Bobi (11 May 1992 – 21 October 2023) was a male purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo dog cared for by Leonel Costa of Conqueiros, Leiria, Portugal.

On 2 February 2023, Bobi was confirmed as the first dog on record to live to the age of 30, along with being the oldest dog on record to ever live.

On 11 May 2023, Bobi turned 31.

🖤🕯️🖤

had the idea of "werewolves but it's a disease that any animal can have and it causes any creature it passes the disease to, to switch dna with it for a certain amount of time" so it'd be almost like. getting the flu for a few weeks. and then you're good so-called "chronic" lycanthropes (or felanthropy, for cats, etc.) are people who have a post-viral disorder (meaning the werewolf equivalent of long covid, cfs, etc) where they're more like. stuck between forms than anything else, but like a virus, it can be reactivated in response to environmental triggers (such as being around the kind of animal that infected you) many people who experience chronic post-lycanthropic disorder are veterinarians or people who otherwise interact with animals a lot (people who work at vet clinics, animal rescues, people who foster animals, zoo workers, etc.) and that's, like. Socially acceptable. as a consequence, there's a social Pressure to switch to one of these fields/careers/etc if one has a chronic infection and it sucks. naturally those kinds of workers also can't avoid being re-exposed, so they often incentivize local animal daycares to move nearby, to have a safe place for employees to go to while they're sick. to make sure they're looked after. i imagine they would have some kind of a Pet Insurance (ha) taken out of their paycheck for this. or, there's always the idea that they have unions, that are behind the animal daycares moving nearby in the first place. and part of the union dues go towards financial incentives. national association of shape-changing persons. also, as a consequence, unhoused people are treated with a lot more respect and care because maybe that incoherent old man on the street corner is going to turn back into an animal and you don't want to accidentally end up with a crocodile in a jail cell. by that virtue, many Florida Man stories in this universe end with something along the lines of "...Reporter returned for comment from Allie Ghater, only to find out that he had disappeared" this is all just worldbuilding bullshit i'm coming up with right now as i go ... is this Interesting. because if so i may put it in the writing crockpot (back burner of my brain) until I make it into a Story

After an Angel

They didn’t give Angela the promotion because she was an immigrant. She wasn’t that nice looking but she had a harmless pleasant character and maybe that’s why her parents named her after an angel. She cried after she ran for the promotional role, when she didn’t get it. They gave it to a blond, skinny girl who was four years younger than her, and very rude, and a native speaker, with a guttural accent that Angela often found it hard to understand. And what made it extra confusing was that the girl was new – had only been here for six months – whereas she had been here for several years.

But she made a commitment to keep faith, in her job and the simple position she had in her regular days.

This consisted of her girlfriend and her little flat and her dog and that was about it. Her girlfriend worked at the airport and her hours were therefore weird. She was an immigrant, too. They both, narrowly, narrowly avoided deportation when the nation ‘decided’ to leave the European Union. Simply because they’d both worked and lived here for a long time. And that exit from the Bloc seemed to them the most bizarre ridiculous thing; and though they were careful not to get political with the folks over here, and though they weren’t such political anyway: when Brexit did come up here and there in daily chat – the people were also astonished and angry and hurt that it happened as well. This entire mass of other people had made this wild bail from a continent, without asking whether that was okay with you as well.

Angela got up at six o clock most days and she walked her dog in the park and next to the park was an old church and she liked looking at the atavistic building in different shades of morning; whether it was the brittle winter dawn light, or the sanguine rosy hues of spring.

Then her dog grew tired. And he collapsed, whilst out on the walks. And she would have to pick him up. After taking him to the vet and after the tests they did on him the news didn’t turn out positively and the veterinarian costs were exquisite. And the dog perished later in the year. This death took a strong mental chunk out of Angela’s positivity. She was going to call in to work to request the day off because she didn’t think she could operate in public in a cheerful manner henceforth: but that was what she was forced to do, forced herself to do. And her new ‘boss’ the assistant manager girl, that yellow haired tart, was in a bad, frosty mood herself, for reasons that had nothing to do with morbidity, and was especially mean to Angela throughout the shift. And there were moments when Angela wanted to leave altogether, or go outside onto the rushing main road beyond the supermarket and hurl herself under one of the buses that often hurtled by … or nicely spit in that bitch’s face, or maybe slap her for finer points.

It was with such incidents that she regretted coming over here, to this country, in the first place, so long back. And when she was asleep she dreamed about the old nation. When she spoke on the phone to her mother and father there was that sallow pain of homesickness; alongside the ease of speaking in the proper language; and a wish for the plain simplicity of the ugly city where she’d known girlhood. And like all of us she wished that she had a time machine, and could head back to a different chapter: and even if she couldn’t have known that she had gone back in time, if she were to reset her life back in the past, she wouldn’t be here, and she would have known other things, been to different places.

And then something totally unrelated to anything else, to any of the above, happened outside the supermarket. Whilst Angela was on a shift.

A boy got stabbed in the car pack. In bare daylight – and Angela saw it happen.

It made the news. Yeah – some young man got stabbed with a knife from another young man. It was over some grudge that nobody knew anything about. But, seeing that incident. To have somebody nearly die [and the boy didn’t die but it was a close case indeed; he needed to be taken to the hospital and it was swell luck for him that the hospital was only a mile and a half away from where the attack took place] was as bad as anything she had known before.

She came from a rough school whence a girl and she remembered hating when the boys fought and how they seemed to deduce such credence over something so barbaric. They thumped and kicked as if it they were actions to be proud of …

Angela was the person that called 999 for the ambulance to come and help the boy. The next day, reporters came from across the city, scrounging for interviews. They wanted to speak to Angela. She didn’t want to speak to them. That image, from yesterday: of the boy upended after the blade was plunged in to him, was replaying in her mind, over and over. It was as if Angela didn’t expect to witness such things in real life and that only such stories were read about in newspapers, behind the safeguard of cheap paper and crackly black ink. And she spoke to her girlfriend about it. And her girlfriend hugged her lots and she filled up the hot water bottles before bed time just as she always did. And there were still those tinny voices from Mum and Dad, from back in the nowhere town that she should never have left. And she still had the minimum wage job. She was lovable and cheerful. And she wished that stabbing had never happened. It was as if the stabbing were a punishment for ever coming here … and she had no time machine to undo that, either.

Bobi, the world's oldest dog ever, dies aged 31

The world's oldest dog ever has died at the age of 31 years and 165 days.

Guinness World Record holder Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, passed away at his home in Portugal on Saturday.

His death was announced on social media by a veterinarian who met Bobi several times.

"Despite outliving every dog in history, his 11,478 days on earth would never be enough, for those who loved him," wrote Dr Karen Becker.

Bobi became both the world's oldest living dog and the oldest dog ever in February - beating an almost century-old record for the latter title.

The previous oldest dog ever was Australia's Bluey, who died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.

Bobi's grand old age was validated by the Portuguese government's pet database, which is managed by the National Union of Veterinarians.

The identity of Bobi's successor to the title of world's oldest living dog has not yet been revealed.

Bobi lived his whole life with the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros, near Portugal's west coast, after being born with three siblings in an outbuilding.

Leonel Costa, who was eight years old at the time, said his parents had too many animals and had to put the puppies down, but Bobi escaped.

Mr Costa and his brothers kept the dog's existence a secret from their parents until he was eventually discovered and became part of the family, who fed him the same food they eat.

Apart from a scare in 2018 when he was hospitalised after suddenly collapsing due to breathing difficulty, Mr Costa said in February that Bobi had enjoyed a relatively trouble-free life and thought the secret to his longevity was the "calm, peaceful environment" he lived in.

However, he had experienced trouble walking and worsening eyesight prior to his death.

World’s oldest dog Bobi : Guinness record holder at 30

February 12, 2023 shows Bobi, a 30 year-old Portuguese dog that has been declared the world's oldest dog by Guinness World Records, at his home in the village of Conqueiros near Leiria.

Leonel Costa, 38 years old, owner of Bobi, a 30 years old Portuguese dog that has been declared the world's oldest dog by Guinness World Records, sits next to his pet at their home in the village of Conqueiros near Leiria.

Just two weeks before announcing Bobi as the world's oldest living dog, Guinness gave a 23-year-old chihuahua mix from Ohio, Spike, the title. A slightly younger purebred chihuahua from Florida, TobyKeith, also held the title more than once in the past year.Leonel Costa describes Bobi as "one of a kind" – adding that the family is "very happy and grateful to life for allowing us, after 30 years, to have Bobi in our daily lives." Bobi has lived his whole life in the village of Conqueiros, in Leiria, Portugal, with the Costa family, Guinness said.

In addition to Guinness' verification, Bobi's age has also been confirmed by Sistema de Informação de Animais de Companhia, a database for pets authorized by the Portuguese government and managed by Sindicato Nacional dos Médicos Veterinários, the country's national union of veterinarians.

Humphrey Vaughan ap David Gething (born March 15, 1974) is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as First Minister of Wales and the leader of Welsh Labour since 2024. He served as the Minister for Health and Social Services (2016-21) and Minister for the Economy (2021-24). He has been a Member of the Senedd for Cardiff South and Penarth since 2011.

In March 2024, he won the Welsh Labour leadership election to make him the first Black leader of any European country.

He was born in Zambia, where his father, a white Welsh veterinarian from Ogmore-by-Sea in Glamorgan, met his mother, who is a Black Zambian and was working as a chicken farmer. When he was two years old, he moved to Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, Wales, with his family, which included three brothers and a sister. In Monmouthshire, his family experienced racism when an employer withdrew a job offer to his father upon seeing the rest of his family. Speaking of the incident, Gething said: “They said, ‘Come back with your family and we’ll sign everything up’, but he walked in with my mother, and a trail of brown boys, and the job offer got withdrawn”. His father found work in Dorset, England, where he was brought up.

He studied at Aberystwyth University, where he graduated with a law degree. he attended the University of Cardiff Law School, University of Wales. He became President of Aberystwyth University Guild of Students, as well as the first Black president of the National Union of Students Wales.

Having completed his training as a solicitor with the trade union firm Thompsons, he chose to specialize in employment law. He became a partner in Thompsons' in 2007.

In 2008, he became the youngest President of Wales TUC, becoming the first mixed-race person to serve in the role.

He is married to Michelle. He is a member of the trade unions GMB, UNISON and Unite. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

12 Cheetahs from South Africa Will be Relocated to MP’s Kuno National Park on 18 February

Last year, the first batch of 8 Namibian Cheetahs arrived in Madhya Pradesh on 17 September under the Cheetah reintroduction program. The second batch of 12 Cheetahs will be flown from South Africa’s O R Tambo International Airport in Gauteng on Friday evening, and reach on 18 February at Kuno National Park. As per a Madhya Pradesh government official, the journey to the national park will be taken by IAF's MI-17 helicopters. The official also said that Bhupender Yadav, the Union Environment Minister, and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Chief Minister will release them in the Kuno National Park’s quarantine enclosures on Saturday.

Narendra Singh Tomar, the Union Agriculture Minister, and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Civil Aviation Minister could be present for the occasion tomorrow, but confirmation on this is still awaited. The Chief of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), SP Yadav said that for the 12 Cheetahs, they have created 10 quarantine bomas at Kuno. Yadav also said that on 20 February, a consultative workshop will be held at Kuno involving international Cheetah experts, veterinarians, forest officials, and scientists. The event will focus on better cheetah management.

Before being released into the wild, the 8 Namibian Cheetahs are currently in hunting enclosures so that the cats can interact with each other. The enclosures are of a six square Km- area. As per the government official, the Cheetahs are in good health and are killing prey at an interval of 3 to 4 days. Also, a spotted cat is recovering from treatment. She was unwell because of high creatinine levels. Around 7,000 cheetahs are in South Africa and the majority of these belong to Botswana and Namibia (the world’s largest cheetah population).

It has been 3 years since the idea of relocating 12 Cheetahs from South Africa was mooted by the government of India. Initially, the nation had plans to get the spotted cats by the mid of 2022.  However, MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the two countries took time and led to the delay with the Cheetahs as they continued with their quarantine. Restoring the population of Cheetahs in India has been a priority and the project is expanding by even considering the ecological objectives.

In 2009, India conceived the African Cheetah Introduction Project. But did not show any results for more than a decade. Then due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the plan for bringing the Cheetahs in November 2021 in Kuno fell apart.

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Scotland on Brink of Banning Greyhound Racing

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/pet-industry-news/pet-charities/scotland-on-brink-of-banning-greyhound-racing/

Scotland on Brink of Banning Greyhound Racing

Posted on: November 1, 2022, 08:22h. 

Last updated on: November 2, 2022, 03:37h.

Political momentum is building in Scotland for an outright ban on greyhound racing, and a decision could come as soon as tomorrow.

Thornton Greyhound Stadium in Fife, above, is Scotland’s last surviving greyhound racing track. But its days may be numbered. (Image: Daily Record)

A parliamentary commission is expected to deliver a “pivotal recommendation” on the future of the sport to the Scottish givernment in Holyrood on Wednesday. If the commission recommends a ban, the government will likely set the wheels in motion.

Scotland is expected to become the first nation in the UK to ban the sport, which might eventually trigger other nations in the union to follow suit, according to The Times of London.

The UK has 25 dog racing tracks, the vast majority of which are in England.

Dog Days of Racing

Scottish greyhound racing has been in decline since its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, the country has only one track, Thornton Greyhound Stadium in Fife, which is unregulated. That means it lacks mandatory drug testing and trackside veterinarians.

The last regulated stadium in the country was Shawfield in South Lanarkshire. It did not reopen after the COVID-19 lockdown.

A petition to end greyhound racing in Scotland has received over 130,000 signatures.

The campaign to ban the sport is spearheaded by Scotland Against Greyhound Exploitation (Sage), with backing from numerous animal charities, including The Dogs Trust, Scottish SPCA, RSPCA, and the Blue Cross.

They point to statistics from the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) that more than 3,000 racing dogs died from 2017 to 2020, with an estimated 18,345 injured over the same period. The GBGB emphasizes the statistics also included dogs that died from long-term illness or natural causes.

‘Drugged, Discarded’

“We believe that [tomorrow] they will say we think [greyhound racing] should be banned in Scotland. Wednesday is pivotal. If they come out and ban it, the government is going to have to act on that. I’m feeling very optimistic.,” Sage chairwoman Gill Docherty told The Times.

If you stripped away all the concerns about how they’re kept, that they’re drugged, that they’re discarded at the end, dogs will still die on the tracks. You can’t remove that risk, so it needs to go,” she added.

Thornton racetrack owner Paul Brignal said, “Sage keeps banging on about there being 18,000 injured dogs and 3,000 deaths but we only have about 70 dogs left in racing. We’ve had two serious injuries this one year and one dog sadly died. But accidents can happen in every sport.”

Death Throes in US

In the US, greyhound racing is a dying sport in more ways than one. In 2018, Florida, once the epicenter of dog racing in America, voted in a public referendum to phase it out completely after December 31, 2020.

Arkansas, West Virginia, and Iowa are the only states that still permit commercial greyhound racing and betting. Arkansas and Iowa have resolved to phase out races at the end of this year.

Bruno clocker horse racing assistant

Take Charge Indy returned to finish a good second in a 1 1/16-mile allowance race at Gulfstream on January 29, two lengths behind Todd Pletcher-trained El Padrino, the latter going on to win the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds on February 25. In their only previous meeting, Take Charge Indy finished fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, beaten 6 1/4 lengths. Indy out of Grade 1 winner Take Charge Lady, Take Charge Indy will be making his second start of the season, as will Union Rags. I'm actually a little surprised they've got six horses likely to run against him."Ī regally-bred son of A.P. It looks like the best (Kentucky Derby) prep of the year. "It was a good maintenance work," Byrne said. Grade 3-placed Take Charge Indy, also at Palm Meadows, breezed five furlongs in 1:01 2/5 for trainer Pat Byrne. "He had some unfortunate problems in the Breeders' Cup, which unfortunately could arise again, but right now he's more mature physically and mentally than he was as two-year-old, and I think it showed in his last race," Matz said.įour other Florida Derby candidates posted Saturday works. He was forced to race extremely wide from his outside post position and was unable to overtake pacesetter Hansen. Union Rags captured his first three races, including the Grade 2 Saratoga Special and the Grade 1 Champagne, before finishing second, a head behind Hansen, in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. "I would hope that having a race under his belt would help him for the Florida Derby." It didn't look like he had to give everything he had," Matz said. "I think he should take a step forward from that. The Chadds Ford Stable homebred made his 2012 debut on in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park February 26, where he finished four lengths clear while in hand under jockey Julien Leparoux. "The other two horses worked nicely and he worked nice and galloped out really well." I just wanted to have something for him to point at. "He went out with a set that worked, and Peter just sat behind them. Trainer Michael Matz was obviously pleased with the tune-up. Welsch caught Union Rags galloping out five furlongs in 1:01 3/5 and posting a sensational final quarter in :24.ĭe Julio reported via Twitter that he timed the son of Dixie Union in :48 1/5, with a gallop-out of 1:00 3/5, and also raved about his "huge final quarter."Īfter noting that Union Rags "looked awesome blowing by" his mates, De Julio later tweeted that the move "was an historical work, never seen anything like it, ever. "Union Rags SUPER," Daily Racing Form's Welsch tweeted, adding that the colt broke four lengths behind his companions, but stormed eight lengths clear. With assistant trainer/exercise rider Peter Brett in the saddle, the Grade 1 star inhaled his two workmates while covering a half-mile in :49 on the fast main track, in his final major move in advance of next Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby. The Clocker handles, safeguards, and maintains records and documents that are often sensitive in nature and thus is required to maintain confidentiality at all times.Early Kentucky Derby favorite Union Rags turned in a superb breeze in company at Palm Meadows on Saturday, to the delight of veteran work watchers Mike Welsch and Bruno De Julio. Share pertinent information with Stewards and Veterinarians.Input official workout information into national database.Record and document official workout information.Operate several stopwatches simultaneously.Alert track personnel of loose horse(s) or accidents.Maintain contact with EMTs, Outrider(s), and Track Crew personnel.The timings can also be used as a tool in handicapping the races. The timings can be used by the Stewards or Veterinarians if the horse needs to have an official published workout prior to racing. The Clocker is responsible for taking official timings of the distances worked by horses during morning training sessions.

This time last April, on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the world was coming to grips with the isolation of quarantine and the economic and travel slowdowns that defined the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even now, with the rollout of vaccines, the virus continues to affect our daily lives. And the toll keeps growing: 3 million dead and more than 140 million cases worldwide.

If anything, the worst public health crisis in a century has brought our understanding of our planet, and our place in the fragile yet resilient web of life throughout it, into stark relief.

Amid so much grief and loss and uncertainty, the biodiversity crisis paced ahead over the past year, becoming a much bigger theme on the world stage. The climate crisis worsened, too. Wildfires blazed. Ecosystems became even more fouled up than they already were.

At the same time, the marked reduction in human activity spurred by the pandemic — what some experts have dubbed the “Anthropause” — has afforded scientists and researchers opportunities to observe the natural world like never before. Coinciding with these unique observational windows has been an increase in attention on Indigenous knowledge and land stewardship as a way forward in combating ecological catastrophe.

In true Vox tradition, here are the 10 most concerning, intriguing, and — dare we say — hopeful things we learned about our planet since the last Earth Day.

1) We saw just how quickly ocean noise pollution can drop, and how much that can help marine life

For a moment last spring, things got very quiet in the oceans.

The drop in human activity that came with the pandemic resulted in drastic and voluntary sound reductions that ran the underwater gamut: from a drop in shipping noise, the predominant source of man-made ocean noise pollution, to decreases in recreation and tourism. All of it suddenly ceased.

In Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, the foraging grounds of humpback whales, the loudest underwater sounds last May were less than half as loud as those in May 2018, according to a Cornell University analysis. A May 2020 paper in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America found that underwater noise off the Vancouver coast was half as loud in April as the loudest sounds recorded in the months preceding the shipping traffic slowdown.

Chronic underwater ocean noise had been rising over the past few decades, to the detriment of marine life that have evolved to use sound to navigate their world. “There is clear evidence that noise compromises hearing ability and induces physiological and behavioral changes in marine animals,” reads an assessment of marine noise pollution research published in the journal Science in February.

The majority of ocean noise pollution is a byproduct of economic activity. But compared with massively complex issues like climate change, noise is relatively easy to turn down, at least a little. Silencing it at its source has an immediate positive impact: Famously, researchers studying right whales on the East Coast measured a drop in the animals’ stress hormones in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, after shipping traffic abruptly dropped. Even tiny fish larvae are better able to locate the coral reefs where they were born, which themselves emit sound, when the oceans get quiet.

Man-made ocean noise has since ramped back up and is now stabilized near pre-pandemic levels. But it fell silent for long enough last March, April, and May that a global team of scientists is actively scrubbing through audio recordings gathered by around 230 non-military hydrophones — underwater microphones — that monitor ocean noise around the world. They aim to study the “year of the quiet ocean” in the context of ocean sounds before, during, and after the pandemic.

2) A new study found that the Amazon is likely warming — not cooling — the planet

The world’s largest and most species-rich tropical forest, the Amazon, is home to billions of trees that not only provide refuge to a diverse assemblage of organisms but also store and absorb a huge amount of carbon dioxide.

That’s what makes the conclusion of a study published this spring so alarming: Due to human activity, the Amazon is likely contributing to — not offsetting, as one might expect— global warming. “The current net biogeochemical effect of the Amazon Basin is most likely to warm the atmosphere,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

While the Amazon is still absorbing loads of CO2, human activities in the basin, such as deforestation, are driving up emissions of CO2 and other more potent greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide across the basin.

Deforestation, for one, deals a double punch: It both releases gases into the atmosphere and removes CO2-absorbing trees from the equation. That equation now sees the Amazon generating more greenhouse gases than it emits, the study suggests. (It’s worth noting, though, this is all really complicated. For more, check out Craig Welch’s story in National Geographic or read the full study here.)

3) We discovered a bunch of new species

While humans have made a mark on all corners of Earth, we’ve only discovered a small fraction of the species that occupy it. In fact, that fraction could be smaller than 1 percent. And remarkably, not all of those species are tiny microbes and insects. They’re also fish, lizards, bats, and even whales. That’s right: Even giant mammals can elude scientists.

In January, researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said they discovered a new species of baleen whale in the Gulf of Mexico. (You can find the paper describing the discovery here.) Other teams of scientists are also on the trail of what could be yet another new whale species.

Last year, researchers documented scores of new plants and animals, from geckos and sea slugs to flowering plants and sand dollars, as Vox’s Brian Resnick reported. Our favorite? Brookesia nana, a thumbnail-sized chameleon native to northern Madagascar. It may be the smallest reptile on Earth; it’s certainly the cutest.

4) We got a much clearer picture of just how much wildlife we’re losing

The numbers aren’t good.

In September, the World Wildlife Fund published a report showing that the global populations of several major animal groups, including mammals and birds, have declined by almost 70 percent in the last 50 years due to human activity.

A separate report, published in Nature this year, found that populations of ocean sharks and rays have plummeted by more than 70 percent in roughly the same period. And one-third of freshwater fish have been found to be at risk of extinction.

A number of species were also declared extinct over the last year. Those include the smooth handfish, a bottom-dweller that rests atop human-like appendages on the seafloor. It was the first marine fish species to be declared extinct in modern history. (Environmental journalist John Platt has a list of recent extinctions in 2020 at Scientific American.)

5) Protecting plants and animals hinges on a thriving ecotourism industry

In the early days of the pandemic, the popular “Nature is healing” meme overshadowed a darker reality in many parts of the world: As travel ground to a halt, so did revenue from wildlife tourism, putting some wildlife conservation efforts at risk.

The fallout was most severe in Africa. According to a new collection of research from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a government and civil society group, more than half of the continent’s protected areas had to pause or limit field patrols and other operations to stop poachers in the wake of the pandemic.

“Parks have emptied out to a large extent and there’s no money coming in,” Nigel Dudley, a co-author of one of the IUCN papers, told Reuters last month.

Some communities are deeply reliant on wildlife tourism. Late last year, Vox’s Brian Resnick spoke to veterinarian Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, who is working to keep coronavirus-susceptible gorillas alive in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

When tourism dropped, “everybody was struggling,” she said. “The local economy suffered and poaching went up.” (You can read more of Resnick’s conversation with her here.)

6) Researchers uncovered more proof that a key system of ocean currents is weakening

Graphics that show changes in ocean temperature over time generally reveal one trend: The ocean is heating up. But there’s one critical exception. Just below Greenland lies a large patch of water that’s cooling off. And that patch has scientists concerned that we could be nearing a tipping point for the climate.

The cold patch, scientists say, signals that a network of currents that bring warm water to the North Atlantic — known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC — is slowing down, and the melting of ice on Greenland is likely a culprit. One paper, published in the journal Nature in March, suggests that the current AMOC slowdown is “unprecedented in over a thousand years.”

The AMOC shapes weather across multiple continents, so any major slowdown will carry major consequences that could include faster sea-level rise in some regions, stronger hurricanes, and other changes in weather, to say nothing of the impacts to marine ecosystems.

But to be clear, the science on this is new and complex. For a great run-down, check out this recent visual feature in the New York Times.

7) The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs gave rise to the Amazon rainforest

The massive asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago may be best known for driving non-avian dinosaurs to extinction, but it also transformed entire ecosystems.

It may have even given rise to the Amazon rainforest, according to a study published in Science earlier this month. The finding is based on an analysis of about 50,000 fossil pollen records and 6,000 fossil leaf records in Colombia from before and after the asteroid crashed into what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

The data reveals two vastly different forests. Before the event, the forests were stocked with conifers and ferns, and the trees were spread out, with plenty of room for light to stream through the canopy. After the asteroid event, however, flowering plants started to dominate the landscape and the canopy became much more tightly packed, resembling the forest we know today.

“If you returned to the day before the meteorite fall, the forest would have an open canopy with a lot of ferns, many conifers, and dinosaurs,” study co-author Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama told New Scientist. “The forest we have today is the product of one event 66 million years ago.”

The idea here is that the asteroid impact somehow triggered a series of events that led to the modern Amazon rainforest. What were those events? One theory the researchers offer is that, before the asteroid, herbivorous dinosaurs prevented the forest from becoming dense by eating and trampling plants.

8) A review of more than 300 studies showed that the rate of deforestation is lower on Indigenous lands

The global conservation movement is pushing forward a plan to conserve 30 percent of the Earth by 2030 — an initiative known as 30 by 30 — and increasingly calling for Indigenous communities to be central to that effort.

These groups have historically been uprooted from land in the name of wildlife conservation. There is also greater evidence that forests fare better when they are governed by Indigenous and tribal territories.

A recent UN review of more than 300 studies found that forests within tribal territories in Latin America and the Caribbean have significantly lower rates of deforestation where land rights are formally recognized.

“In just about every country in the region Indigenous and tribal territories have lower deforestation rates than other forest areas,” wrote the authors of the report, which was published by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the Fund for the Development of Indigenous Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. “Many Indigenous territories prevent deforestation as effectively as non-Indigenous protected areas, and some even more effectively.”

9) Wildfire smoke can turn the sky an apocalyptic orange

If there was one day in 2020 that defined the climate emergency, it could have been September 9, when the sky above San Francisco turned completely orange.

Strong winds had carried smoke from fires burning across California to the atmosphere above the city. Particles of soot absorbed or reflected blue light from the sun, letting only orange-ish light through. (Wired has the details.)

But what made the image go viral wasn’t so much the science but what it symbolized: a growing climate catastrophe.

Climate change is making wildfires more frequent and severe, and 2020 provided more devastating evidence. Last year was California’s worst wildfire season on record. By the end of the year, nearly 10,000 fires had burned over 4 million acres — an astonishing 4 percent of California’s total land, according to the state.

10) Scientists finally solved the mystery of why wombats poop cubes

Sure, it may not have kept you up at night, but the mystery of the bare-nosed wombat’s poop puzzled scientists for decades. Why do these adorable, chunky marsupials, native to Australia and Tasmania, leave behind feces with six sides?

Thanks to a new study — published in the journal Soft Matter — we now have the answer.

Building on research published a few years earlier, a team of scientists found that wombat intestines have regions of varying thickness and elasticity that contract at different speeds: The stiffer regions contract relatively quickly, while softer sections squeeze more slowly, together forming a cube-like shape.

But there’s still a bit of mystery left: Why is their poop shaped like this? The jury’s still out, but some researchers believe it’s because wombats climb up on rocks and logs, and the cube-like shape prevents the feces from rolling away. This is key for wombats because they use piles of feces to communicate with other wombats.

What a difference a year makes, truly.

At 30 years and 266 days old, a Portuguese dog named Bobi was crowned the world’s oldest dog ever on February 1, breaking an almost century-old record, per Guinness World Records (GWR).

The previous titleholder, an Australian cattle dog named Bluey, was born in 1910 and lived for 29 years and 5 months. 

Bobi has lived in Conqueiros, a small Portuguese village, for more than three decades. But he almost didn’t survive past infancy, Leonel Costa, his owner, tells GWR. 

Costa was just eight years old when Bobi’s litter was born in the family’s woodshed in 1992.

Costa’s father, a hunter, decided the family had too many animals already, so they couldn’t keep the puppies. 

“Unfortunately, at that time, it was considered normal by older people who could not have more animals at home … to bury the animals in a hole so that they would not survive,” Costa tells GWR. 

The day after they were born, Costa’s father quickly entered the woodshed and stole the puppies while the mother dog, Gira, was out.

For the next few days, Costa and his brothers were devastated. However, they noticed Gira continued to visit the shed, despite her puppies supposedly no longer being there.

Curious, the brothers followed her and discovered a single tiny puppy safely hidden in a pile of logs.

They kept the puppy, Bobi, a secret from their parents until his eyes were open.

“We knew that when the dog opened its eyes, my parents would no longer bury it,” Costa tells GWR.

Bobi is a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a breed often used to guard property and livestock.

These dogs normally live about 12 to 14 years, but Bobi has survived for twice as long—and then some. 

“That really is an unusual thing,” Erik Olstad, a veterinarian at the University of California in Davis, tells the Washington Post’s Andrea Salcedo.

“Owners will always ask me, ‘How can I make my dog live the longest life that they can?’ That’s a loaded question because there are so many variants that go into life expectancy.”

Costa attributes Bobi’s long life to his diet of unseasoned human food, his freedom to roam unleashed through the forests and farmland close to home, and the calm countryside in which he grew up. 

“Of course, our love and affection throughout his life have also helped,” Costa tells Reuters’ Catarina Demony and Miguel Pereira.

Apart from one health scare in 2018, Bobi has lived a relatively healthy life. 

The dog’s longevity has been confirmed by the SIAC, a pet database authorized by the Portuguese government and managed by the National Union of Veterinarians.

The Veterinary Medical Service of the Municipality of Leiria also confirmed Bobi’s birth date, per GWR. 

In addition to earning the record for the oldest dog ever, Bobi has also ousted Spike, a 23-year-old chihuahua mix, as the oldest living dog just weeks after the title was given to Spike. 

“It’s a feeling of pride we can’t explain,” Costa tells Reuters.

“Some people told us we wouldn’t make it ... but we knew Bobi’s age and were sure the exams would only prove what we already knew.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-bobi-the-worlds-oldest-dog-180981601/

NEW: Oldest Dog Ever - Guinness World Records

Bobi has been officially confirmed as the oldest dog ever recorded by Guinness World Records.

Born in Portugal in 1992, Bobi lives with human Leonel Costa.

"We are really happy and grateful to have Bobi with us after 30 years", said Leonel.

Leonel believes that living free in nature, without being tied to chains, and being fed healthy food, in addition to love, helped Bobi to have a longer life.

"I believe Bobi deserves this Guinness World Records title and I, as his owner, have a duty to give him all the best and honor him in every way for this success in life", completed Leonel.

Bobi and Leonel Costa

Do you know if there's a veterinary union in the US? All I can seem to find are groups like CACVT, focused on CE and not working rights. We work hard, we need to unionize!

I agree, we do! I know there is a National Veterinary Professionals Union which is a group of/for support staff. That’s great and they are working toward an awesome goal! But I don’t think there’s anything for veterinarians.

Headlines: Friday, September 25, 2020

Tea prices (WSJ) The price of wholesale tea is up 50 percent since March, hitting $3.16 per kilogram, up from $2.13 per kilogram back in March. We’re still not at the $3.29 per kilogram demanded in October 2017, but the price hike is showing little sign of stopping. Every day 3.7 billion cups of tea are consumed, with half the U.S. population consuming tea daily, most of whom like it iced. Tea production is down in major producers like Sri Lanka and India.

California Plans to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars in 15 Years (NYT) California plans to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars statewide by 2035, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, in a sweeping move aimed at accelerating the state’s efforts to combat global warming amid a deadly and record-breaking wildfire season. In an executive order, Governor Newsom directed California’s regulators to develop a plan that would require automakers to sell steadily more zero-emissions passenger vehicles in the state, such as battery-powered or hydrogen-powered cars and pickup trucks, until they make up 100 percent of new auto sales in just 15 years. Ramping up sales of emissions-free vehicles in California will be an enormous challenge over a relatively short period of time, experts said. Last year, only 8 percent of the nearly two million passenger vehicles sold statewide were battery-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The order would affect only new-vehicle sales, the governor’s office said. It would not prevent Californians from owning cars with internal combustion engines past 2035 or selling them on the used-vehicle market.

Venezuela’s broken oil industry is spewing crude into the Caribbean Sea (Washington Post) The sun had risen over the Caribbean Sea when Frank González spotted “the stain”—an oil slick on the water that stretched for miles. “The sea looked like butter, because of the thickness of the water,” said González, a fisherman who saw the spill this month while working off the coast of Venezuela’s Falcón state. “It was painful to see.” Venezuela’s once powerful oil industry is literally falling apart, with years of mismanagement, corruption, falling prices and a U.S. embargo imposed last year bringing aging infrastructure to the brink of collapse. As the government scrambles to repair and restart its fuel-processing capacity, analysts are warning that ruptured pipelines, rusting tankers and rickety refineries are contributing to a mounting ecological disaster in this failing socialist state. Oil workers say the gushing crude soiling the coast of Falcón state this month came from a cracked underwater pipeline linked to attempts to restart fuel production at the aging Cardón refinery. Not far from the oil slick, fishermen say, is a jetting geyser of natural gas from a second broken pipeline.

France tightens virus measures, unveils new ‘danger zones’ map (Reuters) France’s health minister unveiled a map of coronavirus “danger zones” around the country on Wednesday and gave the hardest-hit local authorities, including that of Marseille, days to tighten restrictions or risk having a state of health emergency declared there. Olivier Veran told a news conference the country would be divided into zones by alert level with Marseille, the second-largest city, and the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe for now the only two areas put on the “maximum” alert level. Like other European countries where the infection rate has soared in the past month, France has been gradually tightening limits on public and private gatherings locally, hoping it will be enough to contain the disease and avoid a second national lockdown. Among other measures, there will be a ban on public gatherings of more than 10 people and, in “maximum” alert level areas like Marseille, bars and restaurants will be closed from Saturday.

Protests Reignite After News of Secret Belarus Inauguration (Foreign Policy) Longtime Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko was sworn in to extend his 26-year rule at a secret ceremony in Minsk on Wednesday, emphasizing the embattled leader’s shrinking authority and increasingly precarious hold on power. No prior announcement was made regarding the ceremony, prompting thousands of protesters to flood the streets of Minsk to rally against Lukashenko once the news broke. Opposition leaders, who have put immense pressure on Lukashenko since he claimed victory in a landslide on Aug. 9 amid widespread accusations of voter fraud, called the inaugural ceremony a “thieves’ meeting” and a “farce.” In a statement, a spokesperson of the U.S. State Department said that “the United States cannot consider [Lukashenko] the legitimately elected leader of Belarus.” The European Union has already said it doesn’t recognize Lukashenko as president.

In India, engineers and MBAs are turning to manual labor to survive the economic crash (Washington Post) On a recent muggy afternoon in southern India, Earappa Bawge hacked at the ground with a pickax, his white shirt pasted to his back. Each dull thud reminded him of how far his hopes had fallen. Just months ago, the 27-year-old engineer was poring over project files in an air-conditioned room at a factory hundreds of miles away. The job was a ticket out of rural poverty for Bawge’s entire family, who had sacrificed for years so he could complete his studies. Now he was back in the village where he was born, propelled by a wave of economic destruction rolling across India during the pandemic. To survive, Bawge began digging ditches under a public works program. Alongside him were a former bank employee, a veterinarian and three MBA students. At the end of the day, each received $3.70. “If I don’t work, we don’t get to eat,” said Bawge, flicking beads of sweat from his brow. “Hunger trumps any aspiration.” As India’s economy reels in the aftermath of one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, a rural employment program has emerged as a lifeline for some of the tens of millions left jobless. The government program—which aims to guarantee 100 days of unskilled work in rural areas—was intended to combat poverty and reduce the volatility of agricultural wages. Now it is a potent symbol of how the middle-class dreams of millions of Indians are unraveling.

China to let in more foreigners as virus recedes (AP) Foreigners holding certain types of visas and residence permits will be permitted to return to China starting next week as the threat of the coronavirus continues to recede. The new regulation lifts a monthslong blanket suspension covering most foreigners apart from diplomats and those in special circumstances. Beginning Monday, foreign nationals holding valid Chinese visas and residence permits for work, personal matters and family reunions will be permitted to enter China without needing to apply for new visas, according to the regulation. Those whose permits have expired can reapply. Returnees must undergo two weeks of quarantine and follow other anti-epidemic measures, the regulation said.

Xinjiang crackdown continues (The Guardian) China has built nearly 400 internment camps in Xinjiang region, with construction on dozens continuing over the last two years, even as Chinese authorities said their “re-education” system was winding down, an Australian think tank has found. The network of camps in China’s far west, used to detain Uighurs and people from other Muslim minorities, include 14 that are still under construction, according to the latest satellite imaging obtained by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In total ASPI identified 380 detention centers established across the region since 2017, ranging from lowest security re-education camps to fortified prisons.

Grand Theft Ayatollah (Foreign Policy) Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is investing in a new video game in which Iranian paramilitaries rescue George Floyd from U.S. police, according to Khosro Kalbasi, a reporter for Iran’s independent Financial Tribune. It’s not the first time Middle Eastern powers have used video games and cartoons to make foreign-policy commentary: In 2018, a pro-Saudi group produced an animated video depicting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman commanding a successful invasion of Iran.

Lebanon asks world’s help ‘trying to rise from its rubble’ (AP) Facing an economic meltdown and other crises, Lebanon’s president on Wednesday asked for the world’s help to rebuild the capital’s main port and neighborhoods that were blown away in last month’s catastrophic explosion. President Michel Aoun made the plea in a prerecorded speech to the U.N. General Assembly’s virtual summit, telling world leaders that Lebanon’s many challenges are posing an unprecedented threat to its very existence. Most urgently, the country needs the international community’s support to rebuild its economy and its destroyed port. Aoun suggested breaking up the damaged parts of the city into separate areas and so that countries that wish to help can each commit to rebuilding one. Earlier Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for swift formation of a government to be followed by tangible steps to implement economic, social and political reforms. Lebanon’s government resigned under pressure in the wake of the port explosion, and Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib has been unable to form a new government amid a political impasse over which faction gets to have the Finance Ministry, as well as other disputes. “Without such action, the country’s ability to recover and rebuild will be jeopardized, adding to the turmoil and hardship of the Lebanese people,” Guterres added.

Israel’s Netanyahu brings his dirty laundry to Washington. Literally. (Washington Post) Most politicians go to great lengths to conceal their dirty laundry. And then there’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Over the years, the Israeli leader has developed a reputation among the staff at the U.S. president’s guesthouse for bringing special cargo on his trips to Washington: bags and suitcases full of dirty laundry, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The clothes are cleaned for the prime minister free of charge by the U.S. staff, a perk that is available to all foreign leaders but sparingly taken advantage of given the short stays of busy heads of state. “The Netanyahus are the only ones who bring actual suitcases of dirty laundry for us to clean,” said one U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the details of a foreign leader’s visits. “After multiple trips, it became clear this was intentional.” Israeli officials denied that Netanyahu overuses his American hosts’ laundry services, calling the allegations “absurd,” but they acknowledged that he has been the target of laundry-related accusations in the past. In 2016, Netanyahu sued his own office and Israel’s attorney general in an effort to prevent the release of his laundry bills under the country’s freedom of information act. The relatively minor accusation joins a longer list of corruption allegations that have threatened the 70-year-old leader’s hold on power and triggered protests in Israel this month.

Australian offers free coffee, chat from his kitchen window (AP) It all started when Rick Everett walked out of his home in Sydney and put up a sign on his kitchen window that read: “Free coffee to combat the virus.” It was March, and the Australian acrobat had lost his job during the coronavirus pandemic. With more free time, he felt he could help out others in need. And he knew how to bake and cook after managing a chocolate and coffee shop and a pizza restaurant. When he started, he said the window would be open whenever he was home. He stressed that it wasn’t a coffee shop business; he just wanted to do something nice and meet his neighbors for a friendly chat during a difficult time. “Think of it as popping over to your mates for a coffee only it is a friend you have not met yet,” he wrote on a sign. “I am not selling anything. This is a gift and all it will cost you is a smile.” Soon his neighbors began to stop by, bringing him everything from cakes and loaves of bread to a six-pack of beer. Strangers began to recognize him on the street and wave hello. “It’s like I live in a small town again, and it’s really beautiful,” he said. “And what’s even more beautiful is people ring my coffee bell just to talk,” he said. “They don’t even want a coffee! They don’t want to take anything from me, but they’re most happy to have a conversation with me, which is really nice.”

Giant Panda Mama Gives Birth to Baby Cub at National Zoo Friday Evening

https://sciencespies.com/nature/giant-panda-mama-gives-birth-to-baby-cub-at-national-zoo-friday-evening/

Giant Panda Mama Gives Birth to Baby Cub at National Zoo Friday Evening

A healthy giant panda cub was born today around 6:35 p.m. Eastern Time at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The cub’s sex will be determined after neonatal exams are completed at a later date. The cub, who is currently about the size of a stick of butter, will be named in 100 days.

The infant panda was born to Mei Xiang (may-SHONG), a 22-year-old giant panda who has been with the Zoo since 2000. Mei Xiang “picked up the cub immediately and began cradling and caring for it,” according to a Zoo release. “The panda team heard the cub vocalize and glimpsed the cub for the first time briefly immediately after the birth.”

The birth was streamed live via the Zoo’s panda cam, and though Mei Xiang and her baby will remain in isolation, spectators can tune into the live stream to watch the pair interact.

“Giant pandas are an international symbol of endangered wildlife and hope, and with the birth of this precious cub we are thrilled to offer the world a much-needed moment of pure joy,” said Steve Monfort, John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “Because Mei Xiang is of advanced maternal age, we knew the chances of her having a cub were slim. However, we wanted to give her one more opportunity to contribute to her species’ survival. I am incredibly proud of our animal care and science teams, whose expertise in giant panda behavior was critical to this conservation success.”

In the coming weeks, the blind, hairless cub—which is roughly 1/900th the size of its mother—will live on Mei Xiang’s chest, migrating between mammary glands and warm armpits.

Giant pandas are literal and figurative icons of the worldwide conservation movement. And after many years of decline, their wild population is finally showing signs of improvement. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which monitors species at risk of extinction, announced in 2016 that pandas have been upgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” to reflect a 17 percent increase in their population over the past decade. Currently, around 1,800 pandas exist in the wild, with some 500 more being held in captivity.

Despite this progress, the species’ recovery remains fragile due to threats from habitat loss caused by deforestation and, in the long-run, climate change. For this reason, every newborn panda is a significant victory for those seeking to ensure the species’ survival.

The birth of the new cub also reflects years of progress among zoos and breeding programs seeking to bolster the panda’s population. For a variety of reasons, pandas are incredibly hard to breed in captivity.

Female pandas are only capable of conceiving cubs for 24 to 72 hours a year. Nailing this timing requires careful observation of the bear’s behavior as well as monitoring the rise and fall of various hormones.

Back in mid-March, when the severity of the coronavirus pandemic was dawning on people around the world, Mei Xiang became restless. According to the Zoo, she was seen wandering about her enclosure, marking it with her scent, vocalizing and playing in water, which, in combination with increasing concentrations of the hormone estrogen in her urine, signals that ovulation is imminent.

Because the panda’s reproductive window is so small, and because male pandas are not terribly reliable collaborators, on March 22 reproductive scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) and Zoo veterinarians artificially inseminated Mei Xiang with frozen semen from 22-year-old Tian Tian (tee-YEN tee-YEN), the Zoo’s male giant panda. Historically, Tian Tian has had trouble with natural procreation and all of Mei Xiang’s previous cubs, Tai Shan, Bao Bao and Bei Bei, have been conceived through artificial insemination.

Staff then waited anxiously for months before a second rise in progesterone in Mei Xiang’s urine in early June and behavioral changes in July suggested she might be pregnant. The significant uncertainty is due to the fact that pandas can have what are called “pseudopregnancies,” which are identical to actual pregnancy in terms of the animal’s behavior and hormone changes, but, crucially, involve no fetus. Mei Xiang has experienced seven pseudopregnancies.

Finally, on the morning of August 14, veterinarians at the Zoo detected what appeared to be developing fetal tissue on an ultrasound. A few days later, the fetus’ spine and blood flow were visible as it kicked and swam about in the womb.

Mei Xiang’s successful motherhood is all the more impressive and special because she’s nearing the end of her reproductive life. Pandas older than Mei Xiang have given birth, but females of the species typically cease to be fertile after their early twenties.

Though the National Zoo reopened with new safety measures on July 24, the panda house at the David M. Rubenstein Family Giant Panda Habitat is currently closed to ensure Mei Xiang and her new baby are undisturbed. The panda team has been monitoring Mei Xiang around the clock since August 14 via the panda cam, and the public can tune in to get their panda fix there as well.

#Nature