Elephants mourn their dead

Elephant mourn thier dead article
(Jeff) this was a very interesting article I found.Why do elephants mourn their dead like humans.

Elephants mourn their dead

Rossella Lorenzi Discovery News

Friday, 4 November 2005

Elephants honour their dead, a practice once thought to be uniquely human (Image: iStockphoto)

Elephants pay homage to the bones of their dead, gently touching the skulls and tusks with their trunks and feet, according to the first systematic study of elephant empathy for the dead.

The finding provides the first hard evidence to support stories of elephant mourning, in which the pachyderms are said to congregate at elephant cemeteries, drawn by the bones of their kin.

It also shows that these animals display a trait once thought to be unique to humans, says Dr Karen McComb, a UK expert on animal communication and cognition at the University of Sussex.

"Most mammals show only passing interest in the dead remains of their own or other species," McComb and colleagues write in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

Lions are typical in this respect: they briefly sniff or lick a dead of their own species before starting to devour the body.

Chimpanzees show more prolonged and complex interactions with dead social partners, but leave them once the carcass starts decomposing.

"In comparison, African elephants are reported not only to exhibit unusual behaviours on encountering the bodies of dead con-specifics, becoming highly agitated and investigating them with the trunk and feet, but also to pay considerable attention to the skulls, ivory and associated bones of elephants that are long dead," say the researchers.

Concrete Jungle

How far is too far when it comes to animal captivity?

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/29/5689748-concrete-jungle-department-stores-zoo-sparks-controversy-

Posted by Breanna

Animal Migration

Something I hadn't given much thought to and figured only birds do it, but taken from the National Geographic site is as follows:

From the African savannah to the frigid waters off Antarctica, from a Pacific island to the skies of North America, the mass movement of millions of creatures from one place to another is one of the most astonishing of all natural phenomena. But scientists who study the migration of creatures as disparate as the monarch butterfly and the southern elephant seal are motivated by more than just curiosity.

For migratory species, “put simply, migration is crucial for survival,” writes nature journalist and Zoological Society of London fellow Ben Hoare in his 2009 book, Animal Migration: Remarkable Journeys in the Wild. “It has evolved to enable animals to spend their life in two or more different areas, usually because a lack of food or a period of extreme weather makes it impossible to remain in the same location permanently.” Migratory animals also are driven by other imperatives, such as the need to find water or a mate, or to reach a place where they can reproduce.

Scientists also know that increasingly, many of these migratory species are threatened by the spread of human civilization, which increasingly encroaches upon their habitat and sometimes blocks access to the routes that species may have used for thousands of years. Additionally, humans sometimes compete with migratory animals for food or water sources, or destroy them through development.

“Saving the great migrations will be one of the most difficult conservation challenges of the 21st century,” according to ecologist David S. Wilcove, a Princeton University professor and author of the 2008 book No Way Home: The Decline of the World’s Great Animal Migrations. But if we fail to do so, we will pay a heavy price — aesthetically, ecologically, and even economically.” In the 19th and early 20th century, Wilcove notes, human hunting and destruction of habitat in North America drove the migratory passenger pigeon, once one of the most prolific species on the planet, into extinction. But even if species such as the wildebeest and the monarch butterfly manage to survive, he warns, their numbers may be so severely reduced that ecosystems in which they play an important role will be seriously damaged.

Read more: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/great-migrations-science#ixzz19Qjshegx

Animal Adaptations

Animals depend on food, water, and shelter to survive.  An animals' physical features can also help them obtain food, hide from enemies, build a home, attract a mate, and withstand weather.  These physical features are known as adaptations.  Animals can develop adaptations over generations.  These adaptations can be the shape of a bird's beak, the color and thickness of fur, powerful back muscles, or even an animal's eyes.  We can learn a lot about survival from animals.  How does a Gila monster stay cool in the warm sun?  How can a giraffe go for long periods without water?  How have the alligator's eyes adapted so they can see underwater?

Using the various resources available today, look into your favorite animal and what adaptations it has developed over the past centuries.  You might learn something you never knew before! 

Posted by Breanna