Part of the Hidden Wonders collection The Russian Desman is a critically endangered insectivore, related to moles but suited to aquatic life. Population In the 19th and early 20th century, they were hunted for their coats. Two estimates put this hunting rate at 5000 – 20,000 skins per year, and 50,000 – 100,000 per year.Continue reading “The Russian Desman: A Relic from the Ice Age”
Tag Archives: Climate Change
One Health: Linking Habitat Loss and Disease Outbreaks
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American essayist, once wrote that “life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect”. I think this sums up the One Health approach, in that changes in the environment affect animal behaviour. This, in turn, affects disease spread. Through considering animal, human and environmental health as one system, we can moreContinue reading “One Health: Linking Habitat Loss and Disease Outbreaks”
The Last Frontier: Exploring the World of the Saiga Antelope
Part of the Hidden Wonders: The Secret Lives of Earth’s Rarest Animals collection From the days of the woolly mammoth and sabre-toothed tigers, the saiga antelope has roamed the steppes since the last Ice Age. It almost joined the legendary duo in extinction (multiple times), but has recovered from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened. FunContinue reading “The Last Frontier: Exploring the World of the Saiga Antelope”
Layers of Problems – Climate Change and the Oceans
A lot of the focus regarding climate change is on the atmosphere or the land, but we can’t forget that 71% of Earth’s surface is covered by water. The possible changes related to the oceans are complex but far-reaching and could have geopolitical changes in addition to affecting the environment. Climate change won’t just causeContinue reading “Layers of Problems – Climate Change and the Oceans”
Bluetongue virus – A Transcontinental Disease
If you’ve read my previous posts, you might have noticed that I’ve previously mentioned bluetongue virus, and this post is solely dedicated to that particular arbovirus. Bluetongue is an excellent example of a disease that will likely benefit from climate change, increasing in both frequency and range. Part of the reason why the BTV-8 outbreakContinue reading “Bluetongue virus – A Transcontinental Disease”
Disease in the UK – The Impact of Climate Change
Source: Baylis, M. (2017). Potential impact of climate change on emerging vector-borne and other infections in the UK. Environmental Health, 16(1), 45-51. You would have seen in my recent posts about the impacts of climate change on disease, however those have always concerned tropical regions. In the UK, we’ve always been relatively safe, due to our temperateContinue reading “Disease in the UK – The Impact of Climate Change”
Spotlight: Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity
Source: Kalan, A. K., Kulik, L., Arandjelovic, M., Boesch, C., Haas, F., Dieguez, P., … & Michael Fay, J. (2020). Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity. http://researchonline. ljmu. ac. uk/id/eprint/14322. This study identified that environmental variability had a more important effect on chimpanzee behavioural diversity, than climate or habitat stability. It suggests that the needContinue reading “Spotlight: Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity”
Effect of climate change on the Neotropics
Whereas my last posts have looked into the findings of a single paper, this post will include research from several. These will cover the effects of climate change (Korstjens & Hillyer, 2016; Ribeiro et al. 2020); including a deeper look into its’ effect on primate metapopulations (Wiederholt & Post 2010), and a case study lookingContinue reading “Effect of climate change on the Neotropics”
Primates and climate change: A review of current knowledge
Source: Korstjens, A. H., & Hillyer, A. P. (2016). Primates and climate change: A review of current knowledge. An introduction to primate conservation, 175-192. Part Two: Vulnerability One of the major issues for conservation is trying to determine which species needs conserving more urgently. Vulnerability, in special regard to climate change, is complex and all theContinue reading “Primates and climate change: A review of current knowledge”
Primates and climate change: A review of current knowledge.
Source: Korstjens, A. H., & Hillyer, A. P. (2016). Primates and climate change: A review of current knowledge. An introduction to primate conservation, 175-192. Part One: Impacts As I wrote about in my last post about assessing vulnerability (Graham et al, 2016), we know that climate change will affect both temperature and precipitation. Whilst scientists areContinue reading “Primates and climate change: A review of current knowledge.”
The Nature Folder 