot of options, but there's no way to tell which will bring results (I know- not exactly the answer you were looking for. I was just as disappointed, but at least now we know that people ARE trying to figure out a way to save these magnificent creatures). 

I had to put in a gruesome picture- you know, to really drive my point home. But don't worry- we'll leave on a happier note. Just keep reading =)

I do have a success story to share with you today though! At the end of the 19th century, the Southern White Rhino's wild population was down to below 100 animals. Now, thanks in part to captive breeding programs, their numbers are over 20,000. So there is hope! 

Southern White Rhinoceros with calf

I tried to avoid using too many statistics, but if you're interested- here's a link:

http://www.stoprhinopoaching.com/statistics.aspx 

You Read Me Like a Book

I have a problem. I'm a reader- this is not my problem. The problem is that I'm in a rut. For, oh, about the last year, the only books I've read were some variation of magical detective books (The Dresden Files, Day of First Sun, Random Stranger, Sandman Slim, The Blue Electric Angels series (can't think of the actual name of that one)... you get the idea. Don't get me wrong- there's nothing wrong with these books, hey, if they weren't excellent I wouldn't have read them exclusively for the last year. But it's sort of like eating steak, it's great every once in awhile but if you eat it for every meal- it sort of loses it's charm.

Luckily, there is a really easy solution to that: read/cook something else. So, to motivate myself to read a different genre, I've decided to do a book review on this blog every, oh, I don't know, couple of months. Since it's a wildlife blog, the books that I review will be wildlife/animal/nature themed. Probably, mostly fiction since that's what I prefer to read but I'll mix it up with some non-fiction as well. So- If anyone has any suggestions of book that would (even vaguely) fit into that category, please oh please let me know.

Sniffing out Trouble

Strictly speaking, this isn't a wildlife story, but it is an animal story & very interesting. So I'm calling it close enough.

I recently lost a pet, and I got a lot of weird looks when I told people that I was upset because my pet rat had just died. I spend most of my time hanging out with "animal people," so it surprised me that so many people are still biased against rats. With any luck, this story will help boost their image alitttle.

My pet rat as a baby

Mozambique, Africa was caught in a bloody civil war from 1977 to 1992. A large amount of the fighting was done indirectly using land mines. Unfortunately, now that the civil war is over, Mozambique is still riddled with land mines. It's estimated that 15,000- 20,000 deaths and injuries are caused by land mines every year.
Africa's giant pouch rats (which grow to be the size of small cats) are being trained to sniff out these mines. Their training happens in three phases. The first phase includes handling the rats every day from a very young age so they are used to people. The second phase includes teaching the rats what TNT smells like and training them to scratch at the ground when they smell it. The last phase includes bringing the rats outdoors to add other smells into the mix and practice actually digging up the mines.

Rats work especially well for this project because they don't grow large enough to set off the mines, they have an extraordinary sense of smell, and they are surprisingly easy to train. They are also a lot easier to transport than dogs, which they were using before Bart Weetjens came up with the great idea to use rats instead.

This idea sounds pretty dangerous, both for the rats and the trainers. But since the program began in 1997, there has only been one human casualty (caused by a car accident, not a land mine) and a few rats died due to moldy peanuts but no rats have been harmed by mines.

Here's a video of a rat in action (the songs kinda silly):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS1gh3QtB44

Researchers are using the same idea to train rats to sniff for tuberculosis in human spit. This is a relatively new project and there isn't too much information about it right now, but early reports sound promising! A properly trained rat can test up to 150 samples in 30 minutes, while a human using a microscope can only test 20 samples in an entire day.

Winter Wonderland

Even though this winter was the least wintery winter we've seen in Iowa for quite awhile, that didn't stop us from seeing the most snowy owls here on record. We experienced what's called an irruption. All that means is that the population of a certain kind of bird (in this case the snowy owl) grew so much that they're forced to migrate out of their normal hunting grounds to find food. The snowys irrupt every 3-5 years (woaw- that conjures up an image of birds vomiting lava), so snowy owls in Iowa are nothing new. But this years irruption was a doozie! Missouri's record for snowy owl sightings in a year was 8, this year they've already blown that number out of the water with 40 sightings. And we're not even two months into the year yet.

Experts say that thousands  these 2 ft tall, white birds crossed the border from Canada to the U.S. this year. One even ended up in Hawaii (the first one ever!) where they shot it because they were scared it would interfere with airplane landings and take offs. =/

The mass migration was so huge that Denver Holt, the head of the Owl Research Institute, has called it "the most significant wildlife event in decades." I think he might be alittle bit biased. I'd call the fact that, according to  the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one quarter of all the mammals on Earth are at risk of extinction is marginally more significant. But that's another story for another time.

The irruption started late in the fall and it's expected to end by March or April. So there's still a chance for you to see these magnificent birds for yourself! Since snowy owls are used to living in the arctic tundra, look for them in open spaces like plowed fields, airfields, golf courses, lake shores, and parks. Rough-legged hawks also live in the tundra and have similar prey choices to the snowy owls, so look for them as well.

I was lucky enough to get to treat a snowy owl this year at the clinic. It wasn't only my first snowy, it was also my first amputation, and (not coincidentally) the first surgery I've thought I might pass out during. But that's also another story for another time. So I'll leave you with a few interesting facts about snowy owls.

They are the only owls that hunt both during the day and at night, which makes sense considering that they live in an area where the sun doesn't set until after midnight during the summer and doesn't come up until after noon during the winter. They have spots (like the picture above) until they are sexually mature (approx. 2 years old) at which point the males lose all of their spots and the females lose most of their spots. The snowy owl is also known as the arctic owl or the great white owl. A group of owls can be called a bazaar, a glaring, a parliament, a stooping, or a wisdom of owls. 

A Land Down Under

This last year has been a very interesting one in my life. I graduated from college and got my first job in my chosen field. That job is as the Lab Tech for the Macbride Raptor Project. Lab Technician, however, isn't really a fair job description since my job includes so much more. I'm more like a Lab Tech, PR Representative, tour guide, Vet Tech, teacher, janitor, party planner, grant writer, volunteer coordinator,etc. Now don't get me wrong, everyone who works there takes on all of these responsibilities and more sometimes. I'm not trying to say that I do more than my fair share, if anything as a part-time employee, I do less. My degree is in Veterinary Technology so I find myself learning on the fly quite a bit.

One of my first tasks was to take the foreign exchange students from Australia for a tour of the Raptor Center. During the ride to the park, they kept pointing out the road kill for the others to see. They were so excited to see a raccoon that it didn't matter if it was dead. Luckily, I knew that we had a family of raccoons that regularly ate at our bird blind, so I took them there first and we got the treat of seeing a mama raccoon with her three babies.

I'm used to people reacting to our display birds, but these girls were awe-struck by everything from squirrels to butterflies to cardinals. I really got into it and started actively searching for animals that I normally see so often, I sometimes forget to notice them. I was amazed by how much fun I was having enjoying everyday, run of the mill, common wildlife. I suggest that everybody go out and do it!

 After that, I spent the rest of the summer seeking out opportunities to find wildlife. One of my favorite activities became rescuing snakes that were sunbathing on bike trails by picking them up and putting them in the grass where they would be safe. Suki, my Border collie/Australian shepherd mix quickly figured out what I was doing and she started to run ahead to find them for me. As a herding dog, she would never hurt them, she'd just sit down next to the snake and make sure I saw it. 

Suki relaxing after a nature walk

Now obviously, we don't all have access to Australians who will remind us to enjoy what we've been taking for granted. But I've found that small children react pretty much the same way. And most of us do have access to children.
 The Sioux Medicine Man, Black Elk said; "Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show them many things which older people miss."

Here's a list that I've started of wildlife that is most active at different times of the year. It is by no means complete & it is specific to the Mid-west:

Jan- Look for Snowy owls, rough-legged hawks and Saw-whet owls that have come south for the winter. Also look for Bald Eagles feeding below dams and in open water areas. Fox and coyote mating season starts in late Jan.
Feb- Snowy owls, Rough-legged hawks and Saw-whet owls are still in the area but starting to move back north. Deer are shedding their antlers (these make great dog treats). Bald Eagles are staking out their territory and working on their nests. Cardinals and Chickadees begin their mating calls. Chorus frogs start singing.
March- Turkey vultures return once the snow melts. Robins and bluebirds return. Owls will have nestlings (since nestlings have to eat every few hours- this is your best chance to see owls during the day). Woodcock mating display flights begin. Coyote pups are starting to explore.
April- Waterfowl are migrating. Goslings are hatching. Fox pups are coming out. Eagles have nestlings. Garder snakes are waking up from hibernation. Bobcat mating begins.
May- Red-tail hawks are nesting. Neo-tropical birds are migrating (this includes hummingbirds, warblers and orioles- put out orange slices to attract orioles). Mourning doves are cooing and mating. Bobolinks return from Argentina. Fireflies start coming out.
June- Peak butterfly and hummingbird months. Herons are nesting. Bullfrogs and tree frogs are singing. Qual and turkey are hatching. Fawns are being born.
July- Peak butterfly and hummingbird months. Goldfinch are nesting.
Aug- Muskrats are building huts and storing food. Shorebirds start migrating. Look for large flocks of swallows. Blue-winged teal and doves begin congregating for migration. Pelicans and hummingbirds start migration.
Sept- Squirrels are cutting acorns from trees. Monarchs are migrating to Mexico. Wood ducks are migrating.
Oct- Hawks are migrating. Squirrels are starting to build leaf nests.
Nov- Peak duck migration. Deer are in rut (this is the time of year when deer are most aggressive)
Dec- Rough-legged hawks, Snowy owls and Saw-whet owls return for the winter.