Microfilter Allows Non-invasive Diagnosis Of Fetal Abnormalities

Quoll Returns to the Australian Mainland After 50 Years

On March 1st, Fourteen eastern quolls were released into Australia’s mainland to rebuild their population because of a team’s effort from Australian National University. Since the 1770′s, quoll numbers have been declining due to many dangers such as habitat loss and predators that include foxes, wild dogs, and cats.

The quoll is carnivorous and feeds on smaller mammals, small birds, lizards, and insects. Until now, it has inhabited inland parts of Australia. There are six current species(pictured is the tiger quoll). The larger of which live longer than the smaller, with an average life span of two to five years.

So, whats the point of this translocation? Well, quolls are important to the functioning of the mainland ecosystem where they regulate the prey species. The released quolls will have radio tracking collars to be monitored.

Fact about the quoll: Male and female quolls only meet for mating, and male den territories often overlap female territories. However, they have communal toilets where they may have up to 100 droppings in them.

Photo by:  joshua cunningham via Flickr

Sawfish sharks,of the order (Pristiformes) of rays characterized by a long, narrow, flattened rostrum, or nose extension, lined with sharp transverse teeth, arranged so as to resemble a saw. All species of sawfish are endangered or critically endangered due to over fishing or habitat loss.

The dancers of the sea | Peter Chadwick

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I always get really…touchy, when someone says they want to go into marine biology for the whales. I admire their love for the ocean and the mammals living within it, but I also get frustrated with their naivety. A degree doesn’t guarantee any kind of field work. 

In fact, it’s a hell of lot of work to be able to do any kind of field work, and even less likely for it to be marine mammal related. I spent one semester on marine mammals. Just 16 weeks, and half the experiences I had with strandings and training and dissections came with my location and pure happenstance. 

Marine biology isn’t whales. It’s becoming a statistician with a deeply routed knowledge on marine ecosytems and processes. I didn’t spend four years working through the blood, sweat, and tears for this degree to listen to someone complain about not being able to pet a dolphin when they graduate. 

Just some lesser known facts about octopuses you guys might like.

Ancient ‘otter bear’ may have popped clams off rocks like a bottle opener

By Sid Perkins

A creature that roamed the coasts of the Pacific Northwest about 20 million years ago may have had a feeding style like no other mammal, a new study suggests.

Kolponomos is known only from two bearlike skulls, jawbones, and some toe bones found a few decades ago, so scientists aren’t sure where it fits on the carnivore family tree or even what it really looked like (one artist’s idea is seen above).

Rather than having cheek teeth that could shear meat, as many carnivores do, Kolponomos’s molars were similar to the flattened, low-crowned teeth that otters use to crush their shelled prey—yet the creature lived long before anything similar to modern-day otters evolved.

Now, a new analysis using the same sort of computer software that engineers employ to analyze bridges and aircraft parts suggests that Kolponomos may have collected its shelly prey in a unique way…

(read more: Science Magazine/AAAS)

illustration by Roman Uchytel

TheStare by © wildernessprints.com

Wild adult lynx in Banff National Park