BioMed Central Blog
World Animal Day - 4 October 2011
World Animal Day began in 1931 at a convention of ecologists in Florence in order to raise awareness of endangered species. It is now a worldwide celebration of animal life and the role animals play in the lives of humans . The day aims to encourage people to commemorate their love and respect for animals by doing something special to highlight the importance of animals in the world as well as progressing the animal welfare movement.
In the UK some native species have seen significant improvements in population and habitat. The report – State of Britain's Mammals 2011 states "Although many of Britain's mammals apparently declined significantly in the past 25 years, some appear to have stabilized or even increased in the last decade,". One such species that has seen significant improvements in population include the european otter which has made a return to every county in England. This has been attributed to the improvements in water quality and bans on pesticides. However the native red squirrel has seen a 50% reduction in population over the past 50 years, despite conservation efforts. It is feared that if the numbers of red squirrels continue to drop that UK populations could become extinct within the next 20 years.
Worldwide efforts to preserve and protect endangered species continues. Efforts have been made in various countries such as the USA and Mexico to increase the numbers of various kinds of turtles; a topic the BioMed Central mascot, Gulliver Turtle, is passionate about. There are several species of endangered turtles spread across the globe from South America to Japan. Turtles and their eggs fall prey to poachers as well as many being accidently injured by fishermen each year. Conservationists call for more to be done to protect the most venerable species.
It’s not just the conservation of endangered species that needs to be addressed. The conservation of the planet as a whole is vital to all animal life. A recent study published in Biomed Central journal Veterinary Research, highlights the effects that climate change can have on reptiles and fish due to the fact that immune response varies with environmental temperature.
Scientific research is constantly providing new understanding of animals around the world, from big to small. In an article published in BMC Physiology, Paul Iaizzo and colleagues provide an insight into how the black bear is able to spend half its life in a state of hibernation without access to food or water and yet is still able to rouse and defend themselves if disturbed. New research into ants published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Ecology demonstrates that queen ants in monogamous ant colonies fight by antennal boxing to become the reproductive queen. The worker ants then reinforce the queens behavior by feeding dominant females and expelling, or killing, their weaker sisters. Frontiers in Zoology, another journal published by BioMed Central, also recently published another article on ants, looking at the landmarks that ants used for navigation. Antoine Wystrach et al. found that ants navigating along a familiar route appear to be guided by cues covering a large area of their panoramic visual field, which seems logical when considering the ants’ poor eyesight and the complexity of the natural scene around them.
You can visit the World Animal Day website for more information and resources for getting involved.
Posted by Emily Mason at 15:54 Comments (0)