Nigerian children suffering in lead poisoning crisis

A BBC investigation has revealed the level of toxic lead contamination around a cluster of villagers in Zamfara province in Northern Nigeria.

In the past four years 450 children have died from lead poisoning in the area. The lead is used to help extract gold from local mines.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has accused the Nigerian government of a slow and ineffective response to the contamination.

The government denies the accusation.

From BBC News

Seabirds covered in mystery goo

The RSPCA are worried about the return of a mystery sticky substance that's harming seabirds.

12 guillemots have been found washed up on beaches on the south coast of England covered in goo.

Earlier this year hundreds of birds had to be rescued after being found covered in the mystery stuff.

The charity says they're still not sure where the substance is coming from.

From CBBC News

Staff at the RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre wash a stricken guillemot in February 2013. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

More than 30 birds have been rescued after being washed up on beaches across the south coast of England covered in a sticky substance, the RSPCA said on Thursday.

A further 27 guillemots were collected from beaches stretching from Mevagissey in Cornwall to Plymouth and Whitsand Bay. It adds to the 12 guillemots rescued on Wednesday affected by what appears to be the same sticky substance that harmed their colonies out at sea two months ago.

An RSPCA spokesman said: "Most of the birds gathered will be transported to the RSPCA West Hatch wildlife centre in Taunton. On arrival, the birds' condition will be assessed by staff and, if fit enough, they will be stabilised before any attempt is made to wash the sticky, oily chemical from their feathers.

"Five birds transferred to West Hatch last night were in an extremely poor condition and were put to sleep to end their suffering. There is still no indication whether this is a new pollution incident or not."

In February, scores of sea birds were injured and hundreds more killed by the pollutant, which affected a 200-mile stretch of coastline. About 300 birds, mostly guillemots, were treated at the West Hatch centre.

Experts at Plymouth University found the mystery substance was almost certain to be polyisobutene, an oil additive known as PIB which has a chemical mixture ranging from oils to solids. But the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said it was unable to trace the source of the spill and confirmed it has closed the investigation.

Staff at West Hatch first tried to clean the birds with normal soapy water, which was not successful in removing the sticky substance, but eventually had more success with margarine.

From Uk news in real time (The Guardian)
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/11/mystery-sticky-substance-blight-seabirds

Remove a Snare. Save a Life.

The Brazilian pantanal, the world's largest freshwater wetland

Established as a World Heritage Site in 2000, the Pantanal of Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay is easily one of the top five places in the world to see wildlife in its natural environment.

From December to March, run-off from seven rivers transforms this 210,000 sq km area into an immensely productive wetland half the size of France. Then, starting in June, the tide literally turns as the waters begin to recede, trapping many of the region's 600 fish species in increasingly smaller ponds, lakes and channels. From July to December, the wildlife viewing is extraordinary as ever-growing numbers of animals gather around shrinking bodies of water to drink and feed on the huge quantities of trapped fish, producing a concentration of fauna not often witnessed in the New World.

This is when wading birds - ten species of heron and egret, three species of stork, and six species of ibis and spoonbill - begin nesting in gigantic, noisy colonies that can cover square kilometres. And almost more impressive is the sight of the region's 20 million black caimans amassing around every water hole, reaching densities of 150 caimans per sq km (the highest levels in the world).

Equally drawn to water holes are capybaras, anacondas (reaching up to 7m in length), marsh deer and jaguars; but do not overlook the fact that this entire unique region is fabulously rich in wildlife. What distinguishes the Pantanal ecologically is that it combines elements of central Brazil'scerrado savannahs and Paraguay's chaco scrublands - along with an endless maze of ponds, lakes, rivers, forests and islands - to create a habitat for 200 species of mammal and 650 species of bird.

The Pantanal has few people and no towns. Distances are so great and ground transport so poor that people get around in small airplanes and motorboats; 4x4 travel is restricted by the seasons. The seasonal flooding has also made systematic farming impossible and has severely limited human incursions into the area. Instead, it provides an enormously rich feeding ground for wildlife.

The best way to approach the Pantanal is along the Transpantaneira Road, which dries out in July long enough that you can drive (or cycle) the 150km from Poconé near Cuiabá, south to Porto Jofre on the Rio Cuiabá.

Information taken from BBC Travel

US rice imports 'contain harmful levels of lead'

Analysis of commercially available rice imported into the US has revealed it contains levels of lead far higher than regulations suggest are safe.

The researchers found the highest levels of lead in rice from China and Taiwan

Some samples exceeded the "provisional total tolerable intake" (PTTI) set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by a factor of 120.

The report at the American Chemical Society Meeting adds to the already well-known issue of arsenic in rice.

The FDA told the BBC it would review the research.

Lead is known to be harmful to many organs and the central nervous system.

It is a particular risk for young children, who suffer significant developmental problems if exposed to elevated lead levels.

Because rice is grown in heavily irrigated conditions, it is more susceptible than other staple crops to environmental pollutants in irrigation water.

Recent studies have highlighted the presence of arsenic in rice - prompting consumption advice from the UK's Food Standards Agencyand more recently from the FDA.

However, other heavy metals represent a risk as well.

Dr Tsanangurayi Tongesayi of Monmouth University in New Jersey, US, and his team have tested a number of imported brands of rice bought from local shops.

The US imports about 7% of its rice, and the team sampled packaged rice from Bhutan, Italy, China, Taiwan, India, Israel, the Czech Republic and Thailand - which accounts for 65% of US imports.

The team measured the lead levels in each country-category and calculated the lead intake on the basis of daily consumption. The results will be published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health (Part B).

"When we compared them, we realised that the daily exposure levels are much higher than those PTTIs," said Dr Tongesayi.

"According to the FDA, they have to be more than 10 times the PTTI levels (to cause a health concern), and our values were two to 12 times higher than those 10 times," he told BBC News.

'Globalised market'

"So we can only conclude that they can potentially cause harmful effects."

That factor of 120 (12 times higher than 10 times the PTTI) alluded to by Dr Tongesayi is for Asian children, who are most susceptible by virtue of age and comparatively high rice intake on average.

For non-Asian adults the excesses above the PTTI ranged from 20 to 40.

Rice from China and Taiwan had the highest lead levels, but Dr Tongesayi stressed that all of the samples significantly exceeded the PTTIs.

          Rice is grown all over the world, feeding billions

From BBC News

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Cold weather is putting one of UK's rarest birds at risk

One of the UK's rarest birds is being put at greater risk of extinction by the cold spring, according to bird experts.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the bodies of eight stone curlews* had been found in fields in Norfolk, Suffolk and Wiltshire over the past few days.

The birds were very underweight and the charity thinks they may have come from Africa and Spain but couldn't find enough food to survive

The birds weighed about 300g (10oz) compared to what is considered a healthy weight of 450g (15oz).

It's thought there are around 400 pairs of stone curlews in the UK.

Other birds have been affected by the cold weather.

At the end of March, hundreds of dead birds including puffins* were washed ashore after severe conditions in the North Sea

The RSPB said it had also received reports of short-eared owls and barn owls found dead after cold weather hampered their ability to hunt.

Mr Harper said: "We should be hearing the sound of chiffchaffs calling from the trees, a classic sign that spring is here, but that isn't the case.

"Some may have stalled on their migration route, while for others the severe lack of insect food available means they are conserving what little energy they have."

From CBBC / BBC 

*  curlew -maçarico real
* puffin- papagaio- do-mar

Dinosaur embryo fossils reveal life inside the egg

Scientists have gained a remarkable insight into some of the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found.

The team found more than 200 fragments of bone from fossilised embryos, proving a rare insight into how this creature developed

The remains of the creatures were unearthed in south west China and are about 190 million years old.

They belong to a group of dinosaurs called Lufengosaurus, long-necked beasts that fully grown would have stood about 9m (30ft) in height.

The creatures were preserved at different stages of their development, shedding light on life inside the egg.

Lead researcher Robert Reisz, a palaeontologist from the University of Toronto Mississauga, in Canada, said: "We are looking at various stages in the embryonic life of this animal, and we can put this together to get a growth trajectory of the embryo itself - something that has never been done before."

Reporting the findings in the journal Nature, the international team concluded that the animals would have grown extremely quickly during their incubation period.

Short lives

Fossil finds have revealed a wealth of information about the dinosaurs that once roamed the Earth, but little has been known about the very earliest stages of their lives.

Three years ago, palaeontologists discovered fragments of fossilised bones in China's Yunnan Province.

An analysis revealed that these were the remains of about 20Lufengosaurus embryos, whose lives were cut short by a flood.

Prof Reisz said: "The nests were inundated by water and basically smothered, and the embryos inside the eggs died and then decayed.

This cross section reveals a well-preserved fragment of thigh bone

"And then more water activity moved the bones and concentrated them into a very small area. We only excavated 1sq m of the 'bone bed' and we got more than 200 bones."

The researchers studied the fossils using a variety of techniques, including histology and infrared spectroscopy with a synchrotron in Taiwan.

"The neat thing is that we can get these materials in our hands, we can handle them, cut them, we can look inside the bones - and what we found out is they are growing quite fast, faster than other dinosaurs and faster than a lot of living animals whose embryology we know very well."

While the researchers cannot establish how long the incubation period was, this finding does suggest that it was short. The team believes the animals emerged well developed and might have continued to develop quickly.

Professor Reisz said: "We are hypothesising if this very fast growth rate we see in the embryos was maintained in the hatchlings and the juveniles, then we have a very fast growth rate in the initial stages of the life of this animal."

The Lufengosaurus belongs to a group of dinosaurs called the sauropodomorphs, and is a predecessor of the sauropod, a true giant of the dinosaur world that could grow up to 60m (200ft) in length.

From BBC News-Science-Environment

Rhino horn DNA database set up to combat poaching

A new DNA database is being set up to hold genetic information about all the rhino horn held in museums and private collections in Britain.

The aim is to try to prevent freshly poached specimens being passed off as antique.

Museums will be asked to drill a hole in their highly valuable exhibits to collect the data.

Police say precise DNA knowledge will deter thieves and prevent smugglers making bogus claims.

Poachers are tempted by the high prices paid in China and Vietnam for rhino horn, which is used in traditional medicine in Asia. But there's no scientific proof that it has any medicinal properties.

From CBBC News

India using drones to protect endangered rhinos

Remote controlled flying cameras, called drones, are now being used in India's Kaziranga National Park to try to protect endangered one-horned rhinos from poachers.

The park is home to two-thirds of the world's one-horned rhino population.

It's thought that 22 one-horned rhinos were killed there last year.

Officials at the park say the drones will help them keep an eye on the remotest parts of the reserve and deter potential threats.

Rhino horn is in great demand in China and south-east Asia, where it is believed to have medicinal properties.

Similar anti-poaching measures have been used in nearby Chitwan National Park in Nepal, where the hunting of one-horned rhinos has been drastically reduced.

From CBBC News-Animals

Environmental change 'triggers rapid evolution'

Changes to their surroundings can trigger "rapid evolution" in species as they adopt traits to help them survive in the new conditions, a study shows.

Studying soil mites in a laboratory, researchers found that the invertebrates' age of maturity almost doubled in just 20-or-so generations.

It had been assumed that evolutionary change only occurred over a much longer timescale.

The findings have been published in the journal Ecology Letters.

"What this study shows for the first time is that evolution and ecology go hand-in-hand," explained co-author Tim Benton, professor of population ecology at the University of Leeds, UK.

"The implicit assumption has always been, from Darwin onwards, that evolution works on long timescale and ecology works on short timescales.

"The thinking was that if you squash a population or you change the environment then nothing will happen from an evolutionary point-of-view for generations and generations, for centuries."

From BBC News - SCI/Environment

Read more

Frozen turtles

Amazing how nature protects these small and fragile beings!

Newly-hatched painted turtles are in an underground nest in North America. It is late in the year and cold outside so if the hatchlings climbed out of their nest now they would find nothing to eat. Instead, they stay where they are. As winter comes, the temperature falls to -10 degrees and ice crystals form around - and inside - the babies. But their tissues are protected by a kind of anti-freeze. For six months the turtles remain in a frozen state that would kill any mammal or bird. When spring comes, the ice around and inside them melts, and they slowly come to life. It takes a while for them to be fully-functioning but eventually they are ready to dig themselves out of their nest and find the nearest pond. Meanwhile the parents are already preparing to breed again, with the male courting the female by gently strumming her cheeks with his long claws... and she responds.

 From BBC Nature Wildlife

Oban Bay sperm whale swims back out to sea

A sperm whale which has been in the shallow waters of Scotland's Oban bay, for almost nine days has swum back out to sea.

The whale was thought to be aged between 11 and 14 and about 12 metres long, weighing a massive 20 tonnes!

Boat and ferry owners have had to plan their routs around the whale to avoid any collisions.

Experts say this has provided whale experts with valuable information.

"Nobody has observed an animal of that kind so close to shore, in shallow water, for such a prolonged time," said David Scott, of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

The BBC's James Cook talks to people who have travelled for miles to catch a glimpse of the whale

"We don't know why he came into the bay but whales will seek shelter from time to time," David explained.

'Highly unusual'

"Normally these whales are in the Atlantic, in water thousands of metres deep," he said. "They are not used to things like tidal streams and there was a risk of him panicking and stranding.

"It is highly unusual to see something like this," he said. "If it happens again we have the knowledge to build on."

From CBBC News-Animals

Particles from fossil fuels 'affect the growth of corals'

Researchers have found the strongest evidence yet that aerosols from burning fossil fuels are affecting coral growth.

Soot and other particulates have slowed the growth of coral off Belize and Panama

They say that these sooty particles can cool sea surface temperatures and limit the size of reefs.

But they also believe this chilling effect could prevent the corals from bleaching in warmer waters.

The research is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Coral reefs all over the world have been under pressure from a range of human impacts.

With a rise in global ocean temperatures recorded over the past century, there have been growing concerns that the warmer waters will become more acidic and as a result will bleach the corals.

Dirty air

This does not kill them but makes them much more likely to die. This has been well documented in the Caribbean.

Now, a team of researchers has found that as well as the warming waters, fine particulates of different types are affecting reefs near Belize and Panama.

These aerosols are made up of soot from burning coal, elements from volcanic eruptions and sulphates from fossil fuels. They circulate in the atmosphere and are believed to block solar radiation and make clouds more reflective.

Developing countries such as Indonesia are home to a majority of the world's coral

In this latest study, the scientists looked at records from coral skeletons, ship observations and climate models to compare coral growth rates from 1880 to 2000. They found there was a correlation between increases in atmospheric aerosols and decreases in the growth rates of coral.

"Particulate pollution reflect incoming sunlight and make clouds brighter," said research team-member Dr Paul Halloran from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre.

"This can reduce the light available for coral photosynthesis, as well as the temperatures of surrounding waters. Together, these factors can slow down coral growth."

So strong was the effect on the reefs that the researchers believe it usurps other factors, said lead author Lester Kwiatkowski.

"For multi-decadal variability, over the historical period, the major cause was aerosols as opposed to climate change or ocean acidification," he explained.

The team was able to point to specific incidents, such as the drop in sea-surface temperatures between 1960 and 1970 caused as a result of rising levels of particulates from post WWII industrial expansion in the US.

The researchers were also able to see a rise in temperatures after 1970 - the consequence of clean air legislation cutting emissions of soot and sulphates.

Accidental engineering

But while the cooling effects of these particles may be keeping the corals from growing, according to this work, it might also be preventing bleaching.

"It is quite difficult to say what the corals would have done if these aerosols were not in the atmosphere. It could have been, to some extent, that these were providing protection from thermal bleaching," said Lester Kwiatkowski.

Looking ahead, the researchers say that understanding the impact of aerosols is critical to the survival of coral reefs.

As the majority of coral is in the waters around developing countries, they may be inadvertently performing a type of geo-engineering on the reefs.

"Many people are arguing that Australia should be putting aerosols into the atmosphere to protect their coral reefs," said Lester Kwiatowski.

"And in parts of the developing world through atmospheric pollution, they be inadvertently doing such things," he added.

From BBC News-Science/ Environment

Baby orangutans rescued by wheelbarrow in Borneo

Thirty baby ourangutans have been saved from appalling conditions and moved to a new home in Borneo.

The charity International Animal Rescue found the apes living in shacks after the forest where they lived was destroyed and their parents killed by hunters.

Now the creatures have been moved to a big new rescue centre in West Kalimantan. But the babies didn't travel by ordinary means - the easiest way to move them was by wheelbarrow!

Ourangutans are one of the world's most endangered species - it's thought that there are fewer than 50,000 left in the world today.

It's not just loss of their habitat that threatens their existence: hunting and the illegal trade of them as exotic pets are seen as major factors as well.

From CBBC News