lunes, 30 de septiembre de 2013

Por la protección de la Ciénaga de Ayapel

Investigadores de la Universidad de Antioquia desarrollaron un proyecto de extensión para elaborar biocombustible con plantas acuáticas de la Ciénaga de Ayapel. Los estudios mostraron que la región está bajo una gran amenaza ambiental y social.

Los investigadores recolectaron plantas en tres puntos distintos de la Ciénaga para determinar sus propiedades fisicoquímicas, térmicas, de humedad y de combustión.
En Ayapel, la mayoría de los habitantes viven de la Ciénaga: cazan, pescan, siembran; pero ésta ha sido maltratada durante años y los recursos se están agotando. La región solía ser boscosa, pero los árboles fueron quemados y talados para sembrar pastos y llenarlos de vacas. En sus aguas abundaban el sábalo, el bagre y el bocachico, pero con la sobreexplotación de su pesca han comenzado a escasear. Y, mientras el precio del arroz que se cultiva en sus tierras cae por los tratados de libre comercio, el precio del oro sube y con él la explotación minera ilegal.


La Ciénaga de Ayapel, en Córdoba, hace parte de la tierra inundada, del diluvio, como algunos llaman a la región de La Mojana en el Caribe colombiano, porque en ella desbordan los ríos Cauca, San Jorge y Magdalena, inundándola en épocas lluviosas.


Allí, investigadores de la Universidad de Antioquia durante diez años han realizado estudios y proyectos socioambientales para preservar los ecosistemas y mejorar las condiciones de la población, cuyas opciones de empleo, salud y educación son mínimas. En esa cruzada, su gran aliada ha sido la Corporación para el Desarrollo Integral de la Ciénaga de Ayapel – Corpoayapel.


Hemos trabajado con la Universidad desde que se creó la Corporación en 2003, porque ha hecho los únicos estudios ambientales serios sobre la región”, afirmó Luz Estela Álvarez, directora ejecutiva de Corpoayapel.


El primero en llegar fue Néstor Aguirre, PhD, licenciado en biología y química. Pocos años después llegó Fabio Vélez, ingeniero sanitario y candidato a doctor. Juntos habían participado en la fundación del Grupo de Investigación Gestión y Modelación Ambiental —GAIA—, y actualmente pertenecen al Grupo de Investigación GeoLimna, ambos de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Alma Mater.


Entre finales de 2012 y mediados de 2013, con tres estudiantes de ingeniería de materiales desarrollaron un proyecto apoyado por el Banco de Proyectos de la Vicerrectoría de Extensión para elaborar briquetas (biocombustibles) a partir de plantas acuáticas abundantes en la Ciénaga: Eichhornia heterosperma, Eichhornia azurea y Eichhornia crassipes, esta última considerada por la población como una especia invasora que crece rápidamente e impide la navegación, por ello la llaman tapón.

En la zona rural no hay electricidad, la gente utiliza leña para cocinar y la obtienen principalmente del mangle dulce, un arbolito importante para el ecosistema, resistente a las inundaciones y criadero de alevinos. Su tala aumenta el problema ambiental de la zona, por ello queremos ofrecer otra alternativa”, explicó el ingeniero.


Recolectaron plantas en tres puntos distintos de la Ciénaga para determinar sus propiedades fisicoquímicas, térmicas, de humedad y de combustión; también emplearon cascarillas de arroz, para evitar que estos residuos sigan siendo arrojados al agua, contaminándola. “Encontramos que con una mezcla óptima entre las tres especies se puede elaborar un buen biocombustible. Además, el resultado puede aplicarse a plantas acuáticas de otras zonas”, explicó el investigador.

Una amenaza ambiental

Con los análisis de laboratorio también se identificó presencia de mercurio en las plantas tomadas de las tres zonas. Este hallazgo, sumado al de un proyecto anterior, en donde encontraron mercurio en el sedimento de la Ciénaga, podría significar que esta sustancia, residuo de la minería ilegal, está envenenando las aguas, penetrando y amenazando todo el ecosistema.

Es necesario hacer estudios que determinen el impacto, en qué cantidades está entrando a la Ciénaga, cuál es la ruta que está siguiendo, si está llegando a la cadena trófica, si la gente ya se está contaminando”, expresó el investigador.

Con mercurio, las briquetas no podrían utilizarse como biocombustible. Entonces diseñaron un horno ecoeficiente, que además de llegar a altas temperaturas, mantener el calor y quemar con poco humo, también incorpora un proceso mediante el cual el mercurio puede separarse de las plantas contaminadas.


Con su construcción, la población podría hacer sus propias briquetas mediante un procedimiento sencillo que los investigadores describieron paso a paso en una cartilla. “La idea es que puedan venderlas y tener otra opción de ingresos, pues queremos contribuir a aliviar un poco sus problemas económicos y sociales”, indicó Vélez.

También diseñaron e instalaron un deshidratador solar, el cual aprovecha las condiciones climáticas de la zona, utilizando fuentes energéticas renovables y de bajo costo para el secado de las plantas; las cuales deben secarse y deshidratarse después de ser recolectadas, lavadas y cortadas; y antes de ser mezcladas y comprimidas en las briquetas.


En el proyecto participaron madres cabeza de familia, gestores sociales, profesores y estudiantes de colegio. Ellos son fundamentales para recoger y difundir la conciencia ambiental. En eso nos apoyó el grupo DIDES de la Facultad de Educación de la Alma Mater, con una metodología llamada PRACCIS para transmitir el conocimiento a la comunidad”, contó el ingeniero.

Actualmente se llevan a cabo otras iniciativas en la zona conjuntamente entre diferentes grupos. Con el Grupo de Investigación en Gestión Ambiental —GIGA—, están sembrando una planta africana conocida como La Moringa, para usarla en potabilización de agua; también desarrollaron un concentrador de luz solar, llamado SODIS, sobre el cual se ubican botellas plásticas transparentes para que con la luz del sol se desinfecte el agua, acabando con la microbiota. Y, con el grupo GAIA, se ubicaron equipos climatológicos en la Ciénaga para monitorear temperatura, viento, humedad, radiación solar y lluvia, y relacionarlos con el cambio climático.

La creatividad al servicio de la sociedad
La experiencia y los resultados de este proyecto, el impacto de sus hallazgos para la comunidad de Ayapel y las nuevas propuestas para mitigar el daño ambiental en la Ciénaga, serán presentados por los investigadores y representantes de Corpoayapel como parte de la reprogramación del Encuentro de Extensión Universitaria 2013.


ORIGINAL: Universidad de Antioquia
por Diana Isabel Rivera - Vicerrectoría de Extensión
30 de Septiembre de 2013

Fish Fossil Has Oldest Known Face, May Influence Evolution

The 419-million-year-old fossil has the same jawbones as vertebrates.
Is this the first face? The extinct fish swims in ancient seas in an illustration.  Illustration courtesy Brian Choo
Scientists have found the oldest face—and it's a fish. (Not a fishface, though.)

The 419-million-year-old fish fossil could help explain when and how vertebrates, including humans, acquired our faces—suggesting a far more primitive origin for this critical feature of our success, a new study says.

"Entelognathus primordialis is one of the earliest, and certainly the most primitive, fossil fish that has the same jawbones as modern bony fishes and land vertebrates including ourselves," said study co-author Min Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

"The human jaw is quite directly connected to the jaw of this fish, and that's what makes it so interesting."

The bones comprising the fish's cheek and jaws appear essentially the same as those found in modern bony vertebrates, including humans, Zhu added. Because it boasts maxilla and mandible much like our own, the fish may be the earliest known creature with what we'd recognize as a face. (Related: "Ancient Toothy Fish Found in Arctic—Giant Prowled Rivers.")

Key Evolutionary Step
The development of jaws and faces was a key step in vertebrate evolution, and probably appeared as a way for fish to catch bigger and/or more nimble prey, according to the study, published September 26 in the journal Nature.

There remains much to learn about how it happened, however.

University of Oxford paleobiologist Matt Friedman, who wasn't involved in the research but penned a commentary for Nature, said the fossil boasts a jaw and face structure that's nothing like those in any other known members of Entelognathus's extinct family of primitive armored fishes, the placoderms. These creatures had simple jaws and cheeks composed of just a few large bones, Friedman explained, rather than complex arrangements of smaller bones like those found in modern bony fishes.

But in the new fossil, found in China, has a distinctive three-bone system still used by chewing vertebrates today: 
  • a lower jawbone called the dentary and two upper jaw bones called 
  • the premaxilla (holding the front teeth) and 
  • the maxilla (holding the canine and cheek teeth).
"The exciting thing about this fossil is that when you look at the top of it, it looks like a placoderm, but when you look at the side of the fish and the structure of the jaw, it doesn't look like any placoderm that we know of," Friedman said.

"This tends to suggest the exciting possibility that these jawbones evolved way deep down in the lineage, so these features we used to hold as being unique to bony fishes may not be so unique.” (Related: "Ancient Fish Downsized But Still Largest Ever.")

Understanding Our Origins
The ramifications of that theory, if confirmed, would extend far beyond fish into the deepest roots of our own family tree, Friedman said.

"Basically, as terrestrial vertebrates, we are a kind of very specialized, very bizarre fish that about 370 million years ago went on land and lost its fins. Understanding the origin of bony fishes is inextricably linked to understanding our own origins because we're bony fishes.

"These different bones in our skull, the ones that medical students learn the names of, where and when in our family tree did they arrive?” he asked. (Related: "Flat-Faced Early Humans Confirmed—Lived Among Other Human Species.")

If it's the case that the bones we see in Entelognathus are genuinely related to the ones in our own faces, Friedman explained, we can trace the origin of those features very deep down into our own family tree, even before the lineage of bony fishes (including terrestrial vertebrates like humans) split from that of the cartilaginous fishes (including sharks and rays).

"It suggests a real antiquity to some of the most prominent features of our own bony faces."


ORIGINAL: NationalGeographic
Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News
Published September 25, 2013

The Complex Species (HarvardX MCB80x: Fundamentals of Neuroscience Intro)


"A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and
art into pedantry. Hence University education."
George Bernard Shaw

Manifesto

Let's face it: MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) promise disruption, and yet most of them to date deliver an extremely traditional learning experience. Basically, it's the big-lecture-hall format, with an internet-sized lecture hall.

However, many of us in higher education never were happy about the big-lecture-hall format in the first place. Lecturing to an audience of hundreds is a impersonal experience for all involved; the interaction is usually almost completely unidirectional, and the material must be lowered to the lowest common denominator. Make no mistake: there are many professors who are masters of this format, who can inspire mass audiences. However, I'd wager that most of them still wish they could engage with their students in a smaller format. The big-hall lecture is a practical necessity, but it is in no way ideal. In many ways, the big lecture is academia's dirty laundry; many of the most memorable experiences in a Harvard education come from smaller seminar experiences, not to mention interactions with peers.

Our goal is to reboot the MOOC and leverage the advantages of the internet, rather than just shoveling the same old lecture format onto the web. It's going to be a long journey, and we're almost certainly not going to get it right the first time, but we're excited about the possibilities. We invite you to join us in this experiment and we welcome your feedback and help in making an online learning space that lives up to the hype.

Guided Interactivity
In MCB80x, we're piloting a style of instruction that we call "Guided Interactivity", where in interactive simulations are seamlessly woven into the flow of instruction. We will walk you through the process of building up a neuron, piece by piece, allowing you to dynamically explore the function of the nervous system.

Education On Location
While lectures are tied to the physical environment lecture hall, the internet has no such limitations. With the internet, we can bring you into the laboratory, or to a museum, or to a doctor's office. Neuroscience happens in the world, and we want to take you to see it firsthand.

Student Generated Content
Humans have a natural desire to contribute. With MCB80x, we will invite students to conduct their own experiments at home and in their own schools, using DIY hardware from our partners at Backyard Brains. In addition to experiencing real experiments firsthand, students will be invited to film and contribute back their experiments.



People

MCB80x is largely a labor of love created by a small group of core staff, along with a larger group of creative professionals who generously contribute their time to making this course happen.

Prof. David Cox
Course Head David Cox is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Computer Science, and is a member of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University. His laboratory seeks to understand the computational underpinnings of visual processing through concerted efforts in both reverse- and forward-engineering. To this end, his group employs a wide range of experimental techniques (ranging from microelectrode recordings in living brains to visual psychophysics in humans) to probe natural systems, while at the same time actively developing practical computer vision systems based on what is learned about the brain.

Nadja Oertelt. HarvardX Fellow, Producer
Nadja Oertelt is a HarvardX Fellow and producer for MCB80x. She graduated from MIT in 2008 with a degree in Neuroscience has studied visual arts, film, anthropology and archaeology. She has worked as an independent documentary producer and director for the past decade.

Winston Yan. Content Development Assistant
Winston Yan graduated from Harvard in 2010 with a degree in Physics and is currently a 3rd year student in the Harvard-MIT MD/PhD program. He has finished the first two years of medical school in the HST program and is about to start his PhD in the lab of Professor Feng Zhang at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT & Broad Institute. Winston will be working on developing and applying molecular and optical techniques to studying molecular and cellular changes in neural circuits during healthy behaviors, like learning and memory, and neuropsychiatric diseases.

ORIGINAL:
MCB80X

Living kidneys printed out in E China

Researchers at a university in eastern Zhejiang Province have used a 3D printer to create living kidneys, which is expected to be used for transplants in the future.



ORIGINAL: China View

Phoneblocks

THE PROBLEM
A phone only lasts a couple of years before it breaks or becomes obsolete. Although it's often just one part that killed it, we throw everything away because it's almost impossible to repair or upgrade.


DESIGNED TO LAST
Phoneblok is made of detachable bloks. The bloks are connected to the base which locks everything together into a solid phone. If a blok breaks you can easily replace it; if it's getting old just upgrade.


BLOKSTORE
It's like an app store for hardware. In the store you buy your bloks, read reviews and sell old bloks. Small and big companies develop and sell their bloks. You can buy a pre-assembled phone or assemble it yourself by selecting the brands you want to support. The choice is yours.


MAKE IT YOUR PHONE

OTHER DEVICES
The platform can be adapted into other sizes to create new devices like tablets, cameras etc.

ACCESSORIES
Keeping your phone also means you can keep your accessories. No new docks, covers or cables.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Get a subscription so you don't get outdated. Receive a new blok every now and then to stay updated. Install it and send back the old one.

YOU CHOOSE
Looking for a camera blok? Choose the brand you like. Prefer the sharp Nikon, the fast Canon or support a startup company? The choice is yours.

MADE BY THE USERS
Bloks can be developed for specific needs. Solar powered batteries, sensitive screen for blind people, lightweight for travelers etc.

SUPPORT
We need your voice to show the world there is a need for this phone. Join our thunderclap and let's start a revolution.

JOIN THE THUNDERCLAP



Frequently Asked Questions

What is thunderclap?
A crowd-speaking platform. People can join together and let their voices be heard. This video explains it all. It's pretty cool.

Who made this?
I did, Dave Hakkens. Everything, from idea, prototype, website, video to logo, except for the great British voice that's done by my friend Matt and tech help from Gawin.

Why did you make this?
The market of electronic devices is growing rapidly, but it feels like we are building disposable stuff. Every time we make something new we completely throw away the old one. Imagine all the good displays, bluetooths and speakers we have thrown away. I love the connected world that we live in and it's time to set up a universal modular platform that companies work on together.

When is it ready?
Totally depends if companies think there is a market for it, so the more people that are interested the sooner companies start working on it.

Why don't you crowdfund it?
Raising money wouldn't bring it further, setting up this platform is too big for one company. We need to gather partners to work together with us.

Can I help more?
After you've joined the thunderclap, shared it with your friends and followed us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, there isn't much more to do other than promoting your arse off.

Is it profitable?
Easily. The blokstore is set up just like an appstore for hardware. Third party companies can develop and build their bloks for the platform. In the blokstore they are sold and the money is divided between the companies and phonebloks.

Copyright?
No, if you want to set up this platform please do, the sooner the better. Would appreciate it if you would keep us updated though, we might have some ideas for it!

Can I stay updated?

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ for the latest updates.

Press
Please send your press requests to press@phonebloks.com, we have press releases and high-resolution images available!

Contact
Drop us an email at hello@phonebloks.com or connect with Twitter, Facebook and Google+.




Visit http://www.phonebloks.com for more information.

Stay updated on:
https://www.facebook.com/davehakkens
https://www.twitter.com/davehakkens


ORIGINAL: Phoneblocks


Stanford, SLAC researchers demonstrate 'accelerator on a chip'

The tiny new technology could spawn new generations of smaller, less expensive devices for science and medicine.

The nanostructured glass chip is smaller than a grain of rice. Photo: Brad Plummer
In an advance that could dramatically shrink particle accelerators for science and medicine, researchers used a laser to accelerate electrons at a rate 10 times higher than conventional technology in a nanostructured glass chip smaller than a grain of rice.

The achievement was reported today in the journal Nature by a team including scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University.

"We still have a number of challenges before this technology becomes practical for real-world use, but eventually it would substantially reduce the size and cost of future high-energy particle colliders for exploring the world of fundamental particles and forces," said Joel England, the SLAC physicist who led the experiments.

"It could also help enable compact accelerators and X-ray devices for security scanning, medical therapy and imaging, and research in biology and materials science."

Because it employs commercial lasers and low-cost, mass-production techniques, the researchers believe it will set the stage for new generations of "tabletop" accelerators.

At its full potential, the new "accelerator on a chip" could match the accelerating power of SLAC's 2-mile-long linear accelerator in just 100 feet, and deliver a million more electron pulses per second.

This initial demonstration achieved an acceleration gradient, or amount of energy gained per length of the accelerator, of 300 million electronvolts per meter. That's roughly 10 times the acceleration provided by the current SLAC linear accelerator.

"Our ultimate goal for this structure is one billion electronvolts per meter, and we're already one-third of the way in our first experiment," said Stanford applied physics Professor Robert Byer, the principal investigator for this research.

Today's accelerators use microwaves to boost the energy of electrons. Researchers have been looking for more economical alternatives, and this new technique, which uses ultrafast lasers to drive the accelerator, is a leading candidate.

Particles are generally accelerated in two stages. 
  • First they are boosted to nearly the speed of light. 
  • Then any additional acceleration increases their energy, but not their speed; this is the challenging part.
In the accelerator-on-a-chip experiments, electrons are first accelerated to near light-speed in a conventional accelerator. Then they are focused into a tiny, half-micron-high channel within a glass chip just half a millimeter long. The channel had earlier been patterned with precisely spaced nanoscale ridges. Infrared laser light shining on the pattern generates electrical fields that interact with the electrons in the channel to boost their energy. (View animation for more detail.)

Turning the accelerator on a chip into a full-fledged tabletop accelerator will require a more compact way to get the electrons up to speed before they enter the device.

A collaborating research group in Germany, led by Peter Hommelhoff at Friedrich Alexander University and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, has been looking for such a solution. It simultaneously reports in Physical Review Letters its success in using a laser to accelerate lower-energy electrons.

Applications for these new particle accelerators would go well beyond particle physics research. Byer said laser accelerators could drive compact X-ray free-electron lasers, comparable to SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source, that are all-purpose tools for a wide range of research.

Another possible application is small, portable X-ray sources to improve medical care for people injured in combat, as well as to provide more affordable medical imaging for hospitals and laboratories. That's one of the goals of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Advanced X-Ray Integrated Sources program, which partially funded this research. Primary funding for this research is from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

The study's lead authors were Stanford graduate students Edgar Peralta and Ken Soong. Peralta created the patterned fused silica chips in the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. Soong implemented the high-precision laser optics for the experiment at SLAC's Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator. Additional contributors included researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles and Tech-X Corp. in Boulder, Colo.

SLAC is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research. SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

Mike Ross is a science writer at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Media Contact
ORIGINAL: Stanford
By Mike Ross
September 27, 2013

Snow Monkeys (Japanse Macaque)


  • Japanese macaques, commonly known as snow monkeys, are found in the wild only in Japan. They live farther north than any other non-human primate. Like tanukis they are central characters in many folk tales and stories.
  • There are an estimated 150,000 snow monkey living in Japan, a tenfold increase from the World War II era. They range from semi-tropical regions of islands south of Kyushu to the forests and mountains of northern Honshu. Hokkaido is too cold for the snow monkeys. Their ancestors are believed to have arrived from the Korean peninsula 500,000 to 300,000 years ago, long before the first humans arrived. They arrived mostly from the south and west and adapted to the climate and spread over time.
  • The Japanese macaques living in Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture in far northern Honshu are the northernmost population of monkeys in the world. Their numbers have increased 10-fold in the last 40 years. They are protected but widely regarded as pests. Monkeys that endure very cold weather are also found in the mountains of China.
  • Humans have been fascinated with snow monkeys for some time. Representations of macaques have been found on prehistoric pottery. In folklore, such as the famous story about the monkey and the crab, monkeys are portrayed as clever thieves.
Websites and Resources

Good Websites and Sources: Primate Info on the Japanese Macaque primate.wisc.edu/factsheets ;Japanese Macaque blueplanetbiomes.org ; BBC Japanese Macaque Page bbc.co.uk/nature ; Snow Monkeys and Humans forestrescue.com ; Sperm Competition and the Function of Masturbation in Japanese Macaques deposit.d-nb.de/cgi-bin ; Photos Snow Monkey Gallery acapixus.dk/galleri ; Hemming House Pictures hemmingshousepictures.com ; Hot Spring Snow Monkeys sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos ; Fotosearch fotosearch.com/photos-images


Yudanaka is the home of Jigokudani (Hell Valley), where snow monkeys take a hot spring bath. Websites: Jigokudani snow monkey site jigokudani-yaenkoen.co ; Zeno’s Snow Monkey Guide yudanaka-shibuonsen.com ; Wikipedia Wikipedia ; Kojima Island (near Nichinan in Miyazaki in southern Kyushu) is famous for it troupes of wild macaques who wash their food in both saltwater and freshwater and separating grains of rice from sand by cleverly throwing them into the water and collecting the rice grains, which float. Japan National Tourism Organization JNTO Miyazaki Prefecture site Kanko Miyazaki

Links in this Website: ANIMALS AND ENDANGERED ANIMALS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; ALIEN ANIMALS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; BEARS, DEER, SEROW AND WILD BOARS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; TANUKIS, FLYING SQUIRRELS, SMALL MAMMALS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; SNOW MONKEYS (JAPANESE MACAQUES) Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; EAGLES, SWANS, CROWS AND BIRDS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; JAPANESE CRANES Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; IBISES AND CORMORANTS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; SNAKES, FROGS, LIZARDS AND TURTLES IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; BEETLES, LAND CRABS AND INSECTS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; PLANTS AND FORESTS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; GIANT SQUIDS, SHARKS , THE SEA AND JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; WHALES, WHALING AND DOLPHIN HUNTS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; PETS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; EXOTIC PETS, BIRD FIGHTS AND BEETLES IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; DOGS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan ; DOG BREEDS IN JAPAN Factsanddetails.com/Japan

Good Sites on Wild Animals: Animal Info animalinfo.org/country/japan ;Japan Animals Blog /japan-animals.blogspot.com ; Hub Pages on Wild Animals in Japan hubpages.com/hub/japanfacts ; ARKive (do a Search for Japan or the Animal Species You Want) arkive.org Animal Picture Archives (do a Search for the Animal Species You Want) animalpicturesarchive

Snow Monkeys and Macaques

Macaques are a kind of monkey that spends most of its time on the ground and has little use of its tail. There are about 60 different species and subspecies and they range from the Atlantic to the Pacific in Eurasia.


David Attenborough wrote, "The macaque is one of the most successful and versatile of all primates. If you wanted to pick a monkey that is bright, adaptable, versatile, resilient, enterprising, tough and capable of surviving in extreme conditions and taking on all comers, the macaque would win hands down.

Macaques have a larger brain than other monkeys. This gives them the mental capacity to move their hands and fingers with almost human dexterity and provides them with sophistical hand to eye coordination.

Japanese Macaque Characteristics


Japanese macaque have pink faces and rumps, grey or burnt amber fur. They have strong teeth and short tails that are only about four inches long. They have a life-span of 30 to 40 years.


Adult males are 88 to 95 centimeters tall and weigh 10 to 14 kilograms. Females are 79 to 84 centimeters from head to foot long and weigh between 8 and 10 kilograms. Males have a different shaped face and bright red testicles. Adults males are as strong as a man.


Snow monkeys can survive in temperatures that drop to as low -14̊C in the winter. They are cloaked in thick, soft fur which consists of an outer layer of course hairs and shorter denser tufts underneath. This thick coat of hair allows them to live so far north.


Japanese macaques do not hibernate and normally survive the cold months by feeding on thin shoots and winter buds of deciduous trees. They also strip away the outer bark of trees and eat the inner bark.


The Japanese macaques found in Yakushima in southern Jaoan are not as well adapted for cold weather and are identified as a subspecies. They are generally smaller and have less fur than the snow monkeys found further north. A large body gives them a higher ratio of body weight to skin surface area and this helps prevent heat loss through perspiration.


Japanese Macaque Behavior

Japanese macaques are omnivorous but they mostly eat plants. They have traditionally subsisted on fruits, seeds, beechnuts, acorns, chestnuts, insects and shellfish but will eat most anything: roots, tubers, bulbs, shoots, buds, spiders, snails, centipedes, moles, shrews, crayfish, shoots, leaves, mussels. grubs, insects, worms, crabs, fallen nuts and even frogs and poisonous snakes. They favor shoots and spring plants in the spring and fruits and seeds in the autumn. When desperate in severe winter months they eat bark. They also eat a wide variety of crops and human food.


Macaques spend a lot of time grooming, mostly sorting out tangles, removing and picking out fleas and insects. Grooming also is important in establishing and maintaining social bonds.


In the Arashiyama area near Kyoto macaques bang stones together for what appears to be no special reason other than the sheer pleasure of it. They have also been observed leap frogging over one another and huddling together to stay warm in strong blizzards.


Snow monkeys form alliances, engage in petty squabbling and focus a great deal of attention on sex. Females display their superiority to inferiors by displaying their rear end in front of them. Monkeys in Mino near Osaka have learned to steal purses and wallets and take out the coins use them to buy drinks and snacks from vending machines.

Young snow monkeys have been observed making snowballs and carrying them as play objects. Adult have been seen playing with snow balls made by young monkeys. Although these animals have been seen standing on top of snowballs and rolling them, no one has ever seen a snow monkey throw a snowball.

Infants play around but are always aware of where their mother is. Adolescent males wander off during the mating season but come back if no other troupe is in the vicinity.


Japanese Macaque Group Behavior


Snow monkey travel in troupes that vary a great deal in size, sometimes with hundreds, even thousands, of members. Social behavior is often determined by the environment. In places where food is plentiful and there are no threats from humans there is no leader. Troupes in the colder north tend to smaller, more egalitarian with a looser hierarchy of males and females

Social structure is centered around matrilineal subgroups, typically comprised of an older female, her daughters and their offspring, and even granddaughters of the offspring and some adult males. Large groups are comprised of a number of matrilineal subgroups, as well as adult males that have joined the troupe.

Troupes are always on the move but generally stay within a well-defined territory. Females usually spend their entire lives in the troupe of their birth while males leave and join other troupes as they mature. From an biological perspective this helps insure genetic diversity. Males stay in the group of their mother when they are young but later leave and look for a new group to join.

Some individuals are not accepted as adults until they are 14, old in the tooth for a monkey. "Even at three or four," anthropologist Lou Griffin told Discover magazine, "snow monkeys still make serious social mistakes—like not remembering who exactly is the boss of their troupe."

Sometimes when the troupes get too large they split up, with dominant families forming one troupe and weaker families forming the second troupe. When these splits occur, males over the age of five leave the troupe with their closest female relatives, which results in the increasing of each group's genetic diversity.

Japanese Macaque Group Hierarchy



Each monkey's social status is largely determined by the status of its family in the troupe. On rare occasions a particularly intelligent or aggressive individual will move up the social ladder and take its family with it.

Each group is ruled by a dominant alpha male and alpha female. "They are the absolute," said Griffin. "The others meekly follow along." The responsibilities of the leaders include getting the troupe up in the morning and leading it to food and breaking up fights.

Describing the social organization of snow monkeys, Griffin told Discover magazine, "Their pecking order is unmistakable. It is not simply a matter of size or strength, age or intelligence. They have a rigid class system almost as rigid as ours. Any of them can move up or down the social ladder, and sometimes we can only guess why."

Studies of monkeys in Oita found that the leader is not necessarily the biggest and strongest and even the most well respected. The leader of a group with 700 monkeys appeared to have attained his position through seniority. He was the oldest monkey and got the choice of the best food but he was often rejected by females, avoided fights and often had his food stolen by young monkeys.

Snow monkeys huddle together for warmth, Their lack of strict social hierarchy allows high-ranking and low ranking individuals to share tight spaces without major incidents.

Large Monkey Troops and Their Leaders

Zoro is the name given to leader of a 696-member troop of monkeys Oita Prefecture. He became leader after wrestling a banana away from the previous leader in December 1998 and was still leader 11 years and 11 months later— a record in Japan — in March 2010 when he was 28 years old.

In February 2011, a new leader became the head of the 816-member monkey troop at the Monkey Park in Mt. Takasaki in Oita. The new leader, Benz, who was believed to be 32 years old in 2011, became leader after the former leader disappeared about a month before. Benz had been leader to the park’s other monkey group when he was about nine years old, but it later expelled him over “romantic relations” with a female who was in his current group, according to the park.

Passed On Japanese Macaque Behavior


Snow monkeys can convey new ideas through social groups and pass on skills from one generation to the next. In 1953 Japanese researchers on the island of Kojima observed a female monkey they named Imo wash sand from a dirty sweet potato. Later, other members picked up on the idea and before long almost every member of her troupe did it, as did their offspring. Some did it fresh in water. Some did in salt water, possibly because they liked the salty taste.

Later Imo displayed an even more extraordinary behavior. When she found grains of wheat mixed with sand she tossed the mixture into water. The sand sank. The grain floated, and she was able to eat it. This habit also spread among the other members of the troupe.

Kojma Island, near Koshima Island, is about 200 meters of the Ishinami Coast in eastern Kushima, Miyazaki Prefecture. Today about 80 macaques live in the island. On Kojima, the scientists often provided food for the monkeys by simply tossing a bag of sweet potatoes on the beach. Some monkeys placed one in their mouth and limped away holding another in their hand. Some developed an ability to fill their arms with sweet potatoes and run off on their hinds legs. Some scientists have speculated that early humans may have starting walking on two legs for similar reasons.

The habit that some snow monkeys have of seeking respite from the winter cold by sitting in hot springs is a behavioral trait that has also been passed on. The habit began with a troupe of monkeys that lived in the mountains in northern Honshu that began using a hot spring used by humans. As they extended their range they discovered some volcanic hot springs. First only a few took a bath in the warm water. But after they tried it others did and the habit spread and became an activity that the monkeys did every winter.

In 1982 a troupe of snow monkeys was brought to Texas where they developed a taste for cactus and mesquite and invented new "words" for these food as well as warning against rattlesnakes and scorpions. They also began to sweat, something they never did in Japan. Today there are around 600 snow monkeys in Texas.

Japanese Macaque Dialects

A study of the calls of snow monkey living on Yakushima island in Kagoshima and calls of some of their relatives moved from the island to Inuyama, Aichi prefecture in 1956 indicates that monkeys have different dialects, The study by researchers at Kyoto University Primate Research Institute found that the calls of the two monkey populations were the same until around age nine months. After that the monkeys on Yakushima began making high-pitched calls that they monkey in Aichi didn’t make. Yakushima is much densely wooded that the area where the monkeys lived in Aichi and it is reasoned that the Yakushima monkeys make high pitched calls because these sounds carry better in dense foliage.

Because the monkeys come from the same genetic stock it is reasoned that have to have changed their vocal patterns to adapt to their environment. One of scientists involved in the project. Prof. Nobou Masataka, told the Asahi Shimbun: “We proved that the pitch of monkey cries is not determined by heredity, but is learned according to their environment. These results offer clues to discovering how differences in human languages developed.

Prof. Masataka, told the Yomiuri Shimbun: “Regional differences in monkey calls can be regarded as dialects. Monkey sounds indicate the linguistic roots of human being, as young monkeys pass on their calls from their parents or other monkeys in their groups.

Japanese Macaque Aggression and Mating Behavior
Add caption

Squabbles are common but fights are rare. Conflicts among males are avoided by symbolical acknowledgment of dominant-submissive relationships. Subordinate males show their deference to superiors by turning backwards and moving their rump forward in an action known as "presenting." The dominate male responds by "mounting" the subordinate monkey and assumeing the copulation position for a few seconds. After this formality is observed the two males can then forage peacefully together.

Most snow monkey fights are vocal not physical. Usually the winner is the monkey who screams down his opponent. Most knock-down-drag-out fights occur during the mating season.

Snow monkeys are not adverse to using their sharp teeth on other monkeys. According to Griffin one of the worst punishments one monkey can inflict on another is "holding the other firmly in its teeth and then pinching it."

Japanese macaques give birth once a year, usually in April and May. There are few monogamous relationships in the troupe but when they do appear they are very strong. Adults seem to be more tolerant of some youngsters than others, but it is not clear whether they are the fathers of these young monkeys. The rear end of females turned red during the breeding season.

Snow Monkeys and Humans



Images of snow monkeys have been found in tombs dating back to the Jomon period (10,000 B.C. to 300 B.C.). The animals appeared in famous scrolls in Kozanji Temple from the Heian period (794-1192) . In the Kamakura period (1192-1333) large numbers of Japanese began wearing monkey charms to keep evil away. “Saru” the Japanese word for monkey can mean “go away,”as in making evil spirits go away. Monkeys were hunted for medicines.

Snow monkeys do not try to drive away humans from their territory as long as they are not seen as a threat. Often they can be quite welcoming. Yukihisa Mito, who studied the animals for 30 years told the Daily Yomiuri he once fell asleep while observing them and awoke with something touching his hair. “I opened my eyes slightly and found myself being groomed by a monkey I recognized from the troupe I’d been following. This made me feel happy.”

In the past the numbers of monkeys and their presence in inhabited areas was controlled by hunters and dogs. Today, in many places, snow monkeys have lost their fear of humans and are not afraid to try and snatch food and other things from the humans. One shouldn't stare at a snow monkey, that makes them edgy.

Conservationists say that the encroachment of farms and human development on the forest where the monkeys have additionally lived have tempted the monkeys away from their normal food sources. Monkeys that live on food given to them by humans and rummaged from garbage area are bigger and give birth to more young than monkeys that don’t eat human food. Snow monkeys reportedly love greasy food and food from McDonald’s.

Japanese macaques are listed as endangered even though there seems to be plenty of them around. In August 2008, a snow monkey was seen at Shibuya station in one of the busiest parts of Tokyo. It manages to escape efforts to catch it and was last seen heading in the direction of Shinjuku. The Yakushima macaque and the Japanese macaque on the Shimokita Peninsula, the remote northern cape of Honshu, have been removed from the endangered list as their numbers have been increasing.

A popular You Tube video in 2008 showed Japanese macaques serving drinks and hot towels at a Japanese restaurant. Perhaps the most famous Japanese macaque was Choromatsu, a trained animal featured in a famous Sony Walkman ad from the 1980s that showed a monkey listening to a Walkman with a very human-like relaxed, content expression on its face. Choromatsu regular appeared in animal shows until his retirement in 1990. He died at the age of 29 in 2007.


Snow Monkey as Pests



Snow monkeys sometimes raid farms, eating things like soybeans, watermelons, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, potatoes and mushrooms. Each year snow monkeys destroys about 5,000 hectares of farmland, costing farmers $6 million. The total damage caused by monkeys in 2006 was estimated at ¥1.63 billion.


Some snow monkeys make forays into towns and occasionally trash Shinto Shrines. The snow monkeys around the town Odawara are notorious for sneaking into homes and shops to steal tangerines, sweet potatoes and candy bars. One man told AP, "They came right into my house. My wife tried to scare them with a mop, but they chased her all the way to the train station."

In Nikko and others places with many tourist, monkeys are known for breaking into cars are stealing food. Sometimes they confront people and don’t leave until they have been given a banana or some other such goodies. In Nikko there is one monkey that positions itself in road and leaps on the hood of any car that stops demanding food. Other try to leap through open windows of cars going up to 20mph. Sometimes packs surround tourists and snatch stuff out of their hands. In residential areas, people are afraid to leave the windows of their homes open or let their children walk unescorted to school out of fear of what monkeys might do.

In Gunma Prefecture gangs of monkeys have broken into homes to steal food and attacked children walking to elementary school, running off with their snacks. Monkeys there invaded one home and stole vegetables and threw tiles off the roof.

In June 2009, a single monkey cut off power to 7,000 household in Aomori Prefecture. The monkey was found unable to move with burns on its hands and legs at a circuit breaker box. It is believed it received a severe jolt when it touched the box and that caused a short circuit and power failure.

Many researchers blame human forestry for aggressive monkey behavior. The mono forests that cover many areas are void of food, leaving the monkeys with no choice but to look for food in human-occupied areas. Some also say the declining population in villages is a factor as there are fewer people to watch over the farms and prevent monkey raids.

Battles Between Humans and Snow Monkeys

Monkeys in many places have become very bold. The 100 or so monkeys in Okunikko resort in Nikko have attacked tourists and damaged houses and souvenir shops. Each year between 15 and 40 people are treated at local hospitals in the Okunikko area for monkey bites. It is believed that feeding by tourists caused the monkeys to lose their fear of humans and become aggressive. In other places there are stories about monkeys “molesting women and children.

Preventive measures to stop aggressive monkeys includes planting hot peppers, which monkey loath; putting nets around fields; and outfitting monkeys with collars that set off alarms and signals sent to mobile phones. In some places farmers use dogs to disperse the monkeys (monkeys have great fear of carnivorous dogs), bang pans and lure the out of fields into parking lots with peanuts. To reduce the damages caused by snow monkeys in the resort of Okunikko, the municipal government of Nikko passed city ordinances prohibiting the feeding of monkeys.


Some farmers have installed electric fences to keep snow monkeys from raiding their crops. Some shopowners have armed themselves with slingshots and airguns but so far these weapons have done little to deter the monkey raids. In some places authorities have tried giving monkeys electric shocks to instill a fear of humans but many people complained the practice was cruel.


Snow monkeys learn quickly learn to get around fences and see through scarecrows. Some areas have had great success thinning out forests and bush in places where monkeys like to hide and clearing areas around school and other places that monkeys might come into contact with people to create a buffer zone to alert monkeys and humans of each other’ presence. Researchers have show that monkeys are more likely to act aggressively if they they have a place they can retreat to.

Aggressive Monkeys in the Mt. Fuji Area

Aggressive monkeys injured at least 81 people in the foothills of Mt. Fuji in and around the towns of Mishima and Susono in Shizuoka Prefecture, with most of the victims sustaining bites to the arm or leg, in a one month period in August and September 2010. Local authorities responded to problem by providing escorts for children on their way to school, hired a 150-strong monkey catch team and offering a reward of $2,300 to anyone who could trap an aggressive monkey in a room (laws prevent the seizure of monkeys with nets or cages without permission).

The primary culprit was female given the name Rakkii, who attacked nearly 120 residents. She was ultimately caught and kept in a park in Mishima and was even featured in a television commercial to promote the city’s mayoral race. A few months later though she escaped from her cage when it was being cleaned. She was caught a day later and punished by having her marriage to another monkey, which had previously been arranged, called off. She was captured after a resident said she saw Rakkii in a garden at a private house. A city employee who took care of her offered her bananas and grabbed her after calming her down.

Animal experts told officials that the monkeys in Mishima and Susono may have attacked people out mischievousness and said the attacks would probably end once the monkeys got bored. An official told the Yomiuri Shimbun, “The attacks started very suddenly. We don’t know why. Only the monkeys can tell you why they started.”

Japanese Macaque Killed After Attacking Two People in Tennessee

Describing an attack by a pet Japanese macaque in Shelbyville Tennessee, David Melson wrote in the Shelbyville Times-Gazette: A monkey was shot and killed by a Bedford County deputy Thursday morning after it attacked a woman and another deputy and terrorized a Frank Martin Road neighborhood. Michelle Pyrdum, 42, said she underwent surgery for a deep gash to her calf muscle after the monkey attacked her from behind in her driveway. "All I remember thinking is 'I have to get this thing off me," she said. [Source: David Melson, Times-Gazette Friday, August 5, 2011]

Cpl. Ronnie Gault of the Bedford County Sheriff's Department suffered two deep cuts to his arm while attempting to subdue the monkey after he and Capt. David Williams, Sr. arrived. Williams shot the monkey twice, the second shot proving fatal, after a shot by Gault failed to subdue it. Ricky and Wilma Smith owned "Yoshi," which Gault said was a 3½ -foot tall Japanese macaque, also known as a "snow monkey." Four other monkeys were removed from the Smith home by animal rescue organizations. [Ibid]

Pyrdum said she was shocked at the sudden bite. "I was waxing my truck and I didn't know it was back there. I felt this clamp on my leg. It took a chunk out of me," said Pyrdum, who was still woozy from medication after treatment for her wounds at Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro. "I was just standing in my yard and minding my own business. The monkey was on the garage at right when deputies arrived following a 911 call from Linda Pyrdum. The confrontation with Cpl. Ronnie Gault and Capt. David Williams Sr. occurred a short distance to the left. "I had to take my hand and get his mouth off of me. It clamped down on me.” [Ibid]

Pyrdum's father, Charles Pyrdum, said he heard Michelle screaming for help and wasn't initially sure what type of animal had attacked. "When I saw it I didn't know what it was," Charles said. "She was yelling, 'Daddy, get it off me.' I didn't have anything to hit it with." Charles said he followed the monkey as it ran away toward the Smith home. Family members said Michelle initially refused pain medication while standing in her driveway looking to see if the monkey would return. She said she received multiple stitches and will be taking anti-rabies medication for two weeks. Gault said he is receiving similar treatment. [Ibid]

The monkeys had received regular shots and veterinary checks some time ago but those records aren't up-to-date, said Brenda Goodrich, director of Bedford County Animal Control. Michelle's mother, Linda, said she was aware of the monkeys' presence in the neighborhood. "We knew that they were there because someone told us they had monkeys and one bit a neighbor about a year and a half ago. We'd never seen them," Linda Pyrdum said. [Ibid]

Deputies arrived shortly after 8 a.m. and began searching for the monkey. "He was a danger and threat to the entire neighborhood," Gault said. "The owner said he had the monkey pinned and the latch secured where he couldn't get out -- but he managed to get out." The monkey was found atop a garage at 419 Frank Martin Road, several houses down from Pyrdum's residence, deputies said."We went to 419 to see if we could see the owner and confronted the monkey," Gault said. "We had given the owner some time to try and see if he could get the monkey back into its cage. The monkey ran from him and directly toward me.” [Ibid]

Gault attempted unsuccessfully to physically control the monkey, which he said had been "friendly" with him several years ago during a call to the Smith home. "After he bit her he was ill and popping his teeth," Gault said. "When I shot him the first time it was in the right of the chest. It made him madder and that's when he went on the real attack. I didn't want to shoot him in the head.” [Ibid]

Gault said he attempted to use his shotgun to push away the monkey. "He went down but went right back up and pounced on me," Gault said. "I knocked him down with my gun and he came back up and pounced on me again and caught me on the arm. I was beating him off my arm with the shotgun barrel. "He hit the ground that time and David Sr. shot him with a shotgun. Then he ran around behind me and David shot him again and he didn't come back up." Bedford County Animal Control took the monkey's body and has sent its head to the state, Gault said. "I have several large gashes on my arm. No stitches, he said." Doctors want the wounds to heal from the inside in an attempt to fend off any diseases the monkey may have been carrying.


Monkey Management in the Nikko Area

In April 2002, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “The Tochigi prefectural government will give lectures to local residents in Nikko in the prefecture to help them oust mischievous monkeys rampaging around the Okunikko area northwest of the city. The monkeys first bit and harassed the occasional tourist, but their mischief now has escalated into a serious problem for local agriculture and forests. Both the prefectural and the Nikko municipal governments have tackled the problem by giving monkeys electric shocks or by banning tourists from feeding them. However, their efforts have had little success. "We expect to use the brains of local people to combat this monkey menace," said an official of the prefectural government's natural environment division. Damage caused by monkeys last year to the agricultural sector was estimated at 24 million yen, while that to forests was 3 million yen. However, invisible damages have also emerged, such as workers in the agricultural and forestry industries giving up their jobs because they can no longer bear the years of monkey mischief. [Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, April 29, 2002]

A new strategy to combat the monkeys will make use of transmitters attached to about 30 of the pesky primates. The officials will track groups of the monkeys, then attempt to frighten them by shooting off fireworks before they get close to areas where humans live. The officials have been trained in how to use the receivers and fireworks and have studied the behavioral patterns and ecology of monkeys. The prefectural government will offer a lecture from the end of May to the local residents and those who are willing to join in the project. The government will train a group of specialists in the art of monkey combat and vows to get the better of the beasts in the end. The lecture will be offered about five times a year. However, the government says it will offer more lectures and lend receivers to local people when they are needed. In addition, from fiscal 2002, the government will strengthen its monkey patrol along the Irohazaka road, a famous sight-seeing spot near the city. The new system not only warns tourists of monkey attacks, but also instructs them on how to disperse the prehensile-tailed pests.

Officials said they have redoubled their vigilance and are now focusing on monkey management year round, rather than the spring to autumn tourist season. The prefectural government used to give electric shocks to captured monkeys to implant a sense of fear in them. However, even if this technique succeeded in breaking the spirits of one group of monkeys, another would come to take its place, which would have little effect on long-term monkey discipline problems, sources said. The electric-shock project lasted for only three months because tourists complained it was cruel. The effects of the 2000 municipal ordinance, prohibiting tourists from feeding monkeys, have been similarly unremarkable, sources said.


Dogs and Dead Monkeys

Dogs have proved to be very effective chasing off monkeys. Labradors and German shepherds have been specially trained for three or four months to drive off monkeys. Sometimes the same facilities that are used to train police dogs and used to train monkey-hunting dogs.

As of 2008, 194 monkey-chasing dogs were being used in 42 municipalities in 21 prefectures in Japan. Describing dogs used on the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported: “When they are given the go-ahead the dogs set off into the nearby forested areas populated by monkeys. The forest is at first filled with monkey calls, but when the dogs bark. The calls stop and the monkeys retreat. Katagawa then sends the dogs in the direction of the retreating monkeys as they start to make noises again, driving them away from the edge of the farmland and into the mountains.”

Every year about 10,000 monkeys are killed. In most cases they are shot with guns. In some cases they are captured and then starved or drowned. In other places they are beaten to death. In some places $1,000 bounties are offered for the killing of troupe leaders. Each year about 10,000 monkeys are captured. In August 2009, a hunter shot killed a fellow hunter during a monkey cull in Chiba Prefecture in a mountain area after mistaking the victim for a monkey.

In January 2009, the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo said I would accept 20 trouble-making and crop-damaging monkeys from Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture to prevent them from being out down.

Snow Monkeys and Alien Monkeys



In the early 1960s, a group of ten Taiwanese macaques escaped from a small zoo in Wakayama Prefecture. Eating bayberries and other local foods and thriving in the mild climate, the group expanded to 200 members by the 2000.

Some Taiwanese macaques have tails shorter than their parents, which has led some people to believe they crossbred with Japanese macaques, which have shorter tails. Some worry that if this trend continues the purity of Japanese macaques could be threatened.

A troupe of about 100 rhesus monkeys live on the Boso peninsula in Chiba prefecture. No one is exactly sure how they got there.

Monkey and Chimpanzee Research

Researcher can distinguish individual monkeys based on the shape of the eyes and nose, color the face, wrinkles between the eyebrows.


The pioneer of snow monkey studies in Japan are Kinji Imanishi (1902-1992), Junichito Itani (1926-2001) and Masao Kawai (1923- ), ecologists at Kyoto University, who came to Koshima to study wild horses after World War II but began studying the monkeys on Kojima after becoming fascinated by their unusual behavior. Their first major discovery came in 1953 when a Satsue Mirto, a former primary school teacher in Miyazaki, wrote the scientists, describing a 1½-year-old female she saw washing a potato.

The Kyoto University primate study group discovered an auditory communication system among the monkeys and described the hierarchy of monkey groups, creating the basis for primatology. The theory that the monkeys possessed culture and passed it on from one generation to the next was published in 1954 and stirred up controversy around the world by giving examples in the animal kingdom of behaviors once though to be the exclusively human, blazing a trail for primatologists like Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey

Toshisada Nishida of Kyoto University is one of the world’s leading chimpanzee researchers. The recipient of the 2008 Louis Leakey anthropological award, he has spent much of life studying chimpanzees in Tanzania. Among his discoveries are that low ranking males sometimes play a kingmaking role, deciding who the dominate male will be.

Image Sources: Japan-Animals blog, Wolfgang Kaehler, JNTO, Japan Zone, British Museum

Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Daily Yomiuri, Times of London, Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO), National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

ORIGINAL: Facts and Details

sábado, 28 de septiembre de 2013

Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Quantum Entanglement

Could quantum entanglement be used for faster-than-light communication across vast distances? Watch Neil deGrasse Tyson explain to Eugene Mirman the problems trying to bridge the gap between the way matter behaves in quantum physics and in the macroscopic world. If you love StarTalk Radio, don't miss out on any StarTalk news.

Sign up for our free newsletter: http://bit.ly/VppKWL

Catch up with StarTalk Radio around the web:
iTunes - http://bit.ly/SOHDg6
SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/startalk
Stitcher - http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/startalk
Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/StarTalkRadio
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/StarTalkRadio
Google+ - http://goo.gl/ZP59S
Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/startalk/


ORIGINAL: StarTalk Radio

Link between algae and MND

Cyanobacteria may cause certain neurodegenerative diseases such as the one affecting Stephen Hawking. Image: Mike Blanchard/Shutterstock
A recently identified link between a toxic amino acid found in blue-green algae and several motor neurone diseases could help researchers devise a therapy for the fatal conditions.
Blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), most often associated with nutrient runoff in coastal waters, produce a neurotoxic amino acid called β-methylamino-L-alanine, or BMAA.

Australian waterways regularly succumb to toxic algal blooms, the NSW’s Barwon-Darling River System suffering one of the world’s largest in the summer of 1991-92 when a bloom spread for over 1000 kilometres.

There has been increasing evidence of a link between motor neuron disease and the consumption of food or water contaminated by blue-green algae but it wasn’t clear how the algal toxin was damaging the central nervous system.

Now, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) researchers led by Dr Ken Rodgers, in collaboration with leading ethno botanist Dr Paul Cox and researchers from the Institute of EthnoMedicine in Wyoming in the US, have discovered that BMAA mimics an amino acid called serine that is used to make human proteins. BMAA is mistakenly incorporated into human proteins in place of serine, resulting in damaged proteins which over time, build up to toxic levels and kill the cells.

The research findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE. The first author of the paper, Dr Rachael Dunlop, said for many years people had linked BMAA with an increased risk of motor neuron disease.

The missing piece of the puzzle was how this might occur. Finally, we have that piece,” said Dr Dunlop. “Common amongst all neurodegenerative diseases is the problem of clumps of proteins overloading cells and forcing them to ‘commit suicide’. This research reveals that BMAA can also trigger this process,

BMAA was originally identified in Guam after the indigenous people, the Chamorros, were found to suffer motor neurone disease up to 100 times more often than other people. The Chamorros used seeds from cycad palms to make flour, and regularly ate fruit bats, which also ate the seeds. Both these foodstuffs contained BMAA.

Since then, research has revealed increased incidences of MND in people who lived near lakes subject to frequent cyanobacterial blooms, among consumers of contaminated shellfish, and in soldiers deployed to the Gulf War between 1990-1991.

Over 90 per cent of motor neurone diseases have no known cause or cure. The diseases kill motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, progressively paralysing the body.

Though MND is relatively rare, it has a high profile as a result of a number of high-profile people being affected including Professor Stephen Hawking.

The full paper can be found here.


ORIGINAL: Science Alert
University of Technology Sydney
Thursday, 26 September 2013

En vías Las Palmas y el Escobero han muerto 7 tigrillos lanudos




Los amantes de los animales amanecieron ayer con tristeza por el reporte de un nuevo tigrillo lanudo que apareció muerto en la vía a Las Palmas, el cual fue arrollado por un automotor desconocido, según informó Aburrá Natural, grupo que monitorea con cámaras la fauna silvestre de las laderas.

En una foto, Aburrá muestra el tigrillo extendido en la vía, inerte y solitario, con su tonalidad amarillosa y sus rayas negras. Una imagen que causa desazón. "Me duele el corazón", fue la expresión en una red social de Anita Chiquita al ver la imagen.

En el último año este es el tercer hallazgo que Aburrá Natural tiene de un tigrillo lanudo arrollado en la vía.

Uno de sus líderes, Juan David Sánchez, biólogo, explica que esta tragedia se da por factores como la deforestación, la invasión de sus bosques y hábitat y el auge de construcciones.

"En los últimos seis años hemos conocido siete casos de atropellamiento, el problema es que su hábitat fue invadido y ellos salen a buscar refugios o a conseguir alimento", explica Sánchez.

El pasado 25 de julio se conoció un reporte similar también en Las Palmas y el otro data de agosto de 2012 en el Escobero.

Las amenazas
Pese a que es innegable su presencia en esta zona, confirma Corantioquia, aún no se conoce el número de individuos. En todo caso, su presencia está amenazada y de seguir la invasión a sus espacios, pronto los valles de San Nicolás y del Aburrá podrían verse privados de esta especie silvestre.

Ana Rivera, directora del periódico Viviendo en Santa Elena y quien reside en el corregimiento, donde también se han visto, expresó que la suerte de este y los otros seis tigrillos arrollados "es justo la que le espera a nuestra pobre fauna de carreteras rurales".

El Ministerio del Ambiente y la UICN (Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza) lo declararon especie vulnerable a la extinción.

La Subdirección de Ecosistemas de Corantioquia precisa que la posibilidad de captura y traslado de estos felinos a otro hábitat para protegerlos no ha sido contemplada, pues esto "no necesariamente redunda en la conservación de la especie y, más aun, podría generar desequilibrios en las áreas receptoras".

Y no se conoce que los tigrillos estén generando conflictos en el área señalada.

Su presencia allí indica la existencia de ecosistemas que ofrecen las condiciones ambientales para que sobrevivan.

Al lamentar el incidente, Corantioquia invitó a quienes transitan por la zona a hacerlo con prudencia y atentos a no atropellar las especies, que se asustan al ruido, las luces y el tamaño de los carros.

CLAVES

AMENAZAS Y PREVENCIONES

1. Vía Facebook, Yeison Valderrama envió la foto de un Yaguaroundi atropellado en el Oriente.
2. El fin de semana, en el río La Miel, Sonsón, se vio un jaguar muerto que, al parecer, se ahogó.


EN DEFINITIVA

La muerte del tigrillo, la séptima en 6 años, lanza una alerta por las amenazas contra la especie en el Valle de Aburrá. Hay tristeza entre los naturalistas. 
ORIGINAL: El Colombiano
Por GUSTAVO OSPINA ZAPATA
27 de septiembre de 2013 

viernes, 27 de septiembre de 2013

Monkey brought to Kentucky sanctuary from Texas


JESSAMINE COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) -- He's just a few months old and now he's being left here in Kentucky to be raised by monkeys.

Carlos, a small hazel monkey, traveled to the Bluegrass from Texas after a family there realized that having him for a pet may not be a good idea.

The family adopted Carlos from a friend and while it's hard to give up the little guy they know it's the right thing to do.

"They're like babies, they're so sweet, but they grow up and bite," said Lori Ownes, delivering the monkey.

The Owens family all traveled on a private plane just to bring Carlos here they say he enjoyed the whole flight staring out the window and eating wheat thins.

Carlos will be taken care of at the Primate Rescue Center in Jessamine County.


ORIGINAL: WKYT
Sep 25, 2013

Colombian Plant Fiber Rids Water of Harmful Textile Dyes in Minutes



Fique. Photo by Wikimedia Commons
Textile dyes and other pollutants can kill waterways. The dyes are not only toxic, but they discolor the water enough to prevent plants and algae from getting enough light, which is needed for photosynthesis. Researchers in Colombia though, are working to come up with a natural and low-cost method to filter these dye-infested waters with a locally sourced plant fiber. After treating the plant fiber with nanoparticles, it can soak up 99% of the dye in the water.

Photo by Zhang Xiaoli for ChinaFotoPress
Waterways near textile plants in South America, India and China are especially threatened because the plants dump their waste, which kills plant and animal life and makes the water undrinkable. Until more non-toxic dyes are used or tighter regulations imposed, the water needs to be filtered and cleaned. Researchers at Colombia’s Universidad Industrial de Santander Chemistry Department have been working on a technique to use natural plant fibers to clean polluted waters from toxic dyes.

The technique involves placing Colombian fique plant fibers, which are often used to make coffee bags, into polluted waters where the fibers soak up the dye. Fibers are specially treated using simple techniques so that their tiny cellulose cavities are filled with manganese oxide molecules, which react with the dye and break them down into non-colored forms. According to their results, the method removes 99 percent of the dye and the fibers can be reused many times.

The researchers published their results in the August issue of the Green Chemistry journal. Next up, they hope to test the fibers with other pollutants and try out other fibers or composite materials. “We are working now on developing a low-cost filtering unit prototype to treat polluted waters,” explains study co-author, Marianny Combariza. “We are not only focused on manganese oxides, we also work on a variety of materials based on transition metal oxides that show exceptional degradation activity.”

ORIGINAL: Ecouterre
09/27/13