Animal of the week August 22, 2011 -- Funky monkey

Despite repeated promises to send more regular animals, I am red faced with embarrassment at my failure to do so, but it has been a busy summer and I've been rushing around exhausting myself till I am blue in the face -- but not as red and not a blue as the face of this week's (month's) animal of the week, Mandrillus sphinx (mandrill)

Mandrills are perhaps the most striking primates for several reasons. Not only are they they the largest monkeys, with the biggest males reaching a weight of 54 kg, they are also the primates with the greatest sexual dimorphism (difference in body size between the sexes) -- with females typically reaching just 14 kg -- just over a quarter the size of the largest males and half the size of the average male (although for extreme sexual dimorphism, see the green spoon worm). But what mandrills are best known for are their brightly coloured faces and bottoms.

Both the front and rear ends of mandrills are shaded with vivid blues and reds, the colours are brightest in the dominant breeding males. Mandrills are rather poorly understood creatures and the precise functions of the bright skin colours are unknown, though they no doubt help communicate since the intensity of colours increases not only with sexual dominance but also with agitation and excitement. Mandrills live in forests in Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Congo (Brazzaville) where the bright colours and a scent gland on their chests might help communication in dense vegetation. Mandrill groups typically consist of up to 20 females and their offspring led by one dominant male, although several of these groups may frequently associate with each other in large gatherings called hordes -- some hordes may number over 1000 making them the largest gatherings of non-human primates.

Other primates with bright or noticeable rear ends include drills (the closest relatives of mandrills, which lack the brightly coloured faces), baboons, and chimpanzees -- baboons have large red backsides all the time to create a cushion for upright sitting and female chimpanzees to advertise fertility. Another primate with similarities between its arse and face (in terms of appearence and what comes out) is David Cameron.

Figure courtesy of Robert Young, wikimedia commons

Animal of the week July 25, 2011 -- look whose genome

This week's animal hit the headlines (well, the science headlines) a few weeks back when it joined the list of species to have had their genomes sequenced. This list is rapidly growing, but still the effort involved in sequencing a genome is such that only the most simple or most interesting organisms are sequenced -- over 200 bacterial strains with their relatively small genomes have been sequenced, but the number of complex organisms sequenced remains small, with people focusing on the most scientifically interesting.

Humans and our closest relatives the great apes have been sequenced, scientific model organisms such as fruit flies, mice, and dogs too. But why would anyone want to sequence the genome of Heterocephalus glaber (naked mole rats)?

You might not think it to look at these hideous looking fossorial rodents -- kind of like an old man's shriveled hairy prepuce with the teeth of Esther Rantzen (and not in the way the old man would agree to) -- but they are a well-spring of scientific intrigue.

For a start, naked mole rats (from the Horn of Africa) and their larger furrier cousins Damaraland mole rats (from Namibia), are the only mammals to live live in societies like those of bees, ants, wasps, and termites with a single reproductive female and workers who do not breed but gather food to feed the queen and the pups (so called eusocial societies). Or rather than feeding the pups the tubers that the workers gather in their underground foraging, the workers feed the youngest with their own droppings -- the eating of droppings (or coprophagy) is not uncommon among rodents, rabbits do it, and another former animal of the week, the mountain beaver does it.

As well as being one of only two eusocial mammal species, naked mole rats are the longest lived rodents. They can live for up to 30 years -- a true rat of the same size would be lucky to live for three. Part of the reason for their longevity is likely their low metabolic rate, they don't regulate their own body temperature in the same way as most mammals, relying on the sheltered environment of their extensive tunnels and their hairlessness to do that for them, and in times of hardship when food and water are scarce they can lower their metabolisms even more -- perhaps a good thing for them right now given the situation in their home range.

A low metabolism is also likely an adaptation to the low oxygen environment of their underground homes. The high concentration of carbon dioxide in their tunnel networks would likely end up an irritant to many other animals as the gas would convert to acid, but luckily naked mole rats feel no pain: another fascinating facet of these animals. And then, their front teeth, which they use to dig burrow are on the outside of their lips, so they can gnaw away at the east African subsoil without getting mouthfuls of dirt.

But best of all, why their genes are of most interest to scientists, and another reason for their long lives: they do not get cancer. In decades of study not a single cancer death has been observed in the species -- the possession of two different cancer suppressor proteins (where most mammals have only one) helps prevent cancers. But other mechanisms may be involved in protection from cancer and longevity, and perhaps this genome sequencing will help lay bare the naked mole rats' secrets. Utterly ugly, utterly unlovely, but very very interesting.

Animal of the Week June 6, 2011 -- Is it a bird? Yes.

Sorry for the hiatus. Since last I wrote I've moved house and been to New Orleans. Although The Big Easy didn't flood, tornadoes in the southern states meant a days delay to my return and a very very bumpy flight from New Orleans to Chicago. Not something that this week's animal of the week would experience -- by flying only in the best conditions, Anser indicus (bar-headed geese) are able to cross the Himalayas under their own steam, flying at heights of 10 km, in just 1 day.

These pretty, small geese are some of the highest flying birds, and scientists have long wondered how they could scale the Himalayas. The problem is not just the height of the mountains, but also the low density air making it harder to gain lift, with less output from each wingbeat. People had thought that the geese used tailwinds that whip up the Himalayas during the daytime to help them on their way, but a new piece of research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA shows that they mostly fly at night, mostly. By flying when the air is still, the the geese avoid potentially dangerous air currents that would blow them off course or even cause injury, allowing them a non-turbulent, predictable journey -- pretty important in this low oxygen environment where mistakes could cost a bird its life.

The geese breed on the plateaus of central Asia, but overwinter in India. Their trip across the Himalayas is one of the most remarkable migrations in the natural world. Not only have they evolved to fly at the right time, but other adaptations to flying through the low-oxygen, low density air at 33 000 feet include haemoglobin with high oxygen affinity and wings with a larger surface area than those of other geese of their weight.

For those of you wishing to know what happened in the AV vote for the frog, turn out was so low that no decision cold be reached...unfortunately the same didn't happen in real life.

Animal of the Week April 25, 2011 -- AVnimal of the week

Many is the time that people have tried to make suggestions for animals of the week. But I've not once succumbed despite please from close friends, celebrities, and my niece and nephew -- AOTW is my autocracy. But this week, just this week, I'm injecting a little democracy. And I'm going to ask you to vote for your preferred species. Let's start with three species, Pelophylax lessonae (pool frog), Pelophylax ridibundus (marsh frog), and Pelophylax esculentus (edible frog).

Marsh frog

The pool frog and the marsh frog are the descendants of a single species that was divided into two populations when glaciers covered much of Europe during the last ice age. When Europe's glaciers receded, the two populations emerged from their refuges in southern Europe as distinct species. The marsh frog larger with longer legs and the pool frog with white vocal sacks and short legs. But although they were distinct species, where they met they could interbreed, and they did, producing the hybrid edible frog.

Edible frog

But the edible frog -- intermediate size, intermediate legs, a compromise of the two -- actually behaves as a (slightly peculiar) species in its own right, unlike many other hybrids which are infertile and can't breed. The offspring of two adult edible frogs are typically fatally deformed, but when female edible frogs reproduce with males of either of the other two species they produce viable edible frogs. The situation is complicated further by the fact that in northern Denmark and southern Sweden, edible frogs seem to reproduce quite happily without the help of the parent species.

Pool frog

The pool frog is native to the UK, but both other species exist here as introductions. Mostly the species eat flies, dragonflies, crickets, worms, and other invertebrates. The marsh frogs, the largest, can eat other amphibians and small mammals! These three frogs form the green-frog species complex. All very typical frogs, fairly green and largely aquatic, living in ponds, lakes, and slow flowing water -- let's call these three mainstream frogs.

To increase the democratic pool, let's recall the other two anurans to have featured as animals of the week, the mouth-brooding platypus frog and the brutish, invasive cane toad.

Perhaps you like the smallness of the pool frog, or you appreciate the fact that it made it to the UK on its own. Perhaps large size and long legs float your boat and the marsh frog would be your favourite. Perhaps you think that you like the quirkiness of the middle-ground edible frog. What do you think other readers of AOTW will like? Perhaps you really don't like the bastard hybrid edible frog, but like their parent species. Do green frogs just not do it for you at all and you'd rather plump for a cane toad or a platypus frog.

Well, you don't have to select just one, you can rank them all in order of preference from your favourite 1 lo least favourite 5. You can select just your favourite one; or you can select just two, three, or four. The frog with the fewest first preferences (1s) in the first round will be eliminated, and the votes recast, counting the second preferences of those whose first preference has been eliminated.

The ballot sheet is randomly assigned as

A: Marsh

B: Edible

C: Cane

D: Platypus

E: Pool

 Let me know your preferences for anuran animals of the week by emailing me at animal_oftheweek@yahoo.co.uk, by twittering @animaloftheweek (please #aotw), or by posting a blog comment?

Choose your frog by an alternative voting system: just like the Conservative party did theirs!

Animal of the Week April 11, 2011 -- Doctor, doctor, you look like a fish

Yamada Kazuki

It can never be said I am not riding the crest of coming fads... it's only taken me five years since the first fish spa opened in Japan to feature Garra rufa (doctor fish, nibble fish, kangal fish) as animal of the week!

Also known as reddish log suckers, in the rivers of their homelands in the Middle East, these small members of the carp family use their sucker-like mouths to hoover up algae, detritus, and invertebrates. In aquariums, these fish help prevent algal build up. But if you keep em hungry, these fish happily view human skin as a feeding surface, and they rasp off dead and diseased skin. 

This fish massage therapy has been used for many years in Turkey, where patients have visited warm springs to have the fish nibble off their dermatitis and psoriasis. In the past few years the use of fish in beauty therapy has proliferated, with spas using the logsuckers -- although marketing materials show a preference for the name "doctor fish" for some reason -- opening up in Japan, Korea, the USA, Europe, and in 2010 the Sheffield, UK. In the USA, cosmetology (no, I didn't make that up -- someone else did) regulators have decreed that fish therapy should not be used because their code requires that equipment is sterilised after use, and you can't really autoclave a fish. Hmmmmmm, whitebait.

Most fish therapy involves simply dipping your feet in a tank of fish and having them pick away the dead skin, corns, and athletes' foot -- that's what you can get in the market at Camden from time to time, where the concerns about not being able to sterilise the tanks between treatment really strike home. I put a Ben Goldacre mask on for a moment and looked for mentions of Garra rufa in PubMed to see if any studies had been done on their use in the treatment of skin diseases. To date, one pilot study was archived showing that a course of fish therapy dramatically improved moderate to severe psoriasis... well, a course of fish therapy combined with UVA treatment... combined with UVA treatment and post UVA massage with shea butter and aloe vera... well fish therapy improved psoriasis (when given with UVA and unguent) in a self-selected self-reporting sample of 67 patients in a study published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1697753/?tool=pubmed).  Since 2006, nothing.

The interest in fish "therapy" grows unabated, and you can even buy home kits. In Singapore, a fish massage tank start-up kit will set you back just 175 Singapore dollars (£85). And why wouldn't you get one? See this testimony from one happy customer:

"Now I'm able to enjoy fish spa everyday with my family members. We have so much fun feeding the fish with our leg while watching our favourite television programme. By the way, my skin is now extremely soft and smooth."

http://www.yourdoctorfishspa.com/ 

Animal of the Week April 4, 2011 -- One does not a summer make

Malene Thyssen

Taking a step back from what I've got in my garden this week... I've not yet seen a single one of this week's animal in my garden, although it is only a matter of time before I see Hirundo rustica (barn swallow) if not in the tiny space out back, then skimming over the top of the gardens or flitting inches from the ground in Regents Park or Hampstead Heath.

Swallows are one of those species of impressively aerial birds including martins and swifts that arrive in spring to feast on the emerging flying insects as they raise their families. One way to tell the birds apart is the place in the air column they choose to feed. Sickle-winged swifts fly high overhead, house martins swoop around above rooftops, swallows often feed inches above the grass of meadows or the surface waters of rivers and lakes their buoyant graceful flight bringing them impossibly close to crashing in pursuit of supper. Close to, swallows are easily distinguished by their oily blue back and their red throats.

I saw swallows a month ago in Seville, bouncing off the surface of the Guadalquivir, and it seems that now they have caught up with me and made it to the UK, with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust twitter feed telling me they've arrived at the Barnes Wetlands Centre in south west London.

The barn swallow is one of the most widespread birds in the world, with few countries where they are not to be seen at some point during the year. The birds follow the spring north, nesting from north Africa, Mexico, and northern India all the way up to the arctic circle. Then, as the nights draw in in the north, they head back south to Central and South America, sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia and northern Australia. Birds arriving in England now may have come all the way from Cape Town.

Individual birds cover over 11 000 km in their migration each year. And the estimated worldwide population of 190 million has a range that covers 51 million square-kilometres, which is more than a third of the total land surface area of the earth.

Sorry Aristotle, perhaps one does not a summer make, but all over the world 190 million swallows do.

Animal of the Week March 21, 2011 -- What else have I got in my garden?

After the foxes a couple of weeks ago, which have now quietened down a bit (although my nights are not without gekkering, and the foxes are sometimes noisy too), I thought I'd return to the theme of what noisy bloody animals have I got in my "garden" (a scrubby patch of paving with a couple of huge unregarded trees undermining the foundations of the property in which I rent a room).*

The foxes can still be heard scrapping some nights until about 3 am, at which point the "dawn" chorus of blackbirds, robins, blue tits, great tits, and wrens takes over. As Eos wraps her rosy fingers around the residential towerblocks of the Brandon Estate, the crows, oddly social as they are in London, join in with their percussive conversational cawing. With the sun up, from high atop the television ariels seagulls begin their evocative mewing, which despite being distinctly lacking in proximity to the briny deep summons a whiff of ozone to the nostrils, or perhaps that's just my bedroom.

So far, so native. But a recent addition to the local cacophony, and perhaps the loudest part of it is this week's animal of the week Psittacula krameri (ring-necked parakeet). For people living around southwest London ring-necked parakeets have been a familiar sight for a few decades now. But recently they have spread from their stronghold around Richmond, first west to Windsor and now north and east through the rest of London. They are now a common sight on Hampstead Heath and in the past couple of years they've colonised more central parks including Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and even the grandest of all the parks, Kennington Park.

Ring-necked parakeets are native to a great swathe the old world from the foothills of the Himalayas to the forests of West Africa, but their closest natural home to Europe is the middle east. One -- likely apocryphal -- story of the birds' arrival in the UK puts their origins with the release of parakeets used in the filming of the African Queen at Shepperton Studios in Surrey. But given that parakeets are found in other major European cities including those in France, the Netherlands, and Spain (recently seen in both Madrid and Seville by yours truly), they are most likely descended from escaped pets.

Whatever their origins, the ring-necked parakeets seem to be here to stay. With tens of thousands of birds breeding in the UK, and sporadic sightings all over the country, if they haven't made it to you yet, it's perhaps only a matter of time before their raucous noisy fast flight becomes a familiar sight, certainly around major urban areas.  The birds are unmistakable: noisy, bright green, pointed wings and a long tail make them quite unlike anything else you are likely to see, and if they live near you, you will notice them in no time.

As with any introduced species, there's a fear that they might upset the ecosystems in which they find themselves outcompeting native birds, especially when they expand in such number. But then London and the home counties to the west are already so disturbed by human activity, perhaps that is how they have managed to establish themselves so successfully in our gardens, which, after all, are home to many alien species already -- the parakeets in my back garden sit in an enormous eucalyptus tree and an out of control fig.


*Not for long. Once again I need to move since the landlord is selling this place. If you hear of anyone with a room anywhere in London, please do let me know.