Elephants Know How Dangerous We Are From How We Speak

Research from Amboseli (Kenya) show that elephants can recognise different human dialects. From National Geographic.
When an elephant killed a Maasai woman collecting firewood near Kenya's Amboseli National Park in 2007, a group of young Maasai men retaliated by spearing one of the animals.
"It wasn't the one that had killed the woman, says Graeme Shannon, a behavioral ecologist at Colorado State University, in Fort Collins. "It was just the first elephant they encountered—a young bull on the edge of a swamp."
The Maasai spiked him with spears and, their anger spent, returned home. Later, the animal died from his wounds.
Elephants experience those kinds of killings sporadically. Yet the attacks happen often enough that the tuskers have learned that the Maasai—and Maasai men in particular—are dangerous.
The elephants in the Amboseli region are so aware of this that they can even distinguish between Ma, the language of the Maasai, and other languages, says a team of researchers, who report their findings today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Read full article here - Elephants Know How Dangerous We Are From How We Speak.

Powerlines divide animal populations through UV emissions

Wild animals see overhead electrical powerlines as disturbing lines of flashing lights, which could explain why many species avoid electricity pylons to the point where their natural territories become seriously fragmented, scientists have discovered.
A study of wild reindeer in Norway has shown that they can see overhead power lines in the dark because their eyes are sensitive to the flashes of ultraviolet light which are invisible to the human eye but are constantly being emitted by high-voltage electrical transmission, the researchers said.
Many other species, from birds in the Arctic to elephants in Africa, can also see ultraviolet radiation which may explain why different kinds of animals in widely varying habitats all tend to avoid overhead power lines even though they are considered to be inert and invisible to wildlife, they said.
“Reindeer see deep into the UV range because the Arctic is especially rich in UV light. Insulators on power lines give off flashes of UV light,” Professor Jeffery said. “The animals potentially see not just a few flashes but a line of flashes extending right across the horizon. This is the first bit of evidence that explains why we think they are avoiding power lines,” he said.
Scientists have known that many animals avoid power lines to the point that it sometimes causes their populations to fragment into separate habitats. But until now the observation could not be easily explained, especially as the avoidance goes on for many decades after the power lines were first erected.
Source: Powerlines disturb animal habitats by appearing as disturbing flashes of UV light invisible to the human eye The Indepedent (12/03/14)

Barren future for Africa's soils

The Soil Atlas of Africa was presented to the Afican Union in Addis Ababa last week after five years of expert collaboration between the AU, the EU and the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation. The scientists hope that their new report and atlas on the soils of Africa will help to reconnect the continent’s people to their roots and raise awareness about the critical significance of soil to human existence and the authors suggest that the importance of soil is not widely understood.
“Part of the problem is that with an increasingly urban society, many people have lost contact with the processes that produce food. Most people expect to find goods on the shelves of supermarkets and have limited appreciation of the role played by soil.”
One of the most critical findings is that Africa’s soils are running out of vooma. Simply put, the soil is losing nutrients faster than fertilisers can be added. The authors say many of the soils of Africa are severely degraded by erosion and excessive nutrient depletion. On average, African farmers can afford to apply only 10 percent of the fertilising nutrients that farmers in the rest of the world return to the soil.
Adding to the problem is the fact that more than half of Africa’s land surface is made up of sandy soils (22 percent), shallow stony soils (17 percent) and young, weakly developed soils (11 percent). Deserts and drylands make up 60 percent of the land surface and fertile areas are under growing pressure because of the global trend to grow cash crops for export.
“Using state-of-the-art computer mapping techniques, the Soil Atlas of Africa shows the changing nature of soil across the continent. It explains the origin and functions of soil and describes the different soil types and their relevance to both local and global issues.”
Read full article here, and more background here. Photographic credit here

A myna problem?

From the Zambezi Traveller, June 2012
The common or Indian myna, Acridotheres tristis, a controversial non indigenous species in southern Africa, has been recorded breeding in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, generating much debate among ornithologists.
Read more: Zambezi Traveller - A myna problem?
Photo credit: Zambezi Traveller