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Jan

8

2009
 
 

You Snooze, You Win?



The slow, sleepy and shy may win the race for survival. Turns out that it pays to sleep away your troubles. At least, that is, if you’re a mammal facing environmental threats like pollution, deforestation, and climate change. In a study in The American Naturalist, scientists categorized all 4,536 living mammal species based on whether they exhibited “sleep-or-hide” (SLOH) behaviors such as hibernation or the use of burrows. The goal was to test the theory that, because “sleeper” species conserve energy during stressful periods and “hiders” spend less time exposed to the elements, they might be better able withstand a changing planet. Sure enough, the researchers found that the 443 species that made the SLOH cut—groundhogs, moles, and bats to name a few—were less likely than more active mammals to be classified as threatened or endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. This held true even after accounting for other factors that affect extinction risk, such as body size and geographic range. The study delivers the first confirmation that SLOH species might make up a disproportionately large percentage of the survivors of current, and likely past, extinction crises. Maybe burying your head in the sand isn’t such a bad idea after all. —Jessica Leber Source: Liow, L.H. et al. 2009. Lower Extinction Risk in Sleep-Or-Hide Mammals. The American Naturalist DOI: 10.1086/595756 Image © Alan Tobey / iStock

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Mar

22

2007
 
 

Jungle fever



It's not easy being a gorillaGorillas and chimpanzees could be infecting each other with deadly virus The Zaïre strain of the Ebola virus has devastated gorilla Gorilla gorilla and chimpanzee Pan troglodytes populations in West Africa, but little is known about how the disease is transmitted between groups. However, observations published this week in American Naturalist suggest that there are plenty of opportunities for the deadly virus to jump between not only groups of animals but also different species. An international team of biologists, led by Peter Walsh at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, present several lines of evidence that the virus can easily spread. Gorillas, for example, inspect their dead. Potentially infectious material – blood, saliva, faeces and even body parts – can quickly be scattered by scavengers, raising the chances of transmission. Gorillas and chimpanzees have also been seen feeding in the same tree, where their close proximity could easily prove fatal. Source: Walsh PD, Breuer T, Sanz C, Morgan D & Doran-Sheehy D (2007) Potential for Ebola transmission between gorilla and chimpanzee social groups. American Naturalist DOI: 10.1086/513494 Image © Fanelie Rosier Related story in Conservation magazine: No easy way out

Filed Under Endangered species, Monitoring | Leave a Comment

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