“It is an awe-inspiring experience to be faced with a 3-metre-long, 500 kilogram predator, the size of a racehorse, as it launches itself out of the water and slides on its belly for a couple of seconds, coming to a halt barely a metre away from where I stood, without any barrier between me and it.”
That was how Erich Fitzgerald met Sabine the leopard seal.
Leopard seals are like the lions of the Antarctic. They are huge, powerful predators, known for their brutal killing strategy. They bite penguins and seal pups with their big canines, and thrash them onto the surface of the water to flay and dismember their prey.
But Fitzgerald, David Hocking and Alistair Evans have shown that these predators can take smaller prey in a very different way. They suck krill and small fish into their mouths and sieve them in the manner of whales, by passing their mouthfuls of water through tightly interlocking teeth. It’s astonishing behaviour that allows them to dine from the top and bottom of the food chain. As Fitzgerald told me: “This is equivalent to a lion hunting down zebras, but also regularly feasting on ants or termites.
I’ve written about the story for Nature News. Head over there for the full details.
Gruffalo author inspires new generation of natural poets
Last modified: 31 October 2012
Julia Donaldson, Children’s Laureate and author of the award-winning book The Gruffalo, has launched the RSPB’s 2012 Wildverse poetry competition for children.
The competition, in partnership with Pure and Fun Kids Radio, is open for entries from young people aged under 19. Poems can be any length, about any aspect of wildlife or nature.
Julia Donaldson, head judge of the competition, says; ‘I want children to feel the wind, the rain, the sunshine, listen closely and write about what excites them. I want to hear a story in a poem about something wonderful that they have experienced.’
Julia’s ten favourite poems will be read out on air on Fun Kids Radio between 21 and 24 December. The overall winner will receive a Pure Sensia radio system with colour touchscreen, and the runners up will receive a Pure One Flow radio so they can all listen to their poems being read out on Fun Kids.
Suzanne Welch, RSPB Head of Youth and Education, says; ‘The Wildverse competition has become a really popular annual event and it’s always a treat to read through each entry and become completely absorbed in nature the way children see it.’
‘There are fewer opportunities today for children to experience nature, but it’s so vital that they do in order to feel the masses of benefits that being out in nature offers and to ensure they feel the need to look after the natural world in years to come. We hope that this will be the perfect excuse for young people to get outdoors and have an amazing time in nature that they can capture on the page.’
E-mail Wildverse entries to wildverse@rspb.org.uk or send in the post to Wildverse, RSPB Wildlife Explorers, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, SG19 2DL by Friday 23 November, 2012.
Here’s what the award stands for: “A prolific blogger is one who is intellectually productive… keeping up an active blog that is filled with enjoyable content.”
I am really honoured that Sage Doyle, with his fine blog on subjects like poetry and prose, nominated my blog for this.
Here are the rules:
1. Every winner of the prolific blogger award pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers [and link to them; and notify them about their nomination at their blogs].
2. Every prolific blogger please link back to the blog from which he/she has received the award.
I try not to nominate the same bloggers all the time for awards. Here are my seven nominees:
6. I was only ever in the USA for five minutes: the ferry from Vancouver island in Canada to Vancouver city in Canada passes through a bit of US territorial waters. On that ferry, I saw killer whales.
Kuwait City: Authorities in Kuwait warned on Thursday that they will use harsher measures to crack down on anti-government demonstrators defying bans on protest gatherings in the increasingly tense Gulf nation.
The statement came just hours after clashes between security forces and thousands of protesters who had gathered outside a prison in Kuwait City last evening to demand the release of an opposition leader, Musallam al-Barrack, who is under investigation for allegedly insulting Kuwait’s emir.
Kuwait last week banned any public gathering of more than 20 people in attempts to quash growing protests led by opposition factions that include Islamists, which is seeking to reclaim control of parliament in elections planned for December 1.
The outcome is seen as a pivotal moment in Kuwait’s political showdowns.
…
Kuwait’s deepening political crisis could bring further rifts in one of Washington’s most important Gulf allies, which now hosts the bulk of US ground forces in the region following America’s withdrawal from Iraq. Kuwait has the most politically empowered parliament among the Gulf Arab states, with opposition lawmakers often directly challenging government officials over alleged corruption and power abuses.
But Kuwaiti officials have taken a hardline position as protests have moved to the streets. Kuwait’s Interior Ministry said forces will “firmly” confront any new demonstrations. …
Oil-rich Kuwait has not faced widespread unrest since the Arab Spring uprisings erupted last year across the Middle East, but political battles and labor upheavals have stalled many development plans and rewritten the rules on political dissent.
Tensions are rising in oil-rich Kuwait and Bahrain with the two monarchies finding it hard to contain the growing popular protests. In Kuwait, police used tear gas and smoke canisters on Wednesday to disperse thousands of protesters.
Obama says the war in Afghanistan is winding down because the US and its allies are succeeding in their war aims. Here’s the reality from the increasing number of US soldiers suffering life-changing injuries — losing, arms, legs, eyes — in a war that is only being waged to save the faces of politicians and generals who refuse to admit that it is lost.
By Caroline Wyatt, Defence correspondent, BBC News
It is a mother’s story that is deeply moving but often painful to read, emerging from the deep wounds of the loss of an only son.
Or as Margaret Evison puts it in her opening chapter: “This is the story of a journey… through the love one has for others, the intensities of care and compassion we feel for each other and the structures we humans have built to protect ourselves from those great heights and depths. I understand more completely now: when there is love, there will also be pain and suffering.”
So far 437 British troops have now died in the war in Afghanistan. One of them was 26-year-old Lt Mark Evison, killed by a Taliban bullet as he led his men in Helmand in May 2009.
Mark survived long enough to be brought back to the UK, where he died of his wounds. His mother, father and sister were at his bedside.
Families’ anger
Three years on, Margaret’s book – Death of a Soldier, a mother’s story – is being published on Thursday.
It focuses on her experience of losing her only son, and her subsequent battles with the Ministry of Defence to find out more about the circumstances surrounding his death. The clinical psychologist began writing as she fought to come to terms with his death.
Tributes to Afghan death soldier
“In the very beginning it was therapeutic,” she says. “I would write whenever I was very upset, and I would write with no particular aim other than making myself feel better. And months later, I showed it to a friend and he said I should think about publishing it.”
But the book is also driven by anger. Margaret wants the MoD to tell her why the medical evacuation helicopter that was sent to rescue Mark was delayed, as her son’s life gradually ebbed away.
“They still haven’t told me why. After Mark’s inquest, my lawyers wrote to the MoD and they wrote back and said they didn’t have to tell me as the inquest was now over.
“I think it’s quite disgraceful that so many families end up angry with the MoD over their son or daughter’s deaths. I wasn’t angry at all until the inquest – and then I was.”
The radios Mark’s unit were issued with had also stopped working just before he was shot, leaving Margaret with even more questions.
For her, the book became a way to cope with the anguish. “It’s certainly made me more resilient about death. Because I work with cancer patients, I had to be able to talk to them without crying and for a long time, I used to well up. So it was useful in helping to deal with that.”
War doubts
It is also a chance for Margaret to pay tribute to Mark’s life, and the remarkable impact he had in his all too brief 26 years. It is clear that he was a young officer popular both with his men, and with his superiors.
Margaret also described her own journey to Afghanistan, where she went to see for herself the place her son laid down his life. Today, she is no longer sure the campaign is worth the loss of so many lives.
“On the war in Afghanistan, I’ve become more cynical about it. I went there, and was surprised by how tribal it was. It has a very different culture which wouldn’t take easily to democracy.
“Revenge is quite important there, because there is little law, so revenge has become part of the culture. And that probably hasn’t helped the Western cause at all because there will be Afghans who feel strongly about the fact that their relatives have been killed.”
She also pays tribute to the many other lives lost in Afghanistan before and since Mark’s death.
“I list the soldiers who have lost their lives there, and when you see it page after page after page, it’s quite remarkable. I feel sorry for the other families, as they’re suffering the way I am.”
USA: Kevin Martin, Truthout: If there was a draft, the war would be over in a month – if not sooner. The public wouldn’t stand for it, because this war fails miserably in meeting the real definition of a just war: here.
Fauna of Rottum has a systematic overview of all animal species ever recorded on the Rottum archipelago. Eg, jellyfish, molluscs, crustaceans, centipedes. Mammals, dragonflies and butterflies are discussed extensively as well.
The month which finished yesterday, October 2012, was a month with record numbers of visits to this blog, ever since it moved to WordPress in December 2011.
It was an improvement on the month before it, September 2012, when the 10,000 visits a month milestone was surpassed for the first time: 11,193 then.
In October, numbers nearly, but not quite, reached the 15,000 visits a month milestone: 14,973.
Really different from my December last year’s first WordPress month, of just 1,026 visits.
The most visited post of October 2012 was the home page (plus archives): 2,186 views.
First ever family tree for all living birds reveals evolution and diversification
October 31, 2012 07:06 PM
The world’s first family tree linking all living bi[r]ds and revealing when and where they evolved and diversified since dinosaurs walked the earth has been created by scientists from the University of Sheffield.
Experts used the family tree to map out where the almost 10,000 species of birds live to show where the most diversification has taken place in the world.
Researchers, from the University of Sheffield, Yale University, University of Tasmania and Simon Fraser University, say the creation of new species has speeded-up over the last 50 million years. Surprisingly, species formation is not faster in the species rich tropics, but was found to be faster in the Western Hemisphere compared to the Eastern Hemisphere as well as on islands.
As well as being the first time scientists have created a family tree for birds, it is hoped the research could help prioritise conservation efforts in a bid to save the most diverse species from extinction.
Dr Gavin Thomas, of the University of Sheffield’s Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, said: “We have built the first ever family tree showing the evolutionary relationship among the species of birds. We used fossils and genetic data to estimate the ages of all the different branches of the bird tree so that we could assess how diversity has accumulated through time. Our work is indebted to researchers from museums and universities who have collected astounding amounts of genetic data from birds around the world.”
Despite major steps forward in modern super computers it has still taken the researchers almost five years to analyse the millions of year’s worth of fossil data, DNA, maths and maps, to create this never-before-snapshot of how the thousands of birds alive made it to where they are today.
To even enable the scientists to calculate which species were more or less diverse they had to create a new “species rate” measure.
Dr Thomas added: “Diversification is the net outcome of new species arising, called speciation, and existing species going extinct. We combined this data with existing data on the geographic ranges of all living bird species so that we could map diversification across the world.
“This ‘phylogeny’ is important because it is the first that includes all living birds. It means we can ask questions about biodiversity and evolution on a global scale and gain new insight into how diversity has changed over millions of years as well as understand those changes. More widely, one way in which the phylogeny can be used, and which may not be obvious, is in helping to prioritise conservation efforts.
“We can identify where species at greatest risk of extinction are on the tree and ask how much distinct evolutionary history they represent. Some species have many close relatives and represent a small amount of distinct evolutionary history whereas others have few close relatives and their loss would represent the disappearance of vast amounts of evolutionary history that could never be recovered. Environmental change has very likely affected diversification over time. Climate change could be a part of that through its effects on the extent of different types of habitat.”
