The female American crocodile laid 14 eggs in 2018 within her enclosure, a not uncommon phenomenon among captive reptiles. The more puzzling fact, however, came after three months of incubation when one egg was found to contain a fully formed stillborn baby crocodile.

According to the study published in the journal Biology Letters, scientists tested the crocodile fetus’ genetic makeup. They found DNA sequences showing it was a result of facultative parthenogenesis (FP), or reproduction without the genetic contribution of males.

The phenomenon of FP, which some scientists have referred to by the shorthand of “virgin birth,” has also been documented in other species of fish, birds, lizards and snakes. The scientists said this is the first-known example in a crocodile.

In FP, a female’s egg cell can develop into a baby without being fertilized by a male’s sperm cell.

In making an egg cell, a precursor cell divides into four cells: one becomes the egg cell and retains key cellular structures and the gel-like cytoplasm, while the others hold extra genetic material.

Then, one of those cells essentially acts as a sperm cell and fuses with the egg to become “fertilized.”

The American crocodile is considered vulnerable and at risk of extinction in the wild. According to one hypothesis, FP may be more common among species on the verge of extinction, the study said.

The scientists said the Costa Rica “virgin birth” could lead to new information about crocodile ancestors that walked the earth in the Triassic Period some 250 million years ago.

“This discovery offers tantalizing insights into the possible reproductive capabilities of the extinct archosaurian relatives of crocodilians and birds, notably members of Pterosauria and Dinosauria,” the study said. – Rappler.com

The first step is to listen to the songs of the birds – that should help locate them. When done multiple times – in your backyard, on campus grounds, in the mountains on the off chance you find yourself hiking – bird-watching can reveal certain quirky preferences and behaviors, like courtship dances and favorite perches.

Eventually, a hobbyist can invest in a pair of binoculars, learn to be more eagle-eyed when spotting birds, and identify them just through their sounds and calls.

“It’s both like a mindless and mindful activity,” described Jelaine Gan, a raptor biologist and instructor from the Institute of Biology at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

It’s a good antidote for today’s culture of doom scrolling.

It forces you to disconnect and to just reconnect with nature.

Jelaine Gan, ON BIRD-WATCHING

Finding sparks

Gan was introduced to bird-watching in high school when she joined a guided tour organized by the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP) at the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park.

Before that, growing up, Gan took 40 lovebirds under her wing. Her interest in these creatures was primarily motivated by their visual appeal and charm.

But Gan quickly realized what was wrong with this kind of relationship when she started joining bird-watchers. Rather than cage them, it’s better to watch birds from afar, in the wild, because it is their natural habitat.

During her first guided tour, Gan saw a collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris). She considers this her “spark bird,” or the bird that started her love for bird-watching and all things avian.

The awe of spotting a collared kingfisher was sparked by Gan initially believing it lived only in other countries, not in the Philippines.

“Napaka-striking niya sa akin kasi noong time na ‘yun, noong unang bird-watching ko, hindi ko alam na may collared kingfisher dito sa Pilipinas.” (It was striking for me at the time because I didn’t know there were collared kingfishers in the Philippines.)

Indeed, an extensive list of birds awaits anyone who wants to take up this hobby.

“It’s addicting once you get started,” Gan said in a mix of Filipino and English. “There’s a challenge to it because, in the Philippines, we have over 700 species of birds. And a lot of them are endemic.”

According to the WBCP, as of 2022, the country is home to 245 endemic bird species. Endemic birds are those found only in certain regions of the Philippines.

Gateway to environmental advocacy

Eventually, Gan’s passion for birds would ignite a scholastic appreciation of nature and biology. Gan is now taking her doctorate degree at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, studying habitat fragmentation in Northern Luzon and how it affects migratory patterns.

Gan said bird-watching is a gateway for many to become environmental advocates.

Karen Ochavo, vice president of the WBCP, said this is because birds are reliable environmental indicators. Watching birds regularly helps create a database of the different species living in certain areas. This accounting also keeps track of the status of species threatened by extinction.

The WBCP regularly updates its checklist of birds in the Philippines with corresponding information, such as conservation status and range distributions or places where they can be found in the country.

The checklist has helped the government and other institutions’ conservation programs. Ochavo cited the example of the Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park when it was declared a Ramsar site in 2013 under the Ramsar Convention – an international treaty for the conservation and proper utilization of wetlands – partly due to the data amassed by bird-watchers.

“Before a wetland site is declared as a Ramsar site, it has to be backed up by data,” said Ochavo. “The area supports a certain percentage of [the] population of migratory birds…. And some of the data came from the club.”

A black market of birds

But the Philippines’ biodiversity is a double-edged sword.

Illegal wildlife trade has become a multibillion-dollar industry around the world. In the Philippines, illegal wildlife trade is valued at P50 billion ($889.91 million), according to a report released by the Asian Development Bank in 2019. Palawan, Aurora, and Cagayan are hot spots for bird poaching.

Some of the most traded birds from the Philippines are the blue-naped parrots (Tanygnathus lucionensis) and the Palawan hill mynahs (Gracula religiosa palawanensis). Brahminy kites (Haliastur indus) are hunted as juveniles, while Luzon lowland scops owls (Otus megalotis) are poached by hunters and sold on the street, the black market, and even online.

Online selling of birds gained ground during the pandemic, said Ochavo. Bird-watchers and advocates have had to resort to reporting groups and individuals selling birds through social media platforms, but Ochavo admitted this is not as sustainable as raising public awareness.

“It’s really hard online,” said Ochavo. “People can just remove their profiles and then create a new one.”

Environment Secretary Toni Yulo-Loyzaga acknowledged the proliferation of “insidious” wildlife trade in the country and said the department needs all the help it can get.

“We need the support of the public in terms of reporting to us [about] illegal wildlife trade,” Loyzaga said after a tree-planting activity on Monday, June 5, at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, considered the country’s national rescue center. The park is home to rescued birds such as Girlie, the Philippine eagle caught in Bukidnon in 1982.

“We also need the support of both public and private [sectors] for the enhancement of this wildlife rescue center,” she added.

For 2023, the NAPWC has an allocated budget of P6.641 million ($118,204.09). The bulk of the fund came from the income generated by the park in 2022 from entrance fees, facility rentals, concessionaires, and parking fees.

Budget remains a big constraint to developing retrieval and rescue operations, the environment secretary said. “Every year, we have to battle for a budget.”

Start simple

The dream is to create and expand protected areas where wildlife can thrive peacefully.

“Hopefully, if we have enough support, we will have a space here also for Philippine marine and coastal environments,” Loyzaga said, referring to the Ninoy Aquino park. “So that in one area in the city, you can come and experience the whole of the country’s natural resources in terms of biodiversity.”

Because of rampant development and degradation of forests, birds are losing their homes. When remaining forests are splintered, this affects the welfare and movement of birds, said Gan.

“One issue is if it’s okay for birds to migrate and pass through areas of development,” she explained in a mix of Filipino and English. Restricted movement means restricted resources; Gan likened this situation to the pandemic experience of having to stay in one area.

This is why saving the Philippines’ protected areas is crucial in taking care of the birds that consider this country home.

Ochavo, who studied environmental science and has seen the improvement of the field through the years, is optimistic that the country will soon strike a balance between development and protection.

“It’s like a slow progression, but we’re getting there. So 10 years from now, hopefully, more protected areas, more sustainable development,” she said.

In the meantime, Ochavo encourages more people to try bird-watching as a first step toward what could be a lifelong passion and respect for nature.

“It’s something that can be done with friends or family. It’s a really accessible activity. It’s as simple as that,” she implored.

“Go bird-watching.” – Rappler.com

$1 = P56.19

Balto was feted as a hero, the subject of books and movies, and the dog’s taxidermy mount still stands on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. But that was not the end of Balto’s magnificent deeds. Scientists have extracted DNA from a piece of Balto’s underbelly skin from the well-preserved museum mount and sequenced the dog’s genome as part of an ambitious comparative mammalian genomic research project called Zoonomia.

Balto’s genome, the scientists found, possessed certain gene variants that may have helped the dog thrive in the extreme Alaskan environment and endure what is now called the Serum Run. Balto, belonging to a population of working sled dogs in Alaska, also was found to have possessed greater genetic diversity and genetic health than modern canine breeds.

“Balto personifies the strength of the bond between human and dog, and what that bond is capable of,” said Katie Moon, a postdoctoral paleogenomics researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and co-lead author of the study published in the journal Science.

“Dogs not only offer comfort, support and friendship to humans, but many are actively bred or trained to provide vital services. That bond between human and dog remains strong, 100 years after Balto’s job was done,” Moon added.

As diphtheria – a serious and sometimes fatal bacterial infection – spread among Nome’s people, its port was icebound, meaning antitoxin would have to be delivered overland. Sled dogs were the only viable option. Balto was among about 150 dogs in a relay lasting 127 hours through temperatures of minus-50 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-45 degrees Celsius).

The researchers examined Balto’s genome as part of a dataset of 682 genomes from modern dogs and wolves and a larger assemblage of 240 mammalian genomes, including humans.

Balto’s genome showed lower rates of inbreeding and a lower burden of rare and potentially damaging genetic variation than almost all modern breed dogs. Balto was found to share ancestry with modern Siberian huskies and Alaskan sled dogs as well as Greenland sled dogs, Vietnamese village dogs and Tibetan mastiffs, with no discernible wolf ancestry.

Born in 1919, Balto was part of a population of sled dogs imported from Siberia, dubbed Siberian huskies – though the study showed that these dogs differed substantially from modern Siberian huskies. Balto had a body built for strength and not speed, disappointing the breeder, who had the dog neutered.

Balto’s life after the Serum Run was a complicated one involving human exploitation and later salvation. Balto toured the United States for two years on the vaudeville circuit, then ended up on display with other dogs from the sled team in a Los Angeles dime museum – a low-brow exhibition – and was mistreated.

A visiting Cleveland businessman saw Balto’s plight and arranged to buy the dogs for $1,500. The money subsequently was raised by the local community in Cleveland. In 1927, Balto and canine cohorts Alaska Slim, Billy, Fox, Old Moctoc, Sye and Tillie were feted in Cleveland with a downtown parade, then spent the remainder of their lives cared for at the local Brookside Zoo. After Balto died of natural causes in 1933, the dog’s mount was placed at the museum.

“His story really highlights how working dogs become functionally heroes,” said study co-lead author Kathleen Morrill, a senior scientist in genome analysis at biotech company Colossal Biosciences. “These specialized dogs don’t know that what they do has such gravity in people’s lives, but their genetic adaptations set them up to be the best animals for the job.” – Rappler.com

The pinkish chick, covered in white fuzz that will turn into black feathers as it grows, is the first red-headed, or Asian king vulture, to be bred in Asia and only the second in the world.

Watchiradol and his colleagues at the Nakhon Ratchasima Zoo in northeast Thailand want to ensure any hatchling bred in captivity does not imprint on humans so they will be better prepared for eventual release into the wild.

“It’s necessary … to disguise ourselves as a bird, thereby leading them to see us as closest to what their parents would look like,” Watchiradol said, adding that it’s the best chance to develop the bird’s natural instincts.

He feeds it rabbit, deer, chicken and rat meat to simulate its diet in the wild. After feeding, the chick warms up in the sun for the vitamin D it needs for its physical and behavioral development, Watchiradol said.

“Is there enough nutrition in its food? Or is it receiving too much? At every moment, worries will persist,” he said.

As a scavenger, the red-headed vulture used to play a crucial role in the ecosystem by consuming animal carcasses. However, hunting and changes to its habitat mean the species is extinct in the wild in Thailand and is significantly diminished globally.

After nearly two decades of trying to increase the red-headed vulture population, the zoo is starting to see results, with another egg being incubated by its parents in conservation. The conservation team hopes it can create a large enough population for eventual release.

“The most crucial aspect of our success would be to enhance the ecosystem of the UNESCO heritage site, Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary,” said zoo director Thanachon Kensingh, adding that the park in the west of Thailand was once home to the largest community of Asian king vultures.

“We would like to see the Asian king vulture soar once again through the skies of Thailand,” he said. – Rappler.com

Researchers in a new study described the unusual sleep habits of this species, finding that during Pacific Ocean foraging journeys that can last seven months these bulky marine mammals sleep just two hours a day – cobbled together from naps of about 10 minutes each as they dive deep to avoid predators. The only other mammal known to get so little sleep is the African elephant.

The seals’ sleep duration during these ocean voyages differed significantly from the 10 hours a day they spend sleeping on the beach during breeding season at places like California’s Año Nuevo beach.

The researchers placed on the heads of the seals a noninvasive waterproof synthetic rubber cap with sensors to monitor sleep signals generated by the brain, heart rate, location and depth. The researchers focused on female seals because they engage in the long open-ocean journeys while males feed in coastal waters.

The study documented unorthodox sleep behavior.

During dives lasting about 30 minutes, the seals went into a deep sleep stage called slow-wave sleep while maintaining a controlled downward trajectory. When they then experienced rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, a stage causing sleep paralysis, the seals drifted into a corkscrew “sleep spiral,” turning upside down and sometimes ending up motionless on the seafloor.

“Then, at the deepest point of their sleeping dive – up to 377 meters deep (1,237 feet) – they wake up and swim back to the surface,” said Jessie Kendall-Bar, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and lead author of the study published this week in the journal Science.

The species is the world’s second-largest seal, topped only by the southern elephant seal. Male northern elephant seals may reach 13 feet long (4 meters) and weigh up to 4,500 pounds (2,000 kg). Females reach about 10 feet (3 meters) in length and 1,300 pounds (590 kg).

The seals eat large amounts of fish and squid. Despite their size, they are vulnerable to sharks and killer whales.

“It is remarkable that a wild animal will fall into deep, paralytic REM sleep when there are predators on the hunt. The seals solve this problem by going into deep sleep in the deep parts of the oceans where predators do not typically hunt them,” said study co-author Terrie Williams, director of the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Comparative Neurophysiology Lab.

“The brain’s ability to act as a master switch to awaken the sleeping seals at depth before they would drown is also a revelation concerning the neural precision of the mammalian brain. Imagine if a sleeping human suddenly awoke on the bottom of a pool and had to figure a way out. It is chilling and speaks to the incredible survival control of the seal’s brain,” Williams added.

The researchers also observed seals sleeping in a laboratory setting and at Año Nuevo beach.

“It is very peaceful to spend time on the beach watching elephant seals sleep. I have spent many days at Año Nuevo taking notes as the seals held their breath for 10 minutes at a time, even on land,” Kendall-Bar said.

“There would be complete silence except the howling wind and then, all of a sudden, the snort of an elephant seal as it emerges from a 10-minute sleep apnea,” Kendall-Bar added. “Its pulmonary surfactant – a gooey coating of the respiratory system to facilitate lung collapse at depth – erupts from its nose as it takes a few breaths before plunging back into slumber.” – Rappler.com

Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) together with WWF-Hong Kong, Ocean Park Hong Kong, and University of Manchester said on Tuesday, April 18, that the team collected jellyfish samples from a brackish shrimp pond over 2020-2022 and found they contained a new species.

Named Tripedalia maipoensis in reflection of its locality, it has a cube-shaped, colorless body with 24 eyes. It has three tentacles up to 10 cm (3.94 inches) long which resemble boat paddles, allowing it to produce strong thrusts, making the species swim faster than other kinds of jellyfish, the study said.

Qiu Jianwen, a professor at the Department of Biology at HKBU, said although the species is currently only known in Mai Po, the team believes the species is also distributed in the adjacent waters of the Pearl River Estuary.

#HKBU has discovered a new box #jellyfish species in Hong Kong waters. It named "Tripedalia maipoensis" belongs to the Tripedaliidae family of the class Cubozoa. The discovery increases the number of known species in the Tripedaliidae family from 3 to 4. https://t.co/XyXvCmfiPU pic.twitter.com/nfHEEoKUmZ

— Hong Kong Baptist University (@hkbaptistu) April 18, 2023

Box jellyfish “are poorly known in Chinese marine waters. Our discovery of Tripedalia maipoensis in Mai Po – a relatively well-studied area in Hong Kong – highlights the rich diversity of marine life in Hong Kong and even the whole of China,” he said.

Box jellyfish, scientifically known as class Cubozoa, includes some of the highly venomous marine animals that are widely known in tropical waters, the study said. – Rappler.com

The island’s agriculture minister has appointed a committee to evaluate the proposal to export 100,000 toque macaques, found only in Sri Lanka, to be displayed in zoos in China, Cabinet Spokesperson and Transport Minister Bandula Gunawardana said.

“This is not a discussion between the Sri Lankan government and the Chinese government but with a Chinese company,” Gunawardana told reporters at a weekly briefing, without naming the company. “The committee will evaluate the proposal.”

The move has alarmed environmentalists and conservationists who have warned the monkeys could be headed to labs rather than zoos, even if it earns some scarce dollars for the country facing its worst economic crisis in more than seven decades.

The organizations say China has only about 18 zoos, which would have to house about 5,000 monkeys at each.

“Macaques, with their human-like qualities have been particularly popular, especially with medical testing facilities in the USA and Europe. The potential income from such a trade would be far greater than that from the sale of this species to zoos,” four conservation organizations said in a joint statement. “Is this where these macaques are headed?”

They demanded the proposal be discarded and toque macaque habitats be protected. They also want the government to allocate resources to study the monkeys’ behavior and reduce harvest losses, which is a reason cited by the agriculture ministry to consider capturing and exporting the animals. – Rappler.com

“A deepwater scientific expedition has found the first totally pristine coral reef, approximately two kilometers (1.2 miles) long, at 400 meters (deep), on the summit of a submarine mountain,” Environment Minister Jose Davalos said on Twitter. “Galapagos surprises us again!”

Scientists had believed that the only Galapagos reef to survive El Niño weather in 1982 and 1983 was one called the Wellington reef, along the coast of Darwin Island, but the new discovery shows other coral has persisted, the ministry said in a statement.

The reef has more than 50% living coral.

“This is very important at a global level because many deepwater systems are degraded,” said Stuart Banks, senior marine researcher at the Charles Darwin Foundation, who participated in the expedition. The coral is several thousand years old at least, he added.

The South American country last year expanded the Galapagos marine reserve by 60,000 square km (23,166 square miles), an extension of the 138,000 square km already in place, to protect endangered migratory species between the Galapagos and the Cocos Island in Costa Rica.

The Galapagos, which inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, are also home to giant tortoises, albatrosses, cormorants and other species, some of which are endangered. – Rappler.com

Researchers on Friday said they had analyzed the genomes of 23 woolly mammoths – including 16 newly sequenced ones – based on remains preserved in Siberian permafrost. They then compared them to the genomes of 28 modern-day Asian and African elephants.

“The objective was to find those mutations that are present in all mammoths but not in any of the elephants – that is, the genetic adaptations exclusive to the woolly mammoth,” said evolutionary geneticist David Díez-del-Molino of the Center for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, lead author of the study published in the journal Current Biology.

“We find that woolly mammoths had molecular adaptations in genes related to coping with cold Arctic environments, such as thick fur, fat storage and metabolism, and thermal sensation, among others,” Díez-del-Molino added.

The genomes included a mammoth from 700,000 years ago – near the origination time of this species on the Siberian steppes – and others that lived later in their history, thus showing how genetic adaptations evolved.

Must Read

Teeth from Siberian mammoths yield oldest DNA ever recovered

The species, which arose at a time when Earth’s climate was cooling, inhabited parts of northern Eurasia and North America. Most mammoths went extinct roughly 10,000 years ago amid a warming climate at the last Ice Age’s end, with scientists debating whether human hunting played a role. The last ones died out on Wrangel Island off Siberia’s coast 4,000 years ago.

The first complete mammoth genome was sequenced in 2015, after a partial genome in 2008.

The new study showed that 92% of unique mutations already existed at the outset of the species, with continued evolution on certain traits. For example, mammoths evolved ever-fluffier fur and ever-smaller ears over time.

“Our 700,000-year-old woolly mammoth may have had larger ears than the mammoths of the last Ice Age,” Centre for Palaeogenetics evolutionary geneticist and study senior author Love Dalén said.

One highly evolved gene was one that when “turned off” in laboratory mice results in unusually small ears. Woolly mammoths were about the size of modern African elephants, around 13 feet (4 meters) tall, but had much smaller ears to guard against losing body heat from a larger ear surface.

Several genes involving fur type and growth differed from modern elephants. One of them in humans is associated with Uncombable Hair Syndrome, a condition characterized by dry and frizzy hair that cannot be combed flat. In mammoths, fluffier hair, as well as fat deposits, would have helped provide insulation in the cold.

The mammoths had a mutation in a gene that in people is associated with having dry ear wax, though it is unclear how this gave them any advantage. The same mutation is associated with reduced body odor in the armpits in humans, though this may not mean mammoths had a dainty aroma.

“I very much doubt mammoths would have been sweating into their arm pits. This is a very unique human thing, I think. Other mammals regulate their body temperature in other ways. So it is very unclear if mammoths would have smelled differently because of this gene variant,” Dalén said.

The study helped clarify variable shades of mammoth hair color – brownish with a touch of red. Mutations in an immune system-related gene indicated the species adapted to a serious pathogen outbreak at some point.

While the researchers are not involved in trying to resurrect the mammoth through cloning, their work could assist any such effort.

“The dataset we present could be seen as the first element of a road map towards resurrection,” Dalén said. “But it should be pointed out that the road ahead is long, likely to be full of pot holes, and in the worst-case scenario leads nowhere.” – Rappler.com

The Miami Seaquarium said it had reached a “binding agreement” with nonprofit Friends of Lolita to return the whale, who recently retired from performances, to an ocean habitat in the Pacific Northwest within two years.

Lolita, a 57-year-old orca captured in 1970 in a cove off Seattle, is also known as Toki, a name that is short for the whale’s Native American name of Tokitae, the Miami Herald reported. The plan to return Lolita to her natural habitat requires federal approval, according to the newspaper.

London dogs head to Thailand to sniff out pangolin smugglers

The process to return Lolita to her “home waters” was years in the making, beginning with the transfer of the aquarium’s ownership to The Dolphin Co, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference. The company later partnered with the nonprofit to provide medical care to the whale.

Lolita, once a top attraction at Seaquarium, was retired from shows in March 2022 after management changed hands.

“Finding a better future for Lolita is one of the reasons that motivated us to acquire the Miami Seaquarium,” The Dolphin Co Chief Executive Eduardo Albor said in a statement.

The push to free Lolita gained momentum after the 2013 documentary “Blackfish” highlighted the captivity of orcas.

Animal rights advocates for years fought unsuccessfully in court to obtain Lolita’s freedom after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration added orcas to the endangered species list in 2015.

Killer whales are highly social mammals that have no natural predators and can live up to 80 years.

Fears for orangutans, dolphins as Indonesia presses on with new capital

– Rappler.com