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| Giant Panda - Ailuropoda Melanoleuca | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 11 2012, 12:18 AM (9,664 Views) | |
| Taipan | Aug 29 2017, 12:53 PM Post #16 |
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Keeping pandas off endangered list ledge Date: August 28, 2017 Source: Michigan State University  A young panda peers from its perch in a tree in the Wolong Nature Center in the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan, China. Credit: Sue Nichols, Michigan State University Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability Things aren't all black and white for giant pandas. The beloved Chinese icons have basked in good press lately -- their extinction risk status downgraded from "endangered" to "vulnerable," their good fortunes shown to rub off on their less charismatic forest neighbors that benefit from panda-centric conservation efforts. Yet endangered vs. vulnerable isn't a pass/fail status. In Biological Conservation, Michigan State University (MSU) scientists agree with the logic of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for down-listing the pandas -- to a point. The MSU team takes both a finer, and broader, look at panda habitat and finds gaps in understanding. Gaps big enough for panda survival to fall through. "Sustainability of a species like the panda relies on holistic and thorough analyses," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability. "We all want to do a victory dance for the panda, but need to continue to understand and address possible threats. There is no declaring a victory and moving on." The IUCN drew heavily on data collected in the Third (1999 to 2003) and Fourth (2001 to 2004) National Giant Panda Surveys. The problem that researchers, led by PhD student Hongbo Yang, found is that the two surveys used somewhat different ranges and the habitat analyses based on the survey data did not incorporate range-wide information about bamboo (pandas' staple food). That meant they missed important changes in habitat suitability and how much of the habitat, however good, is fragmented. The methods the MSU team used were a blend of detailed satellite images that provided rich information about bamboo and integrating that information with on-the-ground data. This study for the first time examines changes across the whole geographic range of panda habitat. What they see is agreement that high-quality panda habitat is indeed growing. In fact, they also find that areas outside nature reserves are showing increases in favorable panda habitat patches, thanks to sweeping nation-wide conservation efforts to curb deforestation and return cropland to forest. However, there was a growing fragmentation between those habitat patches, due to human activities such as roads or development, and natural events, such as the catastrophic Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008. This insight infuses "vulnerable" status with concern. Story Source: Michigan State University. "Keeping pandas off endangered list ledge." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170828105401.htm (accessed August 28, 2017). Journal Reference: Hongbo Yang, Andrés Viña, Ying Tang, Jindong Zhang, Fang Wang, Zhiqiang Zhao, Jianguo Liu. Range-wide evaluation of wildlife habitat change: A demonstration using Giant Pandas. Biological Conservation, 2017; 213: 203 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.07.010 Abstract Information on wildlife habitat distribution and change is crucial for the design and evaluation of conservation efforts. While habitat distribution has been evaluated for many species, information on habitat change is often unclear, particularly across entire geographic ranges. Here we use the iconic giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) as a model species and present an advanced approach to evaluate its habitat change across an entire geographic range through the integration of time-series satellite imagery and field data. Our results show that despite a few areas showing habitat degradation, both the overall habitat suitability and habitat area increased between the early 2000s and the early 2010s. Our results also indicate that conservation efforts in China have achieved success beyond the boundaries of nature reserves, since panda habitat outside nature reserves shows a higher proportional growth than inside the reserves. Despite these promising trends, we found habitat fragmentation remains a threat to the species' long-term survival. These results provide valuable information to assess the appropriateness of recent decision by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that down-listed the giant panda from endangered to vulnerable species, while laying a good foundation for the design of future conservation efforts. The approach described here may also be easily implemented for evaluating range-wide habitat change for many other species around the world and thus help achieve biodiversity conservation objectives such as those set by the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717304913?via%3Dihub |
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| Taipan | Sep 26 2017, 12:42 PM Post #17 |
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Panda habitat shrinking, becoming more fragmented Modern GIS technologies could improve our assessment of the species' extinction risks Date: September 25, 2017 Source: Duke University Summary: Using remote sensing data, Chinese and US scientists have re-assessed the conservation status of the giant panda. Their analysis shows that while panda numbers are increasing, their habitat still covers less area and is more fragmented than it was in 1988, when the species was listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List.  Giant pandas live in scattered populations in the wet, cool bamboo forests of China's mountainous Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, making it difficult for scientists to monitor their populations and extinction risks. Credit: Binbin Li A study by Chinese and U.S. scientists finds that while populations of the iconic giant panda have increased recently, the species' habitat still covers less area and is more fragmented than when it was first listed as an endangered species in 1988. The study, published Sept. 25 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, used geospatial technologies and remote sensing data to map recent land-use changes and the development of roads within the panda's habitat. "The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has recently changed the status of the giant panda from 'endangered' to the less threatened 'vulnerable,' " said Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. "This was based on the increasing numbers, which are a very encouraging sign, of course." "But what my colleagues and I wanted to know was how the panda's habitat has changed over the last four decades, because the extent and connectivity of a species' habitat is also a major factor in determining its risk of extinction," Pimm said. The team, led by Zhuyan Ouyang and Weihua Xu of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used satellite imagery to examine changes across the panda's entire geographic range from 1976 to 2013. "We found complex changes," Xu said. "Habitat decreased nearly 5 percent from 1976 to 2001, but has increased since. However, the average size of the habitat patches decreased by 23 percent from 1976 to 2001. It has increased only slightly since." Study co-author Jianguo Liu of Michigan State University, who began studying the human and natural forces driving habitat loss in the panda's geographic range in 1996, noted that some of the changes that have occurred in the region are encouraging. "Banning commercial logging in natural forests, establishing nature reserves and helping residents in the reserve change behaviors that damaged habitat has been beneficial," said Liu, who published Pandas and People (Oxford University Press) last year with four other authors of the new study. "But conservation is a dynamic process with humans and nature in a constant push and pull to survive and thrive, so new solutions always are in demand." Other changes, though highly beneficial to the region's human population, present challenges from a conservation standpoint. "The most obvious changes in this region since Professor Liu and his colleague Professor Zhiyun Ouyang first visited it together in 2001 have been the increase and improvement in roads and other infrastructure," Pimm said. "These have been the major factor in fragmenting the habitat. There was nearly three times the density of roads in 2013 than in 1976." "We suggest several solutions," Ouyang concluded. "One of the most important will be to establish protected corridors through which pandas can move to prevent their isolation into small and unsustainable populations." Story Source: Duke University. "Panda habitat shrinking, becoming more fragmented: Modern GIS technologies could improve our assessment of the species' extinction risks." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170925111341.htm (accessed September 25, 2017). Journal Reference: Weihua Xu, Andrés Viña, Lingqiao Kong, Stuart L. Pimm, Jingjing Zhang, Wu Yang, Yi Xiao, Lu Zhang, Xiaodong Chen, Jianguo Liu, Zhiyun Ouyang. Reassessing the conservation status of the giant panda using remote sensing. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0317-1 The conservation status of the iconic giant panda is a barometer of global conservation efforts. The IUCN Red List has downgraded the panda’s extinction risk from “endangered” to “vulnerable”. Newly obtained, detailed GIS and remotely sensed data applied consistently over the last four decades show that panda habitat covered less area and was more fragmented in 2013 than in 1988 when the species was listed as endangered. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0317-1 |
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| Taipan | Oct 5 2017, 04:03 PM Post #18 |
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Livestock grazing harming giant panda habitat Hungry horses and cows have damaged more than one third of panda habitat in China's Wanglang National Nature Reserve Date: October 3, 2017 Source: Duke University Summary: One third of the giant panda habitat in China's Wanglang National Nature Reserve has been degraded and lost to livestock grazing, a new study finds. Livestock numbers in the park have increased ninefold in the last 15 years.  A giant panda eats bamboo in Wanglang National Nature Reserve. Credit: Binbin Li Increased livestock grazing in China's Wanglang National Nature Preserve has damaged one third of all giant panda habitat in the park, a new study by Chinese and U.S. scientists finds. The habitat degradation coincides with a nine-fold increase in livestock numbers within the park over the past 15 years. "Increasing numbers of free-ranging livestock inside the reserve's forests have caused tremendous impacts on bamboos, which constitute 99 percent of the giant pandas' diet," said Binbin Li, assistant professor at Duke Kunshan University's Environmental Research Centre, who led the study. "What is worse, overgrazing has reduced the regeneration of these bamboos," Li said. "Local communities leave their livestock to free range in the forests and only come to feed them salt twice a month. So the livestock feed on the bamboos year-round, especially in winter." Li and her colleagues from Duke University, Peking University and Wanglang National Nature Reserve published their findings Oct. 3 in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Conservation. The Wanglang reserve is located in the Min Mountains of Sichuan Province, home to the largest population of wild giant pandas in China. The park is one of the oldest and most important of the 67 nature reserves China has established in recent decades to protect wild giant pandas. National forest conservation policies have helped halt deforestation in these parks, but as the new study shows, increased livestock grazing presents a new threat. To conduct the analysis, Li and her team used 20 years of monitoring data to survey changes in the geographic distribution of bamboos, pandas and livestock within the park. This allowed the scientists to model where degradation or loss of panda habitats has occurred. Livestock movements were tracked by GPS collars. "This long-term monitoring shows that the pandas are being driven out of the areas that are heavily used by the livestock, especially the park's valleys," said Stuart Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Biology at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. "These lower elevation areas are crucial for giant pandas, especially during winter and spring." On-the-ground observations of panda activity in the park's valleys support the model's findings. "We have found many fewer signs of pandas in these areas in recent years," said Luo Chunping, a staff scientist at Wanglang National Nature Reserve. "If grazing is left uncontrolled, we are going to lose huge amounts of suitable panda habitats, to which we have devoted so much effort to protect in the past decades," Li said. Numerous factors could be driving local communities to increase their use of the reserve for livestock grazing, the study's authors noted. These factors include the federal ban on logging and the policy to revert previously cleared cropland on steep slopes back into forests. They could also include increased consumer demand for meat in local markets; a sharp drop in tourism income in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the region in 2008; and unclear government policies about financial compensation for farmers who agree to remove their livestock from protected areas. With the loss of so many other sources of income, raising livestock in the forested areas has become an increasingly popular livelihood. The researchers are working with local communities and other stakeholders to more fully understand the socio-economic drivers of the rapid increase of livestock grazing in the park's forests in recent years, and identify potential solutions. "These problems are not unique to our study area, but common throughout the panda nature reserves and habitats. It is not just an ecological problem, but also a gamble between the communities, the nature reserves, local governments and other stakeholders," said Li Sheng, assistant professor of conservation biology at Peking University. "Instead of just a livestock ban, we need to find alternative livelihood practices for the local community, like job opportunities in tourism or forest stewardship, which are preferred by the locals we interviewed," Li said. "Reduce the number of livestock in panda habitats, promote better ways of raising livestock, and find the balance between panda conservation and local development. These are our goals." Story Source: Duke University. "Livestock grazing harming giant panda habitat: Hungry horses and cows have damaged more than one third of panda habitat in China's Wanglang National Nature Reserve." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171003125449.htm (accessed October 5, 2017). Journal Reference: Binbin V. Li, Stuart L. Pimm, Sheng Li, Lianjun Zhao, Chunping Luo. Free-ranging livestock threaten the long-term survival of giant pandas. Biological Conservation, 2017; 216: 18 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.09.019 Abstract China has implemented forest policies and expanded protected areas to halt deforestation and protect giant panda habitats. These policies simultaneously encouraged local communities to raise livestock that then freely range in forests. This grazing had unintended consequences. As an alternative livelihood, it has become the most prevalent human disturbance across the panda's range. How do free-ranging livestock impact giant panda habitats and what are the implications for future conservation and policy on a larger scale? We use Wanglang National Nature Reserve as a case study. It has seen a nine-fold livestock increase during past 15 years. We combined bamboo survey plots, GPS collar tracking, long-term monitoring, and species distribution modelling incorporating species interaction to understand the impacts across spatial and temporal scales. Our results showed that livestock, especially horses, lead to a significant reduction of bamboo biomass and regeneration. The most intensively used areas by livestock are in the valleys, which are also the areas that pandas prefer. Adding livestock presence to predictive models of the giant panda's distribution yielded a higher accuracy and suggested livestock reduce panda habitat by 34%. Pandas were driven out of the areas intensively used by livestock. We recommend the nature reserve carefully implement a livestock ban and prioritise removing horses because they cause the greater harm. To give up livestock, local communities prefer long-term subsidies or jobs to a one-time payment. Thus, we recommend the government provide payments for ecosystem services that create jobs in forest stewardship or tourism while reducing the number of domestic animals. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717307231?via%3Dihub |
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| Taipan | Oct 28 2017, 02:16 PM Post #19 |
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The first ancestors of giant pandas probably lived in Europe Its roots could be in another part of the world NurPhoto/Getty By Jasmin Fox-Skelly NEWS & TECHNOLOGY 27 October 2017 A bear very similar to a panda lived in what’s now Hungary 10 million years ago. The creature ate a similar diet to modern giant pandas, suggesting their unusual bamboo-chewing lifestyle has survived through evolutionary time. The finding also adds to the evidence that pandas originated in Europe, not Asia. The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is only found in forested mountain ranges in central China. It famously eats little but indigestible bamboo, despite having the digestive system of a carnivore, and is one of the world’s most iconic vulnerable species. This black-and-white bear is the only surviving member of the Ailuropodinae subfamily, part of the larger Ursidae family. Nobody really knows how the giant panda evolved. Few fossils of its relatives have been found, so its lineage is almost as hotly debated as that of humans. Now palaeoanthropologist David Begun at the University of Toronto in Canada has found a set of fossil teeth in the town of Rudabánya, Hungary. The site previously yielded the remains of an ancient great ape called Rudapithecus, a possible ancestor of African great apes and humans. Begun was looking for ancient hominid bones when he spotted the teeth trapped beneath a rhino’s shoulder blade. The teeth are 10 million years old, placing them in the late Miocene. Suspecting they belonged to a panda, based on their shape, Begun enlisted the help of Louis de Bonis at the University of Poitiers in France and Juan Abella at the State University Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador. Chewing the veg The team compared the shape, structure and wear patterns of the teeth with those of other bears. Such wear patterns, created when food being chewed scrapes away some tooth enamel, can reveal what an animal ate – and in this case they were similar to those of giant pandas. “Both species consumed tough plant foods, requiring shearing rather than crushing of food during chewing,” says de Bonis. “This tell us that the way of life of the panda’s ancestors was very similar to the modern panda.” The teeth belonged to a previously unknown panda, and the team has named the species Miomaci panonnicum. “Miomaci could be considered not like a direct ancestor, but more like a ‘cousin’ of the modern panda,” says de Bonis. “Their lineage probably separated in the middle Miocene period.” “From the description, it appears to be closer to the split between giant pandas and the rest of the carnivores, including bears,” says Russell Ciochon at the University of Iowa. “The fossil they found lacks the very specialised dental anatomy found in modern giant pandas, which evolved in southern China around 2 million years ago, and is believed to be when pandas became dependent on bamboo.” Panda history Since giant pandas are confined to China, we had assumed that the panda family has been living there since shortly after it split off from other bears. Some fossils support that idea. Asian caves have yielded teeth from Ailuropoda baconi, which lived 750,000 years ago, and a skull from Ailuropoda microta from 2 million years ago. Fossil pandas can be found in China as far back as 8 million years ago. However, in 2012 scientists found teeth from possibly the oldest known direct ancestor of the giant panda, Kretzoiarctos beatrix. They were 11.6 million years old and were discovered in Spain, suggesting the giant panda’s ancestors originated in Europe before migrating to Asia. The Miomaci teeth support that idea. “There are interesting similarities between animal fossils found in some European and Chinese sites in the late Miocene period, suggesting that there may have been a lot of travelling between the two areas,” says Begun. “The direct lineage of the extant giant panda is likely to be Asian, but related to the older European forms, which are extinct sister lineages,” says Abella. “Because apes migrated from Rudabánya to mainland Asia, it proves that a migration route was possible,” says Ciochon. “However, without more data we can’t determine if an early giant panda evolved in Asia and moved to Europe, or travelled in the other direction.” Climate may have played a role. When Miomaci lived, Europe was warmer and wetter than it is today. The chemical make-up of other teeth from Rudabánya suggest the area was once a lush subtropical forest on the shores of a lake. Such forests disappeared from Europe about 5 million years ago, and this may have spelled the demise of European pandas. “The environment cooled and dried out,” says de Bonis. “There was a change in the faunas in Europe, and the species linked to dense warm forest disappeared.” China could have been the only congenial home for surviving pandas. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2151717-the-first-ancestors-of-giant-pandas-probably-lived-in-europe/ Journal Reference: L. de Bonis; J. Abella; G. Merceron; D.R. Begun (2017). "A new late Miocene ailuropodine (Giant Panda) from Rudabánya (North-central Hungary)". Geobios. in press. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2017.09.003. Abstract The rich fossiliferous locality of Rudabánya (Hungary) is dated to the Vallesian (late Miocene, MN 9). It contains several taxa of the order Carnivora. The aim of the present paper is to describe remains belonging to a new genus and species of Ursidae, Miomaci panonnicum. It is represented by upper and lower teeth which are compared to other Miocene ursids. Miomaci nov. gen. is most similar to Indarctos and is attributed to the tribe Indarctini within the sub-family of the Giant Panda, Ailuropodinae. Study of the dental micro-wear, despite the small sample size, shows that its diet was composed by tough food with shearing and less crushing mastication, indicating ecological similarities with the Giant Panda. Its habitat was probably a lake shore with abundant herbaceous monocots. |
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| Taipan | Dec 22 2017, 02:01 PM Post #20 |
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Using footprints to identify and monitor giant pandas in the wild Software pinpoints identity and sex with 90 percent accuracy Date: December 21, 2017 Source: Duke University  New software measures the unique footprints of giant pandas, enabling conservationists to identify and monitor pandas in the wild. Credit: Binbin Li, Duke Kunshan University Footprints left by giant pandas in the wild can be used to identify the individual panda that made them and determine its sex, a new Duke University-led study by an international team of conservation scientists shows. The new approach uses an interactive software tool called the Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) to "read" and analyze digital images of footprints, which are submitted electronically to a global database for matching. Field tests show that the technique accurately identified individual animals and their sex more than 90 percent of the time. This accuracy, combined with the system's ease of use in the field -- a smartphone and a ruler are all you need to collect and submit images -- makes it particularly well suited for studying a species as elusive as the giant panda, said Binbin Li, assistant professor of environmental sciences at Duke Kunshan University, who led the study. "Giant pandas live in remote and hard-to-reach areas and their population density is so low that actual sightings of pandas themselves are not common. What we do see a lot of are footprints and fecal droppings," said Li, who holds a secondary faculty appointment at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. Identifying individual animals based on a DNA analysis of their fecal droppings provides accurate results, she said, but is costly and requires very fresh samples and sophisticated laboratory equipment. Trying to identify a panda using estimates of its bite size -- based on the average length of bamboo fragments found in its droppings -- is less technical but not very precise since many pandas in the same geographic area may have similar bites. Footprints, on the other hand, are unique to each individual animal, somewhat like fingerprints in humans. "Each species has a unique characteristic foot structure and the panda, in particular, has a beautifully complex foot that makes it a perfect candidate for monitoring with FIT," said Zoe Jewell, principal research associate at JMP Software and an adjunct faculty member at Duke's Nicholas School. The software is based on a customized statistical model that uses cross-validated discriminant analysis and clustering methodology to "read" a panda's footprint and identify its distinguishing features. Based on these data, the program can identify the animal's sex and pinpoint if its prints are already in the FIT dataset or new to it, said Sky Alibhai, who is also a principal research associate at JMP Software and an adjunct faculty member at Duke's Nicholas School. The new technique may prove especially useful for monitoring the reintroduction of captive pandas back into the wild, said Zhang Hemin, director of the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, where the field tests were conducted. New filtering and categorizing capabilities being developed with SAS, a data analytics company based in Cary, NC, will allow the system to quickly and efficiently process increasing volumes of digital data as reintroduced and wild populations increase, Jewell added. Because it's easy to use and requires minimal training, the system will also encourage greater participation by citizen scientists, who can submit images using a public interface called Conservation FIT that Jewell and Alibhai launched earlier this year through WildTrack, a nonprofit conservation organization they lead. The researchers published their peer-reviewed paper Dec. 20 in the journal Biological Conservation. "Giant pandas are hard to count -- they are shy and live in remote mountains. Yet we must know how many there are if we are to prevent their extinction. The footprint technique is a major breakthrough in our ability to count them," said Stuart L. Pimm, Doris Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke's Nicholas School, who was not an author of the new study but has worked with its authors on past research. FIT software is an add-on to JMP software from SAS and can be customized for use on a wide range of different species and in different terrains. So far it has been developed for use on 15 species in addition to giant pandas, and work is under way to expand the list to include three species of endangered big cats: jaguars in the Americas, snow leopards in Asia, and cheetahs in Africa and the Middle East. Story Source: Duke University. "Using footprints to identify and monitor giant pandas in the wild: Software pinpoints identity and sex with 90 percent accuracy." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171221122546.htm (accessed December 21, 2017). Journal Reference: Binbin V. Li, Sky Alibhai, Zoe Jewell, Desheng Li, Hemin Zhang. Using footprints to identify and sex giant pandas. Biological Conservation, 2018; 218: 83 DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.11.029 Abstract Data on numbers and distribution of free-ranging giant panda are essential to the formulation of effective conservation strategies. There is still no ideal method to identify individuals and sex this species. The traditional bite-size method using bamboo fragments in their feces lacks accuracy. The modern DNA-based estimation is expensive and demands fresh samples. The lack of identifiable individual features on panda pelage and no apparent sexual dimorphism impede reliable estimation from camera trap images. Here, we propose an innovative and non-invasive technique to identify and sex this species using a footprint identification technique (FIT). It is based on a pairwise comparison of trails (unbroken series of footprints) using discriminant analysis, with a Ward's clustering method. We collected footprints from 30 captive animals to train our algorithm and used another 11 animals for model validation. The accuracy for individual identification was > 90% for individuals with more than six footprints and 89% with fewer footprints per trail. The accuracy for sex discrimination was about 84% using a single footprint and 91% using trails. This cost-effective method provides a promising future for monitoring wild panda populations and understanding their dynamics and especially useful for monitoring reintroduced animals after the detachment of GPS collars. The data collection protocol is straightforward and accessible to citizen scientists and conservation professionals alike. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320717315574 |
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| Flesh | May 27 2018, 11:45 AM Post #21 |
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Autotrophic Organism
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Some pandas are losing their black eye patches By Evann Gastaldo | Newser  Male panda Jiao Qing sits in the enclosure in the Berlin zoo, Saturday, March 31, 2018. (Paul Zinken/dpa via AP) A dozen pandas at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding appear to be losing their distinctive black eye patches. Their plight got attention on social media after users posted pictures of pandas whose eye patches appeared to be turning white, Quartz reports. What's actually happening: The pandas are losing fur around the eyes. A team of experts has been attempting since January to figure out the root of the problem, but so far they're stumped, China Daily reports. A report from the team says the pandas are suffering from "partial depilation around the eyes," but lists no cause, the Global Times reports. The team has ruled out uveoencephalitis, a disease that can cause hair loss; it's possible bacteria or mites—both of which can thrive in the humid climate of Sichuan province—are causing the issue, and indeed, some pandas at the base have reportedly been infected with mites. But treatment for mites proved ineffective. The affected pandas are quarantined and another medicine will be attempted, and the base says it is cooperating with Sichuan Agricultural University to come up with a solution. http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/05/08/some-pandas-are-losing-their-black-eye-patches.html |
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| Taipan | Jun 19 2018, 03:41 PM Post #22 |
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22,000-year-old panda from cave in Southern China belongs to distinct, long-lost lineage Date: June 18, 2018 Source: Cell Press  This is a photograph of the Cizhutuo fossil. Credit: Yingqi Zhang and Yong Xu Researchers who've analyzed ancient mitochondrial (mt)DNA isolated from a 22,000-year-old panda found in Cizhutuo Cave in the Guangxi Province of China -- a place where no pandas live today -- have revealed a new lineage of giant panda. The report, published in Current Biology on June 18, shows that the ancient panda separated from present-day pandas 144,000 to 227,000 years ago, suggesting that it belonged to a distinct group not found today. The newly sequenced mitochondrial genome represents the oldest DNA evidence from pandas. "Using a single complete mtDNA sequence, we find a distinct mitochondrial lineage, suggesting that the Cizhutuo panda, while genetically more closely related to present-day pandas than other bears, has a deep, separate history from the common ancestor of present-day pandas," says Qiaomei Fu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "This really highlights that we need to sequence more DNA from ancient pandas to really capture how their genetic diversity has changed through time and how that relates to their current, much more restricted and fragmented habitat." Very little has been known about pandas' past, especially in regions outside of their current range in Shaanxi province or Gansu and Sichuan provinces. Evidence suggests that pandas in the past were much more widespread, but it's been unclear how those pandas were related to pandas of today. In the new study, the researchers used sophisticated methods to fish mitochondrial DNA from the ancient cave specimen. That's a particular challenge because the specimen comes from a subtropical environment, which makes preservation and recovery of DNA difficult. The researchers successfully sequenced nearly 150,000 DNA fragments and aligned them to the giant panda mitochondrial genome reference sequence to recover the Cizhutuo panda's complete mitochondrial genome. They then used the new genome along with mitochondrial genomes from 138 present-day bears and 32 ancient bears to construct a family tree. Their analysis shows that the split between the Cizhutuo panda and the ancestor of present-day pandas goes back about 183,000 years. The Cizhutuo panda also possesses 18 mutations that would alter the structure of proteins across six mitochondrial genes. The researchers say those amino acid changes may be related to the ancient panda's distinct habitat in Guangxi or perhaps climate differences during the Last Glacial Maximum. The findings suggest that the ancient panda's maternal lineage had a long and unique history that differed from the maternal lineages leading to present-day panda populations. The researchers say that their success in capturing the mitochondrial genome also suggests that they might successfully isolate and analyze DNA from the ancient specimen's much more expansive nuclear genome. "Comparing the Cizhutuo panda's nuclear DNA to present-day genome-wide data would allow a more thorough analysis of the evolutionary history of the Cizhutuo specimen, as well as its shared history with present-day pandas," Fu says. Story Source: Cell Press. "22,000-year-old panda from cave in Southern China belongs to distinct, long-lost lineage." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180618163856.htm (accessed June 19, 2018). Journal Reference: Ko et al. Mitochondrial genome of a 22,000-year-old giant panda from southern China reveals a new panda lineage. Current Biology, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.008 Summary Present-day giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are estimated to have diverged from their closest relatives, all other bears, ∼20 million years ago, based on molecular data. With fewer than 2,500 individuals living today, it is unclear how well genetic data from extant and historical giant pandas reflect the past. To date, there has been no complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequenced from an ancient giant panda. Here, we use ancient DNA capture techniques to sequence the complete mitochondrial genome of a ∼22,000-year-old giant panda specimen (radiocarbon date of 21,910–21,495 cal BP with ± 2σ at 95.4% probability; Lab.no Beta-473743) from the Cizhutuo Cave, in Leye County, Guangxi Province, China ( Figure 1 A). Its date and location in Guangxi, where no wild giant pandas live today, as well as the difficulty of DNA preservation in a hot and humid region, place it as a unique specimen to learn about ancient giant pandas from the last glacial maximum. We find that the mtDNA lineage of the Cizhutuo panda coalesced with present-day pandas ∼183 thousand years ago (kya, 95% HPD, 227–144 kya), earlier than the time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of mtDNA lineages shared by present-day pandas (∼72 kya, 95% HPD, 94–55 kya, Supplemental Information ). Furthermore, the Cizhutuo panda possessed 18 non-synonymous mutations across six mitochondrial genes. Our results show that the Cizhutuo mtDNA lineage underwent a distinct history from that of present-day populations. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(18)30610-9.pdf |
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| Taipan | Jul 3 2018, 03:30 PM Post #23 |
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Giant panda population research shows new challenges Long-term data provides scientific evidence of conservation success Date: July 2, 2018 Source: San Diego Zoo Global  Giant Panda eating bamboo, Chengdu, China. Credit: © birdiegal / Fotolia Conservationists often work to save species without having long-term population data. That can present major challenges for the science of saving species, as this kind of information is critical for making informed conservation policy and management decisions. In a recently published study in the journal Conservation Letters, a team of scientists reports results of a large-scale study examining giant panda habitat use trends and changing threats to their survival. This benchmark study is based on nearly 70,000 person-hours of survey work by China's State Forestry Administration throughout the panda's range in Sichuan, covering three-quarters of the entire species range. "A data set like this is a dream come true," said Ron Swaisgood, Ph.D., director of Recovery Ecology at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global, who is one of the study's senior authors. "We have new insights into the ecological processes behind the recent decision by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to downlist the panda from Endangered to Vulnerable. There is plenty of good news here for pandas, but we must also point out that these gains are being offset by some emerging new threats. The take-home message is that pandas are doing better, but we still have work to do." The study, conducted from 1999 to 2003 and 2011 to 2014, comprehensively outlines the situation facing giant pandas in forests in China. Good news is found in the observation that pandas, which typically prefer more mature, intact forests, are using younger secondary forests more than they had previously -- suggesting that protection measures put in place are allowing these forests to recover and become more suitable for pandas. "With data collected from more than 50,000 plots in panda habitat, these data presented many challenges for analysis," said Wei Wei, a scientist at China West Normal University and visiting scientist at San Diego Zoo Global. "But some of the findings are surprising, and will help managers and policymakers make good decisions for panda conservation." Logging is also much less common in panda habitat than it once was. But there are some worrisome findings as well, such as an increase in the presence of livestock and other human disturbance in panda habitat. These disturbances may be the cause of a modest upward migration by pandas to higher elevations. "I've been working with giant pandas for about 20 years, and this is one of the most important studies I have participated in," said Zejun Zhang, dean of Life Sciences at China West Normal University and senior author of the study. "It shows how important a commitment to large-scale, long-term data can be for conservation and sets a good example for how to approach conservation science for other endangered species." Conservationists indicate that this study can be a model for similar kinds of surveys for other species recovery programs. "This study illustrates what species recovery can look like," said Megan Owen, Ph.D., director of Population Sustainability at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global. "The giant panda population is growing, and pandas are being found in higher numbers than anticipated, in recovering habitat. However, the nature and intensity of human activities in these areas is also changing, and continued protections and adaptive management will be necessary to ensure the positive trends are maintained into the future." The study was conducted by a collaborative team of scientists from China West Normal University, Sichuan Forestry Bureau, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and San Diego Zoo Global. Story Source: San Diego Zoo Global. "Giant panda population research shows new challenges: Long-term data provides scientific evidence of conservation success." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180702094104.htm (accessed July 3, 2018). Journal Reference: Wei Wei, Ronald R. Swaisgood, Qiang Dai, Zhisong Yang, Shibin Yuan, Megan A. Owen, Nicholas W. Pilfold, Xuyu Yang, Xiaodong Gu, Hong Zhou, Han Han, Jindong Zhang, Mingsheng Hong, Zejun Zhang. Giant panda distributional and habitat-use shifts in a changing landscape. Conservation Letters, 2018; e12575 DOI: 10.1111/conl.12575 Abstract Long‐term data on populations, threats, and habitat‐use changes are fundamentally important for conservation policy and management decisions affecting species, but these data are often in short supply. Here, we analyze survey data from 57,087 plots collected in approximately three‐fourths of the giant panda's (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) distributional range during China's national surveys conducted in 1999–2003 and 2011–2014. Pandas associated preferentially with several ecological factors and avoided areas impacted by human activities, such as roads, livestock, mining, and tourism. Promise is shown by dramatic declines in logging rates, but is counterbalanced with recently emerging threats. Pandas have increasingly utilized secondary forest as these forests recovered under protective measures. Pandas have undergone a distributional shift to higher elevations, despite the elevational stability of their bamboo food source, perhaps in response to a similar upward shift in the distribution of livestock. Our findings showcase robust on‐the‐ground data from one of the largest‐scale survey efforts worldwide for an endangered species and highlight how science and policy have contributed to this remarkable success story, and help frame future management strategies. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/conl.12575 |
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