Welcome to the 4th edition of SEEN. Please have a scroll down and click on any links that you find interesting. Don’t forget to send your links to me, I still haven’t heard from a lot of you. Send in your Christmassy links for the next edition, the last of this semester. What research can you find on reindeers?
In the News
•      Sent in by Greg Aldridge – an article on the BBC website reviewing a study which suggests that migrating Great white sharks took a wrong turn and ended up in the Mediterranean. The offspring of these first individuals returned to their place of birth as part of their migration, resulting in a separate Mediterranean population. There is also a link to the original articlehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11765412
•      Also on the BBC website – Invading crayfish pose threat to salmon http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-11840810
•      Coal running out – Nature article points out that energy policy has one big flaw, coal is not going to stay cheap, as it runs out prices will increase.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7322/full/468367a.html
•      Rediscovered Rosser’s sac spider in Cambridgeshirehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11806723
Also link to 2 minute film of rearing of fen raft spiders at the John Innes centre, part of University of East Anglia
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11806723
•      Elephants’ brains – Science shots summary of article in Brain Structure and Function investigating the brain of the African elephant. Perhaps many animals have complex brains which have evolved under different selection pressures to us and therefore have a difference function.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/11/scienceshot-a-complex-brain-insi.html?ref=hp
•      Photo slideshow of camera trap images from Yasuni national park in the western Amazon basin, one of the world’s most biologically diverse areas
http://www.sciencemag.org/site/extra/yasuni/index.html
•      Bats are affected by traffic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9194000/9194186.stm – BBC story + video
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/11/11/rspb.2010.2262.full– article
Species of the week – this week we have 2 general types of animals that have been in the press recently
•      Tigers
There has been a lot of stories on tigers on BBC website because of a recent Traffic report http://www.traffic.org/
and the International Tiger Conservation Forum (21-24 Nov)http://www.tigersummit.ru/eng/index
and article in Journal of Applied Ecology estimating the number of tigers left in the wild
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11787325Â – BBC article
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01901.x/abstract – original article
Short film on global tiger population sizehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11805699
There is also new evidence that the farming of animals used in Chinese medicine (including tigers) does not aid conservation on species in the wild
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11787324
Are we placing a higher value on wild than farmed individuals? Is this ethical?
This article in PLoS Biodiversity Hub will tell you more about the state of global tiger populations
http://hubs.plos.org/web/biodiversity/article/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000485
You should also have a look at CITEShttp://www.cites.org/index.html
•      Bees
Can’t teach an old honeybee new tricks – decline in learning in honey bees as they agehttp://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0013504+ 7 comments critiquing study
Bumblebees rely on gardens as arable crops do not provide a foraging benefit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11822844Â – review
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01872.x/abstract – original article
US groups work together to save bumblebeehttp://www.nature.com/news/2010/101117/full/news.2010.614.html
You can also do a Bee quizhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8675000/8675614.stm
Events
If you’re at a loose end on Saturday why not pop into the Southampton Natural History Society open day. It’s on from 10:30-3 at Edmund Kell Unitarian Church. Entrance is ÂŁ1 but there will be various talks on throughout the day http://sotonnhs.org/
Don’t forget to send me your Christmassy links for the next issue.
I look forward to hearing from you,
Judith
Posted By : Judith Lock