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Australia’s red goshawk is disappearing. How can we save our rarest bird of prey from extinction?

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Sunday, February 26, 2023

Patrick Webster, Author providedAustralia’s red goshawk once ruled the skies. But now this almighty raptor, affectionately known as The Red, has become our nation’s rarest bird of prey. Concern for the species prompted our new research. We completed the first comprehensive population assessment of the red goshawk using a dataset of all known records (1978–2020). The results were even worse than expected. We were shocked to discover The Red had completely disappeared from more than a third (34%) of its range. The species is almost certainly extinct in New South Wales and the southern half of Queensland. This bird is declining – and probably just barely hanging on – in a further 30% of its range, spanning northern Queensland from the Gulf to the Wet Tropics. The rest of northern Australia is the last stronghold for the species. Although nationally listed as vulnerable, we argue this species requires urgent uplisting to endangered. High priority must be given to conservation action now, before it’s too late. Adult female red goshawk with kookaburra prey. Chris MacColl A striking bird of prey The red goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus) is an evolutionary oddity, with no near relatives in this country. It is a top predator, with rainbow lorikeets, sulphur-crested cockatoos, and blue-winged kookaburras its preferred quarry. Remarkably, the average female is nearly twice the size of the average male, with this relative size difference making it one of the most dimorphic raptors in the world. This striking bird first came to the attention of Western scientists around 1790, when a specimen was found nailed to an early settler’s hut near Botany Bay. Since then, it has captivated birdwatchers with its rich rufous (red) plumage, sharp gaze, and immense feet and talons. Historically, it was found along Australia’s eastern and northern coastal fringe, from Sydney, north to Cape York Peninsula, and across to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. But over the years, keen observers noticed their occasional glimpses of this almighty hawk became rarer. Then suddenly people were no longer seeing them, in certain regions. Slipping towards extinction Recording the extinction and ongoing loss of the red goshawk over two thirds of its known range in our lifetime was shocking. Map showing assessment of the red goshawk’s breeding status across its range. Chris MacColl, Author provided While the destruction of habitat through land clearing, which is still rampant in both New South Wales and Queensland, is a key reason for this loss, other factors must be at play. We know that degraded forests, like those that are logged or suffer from inappropriate fire regimes, lose many of their species, particularly those higher up the food chain. However, this doesn’t aptly describe the loss of red goshawk from seemingly large areas of intact habitat, such as Shoalwater Bay or Conondale National Park. More research is needed to unpick why this species has disappeared so quickly and over such an immense area. Current efforts focus on potential disease threats, poor breeding, low juvenile survival rates, and developing a better understanding of how they use the Australian landscape. The Red’s last refuge Our research reveals northern Australia is the last stronghold for this species. Cape York Peninsula supports the last known breeding population in Queensland. The Top End, Tiwi Islands, and Kimberley regions also sustain vital breeding populations. This is unsurprising given northern Australia supports the world’s largest intact tropical savanna ecosystem. Yet, despite limited broad scale habitat loss to date, these northern savannas are under threat from inappropriate fire regimes, weeds, cattle, and the onset of climate change. These threats can interact and compound one another, posing increasingly complex challenges for land managers trying to save species like the red goshawk. For example, the fire-intensive gamba grass, an invasive weed, is spread by livestock. Climate change may extend the fire season, through lengthier dry spells. Hot treetop fires incinerate nests and the chicks inside them. The intensity and seasonality of storms is also increasing, as well as thermal extremes, threatening young during the nesting season. Two small red goshawk nestlings, the maximum this species can have. Chris MacColl Tropical savannas may be increasingly compromised through large scale vegetation clearing and fragmentation. Preparing land for crops such as cotton or mines for minerals such as bauxite can remove big swathes of habitat. Efforts to obtain other natural resources such as timber and gas also fragment otherwise intact landscapes. Land clearing remains rife in Queensland, undermining efforts to conserve wildlife and reduce carbon emissions. Kerry Trapnell/The Wilderness Society The Red deserves better protection Australia is blessed with unique bird life. Nearly half of our birds are found nowhere else on Earth. But the nation’s rarest bird of prey is in trouble. The red goshawk deserves better protection. At the very least, the species needs to be uplisted from vulnerable to endangered by the federal government. This will more accurately reflect current extinction risk and prioritise conservation action. And there’s no time to waste, because red goshawk habitat continues to be cleared – permission was granted to clear a total of 15,689 hectares of red goshawk habitat between 2000 and 2015, which is more than any other threatened species had to contend with. The Red needs to be recognised as a flagship species for northern Australia, to promote conservation of its remaining habitat. Intervention would benefit many other threatened species, because what’s good for them is good for many others. In this way, the red goshawk is one of the most cost-effective ‘umbrella species’ for conservation action. To secure the longterm survival of this beautiful bird, we need better protection across the tropical north, expanding both Indigenous Protected Areas and national parks. These areas can be managed directly for conservation, but working with the agricultural and extractive industry is also critical. Low numbers of red goshawks are distributed across a vast area, covering multiple tenures, so all parties need to work together if this species is to persist in the north. We must not repeat past mistakes and allow habitat in the tropical north to be fragmented, rendering the landscape unable to support native predators like the red goshawk. This means rigorously assessing developments and implementing protections commensurate with the large areas that The Red requires. If we can’t look after such an ecologically important, charismatic, and iconic species such as The Red, what hope do we have for Australia’s many other threatened species? Read more: Native birds have vanished across the continent since colonisation. Now we know just how much we’ve lost Christopher MacColl receives funding and support from Rio Tinto Weipa, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, the Queensland Department of Environment and Sciences, and the University of Queensland. James Watson has received funding from the Australian Research Council and National Environmental Science Program and receives funding from South Australia's Department of Environment and Water. He serves on scientific committees for Bush Heritage Australia, SUBAK Australia, BirdLife Australia and has a long-term scientific relationship with the Wildlife Conservation Society. He serves on the Queensland Government's Land Restoration Fund's Investment Panel.

The first comprehensive population assessment of the raptor affectionately known as The Red reveals a species in trouble. Australia’s rarest bird of prey needs our help.

Patrick Webster, Author provided

Australia’s red goshawk once ruled the skies. But now this almighty raptor, affectionately known as The Red, has become our nation’s rarest bird of prey.

Concern for the species prompted our new research. We completed the first comprehensive population assessment of the red goshawk using a dataset of all known records (1978–2020). The results were even worse than expected.

We were shocked to discover The Red had completely disappeared from more than a third (34%) of its range. The species is almost certainly extinct in New South Wales and the southern half of Queensland.

This bird is declining – and probably just barely hanging on – in a further 30% of its range, spanning northern Queensland from the Gulf to the Wet Tropics. The rest of northern Australia is the last stronghold for the species.

Although nationally listed as vulnerable, we argue this species requires urgent uplisting to endangered. High priority must be given to conservation action now, before it’s too late.

Adult female red goshawk with kookaburra prey. Chris MacColl

A striking bird of prey

The red goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus) is an evolutionary oddity, with no near relatives in this country. It is a top predator, with rainbow lorikeets, sulphur-crested cockatoos, and blue-winged kookaburras its preferred quarry.

Remarkably, the average female is nearly twice the size of the average male, with this relative size difference making it one of the most dimorphic raptors in the world.

This striking bird first came to the attention of Western scientists around 1790, when a specimen was found nailed to an early settler’s hut near Botany Bay.

Since then, it has captivated birdwatchers with its rich rufous (red) plumage, sharp gaze, and immense feet and talons.

Historically, it was found along Australia’s eastern and northern coastal fringe, from Sydney, north to Cape York Peninsula, and across to the Kimberley region of Western Australia. But over the years, keen observers noticed their occasional glimpses of this almighty hawk became rarer. Then suddenly people were no longer seeing them, in certain regions.

Slipping towards extinction

Recording the extinction and ongoing loss of the red goshawk over two thirds of its known range in our lifetime was shocking.

Map of Australia showing the distribution of the red goshawk within the various ecoregions
Map showing assessment of the red goshawk’s breeding status across its range. Chris MacColl, Author provided

While the destruction of habitat through land clearing, which is still rampant in both New South Wales and Queensland, is a key reason for this loss, other factors must be at play.

We know that degraded forests, like those that are logged or suffer from inappropriate fire regimes, lose many of their species, particularly those higher up the food chain.

However, this doesn’t aptly describe the loss of red goshawk from seemingly large areas of intact habitat, such as Shoalwater Bay or Conondale National Park.

More research is needed to unpick why this species has disappeared so quickly and over such an immense area. Current efforts focus on potential disease threats, poor breeding, low juvenile survival rates, and developing a better understanding of how they use the Australian landscape.

The Red’s last refuge

Our research reveals northern Australia is the last stronghold for this species. Cape York Peninsula supports the last known breeding population in Queensland. The Top End, Tiwi Islands, and Kimberley regions also sustain vital breeding populations.

This is unsurprising given northern Australia supports the world’s largest intact tropical savanna ecosystem. Yet, despite limited broad scale habitat loss to date, these northern savannas are under threat from inappropriate fire regimes, weeds, cattle, and the onset of climate change. These threats can interact and compound one another, posing increasingly complex challenges for land managers trying to save species like the red goshawk.

For example, the fire-intensive gamba grass, an invasive weed, is spread by livestock. Climate change may extend the fire season, through lengthier dry spells. Hot treetop fires incinerate nests and the chicks inside them. The intensity and seasonality of storms is also increasing, as well as thermal extremes, threatening young during the nesting season.

Two small red goshawk nestlings, the maximum this species can have. Chris MacColl

Tropical savannas may be increasingly compromised through large scale vegetation clearing and fragmentation. Preparing land for crops such as cotton or mines for minerals such as bauxite can remove big swathes of habitat. Efforts to obtain other natural resources such as timber and gas also fragment otherwise intact landscapes.

Large trees being felled as native forest is cleared in Queensland
Land clearing remains rife in Queensland, undermining efforts to conserve wildlife and reduce carbon emissions. Kerry Trapnell/The Wilderness Society

The Red deserves better protection

Australia is blessed with unique bird life. Nearly half of our birds are found nowhere else on Earth.

But the nation’s rarest bird of prey is in trouble. The red goshawk deserves better protection. At the very least, the species needs to be uplisted from vulnerable to endangered by the federal government. This will more accurately reflect current extinction risk and prioritise conservation action. And there’s no time to waste, because red goshawk habitat continues to be cleared – permission was granted to clear a total of 15,689 hectares of red goshawk habitat between 2000 and 2015, which is more than any other threatened species had to contend with.

The Red needs to be recognised as a flagship species for northern Australia, to promote conservation of its remaining habitat. Intervention would benefit many other threatened species, because what’s good for them is good for many others. In this way, the red goshawk is one of the most cost-effective ‘umbrella species’ for conservation action.

To secure the longterm survival of this beautiful bird, we need better protection across the tropical north, expanding both Indigenous Protected Areas and national parks. These areas can be managed directly for conservation, but working with the agricultural and extractive industry is also critical. Low numbers of red goshawks are distributed across a vast area, covering multiple tenures, so all parties need to work together if this species is to persist in the north.

We must not repeat past mistakes and allow habitat in the tropical north to be fragmented, rendering the landscape unable to support native predators like the red goshawk. This means rigorously assessing developments and implementing protections commensurate with the large areas that The Red requires.

If we can’t look after such an ecologically important, charismatic, and iconic species such as The Red, what hope do we have for Australia’s many other threatened species?


Read more: Native birds have vanished across the continent since colonisation. Now we know just how much we’ve lost


The Conversation

Christopher MacColl receives funding and support from Rio Tinto Weipa, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, the Queensland Department of Environment and Sciences, and the University of Queensland.

James Watson has received funding from the Australian Research Council and National Environmental Science Program and receives funding from South Australia's Department of Environment and Water. He serves on scientific committees for Bush Heritage Australia, SUBAK Australia, BirdLife Australia and has a long-term scientific relationship with the Wildlife Conservation Society. He serves on the Queensland Government's Land Restoration Fund's Investment Panel.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

Extinction or adaptation? The plague of wildfires in Chile is a warning for our future

Retracing Darwin’s journey through South America, I had an ominous premonition about environmental crisis

Amidst rapidly intensifying global climate disasters, Chile has become the latest casualty. Fueled by strong winds and a heat wave, recent forest fires have killed more than a hundred people. El Niño, a cyclical climate phenomenon, created hazardous conditions prior to the fires by contributing to heat and drought, while global warming drove temperatures upward. For years, however, Chile has been suffering from such drought, which has dried up forests and depleted water supplies. Indeed, over the past decade, almost two million hectares of land have burnt to a crisp. Confronted by one of the worst tragedies in his country’s recent history, President Gabriel Boric declared a two-day period of national mourning in February. Though certainly destructive in terms of size and scope, I was not surprised by the fires. In the weeks leading up to the disaster, I was making my way through the country in tandem with research and a book project concerning Charles Darwin’s legacy in the context of climate change. The naturalist, who traveled throughout Chile and South America aboard H.M.S. Beagle, between 1832 to 1835 would not have denied the environment is changing; however, the pace of current day natural catastrophes would have undoubtedly concerned him.  As I roughly retraced Darwin’s route, I became aware of the threat of forest fires. In Torres del Paine National Park, I spotted a glacier in the distance, though such picturesque scenes were interrupted by the sight of burnt patches of trees. To be sure, not all fires are negative, since they can help get rid of dead vegetation or encourage forest clearings featuring greater species diversity. However, my guide explained that local fires linked to human error and carelessness have become more intense and difficult to extinguish. Climate change, he added, has contributed to such blazes amid low humidity and elevated temperatures. Speaking to members of a forest brigade, I learned that seasons had now become unpredictable and “super different.” Fires, meanwhile, posed a risk to beloved wildlife species such as pumas and South Andean deer. What are the chances that Chile’s unfavorable ecological picture can be reversed? During his travels, Darwin explored the island of Chiloé where he observed houses made of alerce, also known as Fitzroya cupressoides. The naturalist named the tall deciduous tree after Beagle captain Robert Fitzroy. To his credit, Darwin recognized that planting a mixture of species can result in faster growth than species planted individually. However, the naturalist was also a product of his time, and regretted that locals in the vicinity had not cleared the woods to make efficient use of natural resources. Waterfall at Torres del Paine National Park in Chile (Photo courtesy of Nikolas Kozloff) Such “extractivist” approaches haven’t served Chile well over time, however — so says Carlos Leiva, director of the non-governmental organization Andean Alerce. Though logging alerce has been outlawed, illegal deforestation has continued to plague Chiloé, while native forest has been replaced by tree plantations. This in turn has disrupted the hydrological cycle on Chiloé, which is already suffering from water scarcity. Could forest fires be related to underlying practices of extractivismo? Speaking to me in Puerto Montt, a city located near the island, Leiva expressed concern about the increased frequency of fires. Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes. In other areas of the country hit by recent heat and drought, large plantations full of flammable trees lie in close proximity to cities and towns. Eucalyptus, a common tree found on plantations, burns relatively rapidly. In view of these trends, experts agree that plantations make the landscape much more prone to fire as opposed to maintaining intact native forests. Moreover, in contrast to native forest, which exhibits a wide spectrum of vegetation and animal species, plantations display the most homogeneous conditions possible. Traveling north, I felt suffocated by the heat during an interminably long bus ride. Peering out the window, I spotted large forest plantations along the highway sporting rows and rows of uniform trees, just some of the more than three million hectares of forest monoculture which has turned Chile into a leading cellulose exporter. Just how much specific blame can be pinned on the Boric administration for Chile’s dire environmental straits is up for debate: though the forestry sector has been poorly regulated, last year the president launched a national plan to prevent, mitigate and fight forest fires to make the forestry industry more resilient to climate change. The government also increased funding for firefighting, though needless to say, such moves did little to prevent recent blazes. What are the chances that Chile’s unfavorable ecological picture can be reversed? For answers, I caught up with Felipe and Constanza Espinosa of the Chilean Glacier Foundation at a café in Santiago. Felipe, the management and operations director for the group, said he was gratified by a substantial 2019 climate change protest in the capital. The momentum seemed to continue with the election of Boric in late 2021. A 36-year-old former lawmaker and the most leftist-leaning leader since Salvador Allende, the new president called for constitutional reform. Burnt Vegetation at Torres del Paine National Park in Chile (Photo courtesy of Nikolas Kozloff) My contact was heartened by environmental provisions in the draft package seeking to protect glaciers. Ambitious in scope, the reform also proposed granting rights to animals and nature, while pledging to deal with climate challenges and biodiversity loss. Chipping away at extractivismo, the draft abandoned the term “natural resources” in favor of “natural common goods.”However, the new constitution was resoundingly defeated by voters. Society must recognize that “nature isn’t infinite” and impose limits on the use of natural resources. Constanza, Felipe’s sister and the foundation’s director of communications and outreach, did not hold grand expectations for the government. Despite radical constitutional terminology, she remarked that the Ministry of the Environment still focused on managing natural resources, as opposed to truly protecting the environment. On the other hand, considering Chile’s environmental distress, could Boric become a spokesperson for international climate action in the mold of, say, former Bolivian President Evo Morales? The country is responsible for a tiny fraction of world-wide emissions, yet Chile is particularly vulnerable to drought and desertification. A more combative Boric seemed unlikely, she answered, given the president doesn’t seem interested in challenging the Global North, but rather maintaining friendly relations. It’s the last day of my stay in Santiago before catching a late-night flight back to New York. In the midst of record temperatures and heat alerts, not to mention the onset of Chile’s deadly wildfires, I’m contemplating Darwin’s legacy once again. Apocalyptic extinction or adaptation? The sobering new reality seems apropos as I sit down with Bárbara Saavedra, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Chile. Considering Chile’s climate emergency, she says, society must recognize that “nature isn’t infinite” and impose limits on the use of natural resources. An evolutionary biologist, Saavedra is concerned about charismatic animal species such as Darwin’s frog, which is facing an uphill conservation battle like other amphibians, and Darwin’s fox, whose population has become diminished and fragmented. And what of Boric — has the young and idealistic president turned out to be a political disappointment? “The constitutional reform wasn’t his defeat,” she says, “but rather a defeat of our entire country.” Pausing, she adds, “on the other hand, I don’t see the reform as a defeat, but rather as forming part of a long-term process which is challenging and still hasn’t played itself out entirely. I’m not a politician, but I believe there will be other opportunities in future. Even without the reform, however, we have other laws and tools at our disposal to resolve our environmental problems, and there is sufficient willingness to measure up to our challenges.” Read more about climate change

The Extinction of the Giant Ape: Scientists Solve Long-Standing Mystery

In the karst landscapes of southern China, giant apes, known as Gigantopithecus blacki, once traversed the terrain. These massive creatures, standing three meters tall and...

An artist’s impression of a group of G. blacki within a forest in southern China. Credit: Garcia/Joannes-Boyau (Southern Cross University)In the karst landscapes of southern China, giant apes, known as Gigantopithecus blacki, once traversed the terrain. These massive creatures, standing three meters tall and weighing about 250 kilograms, are considered distant relatives of humans. Although they vanished before humans settled in the area, the reasons for their extinction remain largely a mystery. The only evidence of their former presence consists of approximately 2000 fossilized teeth and four jawbones.New evidence from this region published in Nature, uncovered by a team of Chinese, Australian, and US researchers, demonstrates beyond doubt that the largest primate to walk the earth went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago, unable to adapt its food preferences and behaviors, and vulnerable to the changing climates which sealed its fate.“The story of G. blacki is an enigma in paleontology – how could such a mighty creature go extinct at a time when other primates were adapting and surviving? The unresolved cause of its disappearance has become the Holy Grail in this discipline,” says paleontologist and co-lead author Professor Yingqi Zhang, from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IVPP). “The IVPP has been excavating for G. blacki evidence in this region for over 10 years but without solid dating and a consistent environmental analysis, the cause of its extinction had eluded us.”Extensive Research ProjectDefinitive evidence revealing the story of the giant ape’s extinction has come from a large-scale project collecting evidence from 22 cave sites spread across a wide region of Guangxi Province in southern China. The foundation of this study was the dating.“It’s a major feat to present a defined cause for the extinction of a species, but establishing the exact time when a species disappears from the fossil record gives us a target timeframe for an environmental reconstruction and behavior assessment,” says co-lead author, Macquarie University geochronologist Associate Professor Kira Westaway.Digging into the hard cemented cave sediments containing a wealth of fossils and evidence of G. blacki. Credit: Kira Westaway (Macquarie University)“Without robust dating, you are simply looking for clues in the wrong places.”Six Australian universities contributed to the project. Macquarie University, Southern Cross University, Wollongong University and the University of Queensland used multiple techniques to date samples. Southern Cross also mapped G. blacki teeth to extract information on the apes’ behaviors. ANU and Flinders University studied the pollen and fossil-bearing sediments in the cave respectively, to reconstruct the environments in which G. blacki thrived and then disappeared.Dating Techniques and Environmental AnalysisSix different dating techniques were applied to the cave sediments and fossils, producing 157 radiometric ages. These were combined with eight sources of environmental and behavioral evidence, and applied to 11 caves containing evidence of G blacki, and also to 11 caves of a similar age range where no G. blacki evidence was found.The location of many caves including two G. blacki bearing caves. Credit: Yingqi Zhang (IVPP- CAS)Luminescence dating, which measures a light-sensitive signal found in the burial sediments that encased the G. blacki fossils, was the primary technique, supported by uranium-series (US) and electron-spin resonance (US-ESR) dating of the G. blacki teeth themselves.“By direct-dating the fossil remains, we confirmed their age aligns with the luminescence sequence in the sediments where they were found, giving us a comprehensive and reliable chronology for the extinction of G. blacki,” says Southern Cross University geochronologist Associate Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau.Insights from Dental AnalysisUsing detailed pollen analysis, fauna reconstructions, stable isotope analysis of the teeth, and a detailed analysis of the cave sediments at a micro level, the team established the environmental conditions leading up to when G blacki went extinct. Then, using trace element and dental microwear textural analysis (DMTA) of the apes’ teeth, the team modeled G. blacki’s behavior while it was flourishing, compared to during the species’ demise.The G. blacki bearing cave of Zhang Wang lies 150 m above the valley floor making for a tough climb every day to conduct excavations. Credit: Kira Westaway (Macquarie University)“Teeth provide a staggering insight into the behavior of the species indicating stress, diversity of food sources, and repeated behaviors,” says Associate Professor Joannes-BoyauThe findings show G.blacki went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago, much earlier than previously assumed. Before this time, G. blacki flourished in a rich and diverse forest.Environmental Changes and Comparative AdaptationBy 700,000 to 600,000 years ago, the environment became more variable due to the increase in the strength of the seasons, causing a change in the structure of the forest communities.Orangutans (genus Pongo) – a close relative of G. blacki – adapted their size, behavior, and habitat preferences as conditions changed. In comparison, G. blacki relied on a less nutritious backup food source when its preferences were unavailable, decreasing the diversity of its food. The ape became less mobile, had a reduced geographic range for foraging, and faced chronic stress and dwindling numbers.“G. blacki was the ultimate specialist, compared to the more agile adapters like orangutans, and this ultimately led to its demise,” says Professor Zhang.Associate Professor Westaway says: “With the threat of a sixth mass extinction event looming over us, there is an urgent need to understand why species go extinct.“Exploring the reasons for past unresolved extinctions gives us a good starting point to understand primate resilience and the fate of other large animals, in the past and future.”Reference: “The demise of the giant ape Gigantopithecus blacki” by Yingqi Zhang, Kira E. Westaway, Simon Haberle, Juliën K. Lubeek, Marian Bailey, Russell Ciochon, Mike W. Morley, Patrick Roberts, Jian-xin Zhao, Mathieu Duval, Anthony Dosseto, Yue Pan, Sue Rule, Wei Liao, Grant A. Gully, Mary Lucas, Jinyou Mo, Liyun Yang, Yanjun Cai, Wei Wang and Renaud Joannes-Boyau, 10 January 2024, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06900-0

Survivors of the Ice Age: How Did the Brown Bear Beat Extinction?

The brown bear is one of the largest terrestrial carnivores alive today, with a broad distribution throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast to numerous other...

The study of ancient brown bear genomes reveals that their survival through the last Ice Age involved significant losses in range and genetic diversity, underscoring the importance of historical genetic studies in conservation efforts and future wildlife management. Credit: SciTechDaily.comThe brown bear is one of the largest terrestrial carnivores alive today, with a broad distribution throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In contrast to numerous other large carnivores that faced extinction by the end of the last Ice Age (cave bear, sabretoothed cats, cave hyena), the brown bear is one of the lucky survivors that made it through to the present. The question has puzzled biologists for close to a century – how was this so?Brown bears are ecologically flexible and have a broad dietary range. While they are carnivores, their diets can also consist primarily of plant matter making them adaptable to environmental changes. However, brown bears also experienced extensive range reductions and regional extinctions during the last Ice Age. Brown bears used to occupy a much wider range including Ireland, Honshu, the largest island of Japan, and Quebec (Canada).Did the decline or disappearance of bear populations in certain areas happen because bears left those places for better ones that they still currently live, or did unique groups of bears with distinct genes inhabit those areas and go extinct, leading to a loss in the overall diversity of the species? Genetic Studies and InsightsBy studying the genomes of ancient brown bears dated to between 3,800 and 60,000 years old, including several individuals from outside their current range, researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and the University of Yamanashi, Japan sought to address this question by investigating the evolutionary relationships between brown bears across space and time.Their study showed that brown bears did not simply move with the shifting environment, but populations went extinct. “Our analyses showed that ancient brown bears represent genetic diversity absent in today’s populations,” says Takahiro Segawa, lead author of the study. “While brown bears survived global extinction, they suffered considerable losses of their historical range and genetic diversity.” This new perspective highlights a crucial period in the brown bear’s history and that they also faced challenges during and after the last Ice Age.“As we continue to grapple with the challenges of coexistence between humans and wildlife, insights from the deep past are invaluable in shaping a sustainable future,” adds Michael Westbury, the senior author of the study. “Although studying recent specimens can provide some insights, by including samples from the past and from areas a species no longer exists, we can better quantify how patterns of current diversity arose, and inform predictions about how they may respond to future environmental change.”Reference: “The origins and diversification of Holarctic brown bear populations inferred from genomes of past and present populations” by Takahiro Segawa, Alba Rey-Iglesia, Eline D. Lorenzen and Michael V. Westbury, 24 January 2024, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2411

Inner ear of extinct ape species is overlooked aspect of human bipedal evolution, study finds

Described by scientists as a "bony labyrinth," the inner ear provides many clues as to the origin of our species

The inner ear may not seem like a particularly bony place, but human ears in fact have three small bones (also known as ossicles): the malleus, the incus and the stapes. While most people would assume that these bones are necessary for hearing, one would not imagine that they relate much to how we walk. Yet according to Chinese and American scientists working together for a study in the journal The Innovation, the ear bones of ancient apes can teach us a lot not only about our primate ancestors, but also about ourselves. In a sense, the inner ear bones of the Lufengpithecus is a missing link in the evolutionary history of human locomotion. It all comes down to bipedalism, or the fact that humans walk on two legs. Because our various primate ancestors were often quadrupedal (walking on four legs), evolutionary scientists have often wondered how we made the shift from being a four-legged species to one that relies on two legs. The experts turned to the seemingly obvious places for answers: They studied the bones of ancient monkeys when they came from their limbs, pelvis, shoulders and spine. Yet in The Innovation study, the team of scientists looked instead to the inner ear. They specifically chose the remains of a Lufengpithecus, an ape from China that has been extinct for 7 to 8 million years. "The semicircular canals, located in the skull between our brain and the external ear, are critical for our sense of balance and position when we move, and they provide a fundamental component of our locomotion that most people are probably unaware of," Zhang Yinan, first author of the study and a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, said in a press statement. "The size and shape of the semicircular canals have mathematical correlation with how mammals, including apes and humans, move around their environment. Using modern imaging techniques, we are able to visualize the internal structure of fossil skulls and study the anatomical details of the semicircular canals to reveal how extinct mammals moved." After doing this, the scientists observed that the Lufengpithecus inner ear revealed an animal that moved in ways unlike anything previously known about ancient or modern primates. Instead, it is believed that the primate moved around by combining various motion types — clambering, climbing, bipedalism, quadrupedalism and forelimb suspension. The ancestors of the Lufengpithecus did not move anything like this — their locomotion was more analogous to what we see today among gibbons in Asia — and humans developed their bipedalism afterward. In a sense, the inner ear bones of the Lufengpithecus is a overlooked connection in the evolutionary history of human locomotion. As the authors of the study explain, it is because the inner ear bones yield information about the locomotion of primates that cannot be found through traditional methods. "The bony labyrinth of the inner ear of vertebrates houses the peripheral vestibular system comprised of three fluid-filled semicircular canals that are functionally tied to sense of balance, spatial orientation, posture, and body movements," the authors explain. "This, in turn, is linked to modes of locomotion among living and extinct taxa." Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter Lab Notes. "The dramatic increase in the average evolution rate of semicircular canals" within these apes may illuminate that "the rapid evolution of bipedalism in the human lineage in response to gradual global cooling." Interestingly, natural climate change may have also played a role in this ear evolution. After observing that evolutionary rates tend to slow down as global temperatures rise, the authors point out that "the dramatic increase in the average evolution rate of semicircular canals" within these apes may illuminate that "the rapid evolution of bipedalism in the human lineage in response to gradual global cooling." The Lufengpithecus lived during a warm period in the Pliocene era, one that "marks the beginning of Plio-Pleistocene continuous cooling and the onset of Northern Hemisphere alaciation. Against the backdrop of global cooling, the increase of grassy vegetation driven by regional-scale environmental factors may be the trigger for the accelerated evolution of" primates and humans walking on two legs in Africa. Studying our primate relatives has shed enormous light on our own evolution. A paper last year in the journal iScience studied chimpanzees and bonobos to determine if they possess a trait known as "vocal functional flexibility." Vocal functional flexibility refers to an animal's ability to produce complex sounds that form speech, as opposed to the more simple sounds that come forward from screaming, crying, laughing or making other basic sounds. Humans are not born with vocal functional flexibility but rather develop it over stages, and it is considered one of the prerequisites to creating actual speech. In their research, the authors of the iScience study discovered that grunting chimpanzees from newborns through to ten-year-old youths display vocal functional flexibility. "The logic is, if we find good evidence for something in humans and good evidence for something in chimpanzees, then we’re kind of justified in making the inference that this was also a trait that was held by the last common ancestor," Dr. Derry Taylor, the paper's corresponding author and a professor at the University of Portsmouth, told Salon at the time. "So we can say with a reasonable degree of confidence that whatever those vocal communication systems were like, they probably at least had this type of flexibility.” Another study — this one published last year in the journal Current Biology — involved scientists performing a magic trick known as the "French drop effect" in front of three types of monkeys: common marmosets, Humboldt's squirrel monkeys and yellow-breasted capuchin monkeys. The trick involves a scientist putting food in one hand, presenting it to the money and then putting their other hand over the treat while appearing to grab it. In fact, the scientists did not grab the treat with their second hand, therefore leading those monkeys that had opposable thumbs to be surprised when discovering it was still in the first hand. Yet the one species of monkey in the group that lacks opposable thumbs, the marmosets, were less likely to be fooled by the trick because they lacked the same digital frame of reference. "It tells us something about how we think without work," Dr. Nicky Clayton, a professor at the University of Cambridge and corresponding author on the paper — explained to Salon at the time. "We know this because we know . . . there's this massive power in this non-verbal communication. And then I think of seeing non-human animals respond in that way to these non-verbal stimuli. It creates all kinds of questions in your mind, doesn't it? Why is it so soothing to us? What does it mean for the animals that watch it?" Whether it is in shedding light on the origins of human locomotion and speech or helping us understand our very sense of selves, scientists who study primates both living and extinct continue to learn a lot more about human beings.

Costa Rica University Brings Bees and Farmers Together for Sustainability

Bees have long been at risk of extinction, posing a grave threat to global food production, which relies on them for pollination of approximately 75% of foodstuffs worldwide. Some analyses suggest that if bees were to vanish, life on Earth could be sustained for a mere five years longer. Recognizing the critical need to protect […] The post Costa Rica University Brings Bees and Farmers Together for Sustainability appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

Bees have long been at risk of extinction, posing a grave threat to global food production, which relies on them for pollination of approximately 75% of foodstuffs worldwide. Some analyses suggest that if bees were to vanish, life on Earth could be sustained for a mere five years longer. Recognizing the critical need to protect these vital insects and the benefits they bring to both flora and humanity, the Interdisciplinary Experimental Farm of Agroecological Models (Feima) at the Atlantic Campus of the University of Costa Rica (UCR), situated in Turrialba, has launched the Social Action Project: Establishment of Meliponariums. Meliponariums are structures constructed of wooden boxes where bees, specifically meliponas, build their hives. Notably, these boxes are crafted from entirely natural materials without any added chemicals and can be made from various types of wood readily available in the country, making their production straightforward. The primary goal of this initiative is twofold: to demonstrate that agricultural and human activities need not be detrimental to bees and to educate various stakeholders, including farm owners and institutions, about the management and vital contributions of these structures to bee preservation and environmental health. The bees housed at the Atlantic Campus are unique in that they belong to the meliponas species, which lack stingers and thus pose no threat to humans. While they typically produce minimal honey, they are exceptionally adept at generating propolis, a resin used by bees in nest construction. Notably, propolis possesses potent antibiotic and antiviral properties, making it a valuable resource in natural medicine for combating viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Dennis Barquero Bejarano, a researcher at the Atlantic Campus and agronomy instructor, elucidated the distinctive traits of meliponas and underscored the importance of preserving their habitat for their continued survival. The presence of bees hovering over crops heralds two pieces of good news: firstly, agricultural production benefits from their pollination, and secondly, it signifies the adoption of sound farming practices conducive to bee preservation. The meliponariums at the Atlantic Campus serve as indicators of environmentally friendly cultivation practices, particularly concerning meliponas. Professor Barquero highlighted practices such as abstaining from burning or using agrochemicals on weeds, as bees play a vital role in pollinating these plants. These spaces serve as valuable learning environments for students to acquire knowledge about sustainable agricultural practices. The impact of meliponariums extends beyond university grounds, reaching agricultural farms, environmental institutions, and local communities in Turrialba. Through outreach efforts such as workshops and the dissemination of agricultural best practices manuals, knowledge about bee conservation and sustainable farming techniques is shared and promoted in the region. The post Costa Rica University Brings Bees and Farmers Together for Sustainability appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

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