Predators Hunt for a Balanced Diet

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2012) — Predators select their prey in order to eat a nutritionally balanced diet and give themselves the best chance of producing healthy offspring.

A University of Exeter and Oxford-led study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows for the first time that predatory animals choose their food on the basis of its nutritional value, rather than just overall calorie content.

An international team of scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Oxford in the UK, University of Sydney (Australia), Aarhus University (Denmark) and Massey University (New Zealand) based their research on the ground beetle, Anchomenus dorsalis, a well-known garden insect that feasts on slugs, aphids, moths, beetle larvae and ants.

The team collected female beetles from the wild and split them into two groups in the laboratory. Half of the beetles were offered a choice of foods, some that were high in protein and some that were high in fat. The other half were not given a choice of what to eat: some were only given food that was higher in protein and others just had higher-fat foods, none of which provided the right nutritional balance. The beetles that were provided with a range of foods selected the balance of protein and fat that was optimal for producing healthy eggs. These beetles produced more eggs than the beetles that did not have the right nutritional balance.

Continued at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120110192942.htm

The tiger sharks that eat woodpeckers and meadowlarks

Fatal attraction of brightly lit gas platforms

January 2012: Tiger sharks' diet has surprised researchers at Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. The scientists were studying the diets of the sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and found that as well as feeding on the expected fish and other marine creatures, the sharks were also eating land-based birds, such as woodpeckers, tanagers, meadowlarks, catbirds, kingbirds, and swallows.

‘We were not expecting to see this. It certainly prompts a series of questions, the most obvious being, how does a land bird end up in the water as food for sharks?' said lead researcher Dr Marcus Drymon.

‘Certainly, bird migrations across the Gulf are incredibly strenuous treks that result in large numbers of bird deaths over water from exhaustion, but there may be other factors at play here. We're going to be taking a look at this over the next year and see if there are other causative circumstances that are contributing to these bird deaths.'

Birds become trapped in a cone of lightThe study findings may lend support to an issue American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has been raising for several years, that large numbers of night-migrating birds become fatally attracted to lighted oil and gas platforms.

These avian fatal attractions occur more often on cloudy nights, and can involve hundreds or even thousands of birds that apparently confuse the platform lights with stars by which they navigate. The birds become trapped in a cone of light - either reluctant or unable to leave it and fly into a wall of darkness.

‘Some birds circle in confusion before crashing into the platform or falling from the sky, exhausted. Others land on the platform where there is no food or drinking water. Some of these birds continue on quickly, but many stay for hours or even days. When finally able to leave, they can be in a weakened state and unable to make landfall, and ultimately, are more vulnerable to predation,' said Dr Christine Sheppard, Bird Collisions Campaign Manager for ABC.

Studies have shown that hundreds of thousands of birds die from oil and gas platform lighting effects in the Gulf of Mexico every year, but research suggests that using green lighting at platforms - as opposed to red or white lights - would nearly eliminate the circling behaviour, the study suggested.

Netherlands already has bird-friendly lightingSome studies have also indicated bird attraction could be mitigated greatly by cycling lighting off and on but observed that optimum cycling rhythms have yet to be determined. Studies of cell towers show that strobing white and red lights are far less dangerous than steady burning ones.

A simple application of this strategy has been used for the 9/11 memorial in lights, turned on each year on the anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. They are monitored and briefly turned off when too many birds accumulate in the beams.

‘Some countries, such as the Netherlands , have already instituted bird friendly lighting on oil and gas platforms off their coast. The 2005 study for the Department of the Interior called for research on the issue, but no further action was taken until ABC, in an attempt to advance a solution, requested it. A federal study is now planned for 2013,' said Dr Sheppard.

There are approximately 6,000 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico .

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/shark-diet.html

Obese Pig Boris Put On Strict Diet In Oz

Boris was meant to be a micro pig but when his weight ballooned his owners had to take drastic action.

Julie and Graeme Cain, from Adelaide in Australia, first adopted Boris when he was a piglet but he soon started to grow fatter and fatter.

When Boris' weight reached 250kg (39st 5lb), vets warned his health was at risk and he has been put on a strict new diet to lose a quarter of his body weight.

But he is not happy.

"Whenever he's having a bit of a temper tantrum, he'll do something destructive, something that will really annoy me, just like a three-year-old kid," said Mrs Cain.

Boris has already lost 30kg of excess pork but he has got to slim down further as his obesity is affecting his eyesight.

He needs to have an operation to remove the fat around his eyes but the vet does not have an operating table big enough to hold him at his current weight.

"He wouldn't get on an ordinary operating table. He'd crush it. I even had thoughts of getting a second-hand treadmill," Mrs Cain said.

But once a pig, always a pig - Boris has taken matters into his own hands and has resorted to helping himself to some midnight feasts from the fridge.

http://news.sky.com/home/strange-news/article/16052988

Chinese Astronaut Eats Anti-Terror Dog

CHINESE astronaut Yang Liwei is plugging his new book The Nine Levels between Heaven and Earth by revealing how he chowed down on dog while in space. The 44-year-old military veteran of the Shenzhou Five mission, writes:

“Many of my friends are curious about what we eat [in space] and think that the astronauts must have some expensive delicacies, like shark’s fin or abalone. Actually we ate quite normal food, there is no need to keep it a secret.”

Sharks in Space sounds good but Abalone In Space is the kind of cinematic hit we’ve been waiting for. Anyhow, the normal food is dog meat, specifically Huajiang dog.

Jill Robinson, the founder of Animals Asia, is offended:

“Yang Liwei is a role model for so many young people and he is one of China’s greatest heroes. We hope that he might recognise dogs as the heroes they are too: they found survivors after the Sichuan earthquake and protected people from potential terrorists during the Olympic games. Surely they deserve more.”

What more than going into space? Other treats include – and note the presence of crabs, an noble beast that has for decades kept British shores free of invading crocodiles and the Chinese navy.

Day One: Lotus root porridge, crispy tofu with spring onions, braised yellow croaker fish, pork ribs with seaweed, spinach with minced garlic.

Day Two: Spicy pig skin, braised duck neck, hairy crab with ginger, chicken liver with chilli, pine nuts with sweetcorn, three-flavour soup.

Day Three: Poached egg in fermented rice soup, Harbin sausage, Huajiang dog, baby cuttlefish casserole, eel with green pepper, spicy beans with dried tofu.

Motorway service stations on the M1 take note…

http://www.anorak.co.uk/248306/strange-but-true/chinese-astronaut-eats-anti-terror-dog.html

Skunk diet

30 December 2009 16:30 PM

A skunk in Britain has lost a quarter of his body weight after going on a diet.

The animal - named Mr. Bumbles - was put on a crash diet after his weight reached almost 15lb, which is twice the recommended weight for a skunk of his size.

Mr. Bumbles was given to the Tropiquaria Zoo in Somerset, South West England after his owners admitted to feeding him two greasy bacon sandwiches a day.

He has now lost 4.5lb after following a strict diet of fruit and enjoying two long walks a day.

http://entertainment.stv.tv/showbiz/147326-skunk-diet/