Nature Ramble

From Scotland

Source: RachelSquirrel

Nature Ramble

Something a little different today.

Ice breaker: How do you find a mate for a polar bear?

A mate has been sought for one of two male polar bears kept in Scotland but what does it take to find the perfect mate for a polar bear?

Arktos shares an enclosure with Walker at the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig, near Aviemore. Next year, Arktos could be paired up with a female. But the process of finding a suitable mate is far from simple.

Arktos, right, is a year older than Walker. He arrived at the park in April 2012 from a zoo in Hannover, Germany. Walker has been at the site since November 2010, after being introduced from a Dutch zoo.

The two are the only polar bears in a UK zoo.

More great photos and story

Nature Ramble

An amazing small traveler, makes a round trip migration of 16,000 miles

‘Unique’ bird migration discovered

The tag was recovered from a male red-necked phalarope in Shetland

A tracking device which weighs less than a paperclip has helped scientists uncover what they say is one of the world’s great bird migrations.

It was attached to a red-necked phalarope from Scotland that migrated thousands of miles west across the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

The journey has never before been recorded for a European breeding bird.

The red-necked phalarope is one of the UK’s rarest birds, and is only found in Shetland and the Western Isles.

The RSPB, working alongside the Swiss Ornithological Institute and Dave Okill of the Shetland Ringing Group, fitted individual geolocators to 10 red-necked phalaropes nesting on the island of Fetlar in Shetland in 2012.

Each geolocator weighed 0.6g and was fitted to the bird with harnesses made from tubing.

It was hoped the trackers would shed light on where the birds, which are smaller than starlings, spend the winter.

After successfully recapturing one of the tagged birds when it returned to Fetlar last spring, experts discovered it had made an epic 16,000-mile round trip during its annual migration.

It had flown from Shetland across the Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland, south down the eastern seaboard of the US, across the Caribbean and Mexico, ending up off the coast of Ecuador and Peru.

After wintering in the Pacific, it returned to Fetlar, following a similar route.

Gender roles

Prior to this, many experts had assumed that Scottish breeding phalaropes joined the Scandinavian population at their wintering grounds, thought to be in the Arabian Sea.

Although long, the phalarope migration is beaten by some distance by Arctic terns, which make a return trip of about 24,000 miles between the North and South poles each year.

It had previously been thought the birds wintered in the Arabian Sea

However, the phalarope is the only known westward migration into the Pacific. This westward movement in late summer and autumn is into the prevailing weather and in virtually the opposite direction to all other migrants leaving the UK.

Numbers of red-necked phalarope in Scotland fluctuate between just 15 and 50 nesting males.

Malcie Smith of the RSPB told BBC Scotland he had almost fallen out of his chair when the tracking results showed where the birds had gone.

He added: “We are freezing up here in Shetland and it’s quite nice to think of our red necked phalaropes bobbing about in the warm tropical waters of the Pacific.

Read more

 

Nature Ramble

I’m a day late. Yesterday was family BBQ day and I didn’t get all my posting done.

Two stories today. One in Spain and the other in Scotland, connected

Lynx and Scottish wildcats.

How Spain saved the lynx

Spain’s impressive effort to save the lynx is an example to follow, but the UK needs to act swiftly

An Iberian lynx at a nature reserve in Spain. Photograph: Victor Fraile/Reuters/Corbis

If Scotland needs a lesson on how to save an endangered feline, it need only look to the little town of Santa Elena, in Andalucía, Spain. Biologists there have overseen a remarkable conservation enterprise: the Olivilla captive breeding centre for the Iberian lynx. Dozens of these distinctive, beautiful creatures have been bred here, watched over by staff working in a control room that has enough television monitors to do justice to a particle accelerator. This is cat care at its most sophisticated.

Adult lynxes, which are about a metre long and weigh around 10kg – twice the size of a wildcat – have been reintroduced to the surrounding hills. Ten years ago, there were fewer than 100 Iberian lynxes left on the planet. Habitat destruction, loss of prey and indiscriminate trapping by landowners was propelling Lynx pardinus towards extinction. Today there are at least 300 of them, and their numbers continue to rise. Call it the Lynx effect.

The implication is clear. Endangered felines can be saved – although we should be under no illusions about the cost involved. As lynx conservationists explained during my visit to Santa Elena, around £30m was spent setting up the project, money raised mostly by the Andalucían regional government, and which funds captive breeding and also pays for teams of energetic young conservationists to trap and release animals in areas around the town.

Read more: The Guardian

Extinction by stealth: how long can the Scottish wildcat survive?

The Scottish government has launched a £2m drive to save a unique species – but the plan is mere camouflage, say experts who fear the pure-bred animal’s days are numbered

The Scottish wildcat. There may be just 35 pure-bred animals in the wild. Photograph: David Tipling/Alamy

Are these the final few days of the Scottish wildcat, currently numbering perhaps as few as 35 scattered beasts? That is the fear of some supporters of Scotland’s most vivid species, and it is leading to an almighty row over a creature that has graced the Highlands for around 10,000 years. The argument relates to a deceptively simple question: when is a wildcat not a wildcat?

The wildcat’s imminent extinction may have been camouflaged from our consciousness by the existence of a counterfeit cat – a feline facsimile that looks like a wildcat but whose genealogy is far from pure. Staring implacably from the midst of rock and heather it will do for the postcards and tea-towels. And if it looks like a wildcat, then why should the rest of us worry about its lineage?

Read more: The Guardian

 

 

 

Make you Fink on Friday

Deal to turn whisky ‘leftovers’ into biofuel for cars

By-products, like draff, from the Tullibardine distillery are to be turned into biofuel

A deal has been signed to turn by-products from a Scottish distillery into fuel for cars.

In what is claimed to be a world first, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire has linked up with a spin-out company from Napier University in Edinburgh.

They plan to use bacteria to feed on the “leftovers” from the whisky making process.

This will produce butanol which can be used to fuel vehicles.

More than 90% of the stuff that comes out of a whisky distillery is not whisky. It is leftovers like draff and pot ales – both produced in the early stages of the process.

They are high in sugar and are currently used for things like fertiliser and cattle feed.

Napier University’s Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) has already shown that the right bacteria can feed on those by-products to produce butanol – a direct replacement for vehicle fuel.

Read more

What other processes have waste that could be utilised in the manner?

Nature Ramble

Been absent the last couple of weeks, blame it on the silly season.

This week it’s a swim rather than a ramble, so get your togs on we’re off to the sea around the Isle of Skye in Scotland to look at a shellfish that I have never heard of before.

Flame shell reef off Scotland could be world’s biggest

Experts believe the colony of Limaria hians in Loch Alsh, a sea inlet between Skye and mainland, is the largest of its kind

Flame shells group together on the sea bed and their nests create a living reef to support hundreds of other species. Photograph: Marine Scotland/PA

The discovery of a large shellfish reef on the west coast of the UK could be the biggest find of its kind in the world, experts believe.

The reef, made up of more than 100 million brightly coloured and rare flame shells, or Limaria hians, was found in Loch Alsh, a sea inlet between Skye and the Scottish mainland. It covers an area of 4.6 sq miles (7.5 sq km) and was discovered during a survey commissioned by Marine Scotland. It is the largest known colony of flame shells in the UK and possibly the world, say experts.

The Scottish environment secretary, Richard Lochhead, said: “The seas around Scotland are a hotbed of biodiversity and the clean and cold waters support many fascinating and beautiful species.

“With Scottish waters covering an area around five times bigger than our landmass, it’s a huge challenge to try and understand more about our diverse and precious sea life.

“This important discovery may be the largest grouping of flame shells anywhere in the world.

“And not only are flame shells beautiful to look at, these enigmatic shellfish form a reef that offers a safe and productive environment for many other species.”

Flame shells have a similar shape to scallops, with many neon orange tentacles that appear between the two shells. They group together on the sea bed and their nests create a living reef to support hundreds of other species.

Read more

I love the last sentence…

“Who needs space travel when we’ve still to fully explore and understand the oceans and seas here on planet Earth?”

Doesn’t that say so much?

These Flame Shells (Limaria hians) from Scotland and parts of the English coastline should not be confused with the Flame Scallop (Lima scabra) from the Caribbean, also a stunning looking species.

Flame Scallop (Lima scabra)

A small look at the wonderful world of nature.