Vegetarian Discussion

[Husky]

News from late 2015:



I already knew giant wild boar had made Chernobyl their home, but wolves and lynx and elk too... So awesome.



dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3260583/Chernobyl-wildlife-PARADISE-Wolves-lynx-elk-boar-thrived-humans-abandoned-nuclear-disaster-zone.html

Chernobyl is a wildlife PARADISE: Wolves, lynx, elk and boar have thrived since humans abandoned the nuclear disaster zone

• Populations of large mammals show no evidence of being affected by the continuing radiation in the exclusion zone around the nuclear power plant
  
  
• Study found abundant populations of mammals - the most sensitive creatures to the impacts of radiation - in the area
  
  

By Rachel Reilly for MailOnline



Published: 16:22 GMT, 5 October 2015 | Updated: 00:05 GMT, 6 October 2015



Wildlife including wolves, elk and wild boar are thriving around Chernobyl since the area was deserted by humans after the world's worst nuclear accident, a study shows.



Populations of large mammals show no evidence of being affected by the continuing radiation in the exclusion zone around the nuclear power plant in Ukraine, close to the Belarus border, which was hit by an explosion and fire in 1986.



[...]

So this is what it takes to make the planet a paradise for wildlife again: a nuclear disaster that forces humans to stay away.

Well, it's a tough parasitic species: nothing else worked.



Score:

+1 for heathens (represented by other animal species doing the territory reclamation);

-1 for mono-moronisms (of the human species onlee, as there are no monotheist non-human animals).



Who said heathenism wasn't reclaiming lost ground?

[Husky]

A paper on the most important topic had been published back in late 2015. Unfortunately, it was unjustifiably overshadowed by other papers published back then. So I had missed it until now.





nature.com/cr/journal/v26/n1/full/cr2015147a.html

Cell Research (2016) 26:21–33. doi:10.1038/cr.2015.147; published online 15 December 2015

Out of southern East Asia: the natural history of domestic dogs across the world



Abstract



The origin and evolution of the domestic dog remains a controversial question for the scientific community, with basic aspects such as the place and date of origin, and the number of times dogs were domesticated, open to dispute. Using whole genome sequences from a total of 58 canids (12 gray wolves, 27 primitive dogs from Asia and Africa, and a collection of 19 diverse breeds from across the world), we find that dogs from southern East Asia have significantly higher genetic diversity compared to other populations, and are the most basal group relating to gray wolves, indicating an ancient origin of domestic dogs in southern East Asia 33 000 years ago. Around 15 000 years ago, a subset of ancestral dogs started migrating to the Middle East, Africa and Europe, arriving in Europe at about 10 000 years ago. One of the out of Asia lineages also migrated back to the east, creating a series of admixed populations with the endemic Asian lineages in northern China before migrating to the New World. For the first time, our study unravels an extraordinary journey that the domestic dog has traveled on earth.



Intro

The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), one of our closest companions in the animal kingdom, has followed us to every continent of the world. As a single species, the domestic dog embodies one of the largest collections of phenotypic diversity for any species living on earth1. Due to their cognitive and behavioral abilities, domestic dogs have been selected to fulfill a wide variety of tasks including hunting, herding and companionship. The genetic and historical basis of these phenotypic changes has intrigued the scientific community, including Darwin2.

[Husky]

1.thedodo.com/paralyzed-cat-princess-kittens-1836086869.html

Paralyzed Cat Drags Herself To The Spot Where She Left Her Babies

Jun. 02, 2016



Nothing was going to keep this determined mom cat away from her kittens — not even a beating that nearly killed her.



Late last month, Dee Walton, owner of Australia's Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue, found a missed call on her answering machine. It was from a woman who said she had been feeding a stray cat with kittens in her yard, but her neighbor had killed the mother cat.



"I was informed that the [neighbor] had [the mom] by the tail and threw her up against a trailer," Walton told The Dodo. "I'm assuming until he thought she was dead."



The mother cat's only crime was slinking into the man's yard — and getting caught.



By the time Walton received the message, another rescue group arrived on the scene to collect the 1-week-old kittens.



Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue Weston



The mother's body remained where it lay. But the next day, something remarkable happened.



Princess, as she was later named, dragged herself back to the spot where she had left her kittens, using just her front paws. Her back legs were paralyzed from the injuries she sustained from being brutally attacked. "It would have taken her ages to crawl back by her two front paws," Walton said.



But despite the difficulty, nothing was going to stop Princess from being reunited her babies.

...

:Ammaa:



2. huffingtonpost.com/entry/rescue-dog-dayko-dies_us_571eed51e4b0b49df6a8d37e

Hero Dog Dayko Dies After Rescuing At Least 7 People From Ecuador Earthquake Rubble

Dayko suffered from heat exhaustion and a heart attack.

04/26/2016 03:36 am ET