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Submission + - Apes suffer mid-life crisis too (mongabay.com)

Submitted by Damien1972
Damien1972 writes: Humans are not alone in experiencing a mid-life crisis — great apes suffer the same, according to new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A new study of over 500 great apes found that well-being patterns in primates are similar to those experience by humans. This doesn't mean that middle age apes seek out the sportiest trees or hit-on younger apes inappropriately, but rather that their well-being starts high in youth, dips in middle age, and rises again in old age.
Science

Submission + - Volcano may have killed off new bioluminescent cockroach (mongabay.com)

Submitted by terrancem
terrancem writes: A newly discovered light-producing cockroach, Lucihormetica luckae, may have already been driven to extinction by a volcanic eruption in Ecuador. The species, only formally described by scientists this year, hasn't been spotted since the Tungurahua Volcano erupted in July 2010. The new species was notable because it represented the only known case of mimicry by bioluminescence in a land animal. Like a venomless king snake beating its tail to copy the unmistakable warning of a rattlesnake, Lucihormetica luckae's bioluminescent patterns are nearly identical to the poisonous click beetle, with which it shares (or shared) its habitat.
Science

Submission + - Artifical misting system allows reintroduction of extinct toad (mongabay.com) 2

Submitted by terrancem
terrancem writes: The Kihansi Spray Toad went extinct in the wild in 2005 when its habitat in Tanzania was destroyed by a dam. However conservationists at the Bronx Zoo managed to maintain a captive population which is now large enough to allow a bold experiment to move forward: reintroducing the toad into its old habitat. To make the once tropical gorge moist again, engineers have designed an artificial misting system that should allow toads to survive in the wild. The effort marks what may be the first time conservationists have ever re-established an "extinct" species in a human-engineered ecosystem.
Science

Submission + - Unusual discovery of new African monkey species (mongabay.com) 1

Submitted by rhettb
rhettb writes: In a remote and largely unexplored rainforest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), researchers have made an astounding discovery: a new monkey species. The new primate, which is name the lesula and described in a paper in the journal PLoS ONE, was first noticed by scientist and explorer, John Hart, in 2007. The discovery of a new primate species is rare nowadays. In fact, the lesula is only the second newly discovered monkey in Africa in the past 28 years.
Science

Submission + - Flickr photo leads to new insect discovery (mongabay.com) 1

Submitted by rhettb
rhettb writes: Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of lacewing insect after stumbling upon a series of photos posted on Flickr, according to a paper published in the journal ZooKeys. Entomologist Shaun Winterton first found evidence of the species when he randomly stumbled upon a set of photos posted by Hock Ping Guek, a Malaysian photographer. Winterton recognized the insect as a potentially new species, but needed to collect field specimen in order to formally describe it. About a year later, an individual was collected at the same site, enabling Winterton to write up the description in ZooKeys. Hock is a co-author on the paper.
Idle

Submission + - Scientists name 7000th amphibian, up from 4000 in 1987 (mongabay.com)

Submitted by Damien1972
Damien1972 writes: The number of amphibians described by scientists now exceeds 7,000, or roughly 3,000 more than were known just 25 years ago. A big boost to the effort has come from AmphibiaWeb, a project has sought to document every one of Earth's living frogs, salamanders, newts, and caecilians. But while new species are being discovered, others are disappearing — at least 150 species have gone extinct since the early 1980s.
Science

Submission + - Marijuana farms poisoning carnivorous beasts in CA (mongabay.com) 1

Submitted by rhettb
rhettb writes: Anticoagulant rodenticides used by illegal marijuana growers are poisoning weasel-like fishers in California, finds a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE. Researchers conducted necropsies on 58 fishers and found 79% were exposed to one or more anticoagulant rodenticides. The exposure points were likely encountered where the anticoagulant rodenticides are used illicitly as part of illegal marijuana cultivation in remote areas that overlap with fisher habitat.
NASA

Submission + - NASA tool shows where forest is being cut down (mongabay.com)

Submitted by terrancem
terrancem writes: A new tool developed by NASA and other researchers shows where forest is being chopped down on a quarterly basis. The global forest disturbance alert system (GloF-DAS) is based on comparison of MODIS global vegetation index images at the exact same time period each year in consecutive years. GloF-DAS could help users detect deforestation shortly after it occurs, offering the potential to take measures to investigate clearing before it expands.
Idle

Submission + - Jaguar vs sea turtle (mongabay.com)

Submitted by Damien1972
Damien1972 writes: At first, an encounter between a jaguar and a green sea turtle seems improbable, even ridiculous, but the two species do come into fatal contact every few years. Despite the surprising nature of such encounters, this behavior has been little studied. Now, a new study in Costa Rica's Tortuguero National Park has documented five years of jaguar attacks on marine turtles—and finds these encounters are not only more common than expected, but on the rise.
Idle

Submission + - Will camera traps prove tigers aren't extinct on Java? (mongabay.com)

Submitted by roat35
roat35 writes: Officials in Indonesia have set up camera traps in an effort to prove tigers still roam the rainforests of Java. Although officially declared extinct in 2003, some people believe the Javan tiger (panthera tigris sondaica) is still alive in the island's Meru Betiri National Park. This is not the first time camera traps have been used to attempt to prove the existence of the tiger on Java. Two past camera trap expeditions, both in the 1990s, failed to photograph a single tiger, and the last confirmation of a tiger occurred in 1976.

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