Tracking the genetic background of Sasha the Husky

Times staff writer Jerry Hirsch continues his chronicle of Sasha, a husky he encountered on a street in downtown Los Angeles. Hirsch brought Sasha home, only to discover that she liked to wander -- and that healthcare for animals who like to roam is expensive. Look for periodic updates on Sasha in the weeks to come on L.A. Unleashed.

Sasha the Siberian Husky has a story, but she’s never going to tell. Lacking any knowledge of what befell Sasha before I rescued her from Spring Street near my office a few months ago, I decided to learn about her breed.

Nearly every inquiry pointed me to a May 2004, issue of the journal Science, in which researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle reported the first extensive genetic comparison of domestic dog breeds.

The Siberian Husky is one of the ancient breeds that are genetically closest to the gray wolf, thought to be the ancestor of canines. Of the 14, the Husky is a member of a group of seven with some of the oldest genetic patterns.

But while Sasha’s genetic pool is closer to a wolf than other dogs, that doesn’t mean she acts like a wolf. Huskies will moan and howl, but that’s about as far as it goes. The breed likes to hang out with people, not hunt them. The Chukchi tribes of Siberia, the source of the Husky name, used the animals to pull sleds and had the animals sleep with their children to help keep them warm. After feeling Sasha’s lush coat — she’s a living Cashmere sweater — I can see why.

San Diego Zoo holds Great Ape Awareness Days

To bring attention to the ecological, political and economic threats to the ape family, the San Diego Zoo is holding  Great Ape Awareness Days on Thursday (Nov. 13) through Sunday (Nov. 16).

Specialists will be available to discuss the dangers posed to bonobos, gorillas and orangutans. The threats are major and not going away.

The last group of bonobos is in the war-torn Congo. The habitat of the orangutan has been dwindling because of the spread of palm-oil plantations. And the gorillas face myriad problems.

For a full list of events check www.sandiegozoo.com.

Tony Perry

Photo: Orangutan at San Diego Zoo

U.S. Supreme Court OKs Navy use of sonar

Times staff writer David Savage reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has had its say about sonar and whales:

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a defeat to environmentalists today and cleared the way for the Navy to use high-powered sonar 12 miles off the Southern California coast even if it poses a threat to whales and other marine mammals.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts said the Navy needs to train its crews to detect enemy submarines, and it cannot be forced to turn off its sonar when whales are spotted nearby. "The public interest in conducting training exercises with active sonar under realistic conditions plainly outweighs" the concerns voiced by environmentalists, he said for a 5-4 majority.

Roberts faulted judges in California for "second-guessing" the views of Navy leaders. "Where the public interest lies does not strike us as a close question," he said.

Roberts also questioned whether whales have indeed been harmed by sonar. He said the Navy had been operating off the California coast for 40 years "without a single documented sonar-related injury to any marine mammal."

The Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups strongly disagreed. They say studies conducted around the world have shown that the piercing underwater sounds cause whales to flee in panic. These studies said some whales have beached themselves and have shown signs of bleeding in their ears as a result of high-powered sonar.

Today's ruling lifts a Los Angeles judge's order that required the Navy to turn off its sonar when whales or marine mammals were seen within 1.2 miles of a ship. The ruling left in a place several measures to protect the whales, including a 12-mile zone along the coast where the Navy may not use its sonar. These were not challenged in the Supreme Court.

The Bush administration had urged the court to take up this case and rule quickly so the Navy could conduct training exercises scheduled in the next few months.

The Heidi Chronicles, Chapter 17: Heidi 'learns' to snarl

This is Heidi. She was "discovered" this year in the park by a pet talent agency; since then, she has embarked on a one-dog quest to break into the business. This is her Hollywood story as chronicled by Times staff writer Diane Haithman. And this is her “head shot”: That longing look was the result of seeing a biscuit just out of reach.

Heidi does not want me to write today’s chapter. She would rather play with her ball, as evidenced by the fact that she keeps bringing her ball to me in her mouth and spitting it at me as I sit at the computer. Or else she just stands there chewing on it; a German shepherd panting with a rubber ball in her mouth sounds a lot like Darth Vader from "Star Wars."

I must constantly remind the dog that "The Heidi Chronicles" is about her career, honey –- not mine. And today’s topic is something even scarier than Darth Vader sucking in air through that black mask: We are introducing the "snarl device," a Hollywood trick designed to make a good dog look b-a-a-a-d.

In previous chapters, we learned that Heidi, as a German shepherd, would need to learn how to speak in order to play the heavy-barking roles that are open to her breed: police dog, guard dog, junkyard dog. There is only one category in which typecasting works in favor of a good-tempered GSD (that’s German shepherd dog) like our Heidi, says her trainer, Sue DiSesso.

These days, says Sue, it is possible that more Labradors are being trained as service dogs or leader dogs for the blind than GSDs, but Hollywood still clings to the stereotype of the German shepherd as leader dog.

Animal rights activist convicted of contempt of court

Pamelyn Ferdin, an activist who has protested the use of animals in scientific experiments, was convicted of contempt of court Thursday for violating an injunction against demonstrations near the homes of UCLA researchers. Times staff writer Larry Gordon reports:

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John L. Segal, who conducted Ferdin's hearing in Santa Monica, scheduled sentencing for Nov. 18, according to a court clerk.

Ferdin was found to have violated an injunction, issued in April at UCLA's request, when she demonstrated in June near the Westside homes of UCLA faculty members and distributed fliers that included scientists' home addresses and phone numbers.

Reached by telephone Thursday, Ferdin said she planned to appeal her conviction but was proud of her involvement in the protests. She said the injunction covered other people and did not name her.

"I have every right to hand out the leaflets," said Ferdin, 49, of Agoura Hills.

Die-off of bats is linked to new fungus

Researchers have found a clue in the mysterious die-off of bats that has struck the Northeast -- a new fungus that so far seems to be present only in bats and in caves where the die-off has occurred. Times staff writer Thomas H. Maugh II reports:

"The fungus is in some way involved in causing the bats to starve to death," said biologist Thomas Tomasi of Missouri State University in Springfield. "They are burning up too many calories, at a rate faster than they can sustain."

Bat experts are not yet sure, however, whether the fungus is the cause of the widespread deaths or is simply an opportunistic microorganism infecting animals that have already been weakened by some unknown threat.

"Whether it is the primary cause or not, we still have to find out whether it is newly introduced or if there are other factors that need to be addressed," said biologist Merlin Tuttle, founder and president of Bat Conservation International.

The disease, which bears many similarities to the colony collapse disorder that has decimated honeybee colonies across the country, first appeared in a cave near Albany, N.Y., in the winter of 2006. It has since spread to at least three other states in the region.

The most obvious symptom is the presence of a visible halo of white fungus around the faces of afflicted animals -- hence the common name, white-nose syndrome. The affected animals become severely emaciated, often emerging from their hibernation caves in the dead of winter in a futile search for food.

In some bat caves, more than 90% of the inhabitants died last winter. Overall populations have declined about 75% in the affected areas....

Bats represent about a quarter of all mammalian species and are voracious eaters of insects that attack crops and carry diseases. A single bat can eat more than 100% of its body weight in bugs each night.

Photo: Al Hicks / New York Department of Environmental Conservation

One-third of fish used for animal feed

One-third of the world's ocean fish catch is ground up for animal feed, a potential problem for marine ecosystems and a waste of a resource that could directly nourish humans, scientists said on Wednesday. Reuters has the report:

The fish being used to feed pigs, chickens and farm-raised fish are often thought of as bait, including anchovies, sardines, menhaden and other small- to medium-sized species, researchers wrote in a study to be published in November in the Annual Review of Environment and Resources.

These so-called forage fish account for 37 percent, or 31.5 million tons, of all fish taken from the world's oceans each year, the study said. Ninety percent of that catch is turned into fish meal or fish oil, most of which is used as agricultural and aquacultural feed.

Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science and a professor at Stony Brook University in New York, called these numbers "staggering."

"The reason I find that so alarming is that it's an enormous percentage of the world fish catch," Pikitch said by telephone. "And fish are fundamentally important to the health of the ocean overall."

Forage fish are near the base of the marine food web, nourishing larger fish, ocean-dwelling marine mammals and sea birds, especially puffins and gulls, the study said.

Protections for trout upheld

From the Associated Press:

A federal judge upheld on Monday protections for wild steelhead trout in California rivers, rejecting an argument by forestry groups that argued the success of hatchery-raised steelhead has made the population sufficiently robust.

U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno disagreed. He said hatchery-raised fish are no substitute for wild steelhead.

Science shows that hatchery-fish can be beneficial, but they also can be detrimental to wild steelhead, Wanger wrote in his 168-page ruling.

Steelhead are listed as either threatened or endangered in different parts of California.

In a related claim, the judge also rejected a bid by Central Valley farmers to remove steelhead trout from the federal Endangered Species Act. The farmers pointed to an abundance of resident rainbow trout, steelhead that do not migrate to the ocean.

The Modesto Irrigation District had argued that rainbow trout are essentially the same species as wild steelhead. Wanger agreed with federal wildlife scientists, who have said wild steelhead are distinct and indispensable to the survival of the species.

It is the third instance in two years in which a federal court has rejected arguments that hatchery fish ought to be counted as part of salmon or steelhead populations, said Steve Mashuda, an attorney at Earthjustice, a nonprofit group that represented the conservation and fishing groups.

The groups pressing the cases say federal wildlife managers should assess an entire fish's population - both wild and hatchery-raised - when deciding whether to protect it.

Seven killer whales missing

From  the Associated Press:

SEATTLE - Seven Puget Sound killer whales are missing and presumed dead in what could be the biggest decline among the sound's orcas in nearly a decade, say scientists who track the endangered animals.

"This is a disaster," Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island, said Friday. "The population drop is worse than the stock market."

While the official census won't be completed until December, the total number of live "southern resident" orcas now stands at 83.

Among those missing since last year's count are the nearly century-old leader of one of the three southern resident pods, and two young females who recently bore calves. The loss of the seven whales, Balcomb said, would be the biggest decline among the Puget Sound orcas since 1999, when the center also tracked a decline of seven whales.

Low numbers of chinook salmon, a prime food for these whales, may be a factor in the unusual number of deaths this year, Balcomb said.

"It was a bad salmon year and that's not good for the whales," he said. "Everybody considers these wonderful creatures, but we really have to pay attention to the food supply."

Release of foxes signals successful comeback

Times staff writer Steve Chawkins reports that these are wonderful times to be an island fox.

A decade ago, the house-cat-sized animals were scampering toward extinction, with only a few dozen surviving at spots scattered around Channel Islands National Park. Now they're practically poster mammals for species revival, numerous enough that government scientists no longer have to breed them in the safety of chain-link pens.

On Thursday, one, then another of the relentlessly cute critters dashed into the brush of this wind-swept island -- the last of the three where the breeding program operated. The transfer, solemnly performed by a park biologist and the second-in-command of the Interior Department, marked the end of a $5.4-million rescue effort that started in 1999.

"It may be one of the quickest recoveries in the history of the Endangered Species Act," said Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett. "It's a phenomenal success story."

And all it took was booting out dozens of fox-killing golden eagles, bringing back the bald eagles that were nearly wiped out decades before and killing some 5,000 feral pigs.

For some animals, absence makes the heart grow fonder

Scientists have confirmed what poets have long known: Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Working with mouse-like rodents called prairie voles, scientists have found that close monogamous relationships alter the chemistry of the brain, fostering the release of a compound that builds loyalty but also plays a role in depression during times of separation. Times staff writer Denise Gellene reports:

The scientists found that after four days away from their mates, male voles experienced changes in the emotional center of their brains, causing them to become unresponsive and lethargic. When given a drug that blocked the changes, however, lonely voles emerged from their funk.

The same chemical is found in human brains, and scientists said the research could provide insight into treating human grief and separation.

"Whenever you form a pair bond, it changes your neurochemistry," said Larry J. Young, a neuroscientist at Emory University in Atlanta and an author of the study. "If you lose that partner, it has a dramatic impact on the brain."

Experts noted that human relationships are more complex than animal bonds and involve culture, socialization and rational thought. Thus, there may be little to learn from the depressed voles.

"When humans grieve they don't just give up and sit like lumps," George Bonanno, a psychologist at Columbia University's Teachers College who studies the process of bereavement. "They have purposeful behavior even when they are feeling lousy."

Still, Young said the experiment might help explain the longing people feel for partners who are absent or who die. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, might also shed light on why couples remain in relationships that are bad for them, he said.

Photo: Todd Ahern/Emory University

Number of Devil's Hole pupfish increasing

The tiny Devil's Hole pupfish, found only in a small, deep pool in the desert near Death Valley, has been teetering on the brink of extinction for years. In the spring of 2006 there were only 38 of them, down from roughly 500 in the mid-1990s. Times staff writer Bettina Boxall reports:

The reasons for the decline are unclear. But government scientists trying to reverse the trend appear to be enjoying a bit of success. The autumn count of the iridescent blue fish has risen for three years, to 126 this fall, the first steady increase in more than a decade.

Convinced that the pupfish problems are tied to a shortage of nutrients, biologists took the unusual step of feeding the fish. "It was not done lightly," said Bob Williams, Nevada field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "When you start to artificially augment a wild population, it is a sign the species is really in trouble."

The high-nutrient fish food, made at a federal research lab in Montana, is based on a mix given to Rio Grande silvery minnows in a New Mexico hatchery. The Devil's Hole feeding started last fall and continued over the winter and into spring to try to maintain an adult spawning population.

Winter is the most difficult time for the pupfish, and Williams said supplemental feeding will probably be considered in the coming months.

'Virgin' shark birth in Virginia

From our friends at the Greenspace blog:

The first time it happened, scientists thought it might be a fluke. A female hammerhead shark residing at a zoo in Omaha, Neb., had not been in contact with male sharks for at least three years and yet experienced a "virgin birth." She delivered a single pup.

But it has happened again, according to today's issue of the Journal of Fish Biology. This time, a blacktip shark, similar to the one pictured above, had spent nearly her entire eight years at either the Virginia Aquarium without any male companionship from her kind. And again, in what some religions might call a miracle, and what science calls "parthenogenesis," she produced a single pup. Using DNA fingerprinting techniques used in human paternity tests, scientists have determined that in this case, as well as the hammerhead in Omaha, the solitary offspring contained no genetic material from a father.

"It's reasonable to assume that female sharks can do this on occasion," said Demian Chapman, a shark scientist with the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University in New York. "I'm sure this happens in the wild, but haven't been able to prove it yet. There's no reason that keeping a shark in captivity would cause a fundamental change in the reproductive system."

Sharks have suffered steep declines in all of the world's oceans, either inadvertently caught by fishing nets and hooks or targeted for shark fin soup marketed as a delicacy in China. Some scientists have suggested that this may be a last-ditch way for severely depleted populations to reproduce if their numbers fall so low that males cannot find females.

Yet parthenogenesis, derived from the Greek words for "virgin birth", has limits. First, he said, female sharks can have large litters of young, but in these documented cases only produced one pup. In addition, the offspring have reduced genetic diversity, putting it at a disadvantage in the wild.

Parthenogenesis has been observed in dozens of species, in some birds, amphibians and fish. This asexual reproduction occurs when an egg cell is triggered to develop as an embryo without the addition of any genetic material from a male sperm cell.

Before these recent discoveries, scientists presumed that sharks reproduced exclusively by internal insemination. Indeed, some sharks can store sperm for months, but not long enough to be responsible for these cases.

Sharks are an ancient species, with origins dating back 400 million years. "On the face of it, sharks were the first vertebrates to invent what we call sex, penetrative insemination," Chapman said. "We can learn a lot from studying them."

Chapman is trying to rewrite the book on shark sex, often a brutal affair that involves biting with sharp teeth and sometimes death. "It's taken us a long time to figure out that a female doesn't need a male," Chapman said. "You couldn't blame them for reproducing asexually because the sex is often quite violent."

-- Kenneth R. Weiss

Photo: Blacktop shark. Credit: Matthew D. Potenski, MDP Photography

Supreme Court hears case about Navy sonar and whales

The Supreme Court appeared split Wednesday on whether environmental laws can be used to stop the use of sonar off the coast of Southern California, which environmentalists say is adversely impacting marine mammals' quality of life, even to the point of death.

The Times' David Savage reports:

The case has turned into a dispute over whether judges, acting on a suit brought by environmentalists, have the power to halt a government project because of its failure to carry out an environmental impact statement in advance.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper cited this failure by the Navy when she issued her order.

On Wednesday, she came under criticism from several justices.

"Is Judge Cooper an expert on antisubmarine warfare?" asked Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. "Isn't there something incredibly odd about a single district judge making a determination on that defense question ... contrary to the determination the Navy has made."

Justice Antonin Scalia said the law requiring environmental impact statements was "procedural" only. It did not give judges the power to stop government projects, he suggested. And Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that in balancing the interests, the judge did not give enough weight to the Navy's concern. He described it as the "potential that a North Korean diesel electric submarine will get within range of Pearl Harbor undetected."

On the other side, Justices John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter wondered how the Navy could know its sonar would not harm the whales until it had studied the matter. "The whole theory of the environmental impact statement is we don't really know what the harm will be," Stevens said.

The Navy said it is working on an environmental impact statement on its training exercises, but it will not be complete until February, when the exercises are scheduled to end.

Savage reports that the sonar emits a powerful sound wave in the water -- as "if we had a jet engine in this courtroom and you multiplied that noise by 2,000 times," said Los Angeles lawyer Richard B. Kendall, who represented the environmentalists.

Kendall said beaked whales, in panic, dive deeply to escape the sound, and they sometimes suffer bleeding and even death when they try to resurface. He also cited the Navy's own estimate that 170,000 dolphins and other marine mammals would flee the sonar.

The whale pictured here in 2002 offers a similar argument, when a beaked whale washed ashore in the Canary Islands after a military exercise involving sonar. Scientific tests pointed to undersea noise from naval maneuvers by Spain and other NATO countries as the likely cause of the mass stranding, the Associated Press reported.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Juan Medina / Associated Press

Young children and exotic pets are not a good match

This report from the Associated Press deserves the following subtitle: Kids, Don't Try This at Home

CHICAGO — Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter — because of risks for disease.

That's according to the nation's leading pediatricians' group in a new report about dangers from exotic animals.

Besides evidence that they can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs, exotic pets may be more prone than cats and dogs to bite, scratch or claw — putting children younger than 5 particularly at risk, the report says.

Young children are vulnerable because of developing immune systems plus they often put their hands in their mouths.

That means families with children younger than 5 should avoid owning "nontraditional" pets. Also, kids that young should avoid contact with these animals in petting zoos or other public places, according to the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The report appears in the October edition of the group's medical journal, Pediatrics.

"Many parents clearly don't understand the risks from various infections" these animals often carry, said Dr. Larry Pickering, the report's lead author and an infectious disease specialist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, about 11 percent of salmonella illnesses in children are thought to stem from contact with lizards, turtles and other reptiles, Pickering said. Hamsters also can carry this germ, which can cause severe diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.

Salmonella also has been found in baby chicks, and young children can get it by kissing or touching the animals and then putting their hands in their mouths, he said.

Scientists share Nobel chemistry prize... and, yes, it involves jellyfish

It may seem like a stretch but jellyfish are ...well... useful. They don't exist just to sting us during occasional forays into the ocean. Times Staff Writer Thomas H. Maugh II reports:

Three U.S.-based scientists will share the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry for their development of a green fluorescent protein from jellyfish that has provided researchers their first new window into the workings of the cell since the development of the microscope.

Roger Y. Tsien, 56, of UC San Diego, Martin Chalfie, 61, of Columbia University, and Osamu Shimomura, 80, a Japanese-born researcher who works at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., will share the $1.4-million prize for developing the protein that the Nobel committee called "a guiding star for biochemists, biologists, medical scientists and other researchers."

The protein can be attached to any of the 10,000 individual molecules within a living cell, allowing researchers for the first time to trace the paths of the molecules as they wind through the complex pathways of life.

Photo: EPA

Galapagos expels citizens as a flood of tourists threatens islands

There's controversy on the Galapagos Islands off Ecuador. Times Staff Writer Chris Kraul reports:

A few weeks ago, 19 Ecuadorean citizens detained on these world-renowned islands were marched onto a plane and sent back to the continent under armed guard. Their crime? Illegal migration.

So far this year, the government has expelled 1,000 of its citizens from the Galapagos -- a living laboratory of unique animal and plant species -- who were there without residency and work permits. It has also "normalized" 2,000 others, in effect giving most of them a year to leave.

The migrants are attracted not by the tortoises or blue-footed boobies but by the islands' booming economy, which offers plentiful jobs and good pay. Typical wages run 70% higher than on Ecuador's mainland, the public schools are good, and violent crime is nonexistent.

Last year, Ecuador was stung by a United Nations warning that the islands, whose human population has doubled in 10 years to about 30,000, are at risk from overcrowding and mismanaged tourism.

Priming the economy is the apparently insatiable demand by foreign tourists for a close-up look at giant tortoises, elephant seals, flamingos, marine iguanas and other species in their native habitat. As a result, scientists warn, that habitat is becoming increasingly less pristine.

Endangered turtles return to Monterey Bay

From the Associated Press:

MOSS LANDING, Calif.—Scientists say endangered leatherback turtles have returned to Monterey Bay to feast on jellyfish after nearly disappearing from the area in recent years.

Moss Landing Marine Laboratories researcher Scott Benson says marine biologists counted more than 300 of the giant endangered turtles in the bay this year.

Benson said a strong upwelling of nutrient-rich cold water this year brought greater stocks of jellyfish, which attracted the turtles.

Poor upwellings in previous years have sent the turtles elsewhere to find food.

The 70-million-year-old leatherback species is the largest of all sea turtles. Benson says the Pacific's leatherback population has declined by 90 to 95 percent in the last 25 years because of egg poaching and turtles getting caught in fishing gear.

Photo: Scott A. Eckert/Widecast

One-fourth of wild mammal species may face extinction

At least 25% of the world's mammal species in the wild are threatened with extinction. This news comes from an international survey released Monday that blames the loss of wildlife habitat as well as hunting and poaching for the steep declines. Times staff writer Ken Weiss reports:

The baiji, or Chinese river dolphin, is teetering on the edge of extinction and may have already joined the list of species that have vanished from Earth. Others are not far behind, such as the vaquita, a small porpoise that has been drowning in fishing nets in the northern part of the Gulf of California; the North Atlantic right whale; and various monkeys and other primates hunted by poachers in Africa.

Scientists have determined that about 25% of the world's 5,487 species of mammals face extinction. The proportion of marine mammals in trouble appears to be higher, with an estimated one-third under serious threat of being wiped out. Many are killed when they are struck by ships or become entangled in fishing gear and drown.

About half the world's remaining species of apes, monkeys and other primates face threats from hunting or deforestation to make way for farming, said Russell A. Mittermeier, president of Conservation International.

For a photo gallery of endangered animals, including the black-footed ferret, above, click here.

Photo: Greg Wood / AFP/Getty Images

Protecting your pets from toxic plants

For nature and animal lovers, pets and plants are natural components of the home.

But animal welfare groups are quick to caution pet owners to be careful about which plants to place in a pet's reach. More than 700 plants have been identified as potentially dangerous to animals, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

If ingested, some plants, including popular ones like lantana (pictured in the chicken at left) and oleander, produce a toxic substance that can cause anything from a mild case of nausea to muscle tremors to death.

Here are a few popular plants to watch out for, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Animal Poison Control Center:

Lilies - Members of the Lilium spp. are considered to be highly toxic to cats. While the poisonous component has not yet been identified, it is clear that with even ingestions of very small amounts of the plant, severe kidney damage could result.

Marijuana - Ingestion of Cannabis sativa by companion animals can result in depression of the central nervous system and incoordination, as well as vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, increased heart rate, and even seizures and coma.

Sago Palm - All parts of Cycas Revoluta are poisonous, but the seeds or “nuts” contain the largest amount of toxin. The ingestion of just one or two seeds can result in very serious effects, which include vomiting, diarrhea, depression, seizures and liver failure.

Tulip/Narcissus bulbs - The bulb portions of Tulipa/Narcissus spp. contain toxins that can cause intense gastrointestinal irritation, drooling, loss of appetite, depression of the central nervous system, convulsions and cardiac abnormalities.

Oleander (pictured at right) - All parts of Nerium oleander are considered to be toxic, as they contain cardiac glycosides that have the potential to cause serious effects including gastrointestinal tract irritation, abnormal heart function, hypothermia and even death.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photos: Oleander, from Los Angeles Times archives

Lantana, from Ryland, Peters & Small

PETA launches campaign over rats and frogs in UC Irvine class

Think the days of freaking out over animal dissection are over? Think again. The Orange County Register reports on some goings-on at UC Irvine:

IRVINE -– Animal-rights activists have launched an e-mail campaign aimed at UCI, where they say biology students are forced to pour poison into live rats' brains and cut up living frogs for study.

One day after launching the national campaign, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says 2,000 e-mails have already been sent to University of California, Irvine asking the campus to switch to a computer simulation.

PETA spokesman Justin Goodman said his group contacted UCI after a student complained in July that she was ordered to poison a rat in her biology class, or flunk the lesson.

"According to the student whistleblower, students drill into the heads of healthy rats and drop in poison to damage their brains, and then they staple that the rats' heads closed," a PETA statement reads. "After two weeks, the students poke the rats with blunt sticks in a crude attempt to gauge the brain damage the rats have suffered."

But James Hicks, who heads an oversight committee at UCI, said PETA was not accurately describing how the animals were being treated, and wrongly using inflammatory words like "whistleblower" to portray classroom instruction that had been properly reviewed and approved by campus officials.

Process to genetically engineer animals gets green light

The Food and Drug Administration today opened the way for a bevy of genetically engineered salmon, cows and other animals to leap from the laboratory to the marketplace. The Times' Karen Kaplan and Thomas H. Maugh II report:

"It's about time the federal government has acknowledged that these animals are on [the] doorstep and need to be regulated to ensure their safety," said Greg Jaffe, director of the project on biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.

Many experts, however, fear that the proposed regulations do not go far enough to protect and reassure the public. In particular, they argue that the approval process would be highly secretive to protect the commercial interests of the companies involved and that the new rules do not place sufficient weight on the environmental impact of what many consider to be Frankenstein animals.

Animals can't be treated exactly like drugs, said Jaydee Hanson, a policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety in Washington. "Drugs don't go out and breed with each other. When a drug gets loose, you figure you can control it. When a bull gets loose, it would be harder to corral."

The genetically modified animals have a variety of potential uses:

Some, like many agricultural crops now in use, are more disease resistant. One company, for example, has produced a cow that is not susceptible to mad cow disease.

Others are more nutritious or grow faster, improving the diet and enhancing farmers' profits.

Some would serve as sources for organs for human transplants, expanding the small pool of donor organs now available.

Others, called biopharm animals, would be used to produce drugs such as insulin, which are now manufactured in yeast or bacteria.

The full story here.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Pat Sullivan/Associated Press

Clones' offspring may be in U.S. food supply

Reuters has an update on the "cloned food" controversy:

Food and milk from the offspring of cloned animals may already have entered the U.S. food supply, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday, but it would be impossible to know because there is no difference between cloned and conventional products.

The FDA said in January that meat and milk from cloned cattle, swine and goats and their offspring were as safe to eat as products obtained from traditional animals. Before then, farmers and ranchers had followed a voluntary moratorium that prevented the sale of clones and their offspring.

“It is theoretically possible” that offspring from clones are in the food supply, said Siobhan DeLancey, an FDA spokeswoman. “I don’t know whether they are or not. I could imagine there are not very many of them.”

Proponents, including the Biotechnology Industry Organization, say cloned animals are safe and a way to create animals that produce more milk and better meat and are more disease-resistant.

There are currently an estimated 600 cloned animals in the United States. The small cloning industry and the FDA have maintained cloned animals and their offspring are as safe as their regular counterparts.

'Grizzly Man Diaries' airs tonight

Animal Planet airs its "The Grizzly Man Diaries" tonight at 9 and 9:30 p.m. The Times' Mary McNamara takes a look at a man who broke the bounds for society:

It isn't often you can say that a show on Animal Planet follows a great literary tradition, but "The Grizzly Man Diaries," which follows the adventures of Timothy Treadwell, echoes voices as disparate as Thoreau, Yeats and even Sam Gribley of "My Side of the Mountain." The desire to forsake the drudgery and pressures of civilization for the noble simplicity of the natural world has always tempted and tormented certain people.

But unlike Yeats, who never did arise and go to Innisfree, Treadwell did actually break the bounds of society and for 13 summers lived virtually alone among the grizzlies in Alaska's Katmai National Park -- that is, until he and his girlfriend, Amie Huguenard, were killed in 2003 by a grizzly attack.

Treadwell's death got a lot of attention, partly because he had been a vocal, self-pronounced protector of the bears (despite the fact that the land he camped on was a federal reserve) and partly because his final minutes were recorded on the audio portion of a videotape. Although, mercifully, the tape was never released publicly -- it cannot be found on YouTube, thank heavens -- the sheer awfulness of its existence provided such a coda to Treadwell's life that many who never heard of him suddenly began praising or condemning his actions....

Filmmaker Werner Herzog was moved to document Treadwell's life; his award-winning documentary "Grizzly Man" portrayed a self-aggrandizing, troubled man who, unable to find a place for himself in society, created an alternative existence for himself among the bears.

While "Grizzly Man" is a conscious attempt by Herzog to unravel Treadwell's psyche, "The Grizzly Man Diaries" simply presents excerpts of the 100 hours of videotape Treadwell shot of the bears and himself during his 13 summers in Alaska. The footage is oftentimes astonishing, the bears ferociously beautiful, but still the show is less a treatise on grizzly habit than it is an exploration of a man trying to find a solid center for himself.

Photo: Timothy Treadwell

Is there a new owner in the works for SeaWorld? Could it be PETA?

We know this is hard to believe, but we hear that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to buy SeaWorld. Yes, SeaWorld, home of sassy sea gulls and dancing killer whales. PETA swears it's not a joke and the San Diego Union-Tribune has the details.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to buy SeaWorld... The animal rights advocates said they have a donor willing to put up the bucks to buy at least one of the three SeaWorld parks – in Orlando, San Antonio or, of course, San Diego – put the animals in marine sanctuaries and perhaps return some to the wild one day.

The group wouldn't close the joint. Instead, it would replace the killer whales, dolphins, stingrays and other animals with virtual reality exhibits.

PETA is known for staging publicity stunts, including one in Ocean Beach last year where half-naked people put fish hooks in their mouths to protest game fishing, but it swears this is no hoax. Still, the group won't identify the donor. ..

The group saw an opportunity when news broke that SeaWorld's current owner, beer giant Anheuser-Busch, is poised to be swallowed whole by the larger beer giant InBev, a Belgium firm. Experts believe InBev will divest itself of Anheuser-Busch's 10 theme parks and concentrate on beer once the sale is final.

New protections for animal researchers

California lawmakers have adopted new protections for animal researchers. Patrick McGreevy reports from Sacramento:

On Friday, three weeks after firebomb attacks on UC Santa Cruz animal researchers and months after vandalism at a UCLA professor's home, state senators unanimously approved an emergency measure to strengthen laws protecting academics against violence and intimidation.

It would create a new misdemeanor charge for entering residential property of an academic researcher with the intent to intimidate or interfere with research.

The measure also would make it a misdemeanor to publish information on the Internet that describes an academic researcher or his or her family members, or gives the location of their residence with the intent that another person use the information to commit violence or make threats.

...

The home of a UCLA researcher incurred more than $20,000 in damage after being flooded by animal-rights activists who inserted a garden hose into the house. An incendiary device destroyed a car outside the home of a UC Santa Cruz researcher and a firebomb exploded nearby on the front porch of another researcher's home.

The attacks are believed to have been orchestrated by activists who regard the use of animals in research as inhumane. Lawmakers say the targeting of academics in such ways is intolerable.

...
The bill, AB 2296 by Assemblyman Gene Mullin (D-San Mateo), is subject to final approval in the Assembly before it goes to the governor, whose signature would make it effective immediately.

Earthjustice sues to list California pika as endangered species

From the Associated Press:

SAN FRANCISCO -- An environmental group sued federal and state agencies Tuesday in their continuing battle to list the mountain-dwelling American pika, or rock-rabbit, as a threatened or endangered species troubled by climate change.

The California Fish and Game Commission voted 4 to 0 in April to deny the petition.

Commissioners agreed the pika's environment of colder elevations in mountain ranges across the West is threatened by rising temperatures, but said they are working on a broader approach to protect all wildlife that could be affected.

The lawsuit seeks a court order designating the pika as endangered or threatened.

"The California Fish and Game Commission's attempt to bury its head in the sand rather than deal with the impact of global warming on wildlife is an embarrassment to our state," said Greg Loarie, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, which filed the lawsuit.

Earthjustice also filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday in a bid to get the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to act on a similar petition.

Photo: J. MacKenzie / Pikaworks

Octopuses have "arms" and "legs"

Octopuses' eight tentacles divide up into six "arms" and two "legs", a new study has found. Reuters reports on the study published by a chain of commercial aquariums:

Helped by over 2,000 observations by visitors, teams of aquatic specialists carried out a study showing that the creatures seemed to favor their first three pairs of tentacles for grabbing and using objects, Sea Life aquariums said.

"One can assume that the front six tentacles have the function of arms, and that the back two take over the function of legs," said Sea Life biologist Oliver Walenciak.

Unlike humans and some other animals, most octopuses did not appear to be left-handed or right-handed. Those that were suffered from eye problems on their less-favored side.

"People have always assumed that octopuses coordinate their ... gripping behavior through visual data. That seems to be true. When one eye is weak, another side of arms is favored," said Walenciak.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Aquarium of the Pacific

Dog tags made from Olympic gold

Although many puppies this week might be named Michael or Phelps, dog owners looking for Olympic-sized inspiration from which pet names have struck gold in Los Angeles now have a new tool on their hands.

The Los Angeles Times dog names database can be searched by breed, name, and ZIP Code, letting anyone who's curious find out what kind of dog shares their name, for whatever reason. But now you can find out what pet names have an Olympic connection.

For Mike Tyson, it wouldn't be such a surprise. There are 813 dogs registered under the name Tyson in L.A. And the most popular breed by far? Boxer.

Other Olympic athletes' names are lurking in the data.

There's a beagle in Northridge named Lebron, several Australian Shepherds named Nadia, five Flojos, an American Eskimo called Spitz and some Chinese Shar-Peis named simply Beijing.

No surprise, Kobe is predictably popular -- more than 1,000 named in his honor.

As for Phelps, though, the name on everyone's mind at the moment, there's only one: a Rottweiler who lives in Signal Hill.

Stay tuned, though. The Times' online wizards will be refreshing the database in a few months to see how that changes.

-- Clare Abreu

Photo: Frederic J. Brown / AFP / Getty Images

Debate continues on bombings of UC Santa Cruz researchers

The recent bombings of UC Santa Cruz animal research scientists reverberates once again in today's Times. Frankie Trull, president of the Washington-based Foundation for Biomedical Research, opines on the matter, doling out criticism of law enforcement's lax efforts to protect researchers and animal activists who use violent tactics in their efforts:

These attacks, considered domestic terrorism and attempted homicide, should be a wake-up call to law enforcement. Congress recognized the danger that animal rights militants pose when it passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act in 2006. This law gave the FBI additional tools to pursue animal rights extremism and increased penalties for crimes related to it. The FBI has not apprehended anyone since the law was passed. It needs to make these crimes a higher priority.

The Santa Cruz bombings are just the latest instances of animal rights terrorism, a nationwide problem, although there seems to be a particularly active group of extremists in California. The attacks have included firebombs lobbed at homes, letters rigged with razor blades, firecrackers placed in mailboxes and vandalism.

Animal rights groups sensationalize animal research by portraying scientists as violent animal torturers. In fact, researchers who use animals in their quest for new drugs and medical breakthroughs are human beings who dedicate their lives to alleviating the pain and suffering of both people and animals.

Last week, we told you about Times columnist Al Martinez's take on the bombings with a tale of his cat's confrontation with a mouse.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Shmuel Thaler / Associated Press

Amphibian deaths may signal disaster; also, Mediterranean fruit fly infestations cease in CA

Our friends at the Times' environmental blog Greenspace have a few animal-related items up today:

First: California declared a victory today in the battle against the annoying Mediterranean fruit fly, according to a story by Times staff writer Jerry Hirsch.

The 103-square-mile Los Angeles County quarantine is no longer being enforced and will be formally lifted after paperwork is completed in a few days. The California Department of Food and Agriculture said there were no remaining Mediterranean fruit fly infestations in the state, after determining them to have cleared out of Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Solano counties.

Second: The death of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians could be a sign of a larger biodiversity disaster, according to an article published online this week by researchers from UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University, Tami Abdollah reports.

"What makes the amphibian case so compelling is the fact that amphibians are long-term survivors that have persisted through the last four mass extinctions," the study found.

Above is a Yellow Dart frog, photographed in 1997 at the Santa Barbara Zoo.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Stephen Osman/Los Angeles Times

Could cat be next target of animal activist bombings? Times columnist asks

Times columnist Al Martinez relates his take on the recent bombings of UC Santa Cruz animal research scientists with a tale of his cat's confrontation with a mouse in his latest column:

Our cat Ernie killed a mouse the other night and I was terrified.

It is not the first time he has done in mice that have invaded our home, and now I fear he may be targeted by animal rights activists.

I buried the mouse in the dark of night in an unmarked grave and hope that the masked terrorists who attack homes with firebombs in the name of animal welfare realize that the rodent's death was simply the result of the age-old game of cat and mouse.

But just to make sure, Ernie has been entered into a Federal Feline Protection Program and works as a gardener in the Valley. They call him Gus.

Activists have proven over the years that they are not averse to threatening the lives of other animals, namely humans, to make a point.

Their latest attack involved the firebombing of a home belonging to a biomedical researcher at UC Santa Cruz. The house was occupied by a scientist, his wife and two young children when the attackers hit, forcing them to flee out of a second-story window.

Ironically, the man's research involved mice, fruit flies and other non-primates. If terrorists can threaten the lives of those who experiment on fruit flies to benefit the human condition, you had better be careful the next time you step on a spider or squash an ant.

Read the rest of the column...

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

Scientific review may now be endangered

The Bush administration Monday proposed a regulatory overhaul of the Endangered Species Act that would allow federal agencies to decide on their own if their projects would affect animals protected by the act (such as the bald eagle, pictured above), the Washington Post reports.

The proposal's move to eliminate the independent scientific reviews that have been required for more than three decades has prompted sharp criticism from animal activists, scientists and politicans who have said the Bush administration and Republican establishment have wanted to go soft on the law.

The Post's Juliet Eilperin reports on the see-saw of reaction:

In a telephone call with reporters, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne described the rules as a "narrow regulatory change" that "will provide clarity and certainty to the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act."

But environmentalists and congressional Democrats blasted the proposal as a last-minute attempt by the administration to bring about dramatic changes in the law. For more than a decade, congressional Republicans have been trying unsuccessfully to rewrite the act, which property owners and developers say imposes unreasonable economic costs.

Bob Irvin, senior vice president of conservation programs at the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife, questioned how some federal agencies could make the assessments, when most do not have wildlife biologists on staff.

"Clearly, that's a case of asking the fox to guard the chicken coop," Irvin said, adding that the original law created "a giant caution light that made federal agencies stop and think about the impacts of their actions. What the Bush administration is telling those agencies is they don't have to think about those impacts anymore."

But Dale Hall, who directs the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the move would not apply to major federal projects and would give his agency more time to focus on the most critically endangered species, rather than conducting reviews of projects that pose little threat.

"We have to have the ability to put our efforts where they're needed," Hall said, adding that individual agencies will have to take responsibility if their projects do harm a protected species. "This really says to the agencies, 'This law belongs to all of us. You're responsible to defend it.' "

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Andrew Vaughan / Associated Press

Condors in danger, animal researchers resilient despite bombings, find a dog park, and celebrities and their pets -- The Times' weekend animal coverage

This weekend in The Times, animal news abounds:

Margot Roosevelt reports: The California condor, a beloved but beleaguered bird, will be unable to survive on its own without a ban on lead ammunition across its vast western habitat, a scientific study has concluded.

Richard C. Paddock reports: Two firebomb attacks last week on UC Santa Cruz scientists who conduct animal research have angered and worried academics throughout the UC system, but the scientists say they will not be intimidated.

*Associated Press reports: Police don't apologize for shooting the two dogs of the mayor of Berwyn Heights in Maryland, described as an innocent victim in a marijuana smuggling scheme.*

On The Times' Outposts blog, Pete Thomas tells the fascinating tale of a woman who was attacked by a grizzly as she jogged on a trail Friday evening in Far North Bicentennial Park in Anchorage, Alaska.

Washington Post reports: Whole Foods Market has pulled fresh ground beef from all of its stores in the second E. coli outbreak linked to Nebraska Beef in as many months.

Home decor retailers face legal risks with animal artifacts such as feathers and bones from endangered species. Jeff Spurrier offers some tips on avoiding legal woes, including keeping proper documentation and being careful about online purchases.

In the Guide, Elina Shatkin compiles a list of off-leash dog parks in such places as the San Fernando Valley, Orange County, Palm Springs and Santa Monica (with a handy-dandy map to boot).

Want an encounter with a leopard shark? In Sunday's Travel section, Christopher J. Bahnsen advises you to head down the 405 Freeway to La Jolla.

And finally, The Times' Dish Rag maven Elizabeth Snead tries to answer a very important question: "Do Hollywood stars look cuter with puppies?" Judge for yourself after viewing Snead's photo gallery packed with more than 35 celebrities.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Chad Olson / Associated Press

*the first version of this post omitted the word "don't"

Best friends really do do everything together!

Here's a thought for those yawning in their chairs as the weekend winds down: Dogs are supposed to be man's best friend. And since best friends like to do things together, the conclusions of a study released this week make perfect sense: human yawns are contagious to dogs.

Times Staff Writer Denise Gellene has the details on the study published in the journal Biology Letters:

The study of 29 dogs was conducted at the University of London in two stages. First, each dog watched a male researcher perform a large yawn and then, in the control portion of the experiment, the dogs took turns observing the same researcher merely open his mouth.

Seventy-two percent, or 21 of the 29 dogs, yawned after watching the researcher yawn -- higher than the 45% to 60% rate reported in humans and the 33% rate reported in chimps.

No dogs yawned during the control portion of the experiment.

"Dogs are not only reading and responding but may be sharing feelings with humans," said Atsushi Senju, a research fellow at the University of London's Birkbeck College and one of the study authors.

Here's hoping the dog in the photo above doesn't reflect the girls' interest in reading (or lack thereof). If the study's theory were reversed, the dog could be a bad influence.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Douglas Bovitt / Associated Press

Research monkeys died from overheating in Nevada lab

Thirty-two research monkeys quarantined at a lab in Nevada were accidentally killed in May due to overheating, the Associated Press reports.

Officials for the Massachusetts-based Charles River Laboratories confirmed today, for the first time, the May 28 incident at its lab in Sparks.

The company said the death of the 32 long-tailed macaques in a single room of its quarantine facility was caused by human error in the operation of the room's climate control. No other primates at the facility were injured, the statement said.

The company told the Associated Press that it self-reported the incident immediately to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The monkeys were to be used for pharmaceutical research, the statement said.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Litter of puppies cloned from a pitbull

An American woman received five puppies Tuesday that were cloned from her beloved late pit bull, becoming the inaugural customer of a South Korean company that says it is the world's first successful commercial canine cloning service. The Associated Press reports:

Seoul-based RNL Bio said the clones of Bernann McKinney's dog Booger were born last week after being cloned in cooperation with a team of Seoul National University scientists who created the world's first cloned dog in 2005.

"It's a miracle!" McKinney repeatedly shouted Tuesday when she saw the cloned Boogers at a Seoul National University laboratory.

"Yes, I know you! You know me too!" McKinney said joyfully, hugging the puppies, which were sleeping with one of their two surrogate mothers, both Korean mixed-breed dogs.

The team of scientists working for RNL Bio is headed by Lee Byeong-chun, a former colleague of disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, who scandalized the international scientific community when his purported breakthroughs in cloned stem cells were revealed as fake in 2005.

Independent tests confirmed the 2005 dog cloning was genuine, and Lee's team has since cloned more than 20 canines.

But RNL Bio said that its cloning was the first successful commercial cloning of a canine.

Photo: Associated Press

Officials condemn attacks on animal researchers

Officials are saying the firebombs that struck the home and car of two UC Santa Cruz scientists this weekend were part of an increasingly aggressive campaign by animal rights activists against animal researchers at University of California campuses. Richard C. Paddock and Maria L. LaGanga have an update on the situation in Santa Cruz:

"Acts of violence and intimidation such as these are unacceptable, and they continue a troubling pattern seen at UCLA and other UC campuses that should be repugnant to us all," UC President Mark G. Yudof said Monday. "These acts threaten not only our academic researchers and their families, but the safety and security of neighbors in our communities as well."

City officials joined in harshly condemning the bombings and urged members of the public who might have evidence in the case to contact authorities. They announced a $30,000 reward, including $2,500 donated by the Humane Society of the United States....

Nationwide, incidents of violence by self-described animal rights activists have been on the rise, according to the Foundation for Biomedical Research, which has tracked such attacks since 1981, when there was one.

In 2000 there were 10 such episodes against biomedical research facilities, and in 2006 that figure had grown to 77, according to the group's website. In addition, the type of attacks has changed in recent years.

New population of western lowland gorillas discovered

There's good news and bad news on the primate front, as reported today by Greenwire:

A survey of vast tracts of forest and swamp wilderness in Congo has revealed a population of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas, an encouraging sign for the subspecies, which was listed as critically endangered earlier this year after its population was ravaged by hunting and outbreaks of the Ebola virus.

The Wildlife Conservation Society's survey findings were to be presented today at a meeting of the International Primatological Society in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The government of Congo Republic has designated one of the studied regions as a national park, but conservation groups warn the government has insufficient funds for protecting the park, especially as the threat of illegal logging looms as demand for tropical hardwood grows....

"Separately, a report released today finds that 48 percent of the world's primates -- a group of humankind's closest relatives that includes chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs -- face extinction.

Photo credit: Associated Press / Thomas Breuer / Wildlife Conservation Society

Bombings target animal researchers

The FBI is expected to take over the investigation of the Saturday morning firebombings of a home and car belonging to two UC Santa Cruz biomedical researchers who conduct experiments on animals. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports:

Santa Cruz police officials said Sunday the case will be handed to the FBI to investigate as domestic terrorism while local authorities explore additional security measures for the 13 UCSC researchers listed in a threatening animal-rights pamphlet found in a downtown coffee shop last week.

"The FBI has additional resources and intelligence into groups and individuals that might have the proclivity to carry out this kind of activity," police Capt. Steve Clark said. "The FBI has a whole other toolbox of tools for this kind of investigation."

The front porch of a faculty member's home on Village Circle off High Street was hit with a firebomb about 5:40 a.m. Saturday, police said. The bomb ignited the front door of the home and filled the house with smoke, police said. About the same time, a Volvo station wagon parked in a faculty member's on-campus driveway on Dickens Way was destroyed by a firebomb, police said....

No suspects have been identified, Clark said.

UCSC biologist David Feldheim, whose Village Circle home was targeted, performs research on mice to understand how brain connections form during development. Feldheim and his wife and two young children escaped their house on a fire ladder from a second-story window.

Teen loves the farm life ... and her goats

Steve Lopez talks to an 18-year-old goat farmer named Kimberly Barnes, who brought her animals to the Orange County Fair.

Barnes is a 4-H member who's also president of her Tehachapi chapter of the Future Farmers of America. She had loaded her seven goats onto a trailer back home, hitched the trailer to a Dodge Ram pickup with a diesel engine and a stick shift and driven to the fair on her own.

I've known teenagers who couldn't get out of bed on their own. ...

When Barnes arrived, her Saanen and Alpine goats could not have been happier. She checked their food and water and scratched their ears. "Mama loves you," she said.

It was a white Saanen named Kit that took Best in Show, and Kalani and Carmen San Diego were taking home hardware as well.

Barnes said she was thrilled, especially since it was her last competition before she leaves for Iowa State University this month to begin her freshman year. She wants to be a veterinarian.

Photo: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Rehab for brown pelicans

In the last two months about 130 young brown pelicans have been discovered, emaciated and ill, in a variety of unexpected places, from backyards to condo complexes to shopping-mall parking lots. Times Staff Writer Louis Sahagun reports on the efforts to rehabilitate the big brown birds, many of which have been admitted for special care at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in San Pedro:

"We're being inundated with as many as a dozen pelicans a day," said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the center. "We believe it's because pelicans have done well this year and produced lots of young."

Therefore, he added, "the high number of ailing birds is actually a good sign."

Dan Anderson, professor of wildlife, fish and conservation biology at UC Davis, explained the problem.

"A lot of these birds are basically starving to death," he said. "After three months of being fed in their breeding colonies, this year's young pelicans are beginning to disperse from their nests with enough baby fat to tide them over for a few months while they learn to fish."

But after a few months, Anderson said, the birds "use up all that baby fat. That's when they start showing up at rehabilitation centers."

The San Pedro center has admitted 20 pelicans in the last week. It costs about $20 a day to rehabilitate a pelican; most of that expense goes for smelt and anchovies. 

Photo: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Three new Malayan tigers at San Diego Zoo

Three 3-month-old Malayan tiger cubs are now greeting the public at the Tiger River exhibit at the San Diego Zoo.

Jin (whose name means spirit in Malay), Seri (bright) and Menderu (roar) have taken their place along with mother Mek. Each tiger has its own distinctive pattern of stripes, which makes tigers in the wild a hot item on the black market.

The Malayans, along with the other five species of tigers, are endangered. The zoo has an active breeding program for Malayans and Sumatrans.

-- Tony Perry

Photo: Malayan tiger cubs with their mother. Credit: San Diego Zoological Society

Six-legged deer and Santeria: your afternoon animal news roundup

• A six-legged deer found in northern Georgia has found a home with a woman permitted to keep unique animals in captivity.
• Police officials in Miami-Dade County, Fla., said their new handbook will include a reminder to respect people's freedom to practice religion when responding to calls about ritual animal sacrifice. The decision comes a year after police in Coral Gables raided and detained people at a home where Santeria practitioners were slaughtering goats, chickens and pigeons.
• Animal services officers in the Northern California town of Boulder Creek confiscated 38 dogs and puppies from a home over the weekend after finding "more dead dogs than we could count" and dog heads hanging from trees.
• An animal activist was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison for making bomb threats to disrupt animal testing at UC San Diego.
• And celebrity chef Rachael Ray has started a line of dog food based on recipes she concocted for her pit bull.

-- Tony Barboza

Photo: Associated Press

Ugly....but yearning for companionship

It's not exactly Tony serenading Maria in "West Side Story," but for all their homeliness toadfish also sing to attract mates. Randolph E. Schmid of the Associated Press reports:

OK, singing may be a stretch; it's more of a hum. But it turns out to be useful, for science as well as the fish (that's a toadfish at right). Exploring how their nervous system produces sounds is allowing scientists to trace the earliest developments of vocalization in other animals, including people.

Many animals communicate vocally -- birds chirp, frogs thrum, whales whistle -- and comparing the nerve networks in a variety of vertebrates suggests that making sounds originated in ancient fishes, researchers report in a recent edition of the journal Science.

The sounds of whales and dolphins are well known, but most people don't realize fish also make sounds, lead researcher Andrew H. Bass of Cornell University said in a telephone interview. He's a professor of neurobiology and behavior.

Photo: Associated Press/Cornell University/Science, Margaret A. Marchaterre

Another chance for wildlife near Mono Lake

Times staff writer Louis Sahagun returns to the Mono Lake area and discovers that wildlife is on the rebound in Rush Creek, a major tributary and "the focus of an agonizingly complex and decades-long effort to heal a vast wilderness devastated by Los Angeles' insatiable thirst."

Now, 14 years after the city was ordered to reduce the quantity of tributary water it had been diverting into the Los Angeles aqueduct since 1941, Rush Creek has among the highest concentrations of yellow warblers in California -- roughly three pairs per 2 1/2 acres.

"Restrict grazing and bring back the water and things really start hopping," said field biologist Chris McCreedy.

That's the good news. Orchestrating the restoration continues to be a challenging process for the Mono Lake Committee, a nonprofit group of environmentalists and concerned citizens organized in 1978 to save and protect a bowl-shaped ecosystem roughly half the size of Rhode Island.

Nonetheless, Geoffrey McQuilkin, executive director of the 16,000-member group, said he is often asked, "Why is the Mono Lake Committee still around? You got the water you needed years ago. Isn't Mono Lake saved?" His stock response: "We still have a long way to go."

Photo: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Good news for the wolves of Oregon

Things are looking up for the wild wolves of Oregon. Michael Milstein of the (Portland) Oregonian reports:

Biologists in northeast Oregon have confirmed the presence of Oregon's first reproducing pack of wild wolves since the predators were exterminated from the state decades ago.

State biologist Russ Morgan and another biologist heard the howls of at least two adult wolves and two pups in the predawn hours Friday in northern Union County, north of La Grande, Morgan said Monday. The biologists themselves were howling under a bright moon, trying to produce an audible response from wolves. That's a common method of surveying for the animals. ...

The biologists did not see the wolves but could tell from the howls that there were both adults and pups. Morgan estimated they were less than one-quarter mile away. "We could clearly hear a couple of pups at the same time. There very well may have been more." ...

The reproduction of wolves in Oregon reflects the resurgence of a species that once was the target of government-sponsored bounty, trapping and poisoning programs. An early priority in the settlement of the West was to eradicate major predators to make the land safe for livestock.

Biologists now recognize that predators have ecological value, although many people in rural communities oppose the return of wolves to the region.

Photo: Lenny Ignelzi / Associated Press

Rejuvenated Bolsa Chica wetlands flourishing

Occasionally, there is some positive environmental news to report. Times staff writer Susannah Rosenblatt takes a look at the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Two years ago, the saltwater oasis off Pacific Coast Highway was a desiccated oil field littered with drilling rigs.

Now, waters lap sandy shoals next to Bolsa Chica State Beach as thousands of terns squawk and flutter, jammed together in a wall of white feathers and gray chick fuzz.

With every spawning grunion and nesting sparrow, the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach are springing back to life, fulfilling the dream of conservationists who fought for decades to save one of Southern California's most sensitive ecosystems....

As the ecosystem changes over the next five years, biologists are anticipating that as many as 60 fish species will settle in Bolsa Chica. (Of 135 species recently observed in the restored area, 27 are fish.) Divers transplanted eel grass from Cabrillo Beach in hopes of providing shelter to the shyer species of fish, such as pipefish and surf perch.

Photo: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times

Inside today's Times: the Humane Society, salmon, wolves and animal rights

In today's L.A. Times:

Carla Hall profiles Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States:

In the four years since the 42-year-old vegan -- he neither eats nor wears animal products -- ascended to the top spot at the Humane Society, Pacelle has retooled a venerable organization seen as a mild-mannered protector of dogs and cats into an aggressive interest group flexing muscle in state legislatures and courtrooms.

Eric Bailey reports on vindication but no relief for imperiled steelhead salmon, steelhead:

A federal judge struck a largely symbolic blow for imperiled salmon and steelhead Friday, declaring that the state's vast water-export system is putting the fish at risk but rejecting environmentalists' key demands for change.

Tami Abdollah reports that protections for wolves have been reinstated:

Gray wolves in the northern Rockies regained endangered-species protections Friday when a federal judge in Montana granted a preliminary injunction to environmentalists, who had challenged the wolves' delisting.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials announced in February that gray wolves would be removed from the endangered species list after what they termed a successful 20-year effort to reestablish the wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Environmentalists sued.

The judge's ruling nullifies plans by Montana, Wyoming and Idaho to hold wolf hunts this fall.

And finally, David Savage reports on a setback for the animal rights movement.

Plague threatens black-footed ferrets

The New York Times reports that the plague may be threatening the few remaining black-footed ferrets in the country.

A [South Dakota] colony that contains nearly half of the black-footed ferrets in the country and which biologists say is critical to the long-term health of the species has been struck by plague, which may have killed a third of the 300 animals.

A much-publicized endangered species in the 1970s that had dwindled to 18 animals, the black-footed ferret had struggled to make a comeback and had been doing relatively well for decades. But plague, always a threat to the ferrets and their main prey, prairie dogs, has struck with a vengeance this year, partly because of the wet spring.

The ferrets are an easy target for the bacteria. “They are exquisitely sensitive to the plague,” said Travis Livieri, a wildlife biologist here who is trying to save the colony. “They don’t just get sick, they die. No ifs, ands or buts.” Humans can catch plague, but it is easily treated with antibiotics.

Mr. Livieri is working with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service’s black-footed ferret recovery team, the Forest Service and some volunteers to try to save the colony at Conata Basin by dusting prairie dog burrows with flea powder that kills the plague-carrying insects. Mr. Livieri is also working on a vaccination program, prowling the prairie all night to capture ferrets for injections.

Photo: Associated Press

For pets, overnutrition is a serious concern

Think your chubby little puppy is cute? Denise Flaim of Newsday would like to set you straight:

When it comes to our pets, overnutrition is a serious concern. And in many cases the problem is not just how much food you feed, but what kind.

As with any diet change or modification, first consult with your veterinarian or other qualified professional.

Chubby puppies may be cute, but they might very well be priming themselves for health problems down the road.

A 1997 study looked at two groups of Labrador retriever puppies that were fed a high-protein, high-calorie diet for three years: The only difference between them was that one group was free-fed, and the other was not. Not surprisingly, the Labs that were permitted to chow down without restriction were 22 pounds heavier on average than their moderately fed counterparts. They also had significantly higher levels of hip dysplasia.

Weight aside, puppy owners must also be careful not to fuel fast growth spurts: For a dog’s orthopedic health, slow, steady growth is best. For that reason, many experts caution against feeding nutrient-packed puppy food to giant and large-breed puppies, recommending adult food instead.

Adult dogs that pack on the pounds are also imperiling their health, and are at higher risk for everything from heart disease to diabetes.

For the lowdown on cats, read on:

Study says many coral species are threatened with extinction

Nearly one-third of the small animals that make up the most massive and elaborate structures in coral reefs face an elevated risk of extinction from global warming and various local problems, an international group of scientists meeting in Fort Lauderdale reported. The Times' Kenneth R. Weiss has the details on the endangered corals:

     The worldwide assessment of more than 700 species of corals showed that 32.8% were threatened with extinction, especially those that formed large mounds or intricate branches resembling antlers.

     Coral reefs provide hiding places and a habitat for 25% of all marine life and are a major source of food for the poor and of tourist revenue in tropical countries. Some of the threats are global, including elevated ocean temperatures that have stressed corals so much that they are "bleached" bone-white. A massive bleaching brought on by warmer waters in the 1999 El Nino resulted in a vast decline of the world's reefs.

     Corals also face excessive and destructive fishing and polluted runoff that buries them under sediment or bathes them in nutrients that fuel out-of-control growth of algae and bacteria. Compounding the problem are various diseases that kill corals when they are under stress.

Photo credit: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

Small research center provides window into global warming

High on a jungle hilltop, at a unique research center in the middle of the Panama Canal, scientists are studying three-toed sloths (like the one pictured), howler monkeys and jungle flora to better understand evolution and the practical effects of global warming.

The biological secrets being studied at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are more than just thesis fodder. Scientists say some provide clear warnings of a planet in peril and could provide clues to ways to save it. Chris Kraul reports in today's L.A. Times:

Barro Colorado Island was formed in 1911 when the Chagres River was dammed to help create the Panama Canal. The flooding formed an isolated refuge for thousands of plant and animal species.

The Smithsonian set up shop here in 1923, when the canal was under the control of the United States. Its continued existence was assured through the terms of the canal's transfer to Panama in 1999. Now, an average of 300 biologists a year from 15 countries use STRI's uniquely self-contained ecosystem to study animal and plant life.

"It's a precious jewel of tropical biological research," said Kate Milton, a UC Berkeley zoologist who has studied howler monkeys here for 30 years.

Photo: Max Planck Institute

Hawaiian Islands reef fish declining

Sharks, jacks, parrot fish and other colorful reef fish are quickly disappearing from coral reefs encircling the Hawaiian Islands, federal scientists reported Tuesday. The scientists blamed overfishing for the steep decline, which affects three-quarters of the species once commonly found on coral reefs, delighting snorkeling tourists and feeding subsistence fishermen in Hawaii's coastal communities. Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss reports:

Many of these fish, ecologists say, are key to maintaining healthy coral reefs because they keep reefs clean by grazing on algae that can quickly overgrow the stony corals and cause them to collapse. Alan Friedlander, a federal fisheries ecologist, said Hawaii still has relatively healthy reefs. "So everything hasn't collapsed yet," he said. "But we need to protect healthy reefs, because it's so much easier and safer to conserve now than it is to try to rebuild later."

The results of the study, the most comprehensive examination of Hawaiian reef fish, were released at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Nearly 3,000 scientists, managers and conservationists have congregated there to pore over the latest science and wrestle with ways to protect the world's coral reefs, which are in a state of steep decline.

Many prominent scientists believe overfishing represents one of the greatest challenges to maintaining and restoring healthy coral reefs.

--Alice Short

Photo: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times

A threat to wild salmon

Let us try to explain why you should care that tens of thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon escaped from their pen into an inlet off the British Columbia Coast:

If they survive, the Toronto Globe and Mail reports, they could threaten already dwindling indigenous salmon stocks. Provincial officials are investigating the incident, and the company owning the farm may face charges.

Environmental groups say the mass escape demonstrates the dangers fish farms pose to wild salmon. Strong ocean currents shifted a net holding 30,000 salmon in Marine Harvest's Frederick Arm farm site near Campbell River, pulling down a corner of the cage and allowing the fish to swim free, said Clare Backman of Marine Harvest. The company is not sure whether any fish were left in the pen, but it's possible all 30,000 escaped. ...

Jennifer Lash, executive director of the Living Oceans Society, said if the Atlantic salmon breed, they'll compete with wild salmon, whose stocks have already fallen sharply.

Stem cell treatment for dogs

Humans with a bad hip or shoulder can only dream about a cutting-edge stem-cell transplant. But for dogs, it can actually happen. Time Magazine reports on stem-cell treatment for dogs:

Blue leads an active lifestyle: she runs four times a week around an enormous park in her hometown of Memphis, Tenn.; she likes playing Frisbee and loves swimming. But one day last November, Blue started limping — which was odd because the German shepherd seemed fit and was only 3 1/2 years old.

"She wasn't recovering as quickly as normal from a trek in the park. I thought that was just a sign of aging," says her owner Twila Waters.... In fact, Blue had hip dysplasia, a fairly common and sometimes crippling degenerative condition in dogs and cats. The cure — a complete hip replacement — would keep Blue in recovery for up to six months.

So while Waters mulled the surgery, Blue's regular veterinarian sent Waters to see another local vet, Kathy Mitchener, who was trained in acupuncture, to treat Blue's pain. But Mitchener had a better idea. She offered a cutting-edge stem-cell transplant, a therapy not yet available to humans, that would potentially help Blue's hip repair itself. The treatment took just two days last January.

Mitchener had recently become certified to perform the stem-cell treatment, pioneered by the company Vet-Stem based in San Diego. She removed some fatty tissue from the dog's abdomen and shipped the sample to Vet-Stem's labs, where technicians used centrifuges to extract stem cells from the tissue. The cells were shipped back the next day, and Mitchener injected them into Blue's failing hip, where they adapted and developed into the healthy cartilage and tendon cells the animal needed.

Within 36 hours, Waters says, "Blue was moving well, and you could see an ease in her gait."

One cycle of treatment typically costs between $2,000 and $4,000.

Some species could be wiped out faster than feared

Scientists are now warning that endangered species could become extinct 100 times faster than previously thought. Their findings, presented in the journal Nature, say that up until now, we have dramatically underestimated the speed at which some will disappear. The Guardian has details:

The findings...suggest that animals such as the western gorilla, the Sumatran tiger and Malayan sun bear, the smallest of the bear family, may become extinct much sooner than conservationists had feared.

Ecologists Brett Melbourne, at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Alan Hastings at the University of California, Davis said conservation organisations should use updated extinction models to urgently re-evaluate the risks to wildlife.

"Some species could have months instead of years left, while other species that haven't even been identified as under threat yet should be listed as endangered," said Melbourne.

The warning has particular implications for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles an annual "red list" of endangered species. Last year the list upgraded western gorillas to critically endangered, after populations of a subspecies were found to have been badly affected by Ebola virus and the commercial trade in bushmeat. The Yangtze river dolphin was listed as critically endangered, but could possibly be already extinct.

We're spending more on medication for pets

It's a relief to know that, in this age of obesity among Americans, a new diet drug has emerged ... for dogs. Yes, we are spending more and more on medication for pets. Newsweek reports:

Next month this will change when Slentrol, the first diet drug for dogs, hits the market. Developed by Pfizer and approved by the Food and Drug Administration late last year, Slentrol suppresses a dog's appetite and limits fat absorption. ... Pfizer believes the owners of at least 17 million dogs will be willing to try Slentrol. That could be a conservative bet: about one third of the 74 million dogs in the United States are overweight (5 percent are obese). And, increasingly, Americans are willing to open their wallets for Fluffy and friends, spending nearly $40 billion on their pets last year, double what they did in 1994. ...

The FDA has approved more than two dozen new drugs for pets since 2002 alone. Along with Slentrol, Pfizer has a drug to treat motion sickness in dogs that's due out in August. Eli Lilly just launched a new companion-animal division, and plans to develop six drugs in the next four years, in part by reconstituting drugs developed for humans, targeting not physical but psychological ailments.

Some experts caution that today's pets simply spend too much time in the home, sleeping and being slugs and what they really need is a good run through the meadow, chasing sheep.

Photo: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Rating dogs for feistiness

A new study has found that little dogs tend to be "feisty," while certain breeds, like golden and Labrador retrievers, "are as mellow as their reputations suggest." Jennifer Viegas of Discovery News reports on the study that identified the most and least aggressive common dog breeds.

Although certain pooches appear to be more cantankerous than others, the study supports the old adage that "there are no bad dogs," since aggression is often balanced by other more beneficial attributes, such as watchdog skills. "Most dogs are a mixed bag of positive and less desirable traits -- just like people," lead author Deborah Duffy, a research specialist at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society, told Discovery News.

Duffy and colleagues Yuying Hsu and James Serpell collected basic and behavior-related dog data from two separate groups. The first consisted of members of 11 American Kennel Club recognized national breed clubs, such as The Labrador Retriever Club and The English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association. The second involved an online survey posted at the university's website.

The study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science, represents one of the most extensive of its kind and is the first to report replicated findings of breed differences in aggression, since both of its data sets led to similar conclusions.

Chihuahuas and dachshunds scored higher than average for aggression directed at both humans and dogs, putting them toward the top of the list. Akitas and pit bull terriers, which have "bad boy" reputations, mostly scored high for dog-directed aggression. When they did injure humans, however, the injuries tended to be more severe than those inflicted by the scrappy, smaller dogs.

Basset hounds, golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers, Siberian huskies, Bernese mountain dogs, Brittany spaniels, greyhounds and whippets were on the "least aggressive" end of the spectrum.

--Alice Short

Photo: Aaron Favila / Associated Press

A drop in the penguin population

University of Washington professor P. Dee Boersma fell in love many years ago with a flightless bird that does its soaring underwater. Looking at the penguin and chicks above, it's easy to see why. Now she's delivering some heart-breaking news about the focus of her affection and decades of fieldwork. The largest colony of Patagonian penguins, also known as Magellanic penguins, has plunged by about 22% over the last two decades.

Reasons abound. As Boersma explains in the latest issue of BioScience, these sentinels of marine health are being devastated by overfishing, oily pollution and even pressure from hordes of tourists. Read more from Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss at Greenspace, The Times' environmental blog.

Photo:  P. Dee Boersma / University of Washington

Scooping strange sea creatures from the deep

This feathery crab, scooped up from a depth of about 7,300 feet in the Southern Ocean, has a proper name -- Kiwa hirsuta. But scientists also call it the "yeti crab." That's yeti as in the abominable, and presumably fluffy, snowman.

The crustacean is featured in the Census of Marine life, and as Kenneth R. Weiss explains in The Times' new environmental blog, Greenspace, a vast project is underway to assign or validate names for about 230,000 marine species. Along with Weiss' report on the oceanic project, Greenspace offers up other animal-related news, including a report on gray wolves.

Photo credit: Census of Marine Life

A shakeup in birds' family tree

News flash: falcons and parrots share a secret kinship. The Chicago Tribune reports:

When a falcon swoops from the sky to seize its prey, no one would mistake the predator for a gaudy parrot. Yet the secret kinship of falcons and parrots is one of many surprises in a landmark genetic study of 169 bird species published by Field Museum researchers.

One likely consequence of the study in Friday's edition of the journal Science is a reordering of the field guides that many of America's 80 million bird-watchers use. "This is the most important single paper to date on the higher-level relationships of birds," said Joel Cracraft, curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who was not part of the study.

Birds' family tree has long stumped scientists. Many previous studies relied on painstaking comparisons of outward characteristics and behaviors. Genetic comparisons can tell a deeper story, so the Field Museum launched a five-year effort with seven other institutions to do an unprecedented analysis.

They discovered many cases in which seemingly similar birds were merely distant relatives and other birds long assumed to be unrelated turned out to be closely linked. The analysis showed that falcons are more closely related to parrots than to such other hunters as hawks and eagles. If true, the finding would mean that falcons do not even belong in the scientific order originally named for them.

Photos: Associated Press

Justices to settle fight over sonar and whales

After years of being tied up by litigation over using sonar that can harm whales, the U.S. Navy finally got what it wanted: a chance for the U.S. Supreme Court to cut the legal legs off these federal environmental cases.

The highest court in the land agreed today to take the case that argues the Navy should step up its safeguards when using sub-hunting sonar in waters fat with whales. Arguments will come in the fall and a decision is likely to follow next year.

The case focuses on training of aircraft carrier battle groups in waters off Southern California. Federal judges in California have sided repeatedly with the Natural Resources Defense Council and other conservation groups that want the Navy to take more precautions when using sonar, which can panic whales, dolphins and other marine mammals.

Although this long-running court fight has gained considerable attention, what's less known is that this legal action only covers a fraction of the Navy's use of sonar in Southern California waters. The fight focuses on the official testing and evaluation needed to certify that an aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships are combat ready. Other warships routinely ping the waters in training missions off Southern California without fanfare.

-- Kenneth R. Weiss

Photo: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times

Panda pregnancy and production

We need to catch up on some panda news. First, rumors abound in Washington DC that giant panda Mei Xiang may be pregnant. The Washington Post reports:

Did the rabbit die at the National Zoo?

Let's hope so: Zoo officials said today that a recent hormone spike detected in the urine of giant panda Mei Xiang may be a sign that she is pregnant again.

Or not.

Mei Xiang, left, was artificially inseminated in March with semen from the zoo's male panda Tian Tian -- a combination that in 2005 led to the birth of Tai Shan. The rise in urinary progestin is a good sign, zoo officials said, and may indicate that a fertilized egg is implanting itself in her uterus.

But it is also impossible to interpret with any certainty.

The mystery will be solved in mid to late July. If Mei Xiang is pregnant, she will have given birth.

In the meantime, we've got news on two tiny red pandas at Edmonton's (Canada) Valley Zoo. The Canadian Press reports they are "carrying the survival of their species on their furry shoulders."

A few things to celebrate at the L.A. Zoo

The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., or GLAZA, raised $1,209,011 at last weekend's 38th annual Beastly Ball. Close to 1,000 guests attended the event at the zoo, including  Zoo keeper Jennifer Gruenwald with “Grippy” (a gray horned owl); GLAZA President Connie Morgan, left; and Betty White, a long-time GLAZA trustee and host of the event's program. Chaired by Los Angeles Zoo Commissioner Kimberly Marteau Emerson, the ball celebrated the California Condor Recovery Project and the Zoo's role in helping to save the California condor from the brink of extinction.

--Photo: Jamie Pham

Animal activist group claims responsibility for van fire

The UCLA Daily Bruin reports that an animal activist group is claiming responsibility for setting a university van on fire:

According to the Irvine Police Department, a van owned by UCLA was on fire near an Irvine recreation center the morning of June 3, and an animal activist group claimed responsibility for the events through an anonymous e-mail.

The Los Angeles Animal Liberation Front sent an anonymous communique to Bite Back Magazine in protest of UCLA’s primate research.

The message, which was posted today on the magazine’s website, protested UCLA’s primate research and said: "It is unacceptable for us to see, hear, and know what is going on in our animal labs without taking action. For all of those affected you have the UCLA primate vivisection program to blame."

Nancy Greenstein, director of community service for University Police, said the department received notice of the message this morning, and a joint investigation with the FBI is underway. The role of the ALF in the van fire has yet to be confirmed.

Earlier this year, authorities investigated a fire caused by a device left at a house owned by a UCLA professor who conducts animal research. It was the second time the house had been targeted in less than four months.

The device was placed on the front porch of a house owned by Edythe London, FBI officials in Los Angeles said. London, a professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences and of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, uses lab monkeys in her research on nicotine addiction.

Leatherback turtles reaching shores all over the place

Californians can proudly claim a champion in the Great Turtle Race, an international event we told you about earlier this month that tracked the journey of 11 radio-tagged leatherbacks in the Pacific Ocean toward the International Date Line.

The first to reach the finish line was a turtle named Saphira II, sponsored by the Bullis Charter School of Los Altos, Calif. Turtle enthusiasts can relive the adventure by visiting the race's website and watching an interactive recreation using a rainbow of colors to differentiate the turtles.

But Saphira II and her competitors aren't the only leatherbacks making strides on the world's shores. The New York Times is also reporting that the creatures showed up for the first time in decades on Texas tan-tinged beaches near Corpus Christi:

For the first time since the 1930s, federal biologists confirmed that a leatherback sea turtle has nested on a Texas beach, at the Padre Island National Seashore near Corpus Christi.

Last Friday, staff conducting a beach patrol found turtle tracks and a few exposed eggs. They were thought at first to be those of a green turtle. But the eggs and the width of the tracks, more than 6 feet across, were later determined by a park biologist, Cynthia Rubio, to be from a leatherback. The giant turtles, endangered around the world, have until now only been known to nest in four spots in the United States –- with about three dozen females a year laying eggs on beaches along the east coast of Florida and slightly larger nesting populations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. There is evidence of nesting in North Carolina as well.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Scott Benson/U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service

UC Berkeley researchers targeted by animal rights activists

The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that 24 UC Berkeley researchers and seven staffers have been harassed by animal rights activists in recent months.

"What they all have in common is that they all work in animal research," UC Berkeley spokesman Robert Sanders said of the targeted employees.

In several instances, the activists have shown up outside researchers' homes in the middle of the night with bullhorns and chanting, "Animal killers." Sometimes they have scrawled slogans on the sidewalk in chalk.

On more than one occasion, rocks have been thrown through the researchers' windows and their cars have been scratched up. ...

The Chronicle reports that the latest incident happened about 10 days ago in Berkeley; a group of activists showed up outside the home of a researcher who studies the effects of pesticides on mice. Sanders said a rock was thrown through the researcher's window and a window at a neighbor's home.

-- Alice Short

Urban jungle threatens rare gibbons of Saugus

A self-taught expert on gibbons -- acrobatic primates with expressive eyes -- is now trying to find a new home for the 34 gibbons housed at a research center that he founded in the Santa Clarita Valley decades ago. The problem, Times staff writer Ann M. Simmons reports, involves encroaching development:

When Chloe the gibbon and her mate Ivan hear trucks rumbling along nearby streets and helicopter propellers clacking overhead, they dart and leap erratically.

Betty, Truman, Sasha and Tuk soon join the frenzy, along with 28 other apes. But the residents at the Gibbon Conservation Center aren't just monkeying around.

It's a stressful situation for them," said Alan Mootnick, founder of the nonprofit center just outside Santa Clarita. "They don't know which direction to turn. It's like they're trying to get away."

It's also distressing to Mootnick, a soft-spoken, self-taught expert on gibbons who has won praise from zoologists and who has published dozens of scholarly papers in peer-reviewed publications, such as the International Journal of Primatology.

Professional primatologists say the center is home to the largest and rarest group of gibbons in the Western Hemisphere. The collection includes Hylobates gibbons, the only non-human primates to naturally walk on two limbs; Hoolock gibbons, distinguished by their bushy white eyebrows; and Nomascus, that have fluffy light-colored checks that resemble sideburns.

But now encroaching urban development is threatening the health and well-being of the gibbons, which originally hail from Southeast Asia, Mootnick said. He is trying to raise funds to relocate the zoo-like facility that he founded in 1976 in then-sparsely populated Bouquet Canyon.

Check out a photo gallery of the Antelope Valley-based gibbons:

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times

Funeral for panda killed in China quake

Nearly a month after China's devastating earthquake, the Associated Press reports that the Wolong Nature Reserve held a funeral today for a panda that was crushed in the temblor.

The world famous panda center was badly damaged by the May 12 quake, but officials initially thought all 64 pandas had survived. They later discovered that two were missing.

Nine-year-old Mao Mao, the mother of five at the breeding center, was found Monday, her body crushed by a wall of her enclosure when the river behind it swelled with landslide debris. Today, panda keepers and other workers placed her remains in a small wooden crate and wheeled her quietly to a patch of ground outside the breeding center where a freshly dug hole waited.

Forty-seven pandas continue to live at Wolong, while one other panda, Xiao Xiao, remains missing.

--Alice Short

Photo: Chen Xie/Associated Press

Turning barn swallows into chick magnets

New research shows that a little makeup quickly turns the wimpiest of male barn swallows into chick magnets, amping up their testosterone and even trimming their weight. The Associated Press reports:

It's a "clothes make the man" lesson that -- with some caveats -- also applies to human males, researchers say.

Using a $5.99 marker, scientists darkened the rust-colored breast feathers of male New Jersey barn swallows, at left, turning lighter birds to the level of those naturally darkest.

They had already found, in a test three years ago, that the marked-up males were more attractive to females and mated more often.

This time they found out that the more attractive appearance, at least in the bird world, triggered changes to the animals' body chemistry, increasing testosterone.

In the 30 male barn swallows that were darkened, testosterone was up 36% after one week, during a time of year when levels of the hormone would normally drop.

-- Alice Short

Photo: Marie Reed/Associated Press

Working to save Tasmanian devils and whooping cranes

Catching up on a few stories about endangered species:

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, efforts to save Australia's Tasmanian devils are on the rise as the marsupials that are the size of small dogs near the brink of extinction because of a lethal contagious cancer.

The devils, unique to Australia's Tasmania island, earned their name from their hair-raising growling and propensity to brawl over carrion. Now, their violent behavior is quickly spreading a facial tumor disease. When infected devils bite each other's faces in scuffles, they transmit tumor cells.

Infected animals usually die within three months.

In the meantime, the San Antonio Express-News reports that more than 500 whooping cranes are living in North America for the first time in a century:

The birds' resurgence has boosted the confidence of wildlife biologists over the long-term survival of the critically endangered species.

Whooping cranes nearly went extinct in the 20th century because of habitat loss and hunting -- there were only 15 in existence in 1945. But the numbers have steadily grown thanks to concerted conservation efforts....

...More than half of the world's whooping cranes winter in Texas, where their habitat is threatened by coastal development and dwindling water supplies in the state's rivers. Natural threats such as disease and hurricanes also pose risks to the cranes' small population.

-- Alice Short

Tasmanian devil photo: Rob Griffith/Associated Press

Whooping crane photo: Kelly Overton/Associated Press

Pigeon population problems pooping out?

In today's This Week Ahead column, we catch up on what's happening in Hollywood--not with celebrities but with pigeons:

How have the efforts to shrink the pigeon population in Hollywood using birth control gone since announcing it last July?

Since August, some of the area's estimated 5,000 pigeons have been eating pill-shaped kibble known as OvoControl P from feeders on rooftops, making Hollywood the first area to try the contraceptive since it was given state approval in late July.

About 300 pigeons flock every morning at daybreak to eat up the contraceptive kibble, which contains nicarbazin, an ingredient that stops an egg from developing. OvoControl P has been registered with the state Department of Pesticide Regulation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and is approved by PETA and the Humane Society.

Laura Dodson, president of the Argyle Civic Assn., a neighborhood group leading the effort called Citizen Pigeon, said that they raised enough money from local businesses and residents -- over $50,000 -- to install five rooftop automatic feeders. They’ve also installed cameras to monitor the birds eating online.

After four months, the 438 pigeon regulars in one spot dropped to just below 40. Some through attrition, but pigeons are "just having less babies now," Dodson said.

The original date to reduce the pigeon population by 50% was 2012, but Dodson said that pest control and wildlife officials think it could happen within the next two years.

The pigeons are disliked in the area, currently under millions of dollars in renovation efforts, because of the messy droppings.

Italy, though, is taking a different approach on cracking down on the birds.

--Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu/For the Times

Oregon Zoo hatches a condor chick, loses another

The Portland Oregonian reports that the Oregon Zoo's California condor breeding season ended with good news and bad.

Tuesday, keepers celebrated the arrival of spring's fifth and final hatchling. Wednesday, they mourned the loss of another -- an ailing month-old chick that died during emergency surgery. Because California condors are critically endangered, each hatch brings the species closer to recovery, and each loss is keenly felt, said Shawn St. Michael, the zoo's condor curator.

Only about 300 of the huge, prehistoric-looking birds exist today. The chick that died had a tough go from the start.

The Oregon Zoo's program, which is off-limits to the public because of the birds' fragile status, has produced 15 eggs since it was established. The bird above will serve as foster father to the chick that hatched Tuesday.

In the meantime, the Associated Press reports that three endangered California condors were returned to the wild Friday after undergoing treatment at the Los Angeles Zoo for lead poisoning.

Photo: Michael Durham/Oregon Zoo

More same-sex couples -- in the albatross family

Those of us who live in California know we are in the midst of a culture war over gay marriage. First the state Supreme Court overturns a ban on gay marriage. Next, an initiative barring gay marriage gets enough signatures to qualify for the Nov. 4 ballot. It's enough to give the state a collective case of whiplash.

In the meantime, those who remain focused on the sanctity of marriage between and a man and a woman and the way traditional couples care for their children might want to read about the Laysan albatrosses of Oahu.  The New York Times reports:

Cooperative breeding, in which an animal assists in caring for offspring that are not its own, is often found in nature. But researchers in Hawaii have uncovered a case that is not so common, involving long-term pairs of unrelated birds of the same sex.

Lindsay C. Young of the University of Hawaii and colleagues studied a colony of Laysan albatrosses on Oahu from 2004 to 2007. These birds are monogamous, and both parents participate in raising a single hatchling.

The researchers conducted genetic tests and monitored the pairs’ reproductive success. They report in Biology Letters that nearly one-third of the 125 pairs consisted of two unrelated females, and half of these stayed together for the duration of the study.

The researchers note that for female-female pairing like this to occur, usually there has to be a surplus of females in the population. That is the case for the Oahu colony, which is young and has been growing by immigration, with most of the newcomers being female.

Perhaps one of the couples will get its own storybook, like the two male penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo that adopted a fertilized egg and raised the chick as their own. The book was titled "And Tango Makes Three." Earlier this year, the book found itself (again) on the American Library Assn.'s list of most challenged books.

-- Alice Short

Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

Taking a trip with the turtles

Watching turtles race across the ocean doesn't sound like the most dynamic contest, but a group of environmentalists and scientists begs to differ -- creating ahighly interactive site chronicling an international Pacific Ocean jaunt for leatherback turtles.

The 11 turtles racing have been equipped with satellite tags and are headed toward the International Dateline (or the middle of the Pacific Ocean) from nesting beaches in Indonesia and feeding areas along the U.S. West Coast. The race, which begins today and runs until June 16, covers more than 3,000 miles.

The leatherback is a sea turtle that's been around for 100 million years -- they have outlived the dinosaurs but now are dangerously close to extinction, said Mike Milne, Leatherback Campaign Coordinator for the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, one of the race's sponsors.

Numbers in the Pacific Ocean have decreased from about 115,000 two decades ago to fewer than 5,000 today. The Web site chronicling the race aims to raise funds for protecting leatherback turtle-nesting areas in Indonesia, organizers said.

"The decline of leatherbacks in the Pacific is an international problem that calls for an international solution, so our Great Turtle Race efforts to raise the international profile of this species are an important step," Milne said.

Dubbed the Great Turtle Race II, organizers include The Leatherback Trust, NOAA, Global Cause, Tagging of Pacific  Pelagics, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, and Drexel University. Eleven institutions and sponsors from America, China and Indonesia are sponsoring the turtles.

As the leatherbacks surface to breath every several minutes, satellite tags transmit data such as location and water temperature to satellites in space, which then transmit the data back down to computer servers in the U.S. 

"This data is combined with remotely sensed information about sea surface temperature, sea surface height, and more to build a comprehensive understanding of leatherbacks’ epic, trans-Pacific  migrations," Milne said. "Scientists and managers will be able to use this information on oceanography, animal behaviors and human pressures to develop innovative ways to conserve leatherbacks and other sea turtles."

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Scott Benson/U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service

American zoos seek to raise money for Chinese pandas

The San Diego Zoo, the National Zoo in Washington and two other U.S. zoos that have giant pandas are launching a fundraising effort for colleagues in the earthquake-ravaged region of China, home to a famous panda facility. The Washington Post reports:

The Wolong National Nature Reserve, in Sichuan province, was a short distance from the epicenter of the earthquake that struck May 12. National Zoo officials said five workers at the reserve are believed to have died in the disaster.

Two of the approximately 50 pandas at the reserve's breeding center escaped, though one was found, a zoo official said. There was extensive damage in the region, and staff members are living in tents, the zoo's website says. An appeal for donations has been posted.

Photo: Teh Eng Koon   AFP/Getty Images

Finding a way to help the fledglings

It's a common scenario in spring: You spot a baby bird on the lawn or on the street. Your first instinct is to try to find its parents or its nest, perhaps to move the fledgling or nestling to safety. What do the experts say?

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers a helpful list of suggestions for fledglings found by humans:

1. Look the young bird over for signs of physical trauma.

2. If it is seriously injured, take it to a veterinarian. If it looks slightly injured, contact your state's Department of Fish and Game for the name and telephone number of the nearest wildlife rehabilitator. The Camarillo Wildlife Rehabilitation organization has compiled a list of rehabilitators licensed by the state Department of Fish and Game.

3. Carry the animal in a small enclosed box, such as a shoe box, lined with paper towels. Poke a few holes in the top of the box for ventilation.

And is that bird really abandoned or an orphan?

Here's what Cornell experts say:

Nearly always, the answer will be no—most baby birds that people find are actually recent fledglings that cannot fly well. The first thing to do is determine whether it is a nestling or a fledgling.

Let the young bird perch on your finger. Is it gripping firmly? If so, it is a fledgling. The best thing to do, to get it out of harm's way, is to place the baby bird in a shrub or tree—somewhere above the ground—and leave it alone.

If the bird seems unable to cling well to your finger or to branches, it is most likely a nestling. Look around in nearby shrubbery or trees for the nest the bird came from. It will probably be well hidden. If you do find the nest, simply put the young bird back in it. If you can't find it, you can provide a substitute nest by tying a berry basket (the kind with holes in the bottom, for drainage) in a tree. Line it with some tissues or other soft material, put the baby bird inside, and leave it alone.

What about the fear that if you touch the baby bird, later it will be disowned?

"It's an old wives' tale that the parent birds will reject the baby birds touched by humans, because most birds have a poor sense of smell and wouldn't be able to tell humans have touched them," said Nicky Thole, director of Camarillo Wildlife Rehabilitation, a rescue group that Ventura County Animal Services uses as a reference on bird matters.

Courtesy of the L.A. Audubon Society, a list of local wildlife rehab agencies to call when you find a sick or injured bird is on the jump below.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Kevin P. Casey/Los Angeles Times

Monkeys control a robot arm with thoughts

Now that's a headline that makes you do a double-take to make sure you aren't mistakenly reading the Onion!

We won't be the first to express fascination with the remarkable monkey robot-arm study that has circulated this week, but let us fill you in: Two monkeys have been trained to control a prosthetic arm with nothing but their thoughts, transmitted through an electronic sensor in the brain, as the New York Times reports.

The video, above, from University of Pittsburgh scientists, shows a monkey, with its arms restrained, using, as some have rather sensationally called it, "mind control" to snack on marshmallows.

The results of the study were released Wednesday in the science journal Nature, but have since swept the media, prompting everything from idealism over its practical applications for amputees to fears of a takeover by legions of University of Pittsburgh-trained half-machine, half-monkey soldiers of fortune who slay for marshmallows.

While the footage alone is rather compelling, the research is not so advanced, as Knight Science Journalism Tracker's blog put it, that "docs can just patch Stephen Hawking’s skull and his robot appliance will pick up chalk and start sketching trajectories through the space-time continuum."

We'll give Nature a few more years to publish that study.

-- Tony Barboza

Goodall's plea to end animal testing in Europe

Jane Goodall and other scientists are appealing to the European Union to end animal testing in medical and other scientific research. The Canadian Press reports:

"We need to recognize at the outset that what we do to animals from their perspective certainly, and probably from ours, is morally wrong and unacceptable," Goodall said. Goodall, the world's best-known observer of the behaviour of chimpanzees, is a longtime campaigner for animal rights.

She presented a petition bearing 150,000 names to legislators from the European Parliament. It called on both the parliament and the EU's executive office to find methods of testing that do not involve animals.

Goodall revolutionized research on primates during the 1960s when she studied them at close range in Tanzania.

Photo: Yves Logghe/Associated Press

Clone wars: Readers speak out

Our item on the California company that plans an online auction to clone five dogs (bidding starts at $100,000) has sparked a rather spirited debate on the merits of cloning. What follows are some of the comments posted at L.A. Unleashed:

There are millions of abandoned and abused dogs in shelters that need homes. Cloning shiny "brand name" dogs is a despicable waste of time, energy and resources. Get a life. -- Tanya

My dog was found living underneath a stairwell. He's not a designer dog but is full of personality and life. A dog like him should be cloned. Frankly, I don't care how life comes to happen, it's a miracle that we can recreate it. Would anyone be willing to loan me 100k? -- Graham

It's not like your bringing back the same dog that died. It would be like a litter mate that is a lot younger than that dog. I think adoption is the more ethical choice with the over abundance of animals in shelters. Plus genetic failures are alot higher when done by means of interference. Costs will be alot higher also. People need to cope better with loss instead of trying to live in the past. Next thing you know they will be stuffing Grandma and Grandpa and posing them in the recliner and in the kitchen. -- John

I am so excited about this, I would do this in a heart beat if I could.... I would spend any amount of money to have another dog like my first show dog. He wasn't perfect, but he was my heart dog. I know all the animal rescue types are going to be whining about the shelter dogs, but no shelter dog in the world could ever replace my darling dog. -- Julia

Keep the comments coming!

-- Alice Short

California company plans to clone dogs

The New York Times reports that a California company is planning a string of online auctions to clone five dogs. The bidding is to start at $100,000.

Scientists consider dogs among the most difficult animals to clone because they have an unusual reproductive biology, more so than humans. But the company behind the auctions, BioArts International, maintains that the technology is ready, and it is calling the dog-cloning project Best Friends Again. (That's BioArts chief executive Lou Hawthorne at left, with dogs cloned from his family pet.) It has scheduled the auctions for June 18. BioArts says it has licensed patents issued in the 1990s after researchers in Scotland cloned Dolly the sheep.

BioArts also arranged a partnership with the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea. BioArts says one of the principal scientists there is Hwang Woo Suk, who in 2005 was involved in cloning a male Afghan hound. He and his Korean colleagues named that dog Snuppy, for Seoul National University puppy.

Photo: Associated Press

Wildlife society lists 12 animals most in danger of extinction

Fox News reports that the Wildlife Conservation Society has released a list of the "Rarest of the Rare," a dozen animals most in danger of extinction.

The eclectic list includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Some are well known, such as the northern right whale and Sumatran rhino, while others are more obscure, including Abbot's booby, an ocean-going bird that only nests on Christmas Island.

Others on the list include the addax, the angel shark and the golden arrow poison frog.

--Alice Short

Photo: Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times

Spotted owl recovery plan released

The Associated Press reports that the Bush administration has released a final recovery plan for the northern spotted owl that officials say could lead to recovery of the threatened bird in 30 years.

The plan outlines a series of 34 steps to halt the owl's decline, reduce threats and return a stable owl population in Washington, Oregon and California.

The recovery plan identifies the primary threats as habitat loss due to logging and catastrophic wildfires. Competition from the barred owl, a related species, is also a factor.

Critics said the report was an improvement over a draft plan last year. But they say it doesn't do enough to restrict logging old-growth forests where the bird lives.

The northern spotted owl is protected as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act.

'Meerkat Manor' -- the movie

Somehow, we missed this in the outcry over shark attacks, bear attacks and all things pit bull.... but Animal Planet plans to air the movie "Meerkat  Manor: The Story Begins" on Sunday, May 25, from 8 to 9:30 p.m.

The film, according to a press release, "tells the story of Flower before she became the Manor's famous first lady."

The movie, which debuted at this year's Tribeca Film Festival (!), "traces the transformation of Flower from a young, inexperienced meerkat into a remarkable leader who puts her family above all in the fight for survival in one of the harshest deserts on the planet." 

(Something about that makes us think of "The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleading-Murdering Mom" starring Holly Hunter ... but perhaps we shouldn't go there.)

Whoopi Goldberg narrates "this unforgettable tale of heartbreak and joy."

-- Alice Short

Photo: John Brown/Associated Press

The latest on insect communication...seriously

We know what you're asking yourselves as the weekend approaches: How do subterranean insects communicate with above-ground bugs?

No? Well, think about it! The folks at the Sierra Club have details:

A team at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology has just uncovered a secret bug messaging system in which underground insects emit chemical signals through plant leaves. The message? "Hey, this one's taken."

The mechanism (a product of natural selection, scientists say) prevents needless competition between root-munchers and leaf-eaters.

No one knows yet how widespread the insect communication network is, but one thing is sure: It makes cellphones seem so this century. Source: Environmental News Network

-- Alice Short

Photo: Dean Fosdick / Associated Press

Falcons under new toxic threat

California's peregrine falcons, once driven to the edge of extinction by the pesticide DDT, now are contaminated with record-high levels of other toxic chemicals that may threaten them again, The Times' Marla Cone reports:

State scientists have found that peregrines in Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco contain the highest levels of flame retardants found in any living organism worldwide.

Scientists said the peregrines, the fastest and most agile birds, are being contaminated with the industrial chemicals from eating urban pigeons that scavenge on city streets.

A half-century ago, peregrines, bald eagles and brown pelicans were nearly wiped out by DDT, an insecticide that weakened their egg shells and caused nearly complete reproductive failure.

The recovery of the peregrine, known as the bird of kings because of its prized role in falconry, has long been hailed as one of the nation's greatest ecological success stories.

-- Francisco Vara-Orta

Photo: Kim Hughes / Associated Press

Disfigured eagle to get a new beak

An Eagle named Beauty needs a new beak, according to Nicholas K. Geranios of the Associated Press. Here's the start of his report:

She has been named Beauty, though this eagle is anything but. Part of Beauty's beak was shot off several years ago, leaving her with a stump that is useless for hunting food.

A team of volunteers is working to attach an artificial beak to the disfigured bird, in an effort to keep her alive.

"For Beauty it's like using only one chopstick to eat. It can't be done," said biologist Jane Fink Cantwell, who operates a raptor recovery center in Idaho. "She has trouble drinking. She can't preen her feathers.

That's all about to change." Cantwell has spent the last two years assembling a team to design and build an artificial beak. They plan to attach it to Beauty next month. With the beak, the 7-year-old bald eagle could live to the age of 50, although not in the wild.

"She could not survive in the wild without human intervention," Cantwell said.

Read more about Beauty and the beak at Discovery News.

--Alice Short

Photo: Young Kwak/Associated Press

Baby birds babble for a reason

We know: The sound emanating from that nest of baby birds seems like ... chirping. But researchers have a different perspective. Randolph Schmid of the Associated Press reports:

The happy babbling that entertains parents as their babies try to mimic speech turns out to have a parallel in the animal world.

Baby birds babble away before mastering their adult song, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

Michale S. Fee and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied the brains of baby zebra finches as the little birds learned the unique song they would use as adults.

The baby birds practiced making sounds incessantly, the team reported. "Birds start out by babbling, just as humans do," Fee said, while the adult bird produces a very precise pattern of sound.

-- Alice Short

Photo: George Wilhelm/Los Angeles Times

"Robo Squirrel" aids animal researchers

If you find yourself strolling around the campus of Hampshire College and run into a squirrel named Rocky, all may not be as it seems. Stephanie Reitz of the Associated Press reports:

AMHERST, Mass. — One gray squirrel, its bushy tail twitching, barked a warning as another scrounged for food nearby.

It was an ordinary spring day at Hampshire College, except that the rodent issuing the warning was powered by amps, not acorns. Dubbed "Rocky" after the cartoon character, the robo-squirrel is working its way into Hampshire's live-squirrel clique, controlled by researchers several yards away with a laptop computer and binoculars.

It turns out that Sarah Partan, above, an assistant professor in animal behavior at the colleges, is hoping to "decode" the communication techniques of squirrels (and their social cues and survival instincts). We suspect the first communication that researchers will be able to translate will go something like this: "Bullwinkle is a camera hog."

--Alice Short

Photo: Nancy Palmieri/Associated Press

Chemical levels in dogs and cats

An environmental group has tested dogs and cats for chemical exposure and found some levels much higher than in humans. USA Today has the report ... So does KCBS radio in the Bay Area.

The results show that America’s pets are serving as involuntary sentinels of the widespread chemical contamination that scientists increasingly link to a growing array of health problems across a wide range of animals, said Bill Walker with Environmental Working Group.

A report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes the study and adds that some experts believe the study has flaws.

-- Alice Short

Photo: Los Angeles Times

UC-backed bill would restrict animal rights activists

University of California officials are backing a state bill that would crack down on recent attacks by animal rights activists targeting animal researchers' homes.

The bill, introduced by Bay Area Assemblyman Gene Mullin, would restrict public access to personal information of animal researchers, including names, home addresses and photographs, the Mercury News reports.

There would also be a criminal provision, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:

The legislation, AB2296, would also prohibit attempts to injure or intimidate animal researchers or interfere with their work, making such acts a misdemeanor punishable by as long as a year in jail and fines as high as $25,000.

UC Berkeley's Daily Californian quotes animal rights attorney Christine Garcia saying the bill would unlawfully censor the free speech of animal rights protesters.

But Steven Beckwith, UC vice president for research, said this legislation is necessary because some demonstrators have crossed the line of civilized protest and free speech.

"As a university, we really cherish free speech," Beckwith said. "So free speech is not the issue. The issue is violence. In particular, we don't tolerate terrorism."

The bill comes after a series of animal rights attacks at several UC campuses in recent months...