This month's Throwback Third Thursday (#tbtt) is a day late (so I guess its actually a Flashback Friday) and only looks back one day but for good reason: I didn't have time! The past few days I have been busy with the Genetics Graduate Student Association (GGSA) Spring Symposium featuring keynote speakers Dr. Bruce Budowle and Dr. Jeffrey Bennetzen. As Vice-President of GGSA, I was in charge of planning the event and it went GREAT! Our only criticism was there wasn't enough time for poster judging (but that was more of a venue availability problem than anything else). And what I am most grateful for, there was a good number of people who were incredibly helpful with set up and clean up. Amazing!
For the most part, I despise the concept of April Fools but this "prank" is one I could go along with. A paper published in Nature this morning proves the existence of dragons and predicts their resurgence due to anthropogenic effects on our climate. Basically, rising temperatures are taking us back to medieval conditions, which were prime for dragons. They should be waking up from "the Great Sleep" any day now! For the full bout of nonsense, you can read this article of "non-fiction" here:
Hamilton, May & Waters. (2015). Zoology: Here be dragons. Nature 520, 42-43
So follow in the paw-steps of a lion this Valentine’s day and show some affection (not just because according to a Today Show survey 52% of people would end a relationship because they didn't get anything for Valentine’s day – extreme – but because everyone could benefit from a little nuzzle). Don't think that just because you live in a big city you are exempt from wildlife. On November 29th a mountain lion was spotted in Beverly Hills, the second recent sighting of a big cat east of the 405 Freeway. Mountain lions call the Santa Monica Mountains and Topanga State Park, west of the 405, and the Angeles National Forest, north of Pasadena, home. This particular cat wasn't collared so they don't know if it's a State Park cat on holiday or if it's a cat that has a knack for keeping cryptic in the fancy digs of 90210. Although the sighting was originally a tweet made by a Beverly Hills local (right), I was made aware of this sighting from a post on the Urban Carnivores Facebook page. Urban Carnivores is a website dedicated to keeping people informed on the carnivores you might run into in Los Angeles and Ventura counties with up-to-date news and the latest in local scientific research on mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, etc. The fact there is a need for this type of website goes to show you need to stay alert wherever you are. So, keep in mind, though you may be somewhere urban, there may be something wild lurking around the corner and wild will not give way urban so step aside. Some interesting news on the African lion front.... On October 27, 2014, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed listing the lion as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act – a similar listing to the current International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) listing of “vulnerable”. The curious thing is that, for the most part, both sides, the activists and the hunting community, are considering this to be a win. The activists get some regulation but the hunters don’t get so much that they're banned. It will be interesting to see how it will all play out in the long run.
Prior to this decision the lion wasn’t listed under the USFWS Endangered Species Act at all; meaning, there were no US government mandated regulations for the species. Interestingly enough, however, USFWS recognizes African lion sub-species, a designation debated by many scientists and policy makers (especially since the discovery that the distinguishable fluffy mane of the Cape lion, thought to be an extinct sub-species, is simply a morphological result of colder weather, i.e. any lion can become a fluffy Cape lion if it’s chilly). Over the years, scientists have given 23 different scientific names to the African lion. Currently the IUCN Red List recognizes only the African and Asiatic sub-species while the Catalog of Life recognizes eleven sub-species (listed below) and USFWS recognizes four. According to the USFWS website, the new “threatened” designation only applies to Panthera leo ssp. leo. Panthera leo persica, the Asiatic lion, has been “endangered” since 1970 but Panthera leo ssp. melanochaita and Panthera leo ssp senegalensis remain “not listed”. Panthera leo ssp. leo is considered to be all lions on the African continent by IUCN but is considered to be the extinct North African Barbary lion in other circles. In the case of USFWS, it could be that Panthera leo ssp. leo is simply a new distinction which will encompass all African lions, as it does for IUCN, and they just haven’t removed Panthera leo ssp. melanochaita and Panthera leo ssp senegalensis from their list yet. Either way, some kind of agreement across organizations needs to happen if we think any kind of international/interorganization regulation is going to happen.
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