Arachnid Pictures originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 12:51:54.

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The gender of a baby green sea turtle is determined by the temperature the egg experiences during incubation. When temperatures are warmer, more females are born while. Conversely, when temperatures are cooler, more are males born.

This means that if climate change causes temperatures to rise, sea turtles risk having populations that are composed of nearly all females. If this happens, they may experience a reduction in genetic diversity since few males will be available with which to breed.

Scientists from the University of Exeter, University of Lefke (Turkey) and North Cyprus Society for Protection of Turtles have been studying green sea turtles in Northern Cyprus to assess how diverse the population is and to estimate the impact rising temperatures have had on the turtles thus far.

The research team conducted genetic tests and found that, counter to what they had expected, the green sea turtle population was surprisingly diverse. The data enabled them to estimate how many males were mating with nesting females in the population and they found that there was an average of 1.4 males for every female. Satellite tracking data revealed that males swim vast distances, sometimes thousands of miles during a single breading season. This means that males could be mating between populations that were previously thought to be more genetically isolated.

The study offers hope for sea turtles in the face of the uncertainties posed by climate change. Although rising temperatures remain a threat to sea turtles, there is cause for optimism that green sea turtles can cope with fluctations in temperature better than expected.

Photo © Kimberley Stokes / University of Exeter.

Sea Turtles Coping with Climate Change originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 22:33:59.

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Crustaceans are one of four basic groups of arthropods (the other three being the myripods, arachnids and insects). The group includes crabs, lobsters, shrimp, krill, crayfishes, wood lice and barnacles.

Crustaceans are by no means as diverse in species number as the insects or even the arachnids, but they do come in a mind-boggling array of shapes and sizes. Since crustaceans are with few exceptions aquatic species, they have escaped the demands of life on land (demands which place limitations on the ornateness of body form that can develop).

Crustaceans are an old group of animals, dating back some 500 million years to the Cambrian. Their body plan is simple yet elegant and adaptable. In his book, The Variety of Life, Colin Tudge likens crustaceans to mobile Swiss Army knives—composed of up to 32 segments each equipped with its own pair of appendages that are modified for a variety of tasks: locomotion, defense, communication, feeding, hunting, reproduction. Each segment and its appendage is like a separate tool and together the segments and appendages form as well-adapted a tool kit as a Swiss Army knife.

Photo © Ben Cranke / Getty Images.

Crustaceans - Mobile Swiss Army Knives originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 16:11:41.

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Although scientists don't know exactly how many species of arachnids there are alive today, their best guess puts the species count in the ballpark of 100,000 of which, more than 40,000 are spiders. Since that means nearly half of all archnids are spiders, it's easy to forget the other lesser-known eight-legged creatures that belong to the group.

Arachnids include about a dozen subgroups, many of which are obscure groups that most people have never heard of. But there are a few that stand out. The most well-known group is of course, the spiders. But odds are you've probably also heard of a few other arachnid groups. They include: harvestmen, ticks and mites, and scorpions.

Scorpions are easy to recognize thanks to their segmented tails that curl up to a venomous point. Ticks and mites are generaly very small, measuring just a few millimeters in length. Harvestmen are perhaps the group that is most commonly mistaken for spiders. There are about 6,300 species of harvestmen (also known as daddy-long-legs). Members of this group have very long legs and their abdomen and cephalothorax are almost completely fused.

So next time you see something with eight legs, don't immediately assume it's a spider.

Photo © Steve Taylor / Getty Images.

Arachnids - Not Simply Spiders originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 13:29:32.

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Scientists have discovered a previously unknown population of Miller's grizzled langurs (Presbytis hosei canicrus), an endangered primate thought to be on the verge of extinction. The rare langurs were discovered in the Wehea Forest of East Kalimantan, Borneo. Wehea Forest is a 38,000 hectare patch of undisturbed rainforest that is home to nine species of primates including gibbons and the Bornean orangutan.

Since 2004, scientists have been concerned that Miller's grizzled langurs had become extinct. A survey conducted in 2008 found none of the langurs, further supporting the possibility that the species had become extinct. Fortunately, camera traps set up in areas west of the Miller's grizzled langur's range revealed that the species was still living.

Since the Wehea Forest is remote, it presents challenges for scientists hoping to study the animals that inhabit the area. Consequently, not much is known about Miller's grizzled langurs. Any effort to protect the species will be clouded by a lack of knowledge and understanding of the species habits and even their range.

Photo © Eric Fell.

Rare Langur Discovered in Borneo originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 20:43:21.

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Anti-poaching efforts are successfully helping to protect many rare species in Thailand, according to a recent report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Videos and images collected from WCS camera traps provide park rangers much needed data that can be used to arrest and convict poachers. Additionally, camera trap information is used by Wildlife Conservation Society scientists to measure and track population sizes of numerous local species.

The camera traps, placed in multiple locations within Thailand's Western Forest Complex, have capture footage and pictures of a variety of species including wild pigs, leopards, tigers, gaurs, Asian elephants, sun bears, clouded leopards, banteng and many others. Camera trap data indicates that there are between 125 and 175 tigers living within the 18,000-square kilometer Western Forest Complex.

Thailand serves as a critical front in the battle against poachers. The WCS has joined forces with the Thai government to train park rangers how to protect the region's rare animals from illegal hunting. Many park rangers and wildlife guards from other Asian countries are trained in Thailand, so they can learn how to best protect the rare wildlife from poaching in their own countries.

Photo © DNP-Government of Thailand / WCS Thailand Program. Camera trap image of an Asian elephant calf in a heard of adults, photographed in the Western Forest Compex, Thailand.

Thailand's Anti-Poaching Efforts Paying Off originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 16:02:28.

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Scientists working in the remote montane forests of southern Tanzania have recently discovered a new species of viper. The new snake, named after the daughter of one of the scientists involved in the discovery, is called the Matilda's horned viper (Atheris matildae).

The discovery was made by a team of experts that included Michele Menegon of Museo delle Scienze of Trento, Italy, Tim Davenport of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Kim Howell of the University of Dar es Salaam.

Matilda's horned viper is similar to (and larger than) the Usambara bush viper (Atheris ceratophora). Genetic analysis has revealed that the two species diverged about 2.2 million years ago.

Scientists expect the Matilda's horned viper to be classified as critically endangered by the IUCN due to the species' restricted range. It is thought that the Matilda's horned viper survives within a fragment of montane forest no larger than 100 square kilometers.

Since illegal wildlife trade presents a serious threat to many reptiles in the region, the exact location of the new snake's habitat has not been publicized.

Photo © Tim Davenport / Wildlife Conservation Society.

New Viper Discovered in Tanzania originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 12:19:51.

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The waved albatross is another of the four species of albatrosses that inhabit the Northern Hemisphere (other albatrosses of the Northern Hemisphere include the Laysan albatross, black-footed albatross and the short-tailed ablatross).

The waved albatross breeds on Española Island in the Galapagos Island and spends the rest of the year at sea, foraging over the open ocean, off the coast of Peru and Ecuador. Due to its presence in the Galapagos, the waved albatross has also earned itself another common name: the Galapagos albatross.

Although the Galapagos Archipelago straddles the equator and is therefore well within the tropics, the islands are bathed in the cold Humboldt Current from the south. So in some ways, despite the fact that waved albatrosses forage in the Northern Hemisphere, their range is, well, just barely northern.

Photo © D. Gordon E. Robertson / Wikipedia.

Waved Albatross - Also Known As the Galapagos Albatross originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 at 13:28:00.

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The black-footed albatross, like the Laysan albatross, is one of the oddballs of the albatross family due to the fact that it inhabits the Northern Hemisphere (only four out of twenty-one species of albatrosses lives outside of the Southern Hemisphere). The black-footed albatross (also like the Laysan albatross) breeds in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It nests in colonies on Laysan Island, Midway Island, Kure Atoll, French Frigate Shoals and Kaula Island.

Unlike the Laysan albatross, which is considered to be common and not at threat from extinction, the black-footed albatross population is declining. Consequently, the species is classified as endangered. Today there are fewer than 120,000 mature adult black-footed albatrosses, and longline fishing currently poses the greatest threat to the species.

Black-footed albatrosses are notable for their distinct coloration. They are the only entirely dark-colored albatross to inhabit the northern Pacific Ocean. They have a halo of white feathers around the base of their bill and as the bird ages, the white fringe of feathers grows more prominant.

Black footed albatrosses feed on the eggs of flying fish as well as fish, squid and crustaceans. They use their keen sense of smell to pinpoint the location of prey when foraging over the open sea.

Photo © Daisy Gilardini / Getty Images.

Black-Footed Albatross - Not Your Average Albatross originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 at 13:03:03.

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As I mentioned in my previous post, albatrosses and their relatives tend to be a group of birds that resides for the most part in the Southern Hemisphere. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule and the Laysan albatross is one such exception that's worth mention.

The Laysan albatross is a small, gull-like albatross that breeds in the Northern Hemisphere. More specifially, it forms vast nesting colonies on various Hawaiian Islands (including Laysan and Midway Islands), the French Frigate Shoals, the Bonin Islands (off the coast of Japan) and Guadalupe Island (off the coast of Mexico). Unlike many albatrosses, the Laysan is not considered to be threatened or endangered. In fact, it is among the most common seabirds that inhabit the Hawaiian Islands. Conservationists estimate that there are in the ballpark of 1.1 million Laysan albatrosses.

Photo © Sylvain Cordier / Getty Images.

Laysan Albatross - Hawaii's Albatross originally appeared on About.com Animals / Wildlife on Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 at 11:54:01.

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