Bulldog adopts 6 wild boar piglets in Germany

By DAVID RISING | Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Forget the three little pigs hiding from the big bad wolf. These six little pigs have found a new friend in a maternal French bulldog named Baby.

 

The Lehnitz animal sanctuary outside Berlin said Baby took straight to the wild boar piglets when they were brought in Saturday, three days old and shivering from cold.

 

Sanctuary worker Norbert Damm said Wednesday that, as soon as the furry striped piglets were brought in, Baby ran over and started snuggling them and keeping them warm, even though they're almost her size.

The 8-year-old bulldog has stayed right by their side since then, making sure they're OK, Damm said.

"She thinks they're her own babies," Damm said.

 

It isn't the first time Baby's taken to new guests at the sanctuary — she's also raised raccoons, cats and many other animals, Damm said.

 

"She's an uber-mother," he said.

 

The piglets' own mother was likely killed by a hunter and the litter of three males and three females was found abandoned in a forest.

 

At the time they were found they weighed in at under a kilogram (two pounds) each but are being bottle-fed at the sanctuary and are growing well, Damm said.

 

He said they can't be released into the wild because they have no fear of humans, but it should be possible to set them free in a nature reserve in about three months, once they can feed themselves.

 

Wild boars are common in Germany, even in big cities, and herds have been growing as expanding commercial crops have provided them with more food.

 

Recent estimates have put the boar population at more than 10,000 in Berlin alone, where they live in extensive wooded areas and often venture into backyards and sports fields, tearing up turf to look for food.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/bulldog-adopts-6-wild-boar-piglets-germany-152926726.html;_ylt=AujGTQjwNysGXz6lB2Ucg7Sr9HQA;_ylu=X3oDMTQyMXBxc3N0BG1pdANTbGlkZXNob3cgTWV0YWRhdGEgUmVsYXRlZARwa2cDOWI0ZGQ2OWYtNjcyNi0zZDI1LTlhZWItZTQyZjI3OWVkNDg5BHBvcwMxBHNlYwNpbWdpbmZvBHZlcgM3NjkwYTU4Ni01N2Y2LTExZTEtOTlhMi03OGU3ZDFmYTU0Mjg-;_ylg=X3oDMTJxOHE5bjVqBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDMzYyYzA1NjUtYmZmYS0zYjNlLWE2MTAtMDk5MTEzMTYzMDM2BHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc3MtZ2FsbGVyeQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3

 

Land of the rising Sunfish

New observations of Sunfish behaviour have revealed an intriguing symbiotic relationship with Laysan Albatross.

When Japanese researchers in the western North Pacific observed a school of Sunfish appearing to actively follow Laysan Albatrosses resting on the sea, they were soon to discover that this behaviour was mutually beneficial. The juvenile Sunfish, measuring about 40 cm across, were heavily infested with a parasitic worm-like copepod Pennella, a kind of crustacean, which held somewhat of an attraction for the birds. It soon became apparent that the albatrosses were feeding on the worms, as one was photographed doing just this.

The observers suggest that this cleaning behaviour may be frequent in the lifestyle of Sunfish, as the fish seem to actively seek out the birds, which then relieve them of their parasitic. the Sunfish school numbered about 57 individuals and were swimming right at the surface, exhibiting no defensive or evasive behaviour. The feeding actions of one Laysan Albatross soon attracted more, including a black-footed Albatross too. Some of the Sunfish appeared to present themselves by swimming sideways next to the birds, the better to show their parasites.

On a pelagic birding trip, Sunfish are often one of the major non-avian attractions a they swim on or near the surface, and it had been suggested that this behaviour might be due in some respect to their parasitic load. It would now appear that this might actually attract seabirds to remove the parasites. sunfish have also been noted to have associations with Sooty Shearwaters for possibly the same reason, and are attended by cleaner fish species.

Sunfish is the largest marine bony fish species, growing up to 2.7 m in length and weighing up to 2.3 tonnes. Laysan Albatross is a wide-ranging seabird in the North Pacific, with an estimated global population of over 1,180,000, though it is classed as Near Threatened by BirdLife International due to historical declines, but there are also signs that there has been a recent range expansion.

Reference
Abe, T, Sekiguchi, K, Onishi, H, Muramatsu, K and Kamito, T. 2012. Observations on a school of ocean sunfish and evidence for a symbiotic cleaning association with albatrosses. Marine Biology DOI 10.1007/s00227-011-1873-6

https://www.birdwatch.co.uk/channel/newsitem.asp?c=11&cate=__11785

Goat-riding monkey raids farm

Chinese farmer is claiming that a goat-riding monkey keeps sneaking onto his land to steal his vegetables.  Ye Shu, of Donguan, Guangdong Province, says the animals are owned by a neighbouring circus.

He claims the pair sneak into his field nearly every day, eat a lot of vegetables and damage many others.

"This has been going on for two weeks since the acrobatic troupe was first stationed here," he complained.

Ye says the clever monkey first stands on the goat's back to make sure the coast is clear before launching his raids.

"If the monkey sees that nobody is working in the field, he rides in on the goat and they start eating and causing trouble."

A circus spokesman admitted there was nobody to keep an eye on the animals after they had finished their part of the performance.

"We have compensated Ye Shu, and we are sorry for our neglect," said Wu Jun, the troupe leader.

Wu said he was now recruiting more animal keepers to prevent the pair from getting out of hand again.

 http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Goat-riding_monkey_raids_farm

'Truce' benefits bird neighbours

Lesser kestrels in Italy have formed a 'truce' with their jackdaw neighbours to save energy, a study has revealed.

Researchers found that birds nesting in a mixed colony patrolled for predators less often than those living in single species sites.

The unlikely co-operation happened despite the birds' conflicting diets as jackdaws can prey on kestrel eggs.

Scientists suggest this could have important implications for the future of the birds of prey.

Up to 20,000 pairs of lesser kestrels are currently thought to exist in Europe and North Africa.

According to BirdLife International, a partnership of conservation organisations, the species suffered rapid declines after the 1950s but they have been recovering in the last three generations.

The sociable raptors roost together in trees and abandoned buildings, preying on small mammals and sometimes other birds.

Mixed roosts
Scientists from the University of Palermo, Italy and the University of Manitoba, Canada noticed the seemingly unusual mixed roosts of kestrels and jackdaws in rural buildings surrounded by cereal crops.

"Jackdaws are opportunist foragers and as such they may be potential predators of kestrel eggs," explained Daniela Campobello whose study, conducted with colleagues Maurizio Sara and James F Hare, was published in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

"The fact that lesser kestrels tolerated them as 'neighbours' triggered us to suspect that it must have been some kind of advantage."

By observing the birds and recording their calling behaviour in response to predator threats, the researchers discovered that both species benefited from the mixed 'neighbourhood'.

By Ella Davies
Reporter, BBC Nature

Read more here ...

Hitchhiking Snails Fly from Ocean to Ocean

ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2011) — Smithsonian scientists and colleagues report that snails successfully crossed Central America, long considered an impenetrable barrier to marine organisms, twice in the past million years -- both times probably by flying across Mexico, stuck to the legs or riding on the bellies of shorebirds and introducing new genes that contribute to the marine biodiversity on each coast.

"Just as people use airplanes to fly overseas, marine snails may use birds to fly over land," said Mark Torchin, staff scientist at the Smithsonian. "It just happens much less frequently. There's also a big difference between one or two individuals ending up in a new place, and a really successful invasion, in which several animals survive, reproduce and establish new populations."

The discovery of the hitchhiking snails, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society: B, has broad implications. "Not only snails, but many intertidal organisms may be able to 'fly' with birds," said first author of the study, Osamu Miura, assistant professor at Japan's Kochi University and former postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.

Chance events that occur only once in a great while may be extremely important in the history of life. In 1940, George Gaylord Simpson, who studied natural history as recorded in fossils, coined the term "sweepstakes dispersal" to describe the unlikely events in which animals cross over a barrier resulting in major consequences for the diversity of life on Earth. Simpson was thinking about land-based animals that might "get lucky" and cross between continents or islands by floating on rafts of debris. Sometimes such events result in devastating biological invasions -- introducing new diseases, wiping out resident species or causing economic damage to food crops.

The idea of land snails hitching rides on birds goes back to Charles Darwin, who speculated that migratory birds could transport snails to distant places. In fact, birds are thought to have carried land snails 5,500 miles from Europe to Tristan de Cunha Island in the South Atlantic Ocean and back. But this is the first report of a marine snail "flying" from one ocean to another.

Scientists working at the Smithsonian in Panama have long been interested in how the rise of the Central American land bridge more than 3 million years ago drove speciation and increased biodiversity. It formed a barrier between marine species, some of which evolved in their new surroundings, becoming new "sister" species that could no longer mate with their former relatives.
By studying the genetics of two sister species of Horn Snails, Cerithideopsis californica and C. pliculosa, collected at 29 different locations in mudflats and mangrove habitats from California to Panama on the Pacific and from Texas to Panama on the Atlantic, the researchers discovered that, about 750,000 years ago, these snails invaded the Atlantic from the Pacific, and then, about 72,000 years ago, Atlantic populations returned to invade Pacific shores.

"Shorebirds mostly move back and forth across Central America via a couple of flyways," said Torchin. "We think that the snails were able to cross the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico because it's a major bird flyway and is a relatively flat and narrow stretch of land with ideal tidal flat habitat on either side."

"There is a chance that the hitchhiking snails benefited native populations by bringing in new genes that helped them resist common parasites that castrate the snails and keep them from reproducing," said Ryan Hechinger, associate research biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "Now we are looking at the parasite genes to see if they jumped Central America too."

Understanding that such hitchhiking occurs can help reveal where new species might have become established or where they might establish in the future," said Eldredge Bermingham, STRI director and staff scientist."I am here in Panama watching as snails fly over my head. Tongue in cheek, I fail to understand why others did not notice this before! I suspect our interpretation of this phylogeographic pattern would make George Gaylord Simpson smile."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110914143643.htm

Cow leaps three foot fence and squashes car

Motorist Robert Gould is lucky to be alive after a startled cow leapt over a three-foot fence and landed on his car.

The frightened Friesian has written off Robert's Citroen C5 after denting the bonnet and breaking a wheel after bounding onto the busy road.

Stunned police later breath-tested Robert after he called 999 to report the collision.

It is understood the cow which died at the scene had been trying to escape from a farmer when it jumped into the road on the outskirts of Leek, Staffs.

Robert escaped with cuts and bruises despite skidding almost 80 yards and ending up on the wrong side of the road as he tried to stop.

The 24-year-old said: "I am now looking out for low-flying cows when I am driving ."

House-hunter Robert was travelling at 60mph and had been on his way to view a property in Cheddleton at the time of the accident in Macclesfield Road.

Safety officer Robert, of Barlaston, Staffs, said: "I was driving along when a cow jumped out and landed on my bonnet.

"It had hurdled a three-foot high fence and hit the front of my car.

"I had no time to brake and my car veered to the other side of the road.

"I was very lucky that nothing was coming in the opposite direction.

"The police were very nice about everything, although I don't think they could quite believe it either.
"They breath-tested me which came back negative."

Dad Chris, aged 53, said: "To see a cow flying over the top of the car made Robert jump and it has left him in shock. It was a good job the road was not busy at the time."

The dead cow was later removed by a digger.

Bob Lee, who retired from Staffordshire Ambulance Service after 30 years dealing with emergencies, said: "I have heard of someone being trampled by a cow, but never a cow jumping over a fence and landing on a car."

Farmer Clive Langford-Mycock believes the cow must have been very frightened to have jumped the fence during last weekend's incident.

The farmer, a former Staffordshire National Farmers' Union chairman, said: "Accidents involving farm animals are very rare.

"Something must have happened to frighten the cow. Possible causes could be thunder or lightning, low-flying aircraft or one of those stupid Chinese lanterns.

"I hope the driver gets over it."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8695400/Cow-leaps-three-foot-fence-and-squashes-car.html

Parasitism: wasp uses ladybird as “zombie bodyguard”

The parasitic wasp Dinocampus coccinellae is no fool! It controls a ladybird, lays an egg in its abdomen and turns it into the bodyguard of its cocoon. This surprising host-parasite manipulation has been observed and analyzed by researchers from the Laboratoire Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs: Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle (CNRS/IRD/Université Montpellier 1) and the Université de Montréal. Although this strategy enables the wasps to protect their larvae from predation, it has a cost: the wasps pay for it in terms of fertility. The researchers have also demonstrated the reversible character of this manipulation: once the larvae have hatched, some ladybirds can recover normal behavior. This work is published on-line on the website of Biology Letters.


Dinocampus coccinellae is a common parasitic wasp of the spotted lady beetle Coleomegilla maculata. Females deposit a single egg in the abdomen of their host, the ladybird, and during larval development (around twenty days) the parasite feeds on the host’s tissues. Then, the wasp larva breaks out through the ladybird’s abdomen, without killing it, and begins spinning a cocoon between the ladybird's legs. The ladybird, partially paralyzed, is forced to stand guard over the cocoon!

The novel manipulation strategy is intriguing in several ways: whereas the immense majority of parasitic wasps kill their host while they grow, the ladybird parasited by D. coccinellae remains alive. In addition, the behavioral manipulation occurs once the larva has left its host.

The mechanisms of this manipulation have been closely scrutinized by Frédéric Thomas’ team at the Laboratoire Maladies Infectieuses et Vecteurs: Ecologie, Génétique, Evolution et Contrôle (CNRS/IRD/Universités Montpellier 1 et 2), in collaboration with researchers from the Université de Montréal. The researchers believe that the ladybird’s atypical behavior results from a manipulation orchestrated by the wasp in order to be protected from predation up to the end of its larval development, in other words up to the emergence of the adult wasp. The scientists have shown in the laboratory that the cocoons of wasps guarded by a ladybird are much less vulnerable to predation than cocoons left on their own, or cocoons guarded by a ladybird killed for experimental purposes. Secretions left by the larva when it breaks out could force the ladybird to protect the cocoon once the larva has come out.

The wasp larva grows by using the resources of its host. However, these resources must remain sufficient for the ladybird, since it cannot feed itself while guarding the cocoon.

This work also enabled the researchers to validate a theoretical model, according to which parasites cannot maximize both their effort of reproduction and manipulation.

The researchers have demonstrated a negative correlation between the length of the ladybird's guarding period and the fecundity of the wasp. Everything happens as if the wasp larva had to “choose” between using the resources of the ladybird to produce eggs (which will be available at the adult age) or making them last while sparing the ladybird and keeping it alive.

Finally, the researchers were surprised to observe that around 25% of the manipulated ladybirds recovered normal behavior after the emergence of the adult wasp, a very rare case of reversible manipulation.


http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/firstcite
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=108521&CultureCode=en

Coyote, black Lab form unlikely partnership in Duluth

A black Lab and coyote have been seen together near
Orange Street in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood.
This photo was taken in 2008. (Photo by Steve Owen)

Published March 26, 2011, 12:05 AM

People in the Piedmont Heights area of Duluth assert that a black Labrador retriever is living a wild life in the woods. And that’s only the half of it. The other half is that the canine has formed a relationship with a coyote.

By: Lisa Baumann, Duluth News Tribune

People in the Piedmont Heights area started talking after the News Tribune reported last month about a black Lab taking down a deer in someone’s driveway.

Sue Hansen, owner of Hansen’s Auto Service on Trinity Road, said she saw the article and couldn’t wait to speak with customer Andrew Frielund when he came into the store.

“I asked why he didn’t write (a letter to the editor) explaining about that black Lab,” she said with a laugh. “He said he didn’t want people to think he was nuts.”

They assert that a black Labrador retriever is living a wild life in the woods. And that’s only the half of it. The other half is that the canine has formed a relationship with a coyote.

“Don’t laugh, because seriously, they exist,” Hansen said. “They were outside on the wood line of my house tearing up a deer about two months ago.”

“They are well-documented in the area,” Frielund added.

He’s seen them twice together in the woods near the antenna farm by Orange Street. He also has seen what he believes could be their offspring — an animal he calls “the creature.”

Bunter Knowles, who lives on Orange Street near the famed ice volcano, has seen the pair several times in the past few years.

In fact, he’s seen them out his window, the coyote sleeping while the Lab stands sentinel.

“There’s no question there’s been a pair of a coyote and a black Lab traveling together. … I’ve seen them 30 yards away with binoculars,” he said. “It’s quite a funny pairing.”

When asked about it Friday, Martha Minchak, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources assistant area wildlife manager in Duluth, said she wasn’t buying it.

“There wouldn’t be a Lab and coyote running around together,” she said.

And then she saw the photos taken by Steve Owen in 2008. He was able to sneak up on the pair as they were lounging in the backyard of his mother’s house at 2328 Springvale St.

“So, I stand corrected and obviously (the dog and coyote) haven’t read the behavior books!” Minchak wrote in an e-mail. “I have no real explanation other than the coyote must have been rejected from its pack for some reason and has obviously taken up with the Lab. It seems like it’s been a successful strategy for both of them if they are catching deer.”

She also said it was possible for the two to breed.

Owen said Friday he knows the Lab is alive and well because he last saw it on Monday.

“He was lying in the grass, sunning himself,” he said. “I didn’t see any coyotes with him.”

Owen said he doesn’t believe the Lab has a human home to visit.

“He was skittish enough the day I took their pictures,” he said. “As soon as the coyote and dog saw me, they went away. It wasn’t like he wanted to come down and look for a treat.”

With an abundance of deer in the city, Minchak also speculated that the dog was on its own — except for the coyote.

“It’s more like the Lab has gone over to the coyote side,” she said.

No one interviewed said they’d experienced any aggressive behavior from either animal, and Duluth animal control officer Carrie Lane said no one has ever reported the animals to her office, whether as a nuisance or a curiousity.

Knowles said he’s been out in the woods nearly every day snowshoeing and although he thinks he hears the Lab bark at his dog, they never approach him.

“I haven’t seen any damage by them so I wouldn’t have any recommendation to make to interfere,” Knowles said. “It’s something that’s unusual … but it’s not as if I’d try to break up a mixed marriage.”

Minchak concurred.

“Before I would have said (the two together are) something from Walt Disney movies, but now I guess I’d say it’s a classic odd-couple pairing,” she said.

She said she’d leave them alone because she didn’t think anyone would be able to rehabilitate the dog.

For her part, Hansen isn’t so sure.

“I don’t like domestic dogs that have gone wild,” she said. “I haven’t walked in my woods since then. It makes me a lot more nervous in that area than I’ve ever been.”

Do you have any pictures?

Send your photos of the black Lab-coyote pair to news@duluthnews.com.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/194848/

"Gangster" bird found to charge for protection:another way we are not unique = an avian protection racket

Nov. 19, 2010

Courtesy of BBSRC and World Science staff

In what some sci­en­tists are liken­ing to a mob pro­tec­tion rack­et, a spe­cies of birds in Africa has been found to guard oth­er birds from preda­tors in ex­change for food.


On one level, the security ser­vice of­fered by the dron­go birds of the Ka­la­ha­ri Des­ert would seem to be le­git­i­mate. They do prov­ide some true pro­tect­ion—un­like quite a few ma­fios­os, who cre­ate the very threat that for a fee they will sup­posed­ly ward off.

Yet there’s a hint of the crim­i­nal in the dron­go opera­t­ion too, sci­en­tists say. The avian guards help them­selves to “pay­ment” by oc­ca­sion­ally scream­ing out false warn­ings of pred­a­tors, then us­ing the re­sult­ing con­fu­sion to snatch food from their feath­ered clients. Nor do the lat­ter seem to spe­cif­ic­ally re­quest prot­ect­ion; rath­er, the dron­gos are just—there.


The draw­backs not­with­stand­ing, the “client” birds, pied bab­blers, gain some­thing from the ar­range­ment, ac­cord­ing to sci­en­tists. That’s be­cause the self-ap­point­ed sen­t­in­els, through their pres­ence, al­low the bab­blers to fo­cus on for­ag­ing for in­sects rath­er than watch­ing their backs.

The be­hav­ior may be a rare ex­am­ple of two spe­cies evolv­ing from a par­a­sit­ic to a “mu­tu­al­ist­ic” rela­t­ion­ship, say the in­ves­ti­ga­tors, re­port­ing the find­ings in the re­search jour­nal Ev­o­lu­tion.

“Dron­gos are par­a­sit­ic birds who swoop in to steal food from oth­er spe­cies,” ex­plained An­drew Rad­ford the Uni­vers­i­ties of Bris­tol, U.K., one of the re­search­ers. Giv­en this un­sa­vory way of life, he went on, it was some­what sur­pris­ing to find that dron­gos perched above for­ag­ing bab­blers ad­ver­tise their pres­ence rath­er than keep a low pro­file.

They an­nounce them­selves “by is­su­ing a call called a ‘twank’ eve­ry four or five sec­onds,” Rad­ford said.

The ex­plana­t­ion, he added, seems to be that the “twank” re­as­sures bab­blers some­one is keep­ing a look­out against pred­a­to­ry birds. This lets the bab­blers for­age for in­sects more ef­fec­tive­ly. That, in turn, leads to bet­ter op­por­tun­i­ties for the dron­gos to filch some of the catch. “When we played back these ‘twank’ calls to a bab­bler group, we found that they spread out over a larg­er ar­ea and lifted their heads less of­ten, in­di­cat­ing that they were less fear­ful of preda­tors when they thought a dron­go was keep­ing watch,” Rad­ford said.

But when the dron­gos cry wolf about the pres­ence of preda­tors, they scare oth­er an­i­mals in­to drop­ping their catch, which the dron­gos then pounce on, said Rad­ford and col­leagues. So pied bab­blers have basic­ally evolved to tol­er­ate the dron­gos giv­ing false warn­ings and steal­ing some of their hard-earned gains in ex­change for the chance to for­age in rel­a­tive safe­ty when a dron­go is on duty.

Like a “good gang­ster,” Rad­ford said, the dron­gos—not par­tic­u­larly large bird­s—pro­vide real pro­tec­tion some­times, both by mak­ing true alarm calls and by “mob­bing” preda­tors as a group.

But “de­spite all of the use­ful ser­vic­es dron­gos pro­vide, the for­ag­ing birds are still more re­spon­sive to [a­larm] calls from oth­er bab­blers. It seems likely that the bab­blers simply don’t trust the dron­go ma­fia as much as their own flesh and blood.”

The re­search could pro­vide in­sight in­to oth­er im­por­tant mu­tu­al­is­tic and par­a­sit­ic rela­t­ion­ships in na­ture, said Doug­las Kell, chief ex­ec­u­tive of the U.K. Bi­o­tech­nol­ogy and Bi­o­log­i­cal Sci­ences Re­search Coun­cil, which funded the stu­dy. “Ev­o­lu­tion­ary arms rac­es, in­clud­ing those be­tween par­a­sites and their hosts, and plants and an­i­mals and the dis­eases that they suf­fer, un­der­lie a whole range of so­cially and eco­nom­ic­ally im­por­tant ar­e­as of bi­ol­o­gy,” he noted.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/101119_racket.htm

"Gangster" bird found to charge for protection:another way we are not unique = an avian protection racket

Nov. 19, 2010

Courtesy of BBSRC and World Science staff

In what some sci­en­tists are liken­ing to a mob pro­tec­tion rack­et, a spe­cies of birds in Africa has been found to guard oth­er birds from preda­tors in ex­change for food.


On one level, the security ser­vice of­fered by the dron­go birds of the Ka­la­ha­ri Des­ert would seem to be le­git­i­mate. They do prov­ide some true pro­tect­ion—un­like quite a few ma­fios­os, who cre­ate the very threat that for a fee they will sup­posed­ly ward off.

Yet there’s a hint of the crim­i­nal in the dron­go opera­t­ion too, sci­en­tists say. The avian guards help them­selves to “pay­ment” by oc­ca­sion­ally scream­ing out false warn­ings of pred­a­tors, then us­ing the re­sult­ing con­fu­sion to snatch food from their feath­ered clients. Nor do the lat­ter seem to spe­cif­ic­ally re­quest prot­ect­ion; rath­er, the dron­gos are just—there.


The draw­backs not­with­stand­ing, the “client” birds, pied bab­blers, gain some­thing from the ar­range­ment, ac­cord­ing to sci­en­tists. That’s be­cause the self-ap­point­ed sen­t­in­els, through their pres­ence, al­low the bab­blers to fo­cus on for­ag­ing for in­sects rath­er than watch­ing their backs.

The be­hav­ior may be a rare ex­am­ple of two spe­cies evolv­ing from a par­a­sit­ic to a “mu­tu­al­ist­ic” rela­t­ion­ship, say the in­ves­ti­ga­tors, re­port­ing the find­ings in the re­search jour­nal Ev­o­lu­tion.

“Dron­gos are par­a­sit­ic birds who swoop in to steal food from oth­er spe­cies,” ex­plained An­drew Rad­ford the Uni­vers­i­ties of Bris­tol, U.K., one of the re­search­ers. Giv­en this un­sa­vory way of life, he went on, it was some­what sur­pris­ing to find that dron­gos perched above for­ag­ing bab­blers ad­ver­tise their pres­ence rath­er than keep a low pro­file.

They an­nounce them­selves “by is­su­ing a call called a ‘twank’ eve­ry four or five sec­onds,” Rad­ford said.

The ex­plana­t­ion, he added, seems to be that the “twank” re­as­sures bab­blers some­one is keep­ing a look­out against pred­a­to­ry birds. This lets the bab­blers for­age for in­sects more ef­fec­tive­ly. That, in turn, leads to bet­ter op­por­tun­i­ties for the dron­gos to filch some of the catch. “When we played back these ‘twank’ calls to a bab­bler group, we found that they spread out over a larg­er ar­ea and lifted their heads less of­ten, in­di­cat­ing that they were less fear­ful of preda­tors when they thought a dron­go was keep­ing watch,” Rad­ford said.

But when the dron­gos cry wolf about the pres­ence of preda­tors, they scare oth­er an­i­mals in­to drop­ping their catch, which the dron­gos then pounce on, said Rad­ford and col­leagues. So pied bab­blers have basic­ally evolved to tol­er­ate the dron­gos giv­ing false warn­ings and steal­ing some of their hard-earned gains in ex­change for the chance to for­age in rel­a­tive safe­ty when a dron­go is on duty.

Like a “good gang­ster,” Rad­ford said, the dron­gos—not par­tic­u­larly large bird­s—pro­vide real pro­tec­tion some­times, both by mak­ing true alarm calls and by “mob­bing” preda­tors as a group.

But “de­spite all of the use­ful ser­vic­es dron­gos pro­vide, the for­ag­ing birds are still more re­spon­sive to [a­larm] calls from oth­er bab­blers. It seems likely that the bab­blers simply don’t trust the dron­go ma­fia as much as their own flesh and blood.”

The re­search could pro­vide in­sight in­to oth­er im­por­tant mu­tu­al­is­tic and par­a­sit­ic rela­t­ion­ships in na­ture, said Doug­las Kell, chief ex­ec­u­tive of the U.K. Bi­o­tech­nol­ogy and Bi­o­log­i­cal Sci­ences Re­search Coun­cil, which funded the stu­dy. “Ev­o­lu­tion­ary arms rac­es, in­clud­ing those be­tween par­a­sites and their hosts, and plants and an­i­mals and the dis­eases that they suf­fer, un­der­lie a whole range of so­cially and eco­nom­ic­ally im­por­tant ar­e­as of bi­ol­o­gy,” he noted.

http://www.world-science.net/othernews/101119_racket.htm

Blind Muslim student uses guide horse instead of dog

A blind Muslim woman has used her three-year savings to pay for a miniature horse to help her get about.

Mona Ramouni’s religious parents would not allow her to bring a guide dog into the family house as they consider the animal to be unclean.

So instead, the 28-year-old saved up for three years and bought Cali – a tiny horse who stands at around 2ft 6in and has been trained to help her owner out of vehicles, guide her through crowds as well as standing patiently indoors.

The psychology student found the miniature horse after coming across a website about guide horses in April 2008 and claims since welcoming Cali into her home in Dearborn in Michogan, her life has been transformed

She is an awesome little horse. What I really want is to be able to take her places neither of us would have been able to go without each other,' Ms Ramouni said.

‘Before Cali, I had given up. I got to the point where I thought, “I'm going to get nothing out of my life" Cali has given me the confidence back I used to have as a kid.’

Ms Ramouni lost her sight shortly after birth after being born three months premature.

The 28-year-old, who works as a proofreader of Braille textbooks, is one of only five people in the US who currently has a guide horse.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/847152-blind-muslim-student-uses-guide-horse-instead-of-dog#ixzz15IUgabjO

Blind Muslim student uses guide horse instead of dog

A blind Muslim woman has used her three-year savings to pay for a miniature horse to help her get about.

Mona Ramouni’s religious parents would not allow her to bring a guide dog into the family house as they consider the animal to be unclean.

So instead, the 28-year-old saved up for three years and bought Cali – a tiny horse who stands at around 2ft 6in and has been trained to help her owner out of vehicles, guide her through crowds as well as standing patiently indoors.

The psychology student found the miniature horse after coming across a website about guide horses in April 2008 and claims since welcoming Cali into her home in Dearborn in Michogan, her life has been transformed

She is an awesome little horse. What I really want is to be able to take her places neither of us would have been able to go without each other,' Ms Ramouni said.

‘Before Cali, I had given up. I got to the point where I thought, “I'm going to get nothing out of my life" Cali has given me the confidence back I used to have as a kid.’

Ms Ramouni lost her sight shortly after birth after being born three months premature.

The 28-year-old, who works as a proofreader of Braille textbooks, is one of only five people in the US who currently has a guide horse.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/847152-blind-muslim-student-uses-guide-horse-instead-of-dog#ixzz15IUgabjO

Olympic sailors sign up peregrine falcon

The British Olympic sailing team has recruited a peregrine falcon - to scare off the seagulls which keep them awake at night.

Team GB hired the bird of prey after squawking gulls began affecting their preparations for the London 2012 Games, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The bird, known as Felix, will patrol the skies above the squad's accommodation in Weymouth, Dorset, night and day.

Felix has also been charged with stopping the seagulls from leaving their droppings on vital equipment, causing it to rust.

Team manager Stephen Park said: "Seagulls are a natural part of the seaside environment but the sheer quantity of them around our accommodation block is the problem for us.

"We needed to act and act quickly. Felix will have his work cut out to ensure the sailors' sleep is not disturbed.

"But if he does his job well, his place in the team is assured."

Olympic sailors sign up peregrine falcon

The British Olympic sailing team has recruited a peregrine falcon - to scare off the seagulls which keep them awake at night.

Team GB hired the bird of prey after squawking gulls began affecting their preparations for the London 2012 Games, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The bird, known as Felix, will patrol the skies above the squad's accommodation in Weymouth, Dorset, night and day.

Felix has also been charged with stopping the seagulls from leaving their droppings on vital equipment, causing it to rust.

Team manager Stephen Park said: "Seagulls are a natural part of the seaside environment but the sheer quantity of them around our accommodation block is the problem for us.

"We needed to act and act quickly. Felix will have his work cut out to ensure the sailors' sleep is not disturbed.

"But if he does his job well, his place in the team is assured."