Albino humpback whale off Svalbard

From Wildlife Extra:

Albino Humpback whale seen off Svalbard

White Humpback whale off Spitzbergen

October 2012. These extraordinary photos were very kindly sent to us by Dan Fisher, who is a crew member on the SV Antigua, a beautiful 3 masted sailing ship that can sail the waters off the Svalbard Archipelago in summer.  Dan spotted this beautiful white Humpback, and took some fantastic photos of the whale. Wildlife Extra believes that the whale is an albino, as we can see no colouration at all on the whale, and there does seem to be a pink tinge to his/her eyes and mouth.

White whales

White whales are unusual, but not unheard of. After Moby Dick, probably the most famous white whale is another white Humpback, known as Migaloo, who has been seen over the last 20 years off the coast of Queensland in Australia. Last October, a white Humpback calf was also seen off the Queensland Coast, and in the last few years we have also received images and reports of white Killer whales off Alaska & Russia (possibly the same whale), several white Southern right whale calves off South Australia, and an albino dolphin off Louisiana.

ALBINISM, LEUCISM AND OTHER COLOUR VARIATIONS IN ANIMALS

Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. This can result in unusual white patches appearing on the animal, or, more rarely, completely white creatures.

Albinism is a different condition. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that in albinism the eyes are usually pink or red, and albinism affects the entire animal, not just patches.

This occasionally causes very excited biologists to think they have discovered a new species, when in fact leucism is the cause of the unusual markings they have seen. Click here to see our gallery of leucistic animals and birds.

See also here.

Related articles

• Albino humpback whale spotted off Australian coast (telegraph.co.uk)
• Rare albino whale puts on a show off Australian coast (cnn.com)
• Migaloo, perhaps the world’s only white humpback whale, has been spotted off the coast of Australia! [Biology] (io9.com)
• WATCH: Rare All-White Humpback Whale Surfaces (huffingtonpost.com)
• Video: Albino Humpback Whale Off Australia’s East Coast (gadling.com)

New Greenland shark research

This video is called Encounter with the Greenland shark.

From the BBC:

22 June 2012 Last updated at 03:11

Slowest Greenland sharks hunts sleeping prey

By Victoria Gill, Science reporter, BBC Nature

Researchers have measured the swimming speed of the ocean’s slowest shark.

Data-logging tags revealed that Greenland sharks “cruise” at 0.34m per second – less than 1mph.

The study showed that, even when the languid fish embarks on a burst of speed in order to hunt, it is far too slow to catch a swimming seal.

Since the species is known to eat seals, the scientists think it probably “sneaks up on them” as they sleep under the water.

The Greenland shark was already known to be the world’s slowest swimming shark, but its sluggishness surprised the scientists.

Yuuki Watanabe from the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, who took part in the study, said that, when you account for the size of its body, it is the slowest fish in the ocean.

Previous research had revealed seal remains in the stomachs of the sharks.

“It was hard to understand,” he told BBC Nature, “because [it would seem] impossible for them to catch fast-swimming seals.”

The researcher joined Dr Kit Kovacs and Dr Christian Lydersen from the Norwegian Polar Institute, to tag Greenland sharks in the waters off Svalbard.

The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, was the latest part of an ongoing mission by the Norwegian researchers to find out what has been killing the harbour seals off Svarlbard’s [sic; Svalbard's] coast.

It was thought that Greenland sharks simply fed on the carcasses of dead seals on the seafloor, but the team recently discovered evidence that they were taking live seals.

The tagging study found that, while seals swim at about 1m per second (2mph/3km/h), the sharks’ maximum bursts of speed reached only 0.7m per second – far too slow to catch a swimming seal.

“The [tags also] told us how fast the shark moves its tail,” said Dr Watanabe.

It takes seven seconds for a single full tail sweep that propels the shark forwards.

The sharks’ speed might be limited by the energy costs of swimming in near-freezing water

The scientists also recorded the temperature of the water that the fish were swimming in, which were an icy average of 2C (36F).

The energy cost of regulating their body temperature in the almost freezing depths could be the reason for the sharks’ very limited speed.

These Arctic fish live further north than any other shark species.

In this frozen habitat, the researchers explained in their paper: “Arctic seals sleep in water to avoid predation by polar bears.

“This may leave them vulnerable to the cryptic slow-swimming predators.”

Vincent Gallucci, a shark expert from the University of Washington, US, explained that Greenland sharks may not need “to get 100% of its mouth onto its prey” in order to eat it.

“It can get an assist from a sucking action as part of its feeding process,” he told BBC Nature.

“This does make it a bit easier for a lie in wait ambush predator to consume prey that pass near its mouth.”

In the future, the scientists who embarked on this study hope to use underwater cameras, in order to record what could be the world’s slowest chase scene.

Ali Hood from the Shark Trust pointed out that, historically, Greenland sharks were targeted for oil and meat.

“It’s a long-lived species considered highly vulnerable to fishing pressure,” she told BBC Nature. “[We] welcome further research to illuminate the behaviour of this elusive species.”

Sharks in action

White death: Witness the immense power and agility of a breaching great white shark toying with its prey in glorious slow-motion
Speckled spaceship: Meet the shark that can reach lengths of 13m and are the world’s largest fish
Electric sense: The unique shape of the hammerhead shark is explained
Shark attacks: Are unprovoked shark attacks becoming more common?
Ultimate predator: The shark that can smell a seal colony from two miles away
Turtle soup: Watch tiger sharks as they return to the reef to feast on turtles

Or explore BBC Nature wildlife for more shark videos.

Biggest, fastest, fiercest

The fastest shark is thought to be the shortfin mako. The species has been recorded in excess of 20mph and can chase down some faster bony fish, such as tuna
The world’s largest shark is the whale shark, which can grow to over 13m long. This huge filter-feeder shark sifts zooplankton from the water
The smallest shark is the dwarf lanternshark. This deepwater species is found in the Caribbean Sea and reaches a maximum length of just 21cm
The shark with the largest teeth relative to its size is the largetooth cookiecutter. At only 42cm in length, this species has 17-19 rows of large lower teeth and feeds by cutting circular pieces of flesh from larger marine mammals, fish and other sharks. It has even caused problems for submarines

Source: Shark Trust

See also here.

Bee-eaters win photography prize

From Der Spiegel weekly in Germany:

05/30/2012

Wild Wonders of Europe Photo Prize Goes to Cuddling Bee-Eaters

More than 10,000 images were submitted for the annual Wild Wonders of Europe photography competition last year. Now the judges have made their selections. The winners offer a spectacular glimpse at Europe’s wild beauty.

In the tradition of one of the largest nature photo contests ever undertaken, more than 10,000 images were submitted for the “Wild Wonders of Europe” competition, but only two won the grand prize.

Hobbyists, semi-pro and professional photographers from 27 countries captured pictures of European animals in the wild between August 2010 and November 2011, and the jury chose their favorites this month.

The first-place image in the adult category came from Spaniard José Luis Rodríguez, who managed to photograph nine European Bee-eaters nestled onto a single branch together on a rainy May day. First place in the “Young Crew” youth category, went to 17-year-old Frenchman Quentin Martinez, who went underwater for a unique perspective of a marsh frog paddling along the surface.

“Both images are so colorful and have such an exotic look to them — they could have been taken in Africa or Asia. But no, they are shining examples of the beauty of our natural heritage here in Europe,” said the project’s Media Director Bridget Wijnberg in a statement.

Both have been awarded a trip to the Norway’s Svalbard archipelago this August, where they will be able to photograph polar bears, walrus, seals and birds in their native Arctic habitat.

The Wild Wonders of Europe project claims to be the world’s biggest nature photography-based conservation initiative. It began with sending 69 of Europe’s best wildlife photographers to all of Europe’s 48 countries between May 2008 and 2009 to capture images of its diverse natural beauty. It has been followed by annual online photography competitions focused on nature, plants and wildlife since then.

More bee-eater photos (not by José Luis Rodríguez, not entered for the Wild Wonders of Europe competition, not from Spain, but from Portugal) are here; along with other bird photos.

Good polar bear news from Norway

This video is about polar berar cubs.

From ScienceDaily:

Good News for Norwegian Polar Bears: PCBs Levels Down

(Mar. 30, 2012) — In a study of PCBs in polar bear cubs in Svalbard, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have found that blood levels of PCBs and related contaminants in polar bear cubs appear to have dropped by as much as 59 per cent between 1998 and 2008.

It’s never been easy to be a polar bear. They may have to go months without eating. Their preferred food, seal, requires enormous luck and patience to catch. Add to that the melting of Arctic sea ice due to climate change, and the poisoning of the Arctic by toxic chemicals, and it’s easy to see why polar bears worldwide are in trouble.

Among all the bad news, however, comes one possible bright spot. In a study of PCBs in polar bear cubs in Svalbard, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have found that blood levels of PCBs and related contaminants in polar bear cubs appear to have dropped by as much as 59 per cent between 1998 and 2008. At the same time, levels of these contaminants in their mothers were as much as 55 per cent lower over the same period.

“The levels of PCB compounds in blood samples from females are on the decline,” says Jenny Bytingsvik, a biologist at NTNU who is completing her doctoral dissertation on the findings. “For newborn, vulnerable cubs, this is a very positive trend. Reduced levels of PCBs in the mother bears’ blood mean that there is also less contamination in their milk. Even though the PCB levels we found are still too high, this shows that international agreements to ban PCBs have had an effect.”

Banned internationally since 2004

PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were once widely used as a cooling fluids and insulators in transformers and electric motors, but were banned by many industrialized countries 30 years ago because of their harmful effects on humans and animals. More recently, the global production of PCBs has been banned as of May 2004 by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, an environmental treaty designed to eliminate or restrict the production and use of persistent organic pollutants, including PCBs.

Polar bears are particularly at risk from these persistent pollutants because the chemicals are fat-soluble and increase in concentration the higher you go in the food chain. That’s a double problem for polar bears, because they are at the very top of the food chain, and their preferred foods, like seals, tend to be very rich in fat.

Fertility problems and more

In humans, PCBs are considered a neurotoxin and an endocrine disrupter, and exposure to high levels of the substances has been linked to low birth weights, delayed developmental milestones, and lower IQs in comparison with unexposed children. Overall, a number of studies have found that exposure to persistent pollutants such as PCBs during critical developmental periods is associated with a range of negative health effects in wildlife, experimental animals and humans.

In polar bears, “PCBs affect the bears’ thyroid hormones, and in the worst case can reduce the animals’ ability to survive in the tough Arctic environment,” Bytingsvik adds. “There can be negative effects on the bears’ ability to grow and thrive. The contaminants can also affect the ability of the animals to learn and may reduce their fertility.”

From mother to cub

Polar bear milk is high in fat, which also unfortunately makes it perfect for transmitting PCBs from mothers to their cubs. Bytingsvik also looked at levels of OH-PCBs, which are toxic substances created by the body when PCBs are metabolized. While OH-PCBs are still harmful, they are more likely to bind to proteins rather than dissolve in fat, which means that they are more likely to be transferred by umbilical cord blood than by milk. Another source of exposure is the cubs’ own metabolic conversion of PCBs into OH-PCBs.

In her study, Bytingsvik was able to look at polar bear blood samples from mothers and cubs that were collected in 1997 and 1998 (which she considered as 1998 for statistical purposes) and 2008. All told, she had samples from 26 mother bears and 38 cubs from the different time periods.

The bears were all sampled in the Norwegian island archipelago of Svalbard, roughly 800 km south of the North Pole. Overall, Bytingsvik found that the levels of OH-PCBs in polar bear mothers dropped by 65 per cent over the 10-year span, while the levels of PCBs dropped by 55 per cent. In cubs, the levels of OH-PCBs dropped by 50 per cent, while levels of PCBs dropped by 59 per cent over the same period. Although the bears were not sampled in exactly the same location in 2008 as in 1998 (which might itself affect PCB levels), Bytingsvik believes that the findings mainly reflect changes in exposure levels over time.

Predicting the future?

While these figures are encouraging, Bytingsvik notes that the overall levels of OH-PCBs and PCBs in the cubs are still too high. As a comparison, the 2008 concentrations of OH-PCB in cubs was roughly 90-170 times higher than levels that are known to affect thyroid hormones in human babies.

“Polar bear cubs can be much more susceptible to the effects of these kinds of environmental contaminants than adults because they are in a vulnerable phase of growth and development,” she says.

Bytingsvik’s research is part of a larger international project to assess the condition of polar bears in the Arctic called BearHealth. The Norwegian leader of the project, Bjørn Munro Jenssen, is Bytingsvik’s supervisor. He says her findings are definitely good news.

“PCBs are considered to be among the worst environment contaminants, so it’s good to see that the levels have gone down,” he said. “At the same time, we can’t forget that animals in the Arctic are exposed to a number of other environmental pollutants that are carried northward on the wind or by ocean currents. On top of that, there’s climate change. This creates big challenges for many species.”

Patchy Polar Bears Puzzle Scientists: here.

Polar bears showing signs of disease that killed seals in Alaska in 2011: here.

Shoot Down Polar Bear Trophy Hunts: here.

Arctic: plesiosaur and ichthyosaur fossils found on Svalbard

The BBC reports:

‘Monster’ fossil find in Arctic

By Paul Rincon

Science reporter, BBC News

Norwegian scientists have discovered a “treasure trove” of fossils belonging to giant sea reptiles that roamed the seas at the time of the dinosaurs.

The 150 million-year-old fossils were uncovered on the Arctic island chain of Svalbard – about halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole.

The finds belong to two groups of extinct marine reptiles – the plesiosaurs and the ichthyosaurs.

Ichthyosaurs bore a passing resemblance to modern dolphins, but they used an upright tail fin to propel themselves through the water.

Plesiosaurs are said to resemble descriptions of Scotland’s mythical Loch Ness monster.

They used two sets of powerful flippers for swimming and came in two varieties – one with a small head and very long neck, and another with a large head and short neck.

The short-necked varieties are known as pliosaurs.

The discovery of a gigantic pliosaur, nicknamed The Monster, was one of the most remarkable discoveries of the expedition.

Its skeleton has dinner-plate-sized neck vertebrae, and the lower jaw has teeth as big as bananas.

Tooth in the neck

The skeleton is not yet fully excavated, but its skull is about 3m long, suggesting the body could be more than 8m from the tip of its nose to its tail.

“What’s amazing here is that it looks like we have a complete skeleton.

No other complete pliosaur skeletons are known anywhere in the world,” said Dr Hurum.

The researchers even found evidence of an attack on one of the creatures.

An ichthyosaur tooth is embedded in a neck vertebra from one plesiosaur belonging to the genus Kimmerosaurus.

The fossil hoard comprises 21 long-necked plesiosaurs, six ichthyosaurs and one short-necked plesiosaur.

The bones were unearthed in fine-grained sedimentary rock called black shale.

See also here.

And here.

And here.

And video and text here.

Ichthyosaur species from Canada: here.

These big marine reptiles are not dinosaurs, as this article claims wrongly.

Sunflowers in a hothouse in Svalbard, see here.

Related articles

• Ancient ‘Super-Croc’ Fossil Discovered in Museum Drawer (livescience.com)
• Ichthyosaur Fossil (jurassicoast.wordpress.com)
• New pterosaur species discovery by four-year-old girl (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Toyota Ad Scotland (judysp.wordpress.com)
• New Species of Prehistoric Marine Super-Predator Identified (natureworldnews.com)
• How Dinosaurs Grew the World’s Longest Necks (livescience.com)
• Brazil unveils ‘most complete fossil’ (skynews.com.au)