Zoos - What Are They Actually For?

Let talk about Zoos. I’m sure that majority of the people reading have been to a Zoo, recently or when they were younger potentially on a school trip or a family holiday, and nearly everyone loves seeing the exotic animals in their enclosures. I have always loved going to Zoos as they provide an opportunity to see animals which you might never have a chance to see, due to distance or their rarity, they also serve as good motivation to show why we need to make a difference if we want to continue to see these animals in the world. One of the best Zoos I have ever been to was Taronga Zoo in the heart of Sydney and if you are ever there I would defiantly recommend that you find the time to visit it.

Now Zoos are an organisation which can be quite controversial, there are always images in the media which show animals in terrible condition in small cages in very poor conditions. This is of course a situation that no one should every condone, Sea World in America has been in the media a lot recently due to the fact that they keep Orcas in extremely small tanks and their captivity dramatically reduces the animals life expectancy. It’s sad to say that Zoos in developing countries tend to be general worst for their animal care than Zoos in more developed countries, of course this isn’t always the case as is can be seen in Sea World. But there are differences, all Zoos are profit organisations and are a business with the aim to make money, but some are a lot better than others.

I don’t want to talk about the bad sides of Zoos, I instead want to bring to everyone attention a lot of the good work Zoos do in terms of conservation of endangered animals. Within Europe in 2002 it became a legal obligation for Zoos to participate in ex situ conservation, and this law was fulling incorporated into UK Zoos in 2003. Every year Zoos from across the world spend millions on conservation efforts for both captive and wild animals. Information about a specific Zoo can be found in either the information boards within the Zoos or on their websites so it’s always worth reading before and during you time at the Zoo.

For instance one of the main things Zoo partake in is captive breeding schemes, these are becoming more and more important as wild population experience declines a larger captive population is needed to maintain genetic diversity and  this required the detailed stud books to be kept. Clearly it would be better not to have to worry about this sort of thing but that is no longer a luxury we can afford anymore with lots of species. Although some people suggest that not enough work is done on this front however, as again a Zoo is a business and so they have a bias towards conserving animals which attract the most visitors through the gates. For instance a Born Free report suggested that over 60% of captive animals within Zoos are classed as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN (which is their lowest category) but are kept due to their appeal to costumers.

Many Zoos are also known for their conservation partnerships with other groups conducting field research, which generally takes the form of facilities which can be utilised, grant money to allow the continuation of the research and exposure of the research to gain support from other sources. This is extremely important as it is not possible to house all endangered animals and the wild population should not be forgotten about.

Finally Zoos are extremely important in the continued education of younger generations in the importance of conservation, with many of them possessing facilities to teach classes on the effects their actions have on the environment around them. Education is important as it is the future generations which are going to have to work the hardest to combat the damages humans are currently inflicting on the planet at the minute.

I hope that this post has encouraged you to take a trip down to your local Zoo at some point soon so as to allow you to support their conservation efforts and learn along the way. It is always important to remember however have a look into the Zoos background before you go especially if you are in an developing country as although a lot of them are working to aid the conservation efforts some simply serve as a money making pit at the cost of the captive animals welfare and I don’t condone this at all.

Thanks for reading!

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Weekly Article - Antibiotic Resistance, There May Still Be A Solution

So it's time for another interesting article that I've read recently.

This link is about a recent discovery of a clay with antibacterial properties, which is capable of killing at least 16 strains of resistant bacteria.

Antibacterial resistance is an really problem and is one of the main causes of moralities within most hospitals, as if it can't be treated it can't be cure. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are evolving all the time and there is nothing you can do to stop that, however if you want to help there are a few very easy steps which will help.

First of all don't seek antibiotics unless you really need them, I know being ill sucks and if you feel like you need it you should always seek professional advice. But in other cases it's far better to stick it out and suffer for that day longer and let your own body defeat the infection, and if the doctor doesn't seem keen to give you something don't insist on being proscribed antibiotics.

Secondly if you are proscribed a dose of antibiotics make sure you finish the whole course, even if you feel better after half the tablets, make sure you take the rest. As there may still be bacteria within you which haven't been kill and go on and reinfect you and others. It is this process which speeds up bacteria resistance as it means only the 'strong' survive to reproduce.

Paper
http://mbio.asm.org/lens/mbio/7/1/e01842-15#toc

News article
http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2016/01/kisameet-bay-drug-resistant-clay-ubc/


Finally there is one final link I think you should see which is very thought provoking

http://www.upworthy.com/an-open-letter-to-humans-from-20-animals-who-may-not-be-around-much-longer?c=ufb1

Thanks for reading!

Dipper - The Bird of Two Worlds

Now I want to talk about one of my favourite birds in this post the European Dipper (Cinclus cinclus), which is also known as the White-throated dipper or just a Dipper. Now the reason this is my favourite birds is the fact that I associate it closely with my hobby of white water kayaking.

These birds are found throughout Europe along with section of Russia, Asia, the Middle East and the Northern tip of Africa. They are found in close proximity to fast running rivers or streams, which provide them with a good supply of aquatic invertebrates. Their name is derived from their characteristic behaviour of bobbing and dipping whilst perched on rock and branches close to the river.

Now I’m not simply writing about the dipper because it is my favourite bird, although that is at least partly the reason. They are an unusual bird as they hunt for their prey in the fast moving waters of upland streams, they are unique in the order Passeriformes as the only species which exhibits this aquatic hunting behaviour. Not only that they don’t possess webbed feet to aid them in the water like other birds such as mallards. Instead dippers feet as almost identical to birds such as Robins or Wagtails, which in fact helps them as it gives the dipper the ability to cling to the rocks and other substrata on the floor of the river. Along with the feet a dipper uses its wings to aid in balance and as an aquatic spoiler to help provide downwards pressure to keep them on the river bed.

They are capable of remaining submerged for up to 30 seconds at a time thanks to nasal flaps which prevent water from entering their nostrils during their hunt for insect larvae and freshwater shrimps.  Other adaptations the dipper has for its partially aquatic existence are their well developed focusing muscles in their eye to allow them to easily focus on the fast moving insects they search for, and their solid bones which increase their weight and so reduce their buoyancy.

Dippers breed annually with nest being found in enclosed spaces such as pipes and crevices close to the river which they rely on. A brood usually consists of up to 6 eggs which are incubated for a period of around 16 days before hatching. It then takes a further 20-24 days for each of the hatchlings to fledge and leave the nest completely. Dippers are capable of producing another clutch of eggs each season if conditions are favourable. Despite knowing the breeding behaviour of Dippers we still know very little about their lives as their aquatic existence makes them unsuitable for ringing so it’s a struggle to follow an individual.

Although overall the Dipper population is relatively stable throughout its range it is experiencing local population declines and extinction due to a number of reasons, water pollution, increased turbidity due to increased erosion and most importantly the acidification of upland streams. This occurs due to airborne pollutants from human activity, along with the dramatic changes occurring in upper catchment areas such as the removal of trees. The acidification of streams has two resulting effects, first of all the abundance of the dippers prey items decreases, it also is believed to be related to the calcium deficiency in the mature females which leads to thinner egg shells resulting in fewer successful clutches.

So hopefully a lot of the people will get a chance to see these birds at some point, just get out there and go into the hills to find a stream.

Thanks for reading!

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Weekly Article - Rain and Storms are not always great for plants

So I want to start a new section for the blog, nothing major but I'm planning on uploading a link to a interesting paper each week.

Hopefully each of the link I post will be easily understandable for everyone and reading the links and it will provide a link to recently published relevant work which you might have missed.

The article this week is about the effects of extreme weather on global crop production which has been published in Nature. This article is relevant as with a growing human population there is an ever increasing demand for food, resulting in increasingly high levels of land clearance for the use of farming. Along with that the effort to produce crops is extremely costly in both time, fossil fuels and water so the lost or failure of harvests is extremely costly.

So here is the link check it out!

http://www.nature.com/articles/nature16467.epdf?shared_access_token=ijlSBNHCi6ymNtx2Y5ljttRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PtDcN_7FYtluCryHJGOQpKFwT-F89acR70ey9ij63eYDh7O-NfmP1aYRgizlkjqZxLakpDJtiwQJBWvZTbPlGJzBja7fy-Q-UyWFRMex3J_2tyc86DS3MdQ0zKzPhVltc%3D

Thanks for reading!

Seagrass - More important than you might think

In the words of Arnie “I’ll be back” and here I am.

So jumping straight into it. I want to talk about and ecosystem that you've probably all heard of but many of you know very little about or simply underestimate its importance in the marine environment. I’m going to talk about seagrass meadows this is a subject which I only know limited amounts about but hopefully I’ll be able to learn through writing this post along with you guys out there reading it.

Seagrass is found throughout the oceans and is not solely constricted to the tropics and warm waters around the equator. They are currently 50 known species of seagrass across the world and like I said they can be found in the waters around Alaska all the way down to water surrounding New Zealand. They evolved from land plants which slowly moved into the intertidal range before becoming completely aquatic; due to their specific requirements seagrasses are usually tide to areas of shallow water where they receive sufficient amounts of light, oxygen and nutrients. However in areas which predominantly have good visibility under the water some species can grow at depths of up to 20-30m.

Now in the opening paragraph I said that seagrass was an extremely important ecosystem. On average 40 times more animals occur within seagrass meadows compared to areas of clear sand in the same locations. It is also home to many specific niche organisms which rely solely on seagrass as a source of food and shelter such as some pipefish (eg Robust Ghost Pipefish), seahorses and of course larger animals such as green turtles and most well know Dugongs, with seagrass being the only source of food for Dugongs. They consume so much in fact that their feeding trails through seagrass can be visible in satellite images of some meadows.

Along with providing food they also provide structure to the sea bed as they have extensive root systems which grow in the search for the few available nutrients. These roots help to stabilize the sea bed as well as maintaining water qualities. They are also critical in nutrient dynamics as primary produces they unlock the nutrient held within the sand and make it available for other marine life.

Seagrass meadows are usually found in sheltered sections of water for example within the tropics this is usually the area between mangroves and coral reefs, while in more temperate climates a sheltered cove or behind a headland are common locations.

Seagrass also help in reducing the effect humans have on the worlds; an area the size of a football field will process 780 sewage wastes each year. Along with absorbing 7,500mile worth of vehicle pollutants and generate an estimated $35,000 a year in ecological services. Unfortunately the net loss of seagrass since 1980 equates to one football field of seagrass every 30 minutes.

The decline of seagrass is down to a number of different attributing factors, for instance the rise in sea temperature is have a significant effect of it’s distribution however this is not the only cause of its decline. Human activities such as boat propellers rip up large amounts of grass including it’s roots. Also mooring sites undergo a process known as scouring where the chain attached to the buoy hits the bottom when the tide drop and produces circles of sand around each site where seagrass used to grow. Excessive waste and pollutants also kill or bury seagrass meadows and as over a billion people live within 50km of seagrass meadows this is a problem which is only set to increase.

There are several thing which can be done to help seagrasses for instance there are several charities such as project seagrass, you can also getting involved and volunteer in some of these project and help monitor seagrass decline and its effects.

Finally I’m going to leave you with some information on work which is being conducted in the aim to repopulate areas where seagrass had been lost from. There are problems they are attempting to overcome however, the main one is that you cannot simple scatter seeds and allow them to grow as they don’t remain in the  same place. The team working on this overcame this problem by using fabric bags which the grass growths through keeping them in position until they become established before the bag breaks down. This method also helps as it prevents the seeds from being eaten by animals such as crabs.

There is still much work to be done in stopping the decline of seagrass meadows and aid in their recovery.

Thanks for reading!

Check out these link

http://www.seagrasswatch.org/seagrass.html

http://ocean.si.edu/seagrass-and-seagrass-beds

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