Singing For Survival: Gibbons Scare Off Predators With 'Song'

It is well known that animals use song as a way of attracting mates, but researchers have found that gibbons have developed an unusual way of scaring off predators -- by singing to them.
The primatologists at the University of St Andrews discovered that wild gibbons in Thailand have developed a unique song as a natural defence to predators. Literally singing for survival, the gibbons appear to use the song not just to warn their own group members but those in neighbouring areas. They said, "We are interested in gibbon songs because, apart from human speech, these vocalisations provide a remarkable case of acoustic sophistication and versatility in primate communication. Our study has demonstrated that gibbons not only use unique songs as a response to predators, but that fellow gibbons understand them."
"This work is a really good indicator that non-human primates are able to use combinations of calls given in other contexts to relay new, and in this case, potentially life-saving information to one another. This type of referential communication is commonplace in human language, but has yet to be widely demonstrated in some of our closest living relatives - the apes." Gibbons are renowned amongst non-human primates for their loud and impressive songs that transmit over long distances and are commonly used in their daily routine when mating pairs 'duet' every morning. Songs in response to predators -- mostly large cats, snakes and birds of prey -- have been previously noted, but no extensive research into its purpose or understanding by other gibbons has been done until now.
The team, Esther Clarke, Klaus Zuberbuhler (both St Andrews) and Ulrich Reichard (Max Planck Institute, Germany) observed the singing behaviour of white-handed gibbons in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand. They were able to identify individual gibbons according to their voice and describe gibbon songs as a 'crescendo of notes', formed by combining up to seven notes -- including 'wa', 'hoo', 'sharp wow' and 'waoo' -- into more complex structures or 'phrases'. The researchers wanted to establish whether there were any differences between the typical duetting morning song and that delivered in response to a predator. They noted subtle differences between the two songs, particularly in the early stages (first ten notes) of the song, which would be important in the case of predator encounters. Songs usually begun with a series of very soft notes, audible only at close range, but which rapidly changed into louder notes heard over long distances.
They said, "We found that gibbons produce loud and conspicuous songs in response to predators to alert kin, both near and far -- since gibbons frequently change group compositions, neighbouring groups often consist of close relatives. We found that gibbons appear to use loud 'long-distance' calls to warn relatives in neighbouring areas and that those groups responded by joining in the singing, matching the correct predator song, demonstrating that they understood the difference between calls." The researchers also observed the singing behaviour of gibbons spending time away from their home group. They noted that during predator songs within the group setting, the absent individual responded with his own song, before reappearing to join the group again. Because gibbons are unusually monogamous, it is thought that sexual selection is the main evolutionary mechanism for the evolution of gibbon song.
The researchers concluded, "Vocal behaviour appears to function as a powerful tool to deal with immense sexual competition under which these primates operate, and it may not be surprising that they have evolved unusually complex vocal skills to deal with these social challenges.
"Not unlike humans, gibbons assemble a finite number of call units into more complex structures to convey different messages, and our data show that distant individuals are able to distinguish between different song types and understand what they mean. This study offers the first evidence of a functionally referential communication system in a free-ranging ape species."
"Finding this ability among ape species, especially gibbons who in a sense bridge the evolutionary gap between great apes and monkeys, could shed light on when this ability developed in the primate lineage."
Citation: Clarke E, Reichard UH, Zuberbühler K (2006) The Syntax and Meaning of Wild Gibbon Songs. PLoS One 1(1): e73. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000073) Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Public Library of Science. Article sourced from ScienceDaily.

Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a very happy holiday and a Happy New Year!

Thank you for all your continued support!

From all of us at IRCF!

New Reptile Population for Hauraki Gulf Islands

A team of Massey University biologists is relocating more than 60 of the relatively rare Duvaucel’s geckos to Motuora and Tiritiri Matangi islands in the Hauraki Gulf. The transfer, along with that of a group of skinks, is aimed at helping protect the gecko population and enhance the reptile fauna of the islands, both of which are predator-free.
For Motuora it is part of ongoing restoration project. Although there are now only two native reptile species there, evidence suggests it was home to as many as 13 reptile species, including tuatara, before forest was cleared. Both islands are predator free.
Auckland Campus conservation biologists Dr Dianne Brunton and Dr Weihong Ji are conducting a reptile study and will be monitoring the geckos and skinks after they are released into their new island habitats. Dr Brunton describes the transfer as exciting and very important to both the species and the islands. “It will help to build a more complete ecology on both islands,” she says. “It’s also expected to help in rebuilding the populations of these species which have low reproduction rates.”
The Massey scientists have been holding the geckos and skinks in quarantine to ensure they are disease-free, while preparing the islands for the transfer, checking existing species for diseases and carrying out night searches to collect other data on the habitat.
Duvaucel’s geckos are New Zealand’s largest, growing up to 16cm long and weighing up to 120g. They are sparsely distributed on the northeastern islands off the North Island and in Cook Strait. Project partners include the University, the Department of Conservation, Auckland Regional Council and the Motuora Restoration Society.

Turtle Rescuer Keeps Steady Hours Even During the Winter

By CHRISSY VICK, The Daily News of Jacksonville
via RedTail1 and the News & Observer



Jean Beasley never thought that at her age she'd have to learn the electrical and plumbing trades. "If anyone told me I'd be doing this at age 71, I'd have told them they were crazy," said Beasley, as she sawed off the end of a pipe. But the skills come in handy when you're caring for sick and injured turtles, a job that doesn't end, not even when the "Closed for the Winter" sign goes up in front of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. On a typical winter day, the manpower that goes into caring for the more than 15 sick and injured turtles recuperating there keeps volunteers in a constant scurry.

"People think when we close the doors and put the sign up that nothing goes on here," Beasley said while carefully lifting a blue tank holding one small turtle. "They are very mistaken. There is never a lull." College and high school interns are absent in winter months, adding more work to the local volunteers' load.

"We take the responsibility of the daily chores that the interns do in the summer," volunteer Tina Navale of Surf City said. "But we love it."

The daily routine includes a morning feeding, as each turtle has a diet tailored to its species and health, followed by vitamins and any needed health care.

"I am constantly watching the progression of their wounds, monitoring them with physicals," said Beasley, director of the center. "We do blood work and monitor how they're eating, what they look like, what their attitude is like." Next comes the cleaning, when tanks are scooped for leftover food and the amount of food eaten is recorded. Then come the chores.

Last week, Beasley and Navale spent an entire day connecting the tanks of three new turtles to the plumbing system. The turtles require special attention in the winter, as temperature is key in keeping them warm and on a speedy recovery. Most sea turtles have already migrated this time of year to warmer waters, but some don't make it and end up in the center due to what Beasley calls being "cold-stunned."

"The warmth of the building and the water is very important," she said. "We have to have all of the turtles inside and closed up. That is why we can't have any visitors in the winter, because there is no room to move in here." Working space is cramped, lined with equipment, food, towels and cleaning supplies. A space between the more than 20 tanks in the center is so tight that two people can't pass there at the same time.

"We hope to start building a new center soon," Beasley said. "We had land donated and we are getting the deed drawn up now. We really can't do anything until the transfer." The center isn't solely waiting on the deed of the new land, which is just outside the city limits of Surf City. Funding is key, and there is much more to raise. "We not only have to look at the new building, but run this one," Beasley said. "It costs in excess of $70,000 to run this building each year. So we have to raise more than that."

Beasley hopes to someday see an 18,000-square-foot center, which would cost upward of $1 million. Until then, volunteers will continue to do their best to heal their prized patients. "One in 5,000 to 10,000 turtles survive to be an adult," Beasley said. "So these animals in here represent a lot of turtles that died. That's what makes them so very important."

This year's nesting season on Topsail Island's 26-mile stretch produced 94 nests, though quite a few were lost with high tides during Tropical Storm Ernesto over the summer.

Nests are constantly monitored during the summer, keeping volunteers in all three island towns busy night and day. And turtles are constantly being cared for in preparation for their release. Staff had to say a difficult goodbye to longtime resident sea turtle "Bay" recently. The green sea turtle was found tangled in a flounder net and was admitted to the hospital in 2001. After numerous procedures, Bay was still unable to be released into the wild and required permanent care. The staff found a home for her at the Minnesota Zoo.

"We become quite attached to them and it was hard to see her go," Beasley said. "We begin to see their personalities, how each one responds to a certain volunteer better than another. They recognize our voices."

Turtles can only be released in warm waters, so the center only releases its healthy turtles during the summer season. That means that the current patients are tucked in for the winter. "And looking after them is an everyday job," Beasley said. "We do it all year long."

Backstory: Swamp Creatures Great and Small

WELCOME: The lurking leer of an American alligator greets visitors to the vast South Florida park. MARY KNOX MERRILL - STAFF View photo gallery

Everglades National Park approaches a 60th anniversary of protection.
By Mary Knox Merrill | Assistant photo editor of The Christian Science Monitor
The Everglades teems with the buzz, hum, and chatter of the wild as well as the quiet surprises of the camouflaged. Almost 60 years after Marjory Stoneman Douglas published her bestseller, "River of Grass," boosting public sentiment about the value of the vast swamp and helping win its approval as a national park, man and animal continue the struggle to coexist.
Everglades National Park - 2,358 square miles of Florida's watery trailing-out into the sea - is home to 350 species of birds, including the osprey and great blue heron, and a number of reptiles and amphibians, including the American crocodile and tree frog.
While recent research looks promising for the wading bird population, pollution and urban development remain problems as they encroach on the habitat of animals of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Smoke billows from nearby sugar cane factories, Ft. Lauderdale sprawls right up to the border of the park, endangered birds rest on top of highway light fixtures, and the remains of birds struck by cars pepper the side of the highway. These pressures, combined with the alteration of regional wetland areas threaten the Everglades, which functions as a vast, natural water-filtration system. The National Park Service estimates that 50 percent of south Florida's original wetlands no longer exist, and the wading bird population has been reduced by 90 percent.
What will it take to preserve the biotic engine that supports so much life in South Florida?

A slideshow of other Everglades photos can be seen at

www.csmonitor.com/slideshows/2006/everglades/index.html

Fort Worth Zoo Building For the Future

Planned herpetarium to aid work against extinction

By CHRIS VAUGHN / STAR-TELEGRAM

Lead herpetology keeper Matt Vaughan and other employees work
in tight quarters at the Fort Worth Zoo's aging herpetology exhibit.

The oldest building at the Fort Worth Zoo is a plain cinder-block box with a leaky roof, shaky plumbing and paper-thin walls that make the place deafening at times. Yet the herpetarium -- more often called the snake house -- is also one of the most popular exhibits at the park, at least with one noticeable group. "Young boys," said Michael Fouraker, the zoo's director of five years.
Snakes, lizards, frogs and turtles from around the world have emerged over the years as one of the park's signature collections and form the heart of an ambitious, behind-the-scenes conservation program that hopes to save species from extinction. After five years of talking about the need and receiving a get-busy warning from its accreditation agency, the zoo is raising money and drawing up plans for a more than $15 million herpetarium that will rival any other exhibit.
"We're going to try to take it out of the old-style, jewel-box, aquarium-in-the-wall herpetarium," Fouraker said. "We have searched the world trying to find an example to model. It looks like we're going to have to build an example. We really want to set the bar high and make a real mark with this." Zoo officials, led by Fort Worth Zoological Association heavyweights Ramona Bass and Ardon Moore, have half of the money in pledges and expect to break ground on the new building by summer. The public contribution will be $1 million in unused bond money that was designated for repairs at the city-owned zoo. The rest will be private donations.
The new building will go up on the site of the aquarium that was demolished in 2002. The herpetarium is the last major exhibit that has not been completely overhauled since 1991, when the zoological association took over zoo operations. Plans will include a more natural environment for the animals and more room for the keepers backstage. But the design will also contain rooms dedicated to saving entire species of frogs and lizards.
Many, if not most, species of reptiles and amphibians are under assault worldwide, and some are disappearing every year because of habitat loss, climate change and disease organisms. A third of all frog and toad species in the world are threatened with extinction, a scale unimaginable in mammals, birds or other animal classes.
"You know the Fort Worth Zoo not to be alarmists," Fouraker said. "This is really serious. They're equating the demise of amphibians with the extinction of the dinosaurs. It's happening that rapidly, and it's that serious." Experts suspect that a particularly lethal fungal disease that has been linked to changes in the climate is decimating frog populations, even in protected areas. And by geologic standards, the decline has occurred in the blink of an eye -- the last 30 years. "Amphibians have been around 100 million years, virtually unchanged," said Robin Moore, amphibian conservation officer with Conservation International in Washington, D.C. "They are survivors. That's why their sudden decline is very alarming. Something has changed. They are sensitive indicators of environmental change."
Increasingly, conservation groups are talking of removing endangered species from the wild so they can be preserved until more is understood about what is happening to them. Fouraker said the Fort Worth Zoo plans to add room in its herpetarium to quarantine and breed some species to make sure they don't become extinct. Zoos in Houston and Atlanta have been active in the same field. "Zoos are definitely rising to the challenge and starting to acknowledge the severity of the situation and wanting to do something to help," Moore said.
The zoo is already basking in the glow of a number of breeding successes involving extremely rare animals -- blue poison dart frogs, Puerto Rican crested toads, and Pan's box turtles and coral cat snakes. "This zoo has had four decades of success in breeding reptiles, but amphibians have been lacking until" recently, said Matt Vaughan, the lead herpetology keeper. "With the amphibian crisis, we'll be on the forefront of conservation with them." Yet that work is being done in a building that is showing its age, and not very well.
The herpetarium -- 9,000 square feet with 120 exhibit spaces -- is a tangle of electrical wires, with heaters behind the exhibits for the animals and air-conditioning streaming in for the visitors. The building has no insulation, collapsed plumbing and insufficient quarantine rooms. It also has a multitude of cracks, holes and other spots where escaped animals can hide.
Fouraker and Vaughan recently took a donor through the building. They stopped at the African dwarf crocodile exhibit, where the donor remarked that the rain falling gave the exhibit a very natural feel. "That's the roof leaking," Vaughan said.
Rarely do the needs of a zoo intersect so neatly with the needs of animals in the wild, and that has Fouraker and others at the zoo energized about their mission. "We have led the way on turtle survival, and we have a tremendous lizard collection," Fouraker said. "But we hope to bring more emphasis to amphibians in the new building."
Breeding success
The Fort Worth Zoo has more than 700 snakes, lizards, frogs and turtles in its herpetology collection. The zoo is one of the most active and successful in the nation at breeding reptiles and amphibians, including some of the rarest and most endangered species in the world.

Puerto Rican crested toad
Only toad native to Puerto Rico
Listed as critically endangered
Tadpoles bred in Fort Worth are being reintroduced in the wild

Pan's box turtle
Found only in two Chinese provinces
Discovered in 1984
Critically endangered by poaching and loss of habitat

Coral cat snake
Lives in trees in Central America
Has the same tricolor pattern as the venomous coral snake
Believed to have been bred in captivity for the first time

PetClub UK Launches Online Information Website

Us Brits are supposed to be a nation of animal lovers, and with that in mind, PetClub UK has launched its interactive information portal for all manner of pets.
The site is aimed at anyone who already owns an animal, is looking to take one on, or works with them, with separate sections for cats, dogs, horses, small animals, reptiles, and aquarium.

The site aims to be a one-stop shop for pet lovers, providing useful tools and resources, plus a discussion forum, and the ability for users to share photos of favourite pets.
Animal loving founder of PetClub UK Chris Jones, himself a dedicated reptile enthusiast, said "I set out to publish an informative, factual site that will help owners understand and look after their pets. Where we recommend products, these are specifically to help ensure that the creatures we care for lead healthy, contented lives. The main aim is to create a community for the exchange of experience, best practice and sound advice."
All visitors can access the information pages and articles but members of PetClub UK are entitled to additional benefits of discounts on every product, a regular newsletter and the chance to enter regular competitions to win some fantastic prizes. Annual membership of the Club costs L5 and is open to everyone.

Source: TechDigest

FOLLOW-UP: 500 Species Found in Census of Marine Life

Some 500 previously unknown species of marine life were discovered during the latest Census of Marine Life (CoML), a research effort involving some 2000 researchers from 80 countries. The discoveries, made during 19 ocean expeditions in 2006, included a gigantic 1-centimeter in diameter single-celled organism in the Nazare Canyon off Portugal, a "blonde-haired" lobster near Easter Island, a "chewing" squid, and a four-pound (1.8 kg) lobster off Madagascar.
"Each Census expedition reveals new marvels of the ocean – and with the return of each vessel it is increasingly clear that many more discoveries await marine explorers for years to come," said Fred Grassle, Chair of the Census Scientific Steering Committee. Now in its sixth year, the Census is working to record the diversity, distribution, and abundance of global marine life. Among its many findings in 2006:

Species discovery

Kiwa hirsuta, the Yeti crab, a new species found near Easter Island. Credit: Ifremer/A. Fifis ©2006. A colonial siphonophore: several swimming bells surround red and yellow feeding tenticles. Grows to 1.5 cm. From the Danish Galathea 3 expedition off Broome in Northwestern Australia, November 2006. Photo Credit, Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska Fairbanks ©2006 A new species of squid, Promachoteuthis sloani, found along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Credit: MAR-ECO/R. Young ©2006. Tracks of tagged sooty shearwaters as they made their way back and forth across the Pacific Ocean. Credit: TOPP ©2006

Macro microbe. The protozoan that Census explorers of the continental margins discovered in the Nazare Canyon off Portugal differs from the usual protozoans seen swimming in a drop of water under a microscope. The single cell of this fragile new species of Xenophyophore, found at 4,300 m depth, is enclosed within a plate-like shell, 1 cm in diameter, composed of mineral grains.

Furry crab. Near Easter Island, Census researchers discovered a crab so unusual it warranted a whole new family designation, Kiwaidae. Beyond adding a new family to the wealth of known biodiversity, its discovery added a new genus, Kiwa, named for the mythological Polynesian goddess of shellfish. Its furry or hairy appearance justified its species name, hirsuta.

A squid that chews. Among the 80,000 organisms – encompassing 354 families, genera and species – that Census deep-sea investigators collected from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was the reference specimen or holotype for a new species of squid: Promachoteuthis sloani. Although collection easily damages the soft cephalopods, the hard beaks are unique to each species, including that of the new squid, which looks quite capable of chewing its food.

Komoki in Antarctic waters. Komokiaceae or "komoki" dominate deep-sea foraminifera, protozaons with false feet used for locomotion and food collection. In the Weddell Sea, where ice crushed the ship of Antarctic explorer Shackleton in 1915, Census polar researchers found 59 komoki and komoki-like species, at least 42 unknown to science.

Doubling Zooplankton. Census zooplankton researchers discovered 3 new genera and 31 new species of copepods and mysids, small crustaceans, in Southeast Asian, Australian, and New Zealand waters. Analysis of collections from biodiversity hotspots, the deep sea, and other unexplored regions is on track to double the number of known zooplankton species

Extremes of Science

Hottest. At a thermal vent 3 km below the surface in the equatorial Atlantic, Census researchers found shrimp and other life forms on the periphery of fluids billowing from Earth’s core at an unprecedented marine recording of 407ºC, a temperature that would melt lead easily. Although the species resemble those around other vents, scientists want to study how, surrounded by near-freezing 2ºC water, their chemistry allows them to withstand heat pulses that approach the boiling point – up to 80ºC. Shrimp were seen on the walls of the vent chimney. Others in the habitat include mussels and clams. All somehow tolerate an environment of extreme temperature changes within a few centimeters and high concentrations of heavy metals from the vent fluids.

Darkest. Southern Ocean census takers revealed an astonishing community of marine life shrouded beneath 700 meters of ice – 200 km from open water. Equally remarkable, sampling of this most remote ocean’s depths during three lengthy cruises yielded more new than familiar species.

Most. Census fish counters' observation off the New Jersey coast of 20 million fish swarmed in a school the size of Manhattan Island qualifies as most new abundance found. Sound emitted by a new ship-based technology illuminates life in an oceanic area tens of thousands times larger than previously possible. It updates instantaneously and continuously, revealing the extension and shrinking, fragmentation and merging of the island-sized swarms as a person might watch schools of minnows swimming in a brook beneath a bridge.

Deepest. Sampling 5 km below the surface in the Sargasso Sea, deploying a unique trawl configuration that filtered large volumes of water for rare-but-diverse zooplankton living in the ocean’s deepest depths, Census experts from 14 nations caught these drifting, often soft and elusive animals in a sophisticated net, the MOCNESS. They collected more than 500 species, including 12 likely new species, eating each other at the great depths or living on organic matter falling like snow from above. (CMarZ photo of menacing-looking, animals such as this amphipod, a small prawn-like crustacean, the supposed inspiration for the movie Alien.

Oldest. Census seamount researchers found a shrimp, believed extinguished 50 million years ago, alive and well on an underwater peak in the Coral Sea. Neoglyphea neocaledonica was nicknamed "Jurassic shrimp" by its discoverers, who say it rivals the find in South Africa and Indonesia of the coelacanth, a prehistoric fish previously known only through fossils.

Richest. In the sense that biodiversity is richness, Census microbe hunters found 20,000 kinds floating in a single liter of sea water. Samples were taken from the Atlantic and Pacific, including from an eruptive fissure 1,500 meters deep on a seamount in the Pacific a few hundred kilometers west of Oregon, USA. Revealed by DNA studies, most of the different kinds of bacteria were unknown and likely rare globally. The richness of the diversity invites speculation about what rare species contribute to their biosphere and an estimate that the kinds of bacteria in the oceans exceed five to 10 million. The researchers also began assembling the best-ever video of protists (mostly microscopic organisms that are neither animals, plants, or fungi) and to pioneer optical and genetic techniques to extend the limits of knowledge. (The video is available for media at the embargoed media materials URL. Credit: Jeremy Pickett-Heaps)

Farthest. Tracking tagged sooty shearwaters by satellite, Census researchers mapped the small bird’s 70,000 km search for food in a giant figure eight over the Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand via Polynesia to foraging grounds in Japan, Alaska and California and then back. Making the longest-ever electronically-recorded migration in only 200 days, the bird averaged a surprising 350 km daily. In some cases, a breeding pair made the entire journey together.

Largest. Among the many new species discovered by Census participants during 2006, a 1.8 kg (4 lb) rock lobster that Census explorers found off Madagascar may be the largest. Named Palinurus barbarae, the main body spans half a meter.

While the census found hundreds of previously unknown species -- including 150 species of fish -- the researchers behind the project also found evidence that marine biodiversity is in decline due to human influences. "The historical studies of the CoML agree with recent studies showing steep declines of most wild populations of marine animals that people eat," says Grassle.
According to a CoML news release, researchers "reconstructed the changing abundance of marine life in 12 estuaries and coastal seas around the world. In archives from Roman times in the Adriatic Sea, the medieval era in Northern Europe, to Colonial times in North America and Australia, they confirmed the fears that exploitation and habitat destruction depleted 90 percent of important species. They also confirmed elimination of 65 percent of seagrass and wetland habitat, a 10 to 1,000-fold degradation of water quality, and accelerated species invasions."
"The past richness of the oceans in many near shore regions is hard for people today to believe," added Grassle. Despite the declines, the census says that the research will help humans better utilize marine resources going forward. "The dream of abundant and sustainable stocks of commercial fish is now one step closer, thanks to this Census of Marine Life program. The new data reveal for the first time those zones of the ocean where we have the highest leverage for conservation and thus smarter fishing," said D. James Baker, President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
CoML found that marine preservation efforts are working in some areas, with "signs of transitions from degradation to recovery where conservation was implemented during the 20th century." Looking towards 2010, CoML seeks to have completed an initial census describing what lived, now lives, and will live in the oceans. "The vast expanse of the oceans, the rarity of some animals, their movements, and fluctuations challenge Census researchers. Happily, the astonishing progress of the past six years shows the community will create the first-ever Census of Marine Life in 2010," said Jesse Ausubel, a program manager for the Sloan Foundation, a Census sponsor.
"Together, we can see the wonders of the ocean and excite the world to preserve and increase them," added Ron O’Dor, CoML Senior Scientist.

This article is based on a news release from CoML. Photos from mongabay.com

The Never-Ending Marvels of the Ocean

Source: Playfuls.com

The ocean has yet more mysteries to yield to human kind; those with an affinity for such discoveries can only stand in awe as Nature reveals itself to us mortals.
2006’s Census of Marine Life participants must have stood in awe. This is the sixth year that researchers from around the world have collaborated, in a valiant attempt to shed some light over the dark depths of global seas and oceans and to attach a statistical viewpoint to marine life. They recorded the diversity and distribution of species, and came up with some startling discoveries.
“Animals seem to have found a way to make a living just about everywhere,” said Jesse Ausubel of the Sloan Foundation, about the findings of year six of the census of marine life. Ron O'Dor, a senior scientist with the census, said: “We can't find anyplace where we can't find anything new.” These are just a few of their findings.

* CoMF researchers found shrimp, as well as mussels and clams, living in waters of 407ºC. The animals were found in the equatorial Atlantic, at a thermal vent 3 km below the surface that releases fluids containing heavy metals from the Earth’s core – hot enough to melt lead. This is the hottest sea vent ever documented. Bizarrely enough, the vent is surrounded by near-freezing water.
“This is the most extreme environment and there is plenty of life around it,” said Chris German, of Britain's Southampton Oceanography Center and a leader of the Atlantic survey.

* Researchers investigating the waters of the Southern Ocean discovered a community of marine life thriving in darkness below 700 meters of ice and 200 km away from open water.

* A school the size of Manhattan Island, comprising some 20 million fish, was reported off the coast of New Jersey. This is the most abundant grouping of sea creatures ever found.

* Census experts utilized a sophisticated net dubbed MOCNESS to catch animals living at great depths below the surface (5 km) in the Sargasso Sea. 12 new species were reported.

* CoMF devotees uncovered a shrimp that scientists believed had become extinct 50 million years ago – it was actually quite prosperous in its underwater peak in the Coral Sea. The creature, officially named neoglyphea neocaledonica, received the nickname of “Jurassic shrimp”, in honor of its mathusalemic age.

* Census microbe hunters found 20,000 kinds of bacteria floating in a single liter of sea water. The samples came from the Atlantic and Pacific. DNA studies revealed that most of the different kinds of bacteria were unknown and likely rare globally. Researchers estimate that the kinds of bacteria in the oceans exceed five to 10 million.

* Sooty shearwaters seem to be deserving of the moniker “globetrotters” By way of satellite, Census explorers tracked tagged specimens as they made their way through an impressive distance of 70,000 km, searching for food. They flew over the Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand via Polynesia to foraging grounds in Japan, Alaska and California and then back, which makes this trek the longest migration ever recorded electronically, over a period of just 200 days. The average daily distance was even as long as 350 km.

* The largest species discovered during a 2006 Census expedition was a 1.8 kg rock lobster named Palinurus Barbarae, off Madagascar. The main body spans half a meter. Census scientists organized 19 ocean expeditions in 2006 (a 20th one is underway in the Antarctic). The number of active sampling sites grew exponentially from 30 to 128 in 2006 alone, and satellites were a big part of the explorations, as well as laboratories, archives and other technology.

"Each Census expedition reveals new marvels of the ocean – and with the return of each vessel it is increasingly clear that many more discoveries await marine explorers for years to come,” says Fred Grassle, Chair of the Census Scientific Steering Committee.

What to Get Your Pet for Christmas

Is your pet on your Christmas list?
For an increasing number of pet owners, the answer is yes. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association conducted a survey last year that found eight of 10 dog owners buy presents for their dogs and 63 percent of cat owners buy for their pets. The average for each gift (which wasn’t just tracked for the holidays — pet owners also buy for birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween and other special occasions) was $17. This year alone, Americans will spend about $38 billion in pet supplies.
So, what can you get this year for the pet that has everything? Well, more of the same. If your dog loves chew toys, a new one is sure to be a hit. A cat that enjoys catnip will undoubtedly like that herb in a new toy.
Really smart dogs may enjoy a new trend in toys: Brain-teasers for pups. Ourpets.com offers a range of “interactive toys” that are intended to keep a dog busy for a while. Note the MolecuBall, which rolls and slides in unpredictable directions. As it moves, the dog figures out how to get the toy to release a treat. The Buster Food Cube also rewards canines for their problem-solving behavior — as the dog plays with the cube, treats come trickling out of a small hole on the side. “This motivates the dog to learn how to ’work’ the cube so more treats roll out,” the company’s press release says. I haven’t tried these out on my personal dog, but they’d be a good bet for someone looking to keep their pet entertained for a few hours.
Your cat may like a new scratching post or condo. There are literally hundreds of different styles to choose from, ranging from small cardboard models to huge, carpeted, multi-level constructions. I always like to recommend the Cosmic Catnip Alpine Scratcher, an inexpensive cardboard “hill” that lets cats exercise their claws and enjoy catnip at the same time. These can be found in different sizes at most pet supply stores. Of course, you can cover your bases with a gift basket for your cat or dog, filled with a variety of goodies and toys.
Looking for something for a smaller pet? The KONG Company, which makes popular chew toys for dogs, has recently come out with a line of chew toys that work for rabbits, ferrets and rodents. I haven’t seen these available yet, but the company says they should be out for Christmas, so keep your eyes peeled! I do know that while the new one has pictures of rabbits and rodents on the packaging, the company has an existing KONG for ferrets that may be easier to find (in a pinch, order online at amazon.com or your favorite pet supply store).
The lizard in your house might enjoy a vibrating food dish. Sounds funny, but makers at the Rolf C. Hagen Corp. believe that its Exo Terra Vivicator Feeding Dish will encourage reptiles and amphibians, which normally prefer their food to be live, to eat canned food or pellets. The bowl moves food across its rubber surface and is controlled by remote to vibrate for 15-second intervals.
When looking for a present for any pet, make sure it is wrapped safely (if you choose to wrap the gift at all). Ribbons can be ingested by cats and all kinds of pets can nibble on or eat paper and cardboard. It’s probably best to avoid these issues by removing any packaging from the pet right away. You’ll also want to steer clear of pet toys that look like household items — the kids’ stuffed animals or your favorite slippers, for example — so they don’t inadvertantly encourage your pet to chew on the wrong thing.
Don’t forget, if buying a food item, to check the label for anything to which your pet might be allergic. Toys or treats that have dyes may also cause problems — pets can’t tell the colors, but those dyes might stain your carpeting or furniture. Give anything edible in moderation and supervise so that your pet doesn’t accidentally choke or otherwise get hurt.

Photo courtesy of HickerPhoto / Article by Jennifer Gardner

Protection of Biodiversity

The Osa Peninsula, in the Costa Rican South Pacific, is a unique place which, in only 160,000 hectares (some 395,355 acres), encompasses 2 percent of the world’s biodiversity and 50 percent of all the species in Costa Rica. Its forests are home to at least 5,000 species of plants, over 700 species of trees, more than 8,000 species of insects, and 117 of reptiles. Also, there we find 375 species of birds, 124 of mammals, 40 of fresh water fish, and 28 species of dolphins and whales.
In order to protect that wealth, The Osa Campaign (Campaña Osa in Spanish) was launched in 2003, but it was not until now that the project was made public. It is a joint effort by the Costa Rica-USA Foundation (CRUSA), the Ministry of the Environment and Energy, Conservancy International, and The Nature Conservancy. The goal is to collect us$32.5 million, by the year 2008, to manage conservation and establish a trust. So far, us$19 million has been collected and each Costa Rican is expected to donate at least us$1, to add another us$3.2 million in the coming months.
Several major Costa Rican firms, such as La Nación, Intel Costa Rica, Tribu, Holtermann, and Pipasa partake in the non-profit campaign.

Source: Inside Costa Rica

Dramatic snake colour-change mystery solved

Source: Physorg

An adult green python (top) and a spectacular
yellow juvenile green python.
Credit: Australian National University

The mystery surrounding a snake that undergoes a spectacular colour change has been solved by ANU ecologists who have found that the skin of the green python – which begins life either bright yellow or red – transforms to blend into a new habitat as the snake gets older.
Dr David Wilson and Dr Robert Heinsohn from the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at ANU, with Professor John Endler of Exeter University, solved the mystery after a three year study radio-tracking the green python at Cape York Peninsula. “Animals sometimes change colour during their lives, but none as dramatically as the green python of northern Australia and New Guinea. It has puzzled evolutionary biologists for decades,” Dr Heinsohn said. “This beautiful reptile is popular in the pet trade because it hatches either bright yellow or red, but eventually turns emerald green. It turns out there is a very good reason for this dramatic change.”
For the study, published this week in the scientific journal Biology Letters, the researchers radio-tracked a large number of juvenile and adult pythons and analysed their colours using advanced spectrophotometry. To their surprise, they found that the brightly coloured youngsters live in a completely different habitat to the older snakes. The juveniles remained outside the rainforest where they hunted small prey such as skinks and cockroaches, whereas the adults moved into the rainforest canopy to hunt rodents and birds.
The juvenile yellow and red colour allows them to blend in remarkably well with the multi-coloured leaves and grass at the forest edge. The adult green allows them to hide from their predators as they hunt for birds and rodents in the canopy.
“It was only when we established the total divergence in behaviour of the juveniles and adults that we could begin to understand their remarkably different colours. It takes a year before the young ones are large enough to catch bigger prey like birds. They then shed their skins, change to green, and move inside the rainforest to try their luck off the ground. Drab juveniles are the norm in the animal world, but the brightly coloured young of green pythons are unique. They are helping us to understand where the bright and beautiful colours seen in nature come from and how they are maintained,” Dr Heinsohn said.

20 ft Crocodile Skeleton on Display in Orissa

Source: India News

The skeleton of a massive 20 feet crocodile, probably one of the largest in India, has been put on display at a wildlife park here for the benefit of researchers and students. The male crocodile was found dead in September at Kaliabhanjadiha area inside the famous 670 sq km Bhitarkanika National Park, 130 km from the Orissa capital Bhubaneswar, which is home to the largest population of giant saltwater crocodiles in India.
The skeleton is kept at the interpretation centre of the crocodile breeding and rearing farm at Danmal inside the national park, said Bhitarkanika divisional forest officer A.K. Jena. A team of herpetologists painstakingly brought the skeleton to the centre, preserved it and mounted it on a frame, he added. The whole process took about a month.
The age of the crocodile is not known. 'We will determine it after tests,' said reptile researcher Siba Prasad Prasida who was involved in the elaborate preservation work.
Wildlife officials are now planning to focus on preserving the skull of another crocodile kept by members of the erstwhile royal family Rajkanika in Kendrapada. According to noted reptile researcher Romulus Whitaker, the skull measures 75 cm, considered to be the largest saltwater crocodile in India. The size of a skull is nearly one-seventh of the reptile's body length. The reptile therefore could have been 25 ft, Whitaker, who founded the crocodile bank in Chennai, said. 'My grandfather Raja Rajendra Narayan Bhanja Deo had shot the biggest crocodile in 1930 within the park as it had killed many people,' said Shivendra Narayan Bhanja Deo, a member of the royal family which shifted it to his residence in Bhubaneswar.
The Guinness Book of World Records this year registered the presence of a 23 ft estuarine crocodile in Bhitarkanika as the largest crocodile in the world.

Expose Students to Pros and Cons of Theory (Editorial)

Source: The News Star
The following is an editorial written by Sociology Ph.D. and attorney Jack Wright, Jr.:

It is amazing that anyone would object to teaching evolution as merely a theory, and not an established fact. There are numerous objections to the theory of evolution, and every student should be made aware of them. After all, any educational system should be guided by the truism, "Whoever knew the truth put to worse, in a free and open encounter?" (John Milton).
The theory of evolution has a testable link the transitional form. If Darwin were right, scattered throughout the geological record would be millions of intermediate forms between fish, reptiles, birds, animals and man.
In 1872, an oceanic expedition set forth on the H.M.S. Challenger to retrieve transitional forms from the oceans. But alas and a lack, neither the Challenger nor any other expedition before or since has been able to dredge up any meaningful kind of intermediate form. The problem has been called the 'missing link.' What is missing? The evidence.
Dr. Elridge, a world-famous paleontologist of the British Museum, has remarked, "Nine-tenths of the talk of evolutionists is sheer nonsense, not founded on observation, and wholly unsupported by the facts. This museum is full of the proof of the utter falsity of their views. In all this great museum, there is not a particle of evidence of the transmutation of species." Notwithstanding shortcomings of the Darwinist theory, it has been accepted in biology textbooks as a fact. Anyone questioning this world view is subject to being treated as a member of the flat-earth society.
Darwin was honest enough to point out what would be necessary to refute his theory: he wrote, "If it would be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modification, my theory would absolutely break down." The Harvard atheist, now deceased, Stephen J. Gould, points out Darwin's theory fails at this point: "Of what possible use are the imperfect, incipient stages of useful structures?" What good is half a jaw? Or half a wing? Evolutionists have tried to salvage Darwin's thought by adding mutations.
In response, Dr. Walter Brown, in his book, In the Beginning, writes, "What mutations could transform a crawling larva into a flying monarch butterfly that can accurately navigate three thousand miles, using a brain the size of a pinhead?" Obviously, the vast information that directs every stage of a larva and an adult's development, including metamorphosis, must reside in its genetic material at the beginning. This only fits creation. Thus both within and without the evolutionary camp, there are devastating criticisms of Darwin's theory. Students should be exposed to the pros and cons of this debate, so they can make up their own minds about what is, ultimately, the truth.

Robert Wilson Pledges $1 Million to Halt Bird Extinctions

Source: PNNOnline
American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and its partners seeking to acquire habitat for endangered and declining bird species received a major boost with the announcement of a $900,000 challenge grant and $100,000 for other conservation work from New York philanthropist Robert Wilson.
“We are thrilled by the huge opportunity Robert Wilson’s foresight and dedication presents for conserving the world’s rarest bird species,” said George Fenwick, President of American Bird Conservancy. “With the average cost to acquire land in South America only $100 per acre, this generous challenge grant means many more imperiled bird species will have a permanent place to call home.”
This year alone, ABC and its partners have so far protected 28 tracts of land in Central and South America that provide core habitat for more than 700 species of birds, including four that are globally endangered, the Santa Marta Parakeet, Jocotoco Antpitta, Black-breasted Puffleg, and Long-whiskered Owlet. The sites also provide key wintering habitat for dozens of migratory songbird species including the Cerulean and Golden-winged Warblers.
Mr. Wilson has asked for a 3:1 match for his gift, to leverage additional support and encourage others to participate in this critical land acquisition campaign. “These funds will be targeted towards priority sites for species that are very rare or declining fast,” said Fenwick. “With the help of others to match Mr. Wilson’s generous offer, we can buy parcels to protect several additional priority bird species. But it is not only birds that will benefit. Biodiversity including declining frogs and other amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and plants can all benefit from the management of these lands as protected reserves.”
Priority bird species in immediate need of habitat protection in Latin America include Worthen’s Sparrow and Long-billed Curlew (Mexico), Honduran Emerald hummingbird (Honduras), Chestnut-capped Piha (Colombia) and Lear’s Macaw (Brazil).
ABC has embarked upon a new, $40 million, five-year initiative, the American Birds Campaign aimed at protecting the great bird diversity of the Americas. The central themes of the conservation campaign are ensuring the future for endangered birds, restoring habitat for all declining birds, eliminating the worst threats, supercharging the bird conservation community, and applying conservation innovations to solve problems. Mr. Wilson’s pledge includes $900,000 for land purchase and $100,000 for other conservation work.

Where do reptiles such as alligators go when winter comes?

Source: Orlando Sentinel
While people burrow under mounds of warm blankets on cold winter nights, alligators also seek shelter from the cold. But in their case, muddy burrows provide warmth, and the beds they settle into are often on the side of a riverbank or at the bottom of a lake. Although they might disappear from sight for several days, alligators don't actually hibernate. Their metabolism slows down, and they breathe less often. But they seldom stay undercover longer than a week or two -- not long enough to be considered hibernation.
During times of dormancy, alligators live off their own fat, not needing to consume new food. But as soon as the sun comes out and the weather warms up, gators emerge from their dens to glide through the water and bask in the sun.
Occasionally in winter, alligators use a unique method to maintain body heat. They pile on top of one another in huge stacks of reptilian bodies. While the bottommost gators must gain massive amounts of heat from this precarious approach to generating energy, there is doubt that it benefits the reptile unfortunate enough to have landed on top of the pile.

Elusive Alligator May Have Said 'See ya later,' but Reptile Sightings Still Reported in Crown Colony

By HINA ALAM
The Lufkin Daily News

One of the top golf courses in the state, Lufkin's Crown Colony Country Club, attracts people with its lush greens, its lavish fairways and its scenic beauty. But according to some who live there or frequent the area on a regular basis, alligators seem to like it, too. Danny McCoy, manager of the Crown Colony Country Club, said he had heard rumors about alligators in lakes that dot the club's golf course.
"I have never seen them myself," he said. "They're probably very small. Our grounds superintendent is always keeping an eye out for them ... but there is not any confirmation." Not many members have actually reported sighting the alligators, McCoy said. While some members claim to have seen them, they did not want their names used in this story. "We saw the head (a couple of weeks ago)," said a woman who plays golf regularly on the Crown Colony course. McCoy believes the alligator tales began after the black panther legends died down. "There was a story that there was black panther going around and then (the alligator story) came up."
Stories of alligator sightings have been going on since the summer, McCoy said, "but the employees never saw them." The golf course has three small lake areas that are anywhere between five and 10 feet deep, he said. The alligators could be there. There are a lot of creeks too, but they don't hold water continuously. "In the summertime, alligators can be seen basking in the sun," McCoy said. "But we didn't see them in the summer."
Gordon Henley, director of the Ellen Trout Zoo and resident alligator and crocodile expert, said he too had heard that there were alligators in or around the golf course. He has not seen them either, and he says this is the wrong time of the year to start looking for them. "(The current) weather conditions cause alligators to retreat," Henley said. "In (the Ellen Trout Lake) I don't recall seeing alligators when the temperature was below 80 degrees."
Alligators need a pond or a lake to live in — "a wet environment," Henley said. "They need ample food supply and shelter. And there has to be more than one to multiply." Alligators eat snakes, turtles, fish, raccoons and opossums, he said.
While they are no longer an endangered species, they are still threatened, said Monique Slaughter, natural resource specialist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. It is important for people to remember, Henley said, that the eastern part of Texas is the natural home of the alligators. Mostly, alligators are content basking in the sun and being left alone, Henley said. The danger comes when people try feeding them. "They don't eat people as a regular food item," he said.
McCoy said he would concerned about alligators on the golf course in the country club area because of pets, dogs and children who are always nearby. "If we see one, we will call the parks and wildlife department," he said. "And we encourage anyone who sees one to do the same."

Baby Alligators Hatch in Dorset (UK)

Source: Metro.co.uk
A type of alligator has been bred along the Jurassic coast of Britain for the first time in about 30 million years, a breeder said today. Two tiny Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman - a type of alligator - have already hatched and nine more viable eggs are on their way in Dorchester, Dorset.
Reptile expert Jerry Cole said: "Fossil records indicate it's about 30 million years since they were last breeding along the Jurassic coast in Dorset, give or take a few million years. I'm also probably the first private person to breed the crocodilians in the UK."
The 10 inch babies are being fed goldfish and insects to help them grow up to 1.5 metres, when they will feast on rodents. Their natural habitat is the Amazon, and Mr. Cole, of BJ Herp Supplies, plans to keep a couple, with the rest going to zoos and specialist private collectors.
"The babies are miniature versions of the adults, able to do everything from the moment they hatch," said Mr. Cole. "They could give you quite a nasty nip." Mr. Cole has one male and two females, including the mother. He was also the first breeder in the UK to hatch Fiji banded iguanas, earlier this year.
The Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman, Latin name Paleosuchus palpebrosus, is a crocodilian reptile from South America. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam and Venezuela. It is also the smallest species of the alligatoridae family, reaching up to 1.5 meters long.

Monster Fish Crushed Opposition With Strongest Bite Ever

Chomping champion ... The dunkleosteus measured up to 10 metres long,
weighed 3600 kgs and had armour-plating around its head.
Photo: Reuters / Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Meet Dunkleosteus, a four-tonne, 10-metre, armour-plated fish that was arguably the first king of the beasts. The monstrous fish cruised the oceans [long] ago, preying on creatures much larger than itself, its blade-like fangs adept at tearing its quarry in two.
Using fossilised skull remains, scientists have built up a biomechanical model of the fish's powerful jaw and surrounding musculature, and they say it had the strongest bite of any fish ever to exist.
Philip Anderson's team at the University of Chicago found that the predator's jaws snapped shut with a force of more than five tonnes. The jaws were articulated by a unique mechanism based on four rotational joints working in harmony, they report in the Royal Society journal, Biology Letters, published yesterday.
Dunkleosteus was the first known large predator, pre-dating the dinosaurs. It belonged to a diverse group of armoured fish, placoderms, that dominated the oceans in the Devonian period. Its formidable bite allowed it to feast on other armoured aquatic animals, including primitive sharks and smaller creatures protected by bone-like casings. "Dunkleosteus was able to devour anything in its environment," Dr Anderson said.
While lacking true teeth, the fish used two long, bony blades in its mouth to snap and crush nearly any creature unfortunate enough to encounter it. The bladed jaws, which enabled the beast to take on prey much larger than its mouth, are a feature sharks did not develop until [much] later.
"It kind of blows sharks out of the water as far as bite force goes," Mark Westneat, the curator of fishes at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and co-author of the paper, said. "A huge great white shark is probably only capable of biting at about half that force." He added: "The most interesting part of this work for me was discovering that this heavily-armoured fish was both fast during jaw-opening and quite powerful during jaw-closing. This is possible due to the unique engineering design of its skull and different muscles used for opening and closing. And it made this fish into one of the first true apex predators seen in the vertebrate fossil record."

New Species of Snake Found in North Bengal

Twenty nine species of snakes, including eight new and ten very poisonous [sic] kinds, have been found in Jaldapara and Chilapata forests of North Bengal in an on-going survey.
The survey, being conducted by snake expert Mintoo Choudhury and a group of forest personnel, also found a number of rare species of snake in the two forests, divisional forest officer, Cooch Behar, Manindra Biswas said today. The new species of snakes found would be sent to Kolkata, he said.
A rare species of snake named 'Trinkle' found during the search at Shiltorsha Forest was last seen about 26 years ago, he said.

Disease Threat From Exotic Pets Could Rival Terrorist Attack

Exotic animals captured in the wild are streaming across the U.S. border by the millions with little or no screening for disease, leaving Americans vulnerable to a virulent outbreak that could rival a terrorist act. Demand for such wildlife is booming as parents try to get their kids the latest pets fancied by Hollywood stars and zoos and research scientists seek to fill their cages.
More than 650 million critters — from kangaroos and kinkajous to iguanas and tropical fish — were imported legally into the United States in the past three years, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. That's more than two for every American. Countless more pets — along with animal parts and meats — are smuggled across the borders as part of a $10 billion-a-year international black market, second only to illegal drugs.
Most wildlife arrive in the United States with no quarantine and minimal screening for disease. The government employs just 120 full-time inspectors to record and inspect arriving wildlife. There is no requirement they be trained to detect diseases. "A wild animal will be in the bush, and in less than a week it's in a little girl's bedroom," said Darin Carroll, a disease hunter with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While exotic pets from Africa, Asia and South America can be cute and fashionable, scientists fear that bacteria and viruses they carry can jump to humans and native animals. Recent statistics raise the alarm.

FROM EXOTIC ANIMALS TO HUMANS:
Zoonotic diseases — those that jump to humans — account for three quarters of all emerging infectious threats, the CDC says. Five of the six diseases the agency regards as top threats to national security are zoonotic, and the CDC recently opened a center to better prepare and monitor such diseases. The Journal of Internal Medicine this month estimated that 50 million people worldwide have been infected with zoonotic diseases since 2000 and as many as 78,000 have died. U.S. experts don't have complete totals for Americans, but partial numbers paint a serious picture:

• Hantavirus, which is carried by rodents and can cause acute respiratory problems or death, has sickened at least 317 Americans and killed at least 93 since 1996.
• More than 600 people have been sickened since 2000 with tularemia, a virulent disease that can be contracted from rabbits, hamsters and other rodents. At least three people have died.
• Three transplant patients in New England died last year after receiving organs from a human donor who had been infected with the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus from a pet hamster. There have been 34 U.S. cases since 1993.
• More than 210,000 Americans were sickened between 2000 and 2004 with salmonella, and at least 89 died. Most infections come from contaminated food — but up to 5 percent have been linked to pets, especially such reptiles as iguanas and turtles. And last year, at least 30 people in 10 states were sickened with a drug-resistant form linked to hamsters and other rodent "pocket pets."

Some of the scariest diseases to emerge since 2001 also have been tied to exotic animals: One of the first times the deadly Asian bird flu reached the West was in eagles smuggled aboard a plane to Europe. Likewise, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, is believed to have jumped to people from caged civet cats in a Chinese market. The cats are believed to have gotten the virus from bats.

PARIS HILTON'S BITE, OTHER RECENT THREATS:
Carroll, the disease hunter, knows the dangers well. For the past three years, he has traveled the globe tracing the origins of a monkeypox outbreak in 2003 that sickened dozens of adults and children in the U.S. Midwest. That disease, related to smallpox, is believed to have spread to people from rodents imported from Africa as pets. While no victims died, scientists are eager to understand the disease so they can stop a future outbreak.
Another newly discovered threat involves a current rage among exotic pet owners: a small carnivorous mammal with sharp teeth called a kinkajou. The nocturnal, tree-dwelling animals originally from Central and South America's rain forests have a dangerous bite — as Paris Hilton recently learned. The actress used to carry her pet kinkajou named "Baby Luv" on her shoulder as she partied. This summer, Hilton landed in an emergency room when Baby Luv bit her on the arm. The concern about a bite is real.
In 2005, a kinkajou bit a zookeeper in England on the wrist. The keeper's hand became infected, and she almost lost her fingers, said Dr. Paul Lawson, a University of Oklahoma microbiologist who first identified a new bacterium specific to kinkajous. The first antibiotics doctors prescribed didn't work, so a combination of several was used to stop the aggressive infection. Scientists worry that most Americans are ignorant of the threats, and the government's defenses are limited.

THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM:
Though such diseases can spread to humans in many ways, the exotic pet trade is a growing concern because of its lack of government oversight and its reliance on animals caught in the wild. The legal wildlife trade in the United States has more than doubled in the past 15 years, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.
Last year alone, there were more than 210 million animals imported to the United States for zoos, exhibitions, food, research, game ranches and pets. The imports included 203 million fish, 5.1 million amphibians, nearly 1.3 million reptiles, 259,000 birds and 87,991 mammals. Imported mammals caught in the wild range from macaque monkeys and chinchillas to wallabies and kangaroos. Only wild birds, primates and some cud-chewing wild animals are required to be quarantined upon arriving in the United States. The rest slip through with no disease screening, except for occasional Agriculture Department checks for ticks. "Taking an animal from the wild and putting it in your child's bedroom is just not a good idea," said Paul Arguin, a CDC expert on exotic animal imports. "We just don't know a lot about the diseases these animals carry."

THE POTENTIAL DISEASES:
The known diseases that can jump from exotic pets to humans are many:

• Rodents can carry hantavirus as well as Bolivian hemorrhagic fever, which causes high fever, muscle pain and severe bleeding in humans and can lead to death.
• Quarantines in 1989 and 1990 helped lead to the discovery of a new strain of the hemorrhagic disease Ebola in some primates. The primates either died or were killed.
• Then there are the mystery diseases, which scientists have yet to understand.

During the 1990s, desert jumping rodents called jerboas were imported to Texas from Egypt as pets, according to Alan Green, a wildlife expert. Many new owners fell ill with a strange rash that defied treatment.

LOOPHOLES IN SCREENING OF LEGAL PETS:
Loopholes abound with legal imports, even when screening and quarantine occurs. For instance, the thousands of monkeys that are imported each year for research from countries like China, Indonesia and Vietnam are quarantined for at least 31 days. While the monkeys are checked for tuberculosis, they aren't tested for other diseases unless they show signs of sickness.
However, monkeys can carry dangerous viruses and bacteria that don't make them sick but can harm people. For example, herpes B virus is a pathogen carried by 80 to 90 percent of adult macaques. The virus may not harm the macaques, but humans can be infected and suffer severe neurological damage or death.
In 1997, a 22-year-old researcher at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta died from herpes B virus weeks after a caged monkey splashed something in her eye. Though the CDC has prohibited importation of most monkeys as pets since 1975, some macaques imported for research are now being sold on the open market. "Whatever researchers are using and importing in great numbers is what we see in the pet trade," said April Truitt of the Primate Rescue Center in Nicholas, Ky. The government acknowledges it doesn't track where animals go after quarantine.

THE CHALLENGE POSED BY ILLEGAL SMUGGLING:
Illegal trade presents another challenge. "If you can think of it, you can get it," said Mira Leslie, a disease expert in Washington state. Smugglers have been known to tape small tubes filled with birds on their legs to smuggle them through airports or to cut deep boxes into car seats filled with exotic wildlife to drive across the Mexican border. Inspectors have been on heightened alert looking for smuggled birds since a man in 2004 smuggled two Crested Hawk-Eagles on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand, to Brussels, Belgium. He had wrapped them in white cloth and stuffed them into handmade, wicker tubes that he carried in a handbag.
Officials later learned that a well-known bird collector ordered the eagles for thousands of dollars. When the birds were tested, they were found to be infected with a strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus. Fortunately, no human was infected.

A BUREAUCRATIC MESS:
America's defenses are a bureaucratic nightmare. Laws are outdated and no single agency is responsible for pre-empting the next outbreak.

• The CDC is in charge of human health and the quarantine of imported monkeys.
• The Agriculture Department has primary responsibility for livestock health and the quarantining of wild bird imports and wild cud-chewing animals.
• The Fish and Wildlife Service is charged with stopping smuggled wildlife and enforcing laws that protect exotic and endangered species.

"The three agencies don't work together," said Cathy Johnson-Delaney, a veterinarian who advised the Agriculture Department during the early 1990s. "We should be screening all critters coming into the U.S. We aren't doing this." The CDC's Arguin acknowledges oversight of wildlife imports is reactive at best, noting that civet cats were banned from sale only after the SARS outbreak and the increased screening of birds occurred only after H5N1 started sweeping through Asia.

NO AGREEMENT ON FUTURE SOLUTIONS:
Jasen Shaw, president of U.S. Global Exotics, one of the largest American wildlife dealers, opposes banning exotic animal imports but acknowledges, "It doesn't do the industry any good to have diseases slip through."Quarantine for all mammal imports — which are more likely to carry diseases that jump to humans — could be a solution. Shaw said, however, that the industry would be wary of regulations that were too restrictive. Mass quarantining would be very expensive, he added.
Marshall Meyers, of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, which represents the $30-billion-a-year pet industry, advocates a risk-based system. Disease threats posed to humans by other mammals is far greater than those posed by fish, he explained, so tighter regulation on certain species might be warranted.
The CDC convened a meeting this spring to examine the lack of oversight, exploring options but making no recommendations. With no government action imminent, some support a private solution. "We should shift the burden to importers to prove that the animal imports are safe," said William Karesh, a zoonotic disease expert who works with the Wildlife Conservation Society. He suggests exotic importers take out insurance to foot the bill if their animals cause an outbreak."Why should you and I bear the cost of an outbreak when the industry makes all the money off this trade?"