Sealion Deaths at 'Home' of Evolution

The report (http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=37913) that the bodies of around 50 sealions have been found on the Galapagos Islands with crushed skulls indicating that they had been clubbed to death is very disturbing. The islands are, of course, strongly linked to the development of Charles Darwin's Theory of evolution and are a major tourist attraction of Equador for people interested in animal life and conservation. There have been other ocassions in the past where there has been conflict between people trying to conserve the locality for 'ecotourism' and others wanting a freer hand in exploiting the fisheries around the shores of this collection of islands. There appears to be no clear evidence about who carried out this act but fishermen the world over often seem to resent (sometimes with fatal consequences for the animals) sealions, seals and dolphins who are taking 'their' fish. It is very difficult to maintain such localities as human pressures increase.

Update on Abbotsbury Bird 'Flu Outbreak

A fifth (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2008/01/10/bird_flu_abbotsbury_feature.shtml) swan has apparently tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird 'flu. The Centre is currently closed with a 20 km exclusion zone from Abbotsbury to Portland. This is further bad news (and will hit the finances of the Swannery) but the numbers of confirmed infected birds is, at least, modest and (apparently) containable. There appears to be no evidence of the virus appearing at adjacent bird locations (http://www.bridportnews.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1957040.mostcommented.bird_flu_alert_at_abbotsbury_swannery_updated.php).

Boar Bores?

There is a report (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3257036.ece) that in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland people are paying large amounts of money to shoot 'wild' boar that are driven towards them (whilst they wait on 4 feet tall 'shooting stands') by dogs. The shooters apparently find the boar more exciting than pheasants. The meat finds a local market being much more 'gamey' in taste than traditional pork. As the boar are no longer regarded as indigenous mammals, it is legal to kill them and it is also lawful to use dogs under the 2004 Hunting Act so long as a maximum of 2 are used at any one time. The British boar (http://www.britishwildboar.org.uk/profile.html) are powerful animals (they can be up to 190 kg with sharp upper tusks up to around 15 cm long). They can (and do) easily kill a dog and can seriously injure a human bystander. Although the locations are protected by electrical fences, it seems only a matter of time before these intelligent animals re-introduce themselves to the wild (as they have already done in southern England). They could prove very damaging to the landscape, crops and the nests of ground-nesting birds.

Bye-Bye or Buy-Buy to Biofuels?

The debate about whether biofuels are actually beneficial to the planet continues to rumble on (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jan/26/biofuels.carbonemissions), especially as the EU is apparently going to force oil companies selling in Europe to incorporate biofuels into the petrol and diesel that they market. Even the major environmental action groups cannot agree, with 'Friends of the Earth' condemning the move and the W0rldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) applauding it. The basic problem (as we have seen in my earlier postings) is that, if one does a 'proper' audit of the environmental impacts of biofuels as well as their effects on the emissions of 'greenhouse gases', one gets very varied pictures for the benefits of different materials. The first thing to note, is that methanol/ethanol and biodiesel are competing fuels for internal combustion engines. A proper environmental costs versus greenhouse gas production benefits analysis seems to show that the worst biofuels are more destructive to the planet than petrol or diesel derived from fossil oils. Amongst the very worst appear to be ethanol derived from Rye or Potatos in the EU (with both a high environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions similar to regular petrol), Biodiesel derived from Soya beans in Brazil (with their impact on the destruction of the Amazon rain forest that can be viewed as the planet's lung) and ethanol obtained from fermenting corn in the USA. The best biofuels appear to be less damaging than the fuels derived from the dwindling fossil oils. These include biodiesel obtained in France from recycled oil (and this is a bit dubious, given the fact that ultimately it is derived from fossil fuels), methanol/ethanol obtained by fermenting wood chippings (a waste forestry/garden product) and ethanol obtained from whey (a waste dairy product). What is particularly striking is that none of the biofuels obtained from plants grown in a similar way to food crops (including grass, sugarcane, sugar beet or palm oil) appeared superior to petrol. These, of course, will include precisely the materials in the EU that farmers will be keen to grow for their obvious economic benefits. I doubt whether the EU will attempt to distinguish between good and bad biofuels in the rush to be seen to be doing something about climate change. This sounds very negative but at least people appear to be thinking more widely about the whole issue of engine fuels and their true impacts. I suspect that the debate has away to rumble.

Seeing the Changes 63

After a wet and windy session, the weather has turned mild again. In addition to the last-mentioned flowers, there are lots of Daisies (Bellis perennis) and a few Creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) around Bynea and Loughor. In Loughor, many of the Ivy (Hedera helix) berries have turned black. The twig looks relatively unchanged. On sunday in the grounds of the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne (Carmarthenshire) the Lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) and Hutchinsia (Hornungia petraea) are in bloom in addition to the planted snowdrops under the trees. The pungent flowers of Daphne bholua are already attracting Honey bees (Apis mellifera). Bumblebees (Bombus spp) and hoverflies. The Common backswimmer (Notonecta glauca) is already active on slow flowing stream surfaces.

Leaping to the Defence of the Frog

There has been a recent flurry of activity related to the conservation of the World's Amphibia (frogs, toads, newts, salamanders etc) including the 'Edge' project by the Zoological Society of London aimed at raising the profiles of the 100 currently most endangered species of this group of strange, ancient vertebrates(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jan/21/conservation). One problem for these animals is that they lack the charisma of a tiger or a panda. They are, however, a 'key' link in the evolution story with some remarkable abilities and an important role in ecology, eating pest species and providing food for other (often more appreciated) species e.g. dragonflies, otters and herons. The skin secretions of some of these animals (e.g. the Poison arrow frogs) are also of considerable medical importance (and there appears to be scope for further investigation here). The species (20% of those in the 'Edge' project have not been recorded for decades and may already be extinct) are threatened by habitat loss (they generally need both land and freshwater habitats). This has been particularly well illustrated with reference to rainforest loss (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/apr/17/frontpagenews.conservation). Pollution with agro-chemicals (their permeable skins are said to make them excellent 'bioindicators' of environmental contamination) are thought to also be problematic, although the dynamics of such effects may be complex (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bsc/jappl/2006/00000043/00000004/art00009). The fungal infection chytridiomycosis (thought to have driven around 40 species to extinction) is also a very serious threat to Amphibia. There has, however, been some recent good news in this respect. Apparently, bathing Amphibia in a solution of Choramphenicol, a component of clinical eye ointment, protects Amphibia from chytridiomycosis (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7067613.stm).

The Twig- Mid January

A second image of the twig taken on Sunday 20th January.