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leashedForLife

leashedForLife

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with the barbarians entrenched in D.C. & anti-science forces jubilant all over the U-S, i need as much happy news as i can get. ;)  
I just saw a notice this morning that a new wolf pack has been ID'ed in northern Calif, & here are some local stories on the new family -


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New wolf pack found in Northern California | The Sacramento Bee





www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article159829579.html
6 days ago - 
Another wolf pack has been found in rural Northern California, complete with pups. The family is descended from the famous wolf OR7, who ...










Second wolf pack is found in California, but news not pleasing to all ...







www.grindtv.com/.../second-wolf-pack-found-california-news-not-pleasing-some-ph...
5 days ago - 
Wildlife officials captured adorable trail camera images of three pups from the second wolf pack to establish a home in Northern California.











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Please post any optimistic tidbits that U would like to share - Thanks!   :)
- terry
 
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This is another thread where you are likely to find that less is more and starting with an awful lot of links just closes other people down.  Can you start with a post of your own opinion and just maybe one or two links to let others feel more able to join in please?
 
@eingana - 

I am actively soliciting any glad news from fellow members.   :)   That's why i began the thread.
- t
 
Interesting news from the Midwest [USA] - cougar numbers are increasing, as young cats disperse from occupied areas to find new territories.

http://archive.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/cougars-spreading-across-midwest-study-shows-hn5pd03-159061635.html/

Obv, many farmers will be unhappy to hear this, but the whitetail deer popn & that of other ungulates [elk, mule deer, etc] is desperately in need of predators, not hunters.
Hunters take trophy animals; predators take the old, sick, weak, & young animals. // Human hunters want healthy adults with robust bodies, & if they're male, trophy racks - precisely the sires we'd want to keep in the gene-pool. :(

I wish that cougars would develop a taste for feral hogs - that would solve a world of trouble! :D

 - terry
 
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a previously-unknown supercolony of breeding Adelie' penguins was discovered - on the Danger Islands.

Poop Stains Lead Researchers to Hidden 'Supercolony' of 1.5 Million Penguins

The colony was betrayed to researchers by gull-guano - skuas & other predatory birds harass the parents, steal & eat eggs, slip in to snatch dropped fish, & otherwise profit from the colony. Their droppings on the rocks indicated that there had to be a colony in the area, & researchers confirmed the Adelies' presence shortly thereafter. :)

this is wonderful news for scientists who have worried, watching the Adelie' colonies of western Antartica dwindle year by year - shrinking sea ice, plummeting krill numbers, & other factors mean the western popn is much reduced.
Adelie' penguins are found nowhere else in the world, but Antarctica.

- t

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a rare mutation has bird-watchers & avian scientists fascinated -
a yellow male cardinal is resident in Alabama, right now.

Birdwatchers Are Flocking to Alabama to See This Bird: Why It's So Special

He's not the 1st - a lutino cardinal was collected in LA in 1989, & another yellow cardinal was documented in Baja, Mexico - but this is a one-in-1M or rarer anomaly. [I don't know the gender of the other known lutinos.]
The color results from these birds being unable to express red pigments that they eat - instead, they consume the same carotenoids, & express them as yellow.

- t

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a new species of 6-gill shark has been identified -
the Atlantic 6-gill was thought to be simply the same shark as the Pacific, but despite appearing identical, tissue samples prove that they're only distant cousins.

https://www.livescience.com/61899-new-sixgill-shark-discoverged-in-the-atlantic.html

the downside of this discovery is that if we overfish any of these rare deep-sea shark species, who are living descendants of a much-more primitive type, they can't be "replaced" by sharks who move in from other oceans - they are each unique.

Shark popns are in free-fall around the world, due to human activity - overfishing, "finning", & simply killing them as bycatch on hooks & in nets, when we fish for more popular or more profitable species. :(


- t

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a strain of S. epidermidis has been found to secrete compounds that can kill cancer cells, while not harming normal cells.
QUOTE,
"6-HAP is a molecule that impairs... DNA synthesis, & prevents the spread of transformed tumor cells as well as... suppressing development of UV-induced skin tumors.
Mice that received intravenous injections of 6-HAP every 48 hours over a two-week period experienced no apparent toxic effects, & when transplanted with melanoma cells, their tumor size was suppressed by more than 50% compared to controls."

Beneficial skin bacteria protect against skin cancer

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a recently-killed Bald Eagle set a new lifespan record for the species, in the U-S - 38 years.
Altho his life abruptly ended when he was hit by a car, he sired & reared many eaglets over a 34-year breeding life in the same area where he was killed. There was a freshly-killed rabbit near his body, & odds are he'd landed with his kill to feed on the roadside, in the open, when he was hit.

Oldest Banded Bald Eagle Dies, But Sets New Longevity Record

About 1 in 3 Bald Eagles killed, die HBC [hit by car, vet acronym].
- terry

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when pineapple & sugarcane growers in Hawai'i quit their extensive acres, due to super-cheap competition in Asia, MonsLanto, Dow Chem, DuPont, & Syngenta sniffed an opportunity; they snatched up prime farmland & began planting GMO test-plots, plus testing various pesticides, herbicides, & fungicides, both on GMO test-crops & commercially-established crops.
The problem was, none of these companies wanted to disclose WHAT they were spraying - & they were spraying a lot.
Schools downwind of these farms were repeatedly evacuated, b/c students & staff both complained of eyes burning, terrible odors, respiratory issues, etc. Local residents also complained, as did businesses - when the stink kept customers marooned at home, doors & windows closed.

After years of struggle, legislation forcing disclosure has finally passed. :)

Hawaii Will Finally Force Companies to Say What Pesticides They’re Spraying

hopefully, that will also give the legislature some backbone - as they've ignored serious problems in order to avoid ticking-off big, powerful corporations with deep pockets. :(

QUOTE,
"Under Federal law, companies that allow sprayed pesticides to drift outside the target field can be punished with a fine of up to $25,000, & the person doing the spraying can spend up to six months in jail. People are expected to stop spraying if the wind is blowing toward habitations or widely used roads. However, even though complaints of drift on the Hawaiian islands multiplied & spurred 16 school evacuations in eight years, none of these companies was prosecuted."
Several doctors who spoke to Live Science have said that, [in order] to treat patients with symptoms of pesticide inhalation, they need to know what the patients might have inhaled. But the companies report on only about two dozen kinds of restricted-use pesticides, which are not sold to the public, while not disclosing the use of unrestricted ones.
The most common unrestricted pesticide, glyphosate - sold as the herbicide Roundup — is 'probably carcinogenic in humans', per the World Health Organization, in 2015.

There is some uncertainty as to why the companies don't want to disclose which pesticides they use. Sylvia Wu, a former staff attorney at the Center for Food Safety, told Live Science that companies may be afraid they'll be sued, once residents learn what was sprayed. 'People are going to be outraged, when they find out what their kids have been breathing.'
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Maybe, now that they have some protective legislation, state & local Govt will start acting on complaints of spray-drift, rather than pretend everything's ducky. Hope springs eternal...
- terry

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Poachers entered a reserve in S Africa to dehorn & kill [or kill & dehorn, depending] their rhino, but the resident lions took them out.

Poachers Tried to Kill Rhinos in South African Reserve. Instead, a Pride of Lions Killed Them.

** not sorry **
The next morning, only scattered body-parts remained; the group carried auto-firing rifles, a silencer, wire-cutters to breach the fence, a chain-saw to cut horns, etc.
I DON'T KNOW WHY this particular reserve doesn't dehorn their own rhinos - tranquilizing them & removing the horn under anaesthesia all the way to the face, makes them useless to horn-poachers, & saves their lives.
The horns will re-grow; they are removed, DNA-tagged, & officially destroyed to keep them off the market. The animals are unhurt; it takes about 20-mins to remove the horn safely. It needs to be done regularly, for life. Otherwise, they'll have no life.

- terry

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