Showing posts with label London Zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London Zoo. Show all posts
Hello, all my lovely readers!

My apologies for not posting last week but it was my birthday on the 2nd February and so in true London style, I stretched it out to a week of celebration! 
Amazing news also I am officially a ZSL Seasonal Presenter at London Zoo so come and visit me this summer and watch out for my twitter!
Now let's get our weekly dose of Science in the City!



Lurking in the very depths of wastewater is a predator that has bacterial infections running for the hills - Micavibrio aeruginosavorus. This predator is ‘the vampire’ bacteria. Micavibrio aeruginosavorus attaches to its prey externally and then leeches of the victim's nutrients. This parasitic predator could be our greatest biological weapon in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  Could this predatory species be our saving grace?

Micavibrio aeruginosavorus is a gram-negative obligate bacterial predator that feeds by being an ectoparasite (see image above: predator in yellow and bacteria in pink). Normally bacteria gain all their nutrients essential for survival and growth directly from their environment, however, this bacteria is unable to gain several proteins through either imports or their environment. Very similar to us in this manner, the only way to get the essential nutrients needed would be to consume others and gain it from them. M. aeruginosavorus kills its prey differently to other predatory bacteria such as Bdellovibrio bacterivorous. Bacteria from the Bdellovibrio genus bind to the surface of their victims and enter the periplasm of the bacteria, once inside Bdellovibrio consumes its prey’s nutrients and multiplies. When the preys nutrients have been exhausted, Bdellovibrio causes the bacteria to burst and moves onto its next victim. Micavibrio, on the other hand, kills its victims in a way that mirrors the sci-fi horrors of vampires. This predator attaches onto the surface of its victim and then ‘bleeds’ it dry!  This results in the ectoparasite growing in size.

Predatory bacteria have been shown to attack a wide range of bacteria, however, Micavibrio aeruginosavorus shows a strong preference to Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Bacteria from the Pseudomonas genus are known to cause infections of the blood as well as trigger pneumonia, as such infection can prove to be fatal. With the rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria, novel treatments must be explored.

A group of researchers evaluated the ability of M. aeruginosavorus to locate and destroy different strains of pathogenic bacteria. In order to test the effectiveness for this bacteria, they planted the M. aeruginosavorus on a ‘lawn’ of prey cells and then measured the ‘lytic halo’, this is the area where pathogenic bacteria is absent. Results looked promising when carried out on Petri dishes, however, when this treatment was carried out in animal models with the bacteria injected either intravenously or delivered via the respiratory system the results were not as promising.

A predators potential for avoiding a medical armageddon:

Using a natural predator as a way of dealing with prey populations is not new, in fact, it is being carried out on a regular basis - just on a larger scale. Predatory bacteria such as M.aeruginosavorus comes with some potential advantages if we could get it to work with us:

They are fussy eaters. Initially, this came as a problem as scientists preferred a predator that would ‘eat’ a wide range of bacteria as opposed to a specific species of bacteria.  However, this proves beneficial if these bacteria become a part of clinical practice. M. aeruginosavorus eats ‘pathogenic’ bacteria - bacteria that cause infections.  Not all bacteria is bad, in fact, without our healthy gut bacteria, things would go very, very wrong. Being a fussy eater means that our healthy gut bacteria are safe from being eaten.

A low and concentrated dose of a bacterial killer. Because species belonging to Micavibrio go straight for their selected prey species, a low initial dose would be all that is needed to rid the body of its bacterial infection.

Resistance, not such a problem. The relationship displayed by  M. aeruginosavorus and Pseudomonas aerguinosa, for instance, is a classic predatory-prey relationship. As a cause of this relationship resistance to being eaten is a lot trickier to evolve for the prey species because it is also in the predators best interest to evolve ways to get around it and eat them anyway!

Predators are determined to get to their food. In the case of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, this bacteria secretes a thick mucus that normally proves too great a barrier for antibiotics to penetrate, a barrier that is penetrated by M. aeruginosavorus.


In preparation for this post, I gathered sources of information from a range of sources and enjoyed reading through the comments left by other readers. One gentleman left a comment highlighting the similarities between using predatory bacteria and bacteriophages (image above). I remember my dad talking to me about this once before and decided to investigate further.

Bacteriophages are another type of bacterial predator but are not bacteria themselves they are actually viruses. These viruses invade a bacterial cell and disrupt the bacteria’s machinery eventually leading to cell death. These remarkable naturally occurring bacteria killers are able to penetrate much deeper to where the infection has spread and they stop replicating once they are no longer needed. Bacteriophages have been used in certain countries as a form of treatment since the Iron Curtain! As to why it is not available in the West could be due to things such as public reluctance to believe that a virus could be helpful, and there is actually no money to be made in pushing this forward.

Overall naturally occurring bacterial predators as a way of managing future bacterial infections is most definitely exciting. However, there is still a way to go before human trials could even be considered.

I hope you have all learned something today guys. Just to let you know keep an eye out for my post this Valentine's day! Next week's post will be published on Valentine's day and not Friday and I have a real treat for you romantics and bachelors!

Until next week you wonderful lot

Science in the City
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Topaz

Greetings everybody,

I hope you have had a lovely week and I bet you are all extremely happy that it is finally Friday! On Monday BBC Horizon  showed a controversial and thought provoking documentary on 'Should we close our zoos?'. As expected of BBC it included a range of different viewpoints, but, what was perhaps the most interesting were the views held by myself and you guys. In todays post, I am going to delve a little bit deeper into some of the themes shown in the documentary. Enjoy.

Is animal welfare a priority for zoos? 


It is one of the biggest ethical questions surrounding these institutions, are zoos providing all captive animals the relevant care to satisfy their biological needs? Easier said than done. As more studies are carried out the requirements of each animal become more comprehensive and complex for the zoos to incorporate. Surely, captive populations of animals still benefit regardless on whether all welfare issues are met? Not in the case of captive elephants. Amazingly the longevity of captive elephants is half that of their wild counterparts. Clearly there is a mismatch between what the wild offers and what the zoo can provide, so should zoos continue to keep them?

Detroit Zoo was featured in the documentary as they had to answer that exact question in regards to their two Indian elephants. Captive elephants often suffer from stress and obesity, the excess weight places extra pressure on their sensitive feet causing the onset of chronic arthritis, the Detroit elephants were no exception. Unable to continue on knowing that their elephants were experiencing severe discomfort they relocated both elephants to a sanctuary! 

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Phenomena such as stereotypical behaviour is widespread among captive populations but is commonly seen in the carnivores. 80% of captive carnivores display such behaviour including head swaying, head banging and pacing all of which are thought to originate from stress and boredom. Pacing is the most common, the manifestations of such behaviour are used as indicators for poor animal welfare. Zoos have incorporated enrichment programmes in order to reduce such behaviours and for the animals to carry out behaviours they would do in the wild, these range such as a climbing pole, or tying meat onto a zip wire to initiate chasing behaviour. 




What zoos do when they have to many animals and limited space? 


Surplus animals. It was an inevitability, after all animals are driven by two things: survival and sex. Needless to say captive animals do not need to invest too much energy in survival, so they turn to  breeding if these animals have no contraceptive measures in place then a problem is bound to happen. 

For this part of the documentary, we were invited to look at how Copenhagen zoo dealt with its surplus animals, and the methods were very, very surprising. Copenhagen received heavy criticism when a video was posted on youtube. The video shows a dead two year old giraffe with a single bullet hole to the head- shot by one of the zookeepers. This same giraffe was then dissected publicly for education purposes and the carcass was used to feed the lions. My first reaction was shock, a  reaction that would have been mirrored by the public, then I began to think about it. They explained their reasoning. They can only sustain a certain number of giraffes, sadly they surpassed that number. This individual was chosen based on its genes that were already well represented in captive giraffe populations. Genetic diversity is crucial in deciding what animal is culled, this is because the levels of genetic diversity within a species positively correlates with species survival rates. 


Sad as it may be, this choice comes down to the principles of economics. We have limited resources and too many individuals therefore, you select the individuals that would better benefit the continuation of the species. Using the carcass for the feeding of the lions may seem barbaric, but is it? Giraffes are a natural prey source for lions. Is this an extreme source of recycling? We have a carcass and mouths to feed so, why not give it to the carnivores. There were rumours claiming that another zoo was willing to pay a large sum of money to re-home the giraffe?? 


Can zoos rise to the next greatest challenge, the sixth mass extinction? 


For those who read my blog ‘On the origin of The Walking Dead’ you will know we are fast approaching the next mass extinction event. Every zoo shares the common goal of  education and conservation. Zoos aim to conserve species by maintaining captive populations, in case they need to establish wild populations in the future. But do they work? Captive animals being released into the wild have had very mixed outcomes. Failures of such operations come down to the individual being unable to adapt to its ‘new environment’ such as inability to find food or water. However, when these programmes go right, it is a real celebration such as the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park! Successful reintroductions are far and few between. It begs the question that if a majority of the animals in captivity are unable to thrive in their natural environments, are zoos as actively engaged in conservation as they let on to be? 


Reintroduction is the end result of a successful captive breeding programme. In many cases, the stage of reintroduction to establish wild populations have failed. There is no better example of this than the White Horn Rhino. In a story that began in 1975, hopes were high for bringing this iconic species back from the brink of their extinction. The project saw one disaster after another. Many female rhinos became infertile and this resulted in just 5 white rhinos in captivity. Zoo keepers involved in this project expressed the lessons learned, but as I watched Liz Bronnin petting and walking alongside one of the last white rhinos, it was clear how much is on the line. 


Have we peer pressured zoos? 


A key theme presented on ‘Should We Close Our Zoos?’ was who are the zoos prioritising? the animals or the public?  What really surprised me was when Liz told us that 90% of the species that we see in our zoos are not actually endangered! It begs the question, how are zoos helping to conserve endangered species, when the species benefitting from their continued round the clock care are not themselves endangered? 

Think about it, are we the reason why we see certain species in zoos, regardless of  whether they are endangered? When you think of the zoo, your mind instantly goes to the most charismatic species such as the ambassadors for Africa: the Lions, African elephants and so on or perhaps you cast your mind to the forests of India and Bengal Tigers spring to your mind. These species get you to the zoos gates, once there our imagination broadens we suddenly want to see all the other animals on offer: the massive tarantulas, the lesser primates or perhaps the huge Anacondas.  



However, carnivores may be the big money makers, but they are also the ones who suffer the most from captive stereotypic behaviours. Zoos are aware of such things, however they show a reluctance to letting go of their A-list species. Detroit Zoo was heavily scrutinised by other zoos when they sent their elephants away! They said that the elephants brought in a lot of revenue, revenue that can be used for overseas conservation projects and without them they will suffer. They didn’t. Going to the zoo, we do not want to see stressed out animals but are we prepared for zoos to only have species inside of it that they can ensure high standards of animal welfare? Tricky. 



Summing it all up guys...

Like I said before I am Pro- Zoo, because when they are  managed correctly and by people who care about them, they play a vital role. So do I believe that zoos are a dying breed? No! Modern Zoos have had a rocky past, but that does not determine their future. Welfare has never been more in the spotlight. Many zoos now have a dedicated and educated team of: zookeepers, veterinarians and field conservationists. It is all about the next generation, and what better way to inspire these to care even if it is for a day or a week about the conservation of these amazing animals? I do believe that seeing animals in real life and not through a digital medium has the ability to awaken a hidden passion in individuals. Whether it be just how tall a giraffe is or how colourful those tropical frogs are or how amazing a male lion actually is. It may not inspire every child, but for those it does Zoos are needed.  


Zoos are changing, they are incorporating a species habitat more and more into their enclosure design, and dedicated zookeepers continue to strive for the welfare of their animals. At the moment only 3% of a Zoos annual revenues goes onto overseas conservation projects perhaps that will increase as time goes on. 
In the meantime, have a look at Tiger enrichment at ZSL: 



Alright guys, that raps it up please if you can watch the documentary on BBC iPlayer and tell me what you thought!

Have an amazing weekend guys, looking forward to next weeks post already. 
Biobunch,
Over and out
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Unknown

Greetings everybody!

 HAPPY FRIDAY! Alright guys last week I gave all you lovely readers a look into my mind on how I believe the Walking Dead could have originated. It was pretty awesome. This week we have arrived back to Friday Facts, and guess what... the tigers have taken over! Yep read on and enlighten yourselves on these amazing cats (whilst adoring the pictures I have chosen). Enjoy. 


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Last of all guys. Tigers purr! I know how adorably cute. Well that was Friday facts for my favourite animal! Have an amazing weekend as always guys and in the meantime check out this youtube video of tiger cubs playing with their doggy friends!
Thats Biobunch, 
Over and out. 


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Unknown

Greeting everyone, 

Whether it is new years for you guys already or you are still in the Eve of it all we have an entire post based on the most awesome science related events and discoveries we could find from the year of 2013! Enjoy!! 

Lets have a look at the events we got out hands in: 


World Environment Day! 2013: 
It was all about those three words below! and it was an amazing day! Challenge for you guys at home try WWF's 5 Livewell principles as a new years resolution and tell us how you get on! World Environment Day! 
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 National Geographics Mighty Water Week 2013! check it out!!... 
Yep we did a post every day for 7 days for this week and it was awesome!
 And Big Cat Week

2013 marked some losses for us all...


On the 11th May 2013, poachers raided an elephant sanctuary and killed at least 26 elephants. for the full story click here
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In an article entitled Top 10 Hotspots, it was shown that between August 2012 and July 2013 deforestation increased by 28% (still recorded as the second lowest level ever). The image below is taken by google where the green indicate the forest cover and the red shows the forest that has been lost. To see the other google images taken of forests from around the world and their state of deforestation please click here!
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But it also marked some amazing discoveries and event for science and conservation...


Earth Hour hosted by WWF- In 2013 this year, at 8:30pm London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and more all switched their lights of for an hour!!
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London Zoo's Streak for Tigers event! Raised a lot of money for global tiger conservation schemes!
 
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Humpback whales may be taken of the  endangered list for 2014 as their numbers are now considered to be viable. Good thing or a bad thing read this and tell us what you think? Humpback whale 

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And in terms of discoveries...

 
There were more than 10 newly found animal species this year including a monkey that purs like a cat!! but our highlight was this cutie called an olinguito. Tell us what you think!! Cute??
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For the first time ever an artificial heart used for people with very weak hearts that are unable to pump blood to sustain life, has saved a patients life. A promising start for future usage!...     
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The genetic default that is linked to the development of Downs syndrome has now been corrected states, this was conducted on isolated cells only and not humans but it is a massive step in further understanding this condition!. 
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And that marks the end of our last post for 2013 (short and sweet we would love to go on though)!!! We hope you have enjoyed this year as much as we have and we have an awesome feeling that 2014 will be a great year for science! We hope you have an EPIC New Years and we want to thank you for being so loyal to our blog we really appreciate everything! 
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!   
Biobunch, 
Over and out.                                             
       
                    
                                                     
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Unknown

Greetings, 
Today marked the final day of Big Cat Week, we hope that by reading our blog posts that you have a greater understanding and appreciation for not only the big cats that we covered in our posts but all the big cats that are around today. We have seen that big cats have been able to adapt, survive and conquer all the habitats that they occupy whether it be the tough winter chills in Siberia or the searing heat of Africa, many of the cats such as the Siberian tiger, the lion, the cheetah, the snow leopard  have been able to thrive in unforgiving habitats and we expect would be continuing to do so... if we hadn't made survival all the more harder for them through habitat loss and over poaching. In this post today we are going to talk about these big cats and the conservation efforts employed to protect them. 
Take a long hard look, this is the Amur Leopard they are critically endangered with only 35 remaining in the wild.

Why are Big Cats endangered?

There are many reasons as to why Big Cats are endangered, such as: Habitat loss namely the deforestation occurring in the Amazon Rainforest, and the agricultural expansion is also a major problem in parts of Africa. Human conflicts, this occurs when Big Cats predate on peoples livestock, however this is mainly because humans are encroaching on the cats territory causing them to prey on easy livestock this causes an economic loss for the farmers involved. Wildlife Trade: this factor relates to Chinese medicine where the body parts of tigers, snow leopards and leopards are used in order to cure or help certain ailments, in addition to this poaching is a huge cause of concern. 
Global warming also affects the Big Cats by affecting their habitats. Take the snow leopard for instance with global temperatures increasing and the snow beginning to melt, it pushes them further up the mountain and taking them further and further away from their prey, Lions are vulnerable to disease outbreaks that can become exacerbated by droughts these will increase in frequency as the effects of global warming increase. Rising ocean levels can cause coastal erosion which reduces the tiger habitat in India's mangrove forest. And last but not least, private ownership and loss of prey. 


The need for conservation:
Lions: On Wednesday the 5th of December the guardian released an article on the 'Big cat crisis: Africa's lions being crowded by people' where it was seen from recent satellites that farmland and agriculture had consumed open area grassland. In West Africa there are only 500 lions left. Lion populations have dropped by two-thirds just over the last half century, it was found that just 10 of the 67 lion areas are well secured and stable  and are considered to be lion 'strongholds'. 6,000 lions are in populations that are very vulnerable to a very high risk of extinction. There has been an incentive to put Lions on the endangered species list thus protecting them from hunting and poaching in the future. it is though that energetic and immediate conservative action is required. 


Tigers: Wild tiger populations have fallen drastically by 95% with three subspecies-the Balis, Caspian and Javan already extinct. Tigers are considered to be critically endangered as such the WWF (world wildlife fund) have taken action in order to save the Tigers it all comes down to improving the following threats:
Habitat and prey. Our approach is to address habitat availability, security and quality, ensuring that the tiger will have enough well-protected and well-connected areas in which to live, hunt and breed.
 
Trade in tiger parts and derivatives. Tigers are legally protected throughout their range, and any trade in tiger products is prohibited. WWF is working alongside TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring network) to investigate, expose and crack down on the illegal trade in tiger products, and to reduce markets, so that trade is no longer a significant threat to tiger conservation.
 
National and international policy. WWF and our partners will continue to work with governments to strengthen existing legislation that protects the tiger, and to help integrate tiger conservation into economic, development and land-use planning.
This map just highlights how increasingly vulnerable the tiger population is... and how much we need to help.


Cheetahs: These amazing big cats were once found in South Africa, Western Asia to India. It was found that there are fewer than 15,000 individuals left surviving in fragmented habitats in Africa. Of the five subspecies the most critically endangered populations remain in western Sahara and Iran, these populations have 60-100  individuals making the cheetah one of the most endangered cats on Earth. The main drivers towards these big cats becoming endangered was once primarily for captive trade (pelts, pets and private ownership), however now their main challenges is habitat loss and a reduction in their prey and there proximity to humans are causing many human conflicts in terms of the cheetah eating their livestock. Not all the challenges that face the cheetah are of anthropogenic origins, it was found recently that other predators that share the same habitat with the cheetah kill 90% of cheetah cubs. 
Despite the cheetahs importance for eco-tourism the IUCN has classified cheetahs as vulnerable, with the North American subspecies labelled as threatened and the Asiatic and North West sub-Saharan subspecies listed as Critically endangered. 



Conservation in action...

Those examples used are just some of the Big Cats that are in trouble, the need for conservation is crystal clear, ZSL has summed it up brilliantly what these big cats need is thriving, active and determined conservation aims in other words they need 'LIVING CONSERVATION'. It has been clearly stated that one of the main challenges facing all big cats is habitat loss, whether this be deforestation or from agricultural expansion. Sky and WWF have recently partnered up for a campaign in which they are fighting against deforestation by saving 1 billion trees. 
An amazing project in order to save the Amazon from deforestation!!
The fight for Tigers has also gone public, with the opening of the new enclosure 'Tiger Territory' at London Zoo, its aims are to combat declining tiger populations by conducting a breeding programme for the big cats. It does not stop there they have marketed a recent campaign called 'Tiger SOS' in order to raise money for tiger conservation, they also work hand in hand with 21st century tiger. To find out more about what London Zoo are doing on the front line of Big Cat conservation click on Big Cat conservation
This is the campaign that was all over London buses, make sure to check it out.
Cheetahs are no exception, multiple small scale conservation efforts have been employed in order to raise the numbers of Wild Cheetahs. These include Livestock guarding dog program, the theory is that once the cheetahs spot the dogs guarding the livestock this will put them off from pursuing the prey any further. The Cheetah Conservation Fund have formulated a plan to make it economically beneficial for farmers not to harm Cheetahs, they have done this through an eco-label called 'Cheetah County Beef' by not harming the cheetahs the farmers actually get paid more for it!! Genious. 

So, to conclude our last post on Big Cat Week we hope you have not only realized the importance that conservations plays in saving these remarkable mammals but also how organizations have already started to employ projects and campaigns to aid them in doing so. We hope that you enjoyed Big Cat Week as much as we did!! and until next year this concludes our Big Cat Week Series!!
Biobunch.
Over and out.


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