Plague of ravenous mice eat farmer John Gregory's pigs

WHEN South Australian farmer John Gregory entered his piggery he could not believe what he saw - mice attacking his pigs.

Since he first saw them dining out on his prized stock he has been at his wit's end about how to get rid of them.

Now, as a desperate last resort, he is covering his pigs at a farm property in Wynarka, 130km east of Adelaide, in engine oil to protect them from the mice, with the rodents apparently turned off by the taste.

"The mouse problem got really bad in April," Mr Gregory said.

"We went away in the school holidays and when we came back we drove up the driveway and it looked like the ground was moving - there were hundreds of thousands of them."

Mr Gregory, 50, said he put engine oil on his 15 pigs to protect them from the sun about once a month.

"But now I oil them every week, because the mice have run out of food and they're just eating anything, so they were climbing up on the pigs and chewing them," he said.

"The oil stops them eating the pigs because they don't like the taste."

And with mouse bait so expensive, he said farmers were resorting to home recipes to kill the vermin, which had multiplied to plague proportions because of summer rain producing great crops - ideal mouse food.

"Being farmers we're always trying to do things cheap," Gregory said. "I mix icing sugar and cement. The icing sugar attracts the mice, they eat it and then the cement clogs them up."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/weird-true-freaky/plague-of-ravenous-mice-eat-farmer-john-gregorys-pigs/story-e6frflri-1226064992175#ixzz1PoheCrVt

Birch Mouse Ancestor Discovered in Inner Mongolia Is New Species of Rare 'Living Fossil'

Paleontologist Yuri Kimura, Southern Methodist University in Dallas,
identified a new species of birch mice, Sicista primus, from 17 tiny teeth.
A single molar is about the size of half a grain of rice. The teeth, however,
are distinctive among the various genera of rodents known as Dipodidae.
Cusps, valleys, ridges and other distinguishing characteristics on the
surface of the teeth are identifiable through a microscope.
(Credit: Yuri Kimura/Southern Methodist University)

ScienceDaily (May 25, 2011) — Tiny fossil teeth discovered in Inner Mongolia are a new species of birch mouse, indicating that ancestors of the small rodent are much older than previously reported, according to paleontologist Yuri Kimura, Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Fossils of the new species were discovered in sediments that are 17 million years old, said Kimura, who identified the new species and named it Sicista primus to include the Latin word for "first."

Previously the oldest prehistoric ancestor of the modern-day birch mouse was one that inhabited Inner Mongolia 8 million years ago.

Adding 9 million years to the ancestry of the rodent family that includes birch mice and jumping mice distinguishes this genus, Sicista, as a "living fossil," Kimura said. That places the genus among some of the most unique rodents on earth -- those whose ancestry spans 2 to 3 times the average, she said.

Kimura identified Sicista primus from 17 tiny teeth, whose size makes them difficult to find. A single molar is about the size of half a grain of rice. The teeth, however, are distinctive among the various genera of rodents known as Dipodidae. Cusps, valleys, ridges and other distinguishing characteristics on the surface of the teeth are identifiable through a microscope.

"We are very lucky to have these," Kimura said. "Paleontologists usually look for bones, but a mouse is very tiny and its bones are very thin and fragile. The teeth, however, are preserved by enamel. Interestingly, small mammal teeth are very diverse in terms of their structure, so from that we can identify a species."

Kimura reported the new species in the scientific journal Naturwissenschaften. Images of the research and expedition are posted on the SMU Research flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52146845@N06/sets/72157626764403486/). SMUVideo's "Inner Mongolia yields 'living fossil'" featuring Kimura discussing the research is available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khkx11WlKaw).

An SMU doctoral student in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Kimura was part of the international team that discovered the fossils during expeditions to Inner Mongolia in 2004, 2005 and 2007.

Microscopic evidence of a living fossil

The new fossils of Sicista primus from the Early Miocene age are also now the earliest known record of Sicista, the birch mouse genus that comprises 13 modern and 7 fossil species, said Kimura. As a result, Sicista now boasts the most ancient ancestry of the 326 genera in the largest rodent suborder to which it belongs, Myomorpha. The suborder includes laboratory mice and rats.

"The birch mouse is a rare case of a small mammal genus persisting from the Early Miocene without significant morphological changes," Kimura said in reporting the findings.

Rodents, both modern and prehistoric, rank as the most prolific mammals on earth. After the reign of dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, rodents evolved and dispersed worldwide during the Cenozoic, the "Age of Mammals." They comprise about 42 percent of all living mammals. Scientists know now that only 1.5 percent of modern rodent genera, however, go as far back as the Early Miocene or older.

"Diversity within a rodent genus is not unusual, but the long record of the genus Sicista, first recognized at 17 million years ago, is unusual," said Kimura. "The discovery of Early Miocene S. primus reveals that Sicista is fundamental to understanding how a long-lived genus persisted among substantially fast-evolving rodent groups."

Birch mice migrated from Asia to North America

Previously the record for the oldest species of Sicista belonged to an 8 million-year-old species identified in Eurasia, Kimura said.

In identifying the new species, Kimura also reverses the long-held hypothesis that ancestors of birch mice migrated from North America to Asia. That hypothesis has been based on a 14.8 million-year-old specimen from South Dakota, which was identified in 1977 as the separate rodent genus Macrognathomys. Kimura's analysis, however, concludes that Macrognathomys is actually Sicista. For that reason, she concluded, Sicista first inhabited the forests and grasslands of prehistoric Asia and then dispersed to North America via the Bering Land Bridge, Kimura said.

In a comparison of the molars and premolars from Macrognathomys and Sicista primus, Kimura reported finding 12 shared dental characteristics. In addition, phylogenetic analysis to identify evolutionary relationships indicated that both belong to the same genus, Sicista, she said.

Reconnaissance of earlier Central Asiatic Expedition localities yields small mammals

The teeth of Sicista primus were discovered in fine sediments gathered from Gashunyinadege, a fossil locality in the central region of Inner Mongolia.

Gashunyinadege is one of several fossil localities near Tunggur, a fossil site discovered in the 1920s by the Central Asiatic Expedition, which was led by Roy Chapman Andrews from the American Museum of Natural History.

Kimura is a member of an international scientific team sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The team's expeditions have been led by paleontologists Qiu Zhuding, IVPP; Wang Xiaoming, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; and Li Qiang, IVPP. Their expeditions retrace important classic localities, as well as prospect new fossil localities.

Kimura and other members of the team discovered the birch mouse fossils by first prospecting Gashunyinadege for small mammal fossils visible to the naked eye. Those fossils indicated the possibility of even smaller mammal fossils, so the team gathered 6,000 kilograms, more than 13,000 pounds, of Early Miocene sediment. Using standing water from recent rains, they washed the sediments repeatedly through continually smaller screens to separate out small fossils. Bags of concentrate containing particles the size of mouse teeth were returned to IVPP laboratories to hunt for fossils with a microscope.

The research was funded by the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at SMU, Dallas Paleontological Society, Geological Society of America, Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110524153420.htm

Pizza shop owner arraigned for ‘terrorism by mice’

Published: Tuesday, March 01, 2011
By LYN A.E. McCAFFERTY
Times Correspondent

UPPER DARBY – The pizza shop owner facing charges for allegedly planting mice in two of his competitors' shops was arraigned on multiple misdemeanor charges Tuesday morning.

Nickolas Galiatsatos – owner of Nina's Bella Pizzeria at 8445 West Chester Pike in Upper Darby – appeared before Magisterial District Judge Michael G. Cullen just before 9 a.m. wearing jeans, socks but no shoes, and a black t-shirt with the phrase "I'm just one big (symbols for an expletive) ray of sunshine."

Galiatsatos, 47, of the 1000 block of Conestoga Road, Bryn Mawr, was released on $10,000 unsecured bail.

He declined to comment as he left the courthouse.

Cullen also ordered him to undergo a psychological evaluation within 10 days and surrender any weapons.

According to police, Galiatsatos was carrying several bullets in his pocket when he was arrested Monday afternoon, and he informed police he had a .357 handgun at his shop, which has been surrendered to police.

Galiatsatos is charged with cruelty to animals, criminal mischief, harassment and disorderly conduct stemming from incidents at two competing pizza shops.

He allegedly put a bag of live mice in a pizzeria on the 8900 block of West Chester Pike, and then allegedly did the same at another nearby pizzeria on the 9000 block West Chester Pike, police said.

More: http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2011/03/01/news/doc4d6c7637da1b9046528743.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Mouse heart 're-grows when cut', study shows

By Neil Bowdler Science reporter, BBC News

Scientists in the United States have found newborn mice can re-grow their own hearts.

The mice had a large chunk of their heart removed a day after birth, only for the heart to restore itself within three weeks.

Fish and amphibians are known to have the power to re-grow heart tissue, but the study in Science is the first time the process has been seen in mammals.

British experts said understanding the process could help human heart care.

Narrow window

The researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center surgically removed what is known as the left ventricular apex of the heart (about 15% of the heart muscle) from mice just a day after birth.

The heart was then quickly seen to regenerate and was fully restored after 21 days. After two months, the organ still appeared to be functioning normally.

But when the same procedure was tested on mice aged one week, the heart failed to regenerate, suggesting this power of self-repair is extremely short-lived in mice.

The belief is that heart cells within the mouse have a narrow window after birth within which they can continue to replicate and repair. Subsequent tests suggested that these repair cells were coming from within the heart muscle.

"What our results show are that the new heart muscle cells which repair the amputated region of the heart came from proliferation and migration of pre-existing heart muscle cells," said Professor Eric Olson, who worked on the study.

"We have no evidence they came from a stem-cell population."

Many amphibians and fish, most famously the zebrafish, have the ability to renew heart muscle right into adulthood.

This new study suggests mammals too have such capacity for self-repair, if only for a limited time after birth.

Professor Olson believes future research will show humans have a similar capacity, although no experiments involving human heart tissue are currently planned.

"There's no reason to believe that the same window would not exist in the human heart.

"Everything we know about development and early function of the mouse heart is comparable to the human heart so we're quite confident that this process does exist in humans, although that of course still has to be shown."

Heart attacks

The team's focus is now on looking at ways to "re-awaken" this capacity to self repair in adult mice, with the ultimate ambition to do the same in humans to repair damage sustained during heart attacks.

"We've identified a micro-RNA (a small piece of genetic material) which regulates this process so we're tying to use that as a way of further enhancing cardiac regeneration later in life and we're also screening for new drugs which can re-awaken this mechanism in adult mice," he said.

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation, said the study showed heart regeneration was not the exclusive preserve of zebrafish and newts, but said more work needed to be done to understand what was actually going on inside the healing heart.

"This exciting research shows for the first time that young mice, like fish and amphibians, can heal their damaged hearts," he said. "It strengthens the view that understanding how this happens could provide the key to healing adult human hearts."

Professor Olson concedes there will be problems ahead. What works in the low-pressured heart of a zebrafish, might not work in the high-pressured multi-chambered heart of humans.

Meddling with heart muscle cells could, for instance, trigger arrhythmias in the heart, he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12573922

Tesco sorry for baby mice in crisps

Retail giant Tesco has apologised to a customer who claimed she found newborn mice in a multipack of crisps.


Liz Wray said she was shocked to see half a dozen pink mice emerge from multipacks of crisps at a new Tesco store in Aston, Birmingham.


The mother of one said she was also horrified the store was not shut down straight away, but was still open several hours later as pest control staff arrived.

Tesco apologised for the "upsetting" discovery and said it was confident the incident was isolated.

A spokesman said: "This was clearly an upsetting discovery for our customer, for which we are very sorry.

"Pest control experts have been in the store over the weekend checking it from top to bottom and we're confident this was an isolated incident.

"The cleanliness of our stores is a priority for all our staff."

Ms Wray told the Birmingham Mail she was with a work colleague when they made the discovery.

"Suddenly these tiny pink things appeared from the multipacks and were lying in front of us," she told the paper.

"They were repulsive and made me feel revolting. There were half a dozen of them crawling out of different holes in the crisps and we couldn't believe our eyes."

Tesco sorry for baby mice in crisps

Retail giant Tesco has apologised to a customer who claimed she found newborn mice in a multipack of crisps.


Liz Wray said she was shocked to see half a dozen pink mice emerge from multipacks of crisps at a new Tesco store in Aston, Birmingham.


The mother of one said she was also horrified the store was not shut down straight away, but was still open several hours later as pest control staff arrived.

Tesco apologised for the "upsetting" discovery and said it was confident the incident was isolated.

A spokesman said: "This was clearly an upsetting discovery for our customer, for which we are very sorry.

"Pest control experts have been in the store over the weekend checking it from top to bottom and we're confident this was an isolated incident.

"The cleanliness of our stores is a priority for all our staff."

Ms Wray told the Birmingham Mail she was with a work colleague when they made the discovery.

"Suddenly these tiny pink things appeared from the multipacks and were lying in front of us," she told the paper.

"They were repulsive and made me feel revolting. There were half a dozen of them crawling out of different holes in the crisps and we couldn't believe our eyes."

Did scientists breed mice that 'smell' light?

A group of scientists has genetically altered mice so they could "smell" light. That is their neurons responded to light in the same way they would to an odor. This allowed them to study the brain's response without having to deal with the complications associated with smelling.


The approach the scientists used to help the mice "smell" the light is called optogenetics. The method uses light to control actions within other specific cells and is broadly applicable.


The results were detailed online Oct. 17 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.


Coding for smell
The noses of mice (and humans) are chock-full of sensory neurons that respond to scent molecules that waft by. That odor information gets sent to the olfactory bulb, a part of the brain above the nasal cavities, where the sensory neurons meet up with relay neurons. These two types of neurons then meet within structures called glomeruli.

"If you look at two cells receiving input from the same glomerulus, are they just passing it on [in] the same way, or is there something more to it?" said study researcher Venkatesh Murthy from Harvard University, who collaborated with others at Harvard, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and in India.

A mouse has about 200,000 relay cells, with between 60 and 100 connected to each glomerulus, or hub. Identifying pairs of relay cells that connect to the same glomerulus is difficult, because when a rodent catches a whiff of something, multiple glomeruli go into action, according to Graeme Lowe, a neuroscientist at the independent Monell Chemical Senses Center who was not involved in the research.

Substituting for odor
But dealing with light is simpler. The researchers genetically engineered mice so their "wiring" got crossed in a sense; they added a protein to the mouse smell systems that responds to blue light. So, using tiny spots of light, the researchers were able to "turn on" specific hub structures and record how relay cells responded.

Using light to stand in for smell in this way is a "powerful and promising approach," Lowe said. "It's nice to be able to feed a very well-defined, controlled pattern into the [olfactory] bulb."

He cautioned, however, that the study did not show that mice can perceive light as odors.

Their experiments revealed that sister relay cells, which received input from the same glomerulus, did not send out the same signals. Instead, sister cells sent signals that were timed differently.

By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/1029/Did-scientists-breed-mice-that-smell-light

Did scientists breed mice that 'smell' light?

A group of scientists has genetically altered mice so they could "smell" light. That is their neurons responded to light in the same way they would to an odor. This allowed them to study the brain's response without having to deal with the complications associated with smelling.


The approach the scientists used to help the mice "smell" the light is called optogenetics. The method uses light to control actions within other specific cells and is broadly applicable.


The results were detailed online Oct. 17 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.


Coding for smell
The noses of mice (and humans) are chock-full of sensory neurons that respond to scent molecules that waft by. That odor information gets sent to the olfactory bulb, a part of the brain above the nasal cavities, where the sensory neurons meet up with relay neurons. These two types of neurons then meet within structures called glomeruli.

"If you look at two cells receiving input from the same glomerulus, are they just passing it on [in] the same way, or is there something more to it?" said study researcher Venkatesh Murthy from Harvard University, who collaborated with others at Harvard, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and in India.

A mouse has about 200,000 relay cells, with between 60 and 100 connected to each glomerulus, or hub. Identifying pairs of relay cells that connect to the same glomerulus is difficult, because when a rodent catches a whiff of something, multiple glomeruli go into action, according to Graeme Lowe, a neuroscientist at the independent Monell Chemical Senses Center who was not involved in the research.

Substituting for odor
But dealing with light is simpler. The researchers genetically engineered mice so their "wiring" got crossed in a sense; they added a protein to the mouse smell systems that responds to blue light. So, using tiny spots of light, the researchers were able to "turn on" specific hub structures and record how relay cells responded.

Using light to stand in for smell in this way is a "powerful and promising approach," Lowe said. "It's nice to be able to feed a very well-defined, controlled pattern into the [olfactory] bulb."

He cautioned, however, that the study did not show that mice can perceive light as odors.

Their experiments revealed that sister relay cells, which received input from the same glomerulus, did not send out the same signals. Instead, sister cells sent signals that were timed differently.

By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/1029/Did-scientists-breed-mice-that-smell-light

Feel the force: Tube-nosed bat which bears striking resemblance to Yoda discovered as scientists find hundreds of new species

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:16 PM on 9th October 2010

A tube-nosed fruit bat with an appearance reminiscent of the Star Wars Jedi Master Yoda has been discovered in a remote rainforest.

The bat, along with an orange spider and a yellow-spotted frog are among a host of new species found in a region of Papua New Guinea.

More than 200 animals and plants were revealed for the first time after two months of surveying in the rugged and little-explored Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges last year.

The findings included two mammals, 24 species of frog, nine plants, nearly 100 new insects including damselflies, crickets and ants, and around 100 spiders.

A white tipped-tail mouse, at least one ant and several of the crickets, or katydids, are so different from other known species they each represent an entirely new genus, the scientists said.

They were uncovered by two scientific teams co-ordinated by Conservation International's rapid assessment programme, in partnership with Papua New Guinea's Institute for Biological Research and conservation organisation A Rocha International.

The teams explored different altitudes of the forest-cloaked Nakanai mountains, which host cave systems and some of the world's largest underground rivers, and the Muller range, accessing the remote areas by plane, dinghy, on foot and even by helicopter.

In the Nakanai surveys, scientists discovered a beautiful yellow-spotted frog found only high up in the mountains, the mouse with the white-tipped tail and the tiny 2cm frog which calls for a mate in the afternoon - unlike most frogs in the area which call at night.

In the Muller range, researchers found what they described as a 'spectacular variety' of insects, spiders and frogs.

One of the newly-discovered katydids has exceptionally long, spiny hind legs which it uses to jab at anything that threatens it, one new species has pink eyes and another has emerald-green patterning.

Leeanne Alonso, Conservation International's rapid assessment programme director said the discoveries made in both surveys were incredibly significant.

'While very encouraging, these discoveries do not mean that our global biodiversity is out of the woods,' she said.

'On the contrary, they should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don't know about Earth's still hidden secrets and important natural resources, which we can only preserve with co-ordinated, long-term management.'

Dr Martin Kaonga, interim director of science and conservation at A Rocha International, said: 'It's very important we find these species, because it's only when you know what species exist in an area that you may be in a position to understand how to manage that given area.'

He also said species may have uses, for example as medicines, and that there was a need to raise understanding among local people of the value of the wildlife found in their forests.

Meanwhile, several new discoveries in South-East Asia’s Mekong river are also causing a stir.

A fish with curving vampire fangs, a gecko that looks as if it's wearing lipstick and a carnivorous plant more than 7m high may sound like creatures from a nightmare but they are real.

They are just three of 145 new species found in the area in 2009 and highlighted in a WWF International report issued today, ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, this month.

The diversity of the region, so rich that an average of three new species were discovered each week last year, also highlights the need for action to ensure these new finds survive, WWF International said.

Among the animals highlighted in New Blood: Greater Mekong New Species Discoveries 2009’ is the Dracula minnow, with bulging eyes and two sharp fangs curving from its low-slung jaw. Luckily, the fish only grows to a maximum of 16.7 mm.

More attractive by far is the lipstick gecko, barely big enough to perch on a finger, with a dark barred pattern across its lips suggestive of cosmetics.

Other featured creatures include a fangless snake, a frog that chirps like a cricket, and a pitcher plant that traps insects and grows to a height of over seven metres.

‘This rate of discovery is simply staggering in modern times," said Stuart Chapman, Conservation Director of WWF Greater Mekong, in a statement.

‘Each year, the new species count keeps going up, and with it, so too does the responsibility to ensure this region's unique biodiversity is conserved.’

The report said these discoveries highlight the Greater Mekong's immense biodiversity but they also pinpoint the fragility of the region's diverse habitats and species.

The WWF report cited the likely local extinction of the Javan rhino in Vietnam as one tragic indicator of the decline of biodiversity in recent times.

The Greater Mekong region covers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

See more photos at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1318093/Bat-resembling-Star-Wars-Yoda-discovered-Papua-New-Guinea-rainforest.html

Feel the force: Tube-nosed bat which bears striking resemblance to Yoda discovered as scientists find hundreds of new species

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:16 PM on 9th October 2010

A tube-nosed fruit bat with an appearance reminiscent of the Star Wars Jedi Master Yoda has been discovered in a remote rainforest.

The bat, along with an orange spider and a yellow-spotted frog are among a host of new species found in a region of Papua New Guinea.

More than 200 animals and plants were revealed for the first time after two months of surveying in the rugged and little-explored Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges last year.

The findings included two mammals, 24 species of frog, nine plants, nearly 100 new insects including damselflies, crickets and ants, and around 100 spiders.

A white tipped-tail mouse, at least one ant and several of the crickets, or katydids, are so different from other known species they each represent an entirely new genus, the scientists said.

They were uncovered by two scientific teams co-ordinated by Conservation International's rapid assessment programme, in partnership with Papua New Guinea's Institute for Biological Research and conservation organisation A Rocha International.

The teams explored different altitudes of the forest-cloaked Nakanai mountains, which host cave systems and some of the world's largest underground rivers, and the Muller range, accessing the remote areas by plane, dinghy, on foot and even by helicopter.

In the Nakanai surveys, scientists discovered a beautiful yellow-spotted frog found only high up in the mountains, the mouse with the white-tipped tail and the tiny 2cm frog which calls for a mate in the afternoon - unlike most frogs in the area which call at night.

In the Muller range, researchers found what they described as a 'spectacular variety' of insects, spiders and frogs.

One of the newly-discovered katydids has exceptionally long, spiny hind legs which it uses to jab at anything that threatens it, one new species has pink eyes and another has emerald-green patterning.

Leeanne Alonso, Conservation International's rapid assessment programme director said the discoveries made in both surveys were incredibly significant.

'While very encouraging, these discoveries do not mean that our global biodiversity is out of the woods,' she said.

'On the contrary, they should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don't know about Earth's still hidden secrets and important natural resources, which we can only preserve with co-ordinated, long-term management.'

Dr Martin Kaonga, interim director of science and conservation at A Rocha International, said: 'It's very important we find these species, because it's only when you know what species exist in an area that you may be in a position to understand how to manage that given area.'

He also said species may have uses, for example as medicines, and that there was a need to raise understanding among local people of the value of the wildlife found in their forests.

Meanwhile, several new discoveries in South-East Asia’s Mekong river are also causing a stir.

A fish with curving vampire fangs, a gecko that looks as if it's wearing lipstick and a carnivorous plant more than 7m high may sound like creatures from a nightmare but they are real.

They are just three of 145 new species found in the area in 2009 and highlighted in a WWF International report issued today, ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, this month.

The diversity of the region, so rich that an average of three new species were discovered each week last year, also highlights the need for action to ensure these new finds survive, WWF International said.

Among the animals highlighted in New Blood: Greater Mekong New Species Discoveries 2009’ is the Dracula minnow, with bulging eyes and two sharp fangs curving from its low-slung jaw. Luckily, the fish only grows to a maximum of 16.7 mm.

More attractive by far is the lipstick gecko, barely big enough to perch on a finger, with a dark barred pattern across its lips suggestive of cosmetics.

Other featured creatures include a fangless snake, a frog that chirps like a cricket, and a pitcher plant that traps insects and grows to a height of over seven metres.

‘This rate of discovery is simply staggering in modern times," said Stuart Chapman, Conservation Director of WWF Greater Mekong, in a statement.

‘Each year, the new species count keeps going up, and with it, so too does the responsibility to ensure this region's unique biodiversity is conserved.’

The report said these discoveries highlight the Greater Mekong's immense biodiversity but they also pinpoint the fragility of the region's diverse habitats and species.

The WWF report cited the likely local extinction of the Javan rhino in Vietnam as one tragic indicator of the decline of biodiversity in recent times.

The Greater Mekong region covers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

See more photos at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1318093/Bat-resembling-Star-Wars-Yoda-discovered-Papua-New-Guinea-rainforest.html

Scientists discover 200 new wildlife species in Papua New Guinea

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Scientists have discovered a staggering 200 new species of wildlife on the remote islands of Papua New Guinea – including an entirely new white-tailed mouse.

The ”incredibly significant” find includes 24 new species of frogs, two new mammals, nine plants, nearly 100 insects including damselflies, katydids and ants, and 100 new spiders.

They were discovered on the remote Papua New Guinea island of New Britain and the Southern Highlands ranges in the central mainland.

The locations are so isolated scientists could only access the rugged, forest-cloaked sites by a combination of small plane, helicopter, dinghy and foot.

One of the most interesting discoveries is the ”distinctive” white tip tailed mouse spotted 1,590 metres above sea level in the Nakanai mountain range.

The cute rodent has no known close relatives and represents an entirely new living organism.

Other new discoveries include several katydids and at least one ant which are so different from any known species that they represent entirely new genera.

The searches were conducted in September 2009 as part of Conservation International’s global efforts to document the biodiversity of poorly known but species-rich environments and raise their profile.

Leeanne (corr) Alonso of Conservation International said: ”There’s no question that the discoveries we made in both surveys are incredibly significant both for the large numbers of new species recorded, and the new genera identified.

”These discoveries should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don’t know about Earth’s still hidden secrets and important natural resources.”

Papua New Guinea’s jungles are, alongside the Amazon and Congo, one of only three rainforests left in the world and one of the best sources for new discoveries.

In 2006, a team came discovered a creature called Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise, named after the six spines on the top of its head. It was thought the bird had been lost to science having only previously been identified from the feathers of dead birds.

Last year scientists from Britain discovered the giant Bosavi woolly rat which showed no fear of humans and, at 82cm long, is among the world’s largest rats.

More photos at: http://swns.com/scientists-discover-200-new-wildlife-species-in-papua-new-guinea-061149.html

See also: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1e1a9fce48fee772c40344d3f21d3cc9.31&show_article=1 (submitted by Richie West) plus various other sources.

Scientists discover 200 new wildlife species in Papua New Guinea

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Scientists have discovered a staggering 200 new species of wildlife on the remote islands of Papua New Guinea – including an entirely new white-tailed mouse.

The ”incredibly significant” find includes 24 new species of frogs, two new mammals, nine plants, nearly 100 insects including damselflies, katydids and ants, and 100 new spiders.

They were discovered on the remote Papua New Guinea island of New Britain and the Southern Highlands ranges in the central mainland.

The locations are so isolated scientists could only access the rugged, forest-cloaked sites by a combination of small plane, helicopter, dinghy and foot.

One of the most interesting discoveries is the ”distinctive” white tip tailed mouse spotted 1,590 metres above sea level in the Nakanai mountain range.

The cute rodent has no known close relatives and represents an entirely new living organism.

Other new discoveries include several katydids and at least one ant which are so different from any known species that they represent entirely new genera.

The searches were conducted in September 2009 as part of Conservation International’s global efforts to document the biodiversity of poorly known but species-rich environments and raise their profile.

Leeanne (corr) Alonso of Conservation International said: ”There’s no question that the discoveries we made in both surveys are incredibly significant both for the large numbers of new species recorded, and the new genera identified.

”These discoveries should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don’t know about Earth’s still hidden secrets and important natural resources.”

Papua New Guinea’s jungles are, alongside the Amazon and Congo, one of only three rainforests left in the world and one of the best sources for new discoveries.

In 2006, a team came discovered a creature called Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise, named after the six spines on the top of its head. It was thought the bird had been lost to science having only previously been identified from the feathers of dead birds.

Last year scientists from Britain discovered the giant Bosavi woolly rat which showed no fear of humans and, at 82cm long, is among the world’s largest rats.

More photos at: http://swns.com/scientists-discover-200-new-wildlife-species-in-papua-new-guinea-061149.html

See also: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1e1a9fce48fee772c40344d3f21d3cc9.31&show_article=1 (submitted by Richie West) plus various other sources.

Firm fined after dead mouse found in loaf of bread

27 September 2010

A food production company was ordered to pay nearly £17,000 after a man found a dead mouse in a loaf of bread as he made sandwiches for his children.

Stephen Forse, of Kidlington, Oxfordshire, had already used some slices when he came across the mouse.

Mr Forse purchased the loaf online, through a Tesco branch in Bicester in January 2009.

Premier Foods was fined £5,500 and ordered to pay £11,109.47 in costs at Oxford Crown Court.

In July, the company, which makes Hovis bread, Branston pickle and Bisto gravy, admitted to having failed to maintain acceptable standards at its British Bakeries site in London.

Mr Forse said he had already used some of the bread when he noticed "a dark-coloured object embedded in the corner of three or four slices".

"Initially I thought it was where the dough had not mixed properly prior to baking," he said.

"As I looked closer I saw that the object had fur on it."

Mr Forse said he continued to prepare some sandwiches for his children and their friends from another loaf of bread.

"I checked carefully each slice in turn as I felt quite shaken," he added.

"As I was feeling ill I couldn't face eating anything myself. I sat with the children as they ate theirs."
Tail missing

Mr Forse contacted Cherwell District Council and environmental health officers visited the family's home to collect evidence.

During the visit one of them identified it as a mouse minus its tail.

"Her comments made me feel ill once again as there was no indication as to where the tail was," added Mr Forse.

"Had it fallen off prior to the bread being wrapped or had any of my family eaten it with another slice of bread on a previous day?"

A spokesman for Premier Foods said: "We apologise profusely for the distress caused as a result of this isolated incident.

"As soon as this complaint was made we stopped all bakery production at that site and appointed an independent specialist contractor to conduct a thorough investigation.

"They confirmed this to be an isolated incident, affecting a single product.

"There was no evidence of mice within the bakery and no history of any similar issues."

The spokesman added that the council had agreed "the bakery was a well-managed site and that Premier Foods took its obligations for health and hygiene seriously".

See video at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-11419498

Firm fined after dead mouse found in loaf of bread

27 September 2010

A food production company was ordered to pay nearly £17,000 after a man found a dead mouse in a loaf of bread as he made sandwiches for his children.

Stephen Forse, of Kidlington, Oxfordshire, had already used some slices when he came across the mouse.

Mr Forse purchased the loaf online, through a Tesco branch in Bicester in January 2009.

Premier Foods was fined £5,500 and ordered to pay £11,109.47 in costs at Oxford Crown Court.

In July, the company, which makes Hovis bread, Branston pickle and Bisto gravy, admitted to having failed to maintain acceptable standards at its British Bakeries site in London.

Mr Forse said he had already used some of the bread when he noticed "a dark-coloured object embedded in the corner of three or four slices".

"Initially I thought it was where the dough had not mixed properly prior to baking," he said.

"As I looked closer I saw that the object had fur on it."

Mr Forse said he continued to prepare some sandwiches for his children and their friends from another loaf of bread.

"I checked carefully each slice in turn as I felt quite shaken," he added.

"As I was feeling ill I couldn't face eating anything myself. I sat with the children as they ate theirs."
Tail missing

Mr Forse contacted Cherwell District Council and environmental health officers visited the family's home to collect evidence.

During the visit one of them identified it as a mouse minus its tail.

"Her comments made me feel ill once again as there was no indication as to where the tail was," added Mr Forse.

"Had it fallen off prior to the bread being wrapped or had any of my family eaten it with another slice of bread on a previous day?"

A spokesman for Premier Foods said: "We apologise profusely for the distress caused as a result of this isolated incident.

"As soon as this complaint was made we stopped all bakery production at that site and appointed an independent specialist contractor to conduct a thorough investigation.

"They confirmed this to be an isolated incident, affecting a single product.

"There was no evidence of mice within the bakery and no history of any similar issues."

The spokesman added that the council had agreed "the bakery was a well-managed site and that Premier Foods took its obligations for health and hygiene seriously".

See video at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-11419498

Family claims they found dead mouse in milk

By AP
Published Thursday, August 19, 2010

A Kentucky family has sued Wal-Mart, saying they found a dead mouse in a milk container the family had been drinking from for three days.

The Courier-Journal reported that Robert and Rosalind Grant and their 23-month-old granddaughter sought medical attention and treatment in May after finding the mouse.

The family filed suit in Jefferson Circuit Court on Monday.

Wal-Mart spokesman Phillip Keene said the retail giant takes quality and safety seriously and is looking into the complaint, along with the supplier, Ohio-based Superior Dairy Inc.

The Louisville paper reported that the child had blood in her stool from drinking the tainted milk.

The Grants claim they bought the milk May 1 at Sam's Club, which is owned by Wal-Mart, and the container had not been tampered with.

Attorney William Davis, who represents the family, described his clients as "completely shocked."

http://www.emirates247.com/offbeat/crazy-world/family-claims-they-found-dead-mouse-in-milk-2010-08-19-1.281032

Mouse jumps from bowl in restaurant

Inspectors visiting the Kam Tong, Hung Tao and Kiasu restaurants in Queensway, Bayswater, west London, found mouse droppings all over the kitchens and cockroach eggs in the dim sum and baskets of prawn crackers.

One rodent was photographed scampering along a kitchen drainpipe in the Kam Tong restaurant after jumping from a bowl of sweet and sour sauce which was about to be served to customers.

Owner Ronald Lim, of Barnet, north London, admitted 17 counts of breaching food hygiene regulations at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC ordered him to pay fines totalling £30,000, plus £18,131 costs, and handed him an eight-month jail term suspended for two years.

He was told that if he did not pay the fine, he would face 18 months in jail, a spokeswoman for Westminster City Council said.

The three restaurants were shut down between May and August 2008 but have since reopened. Lim now has three months to prove he has improved standards before a decision is made on whether to ban him from operating a catering business altogether.

Brian Connell, Westminster City Council's cabinet member for business, enterprise and skills, said: "This is an appalling catalogue of offences and gives an otherwise good industry a bad name.

"This person was not running these restaurants to the levels of hygiene which are required and which customers rightly expect."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100727/tuk-mouse-jumps-from-bowl-in-restaurant-6323e80.html

Meet the 'radical rodent' surfing mice

Fred Attewill - 28th June, 2010

Say aloha to the radical rodents – a mischievous bunch of fearless mice, who love nothing more than catching a wave and shooting a curl.

What’s more, the semi-amphibious crew’s pictures haven’t been digitally manipulated – they really are surfing on tiny handmade boards.

‘It’s a really stimulating way for them to live. Much more than just being stuck in a cage all their lives,’ said boat builder and surfing mouse breeder (yes, really) Shane Wilmott.

The 39-year-old Australian builds the mini-boards and begins the team’s training in his Gold Coast home.

He said: ‘I teach them how to do it in the bath at first, so they can get used to their custom made boards.

‘Once they’ve got some confidence we move out to my pool and tow them around with a remote controlled boat.’

But it’s when Peanut, Skidmark, Rocket and Banzai hit the beach that they get to show off the skills that pay the bills, shredding the surf and slotting in the tube just like the full-size pros – albeit on tiny wavelets in shallow water.

‘I only do it because I feel they are safe,’ said Mr Wilmott.

‘Gulls are a realistic threat so I have to stay close by to make sure my guys are safe. These guys aren’t just my pets, they’re my mates too – I care about them a lot.’

We may consider their natural environment to be round the bottom of food bins, but mice are naturally excellent swimmers.

‘So if they come off, they are fine and just paddle around until I collect them,’ said Mr Wilmott.

Since teaching his first mice to surf 25 years ago, eight-month-old Banzai and chums are the third generation of surf-mad antipodean cheese-munchers to receive his expert tutoring.

‘Me and a few mates were hanging out at the beach years ago, watching these perfect little waves form really close to the shore,’ he added.

‘I remember wishing I was tiny so that I could have a go on these perfect specimens... Then it hit me that a mouse on a tiny board could do it.’

More photos at: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/833261-meet-the-radical-rodent-surfing-mice

Computer mice risk to your health

Click to enlarge

http://e-edition.metroherald.ie/2010/05/12/ - p3.

Mice infest UK's Westminster Palace in London

5 March 2010
By The Associated Press

LONDON -- The House of Lords has a momentous decision to make: Should it get cats to chase the mice that have infested one of Britain's most famous buildings?

London's Houses of Parliament, also known as Westminster Palace, has rodents, and the peers aren't exactly sure what to do about it.

Ivan Anthony Moore-Brabazon, the House's administration chief, on Wednesday turned down suggestions to acquire cats. He says the felines could ingest mice poison or wander around the chamber and disrupt business.

He favors the current tactic of using poison and mousetraps.

Parliament staff have reported daily sightings of the rodents in the palace's restaurants and bars.

The performers' union Equity says nearby theaters in London's West End are facing similar problems, with three-quarters of actors and stage managers reporting infestations of mice, rats and fleas, according to The Guardian newspaper.

http://www.kare11.com/news/whatsup/whatsup_article.aspx?storyid=843279
(submitted by D.R. Shoop)

London stage fright: rats, mice and fleas

Thu Mar 4, 2010 2:03pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - Performers in London's West End are having to cope with a different kind of stage fright in the form of mice, rat and flea infestations in theatres, according to a new survey by actors' union Equity.

"The findings have shocked even hardened West Enders," the union said in its report, which found that three quarters of actors and stage managers reported regular infestations including mice, rats and fleas.

Equity general secretary Christine Payne said the findings suggested that each night, more than 600 actors and stage managers would go to work knowing they were likely to see and smell vermin, "both living and decomposing," at work.

"I accept that many West End theatres are old and difficult buildings to manage, but this is running out of control," she added. "These appalling conditions must come to an end."

The survey was completed by nearly 350 performers and stage managers in 24 different theatres, many of them featuring world-famous shows.

Individuals surveyed reported that floors had been eaten by mice which also left droppings and unpleasant smells.

"I had tiny bite marks on my lipstick recently when I left the lid off," one respondent said.

(Reporting by Valle Aviles Pinedo; editing by Keith Weir and Mike Collett-White)

http://af.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idAFTRE6232FM20100304