Lions added to endangered species list

In response to the alarming decline of lion populations in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed two lion subspecies as endangered and threatened. Without action to protect them, African lions could see their populations halved by 2035.

This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced it will list two lion subspecies under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Panthera leo leo – located in India and western and central Africa – will be listed as endangered, while Panthera leo melanochaita – found in eastern and southern Africa – will be listed as threatened. In the last 20 years, lion populations have declined by 43% due to a combination of habitat loss, loss of prey base, trophy hunting, poaching for skins and uses in Chinese traditional medicine, and retaliatory killing of lions by a growing human population. The killing of Cecil the lion in July of this year served to further highlight this issue. Coupled with inadequate financial and other resources for countries to effectively manage protected areas, the impact on lions in the wild has been substantial. Having once been present in south-eastern Europe and throughout much of the Middle East and India, the animals have now lost 85% of their historic range, as shown on the map below. Their numbers could be halved again by 2035, according to a recent study in the journal PNAS: "Many lion populations are either now gone or expected to disappear within the next few decades, to the extent that the intensively managed populations in southern Africa may soon supersede the iconic savannah landscapes in East Africa as the most successful sites for lion conservation," the study said. 

In 2011, the USFWS received a petition to list Panthera leo leo as endangered under the ESA. In 2014, the agency published a 12-month finding and agreed to list the subspecies as threatened with a special rule under section 4(d) of the ESA. Based on newly available scientific information on the genetics and taxonomy of lions, the agency assessed the status of the entire lion species and subsequently changed its earlier finding. The new science resolved that the western and central populations of African lion are more genetically related to the Asiatic lion. These lions are now considered the same subspecies, P. l. leo. There are only about 1,400 of these lions remaining; 900 in Africa and just 523 in India. Considering the size and distribution of the populations, the current trends and the severity of the threats, the agency has found that this subspecies now meets the definition of "endangered" under the ESA. The other subspecies – Panthera leo melanochaita – likely numbers between 17,000-19,000 and is found across southern and eastern Africa. The agency determined that this subspecies is less vulnerable and is not currently in danger of extinction. However, although lion numbers in southern Africa are increasing overall, they are declining significantly in some regions, due to various ongoing threats. As a result, the agency finds this subspecies meets the definition of a "threatened" species under the ESA. With an endangered listing, imports of P. l. leo will now be prohibited – except in certain rare cases, such as when it can be found that the import will enhance the survival of the species. To strengthen conservation measures for the threatened subspecies P. l. melanochaita, a new permitting mechanism will regulate the import of all P. l. melanochaita parts and products into the USA. This process will ensure that any imported specimens are legally obtained in range countries as part of a scientifically sound management program that benefits the subspecies in the wild. A third and final rule will enable the agency to support changes that strengthen the governance and accountability of conservation programs in other nations. Protected areas are vital to the future survival of lions; and the building of corridors or funnelling
mechanisms between protected areas is equally critical so that lions can be directed to other suitable habitat, away from potential conflict areas. It takes around $2,000 per square kilometre per year to properly protect these animals in Africa. Scientists from both the USA and the UK have, in recent years, begun collaborating to better understand how lions move across the African landscape and to model ways to conserve genetic diversity and populations across the continent. “The lion is one of the planet’s most beloved species and an irreplaceable part of our shared global heritage,” said USFWS Director Dan Ashe. “If we want to ensure that healthy lion populations continue to roam the African savannas and forests of India, then it’s up to all of us – not just the people of Africa and India – to take action.” Source: http://www.futuretimeline.net

Read More........→October 18, 2016

Doctors remove 18 cm tail from Nagpur boy's back

It's the longest recorded so far (Photo: AFP)

The doctors operated upon the 18-year-old boy with the 18 cm tail growing from the posterior end of the body on the back. Nagpur: A team of neurosurgeons at the government Super Specialty Hospital (SSH) here have successfully removed a 18-cm long human ‘tail’, apparently the longest recorded so far, from the back of a teenaged boy after its abnormal growth turned painful for him. The doctors operated upon the 18-year-old boy with the 18 cm tail growing from the posterior end of the body on the back. The head of the neurosurgery department and the team, Dr Pramod Giri on Tuesday said though the family knew about this unusual growth, they did not see a doctor due to the social stigma and superstition attached to it. Besides, it was not affecting his health anyway. “Generally, the defect is detected very early as it is present from birth and since it grows with age it cannot remain undetected. But the parents as well as the child hid the fact all these years. The defect can be surgically corrected within few months of birth,” the doctors said. When it became very painful for the boy, his parents brought him to SSH last week and was operated upon two days back. “When the size of the tail grew and a bone developed inside it, the tail

began to press on the boy’s back. It was cosmetically and psychologically disturbing for him. Hence the parents approached us,” Dr Giri explained. The patient was unable to sleep or sit properly. “Though the surgery is not very demanding, it is done by a neurosurgeon as it involves a part of the spinal cord. It arises from a compression at the tail end of the back and is medically referred as the neuro-development abnormality. This case is very rare and calls for a presentation in a medical journal as the tail is apparently the longest recorded so far,” Dr Giri claimed.Human tail generally manifests into problems related to bladder functioning — like lack of control of bowel. It can also result in pain and loss of function in lower limbs or legs.Dr Giri was assisted by two doctors from the neurosurgery department — Dr Divik Mittal and Dr Vivek Agrawal and anesthetists — Dr Lulu Fatema Vali, Dr Abhay Ganar and Dr Vaibhav Chouhan. Source: The Asian Age

Read More........→October 12, 2016

Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi wins Nobel Prize in Physiology

Stockholm: Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist specialising in autophagy and a professor in Tokyo Institute of Technology's Frontier Research Centre, was on Monday awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries of the mechanism for autophagy, a process that deals with destruction of cells in the body. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet decided to award the prize to Ohsumi, 71, as his discoveries led to a new paradigm in the "understanding of how the cell recycles its content". "His discoveries opened the path to understanding the fundamental importance of autophagy in many physiological processes, such as in the adaptation to starvation or response to infection," astatement on the official website of the Nobel Prize said. Because of Japan's 23rd Nobel Laureate Ohsumi's works, it is now known that autophagy -- self eating -- controls important physiological functions where cellular components need to be degraded and recycled. The concept emerged during the 1960s, when researchers first observed that the cell could destroy its own contents by enclosing it in membranes, forming sack-like vesicles that were transported to a recycling compartment, called the lysosome, for degradation. Ohsumi reasoned that if he could disrupt the degradation process in the vacuole while the process of autophagy was active, then autophagosomes should accumulate within the vacuole and become visible under the microscope. Source: ummid.com

Read More........→October 04, 2016