A Clockwork Naturalist

From National Geographic daily news:

Critically endangered African antelope is last species of its kind.

Photo credit: John Warburton-Lee, Alamy

For the first time in 75 years, an entire genus of mammal may go the way of the dodo—unless a new conservation effort shepherded by Somalian herders succeeds.

The hirola, a large African antelope known for its striking, goggle-like eye markings, is the only remaining species in the genus Beatragus—and its numbers are dwindling fast, conservationists say. [full story]

Discovery News, Tim Wall, August 8, 2011 -

A North Sea wind farm may be beneficial to wildlife while producing clean energy for humans. The wind farm created new marine habitat as well as a sanctuary from shipping traffic, said researchers studying the offshore wind farm near Egmond aan Zee off the coast of the Netherlands. [full story]

ScienceDaily (May 6, 2011) -

For more than two hundred years, the question of why there are more species in the tropics has been a biological enigma. A particularly perplexing aspect is why so many species live together in a small area in the tropics, especially at some sites in the rainforests of the Amazon Basin in South America.

New research on the evolution and ecology of treefrogs, published online in the journal Ecology Letters, sheds new light on the puzzle. The patterns found in treefrogs may also help to explain the high species richness of other groups of organisms — such as trees, birds and insects — in the Amazon rainforests. [full story].

A treefrog (Osteocephalus heyeri) from the Amazonian rainforest. (Credit: Photo by Dan Moen)

From Science Daily:

A new index has been developed to help conservationists better understand how close species are to extinction. The index, developed by a team of Australian researchers from the University of Adelaide and James Cook University, is called SAFE (Species Ability to Forestall Extinction).

The SAFE index builds on previous studies into the minimum population sizes needed by species to survive in the wild. It measures how close species are to their minimum viable population size. [full story]

 

According to the authors of the SAFE (Species Ability to Forestall Extinction) index, conservationists with limited resources may want to channel their efforts on saving the tiger, a species that is at the ‘tipping point’ and could have reasonable chance of survival. (Credit: Copyright Juliane Riedl)

From The Epoch Times:

March 6, 2011 - Engine exhaust from boats may be having significant adverse health effects on endangered killer whales off the West Coast, a Canadian zoologist has found.

A two-and-a-half year study by Cara Lachmuth suggests that the orcas may be struggling with carbon monoxide emissions five times higher than those found 100 meters (328 feet) from Los Angeles freeways.

…”“Killer whales are the sentinels of the eco-system. If our top predators are doing well it generally speaks to the health of everything below them. And we definitely have a problem with our top predators.”

[full story]

Scroll down for bonus horrifying plant news!

Science News, web edition, story rundown:

01. Bats pickier about dinner than previously thought. 02. Leashing dogs has minimal impact on wild carnivore populations in northern California. 03. Proposed fossilized dinosaur heart actually just a clump of sand. 04. Sedentary and active worms evolutionarily distinct. 05. Want to reduce the spread of cane toads? Keep them away from water. [full stories]

B. marinus [kind of looks like my grandpa]

Also, this, from Science Daily:

Rising carbon dioxide is causing plants to have fewer pores, releasing less water to the atmosphere.

“As carbon dioxide levels have risen during the last 150 years, the density of pores that allow plants to breathe has dwindled by 34 percent, restricting the amount of water vapor the plants release to the atmosphere, report scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and Utrecht University in the Netherlands in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

[full story]

From Science Daily:

...Worse than anything we’ve seen in written history, according to results of a study recently appearing in the journal Science.

From Science Daily:

Leatherbacks. They are the Olympians of the turtle world — swimming farther, diving deeper and venturing into colder waters than any other marine turtle species. But for all their toughness, they have still suffered a 90 percent drop in their population in the eastern Pacific Ocean over the last 20-plus years, largely at the hands of humanity.

From the Huffington Post:

Four of the people had unusually high levels of benzene, which, according to the ISS, is a highly toxic chemical from crude oil. It has been linked to many health problems, including anemia, leukemia, irregular menstrual periods and ovarian shrinkage.