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☆ Eptesicus serotinus: Unusual mating behavior discovered in mammals for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Also known by the scientific name Eptesicus serotinus, serotine bats mate by touching their genitals together. The behavior is similar to a “cloacal kiss,” a way of mating used by many birds. The information on bat mating behavior could help with efforts to come up with a way to artificially inseminate endangered bat species. “It’s a bit of an open question how their semen really gets into the female reproductive tract. “There are more than 1,000 species of bats, and many of them are also endangered, she said.

Persons: Nicolas Fasel, ”, ” Fasel, Olivier, Fasel, Teri Orr, ” Orr, “, Alan Dixson, hadn’t, Susanne Holtze, Holtze, ’ ” Orr Organizations: CNN —, University of Lausanne, New Mexico State University, Victoria University of Wellington, Leibniz Institute for Zoo, Wildlife Research Locations: Switzerland, “, Dutch, Netherlands, Ukraine, New, New Zealand, Berlin

☆ Florida scientists are giving coral IVF treatments to help bolster dying reef
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Coral reefs are experiencing mass bleaching and die-off events due to climate change. Following a record marine heat wave this past summer, Florida's iconic coral reef experienced massive bleaching and die-offs. The water is also injected with nitrogen and phosphorus — chemical pollutants most often associated with fertilizer runoff that could exacerbate coral bleaching . Another method that the team is looking at is targeting the reproduction of coral to help boost their populations. For years, scientists have been looking for ways to make coral resistant to heat as climate change results in more marine heatwaves and healthy coral reefs continue to decline.

Persons: Ian Enochs, Enochs, Andrew Baker Organizations: Service, Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Oceanographic, Meteorological Laboratory, Wall Street Journal, quicken, BBC, Darpa Locations: Florida

Cheetahs are usually daytime hunters, but the speedy big cats will shift their activity toward dawn and dusk hours during warmer weather, a new study finds. While cheetahs only eat fresh meat, lions and leopards will sometimes opportunistically scavenge from smaller predators. But the new study found that on the hottest days, when maximum daily temperatures soared to nearly 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), cheetahs became more nocturnal — increasing their overlapping hunting hours with rival big cats by 16%. In addition to competition with lions and leopards, cheetahs already face severe pressure from habitat fragmentation and conflict with humans. The fastest land animal, cheetahs are the rarest big cat in Africa, with fewer than 7,000 left in the wild.

Persons: ”, Briana Abrahms, Bettina Wachter, Wachter, Kasim Rafiq, Rafiq —, it's Organizations: Cheetahs, Royal Society, University of Washington, “, Cheetah Research, Leibniz Institute for Zoo, Wildlife Research, Botswana Predator Conservation, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: “ Lions, Namibia, Botswana, Africa, Zambia

☆ Cheynes Beach: Dozens of whales die in mass stranding in Western Australia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Chris Lau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —More than 50 whales have died in a mass stranding event in Western Australia as officials and volunteers race to save dozens of others stuck in shallow waters, authorities said Wednesday. A pod of stranded pilot whales off Cheynes Beach in Western Australia. Toothed whales such as pilot whales that use sonar to navigate are more commonly prone to stranding than their toothless counterparts, Pirotta said. Tasmania’s largest stranding was in 2020, when more than 450 pilot whales were found. Earlier this month, a pod of more than 50 pilot whales died after a mass stranding on a northwestern Scottish island.

Persons: ”, Allan Marsh, Vanessa Pirotta, Pirotta Organizations: CNN, Facebook, Parks and Wildlife Service, Western, Southern Hemisphere Locations: Western Australia, Tasmania, Australia, Scottish

☆ Wildlife experts abandoned a washed up whale after bubbling noises heard from its gut caused concerns it would explode
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-15 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A dead 60-foot fin whale washed up on a shore in Ireland on Sunday. Experts near the dead whale, whose body washed on the beach on Sunday, noted that they heard "bubbling" when trying to cut into the whale to perform an animal autopsy. The IWDG later deemed the whale "not suitable for post-mortem examination" and abandoned it, according to a post on their site. According to the release, the Kerry city council intends to let the dead whale remain on site as it decomposes. Bloated, dead whales aren't uncommon though they can produce an unpleasant smell when they do happen.

Persons: Stephanie Levesque, Stephanie, Levesque, LiveScience Organizations: Sunday, Service, Dolphin Group, Irish Examiner Locations: Ireland, Wall, Silicon, County Kerry, Kerry, Florence , Oregon

☆ Your DNA Can Now Be Pulled From Thin Air. Privacy Experts Are Worried.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Elizabeth Anne Brown | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

That could pose dilemmas for the preservation of privacy and civil liberties, especially as technological advancement allows more information to be gathered from ever smaller eDNA samples. The results of their research, published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, demonstrate that scientists can recover medical and ancestry information from minute fragments of human DNA lingering in the environment. Forensic ethicists and legal scholars say the Florida team’s findings increase the urgency for comprehensive genetic privacy regulations. Genetic trash to genetic treasureIt has been clear for decades that fragments of our DNA cover the planet like litter. Wildlife researchers embraced environmental DNA anyway because they’re only looking for very small segments of DNA — scanning for what they call bar codes that will identify the creatures in a sample to a species level.

☆ A cross between domestic pigs and wild boars was intentionally bred in Canada. The resulting 'super pigs' escaped captivity and could be invading the US.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When the market collapsed, the "super pigs" escaped and have spread rapidly across the country. The environmentally destructive pigs may be invading the US, where feral pigs already pose problems in the South. Then the boar market peaked, collapsing in 2001, and many of the super pigs were simply let go. Others escaped, as the super pigs were stronger and more adept at getting under or over fencing. But the super pigs from Canada could easily survive the frigid winters of places like Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, or Minnesota.

☆ Factbox: Separatist insurgency in Indonesia's Papua region
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

JAKARTA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The kidnapping of 37-year-old New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens by separatist rebels in Indonesia's easternmost region of Papua has thrown a spotlight on the decades-long, low-level insurgency in the remote, resource-rich area. Here are some facts about the region and its conflict:THE GEOGRAPHY* The western half of New Guinea island is Indonesia's easternmost region, commonly referred to as Papua. * The population of the Papua region is about 4.3 million. * In 2017, armed separatists occupied several villages, threatening to disrupt operations at the nearby Grasberg copper mine. * In April 2021, rebels killed a regional intelligence chief in an ambush in the highlands.

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