Everything To Know

THIS BURMESE PYTHON IS 5.1 METERS (17 FOOT) LONG AND WEIGHS 59.8 KILOGRAMS (132 POUNDS). SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT

Python hunters have found a monster slithering around the Everglades.

Snake hunter Jason Leon captured a 5.1-meter (17-foot) Burmese python in the Florida Everglades. Weighing 59.8 kilograms (132 pounds), it’s thought this female could be a record-breaker for the longest snake caught by the South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) Python Elimination Program. It was found earlier this week submerged in the water of an SFWMD territory near Big Cypress National Preserve.

“That snake could pretty much kill any full-grown man,” Leon told NBC 6 Miami local news. “If that snake was alive right now, it would probably take like three of us to be able to control that snake.”

As the name suggests, Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia. Over the past 50 years, the balmy swamps of southern Florida have become the home of hundreds of pythons, most of which are believed to have been released by pet-owners or escaped. The US Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that 99,000 Burmese pythons were imported for the US pet trade between 1996 and 2006.

These snakes are apex predators with a gargantuan appetite for medium-sized mammals and birds, so their introduction to a new environment can have a huge effect on the wider food chains and ecosystem.

“In areas of heavy python population, there is a 99 percent reduction in fur-bearing animals,” SFWMD Python Elimination Program Manager Mike Kirkland told ABC News.

As such, they are treated as an invasive species, with local authorities investing a lot of time and money into capturing and killing this species for the good of the wider ecosystem.

“In total, the hunters have removed 743 pythons. If they were laid out end to end, it would equal over 5,000 feet [1,524 meters] and weigh over 11,000 pounds [4,990 kilograms],” Kirkland added.

There’s no doubt that this is a mighty big beast. However, a few years ago, authorities in Florida caught a Burmese python measuring 5.5 meters (approximately 18 feet). Bigger still, locals on the Indonesian island of Sumatra came across a 7-meter (23-foot) long individual just the other month.

Thousands of species are at serious risk of being driven to extinction, according to the latest annual Red List of Threatened Species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). You won’t be surprised to learn that the main cause of these animals and plants being snuffed out is us, with expanding agriculture, fishing, and climate change as the top culprits.

The latest list looked at the status of 91,523 species in total, and found that 11,783 are vulnerable, 8,455 are endangered, and 5,583 are considered critically endangered. The report was presented by Craig Hilton-Taylor, who leads the team that conducts the IUCN assessment in Tokyo. They offset the overall gloom with a rare positive example of a species being saved from extinction, as two species of kiwi have now been downgraded.

Some of the species mentioned on the list are two species of Asian cetacean, the Irrawaddy dolphin and the finless porpoise, with both moving from the vulnerable to endangered category. Both species live close to shore and within river systems, meaning that while they are not actively hunted, they frequently fall victim to being trapped and drowned in gillnets. This has caused their populations to crash over the past few decades.

“Gillnets hang like curtains of death across rivers and trap everything that comes into contact with them,” said Hilton-Taylor during the announcement to The Guardian. In fact, it is now thought that gillnets are the greatest threat to the survival of whales and dolphins worldwide. The baiji dolphin is now likely extinct due to the use of gillnets for fishing in the Yangtze River, while the vaquita porpoise in the Gulf of California is rapidly heading in a similar direction.

For the first time ever for many species, the team were able to assess the status of 95 wild crops. Worryingly, three species of rice, two wild wheat, and 17 wild yam species are at risk from expanding agriculture and habitat destruction. As climate change kicks in, preserving these wild species will be more critical than ever.

Yet thankfully, it is not all bad news. The IUCN highlight the momentous efforts being taken by New Zealand to bring two species of kiwi back from the precipice of extinction. Both the Okarito kiwi and the northern brown kiwi have been downgraded from endangered to vulnerable, after intensive predator control on offshore islands have helped boost their numbers.

Back in 1995, there were thought to be only 160 Okarito kiwi alive, but this number has now been boosted to up to 450 adults, while the northern brown kiwi populations are thought to be growing by over 2 percent a year. This, the organization says, goes to show exactly how conservation can and does work.

Original Article : iflscience 

Instagram has decided to put its foot down at last by creating a warning message that will pop up when certain hashtags are searched, particularly those related to exotic wildlife selfies.

This follows growing reports of animals that are captured from the wild simply to become tourist attractions for those seeking cute photos. Yes, that’s right, if you have friends who can’t help but pick up a cute furry sloth every time they travel, chances are the animal is probably distressed due to being carried around and held by multiple strangers every day.

In places like Mexico and Thailand, lions and tigers are big attractions, but this has become hugely controversial in recent times as it seems these animals are drugged up to keep them weak and drowsy so they can't attack visitors. Whilst some may think the animals are being looked after, the reality is they’re being abused.

So exactly how will Instagram help fight the suffering of these animals? Well, if you search for hashtags such as “#TigerSelfie”, “#MonkeySelfie”, or even “#SlothSelfie”, along with other keywords that have not been announced, a message from Instagram will appear that says the hashtag could be affiliated with the harmful treatment of animals.

The “Protect Wildlife on Instagram” message, which will appear when grammers search the hashtags, also contains links to wildlife charities fighting the issue to help users fully understand what the endangered animals are put through. Meanwhile, hashtags related to the exotic pet trade will also be flagged, such as #exoticanimalforsale. 

In October this year, it was reported that eco-tourism companies were part of the problem, purposely removing animals from the wild and encouraging tourists to take photos with them. Investigators flew to Brazil and Peru, where they witnessed animals like crocodiles and sloths suffering a great deal, all thanks to the wildlife selfie trade. 

With the rise of the wildlife selfie trend, having your picture taken with a sloth or monkey might seem like the norm to those unaware of the cruelty that these animals all over the world face. According to World Animal Protection, animal selfies publicly posted on Instagram have increased by 292 since 2014.

Emily Cain, a spokesperson for Instagram, told National Geographic that she believes it’s vital for Instagram users to be aware of the problem. “We’re trying to do our part to educate them,” she shared. “We care about our community, including the animals and the wildlife that are an important part of the platform.” 

NOTE: NOT TO SCALE. JORDAN ADKINS/SHUTTERSTOCK

Although no one’s quite sure how many there are, estimates of the number of rats in New York City range from a quarter of a million to somewhere near the 2 million mark. Either way, that’s far more than most people would be comfortable with.

Many view these critters as a monolithic, writhing mass of squeak-emitting filth bags; disease-carrying rodents and nothing more. However, a new study in the journal Molecular Ecology has found that there are two distinct genetic varieties in Manhattan: Uptown and Downtown rats.

The two-year-long research project, conducted by Fordham University and Providence College, involved scooting around the famous concrete jungle, capturing rats, and cutting off a little piece of their tails. Using this library of 262 severed rat segments, the team assessed their genomes and came to their aforementioned conclusion.

Manhattan’s brown rats, which likely first invaded the city from Great Britain (and possibly France) back in the 1700s, are split into two different “evolutionary clusters”, as per the authors’ paper. This doesn’t mean that they are separate species – an Uptown and Downtown pair could still produce viable offspring, for example – but it does suggest they have kept to themselves for some time now.

Even within these two subsets of brown rat, there were smaller genetic “islands” to be discovered. “Within the Uptown cluster, rats in Upper Manhattan and the northern portion of Harlem West and Harlem Central were differentiated from those in the Upper West, Upper East, and Harlem East,” the team explain.

Still, the big finding here is the split between Uptown and Downtown. So what’s the cause of this rat snobbery?

Something is clearly causing a reduction in the flow of genes across Midtown. The team suspect that there are probably less rats in that section overall because it’s not as comfortable for these donut, avocado, and (of course) pizza-wielding vermin to inhabit.

“Every neighborhood in Manhattan supports the presence of rats to some degree,” but “Midtown is largely a center of commerce and tourism,” the paper notes. There’s less food waste there, less suitable shelter, and “increased levels of disturbance.” Pest control there may also be more prominent.

All in all, this is creating a barrier to immigration from Uptown to Downtown, and vice versa – hence the two evolutionary clusters of brown rats.

Widespread genetic analyses are rather marvelous at completely revolutionizing our understanding of animals we take for granted. Now, thanks to this novel study, we know the reputation of New York City as a diverse, cosmopolitan metropolis doesn’t just apply to its human residents.

It’s long been debated which is smarter – dogs or cats? Those in the dog camp claim that the ability to be trained makes man’s best friend the brainiest, while fans of felines argue that a cat’s nonchalance, independence, and high standards make it far superior. Cats were once worshipped as gods, after all.  

However, science seems to have brought new evidence to the debate, something that will bring smug satisfaction to every “dog person”. It turns out that dogs have many more neurons in the cerebral cortex of their brains than cats. These special cells are associated with various signs of intelligence like thinking, planning, and complex behavior. 

Published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, the study didn’t just focus on our favorite pets. The international team of scientists looked at the brains of various carnivore species too. Interestingly, they found that only the smaller species – dogs and smaller – have higher densities of cortical neurons. Striped hyenas have fewer than dogs, for example, and brown bears have the same number as cats.

Meanwhile, raccoons, despite having small, cat-sized brains, have as many neurons as dogs, making them “comparable to primates in neuronal density”, and therefore rather smart. No wonder they can solve puzzles and are famed for being cunning thieves.     

What’s more, domestication didn’t seem to have any effect on neuronal composition in the brains of the carnivores tested in the study.

"I believe the absolute number of neurons an animal has, especially in the cerebral cortex, determines the richness of their internal mental state and their ability to predict what is about to happen in their environment based on past experience," said study author Suzana Herculano-Houzel of Vanderbilt University in a statement.

The team found that dogs have around 530 million cortical neurons in their brains, while cats have just 250 million. For scale, humans have 16 billion. But before you get too smug about how smart people are, long-finned pilot whales have 37 billion. In fact, according to a 2016 article in Scientific American Mind, this “plays havoc with the notion that humans have more nerve cells where it counts than any other species on the planet”.

The researchers in this latest study chose to analyze carnivores due to the wide range of sizes it incorporates – from the powerful polar bear to the little least weasel – and the fact that it includes both wild and domestic animals. The team looked at the brains of eight species: ferrets, mongooses, raccoons, cats, dogs, hyenas, lions, and brown bears.      

Before the study, they predicted that these creatures would have more cortical neurons than the herbivores they hunt. However, to their surprise, they found that the neurons-to-brain size ratio in small- and medium-sized carnivores was actually the same as in herbivores, and that in large carnivores like bears, it was lower. Although the team's sample size was small, it appears that prey animals require more intelligence to escape being hunted than we tend to give them credit for.

The lower numbers of cortical neurons in large carnivores is likely due to the energy that the brain requires – energy-wise, the brain is our most expensive organ.

"Meat eating is largely considered a problem-solver in terms of energy, but, in retrospect, it is clear that carnivory must impose a delicate balance between how much brain and body a species can afford," said Herculano-Houzel in the statement.

So, dogs are smarter than cats, but cortical neuron density is not the be-all and end-all of intelligence. “There are multiple ways that nature has found of putting brains together – and we're trying to figure out what difference that makes," explained Herculano-Herzel. 

In case you missed it, scientists are running for Congress. Largely thanks to the actions of the political action group 314 Action, academics from fields as diverse as cancer research and volcanology are gearing up to take on the climate change-denying acolytes of the Trump administration.

Back in June, we spoke to the masterminds behind this unprecedented drive to make American science great again. In the months since then, their efforts to get qualified scientists back into politics – precisely the opposite of what the current President is doing – has made giant strides forwards.

314 Action recently had a gathering in Washington DC of those on the frontline of the war on science, including researchers that are currently in power and those that were seeking office for the first time.

We at IFLScience thought this was a good opportunity to ask them to do what scientists are exceedingly well practiced in: peer review. This time around, the research focus was on the Trump administration, and it’s safe to say that they’re enraged, saddened, and aghast. As a result, they’re all the more emboldened to resist.

Here’s what some of them had to say.

Aerospace engineer Joseph Kopser tells us that the Trump administration's treatment of scientists remind him of the “hysterical witch hunts of yesteryear... the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Dark Ages.”

“We should be elevating the amazing works that scientists have accomplished throughout history and celebrating the continued accomplishments thereof – from Benjamin Franklin, to Neil DeGrasse Tyson, to the young men and woman who will pioneer the next great breakthrough.”

Kopser is running for TX-21, where Lamar Smith – the Republican Representative who is currrently is in charge of the embarrassingly anti-scientific House Science Committee – announced he is retiring from in 2018. If successful, Kosper said he “would restore science to its proper place... to ensure it’s viewed as a way to advance society, improve life, and enhance a greater understanding of our world.”

A Democratic congressman with a background in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and a long history of supporting scientific research, Representative Paul Tonko (NY-20) thinks we’re at a flashpoint in history.

“Not since the Scientific Revolution has there been a more important moment to stand for the basic ideas that inquiry must be free and facts and evidence matter,” he tells IFLScience.

“Our economic growth depends on investing in scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs and engineers,” he highlights, explaining that “belittling the scientific community or cutting basic research will only cede our global leadership to nations that are determined to create the products and ideas of the future.”

Wary of the infiltration of industry-backed climate deniers into the federal government, Tonko recently introduced the Scientific Integrity Act, a bill that would “put a firewall” between state-funded science “and the lobbyists and industries that work tirelessly to influence or distort the scientific findings from that work.”

Citing the EPA under Scott Pruitt, the massive proposed cuts to federal science, and the withdrawal from the Paris accords, neuroscientist Dr Hans Keirstead tells IFLScience: “At every turn it has become more and more apparent that the worst-case scenario for science is unfolding before our eyes at the hands of the President.”

“It's clear the Trump Administration has no respect for the opinions of scientists,” he notes, adding that he’s running for office and sacrificing much of his scientific career so that he can “give science a voice in the halls of power, and to push back on the attacks on science.”

This world-renowned stem cell researcher is running for Congress, and is seeking to displace Dana Rohrabacher, a high-ranking Republican member of the House Science Committee. Rohrabacher is a long-time climate change denier, and recently asked NASA if there were ever alien civilizations on Mars in the last few thousand years.

“American science has always been ‘great’ – it just hasn't had a voice in Congress lately to support or defend it,” Keirstead surmises.

A Democratic congresswoman with an education in computer science, Representative Jacky Rosen (NV-3) has spent much of her career at the Capitol fighting for STEM education rights for girls. She’s now running for Senate against Dean Heller, the senior Republican Senator from Nevada.

“From withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords to rolling back the Clean Power Plan, this administration is no ally to the scientific community,” she tells IFLScience.

Describing the White House’s plan to pull out of the Paris accords as an “abdication of American leadership,” Rosen says that the country “needs lawmakers in office who will fight for evidence-based policy solutions that address our country's most urgent challenges.”

Referencing her background, she suggests that Congress “should be encouraging individuals, especially young students, to become well-versed in STEM education and do more to highlight the many possibilities that a STEM education can provide.”

Proving that she’s happy to put her words into actions, Rosen has recently introduced two bipartisan bills to the House that fund STEM education for both young boys and girls.

“It's gone from a war on science to a war on facts,” said Shaughnessy Naughton, a chemical scientist and 314’s founder.

“The president is instructing Federal Agencies to ignore the science behind climate change,” she adds. “This is not only a threat to environmental and social issues but also a threat to our national security.”

Jess Phoenix, a volcanologist running for Congress, has always had strong words for the federal government, and this time round was no exception.

“Using our brains is the reason for much of America’s success. If you hobble someone’s intellect – if you tell them to not use their brains – you are making people slaves to an ideology. In this case, the ideology is profit, profit, profit,” she tells us.

“We believe what we’re fighting for. We have the courage of our conviction. All the people on the other side? All they have is profit.”

Referencing the EPA, she explains that the government is systematically dismantling it. “There will be some irreparable and irreversible damage. It’ll be on their heads, but they’ll be rich enough – or they’ll be dead – so that it won’t hurt them. But it’ll hurt our kids.”

“The current EPA under Pruitt and Trump is a perversion of the organization’s fundamental mission,” she concludes.

Another Congressional candidate, Matt Longjohn – an MD who served as National Health Director for the YMCA – feels much the same way. He strongly feels that an antidote to the Trump administration’s disparaging of science is to “prioritize investment in early childhood STEM education programs,” and to “champion the success of fact-based policies.”

“America has the best universities and the brightest minds in the world; to willingly cast aside their expertise is downright irresponsible,” Congressional candidate Roger Dean Huffstetler, chemist and tech startup CEO, tells IFLScience.

Explaining that there is a huge deficit in STEM educators in American schools, he suggests that the country needs “to do a better job educating the next generation of scientists and engineers if we are to ensure that America remains the most innovative country in the world.”

Congressional hopeful Chrissy Houlahan, an engineer and Air Force Veteran, laments that “tragically, the Trump Administration has made science a partisan issue.”

“Science is, was, and always will be great. What we need to do, as a government, is support science and leave it to the scientists and science professionals.”

It cannot be overstated that these scientists are essentially giving up their life's work in order to fundamentally alter the way the US government works. Will their rebellion prove to be successful during the 2018 midterms? That, of course, depends on what kind of America you're hoping to see: one of facts or alternative facts.