Nature Ramble

Last week pangolins, this week bats.

Trapsing across the globe to Bolivia for this week’s Nature Ramble.

Bolivian golden bat revealed as ‘new species’

Myotis midastactus has very short, yellow-gold fur and is thought to live only in Bolivia

A golden bat from Bolivia has been described as a new species by scientists.

Myotis midastactus had previously been classified as another bat found in South America called Myotis simus.

But examination of a collection of museum specimens suggested the existence of a different species, thought to live only in Bolivia.

Its most distinctive characteristic is its golden-yellow, very short and woolly fur.

This bright colouration – which is unique among New World Myotis species – earned the bat its new name midastactus, after the Greek legend of King Midas and his golden touch.

There are over 100 species of Myotis – or mouse-eared bats – in the world.

In the wild, Myotis midastactus lives in the Bolivian savanna. It eats small insects and roosts during the day in holes in the ground, hollow trees and under thatched roofs.

Source: BBCNews Read more

Make you Fink on Friday

This post is almost an UPDATE on yesterday’s,

Whereas yesterday the topic was viruses, today’s is malaria and the effects of global warming.

Malaria ‘spreading to new altitudes’

Malaria parasites – seen here infecting red blood cells – and mosquitoes do not like cold temperatures

Warmer temperatures are causing malaria to spread to higher altitudes, a study suggests.

Researchers have found that people living in the highlands of Africa and South America are at an increased risk of catching the mosquito-borne disease during hotter years.

They believe that temperature rises in the future could result in millions of additional cases in some areas.

The research is published in the journal Science.

Prof Mercedes Pascual, from the University of Michigan in the US, who carried out the research, said: “The impact in terms of increasing the risk of exposure to disease is very large.”

Vulnerable to disease

Areas at higher altitudes have traditionally provided a haven from this devastating disease.

Both the malaria parasite and the mosquito that carries it struggle to cope with the cooler air.

Prof Pascual said: “The risk of the disease decreases with altitude and this is why historically people have settled in these higher regions.”

But the scientists say the disease is entering new regions that had previously been malaria-free.

To investigate, scientists looked at densely populated areas in the highlands of Colombia and Ethiopia, where there are detailed records of both temperature and malaria cases from the 1990s to 2005.

They found that in warmer years, malaria shifted higher into the mountains, while in cooler years it was limited to lower elevations.

Read more

Opinion:

Once again, we see the effects of global warming in yet another area.

It doesn’t matter if the global warming is man-made, or a natural phenomena, it is happening.

The danger is that not only is the mosquito gaining ground in altitude, but it is able to spread further north and south and that begins to eventually put all of the civilised world within its reach.

Global warming, whatever the cause, cannot be ignored.

Nature Ramble

Tarantulas this week.

Are they as fearsome as we imagine?

The link today points to a BBC slide show.

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Tarantulas

Tarantulas have large, hairy bodies that make them the stuff of nightmares for many, but they look more threatening than they actually are. The mild venom of their bite is weaker than the average bee’s, and causes little more pain than a wasp sting. There are hundreds of species of tarantula living in the world’s tropical jungles and deserts. South America is home to some of the most sizeable species, such as the Goliath spiders that can have a leg span of 30cm. The name tarantula originates from the Italian town of Taranto.

See more tarantulas

Nature Ramble

Staying in South America this week and heading north to one of the lesser known countries.

Everybody knows about Argentina and Brazil, but few know about Guyana; it used to be British, you know and they drive on the left.

But, where is Guyana?

Image – MongaBay

South America is home to one of the most beautiful of the big cats; the jaguar.

I have seen one at a distance of about 400 metres, close enough thank you. I had to use a 200mm + 2x teleconverter to get a good shot, but alas that is a photo lost to the ravages of time.

That was in the Pantanal.

But they range far and wide, from Argentina to the Darien Gap, that inhospitable stretch of land that connects the south to Central America and has defied all man’s attempts to traverse with transport.

Railways and roads have failed.

Proof that man cannot tame all the wilderness.

Rusting in the forest, a train bears mute testimony to failure to connect Central and South America

Guyana pledges to protect jaguars

The South American nation is in talks to establish a ‘jaguar corridor’ a network of pathways that would link core populations

Jaguars once roamed widely from the south-western United States to Argentina, but have lost nearly half of their natural territory and have disappeared altogether from some countries. Photograph: Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images

The lushly forested nation of Guyana on Thursday joined a regional pact to protect jaguars, the elusive spotted cat that is the biggest land predator in the Americas but has become vulnerable as expanded agriculture and mining carves away at their fragmented habitat.

Leaders of the government’s environment ministry were signing an agreement with the New York-based conservation group Panthera, which is trying to establish a “jaguar corridor”, a network of pathways that would link core jaguar populations from northern Argentina to Mexico. Guyana is pledging to ensure the protection of jaguars, the national animal that is a near-threatened species.

The South American nation, with some of the region’s least spoiled wilderness, joins Colombia and nations in central America in recognising the corridor and agreeing to work towards the long-term conservation of jaguars, according to Esteban Payan, regional director for Panthera’s northern South America jaguar program.

A network of cameras equipped with motion sensors and fixed to tree trunks has revealed tantalising glimpses of sleek, solitary jaguars slinking through Guyana’s dense rainforests and vast grasslands stretching to the country’s border with Brazil.

Scientists reported finding a relatively healthy jaguar density of three to four animals per 161 miles in Guyana’s southern Rupununi savannah. That means that preserving grasslands are as important to conservation of jaguars as protecting the dense rainforests, they say.

Evi Paemelaere, a Belgian jaguar scientist with Panthera, said villagers in remote spots in Guyana have helped her set up cameras along the roads and hunting trails that the big cats like to travel on.

“Amerindians are very keen on being part of the project,” she said from the capital of Georgetown.

Jaguars once roamed widely from the south-western United States to Argentina, but have lost nearly half of their natural territory and have disappeared altogether from some countries. Heavy hunting for their spotted coats decimated their numbers in the 1960s and early 1970s until the pelt trade was largely halted. No one has any reliable estimates of how many jaguars are left in the wild, where they prey on peccaries, tapirs and, as they are powerful swimmers, river turtles.

Guyana, a country roughly the size of the US state of Idaho where most of the 756,000 inhabitants live along its Atlantic coastline, has been widely recognised for balancing progress with preservation. In 2009, it began a low-carbon push aimed at maintaining very low rates of deforestation and combating climate change, while also promoting economic development. It could receive up to $250m from Norway by 2015 as an incentive to protect its forests through sustainable mining, timber harvesting and other projects.

Alan Rabinowitz, Panthera’s CEO and a zoologist whose research in Belize in the 1980s led to the creation of the world’s first jaguar preserve, said Guyana’s signing of the jaguar agreement “demonstrates the government’s continued commitment to its legacy of conservation alongside economic progress and diversification”.

More photos:

Image: travelbabyonline

Image: curiousanimals.net

Cubs – Image: redbubble.com

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